RESIDENTS＇ ATTITUDES TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN ANCIENT VILLAGE RESORTS——Case Study of World Cultural Heritage of Xidi and Hong Villages

Tourism development surely has social, economic and environmental impacts on tourist destinations.The study on resorts residents‘ attitudes can help understand the nature of tourism development and the extent to which it may influence on tourist destinations. By now, researches on residents‘ perception and attitudes are plenteous in the international circle and achievements are great, yet few are found in developing countries. As a most representative cultural tourist destination, World Cultural Heritage-Xidi and Hong villages in Yi County of Anhui Province, are drawing the attention of both tourists and academic circles. This article, taking Xidi and Hong villages as examples, seeks to analyze ancient village residents‘ attitudes towards tourism impacts and then tries further to explore the connection between tourism development and residents‘ attitudes. Both qualitative and quantitative surveys are applied in the exploratory investigation into local residents‘ attitudes of tourism impacts. Based on abundant face-to-face interviews with the local households, tourism enterprises concerned, local government and tourists from July to August of 2002, we are able to have a better understanding of local residents‘ attitudes to community life, and perception of tourism impacts on society, economy and environment. By this we can promote domestic study on resorts residents‘ attitudes, and provide some theoretical grounds for establishing tourism development planning and perfect community participation system at tourist destinations.     

Influence of tourists’ environmental tropisms on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in natural tourist destinations: A case study of Jiuzhaigou National Park in China

People′s environmental tropism has an effect on their understanding of tourism-nature relationship,and also influences their attitudes to natural resources utilization and environmental protection.Taking Jiuzhaigou National Park of China as a study case,the authors conducted some quantitative analyses with the tools of SPSS 16.0 and LISREL 8.7,to explore the influence of tourists′ environmental tropism on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in the natural tourist destination.Three hypotheses and the theoretic model of influences of tourists′ environmental tropism on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation have been tested and accepted based on the Structural Equation Model analysis on survey data collected in Jiuzhaigou National Park of China.Some conclusions were drawn as follows: 1) tourists′ human-prioritized concept influences their cognition to tourism-nature relationship.This concept has a positive influence on their supportive attitudes to tourism,but a negative influence on their attitudes to nature conservation;2) tourists′ human-nature coordination concept has a positive influence on their supportive attitudes to both tourism and nature conservation,especially to the latter.This paper generally proves that human′s environmental tropism does have an influence on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in natural tourist destinations.     

Influence of Tourists′ Environmental Tropisms on Their Attitudes to Tourism and Nature Conservation in Natural Tourist Destinations: A Case Study of Jiuzhaigou National Park in China

People′s environmental tropism has an effect on their understanding of tourism-nature relationship,and also influences their attitudes to natural resources utilization and environmental protection.Taking Jiuzhaigou National Park of China as a study case,the authors conducted some quantitative analyses with the tools of SPSS 16.0 and LISREL 8.7,to explore the influence of tourists′ environmental tropism on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in the natural tourist destination.Three hypotheses ...     

Factors influencing the grazing management styles of settled herders: a case study of Nagqu County, Tibetan Plateau, China

The implementation of pasture contracting policies in the Tibetan Plateau has been of widespread concern in the scientific community and related government departments. Studying the effects of the implementation of pasture contracting policies will help us understand herders＇ attitudes toward those policies and to amend existing policies effectively. This paper analyzes 135 herder families＇ grazing management behavior using participatory rural appraisal （PRA）, quantitative analysis and a Logistic regression model in three townships of Nagqu County in remote areas of the Tibetan Plateau, China. The results show that the herders have become settled and are no longer nomadic, so the settlement project has basically been completed and the policy of contracting for grazing rights is being gradually implemented in Nagqu County. Since the grazing rights and pastures were under contract, group-based management has been widely accepted in this area, which helps the herders deal with constraints, such as limited pasture area, a small grazing radius, controlled family animal husbandry and an uneven distribution of water. The herders that have more family members available for labor, higher proportion of family members with good health, and higher income from animal husbandry tend to choose household-based management. Herders tend to choose group-based management when higher quality winter pastures are available.     

AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS AND COUNTERMEASURES IN CHINA

China is facing the three major agroenvironment problems, which include: chemical pollution, abnormal ecological balance and natural resource deterioration. These environment problems have depleted part of the comprehensive agricultural productivity and hence become a resistance to the further development of agriculture. A number of measures have been taken for controlling over pollution and ecosystem declining. But for the sustainable development the more efforts are suggested to make, including the more stern measures in the population control, adopting the new techniques of saving natural resources and high efficiency, encouraging a frugal life style as well as paying more attentions to the research on the agricultural environment protection.     

Differentiation of Rural Households′ Consciousness in Land Use Activities: A Case from Bailin Village,Shapingba District of Chongqing Municipality,China

What rural households think and what kind of strategies they take, the basic driving force in land use activities, contribute greatly to the increase of their own revenues, the development of agricultural yields, and even the prosperity of rural areas. Differentiation in rural household behaviors and their consciousness in land use activities is widespread in rural China nowadays. It is important to understand the changing characteristics and laws of land use behaviors of rural households driven by their consciousness, so as to regulate their land use activities. In most empirical studies of land use change at rural household level, the land use consciousness, which acts directly on land use behaviors, is often neglected. In our research, the changes of land use behaviors of rural households are analyzed, through identifying how the land use consciousness affect the land use objectives, land management scales and land inputs of all the rural households in Bailin Village of Chongqing Municipality in the western mountainous China. Also, how the land use consciousness of different rural households comes into being under external stimuli is examined and the self-adjustment process of their consciousness according to their own conditions is also discussed. Finally, broad policy instruments are suggested to promote the rationalization of rural households′ land use consciousness and the standardization of their land use behaviors.     

Coordination of urbanization and water ecological environment in Shayinghe River Basin,China

During the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China,urban agglomeration in river basin areas raises the problems of over-use of water resources and pollution of the water environment.Related research in China has mainly focused on the conflicts among economic growth,urban expansion and water resource shortages within admin-istrative boundaries.However,water environments are much more dependent on their physical boundaries than their administrative boundaries.Consistent with the nature of water environment,this study aims at analyzing coordination relationships between urban development and water environment changes within physical river basin boundaries.We chose the Shayinghe River Basin,China,as our case study area which is facing serious challenges related to water en-vironment protection.Then we classified 35 county-level administrative units into upstream,midstream and down-stream regions based on their physical characteristics;analyzed the coordination degree of urban agglomeration using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method;and constructed cooperative models using the Linear Programming (LP function) to simulate four scenarios of the coordination relationship be-tween urban population increase and water environment protection based on existing water resources and water pollu-tion data.The results show that the present coordinative situation in Shayinghe River Basin is not sustainable.In gen-eral,more than 50% administrative units are in the bad coordinative situation.In particular,the downstream region is under worse condition than the upstream and midstream regions.Cooperative models in scenario analyses indicate that the population scale set in existing urban master plannings is not coordinated with the water environment protection.To reach the goal of regional sustainable development,the total population needs to be controlled such that it will re-main at 4.5×10 7 or below by 2020 given the capacity of water environment.     

A method of catchments health assessment under value-pressure model and its application in urbanized river network area: A case study in Shanghai,China

Catchments health assessment is fundamental to effective catchments management. Generally, an as-sessment method should be selected to reflect both the purpose of assessment and local characteristics. A trial in Shanghai was conducted to test the method for catchments health assessment in urbanized river network area. Seven indicators that described four dimensions of river, river network, land use and function, and local feature were used to assess catchments values; while possible change rate of urbanization and industrialization in the next 3 years were chosen for catchments pressure assessment in the value-pressure model. Factors related to catchments classi-fication, indicators measurement and protection priority have been considered in the development strategies for catchments health management. The results showed that value-pressure assessment was applicable in urbanized catchments health management, particularly when both human and catchments had multiple demands. As a result of over 30-year rapid urbanization, more than 70% of Shanghai river network area was still in a healthy condition with high catchments values, among them, 39.3% was under high pressure. Poor water quality, simplified river system and weakened local feature of river pattern had largely affected catchments health in Shanghai. Lack of long-term monitoring data would seriously restrict the development and validity of catchments health assessment.     

