The construction of a comprehensive observation platform for natural-resource elements would provide data support for studies of dynamic changes in various natural resources, and could serve the needs of natural-resource management and the construction of ecological civilization during a period of global change. As the second-largest inland river basin in NW China, the Heihe River Basin (HRB) lies in the central part of the Silk Road Economic Belt, consequently, pilot studies of resource management in the basin are urgently needed. This paper describes the construction of a comprehensive natural-resource elements observation network in the HRB to meet requirements for natural-resource management, based on natural-resource and Earth-system science. Based on current observations and research, thirteen observation stations were established in different river basins through integration with existing stations, reconstruction and upgrading, and new construction. The main types of land-surface resources in the HRB (grassland, forests, rivers, lakes, deserts, wetlands, and farmland) were included in the observation network constructed for the monitoring of natural-resource elements. Long-term, continuous, and stable observation can yield key data concerning coupling processes, trends of change, and rates of change in natural resources. This is of great significance in improving cognitive ability, scientific management, and strategic decision-making regarding natural resources in the HRB, and can provide a reference paradigm for the observation of and research into natural resources in other basins.
Ecological culture has a low-carbon attribute, which coincides with the concepts of energy conservation and emission reduction in low-carbon tourism. Analyzing the differences in the public perception of the two is of great significance for achieving the carbon neutral goal of tourism. Firstly, the views of nature, equality and ecology in ecological culture, as well as the cognition and participation willingness for low-carbon tourism were identified by using the principal component analysis method. Secondly, all samples were divided into four types of ecological culture cognition: sufficient, relatively sufficient, general and poorer, by the K-means clustering method. Thirdly, significant differences in the low-carbon tourism cognition among different types were revealed by using the ANOVA method. Finally, the influences of the main demographic characteristics on the low-carbon tourism cognition were analyzed. This analysis showed that gender, age, education level and income level had significant differences in some aspects of low-carbon tourism cognition and participation willingness, especially education level. On this basis, several corresponding strategies were put forward for managing the cognitive differences of the different types, which could contribute to the realization of the carbon neutral vision of tourism.
Research on spatial flow as it relates to the relationship between the supply and demand of ecosystem services supports a significant connection between the supply of ecosystem services and human well-being. Understanding the entire process of the production and flow, as well as the use of ecosystem services, accurately assessing the balance of supply and demand of ecosystem services, and establishing a two-way feedback relationship between supply and demand are vital for the scientific management of the ecosystem and ensuring the sustainable development of regional resources. Based on a large number of relevant publications, this paper comprehensively summarizes the concepts and assessment methods of ecosystem service supply and demand from the perspective of ecosystem service supply and demand, and discusses the impacts of land use and climate change on the temporal and spatial changes of ecosystem services under the background of global change. Then, an analysis of the research progress in the ecosystem services spatial flow indicated that there are still deficiencies in the quantification of cultural services, the dynamics of ecosystem service flow and the driving mechanism of ecosystem services. We also propose that clarifying the driving mechanism and transfer process of ecosystem services, and realizing the mutual conversion between different spatial-temporal scales of ecosystem services, is an important approach for improving the application of ecosystem services research in practice in the future.
Farmers’ livelihoods and their impacts on the ecosystem are important indicators of human-land relationships. Appropriate livelihood strategies for farmers can meet the needs of human well-being and promote the sustainable use of natural resources, thereby maintaining the health and stability of natural ecosystems. Scholars have carried out a great deal of research on the changes in farmers’ livelihoods, as well as the driving mechanisms and ecological effects, but there are still many controversial issues about the ecological effects of farmers’ livelihood transformation. On the basis of collecting and sorting out the relevant literature, this paper analyzes the previous research results on the transformation mechanism and ecological effects of farmers’ livelihoods, and further explores the coupling relationship. Through the analysis and summary, we find that the choice of farmers’ livelihoods is affected by natural factors, subjective willingness and social policies. The transformation of farmers’ livelihood changes the ways of production, consumption and resource utilization, which in turn profoundly affects the evolutionary process of the natural ecosystems. This paper establishes a research framework for the livelihood transformation mechanism of farmers and its ecological effect, and finally summarizes two directions that need to be studied further in the future: (1) Exploring the interactions between the driving factors of farmers’ livelihood transformation; and (2) Exploring a win-win sustainable mechanism for farmers’ livelihood needs and natural resource utilization.
