Rural tourism plays a crucial role in driving the sustainable development of rural economies. With the rise of the digital economy, user-generated content (UGC) videos on platforms such as TikTok have become a significant factor influencing consumer decision-making, creating new opportunities for the growth of rural tourism. Using the TikTok app as the research platform, this study examines the relationship between UGC short videos, tourists’ intentions to engage in rural tourism, and their perception of destination image. Specifically, it explores the impact of UGC short videos on tourists’ willingness to participate in rural tourism and the mediating role of destination image perception. The findings indicate that UGC short videos positively influence tourists’ willingness to engage in rural tourism. Destination image perception mediates this relationship, shaping tourists’ decisions through cognitive and emotional image perceptions. Based on these findings, this paper recommends rural tourism destination managers enhance promotional strategies and improve destination image perception through UGC short video content.

Exploring the changes in food consumption and dietary nutrient intake of Chinese urban and rural residents is of great significance. This study constructed a Chinese food nutrient model using data from “China Statistical Yearbook”, “China Rural Statistical Yearbook”, “China Yearbook of Household Survey”, and “China Yearbook of Rural Household Survey”. The structure and changes in food consumption and nutrient intake among urban and rural residents in China from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed using dietary balance indices and comparisons with dietary recommendations. The results show that higher consumption of cereals and lower consumption of dairy products remained the main problems in food consumption by both urban and rural residents from 2000 to 2020. The dietary nutrient structure of urban and rural residents developed a dual calorie structure dominated by grain and supplemented by vegetable oil, a dual protein structure dominated by grain and supplemented by pork, and a triple fat structure dominated by vegetable oil and supplemented by both pork and grain. Rural plant-based and animal-based dietary nutrition lagged behind that of urban areas, with a difference of roughly 20 years. The results of this study clarified the food consumption and dietary nutritional structures and changes of urban and rural residents. We found the deficiencies in the current dietary structure and made recommendations for improving the nutritional health of urban and rural residents.

The integration and coordinated development of culture and tourism industry is essential for realizing high-quality development in China’s northeast border regions. To assess this integration and driving mechanism, an evaluation index system has been established to quantify the coupling and coordination degree of these sectors at the provincial level from 2013 to 2022. Meanwhile, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis can identify driving factors and its mechanism. The findings indicate that, despite fluctuation and uneven development, the integration of cultural and tourism industry has generally demonstrated a gradual upward trend, remaining predominantly in preliminary-stage development. The degree of coupling and coordination is influenced by four primary factors: economic development level, transportation infrastructure quality, industrial structure optimization and advancement in the digital economy. The outbreak of the global public health crisis has temporarily weakened the impacts of economic development, transportation infrastructure, and the digital economy on the integration process. However, as economic recovery continues to unfold, these factors have been anticipated to exert a sustained and significant influence on facilitating further integration and coordinated development within the cultural and tourism industry thereby accelerating high-quality development in the Northeast border regions. Based on these conclusions, this study proposes measures that focus on enhancing the integration and development of culture and tourism industry from three perspectives, namely integrated model innovation, transportation network enhancement, and industrial structure optimization.

The cultural elements are the core of theme parks, which gradually interact with people as unique cultural space landscapes. The expression of culture is pivotal in determining the quality of a theme park and significantly affects the tourist experience. From the perspective of the production of culture on display, this paper explores the cultural practices of theme parks and tourists’ appeal through field research, content analysis, and grounded theory. The research findings indicate that theme parks are characterized by authenticity, interaction, participation, and readability. They rely on scene restoration, story narration, service facilities, cultural characteristics and tourist interaction to facilitate cultural engagement. Content analysis shows that tourists prioritize amusement attractions, performances, and the overall tourism experience. When theme parks serve as venues for leisure and entertainment, tourist appeal reflect in five aspects: Theme park products, tourism services, storytelling, social interaction, and immersive experiences. Meanwhile, these appeals drive the cultural reproduction within theme parks. This study expands the application scope of cultural engagement in theme parks, elucidates the evolving demands of visitors, and provides insights for theme parks to enhance their storytelling capabilities and improve tourist experiences.

