Poplar has gained popularity among farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, and the foothills of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh due to their fast growth rate and suitability for industrial uses such as pulp and timber production. Integrating poplar trees into agroforestry systems optimizes land resources and economic gains, as successful techniques have been developed to coordinate crop timing and arrangements effectively. Integrating poplar trees with agricultural crops provides additional income streams for farmers and contributes to soil conservation, biodiversity enhancement, and other environmental benefits. Farmers in these regions typically employ effective spacing of 5 m×4 m for block plantation and 1 m×3 m for row plantation. In the present study, a systematic literature review encompassing 137 English-language journal articles was conducted to assess the economic benefits of Poplar using discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, considering short-rotation poplar (SRC) and very short-rotation poplar (vSRC) plantations alongside annual crops. The findings revealed that increasing canopy density led to a decline in crop yields by 37%, 70%, and 99% at canopy densities of 30%, 60%, and 90%, respectively, from early spring to harvest. Cost-benefit analysis in Saharanpur district, India, indicated average annual net returns of USD 346.36 for Poplar-based agrisilviculture, while monoculture yielded USD 140.73 per annum. Furthermore, economic analysis in Yamunanagar and Haridwar districts showed benefit-cost ratios ranging from 2.35 to 3.7. Additionally, Poplar block and boundary plantations were found to sequester significantly more carbon in long-lived biomass, serving as substitutes for fossil fuels (5.45 and 1.84 t ha^-1 yr^-1) in poplar-based systems with block and boundary plantations. The study suggested expanding spacing between tree rows may mitigate resource competition between plantations and crops. The study inferred that Poplar-based agroforestry may play a crucial role in climate mitigation programs by effectively sequestering atmospheric carbon and offering fuel, fodder, timber, and wood products, thereby alleviating pressure on existing natural forests.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Against the background of rapid climate warming, frequent and severe flooding disasters significantly impact socio-economic development and human life. In 2023, due to the northward movement of Typhoon Doksuri, extreme precipitation occurred in northern China, which resulted in a massive flood event in the Haihe River basin. Seven flood detention basins (FDBs) in North China were successfully implemented to effectively alleviate the downstream flood pressure. Leveraging all available Chinese satellite data, we monitored the flooding process daily, focusing on reviewing the flooding in the Dongdian FDB. The results indicate that since the activation of Dongdian FDB on August 1, the flood reached the urban area of Tianjin in just nine days and inundated the entire detention basin. Flooding persisted in the detention basin for about a week before gradually receding. The total maximum inundated area in the whole region was 307.5 km², including 240.5 km² of arable land, 7.0 km² of greenhouse land, and 9.7 km² of built-up land, with an average inundation duration of 19 days. The total cumulative inundated arable land area was 240.5 km², with an average inundation time of 21 days. This study shows that multi-source Chinese satellite data can provide comprehensive information and adequate references for post-disaster assessments.

The present world pattern has undergone major changes, the trend of world multi-polarization is constantly emerging, and peace and development remain the main themes of today’s society. The formal signing and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is important for meeting the needs of peace and development of many countries and regions. China is in a new era of reform and opening-up, and the RCEP content is in line with China’s concept of pursuing a path of rejuvenation. Based on the locations of important borders, Yunnan Province has become one of the key places for China’s opening-up and development regarding Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the high-quality development of its tourism service trade is of great significance. This study first used the grounded theory analysis method to organize, analyze and process the records of international conferences and government press conferences held in Yunnan Province, as well as important related issues since the signing of RCEP. Then, the social network analysis method was used to analyze the social recognition degree of RCEP in promoting the high-quality development of the tourism service trade in Yunnan Province from the perspectives of different levels and group consensus. The results show that cooperation is the key macro driving force for RCEP in promoting the high-quality development of the tourism service trade in Yunnan Province. Regarding the opportunities and environment of the transportation dividend, policy dividend and investment dividend, port construction, border township construction and exhibition-related construction are important cooperation contents, so they are conducive to the recovery of the tourism industry in a broader development space. Competition can improve the driving force of RCEP in promoting the high-quality development of the tourism service trade in Yunnan Province at the micro level, and has more practical significance. For example, RCEP can better rely on its own geographical advantages and international market competitiveness, optimize the use of resources inside and outside ports, and use high-tech products to form a more green, ecological, organic and sustainable development. In different levels of social identity, RCEP’s power of cooperation is more strongly recognized, while the power of competition is less recognized. However, from the perspective of grouping the various groups, RCEP’s powers of cooperation and competition are jointly recognized by the other groups, indicating that cooperation and competition are necessary for the realization of RCEP’s power. The results of this study provide a certain reference for understanding the dynamics of RCEP in more detail from more angles and for the local implementation of RCEP rules and measures.