As a very important part of the urban ecosystem, the urban green space system plays an active role in maintaining the urban ecosystem stability, providing ecosystem services, and improving the quality of the urban environment. In order to deal with the problems brought about by the deterioration of the urban ecological environment, it is necessary to study and analyze the spatial distribution pattern, evolutionary characteristics and ecosystem services of urban green space to maximize its ecological benefits and comprehensive functions. In this study, we took Beijing urban area as an example, and based on the spatial distribution data of urban green space and remote sensing data, we first calculated the urban green space type transition matrix, landscape pattern index and ecosystem services. Then, we analyzed the changes in urban green space landscape patterns, ecosystem services and their spatial distributions from 2000 to 2020, and studied the interactive relationships between landscape changes and changes in ecosystem services. The results showed three key findings. (1) Beijing’s urban green space construction has achieved remarkable results from 2000 to 2020. The area of green space has increased by 77.41%, mainly from cultivated land and construction land. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the amounts of dust retention, SO2 absorption, NO2 absorption, cooling and humidification, carbon fixation and oxygen release, and rainwater runoff reduction in Beijing's urban green space have shown continuous increases in general. (3) There is a close relationship between urban green space landscape changes and green space ecosystem services, and total area (TA) has the highest correlation with ecosystem services. Except for rainwater runoff reduction, the correlation coefficients between TA and ecosystem services are all higher than 0.85. This research can provide theoretical guidance for optimizing Beijing's green space and determining how to maximize the effect of green space for improving the ecological environment, and ultimately provide a scientific basis for the construction of Beijing's ecological environment.
China has achieved a comprehensive victory in poverty eradication. Relocation has been the major measure of the poverty alleviation strategy, and 10 million poor people have successfully been relocated in the ‘Thirteenth Five-Year’ period (from 2016 to 2020). This paper established an integrated evaluation index system for the livelihoods of relocated groups and the sustainability of the village, based on the framework of United Nation 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and using the data from questionnaire surveys in Bailang Village, Tibet. The indicator system quantitatively analyzed the changes in the livelihoods of different agro-pastoralist groups before and after relocation from the three aspects of living standards, livelihood assets, and livelihood strategies. The results showed that relocation led to the improvement of the livelihoods of immigrated households. As the duration after relocation increases, the living standards rise steadily, especially in poverty eradication (SDG1), which increased nearly 100%. Relocation affects the livelihood strategies of the relocated groups, in that the original pure farmers chose more diverse livelihood strategies and the non-farm employment ratio (SDG8) of the village increased. The total SDG score increased from the perspective of the sustainable development of the village. The data also showed that relocation had limited impacts on the livelihoods of the aborigines. The results implied that the relocation policy for poverty alleviation has been implemented successfully in this area. This research could support policy optimization for improving the sustainability of the village and the livelihoods of the immigrants.
Climate is an important factor that affects the livability of a region. The climate suitability of a region’s environment for human settlement profoundly affects the regional socio-economic development and the population distribution. Tibet is an area that is sensitive to climate change. Given the impact of global climate change, the climate suitability of Tibet has undergone significant changes. In this study, the temperature humidity index (THI) values for Tibet were calculated, and the relationships between the population distribution and the THI were analyzed quantitatively. In this way, the zoning standards for climate suitability in Tibet were determined such that the climate suitability could be evaluated. The results show that the average annual temperature in the southeast of Tibet, where the population was densely distributed, was relatively high. The mean annual relative humidity showed a trend of gradually decreasing from south to north. Regions with a suitable climate, including the high suitability areas (HSAs), the moderately suitable areas (MSAs) and the low suitability areas (LSAs), accounted for only 7.90% of the total area but accommodated over 40% of the total population. The critically suitable areas (CSAs) accounted for 37.81% of the land area and 48.24% of the total population. Non-suitable areas (NSAs) were widely distributed in Tibet and accounted for 54.29% of the total area and 11.33% of the total population. The results of this study may provide a reference for guiding the reasonable distribution of population and promoting the optimization of the spatial planning in Tibet.
The study of ecosystem service consumption (ESC) in Nepal not only helps us to understand the intensity and management level of Nepal’s ecosystem utilization, but also provides scientific data support for the establishment and planning of China’s aid to Nepal. Based on the data of food consumption and forestry production and trade, this study dynamically investigated the consumption levels, structure and ecological consumption patterns of farmland, forest, grassland, water and the integrated ecosystem in Nepal and their main driving forces, using the physical quantity accounting method. The results showed that the total consumption of farmland, forest, grassland, water and the integrated ecosystem in Nepal from 1961 to 2018 exhibited a fluctuating increase, with average value of 7.26 Tg yr-1, 6.38 Tg yr-1, 1.10 Tg yr-1, 0.02 Tg yr-1 and 14.76 Tg yr-1, respectively. The annual per capita forest consumption roughly decreased, while the annual per capita consumption of farmland, grassland, waters and integrated ecosystems mostly increased with their growth rates accelerating. The corresponding ecological consumption patterns were the “Log-Cereal-Milk” mode during 1961-1984, the “Log-Cereal-Vegetable-Root-Milk-Sugar” mode during 1985-2007 and the “Log-Cereal-Vegetable-Root-Sugar-Fruit-Milk” mode during 2008-2018. This study indicated that the supply capacity of the ecosystem (production, import and export capacity) and socio-economic factors (population density, per capita GDP and religious beliefs) are the main driving forces that are restricting the evolution of Nepal’s ecological consumption pattern. Although Nepal’s dietary structure has improved significantly, there is still a large gap between it and the standard of a balanced diet. The supply capacities of fruits, meat, eggs, milk and aquatic products should be enhanced to meet people’s demand for a balanced diet. This study can provide data support for the establishment of China’s aid projects to improve Nepal’s livelihood.