The complex types and regional differences in tourist attractions mean that the evaluation and quantification of spatial structures require inter- and trans-disciplinary methodologies. Previous studies on spatial structure have mostly focused on the law of tourist flow and the development trend of tourism, emphasising humanistic and economic methods. Currently, the main challenge of spatial structure research is the integration of natural, economic, and social factors and scientifically supporting tourism planning and management. From the perspective of geographical distance and geometric space, this study developed a quantitative method for the spatial structure of tourist attractions, which combines a grade classification index, spatial relationship function, and influence factor analysis and selects cases for implementation in a geographic information system, with the advantages of visualisation, timely data update, and convenient guidance for practice. It provided new insights for understanding the sustainable management of tourist attractions from the intersection of geography and tourism science. The research results indicate that China has the highest number of 4A and 3A level tourist attractions, accounting for 80.9% of the total. The nearest neighbor ratio of scenic areas is less than 1, showing a significant spatial distribution clustering pattern, with four major scenic area clusters located in eastern and southern China. The Natural environment determines the spatial layout of scenic areas, with 51.46% of scenic areas distributed in regions below 200 m in altitude, and 95.10% of scenic areas located in areas with a slope of less than 15 degrees. 1A and 2A level scenic areas are mainly distributed in cold and dry regions, while 5A, 4A, and 3A level scenic areas are relatively concentrated with similar climatic characteristics. 5A level scenic areas have higher GDP, population density, and growth rates. The spatial structure of scenic areas is closely related to population distribution and economic development; southeastern China accounts for more than 90% of the national population and GDP, and this region has over 60% of A-level and above scenic areas.

China’s Convert Cultivated Land into Forest and Grassland policy has been gradually emphasized and promoted in the context of advancing China’s Western Development Program. Therefore, based on the perspective of localized practice in China, this study bridges the semantic level of information from the perspective of qualitative analysis and quantitative coding through the qualitative analysis of policy content and text similarity metrics. The study systematically reveals the diffusion characteristics of China’s Convert Cultivated Land into Forest and Grassland policy with respect to spatiotemporal evolution, thematic focus, and the degree of central policy diffusion. The goals are to clarify the mechanisms of policy evolution in a long time span, to analyze the implementation effects of the policy in accordance with local conditions, and thereby to make strong contributions to policy making. The results show five important aspects of the policy diffusion. (1) The policy followed a tendency characterized by “slow-rapid-stable” stages, and its diffusion process can be summarized into four phases. (2) By integrating thematic diffusion characteristics and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, this study reveals that the Grain for Green policy primarily exhibited a top-down “Hierarchical diffusion mode”. (3) By combining the national land cover change with the geographical distribution data of the Grain for Green policy, this study reveals that the policy has largely achieved its ecological goal of converting cultivated land. (4) Based on empirical research, this study illustrates the relationships between the number of policy issuances, the similarity between central and provincial policies, and the degree of policy diffusion, thereby enriching diffusion theory based on China's localized practical research. (5) This study suggests that national policies appear to reduce vertical pressure, thus inspiring the innovation of regional policy. Meanwhile, efforts should focus on developing distinctive industries to promote improvements in quality and efficiency.

Rapid urbanization significantly influences urban renewal and the construction of new spaces in metropolises within developing countries, particularly affecting the ecological patterns and security of urban landscapes. This study conducts an in-depth analysis of landscape ecological change indicators in Hangzhou from 1990 to 2020, summarizing typical driving models and formation mechanisms behind these changes while proposing optimization strategies. The findings indicate that since 1990, driven by urban expansion, Hangzhou’s landscape ecological pattern has experienced overall stability alongside localized drastic transformations, revealing three distinctly different stages around West Lake, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and across the Qiantang River. This evolution is primarily propelled by public service facilities, tourism development, industrial parks, landscape ecological corridors, and other forms of spatial expansion. Such processes reflect a comprehensive interplay among population urbanization dynamics, land use policies for urban areas, adjustments in administrative divisions, as well as the snowball effect stemming from capital-driven growth and wealth accumulation associated with new urban space development. The results presented herein serve as a representative case for understanding both the characteristics and driving forces behind changes in China’s urban landscape ecological patterns; they also hold significant implications for predicting and optimizing regulatory frameworks concerning spatial expansion policies in other nations and regions.

