To deeply reach target markets and attract more tourists, a variety of media have been leveraged by tourism destination marketing organizations, particularly video games become a brand-new approach for destination marketing. With Assassin’s Creed: Unity as the research object, based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model, this article analyses and presents the influences of tourism destination factors in video games on the players’ perception of tourism destination image and their intention to visit. In this case, a conceptual model has been built with game factors as the independent variable, tourism destination image as the mediating variable and the players’ intention to visit as the dependent variable. Moreover, Multiple Regression is used in the analysis, proving significantly positive effects of game experience, character attachment, and tourism destination image on players' intention to visit. Consequently this study provides research support for the combination of tourism destination marketing and video games.

Satellite remote sensing provides the changes information of Earth surface on large spatial scale in a long time series and has been widely used in ecology. However, the possible impact from human activities generally occurs on a smaller spatial scale and could be detected in a longer time, which requires the remote sensing data having the both higher spatial and temporal resolution. Meanwhile, the development of the spatiotemporal data fusion algorithm provides an opportunity for the requirements. In this paper, based on deep learning, we proposed a residual convolutional neural network (Res-CNN) model to improve the fusion result considerably with brand-new network architecture to fuse the NDVI retrievals from Landsat 8 and MODIS images. Experiments conducted in two different areas demonstrate improvements by comparing them with existing algorithms. The model performance was evaluated by a linear regression between predictions and observations and quantified by determination coefficients (R²), regressive ecoefficiency (slope). The two excellent models, ESTARFM and FSDAF, were compared with the new model on their performance. The results showed that the predicted NDVI had the higher exploitational on the variability in the Landsat-based NDVI with the R² of 0.768 and 0.807 at the urban and grassland sites. The predicted NDVI was well consistent with the observations with the slope of 1.01 and 0.989, and the R-RMSE of 95.76% and 93.58% at the urban and grassland sites respectively. This study demonstrated that the Res-CNN model developed in this paper exhibits higher accuracy and stronger robustness than the traditional models. This research is full implications because it not only provides a model on the spatio-temporal data fusion, but also can provide the data of a long time series for the management and utilization of agriculture and grassland ecosystems on the regional scale.

The high-quality development of culture and tourism is an important path for promoting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, urban-rural integration and development, and realizing common prosperity. This special issue focuses on the major issue of “rural revitalization and high-quality development of culture and tourism”, and contains 22 academic papers with in-depth discussions on five themes: “Rural revitalization and rural tourism high-quality development”, “rural tourism destination and homestay development”, “tourism environmental behavior and farmers’ participation in tourism”, “tourism resilience and tourism risk”, “cultural tourism and tourism high-quality development”. This collection of articles has three characteristics: Rich research areas and diverse research objects; diverse research methods that are inventive, logical, and scientific; and diverse theoretical viewpoints that span several disciplines. Considering the shortcomings of the current research, it puts forward future research directions such as strengthening localized theoretical research, expanding research areas and perspectives, and further deepening and enriching the research contents. In addition to supporting China’s efforts to promote high-quality culture and tourism, as well as comprehensive rural revitalization, this special issue can offer theoretical directions and actual experience in these areas.

Against the backdrop of global climate change, the threat of extreme rainfall and flooding hazards to urban safety is becoming increasingly serious, and there is an urgent need to improve the resilience of cities through the construction of sponge cities. However, improving the sponge city’s capacity for resisting the risk of urban flooding is challenging. The relevant concept of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) is currently one of the main international theories of urban resilience, and it has important value for enhancing urban stormwater resilience. An approach for improving the stormwater resilience of sponge cities is presented in this paper, using the urban design of Jiangchuanlu Street in Shanghai as an example and the stormwater model to simulate flood disasters on Jiangchuanlu Street. In addition to the simulation results, the population and property conditions of the site were combined in order to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment through the risk matrix. Then, the Eco-DRR measures were implemented to enhance the urban stormwater resilience of Jiangchuanlu Street based on the assessment results. Finally, the ecological infrastructure of the study area was constructed, and the safety and health units were created on the basis of the ecological substrate to prevent and respond to public health emergencies. The results show that the stormwater resilience enhancement approach based on Eco-DRR can effectively alleviate the flood risk of Jiangchuanlu Street. At the same time, the safety and health units created through the ecological infrastructure can also help to prevent and respond to public health emergencies. The results of this study provide a resilience enhancement approach for sponge cities based on Eco-DRR, as well as a theoretical reference for the planning and construction of safe and resilient cities.

