Abstract: The concept of international heritage conservation is changing from ‘salvage’ to ‘preventive’. European countries, represented by Italy, have explored a lot in preventive conservation of heritage. It has expanded from the protection of individual buildings to the conservation and utilization of regional historical sites and cultural landscapes. However, the application in China is concentrated in the monitoring of key buildings. This paper takes Italy as the object of study, where the theory and practice of preventive conservation of heritage are more mature, sorts out its history development, conservation framework and characteristics, cites the typical case of Valtellina Cultural District project, and explores how planning tools can be used for the preventive conservation of heritage in villages, towns and other areas that share the same natural and regional cultural characteristics and face similar risks. On this basis, suggestions in China from these aspects:establishing a mature preventive conservation framework, building a digital and open information platform, improving the management mechanism of diversified participation, and focusing on the overall conservation and development of heritage, in order to provide a reference for preventive conservation of Chinese heritage.