With the promotion of the rural revitalization strategy, cultural and creative industries of tourism have gradually become an important driving force for rural revitalization. Since the economic level of minority areas is low and the concept of industrial development lags behind, developing the cultural and creative industries of tourism has a positive role in cultural revitalization and economic structure transformation. In recent years, Ebian Yi Autonomous County (Ebian County) has relied on rich intangible cultural heritage resources and achieved fruitful results in the development of cultural and creative products of rural tourism, adding vitality to its rural tourism and rural revitalization. Starting from the economy and the development of cultural and creative industries empowered by intangible cultural heritage (ICH), this study analyzed the impact of related cultural and creative products of Ebian County on its economic development in the five-year period from 2018 to 2022 by means of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Three main conclusions could be drawn. (1) The impact of intangible cultural heritage cultural and creative industries of Ebian County on the economy has been positive and expanding gradually with time. (2) The number of inheritors and workshops, and the business income of workshops are the three major factors affecting the development of cultural and creative industries. (3) Ebian already has a good foundation of cultural and creative industries of intangible cultural heritage, so the investment of funds and training of talents have played a major role in promoting the development of cultural and creative industries of intangible cultural heritage.

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.

Agricultural eco-efficiency is a vital indicator for assessing the sustainability of agriculture. Conducting evaluations of agricultural eco-efficiency can provide critical information for policymaking, resource allocation, and the advancement of agricultural sustainable development. While there exists a substantial body of research on the evaluation of agricultural eco-efficiency, its influencing factors, and improvement paths, there remains a paucity of systematic reviews, evaluations, and prospective analyses in this area. This study employed the literature search method to analyze relevant scholarly articles. Chinese literature was sourced from the CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) database, while international literature was obtained from the Web of Science database. The literature search was conducted from 1998 to 2023. The study reviewed the progress of research on agricultural eco-efficiency and outlined the challenges and prospects that lie ahead. The findings of this study indicate that the primary challenges in the field of agricultural eco-efficiency research include refining the evaluation system, integrating macro and micro influencing factors, and ensuring the suitability of models employed. In the future, the research could expand in areas such as deepening the application of artificial intelligence technology in evaluation methods, clarifying the driving factors of agricultural eco-efficiency, and promoting the green transformation of agriculture. This study provides a comprehensive systematic review and could provide critical information for related research expansion.

Local community participation in forest management is pivotal since they are familiar with the forest environment. In the successful management of community forestry (CF), both males and females along with the representation of poor and disadvantaged groups are of vital importance. This research compares the users’ perception in community forest management (CFM) activities, and socio-economic variables influencing participation in studied community forestry user groups (CFUGs). Primary data were collected through reconnaissance surveys, interviewing key informants, focus group discussions, and household surveys. Secondary data were collected from the division forest office, CFUGs’ operational plan (OP) and Constitution, internet, and authenticated websites. The chi-square (χ²) test was applied to test separately association variables like gender, caste, age class, education level, and wealth ranking with participation. Using ordered logit regression, the variables affecting participation in OP and constitution-making, Silvicultural activities, Forest products collection, and CF fund mobilization were quantified. Gender and Education were found to be the most promising factor influencing participation in Jagriti CFUG and Jhankrikhola CFUG respectively. In general, higher caste, older age, and rich people dominate the major decision-making activities. However, lower caste and poor people have been involved comparatively more in Forest product collection.