Promoting the green development effect characterized by green total factor productivity (GTFP) is the key to achieving high-quality development in the new era. Using the 2001?2021 inter-provincial panel data, the energy and environmental factors were simultaneously included in the analysis framework for assessing the green effect of environmental regulations in China. The Malmquist-Luenberger index based on the SBM directional distance function was used to measure the GTFP and its decomposition terms, the dynamic panel model was further constructed, and the GMM method was used to empirically test the direct and indirect effects of three types of environmental regulation and foreign direct investment (FDI) on GTFP. The results show that China’s GTFP is growing at an average annual rate of 2.13%, green technology progress is the source of GTFP growth, and the GTFP regional gap is expanding. There is not a non-linear effect in command-controlled environmental regulation, while the economic incentive type and the voluntary agreement type of environmental regulation respectively show a “U” shaped relationship and an inverted “U” shaped relationship. The control type regulation does not have an indirect effect on GTFP through FDI, but the incentive type and protocol type regulations can drive the promotion of GTFP indirectly through FDI. The GTFP lifting effects of the different types of environmental regulation and FDI show regional heterogeneity. Exploring the green development effect and characteristics of environmental regulation has important theoretical significance and practical value for selecting rational environmental regulation types, adopting differentiated environmental regulation intensities, implementing two-wheel drive to boost GTFP growth, realizing the benign interactions between environmental regulation and FDI, and ultimately promoting high-quality economic development.

Digital cultural tourism is an important part of the digital economy and digital China. The development of rural digital cultural tourism is an important engine for implementing the strategy of rural revitalization and leading the high-quality development of China’s rural tourism in the new era, which helps to promote the coupling and coordinated development of the high-quality development of rural tourism and common prosperity. This study examines the opportunities and challenges in using digital cultural tourism to promote rural revitalization, discusses the mechanism and model for enabling the common prosperity of the rural digital cultural tourism industry to achieve digital cultural tourism in the promotion of rural revitalization, and finally proposes a development path. The findings indicate that: (1) Digital cultural tourism has emerged as a significant force behind the growth of the rural tourism sector, and is a key route for achieving the objective of rural revitalization. (2) Digital cultural tourism and rural revitalization have mutually beneficial relationships; digital cultural tourism enables rural revitalization, and rural revitalization unlocks digital cultural tourism’s development potential, resulting in a positive interaction mechanism. (3) Four models of digital cultural tourism promoting rural revitalization are proposed, considering the rural classification scheme and related research. They are the digital cultural tourism for urban-rural integration and revitalization model, the digital cultural tourism for characteristic village revitalization model, the digital cultural tourism for agriculture, culture and tourism integration and revitalization model, and the digital cultural tourism for arts revitalization model. (4) To thoroughly promote the development of the rural digital cultural tourist sector, it should adhere to the product as the core, digital technology as the foundation, talent revitalization as the leader, and policy as the guarantee. The findings of this study enrich the research findings in digital cultural tourism and rural revitalization, which can serve as theoretical references and a practical foundation for the development of digital cultural tourism to empower rural revitalization.

Wetlands are one of the most complex ecosystem types on the planet, and ecological sensitivity assessment is an important foundation for the scientific planning of wetland park systems. The Minjiang River estuary, located in the coastal city of Fuzhou, has outstanding regional characteristics in terms of its ecosystem and biodiversity. The nearby waters are among the richest in marine species in the world and the richest in offshore marine species at that latitude in the northern hemisphere. It has at least four indicators meeting the criteria for internationally important wetlands. In this study, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to determine the weights of factors, and the comprehensive ecological sensitivity of Minjiang Estuary National Wetland Park was evaluated using the weighted-overlap method by the Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS). An ecological sensitivity evaluation index system for wetland parks was constructed using Delphi, and then an ecological sensitivity assessment of Minjiang Estuary National Wetland Park was built. The sensitivities of different areas in the Minjiang Estuary National Wetland Park were divided five ecological sensitivity levels: extremely sensitive, highly sensitive, moderately sensitive, minimally sensitive, and insensitive. The results show that the riverbanks, beaches, canals, ponds, and surrounding areas were in the range of highly and moderately sensitive areas, while insensitive and minimally sensitive areas were distributed in the artificial landscape environments such as woodlands, farmland, and parks.

