Objective  The landscape system of Chinese mountains advocating the “harmony between humanity and nature” represents the unique mountain culture phenomenon of China that is characterized by the integration of mountains and waters overall, and contributes to the formation of a typical mountain landscape heritage in the course of natural worship and social evolution. Mountain landscape heritage sites are characterized by typical spatial and temporal integrity. Spatial integrity refers to the overall pattern of heritage resources and the natural environment in which they are located, and temporal integrity refers to the process of heritage layering. Landscape character identification is an important approach for landscape heritage conservation in the international heritage field, which is used to explore the evolution process and outcomes of regional landscape under the influence of different natural and cultural conditions. Establishing the relationship between spatial and temporal integrity and the conservation of mountain landscape heritage by the landscape character identification approach is of great significance for the integrity conservation of mountain landscape heritage in China.

Methods  From the perspective of temporal and spatial integrity, this research has the landscape character identification approach integrated with landscape management grading, based on which the research proposes a conservation model for mountain landscape heritage, which involves the following three steps. 1) Identification of the evolution process of urban landscape. Classify and summarize the natural features and cultural heritage of Mount Tai, review the evolution process of urban landscape at different historical stages. 2) Landscape character zoning. Extract and cluster typical natural and cultural elements in the mountain landscape heritage to form a graphical representation. 3) Management grading and categorization. Based on the evolution process of urban landscape mentioned in step 1 and the landscape character zoning mentioned in step 2, establish the evaluation standard for spatial and temporal integrity, and then assign scores to different landscape character areas according to the standard.

Results  1) The evolution of Mount Tai landscape can be summarized as “natural mountain base − religious mountain sacrifice − landscape scenery tourism − integration between urban and mountain landscape”. 2) Through the identification and extraction of Mount Tai’s landscape character factors (topography, land cover type, soil type, heritage site, and sacred natural site) and the clustering of these factors, the research area is divided into 20 typical landscape character types and 43 landscape character areas. Finally, the integrated 43 landscape character areas are classified into three major categories, namely historical type, natural type, and settlement type, according to their coded meanings. 3) The evaluation criteria for spatial and temporal integrity are established based on the types of spatial elements and the number of listed protected areas in the research area. The 43 landscape character areas are then evaluated by scoring based on the aforesaid criteria, and the Mount Tai landscape heritage is finally divided into three levels of management and conservation units.

Conclusion  1) The conservation model for mountain landscape heritage is refined: First, the classification results of landscape character reveal that there are mainly three character types of historical heritage, natural ecology, and village settlements, based on which differentiated conservation levels, conservation objects, and conservation values are proposed for the three levels of management and conservation (Level I, Level II, and general management and conservation), which are respectively corresponding to priority conservation, key conservation and general conservation. The conservation objects are determined according to the types of landscape character areas and the actual situation. Conservation values are categorized into historical value, natural science value, aesthetic value and social value corresponding to the types of landscape character, and they are categorized into outstanding, important and general value levels corresponding to the three levels of management and conservation. 2) Under the current institutional context, the approach to zoning and grading mountain landscape characteristics proposed under the perspective of spatial and temporal integrity expands the spatial boundaries and complements the landscape protection mechanism in the protection of historical and cultural city; the evaluation criteria for famous scenic site have been optimised, and landscape management grading has been carried out; the conservation objects and values of the World Heritage sites and their surroundings have been expanded from the perspective of temporal and spatial integrity. However, due to the fact that the current data of territorial spatial planning is still to be enriched, the grading criteria for the control of landscape characteristics is still slightly fragile in this study, which can continue to deepen the scientific and practicality of the grading guidelines.