This study introduces a novel framework to dissect and understand tourists' cultural perceptions within river basins. The framework consists of two complementary parts: first, it develops a multi-dimensional system to identify cultural perceptions through textual analysis; second, it uses advanced methods like deep learning and spatial clustering to analyze and compare these perceptions across different cities and regions. The findings from the Yellow River Basin reveal six key dimensions of cultural perception: historical, architectural, folklore, food, religious, and leisure. The basin exhibits three distinct cultural patterns: an upstream polycentric network, a central ‘cultural circle’ around Xi’an, and a city-to-city pattern downstream. Furthermore, the basin is categorized into ten unique cultural perception regions, each highlighting diverse tourist perceptions. This framework not only offers a methodological beacon for future regional tourism studies but also equips managers with strategic insights to enhance the quality and cooperation in river basin tourism development.

Urbanization has resulted in growing ecological pressures on cities, necessitating assessments of urban ecological quality. Long-term characterization of regional dynamics and drivers is critical for environmental management. This study proposes an enhanced ecological quality model (MRSEI) incorporating vegetation cover and EVI rather than just NDVI. The MRSEI model was applied to analyse ecological quality in Yulin City during 2000-2018 using Landsat TM/OLI data on Google Earth Engine. Geographic detectors also quantified anthropogenic and environmental influences on the study area. The results are summarized as follows: (1) MRSEI showed an average correlation coefficient of 0.840 with other indices, demonstrating higher representativeness than individual components. The principal component analysis indicated a 12.88% increase in explained variance. MRSEI also exhibited significantly improved identification of roads, villages, and unused lands over RSEI, better matching ground conditions, and suitability for regional ecological assessment. (2) During 2000-2020, the average MRSEI in Yulin City was 0.481, peaking at 0.518 in 2018, indicating general ecological improvement over time. Spatially, conditions were better in the southeast than northwest. While 38.81% of the area showed significant improvement, 10.15% exhibited significant deterioration, concentrated in western Dingbian and Jingbian counties, highlighting areas requiring enhanced protection. (3) Ecological conditions in Yulin City remained stable over time. High-high clusters were concentrated in eastern counties (Qingjian, Wubao, Jia, Fugu) and central lower-altitude areas near Yokoyama and Zizhou. Low-low clusters predominated in the northern Yuyang desert and high-altitude western Dingbian regions. (4) Enhanced vegetation cover had the greatest influence in improving Yulin’s ecological quality. Rainfall was the most impactful environmental driver, while precipitation and land use change interactions showed the strongest combined effects. In contrast, air quality had minimal explanatory power in Yulin City. (5) The MRSEI model significantly impacts the ecological assessment of urban areas, thereby enhancing urban ecological monitoring accuracy. Moreover, our analysis demonstrates applicability to watershed regions, facilitating comprehensive regional ecological assessment and monitoring.

Phoenix species, recognized for their profound ecological, economic, and cultural significance, have garnered substantial attention in research across Asia. However, limited studies exist on research trends, status, distribution, ethnobotany, and pharmacological activities of Phoenix species in the region. The objective of this study is to compile pertinent information on these aspects for Phoenix species in Asia. We employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach to systematically examine the literature pertaining to Phoenix species in the Asian region. This comprehensive review analyzes research trends on Phoenix species in Asia from year 2000 to 2023. A total of 42 studies were identified, showcasing a growing interest, with a notable peak in publications in 2019. The temporal distribution suggests fluctuating attention over the years. Geographically, the concentration of studies is limited to 12 out of 48 Asian countries, emphasizing the need for more extensive exploration given the widespread availability of Phoenix species. The research primarily focuses on pharmacology, followed by ethnobotany, morphology, taxonomy, material science, environmental engineering, and ecology. Notably, studies disproportionately concentrate on Phoenix dactylifera, leaving other species underexplored. The analysis of research focus, species distribution, and geographical representation underscores the importance of diversifying research themes and exploring the ecological, economic, and cultural significance of lesser-studied Phoenix species across Asia. The findings highlight both the growing interest and existing gaps in our knowledge, urging for a more comprehensive exploration of the entire genus to unravel its full potential and significance across Asian landscapes.

