The Western Liao River Basin is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization and is recognized as China’s third mother river, following the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. This study focuses on traditional settlements in the Western Liao River Basin and evaluates their spatial perception elements using the IPA (Importance–Satisfaction Analysis) method. By enriching research on the spatial perception evaluation of traditional settlements, this work provides guidance for the protection and inheritance of traditional settlements in the Western Liao River Basin. Based on a field survey of the current spatial conditions of these traditional settlements, an evaluation system for spatial perception elements is proposed. Using SPSS software, the importance and satisfaction scores of each evaluated element are determined. Using the IPA method, this study classified 18 spatial perception factors of traditional settlements in the West Liao River Basin into four categories: strengths, potential overkill, low priority, and urgent improvement. Differentiated conservation and optimization strategies were proposed based on these findings. The study also reveals that local residents’ spatial perception is an active construction process rooted in daily life and cultural practices, exhibiting characteristics of “place dependence” and “path orientation.” Elements rated as high in importance but low in satisfaction reflect residents’ cultural anxiety and sense of spatial loss. The study emphasizes that the conservation of traditional settlements should shift from expert-led approaches to local collaboration, fully incorporating residents’ cognitive patterns to construct a dynamic pathway for heritage transmission grounded in daily practices and cultural memory.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.