Sheng Liu, Zhenni Zhu, Yichen Gao, Shanshan Wang, Yanchi Zhou
With the rise in rural tourism, public space use has become more complex, causing significant weekday-weekend vitality imbalances. However, the factors shaping these dynamics in traditional villages remain unclear. This study uses Wi-Fi sensing method to analyze vitality variations across weekdays and weekends, and it develops a 13-metric evaluation framework to examine how built environment factors, from both internal and external dimensions, differentially influence the vitality of public spaces in traditional villages across various time periods. Using 17 public spaces in Yantou Village, Lishui, China, as a case, it finds: (1) Historical Element Proximity consistently and significantly drives public space vitality across all periods; (2) Leisure Facility Count and Decorative Element Count demonstrate strong positive effects during weekend morning peaks. (3) Retail Facility Count significantly reduces vitality during weekend morning peak but enhances it during midday off-peak, whereas Street Vendor Count shows the opposite pattern—increasing vitality in morning peak and decreasing it in midday off-peak. Using Wi-Fi sensing’s high-resolution, real-time, and non-invasive capabilities, this study provides a scientific method to accurately assess the variations in public space vitality and their impact factors between weekdays and weekends in traditional villages, offering technical support for enhancing public space vitality and sustainably revitalizing rural heritage.