This study mainly examines the factors influencing mountain outdoor tourism development in light of the regional economy, human environment, infrastructure, talent services, and other aspects. It analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of mountain outdoor tourism development in the process of regional development by combining qualitative research with quantitative research, and puts forward corresponding sustainable development measures in combination with an actual investigation. These measures can provide certain guidance and practical information for the ultimate realization of mountain outdoor tourism in harmony with the residents, which is a win-win situation. Taking Siguniang Mountain as the research area, we adopted the methods of literature review, questionnaire survey and field interview, and used SPSS26 and Smartpls to construct a structural variance model for the related dimensional impact analysis. The results show that the attractants of a mountain outdoor tourism destination and the humanistic environment of the destination have a highly significant relationship with tourist satisfaction. Mountain outdoor tourism destination services and facilities have a low degree of significant relationships with tourist satisfaction. Among them, the path coefficient of outdoor tourism destination consumption in mountainous areas is close to 0, and the significance level is greater than 0.05, so the relationship between destination consumption and tourist satisfaction has not been affected. The correlation analysis of Smartpls showed that the tourist satisfaction of mountain outdoor tourism destinations in Siguniang Mountain is mainly affected by the cultural environment, tourism attractions and tourism facilities of the mountain outdoor tourism destinations. The analysis of the final results of the structural equation model indicated that the cultural environment and tourist attractions of the tourist destination have high positive significant relationships with the satisfaction of tourists, while the significance of the relationship between the facilities of the tourist destination and the satisfaction of tourists is weak, and the positive relationship between the service factors of the tourist destination and the satisfaction of tourists is also weak. Therefore, the functional relationship is “two strong, one weak and one weak”. Finally, suggestions are put forward for optimizing and improving tourist satisfaction from the aspects of human environment, infrastructure, talent services, and the comprehensive development of tourist destinations, which have a certain reference value for improving tourist satisfaction and the sustainable development of tourist destinations.

This study aims to survey the literature and factual evidence on the nexus between deforestation and agriculture through an assessment of the potential impacts of climate change in the context of the world, India, and the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats region was chosen for this study because of its deep ecological significance. A few underlying themes were created and findings were documented under each theme that ranged from the causes of deforestation, the transformation of forest land for agriculture, the nexus between agriculture, deforestation and climate change, climate-driven agricultural vulnerability and the reconciliation of forest protection with agriculture. These findings suggest that shifting agriculture has been a dominant source of deforestation. The primary climatic impacts on agriculture are seen through crop yield falls. India’s arid and semiarid tropical regions have witnessed high climate-driven agricultural sensitivity. This could be on account of the fact that India’s tropical forests have witnessed high deforestation. The presence of higher tree densities in areas under Joint Forest Planning and Management in the Western Ghats create the potential for sparing remaining land areas for non-forest uses such as agriculture.

With the progressive aging of China’s population, the contradiction between the supply and demand of elderly care service facilities is increasingly prominent. This study takes Wuxi City as the research area, and evaluates the accessibility characteristics of the elderly service facilities in Wuxi City by using geographic statistics, buffer analysis, Gaussian two-step mobile search and other methods. It then analyzes the spatial distribution and supply and demand of the elderly service facilities in Wuxi City, and introduces the XGBoost algorithm to calculate the factors influencing the distributions of different types of elderly services. The results show that the distribution of home-based and institutional endowment resources in Wuxi is spatially heterogeneous, but there are problems of mismatch between supply and demand and uncoordinated regional development. The accessibility of endowment services varies greatly in different regions, and the number of hierarchical endowment institutions is relatively small. The distribution of community home care service stations is relatively more equitable, but still does not match the size of the elderly population. There are obvious differences in the factors affecting the distributions of nursing institutions and community home nursing service stations. The distribution of nursing institutions is affected by transportation infrastructure, the size of the elderly population, the number of medical resources, the environment, economic level and other factors; while community home care is mainly affected by the size of the elderly population. In order to better meet the elderly service needs of residents, Wuxi needs to increase its investment in elderly service facilities and take various measures to promote the development and improvement of its elderly service facilities.

The construction and operation of onshore wind farms interfere with the succession of local plant communities, and the impacts on the local ecology and climate are of great concern. The study of the relationships between onshore wind farms and local ecology and climate, as well as the accurate assessment of the impacts of onshore wind farms on local areas, are the foundation for promoting the sustainable development of green energy. In this study, we summarize the existing research methods used for field data monitoring, remote sensing data inversion and numerical model simulation, and found that onshore wind farms have obvious impacts on the local vegetation index, near-surface temperature, wind speed, soil moisture, and other parameters. Onshore wind farms reduce the local soil moisture content, increase the near-surface air temperature, and significantly alter local wind speeds. They also cause a reduction in the local vegetation index, inhibition of plant growth, and an increase in the mortality rates of birds and bats inside the wind farms. However, onshore wind farms have positive effects on the plant communities outside the wind farms, especially in the downwind direction. Overall, there is regional variability in the results and the findings are not generalizable. The mechanisms by which the onshore wind farms influence the local climate, the impact of climate on local ecology, and the direct effects of onshore wind farms on local ecology have not been clearly and accurately explained. Related research is still needed to further improve the precision, accuracy, and continuity of observational data. The construction of modeling systems also needs to incorporate indicators such as land use type, local microclimatic indicators, and plant species. Based on these considerations, this review provides support for macroscopically understanding the impacts of onshore wind farms on climate and ecology.

