Methodology

Terrapoetic Urbanism offers a regional and process-oriented framework for understanding urban development through the interaction between cities and regional landscape systems. Rather than treating the city as an isolated entity, this book conceptualizes urbanization as an evolving relationship embedded within Shanshui environments shaped jointly by natural conditions and long-term human intervention. By integrating regional and dynamic analyses with theoretical inquiry and empirical case studies, the book establishes a systematic approach to interpreting urban form, spatial organization, and landscape transformation. It examines how mountains, water systems, and human activities interact across scales to guide urban site selection, zoning, and environmental adaptation. Through representative cases spanning different historical periods and geographic contexts, Terrapoetic Urbanism reveals the “mountain–water–city” model as a key source of urban resilience and cultural continuity, offering critical insights for contemporary ecological civilization and resilient human settlement strategies.