Rural homestays are a vital component of rural tourism development. With the deep implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, rural homestays have increasingly become a focal point for young urban tourists. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, this study systematically explores the impacts of the brand experience, information quality, and tourism atmosphere of rural homestays on the emotions and satisfaction of young urban tourists through an empirical analysis. The data for the study came from a questionnaire survey of various rural lodgings in the city of Beijing, resulting in 428 valid samples. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), this study revealed that brand experience, information quality, and tourism atmosphere are external stimuli that significantly influence tourist emotions. Specifically, these three factors both enhance positive emotions and reduce or alleviate negative emotions. Furthermore, the positive emotions have a significant positive effect on tourist satisfaction, while negative emotions have a significant negative impact. Specific recommendations for rural homestay operations based on these findings are given. These recommendations will not only help to improve the market competitiveness of rural homestays but also provide valuable theoretical and practical insights for the sustainable development of rural tourism.

Backpacking has become increasingly popular as an ecotourism activity in China in recent years. To promote sustainable development of tourist sites and to direct and regulate environmentally responsible behaviors, travelers must behave responsibly. This study used the “attribution theory” and “norm-activation model” to create a theoretical relationship model between personal norms, group identification, and the willingness of backpackers to act responsibly to investigate the factors that influence their willingness to behave in an eco-friendly manner. The study empirically tested the model using data from a sample of 309 backpacking tourists. The study investigates the internal and external mechanisms influencing the environmentally friendly behavior of backpackers. The findings show that (1) Backpackers’ “personal norms” significantly increased their willingness to behave in an environmentally friendly manner. (2) These “personal norms” are influenced by two cognitive factors: tourists’ “awareness of consequences” and “attribution of responsibility”. (3) The “group identity” plays a positive moderating role in the influence of “ascription of responsibility” on “personal norms”, while it plays a negative moderating role in the influence of “awareness of consequences” on “personal norms”. (4) Meanwhile, this study explores and compared tourists, an exceptional group of tourists, and concludes that, within an environmentally conscious tourist group, group identity plays a significant role in forcing tourists to take high-quality environmental protection actions. The findings of this study investigated the norm-activation model at the group level, enhanced the micro cases and theoretical knowledge of the model to examine the willingness of backpackers to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors, and offered some practical insights on managing destination tourists.

This study examines the coupling and coordinated development of the competitiveness system of the convention and exhibition industry in China’s prefecture-level cities. Using an index system, the entropy weight method, and the coupling coordination degree model this study quantitatively measures and investigates the characteristics and influencing mechanisms of change in the convention and exhibition industry. The analysis shows that between 2013 and 2019, in China’s urban convention and exhibition industry, the competitiveness subsystem and its comprehensive development level have improved significantly. Additionally, among the factors influencing the convention and exhibition industry in China, the economic strength of cities exerts the greatest impact, followed by the capacity of the post and telecommunications sectors, while vitality has the least impact. The level of informatization plays a crucial role in the coupling, coordinated development, and change of the competitiveness system of an urban exhibition industry. Improvement in the competitiveness of the urban exhibition industry is closely related to a variety of resource elements. Each city should highlight its own endowment advantages and status, clarify its scale and positioning, and form a regional development pattern of differentiated development and dislocation competition with surrounding cities through the development strategy of consolidating advantages and addressing shortcomings.

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.

