Global climate change has caused general and serious damage to cultural heritage sites, and earthen settlements and buildings are particularly vulnerable to water-affected disasters. Thus, this paper uses Liang Village in Pingyao County, China, as a case study, linking the human–land study in the Liang Village Sino-French workshop of 2009/2010 to a disaster assessment completed after the devastating rainstorm in October 2021. We found that the village’s rain disaster resulted from the vulnerability of earthen material to rainstorms and from the earthen settlement’s evolution from a culture emphasising the coexistence of ‘water and earth’ to a technic fostering the disintegration of ‘water and earth’. The latter is the main cause of the village’s decrease in its capacity for disaster prevention and damage reduction. Therefore, in the context of global climate change, we find that the reestablishment of the harmonious relationship of water and earth is critical to both rural heritage conservation and village sustainable development. In addition to repairing their relation from the technical perspective of ‘planning and design’ by planners and architects, it is more crucial for local people to understand and enhance their contemporary appreciation for the traditional ‘coexistence of water and earth’ concept.

Vernacular heritage embodies the great wisdom used by the ancients over thousands of years to create their habitats. By adhering to vernacular wisdom, the unique production modes and lifestyles shown in vernacular heritage created an ideal harmonious living environment in consensus with nature using orderly and rational methods for using natural resources. This study analyses the value of vernacular wisdom, establishes a content system based on three factors, i.e., human needs, productivity and nature from the perspective of the human–nature relationship, and observes that the value of vernacular wisdom is to co-ordinate responses to human–nature conflicts. The representative vernacular wisdom of Zengchong Village, a Dong village in Guizhou Province, China can be summarised into three types: wisdom about physiological needs reflected in the combination of agricultural production with highly intensive living space systems and survival skills to make the best use of everything; wisdom about security needs reflected in the barn, fire-prevention and flood-control systems; and wisdom about self-actualisation, esteem, love or belonging reflected in social interaction and self-management, religious beliefs and identity. In addition to the conservation of the built vernacular heritage, vernacular wisdom should be emphasised in village planning and management to co-ordinate responses to new human–nature conflicts. Thus, a state of balance between human needs, productivity and nature can be achieved to realise the goal of sustainable rural heritage development.

Many studies on Lijiang Old Town, the World Heritage Site in China, criticise the negative impact that the rapid tourism development caused on its 'outstanding universal value'. However, tourism is a very important driving force for the local development of heritage sites in poverty areas of developing countries. So how to balance the relationship between 'heritage', 'community' and 'tourism' is an important issue for human-inhabited World Heritage Sites in developing countries. The paper takes Lijiang as a case, introducing the huge changes of the 'heritage' and 'community' with the rapid tourism development since it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. It points out that since 2002, according to the social and economic development status then, Lijiang has redefined its general goals to protect its authenticity and integrity as a World Heritage Site, to improve the living condition, to guarantee the interests of local people, and to enhance harmonious social development. A series of public policies have been designed and implemented to integrate heritage conservation with local development. Based on data analysis, field investigation and questionnaire survey, the paper analyses this intervention process and the experience and lessons of it, providing certain reference for the conservation and sustainable development of human-inhabited World Heritage Sites.