IMPLEMENTATION OF CLEANER PRODUCTION STRATEGIES TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE CITY

Rapid urbanization and growing size of cities will have an increasing impact on the global environment in the 21st century. As an engine of urban development to drive economic growth and technological innovations, industry has moved its focus from controlling environmental hazards to stimulating sustainable industrial development throughout the entire product lifecycle. These process- and technology-driven innovations for industrial production are prerequisites for enhancement of urban environment and sustainable development of cities. In this review, problems of environment and resources scarcity associated with rapid urbanization are demonstrated. And, on the basis of expatiations on the concepts and policies of the cleaner production (CP) and other similar initiatives with the goal of preventing pollution at the source and of managing the raw material more efficiently, two different ways to link the practice of cleaner production in industrial sector with performance of urban environment are discussed in detail. Then, the introduction, practice and legislation of CP strategies in China are outlined, and possibility for China to develop CPC (Cleaner Practices for Cities) approaches in the demonstration cities is discussed. Finally, some suggestions on implementation of CPC strategies are put forward.     

The Impact of the Cognition of Landscape Experience on Tourist Environmental Conservation Behaviors

This article explores the relationship between the tourist’s cognition of the landscape experience and the environmental conservation efforts at three distinct tourist sites in mountains of southwestern China. A total of 1500 on-site questionnaire surveys were distributed and 1142 valid questionnaires were used for statistical analysis. Results from multi-group path analysis showed that both cognition of the cultural landscape experience and cognition of the natural landscape experience had positive impacts on environmental conservation behaviors and behavior intentions of tourists. Results from comparative analysis among the three tourist sites indicated that cognition of the cultural landscape experience had a stronger power to predict senior environmental conservation behaviors and behavior intentions than cognition of the natural landscape experience, whereas cognition of the natural landscape experience had more power to predict general environmental conservation behaviors and behavior intentions than cognition of the cultural landscape experience. Furthermore, our findings benefit environmental management and sustainabilityat tourist sites.     

Classification of vegetative types in Changbai Mountain based on optical and microwave remote sensing data

Highly accurate vegetative type distribution information is of great significance for forestry resource monitoring and management. In order to improve the classification accuracy of forest types, Sentinel-1 and 2 data of Changbai Mountain protection development zone were selected, and combined with DEM to construct a multi-featured random forest type classification model incorporating fusing intensity, texture, spectral, vegetation index and topography information and using random forest Gini in...     

Regional distribution and sustainable development strategy of mineral resources in China

This paper summarizes the distribution and production layout of the major mineral resources in China,including coal,iron ore,copper and bauxite,from a national perspective.It also identifies the incompatibility between the mineral resources distribution and regional economic development.Significant issues with China’s mineral resource industry cause challenges for the sustainable development of both the mining industry and the national socio-economy.The sustainability of regional mineral resources and the environmental pollution by mining in the western China were also analyzed.Results show that the distribution of China’s mineral resources is misaligned with its regional layout of economic development.China’s mineral resources have been over-exploited,and the mineral resources production in the eastern China is unsustainable.The continuously expanding production of mineral resources in the western China has heavily endangered the ecological environment.We propose strategies to boost the sustainable development of mineral resources,including measures to accelerate economic development and enhance the sustainability of domestic mineral resources.We also offer suggestions for scientifically planning the mineral resource prospecting and exploitation and regional economic layout,as well as for proactively undertaking industry transfer in the eastern China and raising the environmental benchmark requirements for the mineral industry in the central and western China.     

Changes of residential land density and spatial pattern from 1989 to 2004 in Jinan City,China

Urban sprawl is driven by a myriad of factors, the predominant one of which is the development of residential land. Selecting part of Jinan City for a case study, we use the landscape metric of percent of landscape (PLAND) to capture residential land growth and density changes in 1989, 1996 and 2004 to illuminate the dynamic process of residential land development. The results indicate that the moving window method and the landscape metrics method are efficient ways to describe residential land density. The residential land showed the greatest change among the built-up land with 1995.68 ha from 1989 to 2004, which is mainly transformed from agriculture land and green space. The urban center area of study area is primarily covered with medium density residential land, and surrounded by high density residential land. The development pattern of residential land exhibited both fill-in (new growth occurs through infilling the free spaces within the developed area) and sprawl processes, influenced by a series of factors, such as urban development policy, conservation of springs, recreational and aesthetic amenities. The findings of the study will help to guide urban planning with a focus on the management and protection of the environment and resources.     