One of the major management problems in and around protected areas is the intensifying conflict between local people and wildlife, especially large carnivores. Livestock depredation and human fatalities caused by attacks of carnivores are found to be serious obstacles in conflict management. This study aims to explore the patterns, costs, causes and perceptions of human large carnivore conflict in the Nawalpur area of Chitwan National Park. The patterns of livestock loss and human casualties due to large carnivores (Panthera tigris and Panthera pardus) were analysed using the secondary data reported to Chitwan National Park from 2001 to 2019. To understand the people’s perception towards carnivores and wildlife conservation, 150 victim respondents were asked, with one household selected from each grid. During 19-year study period, a total of 521 incidents caused by large carnivores were reported, which included 33 human casualties and 488 livestock depredations. Tiger was responsible for the maximum conflict incidents in Nawalpur. The total relief provided for human deaths and injuries was US\$17524.41, whereas US\$13702.18 was used to compensate for livestock depredation in the Nawalpur area by authorities of the Chitwan National Park. More than 64% of the respondents liked the presence of carnivores in their area and had a positive attitude toward the conservation of large carnivores, even though the carnivores were responsible for livestock depredation and human injury and death. People’s satisfaction with the relief scheme provided by the government depended on ethnicity, gender, age class, occupation, education, insurance, and livestock ownership, but they believed the scheme was not effective. Hence, an effective relief scheme and awareness about the process of relief funding should be conducted in conflict areas. Conducting awareness programs for local communities about large carnivores, their behavior, and preparing predator-proof corrals would be helpful in minimizing conflict in the study area.

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.

This paper explores the pathway toward harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature through the lens of ecotourism, delving into its impact on tourists’ cognition of the natural environment, cultivation of emotional connections, and its pivotal role in shaping environmentally responsible behavior. At the Luya Mountain Scenic Area, a case study was conducted in July 2021, collecting 632 valid tourist questionnaires to investigate the nexus among “ecotourism experience”, “emotional experience”, and “environmental responsibility behavior” using structural equation modeling. Moreover, the relationship between tourism and daily environmental behavior was scrutinized with canonical correlation analysis. The findings unveil several substantial revelations: (1) Engagement experience significantly and positively influences tourists’ inclination toward responsible behavior. (2) Emotional experience mediates the relationship between educational, engagement, and escapism experiences and the inclination to act responsibly. (3) The utilization of digital information technologies positively moderates the conversion of emotional experience into a willingness to behave responsibly. (4) Ecotourism responsibility is linked to daily behavior, and cognitive and emotional experiences foster long-term environmental protection. This study provides a pioneering approach to enhancing tourism offerings within the scenic area and nurturing a sustainable human-environment relationship.

The High-Altitude Bhagirathi Valley (HA-BV) in Garhwal Himalaya is a region of significant ecological and cultural importance, which is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Community-based approaches to climate change adaptation (CB-CCA) have emerged as an important strategy to build resilience and sustain the local community's economic and social well-being. This paper aims to examine the CB-CCA and livelihood security initiatives in HA-BV, focusing on the strategies implemented to address the challenges posed by climate change. The paper analyzes the successes and challenges of these approaches and contributes to the discourse on sustainable development in the Himalayan region. The study findings can inform future efforts to build climate resilience and livelihood security in similar contexts. This research demonstrates the potential of CB-CCA to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities and provides insights into the co-benefits of sustainable development and climate resilience in HA-BV.

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.

Achieving common prosperity is the essential requirement of Chinese modernization, and the integration of culture and tourism is of great significance as an important path to narrow the regional gap, and effectively “improve quality” and “increase income”. This study used the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019, and conducted empirical tests by using the panel fixed effects model and the mediation effects model. The results indicated that the integration of culture and tourism can significantly promote the realization of common prosperity. This integration can promote common prosperity by increasing the income and consumption level of urban and rural residents, the degree of equalization of basic public services and the capacity for sustainable development. Spatial analysis shows that there are regional differences in the promotion of common prosperity by cultural and tourism integration, which is particularly obvious in ethnic and non-ethnic areas. Finally, in response to the existing problems identified in the above analyses, countermeasure recommendations that align with the actual development are put forward.

