Biomimetic components and their mechanisms in the evolution of China’s agricultural heritage landscape systems

Agricultural heritage landscapes serve as carriers for the legacy of Chinese agrarian civilization, and the biomimetic evolution philosophy embedded within these landscapes offers innovative approaches to address the challenges confronting modern agricultural development. In this study, grounded theory was employed to perform a coding analysis of 41 key cases of Chinese agricultural cultural heritage, leading to the development of a theoretical evolution model that elucidates both the constituent elements and the mechanisms of biomimicry in agricultural landscape evolution. The analysis revealed that the evolution structure is composed of elements that simulate natural objects and phenomena, while the evolution process involves the selection of natural resources and the construction of agricultural landscapes. Ultimately, the evolution outcome is characterized by factors such as meeting human needs, thriving biodiversity, philosophical thought, folk culture, tangible landscape entities, coherent landscape systems, and sustainable development. In this model, the evolution structure, which anchors the simulated natural elements, is implemented through the evolution process to yield the desired outcomes. This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical understanding of the evolution of agricultural heritage landscapes.