Water conservation is a crucial functional aspect of ecosystem service. Revealing the temporal and spatial changes in water conservation and exploring the factors influencing those changes are of great significance for the utilization of water resources and the construction of ecological civilization. In this study, we estimated the water conservation changes in Jiangxi over the 20 years from 2000 to 2020 by the rainfall storage method. Thereafter, the GeoDetector was applied to analyze the contributions from various factors, including climatic variations and ecosystem transformations, to the changes in the water conservation. The results showed three important trends. (1) From 2000 to 2020, farmland, grassland, water and wetland dominated the northern part of the Poyang Lake Basin except for the forests. The transformations of ecosystem types in the study area mainly occurred between forests, farmland and towns in the 20 years. During this period, the urban area showed a significant increase of 92.63%, while the other ecosystem types showed decreasing trends. (2) The province’s water conservation function declined from 2000 to 2020, with a total loss of 97.11×10⁴ m³ km^-2, and in the study area it is characterized as high in the east and west and low in the middle. (3) Factorial analysis showed that the changes in the water conservation were not caused by any one factor alone. The q values of ecosystem type change interactions with the changes in annual precipitation, annual temperature and sunshine hours calculated by the GeoDetector were 0.555, 0.541 and 0.501, respectively. Therefore, the interactions between factors contributed 50% more than the single factors in affecting the changes of water conservation.

Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) have been grown and used extensively for health care and healing practices since time immemorial in Nepal. They possess cultural, religious and economic values in Nepalese communities. In recent years, the MAPs sector is a growing commercial sector in Nepal that provides livelihood opportunities for low income generating people especially in the Himalayas. In this regard, this study assesses the contribution of MAPs to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Karnali Province of Nepal. A total of 58 species of MAPs were identified in Karnali Province. It was found that various parts of these annuals, biennials and perennial plants have been used as medicines, perfumes and food. MAPs in Karnali Province generated economic output equivalent to NPR 160738 million (USD 1.39 billion) or 1.03% of GDP of Karnali Province and 0.02% of the National GDP in the fiscal year 2019/2020. However, the findings revealed that the current GDP estimate undervalues the contribution of the MAPs sector to the national GDP due to the non-inclusion of ethnobotanical uses of medicinal plants. Moreover, if all cash and environmental benefits people derive from this sector could be valued and recorded in the System of National Accounts, the GDP from MAPs would be much higher than the amount estimated in this study. We conclude that MAPs have a reasonable contribution to the GDP of Karnali Province and Nepal.

The investigation of carbon storage in ecosystems and its driving factors is crucial for understanding carbon cycling and achieving the goal of carbon neutrality. The grassland in the Northern Tibetan Plateau is an important grassland ecosystem in China, although the accurate estimation of its carbon stock and our knowledge of its spatial patterns and driving factors in the Northern Tibetan Plateau remain unclear due to insufficient field investigations. In this study, a dataset of 150 measured sample points on the Northern Tibetan Plateau, kriging interpolation and statistical methods were used to estimate the densities of aboveground biomass carbon, belowground root carbon and soil organic carbon at a soil depth of 30 cm, as well as to explore the spatial distribution and the main influencing factors of each carbon pool. The average carbon densities were 0.038 kg C m^-2 in aboveground biomass, 0.284 kg C m^-2 in belowground biomass, and 7.445 kg C m^-2 in the soil. The soil organic carbon accounted for 95.85% of the grassland carbon density. The total carbon storage of the grassland ecosystem in the Northern Tibetan Plateau was about 4.08 Pg C, with a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest. Of the total, the organic carbon stocks of vegetation and soil were 0.58 Pg C (including the aboveground and belowground biomass) and 2.58 Pg C, accounting for 28.29% of the total vegetation carbon and 26.60% of the total soil carbon, respectively, on the Tibetan Plateau, with the remainder stored in the bare land. While the precipitation, temperature and soil texture all affected the ecosystem carbon storage, precipitation played the most significant role and the combination of these three factors explained up to 86.47% of the aboveground carbon density. The aboveground carbon pools in grassland ecosystems of the Northern Tibetan Plateau were most sensitive to climatic factors, while the spatial patterns of belowground and soil carbon storage were more complex. This study provides a spatially accurate assessment of the carbon storage in the grasslands on the Northern Tibetan Plateau.

