Landscape Route Sharing Ratio in Nature-Integrated Community: Cross-Boundary Features and Design Implications

Amid rapid urbanization in China, widespread gated residential districts have created physical and visual isolation from surrounding nature, undermining environmental benefits and daily accessibility. The emergence of a twenty-first-century “sharing” paradigm reshapes how buildings and landscapes are used and experienced, opening new opportunities for diversified sharing between communities and natural systems. Yet, despite mature research on city-scale landscape sharing, micro-scale tools to balance sharing versus exclusive route allocation—and to operationalize cross-system sharing-route design—remain limited. This study examines nature-integrated community design through the Landscape Route Sharing Ratio (LRSR), a metric derived from the Length and Density of Sharing Landscape Route (Ls/Ds), the Length and Density of Non-shared Landscape Route (Lns/Dns). It analyzes eight cases using a mixed-methods approach (field surveys, spatial mapping, planning-document review and quantitative measurement), and identifies five core cross-system features through typological analysis: extension to surrounding landscapes (ENL), cross-boundary landscape axes (CBLA), multi-scale hierarchy (MSH), multi-elevation systems (MES), and non-motorized priority (NMP). This study demonstrates that higher LRSR values significantly enhance landscape integration and pedestrian experiences. By establishing actionable target ranges (0.50–0.70), the research provides a practical decision-support tool for nature-integrated community design, advancing the methodological understanding of how shared routes foster ecological and social vitality in contemporary urban environments. The framework effectively bridges the gap between quantification with design guidance for nature-integrated communities.