As an emerging integrated economic system, the ice and snow economy holds significant importance for promoting high-quality regional economic development. This study first employs data visualization techniques to illustrate the current status of China's ice and snow economy. On this basis, it uses the LSTM neural network model to conduct a predictive analysis of its future development trends. Furthermore, by analyzing the industrial convergence mechanism and operational mechanisms of the ice and snow industry, the study explores the underlying logic driving the development of China's ice and snow economy. Finally, it identifies the challenges in its development and proposes relevant policy recommendations to promote the high-quality development of the ice and snow economy in the Chinese context. The findings show that since China was awarded the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, its ice and snow economy has entered a period of rapid growth. The total market scale expanded from 270 billion yuan in 2015 to 980 billion yuan in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.4%. However, the ice and snow economy still faces challenges such as homogeneous consumption structures, incomplete industrial chains, unbalanced regional development, and constraints on sustainable development. It is therefore urgent to formulate targeted solutions based on China's actual conditions, gradually establishing a well-structured ice and snow industry system characterized by clear government-market collaboration, supply-demand alignment, dynamic cost-benefit equilibrium and balanced development and protection-ultimately propelling the high-quality development of China's ice and snow economy.

The rationality of the spatial configuration of public charging stations is the key to alleviating “range anxiety” of car owners and improving urban infrastructure services. This paper introduces OpenStreetMapnx (OSMnx) and takes Shanghai, the city with the highest number of new energy vehicles, as the research area. By considering the travel chain process of new energy vehicle owners, the study calculates the accessibility from vehicles to charging and from charging stations to service facilities, and identifies its spatial pattern and influencing factors. Research shows that: (1) During the travel period from residence to charging (R2C), the number of public charging stations in Shanghai increases as the time range expands, showing a spatial distribution pattern of gradually decreasing from the central urban area to the suburbs and a centripetal clustering trend; (2) The travel section from charging to service facilities (C2S), accessibility from charging stations to recreational facilities is the highest, followed by medical facilities, while accessibility to educational facilities is the lowest, showing a positive clustering distribution feature in space; (3) The impact of population distribution, economic foundation, and government role on the accessibility of different travel segments are different, but regional population distribution and social fixed assets investment have significant impacts on the accessibility of the whole travel chain of Shanghai public charging stations.

The Loess Plateau is a densely populated, important ecological security frontier and a major grain- producing region in China. Conversely, it is highly susceptible to soil erosion. In response to soil erosion, a series of restoration technologies were launched, including afforestation, check dams, terraces and so on. Research on the restoration of the soil erosion is a key to regional sustainable development, and ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. In this research, we analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of soil erosion and compared the changes in runoff and sediment transportation in the whole watershed using spatial data, statistical data and GIS spatial analysis tools and RUSLE models. The main results include: (1) from 1990 to 2015, the soil erosion modulus in the Luoyugou Watershed dropped from 3706.2 t km^-2 yr^-1 to 2176.5 t km^-2 yr^-1, among which, the decline from 1990 to 1995 and 2000 to 2005 was the largest, with decrease of 827.8 t km^-2 yr^-1 and 480.7 t km^-2 yr^-1, respectively. (2) From 1988 to 2018, the M-K test of runoff and sediment transportation in the Luoyugou Watershed showed a downward trend. In the early period (1988-1998), the average annual runoff, annual sediment transportation, and sediment transportation per runoff were 2.23 million m³, 351000 t, and 182.2 kg m^-3, respectively. In the later period (2008-2018), these values dropped to 852000 m³, 114000 t and 115.2 kg m^-3, showing the decreases of 61.8%, 67.5% and 36.7%, respectively. (3) From 1988 to 2018, the runoff and sediment transportation showed a significant correlation with the annual rainfall in the Luoyugou Watershed. With the increase in rainfall, the runoff of Luoyugou increased rapidly in the early period (1988-1998) and the sediment transportation increased rapidly in the later period (2008-2018). The findings of this research provide reference for understanding the ecological and environmental effects of restoration technology and scientifically guiding ecological restoration practices.