Tourism is an essential pillar to promote economic development. Under the context of “dual carbon” goal, which means the Chinese government delivery that China will reach peak CO₂ emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the measurement of tourism carbon emissions facilitate preparation for carbon reduction work, and premise the development of sustainable tourism. In this study, based on existing studies, meta-analysis was used to extract relevant data of all studies on carbon emissions of domestic scenic spots before 2022, and visualized methods and SPSS correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between per capita carbon emissions of tourists of scenic spots and other variables of scenic spots. The results show that: (1) With the year 2010 as the node, the number of study areas and the per capita carbon emissions of tourists in the scenic spot show an increasing trend over time. Before 2010, the average per capita carbon emissions in the scenic spot was 23.47 kg person^-1, and after 2010, it increased to 55.29 kg person^-1; (2) Within different types of scenic spots, the per capita carbon emissions of tourists were ranked as follows: natural category > mixed category > humanistic category. The per capita carbon emission of natural scenic spots is the largest, which is 66.13 kg person^-1; (3) By analyzing the factors affecting per capita carbon emissions, it is found that there is a significant positive correlation between per capita carbon emissions of tourists and the area of the scenic spots, whereby the larger the area of the scenic spots, the larger the per capita carbon emissions; (4) An increase in the number of days of tourist routes leads to a rise in per capita carbon emissions, and in this part of the research, the influence of the source of tourists, the type of hotels and the mode of transportation on per capita carbon emissions was studied.

The article uses a case study approach to investigate the mechanisms of ecological product value realization, and influencing factors. Specifically, we use a case analysis framework based on the “economy-society- natural ecology” perspective to analyze and compare the three batches of “Typical Cases of Ecological Product Value Realization” released by the Ministry of Natural Resources. We find: First, different modes of ecological product value realization exist. Different resource endowments, and institutional and environmental factors affect the selection of the value realization modes. Second, certain obstacles also exist for realizing ecological product value, which are mainly reflected in the fact that the articulation of the individual, society, and government is not yet sufficiently close. Third, to promote the development of regional eco-products’ mode and value conversion, the implementing party needs to guide the synergy between individual concepts, social participation, and governmental top-level design; rationally arrange the allocation of resource elements; mitigate elemental constraints; and propose effective technical means and optimization strategies according to the actual situation.

Integrating the landscape pattern holistically and identifying priority areas for ecological restoration scientifically are the key challenges of national land space planning and ecological protection. Taking Xiushui County, a fragile ecological region in the south, as an example, this study established an evaluation index system based on the pattern-process principle, including the importance of ecosystem services and ecosystem sensitivity, and explored regional priority areas for ecological restoration through GIS spatial analysis technology. The results show that the ecological restoration priority area in the case study area is 2880.64 km² in total, covering 63.93% of the overall area. Of that amount, 367.55 km² is the bottom-line priority areas for ecological restoration, accounting for 8.16%. Regarding land use types within the major ecological restoration priority area, the arable land and construction land areas are 210.83 km² and 122.52 km², covering 55.35% and 51.43% of the overall area, respectively. Determining the priority areas at different levels can help decision-makers to prioritize the restoration needs of degraded areas and provide a basis for adopting targeted ecological restoration measures for areas with different degrees of degradation. Identifying priority areas also provides basic information for the protection and construction of the eco-security pattern of the territorial space, which is vital for improving the regional ecological environmental safety and building a harmonious community between humans and nature.

Revealing the mechanism by which land use influences ecosystem service function in karst urban watersheds is of great significance for social and economic development and ecological environmental protection. In this study, the Nanming River Basin, a typical karst basin in Guizhou Province, was used as an example. The spatiotemporal dynamic changes in land use in the basin during three periods from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed using ArcGIS, and the ecosystem service functions of the different land use types in the basin were evaluated using an integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST) model. This analysis led to three outcomes. (1) Forest, cultivated land, and grassland make up most of the land uses. The land use change was mostly dependent on the growth of construction land, which expanded by 13.07%. (2) The watershed's water conservation function was significantly boosted during the study period. In contrast, the carbon stock function became slightly impaired, and the physical quality of both was regionally distributed as high in the northeast and low in the southwest. (3) The contributions of forest to total water conservation and carbon stock of the watershed are always the greatest, exceeding 57%, and the conversions of forest to construction land and cultivated land to forest are the two primary types of land use change in which the ecosystem service function was impaired and strengthened, respectively. The results of this study can provide important data support and scientific reference for land use structure optimization, soil and water resource exploitation, and sustainable ecosystem management in ecologically fragile areas.

