Participatory Historical Village Landscape Analysis Using a Virtual Globe-Based 3D PGIS: Guizhou, China

Abstract

The analysis of historical village landscape characteristics and the influential driving factors of their evolutions can provide an essential decision-making basis for rural sustainable development strategies and landscape planning. How to obtain historical village landscape data at a time when objectively recorded data, such as remote sensing images, were unavailable is a key problem that restricts the analysis of village landscape evolution characteristics. As local villagers are important knowledge sources regarding historical village landscapes, a participatory data collection and analysis approach was used for village historical landscape data in this paper using a virtual globe-based three-dimensional participatory geographic information system (3D PGIS). Taking Duimengshan village, Guizhou, China, as a case study, the 3D landscape of the Duimengshan village and corresponding major historical events in four historical periods, 1958, 1980, 1995, and 2015, were collected in an on-site, interactive way by researchers with the participation of local villagers, and its land-use structure, ecosystem service values, and landscape pattern were analyzed. The results show that the historical landscapes in the four periods were strongly related to important local historical events. The 3D PGIS greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of villagers to participate with its intuitive 3D display form and simple and easy-to-use operation mode. It can be concluded that the historical landscape memory of local villagers and the oral inheritance information handed down from generation to generation can be utilized to make up for the lack of remote sensing and other objective data in the collection and acquisition of historical village landscape data. The obtained historical village landscape characteristics and their evolution laws can be used in future participatory rural planning and landscape design.