As a typical representative of the herbivorous wild animals in Chang Tang Plateau, the number of Tibetan wild asses has increased significantly in recent years. Clarifying the distribution, population, and size of its habitats is conducive to formulating the protection plan for wild animals and managing the conflict between people and wild animals in Chang Tang Plateau. Based on the distribution probability of Tibetan wild ass habitats and environmental factors, the number of Tibetan wild asses in Gaize County of Chang Tang Plateau was calculated by using the belt transect method and random forest model, and due to the uncertainty of the calculations, the results were corrected and analyzed. The results show that the living environment of Tibetan wild asses in Gaize County of Chang Tang Plateau is at 4400-4600 m above sea level, 350-400 m away from the river, and the average temperature in the warmest season is 10-12 ℃. The vegetation types of habitats are generally temperate tufted dwarf grass, dwarf semi shrub desert grassland, alpine grass, Carex grassland, alpine cushion dwarf semi shrub desert, among others. On the basis of studying the environmental preferences of Tibetan wild asses, the random forest model was corrected by using the data of the second scientific survey sample line of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for three years. The approximate number of Tibetan wild asses in each of the different areas of Gaize County was obtained. The number of Tibetan wild asses in Gaize Town, Xianqian Township, Gumu Township, Chabu Township, Mami Township, Wuma Township and Dongcuo Township is 855, 3458, 2358, 1453, 743, 943 and 647, respectively. By studying the environmental preferences of Tibetan wild asses and analyzing the results of the belt transect survey, the random forest model can accurately estimate the number of Tibetan wild asses in Gaize County of Chang Tang Plateau.
Using ArcGIS to analyze the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Yunnan Province in combination with the actual local conditions of traditional villages, the purpose of this study is to determine the development model suitable for their characteristics. The results show several important features of traditional village distribution. (1) The traditional villages in Yunnan Province have spatial structural characteristics of unbalanced cohesive distribution, and they are mainly distributed in the higher-level cities and prefectures such as northwest Yunnan, west Yunnan and south Yunnan. Among them, the traditional villages of Baoshan City have the highest distribution density of 66.33 per 10000 km2. This is followed by Dali Prefecture and Honghe Prefecture, where the densities of traditional villages are 44.13 per 10000 km2 and 37.66 per 10000 km2, respectively. (2) The factors affecting the spatial distribution structure of traditional villages in Yunnan Province are natural geographical factors, humanistic historical factors and transportation factors. Among them, the natural geographical conditions with a large vertical gap in Yunnan Province gave birth to the human settlement environment of traditional villages. The history of a farming civilization that has been passed down from generation to generation has laid a brilliant and splendid humanistic foundation for traditional villages, and the high-altitude areas are relatively primitive. The transportation conditions have delayed the destruction of traditional villages by urbanization and industrialization. In summary, these factors have affected the spatial distribution pattern of traditional villages in Yunnan Province to some extent. (3) According to the law of the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Yunnan Province, it is necessary to explore the activation path of traditional village tourism with regional characteristics and ethnic characteristics, and also to carry out differentiated development according to the different endowment characteristics of local resources, that is to develop a series of activation modes including agricultural tourism, cultural tourism and ecological tourism.
Food resources play a great role in human livelihood, so it is meaningful to investigate their utilization and structural evolution, especially in developing countries. This study takes data from FAOSTAT and the World Bank, and applies the emergy method to analyze Uzbek food consumption changes and characteristics from 1992 to 2019. Two main results were obtained: (1) National food consumption showed a persistent increase and had a remarkable change in stages, with the first stage of low-level repetition, the second stage of speeding up and the third stage of high development. The increase of animal-based food consumption was more notable than that of plant-based food consumption. (2) Per capita annual food consumption had a tendency of change that was similar to that of national food consumption. The proportion of animal-based food in the total per capita annual food consumption usually remained about 2-fold higher than that of plant-based food consumption. The main food consumption pattern was the combination of crops such as wheat and rice with meat such as beef. The fruit and vegetable consumption also increased. With the growing population, various changes in food demand will inevitably happen, so it is necessary to take sustainable measures in time to satisfy the new demand and to protect resources and the environment.