Night tourism prolongs the activity time of tourism and leisure blocks, while tourism and leisure blocks provide activity places for night tourism. This study introduces the Kano model into the field of satisfaction research, makes improvements according to its advantages and disadvantages, builds an evaluation index system for night tourism satisfaction in tourism and leisure blocks, and combines that system with a questionnaire to determine the priority for optimizing each factor using the main and vice qualities, dispersion degree, and sensitivity comparison analysis. Based on the results, several optimization suggestions are proposed. The results show that: (1) Night tourism in Qinghefang groups mainly involves young people; (2) The overall satisfaction level is relatively high; (3) One attractive factor, seven one-dimensional factors, ten indifference factors, and three reverse factors in four layers (facility, service, experience, and project) were identified; (4) The priority for improvement should be service layer > facility layer > experience layer > project layer; (5) Background music, cultural connotation, festival projects, etc. are favored by visitors; and (6) Transportation, service attitude, and the sense of participation urgently require optimization.

The green production of food currently faces the challenge of technological shortage. As agricultural technology services are an important source of technical knowledge for farmers, it is of great significance to explore how agricultural technology services influence the efficiency of green food production in order to improve its productivity. This study utilized data from the China Land and Economy Survey (CLES). Firstly, the three-stage DEA model was used to calculate the efficiency of green food production. Secondly, the generalized random forest model was used to empirically test the impact, heterogeneity, and pathways of agricultural technology services on the efficiency of green food production. This study found that: (1) Agricultural technology services have a significant positive impact on the efficiency of green food production. Among the stages, pre-production and mid-production agricultural technology services significantly improve the efficiency of green food production. However, post-production agricultural technology services do not show a significant impact. Additionally, the combination of agricultural technology services has a significant improvement effect on the efficiency of green food production. (2) The marginal effects of resource allocation by farmers have heterogeneity in terms of the impact on the efficiency of agricultural technology services in improving green food production. An increase in the proportion of the family agricultural labor force and the expansion of family-operated arable land scale significantly reduce the returns of agricultural technology services. (3) An analysis of mechanism variables showed that agricultural technology services mainly affect the efficiency of green food production through pesticide and fertilizer usage behavior, and significantly contribute to its improvement. The government should expand the scope of agricultural technology services and fully utilize their potential to improve the efficiency of green food production. Tailored strategies and policies should be implemented to guide the concept of green production during the provision of agricultural technology services, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural practices among farmers.

This study performs the time series analysis of agriculture land in the Nainital District of Uttarakhand, India. The study utilizes Landsat satellite images for the classification of agriculture and non-agriculture land over a time duration of 21 years (2000?2021). Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellites data have been used to classify the study area with Random Forest classifier. The Landsat satellite images are processed using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The selection of Random Forest classier has been based on a comparative analysis among Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Classification and Regression Trees (CART). Overall accuracy, user accuracy and producer accuracy and Kappa coefficient has been evaluated to determine the best classifier for the study area. The overall accuracy for RF, SVM and CART for the year 2021 is 96.38%, 94.44% and 91.94% respectively. Similarly, the Kappa coefficient for RF, SVM and CART was 0.96, 0.89, 0.81 respectively. The classified images of Landsat in agriculture and non-agriculture area over a period of 21 years (2000-2021) shows a decrement of 4.71% in agriculture land which is quite significant. This study has also shown that the maximum decrease in agriculture area in last four years, i.e., from 2018 to 2021. This kind of study is very important for a developing country to access the change and take proper measure so that flora and fauna of the region can be maintained.

Based on a large national sample of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database, the study will to provide some thoughts and suggestions for the transformation and upgrading of China’s agriculture, the enhancement of total factor productivity by exploring the agricultural production efficiency from the micro-farmers’ perspective. By constructing the models of Charnes, Cooper & Rhodes (CCR), Banker, Charnes & Cooper (BCC), Slacks-Based Model (SBM) and technology optimization Malmquist-Luenberger index, it finally obtained the comprehensive technical efficiency value, pure technical efficiency value, farm household efficiency value and green total factor productivity level value at the micro-farm household level based on the comparative analysis. It was found that: the comparison of the measures based on different models found that although there are differences in the calculated efficiency values, the pure technical efficiency values calculated by BCC are the main factors affecting the micro agricultural production efficiency values at the farmer level, the SBM model should optimize the CCR, BCC models, and more suitable for Chinese government policy formulation and optimization; the technology optimization Malmquist-Luenberger index method is the micro agricultural production efficiency measurement method of choice, with the characteristics of diverse model selection, rich application scenarios and convenient processing of negative outputs; environmental factors in the current evaluation of agricultural green total factor productivity, mainly play a negative inhibitory role, reducing the negative externalities of environmental variables output, become one of the key issues facing the current micro farm layer green total factor production enhancement; the combination of subjective and objective measures of environmental non-desired output is an important way to measure environmental factors of agricultural green total factor productivity, it can be used in practical applications based on a combination of research objectives and data availability.