The tourist’s sense of place plays a pivotal role in the protection and renovation of historical districts, and it is an important driving force for the development, evolution and spatial reconstruction of historic districts. This study examines the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of tourists through the framework of sense of place (SoP), using Yongqingfang—a representative historical district in Guangdong—as a case study. Additionally, it proposes a model to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the generation of sense of place. The findings indicate that perception of place activities and the perception of place environment positively influence tourists’ positive emotional responses and their behavioral intentions. Based on the analysis of the results of hypothesis testing, the study also tested the mediating effects of positive and negative place emotions. It was determined that tourists generate place emotions in their cognition and experience of a place, and these emotions subsequently influence their behavior intentions. The study provides theoretical guidance for the choice of development pathways, renovation and reconstruction of historical districts from the perspective of the generation mechanism of tourists’ sense of place.

In response to the demand for grassland vegetation monitoring, this study proposes a method based on the vegetation index and an automatic identification method of grassland vegetation coverage and height in the HSV color space. Hikvision smart ball machines and smartphones were used as fixed and mobile monitoring tools to conduct the experiments at the Sanqingyuan Nursery, Beijing Forestry University. Aiming at the time-series images from April to September 2021, five visible light vegetation indices, EXG, EXGR, NGRDI, GLI, and RGBVI, were comparatively analyzed in terms of vegetation coverage recognition. The experimental results show that the EXG index combined with the OTSU automatic threshold method has the best performance in extracting vegetation coverage, with an accuracy of 90% and an absolute error controlled within 3%; therefore, it was selected as the optimal algorithm. Second, this study converts the RGB color space into the HSV color space, realizes the accurate extraction of red color rings, and calculates the grass layer height accordingly. The experimental results show that the average error of this method is 2.3 cm, the maximum error is 6 cm, and the relative error is generally lower than 30%, indicating high reliability and accuracy. The results of this study provide an efficient and accurate automatic identification method for grassland vegetation monitoring and are expected to be widely used in grassland ecological protection and management.

Based on the panel data of Chinese cities during 2013 and 2021, this study establishes a panel fixed-effect model and a panel threshold model to empirically investigate the effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development, as well as the mechanism, threshold characteristics and heterogeneity. The study reveals the following four points: (1) Digital inclusive finance can significantly drive urban green development, whose coverage breadth has more prominent promotional effect on urban green development compared to the usage depth and the digitization level. (2) In terms of the acting mechanism, the current effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development is mainly achieved through promoting economic development and environmental protection, while its promotion effect on social progress is not yet significant. (3) The impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green development varies depending on the agglomeration degree of urban digital economy and its geographical location. In non-agglomeration areas of digital economy and western regions, the promotion effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development is more obvious. (4) The promotion effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development exhibits non-linear characteristics with different levels of urban economic development and digital inclusive finance development.

Sport tourism is emerging as a key focus in China’s tourism development, supported by investments in infrastructure, sports events, and promotional efforts. Hainan, with its unique geographic advantages and abundant tourism resources, are prioritized by central and local governments, to establish Haikou, Sanya, and Wanning as key sport tourism hubs. However, research on evaluating regional sport tourism from an industrialist perspective remains limited. This study adopts a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews with middle and senior managers from sport tourism enterprises in Hainan. These interviews provide an in-depth evaluation of Hainan’s sport tourism industry from the perspective of industry stakeholders. Data coding through Nvivo software identifies twelve critical dimensions: Brand, culture, business ethics, infrastructure, location, market, natural resources, policy, product, tournaments, funding, and talent. By analyzing these dimensions both horizontally and vertically, the study assesses the industry’s current status and challenges, offering recommendations in three key areas: ① Government: Improve transportation infrastructure and establish dedicated management departments. ②Enterprises: Focus on strategic positioning, effective marketing, and sustainable development through collaboration. ③ Public-Private collaboration: Strengthen coordination between government and enterprises to promote integrated and coordinated sport tourism development across multiple cities.