The Mongolian Plateau (MP), situated in the transitional zone between the Siberian taiga and the arid grasslands of Central Asia, plays a significant role as an Ecological Barrier (EB) with crucial implications for ecological and resource security in Northeast Asia. EB is a vast concept and a complex issue related to many aspects such as water, land, air, vegetation, animals, and people, et al. It is very difficult to understand the whole of EB without a comprehensive perspective, that traditional diverse studies cannot cover. Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled a shift in the research paradigm. Faced with these requirements, this study identified issues in the construction of EB on MP from a big data perspective. This includes the issues, progress, and future recommendations for EB construction-related studies using big data and AI. Current issues cover the status of theoretical studies, technical bottlenecks, and insufficient synergistic analyses related to EB construction. Research progress introduces advances in scientific research driven by big data in three key areas of MP: natural resources, the ecological environment, and sustainable development. For the future development of EB construction on MP, it is recommended to utilize big data and intelligent computing technologies, integrate extensive regional data resources, develop precise algorithms and automated tools, and construct a big data collaborative innovation platform. This study aims to call for more attention to big data and AI applications in EB studies, thereby supporting the achievement of sustainable development goals in the MP and enhancing the research paradigm transforming in the fields of resources and the environment.

Promoting rural tourism development is an important way to achieve rural revitalisation and common prosperity. Tourists are facilitators and participants of rural tourism, whose participation in value co-creation is of great significance. However, previous research on tourists' value co-creation behaviors mostly explored the linear relationship between variables, with the complex mechanisms being insufficiently examined. Based on complexity theory, this study created a theoretical framework, where destination support (information support, emotional support), personal psychological driving forces (self-efficacy, outcome expectation) and destination emotion (place identity, destination trust) are treated as condition variables and the value co-creation behaviors of rural tourists as outcome variable, and empirical tests were carried out using a survey questionnaire with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) analysis being employed. It finds that none of the six conditional variables can constitute a sufficiently necessary condition for tourists’ value co-creation behavior; Six conditional variables together generate 64 path combinations, resulting in five paths that drive tourist participation in value co-creation behavior through three modes. These modes include perceived outcome value-driven, people-place emotional connection and people-place-environment integration driven. Among them, emotional support plays a significant role in influencing tourist value co-creation behavior. The study expands the research on value co-creation behavior, revealing the complex mechanisms of tourists value co-creation behaviors and provides a theoretical basis for promoting tourists’ engagement in value co-creation behavior that enhance the tourist experience and promote rural tourism high-quality development.

Rural tourism plays a crucial role in promoting rural revitalization and offers excellent opportunities for high-quality development. This study presents a coupling coordination model with Hunan Province as a case study. The model utilizes IAHP (Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process) and trophy-weighted TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Solution) to evaluate the dynamic evolution process of the coupling coordination between rural tourism and rural revitalization from 2010 to 2019. Additionally, it explores the dominant factors and driving mechanisms that impact the coupling of this system. The results demonstrate that the rural tourism and rural revitalization indices in Hunan Province increased significantly from 2010 to 2019, whereas the relative priority of tourism gradually declined. The degree of coupling between rural tourism and rural revitalization increased from 0.3 to 0.96 and progressed through three stages: low-level coupling, adjustment, and high-level coupling. The degree of coupling coordination has increased from 0.22 to 0.89. This increase can be divided into four stages: moderately imbalanced with a dual-low index, a transitional stage with a lower index, initial coordination with a moderate index, and relatively good coordination prioritizing revitalization. The relationship between rural tourism and rural revitalization is affected by factors, such as local general public budget revenue, rural tourism satisfaction, road network density, agricultural production conditions, the processing rate of agricultural products, and the Engel coefficient of rural residents. Effective approaches to improve coupling coordination include strengthening financial support, optimizing service facilities, and promoting industrial integration.

Taking Shanghai as an example, this study obtained the online travel notes data from Xiaohongshu and Qunar in the past 10 years to construct the Shanghai tourist flow network (STFN) and used the methods of change point detection (CPD) and complex network analysis (CNA) to reveal the spatial structure characteristics of Shanghai tourism flow and the dynamic evolution process of STFN. The results showed that: (1) In the past 10 years, Shanghai tourist market had experienced a process of evolution from stable and orderly to short-term fluctuation and then gradual recovery, and the year of 2019 was the turning point of tourist flow network evolution. (2) The small-world and approximate scale-free characteristics of STFN were verified, and the network changed from disassortative to temporary assortative, showing a development trend of external expansion and internal separation. (3) While the centrality indicators of tourist flow network remained stable as a whole, the attention to cultural nodes was also increasing with the emergence of new nodes; (4) In terms of spatial connection, new popular nodes emerged and the relationship between them and the surrounding nodes was strengthened; (5) The spatial pattern of tourist flow network presented an inverted “V” shape and gradually expanded to southwest and southeast, forming a network with core nodes as the center and radiating outward. At the same time, newly emerging nodes at the periphery had formed relatively independent clusters.

