Spatial Differentiation and Cluster-Specific Driving Mechanisms of Mountainous Traditional Villages: Evidence from the Qin–Ba Mountains, China

Mountainous traditional villages are rural heritage settlements shaped by complex environmental and socioeconomic interactions. Rapid urbanization has driven resource outflow and spatial restructuring, intensifying the conservation–development conflict. Existing conservation models relying on standardized criteria neglect village heterogeneity, and current studies insufficiently capture cluster-specific driving mechanisms across spatial scales. Using 153 traditional villages in the Qin–Ba Mountains of southern Shaanxi, this study shifts the analysis from overall spatial pattern identification to the comparison of cluster-specific driving mechanisms. The results indicate (1) traditional villages display an agglomeration pattern of “one primary core, one secondary core, and multiple peripheries,” forming valley corridor and hilly barrier clusters; (2) socioeconomic factors show greater explanatory power than natural factors at the global scale; (3) influencing factors exhibit dual heterogeneity, with intensity and direction varying across space and clusters displaying distinct dominant-factor combinations; and (4) socioeconomic factors may provide enabling conditions for traditional village conservation and adaptive reuse under appropriate governance contexts. Accordingly, valley corridor clusters can follow “conservation through development,” whereas hilly barrier clusters should adopt “development through conservation.” These findings offer empirical support for spatially differentiated governance of mountainous traditional villages.