The judicious use and management of natural resources is vital to achieve sustainable development. Land and water are prime natural resources, and their depletion and degradation can lead to serious threats like land subsidence. Land subsidence is a phenomenon of the alteration of elevation at a point on the earth through the sinking of the surface. It occurs when the earth’s surface loses its support. The major causes of land subsidence include groundwater extraction, mining, construction overload, and other similar factors that increase pressure on the surface and eventually subsidize the land. Urban centers with excessive groundwater extraction and infrastructure development are at a high risk of subsidence. Lahore, the second-largest city in Pakistan, is undergoing an enormous increase in population density, uncontrolled urbanization with very large-scale construction projects, and intensive groundwater extraction which are responsible for subsidence directly or indirectly. Therefore, studies on groundwater status and unplanned urban appraisals have seriously urged monitoring of the subsidence in Lahore. Herein, we used freely available Sentinel-1 data for one year (from August 2018 to August 2019), with a high spatial and temporal resolution, to monitor subsidence in Lahore. The data were processed using the SNAP/StaMPS approach for Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSI) analysis, which is an advanced InSAR technique. The displacement velocity map from InSAR processing shows a significant land deformation in the area with values ranging from -114 to 15 mm yr-1. Along with the Sentinel-1 data, we also used supplementary data obtained from various government agencies of Pakistan to study the land cover map, transportation network and waterways of Lahore, soil types, population density, and field points for assessing the results and understanding the roles of various factors in the occurrence of uplift or subsidence. A strong correlation was established between subsidence and various parameters such as groundwater extraction and lowering of the water table, soil type variations, land cover changes, surface water channels, and population density. The deformation map confirms the greatest subsidence in the central part of Lahore, while the uplift is observed in the less populated and rural areas situated near Ravi River. The land subsidence and uplift could be attributed to groundwater extraction and recharge through the canal system and the river, respectively.
Ecological degradation is a common problem around the world which has a profound impact on the sustainable development of mankind. This paper selects Lashihai basin as the study case, and uses Logistic stepwise regression to simulate the original ecology of the potential vegetation in the area as a reference system for the definition and analysis of the subsequent degree of ecological degradation and its distribution characteristics. The analysis yields four main results. (1) The strong human disturbance areas in the Lashihai region are concentrated in the Lashihai basin, and the main impact factors are roads, residential areas and cultivated lands. (2) Besides lake, there are eight potential vegetation types in Lashihai, among which evergreen coniferous forest is the dominant community, and the other seven planting types of potential vegetation include warm meadow, grass, beach grass, evergreen broad-leaved shrubbery, deciduous broad-leaved shrubbery, warm steppe and alpine grassland. (3) The elevation and average phosphorus content have significant effects on the distribution of potential vegetation, while the different vegetation types have differential sensitivities to environmental factors. (4) On the whole, the degree of ecological degradation in the basin is relatively light, in which the proportion of non-degraded areas accounts for nearly half, the area of mild degradation is about one-fourth, the moderately degraded area is concentrated in areas with strong human disturbance, accounting for only 18.64%, and the severe degradation is rare, occupying an area of only 3.17%.
Quantifying the whole process of ecosystem services from generation through transfer to use, and analyzing the balance between the supply and demand of regional ecosystem services are of great significance for formulating regional sustainable development strategies, realizing regional ecosystem management, and effective resource allocation. Based on the SWAT model, InVEST model, ArcGIS, and other software, this study analyzed the supply-demand balance of water provision services in Jinghe River Basin, a typical region located in the Loess Plateau, using multi-source data. This research then analyzed the spatial-temporal distribution pattern and spatial matching characteristics of the supply and demand of water provision services in Jinghe River Basin from 2000 to 2015. On this basis, a spatial flow model of water provision service was constructed, the flow rules (flow paths) of the water provision service were explored at the subwatershed scale, and the spatial scope of the supply area and benefit area were depicted. The results show that: (1) Water resource supply and demand in the Jinghe River basin both showed increasing trends from 2000 to 2015. (2) The supply-demand balance of water resources was generally up to the standard, however, there were significant differences between urban and rural areas. The supply-demand balances of the central urban areas of each county were relatively low, and even exceeded the supply in the lower reaches of the Jingyang River, such as Gaoling County, Qindu District, and Jingyang County. In rural areas, due to the small population and industrial distribution, coupled with a better ecological environmental base, the supply-demand balance was relatively high, such as Pengyang County, Lingtai County, Huachi County, Huanxian County, Ningxian County, and Zhenyuan County. (3) From 2000 to 2015, the spatial matching pattern of supply and demand in the Jinghe River Basin showed a trend of decline with fluctuations. In 2015, the supply-demand ratios of more than 60% of the subwatersheds showed trends of decline, and the proportion of under-supply area increased by 55.7% in 2015 compared with that in 2000. (4) The supply areas of water provision service in Jinghe River Basin are distributed in the upper reaches of the basin, and the benefit areas are Huating County, Chongxin County, Yongshou County, Chunhua County, Ganxian County, Liquan County, Qindu District, and others in the middle and lower reaches.