Natural grasslands are increasingly subjected to the dual stresses of grazing pressures and climate change. However, the contribution of human activities, especially grassland ecology conservation projects, to grassland improvement remains ambiguous. Utilizing MODIS satellite data in conjunction with the VPM model, the gross primary productivity (GPP) changes in the Xilingol grassland from 2000 to 2020 were assessed. Based on GPP data derived from remote sensing, this study quantitatively assessed the spatiotemporal dynamics of the impacts of climate change and human activities on the productivity of grassland in the Xilingol League. From 2000 to 2020, the grasslands exhibited a greening trend characterized by a significant annual GPP increment of 2.66 gC m^-2 yr^-1 (P<0.05). Climate change and human activities jointly contributed to this greening trend, with relative contribution rates of 55% and 45%, respectively. However, the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to the trend of GPP varied greatly in different regions. Climate change emerged as the principal driver in the central and eastern regions of Xilingol League with robust grass growth, accounting for more than 65% of the GPP enhancement. Conversely, human activities were the dominant factors in less verdant western regions and the agro-pastoral ecotone, representing more than 60% of the GPP change. Grassland productivity was sensitive to grassland ecological restoration measures, with significant changes in the trends of grassland productivity attributed to human activities in pivotal policy implementation years such as 2005 and 2011. Specifically, measures such as the control of wind/sand sources and returning grazing land to grassland from 2000 to 2005 gradually alleviated the pressure of human activities on grassland productivity, as they significantly improved vegetation growth in high-quality grasslands. Under the forage-livestock balance policy from 2005 to 2011, inadequate compensation for grassland ecological protection led to a significant reduction in GPP, as some herders increased their livestock holdings despite grazing restrictions, and this particularly affected the high-quality grasslands. The implementation of the Grassland Ecological Protection Subsidy and Reward Program from 2011 to 2020 generally promoted the recovery of productivity in eastern and western Xilingol League grasslands, but significant ecological pressure persisted. This study provides theoretical support for optimizing grassland ecosystem management and forming a virtuous cycle of grassland conservation in pastoral areas.

The Turpan region serves as a vital transportation hub along the Silk Road, facilitating economic and cultural exchanges between the East and West. Its distinct natural environment, rich historical culture, diverse customs, and delectable fruits have contributed to the development of abundant tourism resources. Statistics show that Turpan boasts 272 tourism resource units and 36 A-level scenic spots, offering significant potential and opportunities for the growth of its tourism industry. This study conducts a SWOT analysis of regional tourism in Turpan and provides an objective evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses. The appeal of visiting Turpan lies in its rich historical and cultural heritage, as well as its location in the Huozhou Turpan, known for the country’s highest temperatures and lowest altitude. Additionally, the myths and legends of Journey to the West add to its allure. The region is renowned for its diverse grape varieties and is referred to as the “vineyard of the world,” offering a distinctive tourism experience. However, there are also evident drawbacks to tourism in Turpan. The peak tourist season is limited to July-October, which restricts the development of year-round tourism. Additionally, the distance between scenic attractions is relatively long, and the supporting tourism infrastructure is limited, failing to meet the varied needs of tourists. Additionally, the competitiveness of the tourism industry has not been effectively enhanced by the low brand awareness and loyalty among consumers. In order to ensure sustainable tourism development in the Turpan area, various strategies and approaches must be employed to ensure the unique and diverse growth of regional tourism. This includes creating suitable marketing plans, building a fully functional three-dimensional service management scheme, and enhancing policy support and financial investments. The tourism industry in Turpan is poised to benefit from new opportunities, leading to sustained development and enhancement of its economic, cultural, and social values.