Ethnic villages have become an integral part of rural tourism, celebrated for their folk culture and landscapes. With a case study of the Guilin Longji Rice Terrace Scenic Spot, this paper examines the impact of internal and external driving forces on tourism development in ethnic villages. It presents a dynamic mechanism model that elucidates the interplay between these factors and their impact on tourism growth. The findings indicate that tourism development in ethnic villages depends on seven main driving factors: the endowment of tourism resources, the aspirations and demands of villagers, the management and operation of enterprises, government support, market demands, competitive dynamics, and media exposure. Particularly, the driving factors of tourism development in ethnic villages present mutual influence, interpenetration, and interdependence characteristics. In light of these findings, the paper concludes with recommendations aimed at promoting the development of ethnic village tourism and contributing to rural revitalization.

Minority characteristic villages are an important carrier of Chinese cultural heritage and key locations for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. This study takes 683 villages with national minority characteristics in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin as the research object. It uses spatial analysis and geographic exploration technology to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of minority characteristic villages in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, the formation mechanism, and potential for rural revitalization. The results show that: (1) The spatial distribution of ethnic minority villages in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin is not balanced, with an overall distribution pattern of “dense in the south and sparse in the north”. (2) The spatial distribution of ethnic villages is of the aggregation type, and the overall spatial distribution is characterized by “one nucleus with multiple points” and “cold in the north and hot in the east”. (3) The main factors affecting the spatial distribution of ethnic villages are the economy, population, ecology, transportation, and natural environment. (4) The spatial differentiation of ethnic villages in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin is the result of a combination of factors. In the context of future rural revitalization, we should anchor the revitalization and protection of ethnic villages, focus on the construction of inter-regional cooperation mechanisms, refine the spatial layout and optimal integration, and sincerely devote ourselves to the excavation and inheritance of the unique culture of ethnic groups to comprehensively, profoundly, and systematically promote the efficient practice of the rural revitalization strategy.

This study incorporates both positive and negative tourism network attention into a comprehensive framework to examine their distinct effects on tourism development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). In particular, this study uses a spatial econometric model to accurately examine the relationship between positive and negative tourism network attention and regional tourism development, including the impact of tourism network attention on local and neighboring areas. In addition, the framework also uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the path combination of network attention and other factors that affect varied stages of tourism development in each city of the YRD, and expounds its driving mechanism. Research findings reveal: (1) Positive tourism network attention has a “U-shaped” influence on regional tourism development. (2) Positive tourism network attention significantly promotes tourism development of both local and neighboring areas, while negative tourism network attention both hinders local tourism development and adversely affects neighboring areas via spillover effects. (3) Multiple paths for tourism development exist in the region, including four modes: Demand-facility driven, demand-resource-facility-transportation driven, word of mouth-transportation driven, and traffic-resource driven. Using the YRD as a case study, this research offers empirical evidence and theoretical insights into how positive and negative tourism network attention influence tourism development in the region.

The conservation of agricultural heritage systems is of great significance. Studies have shown that artistic experiences, such as calligraphy and music, influence tourists’ cognition, emotions, and behaviors during their visits. This study examines the influence of artistic experiences on tourists’ willingness to participate in conservation efforts, utilizing the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and fish pond system—a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System—as a case study. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response model and previous research findings, we developed a conceptual framework to evaluate how tourists’ artistic experiences impact their willingness to conserve agricultural heritage systems. A measurement index system was established, and data were collected from 434 questionnaires through field research. The model was refined based on the results of data analysis. The findings indicate that (1) Artistic experiences positively influence the development of tourists’ conservation willingness; (2) These experiences affect conservation willingness by mediating flow experiences and overall satisfaction. Additionally, artistic experiences significantly influence tourists’ consumption tendencies, fostering protective consumption behaviors that enhance their willingness to participate in conservation efforts for agricultural heritage systems.