China’s Yellow River Delta represents a typical area with moist semi-humid soil salinization, and its salinization has seriously affected the sustainable use of local resources. The use of remote sensing technology to understand changes in the spatial and temporal patterns of salinization is key to combating regional land degradation. In this study, a feature space model was constructed for remote sensing and monitoring land salinization using Landsat 8 OIL multi-spectral images. The feature parameters were paired to construct a feature space model; a total of eight feature space models were obtained. An accuracy analysis was conducted by combining salt-loving vegetation data with measured data, and the model demonstrating the highest accuracy was selected to develop salinization inversion maps for 2015 and 2020. The results showed that: (1) The total salinization area of the Yellow River Delta displayed a slight upward trend, increasing from 4244 km2 in 2015 to 4629 km2 in 2020. However, the area’s salting degree reduced substantially, and the areas of saline soil and severe salinization were reduced in size; (2) The areas with reduced salinization severity were mainly concentrated in areas surrounding cities, and primarily comprised wetlands and some regions around the Bohai Sea; (3) Numerous factors such as the implementation of the “Bohai Granary” cultivation engagement plan, increase in human activities to greening local residential living environments, and seawater intrusion caused by the reduction of sediment contents have impacted the distribution of salinization areas in the Yellow River Delta; (4) The characteristic space method of salinization monitoring has better applicability and can be promoted in humid-sub humid regions.
Global economic development and increasing human activities have brought great challenges to fragile ecosystems. In order to avoid, reduce, and reverse desertification, Chinese and foreign scientists and ecological governance institutions have developed a series of ecological restoration technologies (ERTs) and models in the past few decades. These technologies can improve residents’ livelihoods, strengthen disaster resilience, and launch a comprehensive review of degraded ecosystems in desertification regions. However, some studies and practices have limited the selection and promotion of good technologies and the assessments of these technologies, resulting in the waste and loss of funds and manpower. The objective of this study is to identify desertification control and restoration technologies and models, summarize the evolutionary features and trends of these technologies under different natural conditions, and evaluate the various ERTs that are now available. The data sources of this study include the databases of international organizations, CNKI, related literature and reports, and questionnaires from institutions and experts. First, the three stages of ERTs evolution were summarized, and the key events and social-economic developments were identified as the driving forces of evolution. Then, the four categories of ERTs were identified as biological, engineering, agricultural, and management ERTs. Finally, the key ERTs were evaluated in the five dimensions of the degree of difficulty, the degree of maturity, effectiveness, suitability, and potential for transfer. The management ERTs scores for the degree of difficulty, the degree of maturity, and potential for transfer are higher. This study provides a reference for adapting to local conditions, the comprehensive management, rational development, and utilization of dryland resources, improving the application of ecological technologies, and promoting the export and import of the excellent technologies.
Inner Mongolia is the important ecological barrier zone in northern China, which plays an important role in the prevention and control of wind in the regional ecosystem. Based on the Revised Wind Erosion Equation (RWEQ) model and the cost-recovery method, this study simulated the wind erosion prevention service (WEPS) in Inner Mongolia in 2010 and 2015, investigated the spatial pattern of material and monetary value of WEPS, and analyzed the differences among various cities and various ecosystems. The results indicated that the total WEPS of Inner Mongolia was estimated to be 73.87×108 t in 2015, which was 4.61×108 t less than in 2010, while the monetary value of WEPS was calculated to be 738.66×108 yuan in 2015, which was 46.16×108 yuan less than in 2010. Among all the leagues and cities, Xilin Gol League supported the highest WEPS, reaching 18.65×108 t in 2015, while Wuhai provided the lowest. The WEPS of Hulunbeier increased the most, by 4.37×108 t from 2010 to 2015. The WEPS in the grassland ecosystem was the highest among the different ecosystems, accounting for more than 55% of the total WEPS in Inner Mongolia, but it was reduced by 1.05×108 t during the same period. The WEPS in the forest ecosystem increased the most, reaching 0.19×108 t. This study found that the implementation of projects such as returning farmland to forests and grasses and sand control effectively increased the WEPS by increasing the forest area. However, unsuitable land use increased the desertification of ecosystems which resulted in a reduction of WEPS in Inner Mongolia.
Despite the rapid development of flower-viewing tourism in China in recent years, there is almost no systematic research on it. Therefore, this study analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of flower-viewing tourism and its influencing factors in China using the spatial statistical analysis methods and the geographic detector method. The study uses the Point-of-Interest data of flower-viewing tourist attractions from networks such as Qunar and Ctrip, the flower observation data from China Phenological Observation Network, Chinese network news, and Weibo, and the statistical data from yearbooks. The results are as follows: 1) The spatial attribution type of flower-viewing tourism in China is aggregated into areas, including two high-density aggregated areas, three medium-density aggregated areas, and one general-density aggregated area. Furthermore, five major types of flower-viewing tourist attractions have formed several aggregated areas. 2) The time of flower viewing in China starts from about February and lasts about eight months till October each year. Florescence and flowering time of different ornamental flowers in different regions are different. 3) The spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of flower-viewing tourism in China are mainly affected by ornamental flower phenology, spatial distribution characteristics of flower-viewing resources, regional permanent population size, youth population size, female population size, regional GDP, and added value of the tertiary sector. These conclusions clarify the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of flower-viewing tourism and its influencing factors in China. They could provide a scientific basis and useful reference for the coordination and sustainable development of regional flower-viewing tourism in China.
