Study on the Evaluation of the Current Status of Traditional Village Protection and Cluster Protection Development Strategies in Southwest Hubei

To address the scattered protection efforts and uneven effectiveness of traditional villages in southwestern Hubei, this study focuses on 92 nationally recognized traditional villages in Enshi Prefecture. By integrating literature research, field investigation, and multi-source data fusion, we developed an innovative model that combines the Analytic Network Process (ANP), entropy weight, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, thereby integrating subjective and objective weighting to improve evaluation accuracy. A quantitative evaluation was conducted across 13 criteria and 32 indicators, including traffic conditions, intangible cultural heritage resources, and industrial foundation. The results reveal that traditional villages in Enshi Prefecture exhibit a significant spatial pattern of “overall dispersion with local concentration,” accompanied by a high concentration index. Traffic conditions, intangible cultural heritage, and infrastructure emerge as the core factors affecting protection effectiveness, and a spatial differentiation pattern of “two cores and one corridor” is identified within the region. Based on the quantitative evaluation, we propose targeted cluster protection strategies, including a “dual-core multi-node” transportation network, “three-industry linkage” industrial collaboration, and a living heritage approach that integrates cultural relics with intangible cultural heritage. These strategies were validated in pilot villages such as Yejiaoyuan Village, resulting in significant increases in village satisfaction and tourist volume. The findings provide methodological support and practical paradigms for the systematic protection and sustainable development of traditional villages in southwestern ethnic minority areas.