Regional clustering has become a distinctive feature of the homestay industry in terms of spatial distribution in many countries. However, identifying and quantifying the advantageous locations suitable for the agglomeration of the homestay industry at the micro-scale is still in the exploratory stage. Therefore, with the support of multi-source data and the spatial entropy weight superposition method, drawing on concepts from physics such as gravitational and magnetic fields, and based on relevant location theories, the environmental field strength and its quantitative model are proposed to evaluate micro-locations suitable for homestay development. Finally, a case study was conducted in Wuyuan, China. The results show that the homestay industry is mainly distributed along traffic lines and rivers, which is greatly affected by tourism resources and rural settlements, and the degree of agglomeration is gradually increasing; The environmental field strength is closely related to the accessibility of infrastructure and the development of tourism resources, and the overall structure tends to be networked, polycentric and “core-periphery”; there is a positive linear correlation between the distribution of homestay industry and environmental field strength. This study provides a basis for optimising decision-making related to the sustainable planning and site-selection of tourism destinations and the homestay industry.

The Ten-year Fishing Ban (TFB) in the Yangtze River launched by China in 2019 has aroused global concern and multiple conflicts with related stakeholders. To explore effective strategies for ecological program management, we conducted a field survey and simulated different scenarios of policy implementation through the three-party game between the central government, local governments, and fishermen. The results show how various policy options influence the sustainability of the fishing ban. (1) Increasing the penalty for the local government so it is greater than their policy enforcement costs or improving the reward to greater than 0.8 times the ecological benefits, can effectively mobilize the local government’s motivation and delay their shift to passive enforcement. (2) Current government assistance has not effectively met the actual needs of fishermen, so improving fund efficiency rather than fund scale can more effectively entice the fishermen to obey the fishing ban. (3) For illegal fishing, increasing the encounter frequency with fishermen has a greater deterrent effect than increasing the punishment severity, while the efficiency of livelihood support programs significantly influences the marginal benefit of punitive measures. When support efficiency improves to a moderate level, combining it with medium-to-high intensity penalties generates an optimal synergistic effect that can markedly accelerate system convergence. Therefore, a more sustainable fishing ban can be achieved by adding flexible penalties and economic rewards for the local government, improving the assistance for meeting the fishermen’s livelihood demands, increasing the frequency of encounters with illegal fishing and diversifying the punishment measures.

The Shaanxi section of the Weihe River Basin has undergone significant environmental changes in recent years, marked by pronounced spatiotemporal variations that pose substantial challenges for sustainable water resource management. Traditional evaluation methods often fall short in capturing the dynamic evolution and structural complexity of such systems. To address these limitations, this study adopts the Driving force-Pressure- State-Impact-Response-Management (DPSIRM) model, integrated with the coefficient of variation method, to comprehensively assess the Water Environmental Carrying Capacity (WECC) and its key influencing factors. Drawing on data from 41 districts and counties and employing Xi’an as a representative case study, the research reveals clear regional disparities and temporal trends in WECC. The results indicate an overall upward trend in carrying capacity, with upstream areas improving from Level III to Level I, middle reaches from Level IV to Level II, and downstream areas from Level V to Level III. The pressure and state subsystems were identified as having the most significant impact on WECC evolution. Meanwhile, indices associated with driving force, pressure, and management showed a rising trajectory, whereas state and response subsystems exhibited fluctuations. This study confirms the practicality and effectiveness of the DPSIRM framework in dynamically evaluating WECC, offering a robust scientific foundation for refined, region-specific water environment governance.

In the context of dual-cycle development, improving the supply and demand capacity of ecosystem services is foundational to promoting high-quality economic development. Based on accounting for the supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2000 to 2020, we analyze the characteristics of their temporal and spatial evolution and classify the ecological types of 41 cities in the YRD in 2020. The findings are as follows: (1) During the 20 years, the supply value of ecosystem services in the YRD has decreased, but the overall value is high. Moreover, the spatial distribution of ecosystem services shows a notable distribution pattern of “high in the south and low in the north.” Furthermore, the demand for ecological value has increased significantly, and the demand of the northeastern plains region is much higher than that of the southwestern mountainous region. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem service supply-demand balance in the YRD region is pronounced, with a notable distribution pattern, mainly dominated by cities with balanced supply-demand that forms a high-value area centered on Shanghai-Suzhou and a low-value area dominated by Chizhou-Huangshan and Huabei-Bozhou, which have strong ecological and economic synergies. (3) By 2020, there were 2 ecological conservation cities, 3 ecological restoration cities, 29 ecological remodeling cities, and 7 ecological development cities in the YRD, indicating overall coordinated ecological and economic development.