In the era of sustainable development, the ecological impact of the development of the tourism industry has attracted extensive attention from all walks of life. Generally considered, tourism ecological security (TES) is an important link to realize the high-quality development of tourism destinations and promote the construction of ecological civilization. Based on keyword discrimination of TES, tourism ecological risk and tourism ecological health, and from the perspective of ecological civilization construction, this paper uses the databases of Web of Science and CNKI as data sources to systematically comb and analyze TES research from the aspects of development process, research methods and research content, and puts forward the prospects for future research on this basis. This analysis found that research in the TES field presents four main characteristics. (1) The phased characteristic of “germination - exploration - development” is significant, and a relatively standard research framework of “evaluation - influencing factors - early warning - regulation” has been formed. (2) The empirical orientation of the research methods is distinct. (3) The development trend is characterized by small-scale dominance and a large-scale surge. (4) The disciplinary integration and practical combination have been continuously strengthened. Combined with the development trends and hot spots of TES, this paper proposes that the direction and goal of deepening TES research in the future should be carried out from the aspects of strengthening research on thresholds, early warning and regulation, improving the application of big data, constructing the synergistic effect mechanisms between tourism and ecology, and realizing the longitudinal deepening and interconnection of scale research.
Research on the evolution of cultural policy is the key in the field of public policy study, and it is also an important means to solve the problems that have emerged in cultural heritage management. The National Cultural Park is an innovative cultural heritage protection system proposed by Chinese leaders within the context of national rejuvenation and building a culturally-strong country campaign. From the perspective of system evolution theory, this paper systematically sorts out the ideas behind international heritage management and the evolutionary process of the Cultural Relics Protection Unit system, in an effort to explore the origin, innovation and vision of the National Cultural Park System. A review of the international heritage documents revealed that the principle of heritage protection has developed from “authenticity” to “integrity”, and the focus of the protection object has also changed from “monism” to “diversity”, which provided a theoretical background for the burgeoning National Cultural Park. The Cultural Relics Protection Unit system has been promoted as the most crucial cultural heritage management system in China. Therefore, this study sheds light on the evolution and limitations of the system that lays a practical foundation for the National Cultural Park System. There have been three stages in the history of China’s National Cultural Relics Protection Unit, namely, the creation of the system (1956-1965), the survival crisis of the system (1966-1977), and the rebirth and development of the system (1978 to the present), in which the main driving concepts of China's cultural heritage management have been sequentially elucidated as simple protectionism, tolerant conservatism and comprehensive developmentalism, respectively. Since the establishment of China’s Cultural Relics Protection Unit system, tremendous progress has been made not only in the enlightenment of the public’s mindset and but also in the development of system and culture. However, the changes in the institutional environment gradually exposed its limitations regarding cultural relic management and value expression. The National Cultural Park System is the fruit created by the internal contradictions of the cultural heritage system itself and the evolution of heritage theory. Its biggest innovation lies in the two core connotations of “integrated protection” and “integrated development”. In the future, as the National Cultural Park management system matures, a Chinese cultural heritage management system will take shape in which the National Cultural Parks become dominant and various cultural resources are utilized. Finally, the National Cultural Park will become a symbol of Chinese culture and will be internalized into the common belief system of the Chinese nation.
The scientific evaluation of tourism resources is not only an important prerequisite for the development of agri-cultural heritage tourism (AHT), but it can also promote the conservation and management of Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS). With the goal of providing scientific support for the sustainable management of tourism resources, this review systematically analyzes the overall situation, research regions, developmental timeline trends, key fields and hot topics of resource evaluation research related to AHT over 2005-2020. With a comprehensive perspective that incorporates both traditional literature review and quantitative literature review, the study revealed four important aspects of AHT research. (1) Relevant articles could be divided into two phases, a development-oriented period (2005-2012) and a conservation-oriented period (2013-2020). (2) GIAHS accounts for the absolute majority (about 66.7%) of relevant studies. In particular, Longji Terraces System, Hani terraces system and Dong’s Rice-Fish-Duck System were the research hotspots IAHS, and Yunnan, Zhejiang and Guangxi were the research hotspot provinces. (3) Terraced landscapes and tea culture were the most popular themes in tourism resource evaluation, while sports tourism, tea culture tourism and study tours are becoming the new trends in IAHS sites. (4) Research methods have undergone a shift from qualitative to quantitative approaches, and a combination of these two in an interdisciplinary manner is becoming a new research trend. By reviewing and prospecting the relevant literature, this study not only makes a unique contribution to the tourism resource evaluation of IAHS, but also helps to enrich the relevant evaluation theories and further promote the sustainable development of heritage tourism from theoretical and methodological perspectives.
