Objective Rural landscape in the Jiangnan Canal Basin is characterized by a synergistic symbiosis of water basin habitats, canal water conservancy and transportation, and rural settlement construction. Based on the perspective of the correlation and coupling of water network − canal channel − rural landscape, this research aims to explore the types of rural landscape characters and spatial coupling patterns in the Jiangnan Canal Basin, so as to ensure that rural landscape continues to play a significant role in the protection of regional historical heritage and the resilient development of urban and rural areas within the basin.

Methods The research selects the Tiaoxi River − Canal Basin in Zhejiang Province, which is closely connected to the Jiangnan Canal, as the research object. At the river − canal basin scale, the multi-level spatial superposition technique is utilized to identify associative character zones, and a coupling coordination model is used to identify the correlation patterns of water network, canal channel and rural landscape. At the rural community scale, through spatial maximum expectation (EM) clustering, the types of rural landscape characters are classified and the spatially mapped through simulation algorithms.

Results In terms of the spatial correlation of water network − canal channel − rural landscape within the Tiaoxi River − Canal Basin, the research identifies three major landscape character zones including the West Tiaoxi River − Ditang Canal Basin, East Tiaoxi River − Jiangnan Canal Basin, and Hangzhoutang River − Hangzhou − Jiaxing Canal Basin. In terms of the coupling pattern of water network – canal channel – rural landscape in the Tiaoxi River Canal Basin, the coupling and coordination degree between the East and West Tiaoxi River Basin and the buffer zone along the Jiangnan Canal is generally high, and the that in the west area dominated by natural water system is stronger than that in the east area dominated by canal channel. In the main river basin of the East Tiaoxi River – Jiangnan Canal, there are coupling cold spots at the gathering places of canal towns such as Jiaxing and Hangzhou, and there are significant disturbances in the coupling of the landscape system. In terms of typical rural landscape types in the Tiaoxi River – Canal Basin, six types of rural landscape paradigms are identified, including the canal hydraulic engineering, regional agricultural production, township community linkage, canal trade operation, water conservancy culture collection and water network habitat maintenance types. And significant region − basin differences are explored from the perspectives of spatial proportion, layout pattern, and coupling relationship. At the level of the spatial correlation mechanism of typical rural landscapes, the regional agricultural production and township community linkage types of landscape occupy a relatively large proportion, accounting for 24.49% and 21.89% respectively, while the water conservation culture collection and water network habitat maintenance types of landscape occupy a relatively small proportion, accounting for 12.88% and 10.60% respectively. At the level of spatial transformation from the overall scale of basin as a whole to the individual scale of rural settlements, the canal hydraulic engineering and township community linkage types of landscape are mainly distributed in the East Tiaoxi River and the Hangzhoutang River water network basin, the regional agricultural production type of landscape is mainly distributed in the West Tiaoxi River − Ditang Canal Basin, and the water network habitat maintenance type of landscape is mainly distributed in the connection area between the main veins of the East and West Tiaoxi River systems and the tributaries of the Hangzhou − Jiaxing Canal. The canal trade operation and water conservation culture collection types of landscape are mainly distributed in the East Tiaoxi River − Jiangnan Canal Basin and the Hangzhoutang River − Hangzhou − Jiaxing Canal Basin. From the perspective of coupling mechanism, the spatial coupling degrees of the regional agricultural production and township community linkage types of landscape are relatively high in the West Tiaoxi River − Ditang Canal Basin, with mean values of 0.731 and 0.775, respectively; while the mean value of the canal hydraulic engineering type is only 0.596, relatively low.

Conclusion The research delves into the underlying mechanisms that interlink the water network, canal channel and rural landscape within the human settlement system of the Jiangnan Canal Basin. The research clarifies the stratified compositional elements, the superposition of character zoning, the predominant correlation types, and the coupling mechanisms of rural landscape. The research delineates landscape character zones at the canal basin scale and identifies the dominant types of rural landscapes at the scale of rural settlements. Building on these findings, the research achieves a basin-scale spatial inversion of rural landscape types. Furthermore, the research establishes a research paradigm for examining the characters, spatial distribution and mechanisms of rural landscapes within the canal basin. The research offers resilient planning insights that integrate trans-basin zone governance, multi-type system linkage, and multi-level network construction, providing a comprehensive approach to the management and conservation of canal heritage and rural landscapes. Future research will construct a spatio-temporal dynamic dataset of canal heritage landscapes, which aims to enhance the fine-grained character extraction and type classification accuracy of machine learning algorithm models for rural landscapes. Additionally, the universal applicability of the stratified correlation perspective in the field of rural landscape research within the context of the Grand Canal Basin will also be explored.