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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The 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.

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

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.

Landslides are the major problems of mountainous areas of Nepal basically due to its fragile geomorphology, intense rainfall, improper land management practices and rapid construction of hilly roads without applying necessary stabilization measures. There are huge loss of life and property, decline in ecosystem productivity and functionality and sedimentation on downstream areas due to frequent landslides. Multiple spatial factors like land use land cover, topography, road, drainage, geological setting and climatic factors like rainfall are found more associated with landslide occurrence and determine landslide susceptibility of the area. Understanding of landslide phenomenon and associated factors are crucial for adopting appropriate prevention, control and rehabilitation measures. This study was carried out in Singati sub-watershed of Sunkoshi River Basin with objectives to understand landslide hazards, associated factors and activities performed to minimize possible hazards with best strategy of minimizing hazards. Landslide assessments were made through identification and digitization of landslides using temporal Google image and field investigation. Where landslide hazard assessment and preparation of factor map was done by using GIS software and field observed data were analyzed and dimension of landslides were calculated. Along with, People perceptions on major effects of landslides on livelihood assets, were explore from associated household's questionnaire survey (n=60) using purposive sampling. And most causative factor of landslide on the perception of local people was calculated using nonparametric test (Friedman). From the field survey, a total of 46 landslides were surveys in different location of the study area. The total area of the landslide was found to be 4.77 km². From the comparison matrix analysis using Friedman test, the study identified the main responsible factor for the occurrence of landslide are rural road, construction, slope factor rainfall and land use. The road factor up to 200 m area and 200-500 m distance from road covered the highest percentage of landslide hazard. Southeastern aspect with the slope class 30°-45° had the highest susceptibility to landslide. Dense forest was found to be more effected by landslide in comparison to other land use due to the construction of road in sloppy area inside the forest. Comparison the effects of landslide before and after the road construction about 80 percent of the respondent had the positive response on it.

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

Building livable urban space is an important component of urban construction. The evaluation of urban space livability is of great significance for urban sustainable development. The study measured the level of urban spatial livability in the urban area of Hefei from the spatial perspective of production-living-ecological space (PLES), using spatial analysis methods, to provide new ideas for the construction of livable urban spatial and to promote the coordination of urban spatial elements and spatial optimization. Firstly, this study constructed the evaluation model for urban spatial livability from three perspectives: Comfortable living, convenient production and ecological health. Secondly, using the evaluation model for urban spatial livability, the global spatial autocorrelation analysis method and the coupling coordination degree model, the single factor differentiation of urban space livable potential, comprehensive livable degree and the coupling degree of PLES in the urban area of Hefei were analyzed, respectively. Finally, this study discusses the coordination of PLES elements of the urban space in Hefei urban area, and puts forward spatial optimization strategies. The results show three important aspects of this system. (1) In terms of the single-factor livability of living, production and ecology, there are significant differences in the spatial distribution characteristics of the livability of the Hefei urban area. There is a spatial clustering of living comfort areas in the center, a spreading of production convenience areas from the center to the periphery, and a scattering of ecological health areas around the perimeter. (2) The overall livability of the urban space in Hefei is high. In terms of space, it shows the characteristics of high in the middle and low around the periphery, and the high-value area of livability is mainly concentrated in the urban center. (3) The coupling coordination degree of PLES in the urban area of Hefei is high in the city center and low around the city. The coupling coordination degree of life-production is the highest, which indicates that the spatial layout of these two elements has certain rationality and achieves benign coordination.