The anthropogenic heat release from tourism activities has a cumulative effect on glacial retreat when coupled with climate change. Mitigating the impacts of glacial tourism activities on glaciers and promoting the sustainable development of glacial tourism have become urgent issues. Taking Yulong and Hailuogou glacier tourism destinations as examples, we collected survey questionnaires related to glacial tourists (n=1113) and tourism companies (n=329) by systematic field surveys during 2016-2017, and we obtained data on energy consumption from catering, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, entertainment, and waste disposal. This study builds a responsible tourism system and discusses the strategies and measures used to engage stakeholders (mainly tourism companies, tourists, local governments, tourism associations, and the central government) in responsible tourism in order to reduce the impacts of tourism activities on glaciers. These strategies mainly include: improving the energy efficiency of the supply of tourism products and services, promoting the consumption of low-energy tourism products and services, strengthening the supervision and management of low-energy consumption tourism development, creating an environment for energy savings and consumption reduction, and establishing a long-term operational mechanism for responsible tourism management. A rewsponsible tourism system allows stakeholders to properly address this dilemma, internalize sustainable development goals to find their intrinsic self-discipline, and work together to fulfill the public responsibility of realizing the sustainable development of glacial tourism.
Glacier retreat is becoming more widespread and severe due to global warming, and improper exploitation of glacier resources by tourism activities accelerates the destruction of glacier landscapes. Therefore, establishing a set of quantitative assessment tools is critical for guiding the rational utilization of glacier tourism resources. This study selected regional tourism resources, the natural environment of glaciers, service support, and market demand factors to build a suitability assessment method for glacier tourism (SAMGT), and it used the Delphi and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine the index weights, and combined them with GIS analysis technology. The Tibet autonomous region was proposed in this study as a case to build the SAMGT and provide scientific support for the rational development, scientific management, and sustainable development of glacier tourism resources. With regard to influencing the suitability of glacier tourism resource development, the results indicate that the weights of glacier resource endowment, ecological vulnerability, and tourism resource combination were high whereas that of market demand-related factors was low. The glacier tourism resource development area in Tibet can be divided into suitable, relatively suitable, barely suitable, and unsuitable exploitation zones, accounting for 5.39%, 9.76%, 15.28%, and 69.57% of the total area, respectively. Five representative glaciers were selected to verify the validity or test the rationality of SAMGT and prove that the model is reasonable, innovative, and effective from the perspectives of multiple dimensions and the comprehensiveness of the selected indicators.
Resilience has become an important concept for the ski resorts of China, which have suffered heavy losses due to COVID-19. In order to help China’s ski resort service industry successfully adapt to the crisis and achieve sustainable development, the goal of this paper is to develop the definition of resilience of the ski resort service industry through interviews based on the concept and general analysis framework of resilience. The ski resort resilience theory analysis framework is then constructed from the three basic elements (market, skiing, and stakeholders) and four system features (flexibility, adaptability, and collaborative learning ability). The results indicate several measures that can be taken to spread risk: enrich the product supply; eliminate risks and build a multi-agent networked industrial governance system; and establish a risk prevention and management mechanism based on a multi-organization alternative learning mechanism to overcome the difficulties encountered in the development of ski resorts.
Starting from the skill characteristics of ski tourism, this paper discusses the impact of consumer skill on travel decisions, and the moderating effect of the ski resort’s comprehensive leisure environment (including the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment), in order to both understand their impacts on the travel distance characteristics of skiers and attempt to provide necessary research support for the development of China’s ski industry and the construction of destinations. Based on the data from multi-period visitor surveys, this paper constructs the consumption skill-travel radius decision-making influence model under the moderating effect of the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment. The results show three main characteristics. (1) The travel radius obviously differs among skiers with different skill levels. The skill level of skiers has a significant positive effect on the larger travel radius, and a significant negative effect on the smaller travel radius. That is, skiers with a higher skill level are more inclined to undertake long-distance skiing travel, while skiers with a lower skill level are more inclined to undertake short-distance skiing travel. (2) The comprehensive leisure environment has a significant moderating effect on the skiers’ travel radius, with a significant positive impact on enlarging the travel radius, while the influences on high-skill and low-skill skiers are significantly higher than on middle-skill skiers. (3) In the comprehensive leisure environment, there are differences in the moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment on the skiers travel radius, and the positive moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment on the high-skill skiers’ travel radius is more obvious. While the regional cultural tourism environment has a more obvious positive moderating effect on the travel radius of non-skiers and junior skiers, it is more conducive to promoting domestic travel. In general, the skier skill level in China was generally lower, and the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment optimization is conducive to overcoming the limitation of the travel radius caused by the disadvantageous skill level of consumers. However, to promote the development of China’s ski industry in the long run, it is necessary to focus on improving the consumer’s ski skill level, but prevent the risk of losing high-skill consumers overseas. In the course of improving the level of domestic ski sports facilities, we should also focus on the domestic leisure cultural tourism environment to better enhance the attractiveness of domestic ski destinations.