The ecological security pattern is conducive to promoting the harmonious integration of regional development and ecological protection. Taking Xi’an, a core city in the west of China, as an example, the ecological source area was identified based on an assessment of the importance of ecological services and the sensitivity of the ecological environment. Then the minimum cumulative resistance model and gravity model were used to construct the regional ecological security pattern and optimize the ecological spatial structure layout. The results show four key aspects of this system. (1) The source area of ecological protection identified in this study was 3352.5 km², accounting for 33.2% of the city, and it is mainly distributed in the Qinling Mountains, Lishan Hills, Weihe River, Heihe River, and Jinghe River. (2) Excluding the ecological source area, the low, medium and high-level security pattern areas accounted for 27.21%, 15.95% and 14.31% of the whole area, respectively. (3) The models generated 21 potential corridors with a total length of about 105.24 km, including 9 key corridors. (4) In order to optimize the ecological spatial structure of Xi’an, one proposal is to build an ecological security network layout system with “one barrier, one belt, several corridors, multiple areas and multiple points” as the core.

Japanese communities associated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) program have tried to develop tourism products that take advantage of their certification as a GIAHS site. As the experience economy is gaining more importance in society, tapping into tourism is a realistic choice for the communities that face aging and declining populations. In this study, we look at how stories (narratives) are attached to agricultural products and culture and identify issues in making experience-based products in GIAHS areas in Japan. We used an inductive approach to analyze qualitative data collected mainly by interviews and observations. For the analysis, we followed the standard analytical techniques, that is, searching for patterns of similarities and differences of transcribed data and refining ideas using diagrams. Field work was conducted in Oita GIAHS, Gifu GIAHS and Shizuoka Chagusaba GIAHS that represent all GIAHS types in Japan. This research shows that the landscape type of GIAHS can develop various souvenirs with different stories extracted from GIAHS certification documents from crafts to foodstuffs. On the other hand, in the farming method type of GIAHS, narratives are confined to a single agricultural product and its production method. Another finding is that two layers of narratives exist in the experience-based products in GIAHS areas. The first layer is created utilizing already known agricultural and cultural traditions in a locality. The second layer is a GIAHS story added to the first layer as a scientific reinterpretation of local agricultural heritage.

Improving energy efficiency is crucial for achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. The digital economy, which is characterized by big data, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and a new generation of mobile Internet, has quietly penetrated all aspects of the economy and society, profoundly changing the means of production and lives of human beings. Digital technologies have great potential to improve the global energy system’s security, productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2006 to 2021, this study divided energy efficiency into total and single factor energy efficiency. The two-way fixed-effect model and the Driscol-Kraay method were used to adjust the standard error test in order to examine the impact of digital technology represented by industrial robots on energy efficiency and its path mechanism. Studies have shown that digital technology can significantly improve total factor energy efficiency and reduce energy intensity per unit of GDP. This conclusion was found to be still valid after the robustness test using feasible generalized least squares, time-varying difference in difference and fixed effect space Durbin model. The results of the mechanism test show that digital technology can improve energy efficiency by increasing the degree of industrial virtual agglomeration and the channels of foreign direct investment. This paper provides a valuable discussion on how information technology advances can improve energy efficiency in the era of the digital economy. The conclusions will help relevant market players to formulate policies and measures and corporate strategies to improve energy efficiency. At the same time, it also deepens the theoretical understanding and mechanism path of digital technology’s impact on energy consumption.

Studies of species habitat and distribution patterns are an important prerequisite for conservation efforts, and habitat quality and integrity play a crucial role in the population health and recovery of endangered species. This is especially applicable to the snow leopard, a top predator that is key to highland mountain ecosystems. In this study, 112 valid snow leopard distribution loci obtained by infrared camera surveys in the mid-eastern Tianshan, Xinjiang were examined. Combined with 12 characteristic environmental variables, the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) and GIS techniques were used to analyse the potential distribution areas and suitable habitats of snow leopards in the mid-eastern Tianshan. The results showed that the total area of suitable habitat for snow leopards in the mid-eastern Tianshan was 15919 km², and the most suitable habitat was mainly concentrated in a western patch around Wusu, Hutubi, and the southern mountains of Urumqi. The results of a Jackknife analysis showed that land cover type, the daily difference in average temperature, isothermality, slope, and altitude were important factors affecting the distribution of snow leopards. Deciduous coniferous forests, grasslands, and bare rock areas with sparse vegetation at altitudes from 2500 m to 5000 m are the areas where snow leopards have a higher probability of occurrence in the mid-eastern Tianshan. This study determined the key distribution areas of snow leopards and provides a scientific basis for establishing key areas for snow leopard monitoring and protection in the mid-eastern Tianshan.