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

The research was conducted within the Kulekhani Watershed with the objective of examining changes in Land Use Land Cover (LULC) dynamics and soil erosion across various LULC categories spanning from 2000 to 2020. The findings regarding the LULC classification in the Kulekhani Watershed revealed a steady rise in forested land, escalating from 60.72% in 2000 to 62.43% in 2010, and ultimately reaching 64.75% of the total area by 2020. The extent of water bodies exhibited a marginal increase from 1.07% in 2000 to 1.08% in 2020. Correspondingly, barren land expanded from 0.21% to 0.26%, eventually reaching 0.35% over the successive time intervals. Conversely, agricultural land dwindled over these periods, comprising 38% in 2000, 36.24% in 2010, and ultimately declining to 33.82% by 2020. The utilization of the Revised Morgan-Morgan-Finney (RMMF) model for soil loss estimation demonstrated a declining trend in weighted average soil loss during the years 2000 to 2010, followed by a slight increase between 2010 and 2020. The calculated soil loss values were recorded as 8.64 t ha^-1 yr^-1, 7.12 t ha^-1 yr^-1, and 7.30 t ha^-1 yr^-1 for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 respectively. Similarly, the erosion susceptibility map illustrated a rising pattern in the very low-risk soil erosion zone from 2000 to 2020, primarily prominent within forested regions, while exhibiting a low to moderate susceptibility in agricultural zones. Moreover, barren areas displayed a moderate to high susceptibility to soil erosion. To address these concerns, future endeavors are recommended to encompass afforestation initiatives in barren regions, implement conservation farming practices in agricultural areas, and adopt appropriate measures for road stabilization.

Regional collaborative governance of the ecological environment is an important way to promote the sustainable development of urbanization, and local government competition is a characteristic institutional factor that is often ignored in the process of regional ecological environmental governance in China. This study selected the panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2018 in China, and used the spatial convergence regression model and the mediation effect model to analyze the spatial convergence of urban eco-efficiency (UEE) and its mechanism from the perspective of local government competition. The results show several empirical patterns. First, the UEE follows a tendency of convergence that narrows the regional gap of urban eco-efficiency, and spatial interaction factors are the keys affecting the convergence of UEE. Second, local government competition, as a characteristic institutional factor, plays an important role in promoting the spatial convergence of UEE, and the effect of administrative distance proximity competition is stronger than that of geographical distance proximity competition. The UEE increases by 0.114 percentage points when its degree of competitive pressure increases by 1 percentage point. Third, the competitive pressure leads to strict environmental regulation policies, which generally improve UEE and thus narrow its gap with advanced cities. Finally, local government competition has heterogeneous effects on urban eco-efficiency. Specifically, under the pressure of local government competition, the environmental regulations improve the UEE in the east and key environmental protection cities, while the central and non-key environmental protection cities experience the opposite effect. The results of this study suggest that if UEE is further introduced into the administrative performance evaluation index systems of local officials, the regional gap of environmental and economic development could be narrowed through ecological competition.

The lower reaches of the Jinsha River is the main distribution area of hot-dry valleys in China. While it suffers from frequent droughts, the spatiotemporal variation and driving forces of drought in this area under climate change are still unclear. The spatiotemporal variations of Temperature Vegetation Drought Index (TVDI) and drivers of drought were explored using MODIS land surface temperature and NDVI data from 2000 to 2020. The results are fivefold. (1) TVDI was highly correlated with soil moisture content at a depth of 0-7 cm, indicating that it can accurately reflect the drought situation in the study area. (2) The spatial variability of TVDI was highly heterogeneous, with a multi-year average of 0.59, and the drought level was mainly between normal and dry. (3) From 2000 to 2020, TVDI showed a slightly increasing trend. It increased in 63% of the study area, and significantly increased in 21% of the study area. At the same time, the area at the dry level increased by 14.5% in 2020 from the normal level in 2000. (4) Slightly different from the standard phenomenon of “dry gets drier, wet gets wetter”, we found that both dry and wet areas were becoming drier. (5) TVDI was positively correlated with annual mean temperature in 86% of the region, of which 43% of the region showed a significant correlation. The increasing temperature was the main driving force for the increase in drought in the study area. Our results can provide new insights into the spatiotemporally heterogeneous response of drought to climate change in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River.