As an emerging mountain vacation tourism product, ski tourism is becoming increasingly important in the domestic tourism market. As an important theory for studying the quality of consumer experience, perceived value has been widely employed in tourism research in recent years, and improving the ski tourism experience value has become the focus of competition among ski tourism destinations. Taking the ski tourists in Chongli District of Zhangjiakou as an example, 305 valid questionnaires were collected by using online and offline methods. Based on the theory of perceived value, this paper adopted principal component analysis and cluster analysis to conduct a preliminary study of ski tourism experience and market segmentation. In addition, this paper examined the differences in demographic and behavioral characteristics of different types of ski tourists. This study finds that: (1) The perceived value of ski tourism experience includes four dimensions: facility value, perceived price, safety value and service value. (2) Using the perceived value to segment ski tourists, three different customer segments are identified: comfort-pursuant, price-sensitive and safety-oriented. (3) There are significant differences in key metrics, such as number of visits and stay time, among different types of ski tourists according to their demographic characteristics such as gender, age, monthly income, and behavioral characteristics. These results reveal the different dimensions of the perceived value of ski tourism experience and determine the market segments and characteristics of ski tourists. Developing a corresponding marketing strategy based on the different market segments can better promote the perceived value of ski tourists, and ultimately strengthen the competitiveness of the enterprises.
The successful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics has provided a new opportunity for the popularization of ice-snow sports and making improvements in the efficiency of ice-snow tourism in China. Taking Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province as the research object and using questionnaire analysis and the structural equation model (SEM), this paper examined several hypotheses of the relationship between tourist experiential value and tourist loyalty in the context of ice-snow tourism, and a mediation analysis was conducted to explore the moderating role of travel companions. The results show that: (1) The functional value, emotional value and social value have significant positive effects on tourist loyalty; (2) Tourist satisfaction is a partial mediator between functional value, emotional value, social value and tourist loyalty, and a full mediator between cognitive value and tourist loyalty; and (3) Travel companions play a significant moderating role in the influence of emotional value on tourist loyalty. Based on these findings, several suggestions are put forward for the high-quality development of ice-snow tourism in China, including developing ice-snow family tourism products, building an ice-snow brand with winter Olympics characteristics, constructing the ice-snow industrial system, and cultivating ice-snow culture.
The successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics has brought historic opportunities for the development of ice and snow tourism in China. An index system for the evaluation of tourist satisfaction in ice and snow tourism destinations was constructed from the target layer-factor layer-index layer approach in this paper. Taking tourists with ice and snow tourism experience as the research object, and integrating a questionnaire survey and the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method, a total of 840 valid questionnaires were collected to assess the satisfaction of tourists in snow and ice tourism destinations, and the promotion model of tourist satisfaction in ice and snow tourism destinations was put forward. This process led to three main results. (1) Ice and snow tourists in China are characterized as young and better-educated, with college students aged 19 to 25 as the main consumer group. More than 70% of ice and snow tourists are pretty satisfied with the current development of ice and snow destinations in China, and are willing to participate again. (2) Other than “ice and snow souvenirs”, tourists’ perceptions of importance are all higher than the level of perceived satisfaction, and the importance values of the 13 indicators including “Scenic spot security” and “Diversity of ice and snow entertainment and sports” are especially high, showing that tourists have high expectations and demands of the destinations. However, the perceived satisfaction level of tourists for all indexes is generally low, mostly at the general satisfaction level, indicating that ice and snow tourism destinations have only partially met the demands of ice and snow tourists, and there is still much room for improvement. (3) After IPA analysis, five suggestions for improving the satisfaction of tourists in ice and snow tourism destinations were put forward, including diversification of the tourism business model, construction of tourism facilities, a market diversified cultivation model, a humanized mode of tourism service and a refined management model. The results of this study will help to enrich the theory of ice and snow tourist satisfaction and promote the high-quality development of China's ice and snow tourism in the post-Winter Olympics era.
Under the initiative of “encouraging 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports” and the guidance of the ‘Evidence-based’ policy-making process, this study takes the Hierarchical Model of Leisure Constraints as the theoretical framework to empirically explore the constraints influencing the participation of residents in Southern China in ice and snow sports. After factor analysis, the constraint dimension of residents’ participation was obtained, and the constraints of participants and non-participants were evaluated and compared by Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The results indicate that Chengdu residents have potential interest in and demand for winter sports, and the constraint dimensions are: facilities and services, companions, time, and personal feelings. The predisposition scores of the experimental group and the control group revealed that the constraints on interest, relevant knowledge and skills, and personal feelings of the participating group were significantly lower than those of the non-participating group, while the other constraints were not significant. We suggest that efforts should be made to increase the effective supply according to local conditions in order to reduce structural constraints, and the social attributes should be integrated into ice and snow sports to resolve the inter-personal constraints.
