Spatial configuration and sustainability: decoding the landscape genes of traditional Li settlements in Hainan Island through a production-living-ecological space framework

Introduction Global urbanization poses a significant threat to cultural and natural heritage, a concern central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11.4. Traditional Li settlements on Hainan Island, China, possess unique cultural, historical, and social values but are increasingly vulnerable to rapid urban expansion and external cultural influences. These pressures erode their distinctive spatial characteristics and threaten the sustainability of these rural landscapes. Methods This study employs a Production-Living-Ecological (PLE) Space framework to analyze representative Li settlements. Using low-altitude UAV multi-view photogrammetry, we precisely extracted key spatial elements. By coupling geospatial analytics with deep learning model training, we comprehensively and quantitatively decoded the ‘landscape genetic’ information of these traditional settlements. Results Our analysis identified 35 gene types across three categories. Key findings include: 1) Ecological genes manifest in terrain-responsive configurations under nature-culture co-adaptive siting mechanisms; 2) Productive genes demonstrate a geomorphic-altitudinal progression with coupled farmland-settlement differentiation; 3) Living genes exhibit density-altitude polarity, revealing an inverse relationship between boundary complexity and spatial legibility, alongside self-organizing evolutionary features. Discussion The integration of the PLE framework with landscape gene theory establishes a replicable protocol for the quantitative morphological decoding of traditional settlements. This framework provides evidence-based conservation strategies for rural cultural heritage within China’s territorial planning and offers methodologically transferable solutions for global sustainable urban-rural regeneration.