Adaptive cycle based evolution of street networks in historic cultural districts Xiamen China

Insufficient understanding of the dynamic mechanisms underlying the evolution of street network structures in historic cultural districts constrains effective conservation and sustainable development. This study develops an adaptive cycle based analytical framework by integrating potential, connectedness, and resilience within a PCR state space. Using historical map reconstruction and space syntax analysis to examine three representative districts in Xiamen, China, the results show that street network evolution follows a cyclical and adaptive process rather than a linear trajectory toward optimization. Conservation oriented districts circulate between the α and Ω stages, commercially oriented districts remain in prolonged K stages, and planning oriented districts exhibit staged transitions from Ω to α and subsequently to K. Moreover, resilience acts as the primary driver of stage transitions, whereas potential and connectedness enhance functional efficiency but may reduce adaptability under high intensity conditions, while socio-political and governance processes further shape adaptive capacity.