Objective In the context of sustainable development in urban and rural areas, the human − land relationship still faces the challenge of insufficient systematization and integration of ecological system and social system. In recent years, the “social-ecological system” (SES) theory concerning the complex interaction between human society and ecological environment has become a hot topic in the research on human − land relationship, resilience, and global change. Traditional settlements can be viewed as SESs, because they are areas where human − land interactions and influences are most closely intertwined over a long historical process. However, there is a lack of relevant research on villages that rely on public resources such as the salt resource. With resource governance as the main research object, this research introduces the SES theory into the conservation of traditional villages, and illustrates the intangible social governance process that exists under the tangible representation of human settlements from a multidisciplinary perspective, so as to promote the innovation of rural heritage value recognition and protection methods.

Methods The SES framework proposed by Ostrom is one of the influential general analysis frameworks that can provide a powerful tool for understanding the composition, governance interactions, and outcomes of small-scale public resource governance systems. In terms of the description of the resilient and adaptive governance process, the Adaptive Cycle theory proposed by Hollings and Gunderson is a commonly used theory to describe the dynamic evolution stages of SES. Taking salt villages in Yunlong County in western Yunnan Province as an example, this research adopts the SES framework for simultaneous analysis of governance scenarios and utilizes an adaptive cycle model for historical evolutionary process analysis to reveal the governance scenarios and characteristics of salt villages in Yunlong County at different stages of evolution.

Results Based on the characteristics of systematic utilization of public resources and resource value transformation of cultural heritage in the traditional villages, two periods and four key interactive scenarios of public resource governance are extracted. In the pre-cycle period, villages take the production of salt resources as the driving force, and experience two action scenarios of “resource development and maintenance” and “resource circulation management”. In the aforesaid two action scenarios, the actors formulate a series of resource allocation systems based on the basic principles of reverence for nature, sustainable utilization and public interests, and promote the strict protection and sustainable utilization of natural resources such as brine, forest and land. Accordingly, in terms of space, the overall spatial pattern with valley as the natural ecological base, village as the social development container, and ancient roads connected into a network has been developed, forming a landscape composed of mountains, ancient roads, terraces, public buildings, folk houses, salt wells, river valleys, bridges and other elements, which reflects the traditional wisdom of residents on the scientific and rational organization of ecology, living and production spaces and sustainable use of natural resources. Entering the post-cycle period of SES, settlements face the challenges of “resource stagnation and decay” and “resource transformation and renewal”, and the original production resources are transformed into heritage resources, making it necessary to establish a matching governance system to achieve comprehensive rural revitalization.

Conclusion The space and landscape evolution of traditional salt villages reflects the complex governance relationship between human society and natural environment around salt resources. The conservation and development of the space and landscape of traditional villages can be promoted by reunderstanding the village evolution characteristics and the traditional wisdom contained therein, reconstructing the heritage protection framework with resource governance as the core thread, and rebuilding the governance mechanism with resource transformation and reorganization as the driving force. With changes in the external social environment, traditional salt settlements face a series of dilemmas such as stagnant resource development and urgently needed transformation into public heritage resources. Currently, cultural heritage, as a collectively used public resource, has shared economic value, cultural value, and social value. The conservation of traditional settlements needs to shift towards comprehensive analysis and exploration of people, society, culture, and economy throughout the process.