Global climate change and human activities continue to threaten watershed ecosystems. The Jinsha River constitutes the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, so studying its ecosystem services (ES) is of great significance for maintaining ecological security and promoting ecological sustainability in the entire Yangtze River Basin. By using the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) models and revised universal soil-loss equation (RUSLE) models, we evaluated five ecosystem services of water yield (WY), habitat quality (HQ), soil retention (SR), food supply (FS), and carbon storage (CS) provided by the Jinsha River Basin ecosystem from 2000 to 2020, as well as their spatial-temporal variations and driving factors. The results show three main features of this system. (1) From 2000 to 2020, each ecosystem service in the Jinsha River Basin exhibited different degrees of fluctuation, except for habitat quality, and each ecosystem service basically showed a spatial distribution pattern of high in the southeast and low in the northwest. (2) There were significant synergistic relationships between CS_SR_HQ and WY_SR_FS, and a significant trade-off between WY_CS. (3) The main driving factors of CS_SR_HQ were net primary productivity (NPP) and land-use type (LU), the main driving factors of WY_SR_FS were annual precipitation (PRE), LU, and rainfall erosivity (R), and the main driving factors of WY_CS varied considerably during the study period.

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.

This study takes Cangshan UNESCO Global Geopark as an example, which takes the connection between tourism and economic departments as the starting point, adopts appropriate tourism development methods, and determines that tourists are one of the most important stakeholder groups in tourism development. Based on this, this study aims to explore the tourists’ cognition and support for the sustainable tourism development of Cangshan Global Geopark. In this study, a self-administered questionnaire survey method is used to construct the tourist satisfaction evaluation model of Mount Cangshan, and the tourist satisfaction of various scenic spots in Mount Cangshan is calculated and evaluated. The characteristics, tendency and purpose of tourists are studied. This result provides an effective reference for strengthening the construction of the characteristics of Cangshan scenic area and the management of tourists’ complaints. It can also help Cangshan scenic area plan tourism arrangements more reasonably, improve social service level and provide tourists with “zero defect” tourism products.

The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) is one of the important megafaunas in protected areas of the Terai (lowland) region of Nepal. They often encounter humans and their livelihood-supporting activities in the proximity of forest boundary within the protected area. The human-elephant conflict has been one of the major issues in the human settlement close to the protected area, which has caused economic losses and poised a threat to human lives every year. The issue has obstructed sustainable management initiatives within the protected areas. The objective of the study is to analyze the cause of the human-elephant conflict in the Buffer Zone of Bardiya National Park and to assess people’s perception of this megafauna. The structured questionnaire survey was done in three municipalities within the Buffer Zone of Bardiya National Park. Besides, key informants’ interview was done to supplement the questionnaire survey. The result shows that 93% of the respondents have been a victim of elephant attacks in the past three years. Last year, on average, each household lost approximately NRs 9690 (USD 1 = NRs 132.72) worth of stored harvest due to the elephant attack. Most of the attack occurs during the season between July to September, followed by the season between October to December. It also indicates that the preference of elephants for crops is the primary cause of elephant attacks/raids in the study area. The second important cause of the elephant attack is insufficient food base which is followed by the expansion of agricultural fields towards the forest. Ninety percent of respondents react to the elephant attack by chasing them (using fire or noise). Fifty-one percent of respondents accept the human-elephant coexistence because of their biological and economic values. However, 40% of them reject the coexistence because of the threat posed by the elephant upon the local people and their livelihood. Human-elephant conflict hinders the management campaign and therefore has to be resolved through collaboration of the protected area, the local people and the administrative stakeholders. It is suggested that more study has to be made to acknowledge the pattern of residing as well as migrating elephants around forest boundaries and adjacent settlements.