The Zhengtai Railway is an important logistics channel connecting Shanxi with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta, and it has a profound impact on regional industrial development. Based on the theory of heritage corridors and using GIS spatial analysis technology, this study conducted a multi-dimensional analysis on the industrial heritage along the Shijiazhuang section. (1) The temporal characteristics indicate that the heritage, which was established in 1896, is mainly composed of the three major industries of pharmaceuticals, textiles, and steel. (2) The spatial pattern shows an axial distribution of “dense in the west and sparse in the east”, with Xinhua District, Chang’an District and Luquan District as the agglomeration cores. (3) By constructing an evaluation system that includes four types of factors: natural environment, transportation conditions, heritage value and service facilities, the suitable areas of the corridor with “three cores and one surface” were identified. Finally, the strategy of “dynamic width control + themed cluster protection” was proposed, which provides a new idea for the protection of linear industrial heritage.

This study focuses on the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration (PRDUA) as the research subject, incorporates the vulnerability assessment framework of the human-earth system to optimize the Landscape Ecological Risk (LER) index assessment model, and spatially visualizes the vulnerability degree, landscape disturbance intensity, and optimized LER of PRDUA in the representative years of 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022. The contribution of ecological land restoration to the evolution of LER is measured using the factor detector and interaction detector results of the Geodetector. Four restoration indicators are selected: ecological land area, proportion, cohesion, and AI (Aggregation Index). The results show that: (1) Between 2002 and 2022, the vulnerability in PRDUA exhibited a decreasing trend, albeit with notable spatial disparities. Areas of low vulnerability predominantly lie on the periphery of PRDUA, whereas high vulnerability zones are concentrated within its core. (2) The change in LER and vulnerability is highly consistent. Between 2002 and 2022, the high-risk areas show a shrinking trend and are mainly located in Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. Low-risk areas are mainly located at the edge of the PRDUA. (3) Based on the Geodetector, the contribution of single factor of ecological land restoration to LER change is low, and the contribution of two factor interaction is significantly enhanced, especially the cohesion and AI interactions contributed the most. In the period 2012-2022, the q-value of the explanatory power of the interaction between cohesion change and AI change reached 62.213%, which was the strongest explanation for changes in LER. These findings provide an innovative approach to understanding and mitigating LER in highly urbanized areas, and are also important for building ecological security patterns and promoting sustainable development.

The development of rural tourism not only plays a crucial role in driving the high-quality growth of destination economies but also significantly affects the livelihoods and well-being of residents in these areas. The objective of this study is to evaluate the well-being of residents in rural tourism destinations. With the Rice Dream Space in Shenyang as a case study, this study selects the residents from 18 administrative villages in the street where the scenic area is located as the research subjects. By conducting field surveys, 204 valid questionnaires were collected. Then, the SPSS 26.0 was employed to analyze these questionnaires, aiming to provide an in-depth understanding of the residents’ well-being in the context of rural tourism development. It establishes an indicator system based on four dimensions: Economy, politics, culture, and environment, and employs factor analysis to evaluate the livelihood well-being of residents comprehensively. The findings indicate that the level of livelihood and well-being among residents in rural tourism destinations is relatively high. Among the four dimensions, the cultural aspect received the highest average evaluation, while the economic component had the lowest. Based on the specific context of the research area, this study also offers countermeasures and suggestions aimed at enhancing the livelihood and well-being of residents in rural tourism destinations.

The rapid development of the rural digital economy has emerged as a global phenomenon affecting both developed and developing countries, and China is no exception. Based on field survey data from 432 citrus family farms in Jiangxi Province in 2023, the mediating effect test and heterogeneity analysis are employed in this study to assess the impact of digital applications (DA) on family farm income (FFI). The results show that DA significantly increases FFI, with its enabling effect spanning the entire production chain from pre-production information acquisition to mid-production management and post-production marketing. Mechanism analysis indicates that DA enhances economic returns through three synergistic pathways: improving policy resource acquisition efficiency, promoting resource-efficient technology adoption, and expanding market sales channels. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the income-enhancing effect of DA is more pronounced among farms with smaller scales, lower incomes, weaker social capital, and poorer infrastructure. These findings reflect inclusive “catch-up” and “substitution” effects, rather than the emergence of a digital divide. This study enriches the theoretical framework of digital agricultural empowerment and provides policy-relevant evidence for the formulation of targeted digital agriculture policies.