The tourism industry, as a happiness-oriented industry, has great significance for enhancing the happiness of tourists. In the era of Happiness 2.0, tourists have shifted their focus from shallow needs for pleasure to deep needs for self-realization. Therefore, studying the relationship between tourism and happiness is indispensable. Based on the constructive-developmental theory, the mechanism of the impact of tourist involvement on the tourists’ authentic happiness was analyzed using the PERMA scale. The results show that: (1) Tourist involvement has a significant positive impact on tourist satisfaction and authentic happiness; (2) Tourist satisfaction has a significant positive impact on the tourists’ authentic happiness; (3) Tourist satisfaction plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between tourist involvement and authentic happiness. The research conclusions clarify the impact mechanism between tourist involvement, tourist satisfaction, and authentic happiness, which enriches our understanding of the impact of tourist activities on individual post-travel happiness. Furthermore, this study provides theoretical reference and practical suggestions for the self-development of tourists, as well as for guiding relevant enterprises and government departments to better enhance the tourists’ authentic happiness.

Ecological security and its patterns are hot topics for regional ecological protection. In the subtropical coast mountainous area with high precipitation, complex topography, and frequent typhoons, does the construction of a Power Transmission Line (PTL) affect local ecological security? Taking Fujian Tangyuan PTL as an example, this study examined changes in the Ecological Security Pattern (ESP) at regional and local scales by using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) and the Gravity model. The results showed that within the PTL timelines (before, during and after building the PTL), the ecological source area occupied 14.21%, 11.79% and 14.11% of the whole research region; while the important eco-corridors numbered 20, 21 and 16, respectively; and the eco-nodes numbered 168, 123 and 227, respectively. At the local scale, in the PTL buffer space (2 km from the PTL on either side, i.e., the potential ecological impact zone) within the timelines (before-during-after building the PTL), the ecological source area occupied 39.78 km², 27.44 km² and 29.88 km², respectively, and the eco-corridor lengths were 50.78 km, 44.36 km and 67.18 km with 13, 7 and 25 eco-nodes, respectively. Clearly, during the building of the PTL, the ecological “source-corridor” decreased at first and gradually recovered after the construction, while the challenge to the ecological safety from the PTL occurred at the local scale. The results of this study provide a method for evaluating the ecological integrity disturbance by linear projects and scientific protection strategies are proposed.

The impact of dietary structure adjustments among residents on the utilization of arable land has attracted academic attention. This study used the time series data for the dietary structure of residents from 1992 to 2021 in China to explore the dynamic impact mechanism of dietary structure upgrading on non-grain production by using VAR model, and analyzed the direction and degree of impact by using impulse response diagram and variance decomposition. This analysis indicated five key features of this system. (1) The average value of the non-grain production rate was 31.02% during the period of 1992-2021, and it showed a fluctuating upward trend. (2) The proportion of plant food consumption by the residents was decreasing and the proportion of animal food was increasing, and the structure of food consumption was shifting from singular to diversified. (3) The intake levels of protein, fat, dietary fibre, and calcium showed fluctuating upward trends, and the intakes of energy and carbohydrate showed a fluctuating downward trends, and the change in the dietary nutrient intake level of residents was consistent with the trend of change in the per capita food consumption structure. (4) On the whole, protein, fat and calcium intake had positive effects on non-grain production, indicating that increases in animal food consumption would aggravate the non-grain production. (5) Overall, energy, protein, and calcium intakes had greater impacts on non-grain production. The results of this study can provide scientific support for the non-grain governance strategy of arable land and the decisions regarding arable land protection from the concept of “an all-encompassing approach to food”. These results also have positive significance for optimizing the mode of arable land use, improving the efficiency of arable land use and ensuring food security under the background of dietary structure adjustments and upgrading.

Urban agglomerations should meet the dual requirements of economic growth and green development, and there is currently an urgent need to improve the efficiency of green development. Therefore, we analyzed the impact of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) policy on the digital economy (DE) and green total factor productivity (GTFP) using the time-varying difference in difference model (DID). The marginal contribution of this study is an evaluation of the long-term effect of the YRDUA policy on green high-quality development. Based on the perspective of the “Porter Hypothesis”, this study examined the similarities and differences in the impacts of urban agglomeration on DE and GTFP. The results show that the policy promotes the urban DE index, but significantly inhibits urban GTFP. This means that the overall impact of urban agglomeration policy on green high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is still in the “weak Porter Hypothesis” state, the technological innovation and efficiency improvement stimulated by urban agglomeration policies are not enough to significantly improve GTFP, and the “strong Porter Hypothesis” is not tenable. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy has a more obvious role in promoting the green high-quality development of central cities, large and medium-sized cities and innovative cities. The level of urban public service supply shows a threshold effect. When it develops to a certain scale, the urban agglomeration policy has significant positive impacts on both DE and GTFP.