In the new stage of China’s economic development, significant transformations have occurred in the mode, emphasis and speed of urban development. Enhancing the level of livelihood public service and promoting the green development of cities have emerged as the prevailing themes of contemporary urban development. Based on a theoretical model analysis, using the panel data of 281 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper adopts the fixed-effect model for empirical analysis. The study revealed the following four main points. (1) The provision of livelihood public services can effectively enhance the efficiency of urban green development. After conducting a series of robustness tests, this conclusion is still valid. (2) The provision of livelihood public services only fosters the green transformation of non-resource-based cities, while its impact on resource-based cities remains non-significant. (3) The mechanism test demonstrated that livelihood public services promote green development efficiency mainly through population, innovation and producer services agglomeration. (4) The threshold effect test showed that there are differences in the nonlinear relationship between the livelihood public service level and urban green development efficiency under different threshold variables.

Earthquakes are one of the major natural disaster threats worldwide and directly cause substantial economic losses and many casualties every year. Research on the resource and environmental carrying capacity in earthquake-prone areas is urgently required for regional earthquake relief efforts and post-disaster reconstruction. This study considered Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Ganzi Prefecture) in Sichuan Province, China, focusing on the impact of the Luding 6.8 Magnitude Earthquake in Ganzi Prefecture in 2022. An evaluation system for the resource and environmental carrying capacity of earthquake-prone areas was established. A total of 23 indicators were selected that cover ecological, social economical, and geological aspects, and the weight of each index was determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The relative ranking of the resource and environmental carrying capacities of each county and city were calculated using the weighted Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Consequently, the post-disaster reconstruction strategy of Ganzi Prefecture was evaluated and analyzed. The results show that the resource and environmental carrying capacities of each administrative area differ regionally. Evidence shows that the resource and environmental carrying capacity in southeastern Ganzi Prefecture is generally higher than in the northwest, owing to the joint influence of the social economy and ecological and geological environment. This study provides carrying capacity assessment data and support methods for earthquake-prone areas.

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

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

This study constructed the RMPP (Resource-Market-Product-Policy) theory from the perspective of rural revitalization, combined with the concept of intangible cultural heritage (ICH)+tourism to assist rural revitalization. Firstly, the study summarized the current situation of integrated development of ICH resources and tourism in 10 suburban districts of Beijing from four dimensions: Resources, market, product, and policy. Secondly, the study used the Delphi method and Analytic Hierarchy Process to construct an RMPP evaluation index system, determine the weights of the indicators, and score them. Through evaluation and analysis, the development differences of the 10 suburban districts in the four dimensions of RMPP were identified, and the difficulties in integrating development of ICH and tourism were sorted out, such as weak awareness of ICH inheritance, insufficient integration of ICH tourism resources, low level of the development of ICH tourism products, and unclear rights and responsibilities for ICH protection. Finally, the study explored the path of promoting rural revitalization through the integration of ICH and tourism from the four dimensions of RMPP, including scientific integration of ICH resources, innovative market models, product gradient development, and policy targeted implementation.

Although the relationship between the size of urban industrial land use and pollutant emissions has been widely discussed from different perspectives (e.g., the scale and crowding effects), the results of various studies have revealed positive, negative, and combined impact relationships. However, how the expansion of urban industrial land use affects SO₂ emissions remains unknown. We need to clarify this relationship in order to facilitate the realization of China’s pollution reduction and emission reduction goals. This study used the panel data from 294 cities spanning from 2011 to 2019 to construct a spatial econometric model. The objective was to explore the correlation between the scale of urban industrial land and sulfur dioxide emissions in China. The results show that a large scale of urban industrial land use corresponds to lower sulfur dioxide emissions per unit of industrial added value. By gaining a deeper understanding of the relationship between the scale of urban industrial land use and sulfur dioxide emissions, policymakers can further reduce pollutant emissions by rationalizing the planning of urban industrial land use and industrial layout. In addition to promoting industrial agglomeration and economies of scale in cities with extensive industrial land use, this strategy can support the development of efficient and environmentally friendly industries in areas with limited industrial land use. Optimizing the technology and encouraging the development of green industries can help reduce environmental pollution and promote sustainable urban development.