This study takes the children’s animation IP “Brave Brother Ah Niu” as a case study, where the animation IP refers not merely to a single work, but rather to a core content asset capable of multi-dimensional development and possessing long-term commercial value, such as a well-known character, story, or worldview. This case is used to explore the path for children’s animation IP to empower the deep integration of cultural tourism based on Bourdieu’s field theory. In response to the current challenges of fragmentation, superficial symbolization, and capital feedback disruption in development, a three-field transformation framework of “cultural production-media practice- industrial consumption” is constructed, and an integration mechanism of “empowerment-translation-feedback” is proposed. This study provides a replicable theoretical model and practical path for the Ah Niu IP and similar regional children’s animation IPs to overcome the bottleneck of cultural tourism integration, achieve cultural inheritance, and enhance the industrial value.

Agricultural heritage tourism resources, represented by ecological vulnerability and cultural sensitivity, require careful stewardship. Tourists’ environmentally responsible actions are vital for preserving both the natural and cultural environment of these destinations, ensuring their sustainability. According to “cognition-emotion-behavior theory” and the hierarchy model of tourism experience, this study constructs a conceptual model between tourists’ environmental fit, place attachment and pro-environmental behavior. Structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method are employed for empirical testing. Results indicate that: (1) Function fit has a significant positive effect on tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors. (2) Service fit also has a significant positive effect on tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors. (3) Place attachment mediates the relationship between environmental fit and pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, recommendations are offered for managing agricultural heritage tourism destinations to cultivate tourists’ sense of functional fit and service fit and to strengthen their place attachment.

In 2020, China clearly put forward the “double carbon” goal of striving to achieve its carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Energy companies are the main source of carbon emissions and key players in reducing emissions, so they shoulder a pivotal responsibility in achieving this strategic goal. At the same time, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concepts are highly compatible with the “dual-carbon” goal. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of ESG on energy companies to realize the “dual-carbon” goal. In this study, we analyzed the impact of ESG on the total factor productivity of energy companies and its mediating effect from the perspectives of investor preference and financing constraints. The results of this study show that good ESG performance of energy companies can enhance their total factor productivity through the positive effects of investor preference and financing constraints, and the extent of the effects was found to vary among companies with different equity natures, regional situations, and different backgrounds of the directors, supervisors, and senior executives. In view of these effects, energy companies should enhance their total factor productivity by strengthening investor preference and alleviating financing constraints; and they should also learn from each other’s ESG development models to promote the overall ESG level of the energy industry.

China’s policy on cropland protection is a fundamental agricultural policy, which supports the state’s sustainable development goals of eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. We combined the SD and PLUS models to construct an integrated framework for simulating future areas of cropland and their spatial distribution. We simulated the spatial and temporal changes in cropland in Guangxi Autonomous Region under different scenarios in 2030, 2040 and 2050. The results showed that the simulation error for historical cropland areas using the SD model was ≤3%. The PLUS model results for the spatial distribution of cropland in Guangxi in 2020 was 0.92 for overall accuracy (OA), 0.77 for Kappa, and 0.33 for the figure of merit (FOM). Thus, the integrated model was suitable for simulating cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios. Analyses of the landscape index, standard deviation ellipse and hot spots were performed to examine the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of Guangxi’s cropland under different future scenarios in more detail. They indicated that the area of cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios gradually decreased, with the SSP245 scenario showing the greatest decrease in the area of cropland. Cropland in Guangxi showed a westward shift under different future scenarios, which was most rapid under the SSP245 scenario. cropland remained fragmented from 2000 to 2020, with fragmentation intensifying under different future scenarios, while cropland shifted to western rocky, desertified and poverty-affected areas. In sum, the results show that the SD-PLUS integrated model can predict the change trend of cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios, which facilitates optimisation of the spatial allocation and planning of cropland and provides key data for implementing future cropland protection policies in Guangxi.