Optimizing Historic Greenway Siting Through Multi-Model Integration: Evidence from China and France

Historic-cultural greenways integrate heritage conservation, ecology, and development, yet existing planning often overlooks heritage spatial heterogeneity and network drivers. This study proposes a PCA–MCR–NA framework for heritage-oriented greenway planning, applied to Jinzhong (China) with PACA (France) as reference. Results show that transport accessibility, land use conditions, and topographic features dominate greenway siting suitability in Jinzhong, while cultural landscape continuity, heritage network structure, and ecological factors carry comparatively greater relative weight in PACA. The comprehensive resistance surface exhibits a pattern of higher resistance in the southeast and lower resistance in the northwest; core suitable areas and suitable construction areas account for approximately 29% and 41%, respectively. Compared to conventional planning, the framework raises protected heritage unit coverage from 71% to 93%, connectivity from 0.68 to 0.84 (+23.5%), cuts costs by 2.7%, and reduces ecological disturbance by 10.0%. The optimized network identifies three major corridors, four functional zones, and multiple nodes. Findings confirm heritage networks shaped by culture–ecology–space interactions, and the framework offers a transferable tool for complex heritage regions with multi-objective conflicts.