Ecological Footprint dynamics of Yunnan, China

A fundamental element of sustainable development is that humans live within nature＇s biological capacity. Quantifying this, however, remains a significant challenge for which there are many emerging tools. The concept of the Ecological Footprint is one such accounting tool for comprehensive assessment of the status of sustainable development, based on integration of resource consumption and land capacity, reflecting the human impact on the environment. A region＇s development is defined as unsustainable when the Ecological Footprint surpasses the biological capacity. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint concept Was applied in assessing the development of Yunnan Province, China in a period between 1988 and 2006. The results showed that the Ecological Footprint per capita in Yunnan rose from 0.854 gha in 1988 to 2.11 gha in 2006. Ecological deficit, defined as when the human demand on the land surpasses the regions biological productive capacity, emerged in 1991 and quickly increased from 0.02 gha in 1991 to 1.05 gha in 2006. The increase in the ecological deficit is primarily a result of the rapid increase in population and consumption level. To achieve sustainable development in Yunnan, production and consumption rates need to be modified.     

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KARST MOUNTAINOUS AREA——A Case Study of Du＇an Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi

Ecological security is the main task and applied field of present geography, resources and environment sciences and ecology. Ecological security evaluation will efficiently promote ecological security and environmental construction in regional land use. In this thesis, the authors put forward the index system of ecological security evaluation in karst mountainous area on three aspects, the pressure of resources and eco-environment, the quality of resources and eco-environment, and the ability of environmental protection and ecological improvement. Using the evaluation method with single index, based on the case study ofDu‘an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the system ofsynthetic regionalization ofecological agricultural economy was formed, which includes three regions, south region with basic security and synthetic agricultural development, east region with critical security and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry balanced development, mid-west and south region with ecological insecurity and compounded agriculture and forestry management. Meanwhile, for these regions, the countermeasures of sustainable agricultural development were pointed out, which provide the basis and example for ecological regulation and control of sustainable agricultural development in counties of karst mountainous area.     

Poverty reduction, environmental protection and ecosystem services: A prospective theory for sustainable development

Poverty reduction and environmental protection are two global tasks for sustainable development.The study perspective has changed over time,from narrowly focusing on poverty reduction to comprehensively strengthening human-welfare.We reviewed key references targeting the theoretical content and practical approach relying on poverty,environment protection and ecosystem services.We discussed the contradicting views on the relationship of poverty and environmental degradation,and then illustrated the study progress of a cutting-age topic-ecosystem services which pave a way to address poverty reduction and environmental protection together.At last,we investigated essential factors that affect the development and environmental protection.Considering the evolution of the concept of poverty,we found that the environment has occupied an increasing proportion in the cognizance of poverty.The relationship between poverty and environmental degradation is regional uniqueness.In practical aspect,projects based on the management and valuation assessment of ecosystem services draw researchers′attention all over the world.The appropriate scale,essential economic incentives,morality,law and social equality are key factors affecting individuals′decisions which directly relate to the sustainable development.     

Community participation in forest resource management in Nepal

Livelihood of the people in Nepal hills depends much upon forest resources in addition to farming as forest plays a critical role in the well being of the farming households where access to alternative sources, such as energy for cooking, nutrition for animals, materials for fertilizer and constructing materials for shelter, are limited. Thus, the well being of the people in the hills is directly affected by the management of these forest resources. This issue was addressed in this paper by examining the forest resource management practices and its effect on well being of rural people in two different stages in a village lying in the steep hill of Mahabharat Range in the southern hills of Kathmandu valley, Lalitpur District. The main ethnic/caste groups in the villageare Brahmin/Chhetri (high Hindu caste),Magar/Tamang (Tibeto Burmans) and Kami (occupational caste: cobbler). Currently there are four community forest users groups, with mixed ethnic membership, organized to manage the forest resources. The endowments, weak institutional settings, before 1990 helped the Bhramins, Magars and Tamangs to get access into the private forest endowment, which made them easy to get access to the forest resources, mainly fuel wood, fodder and timber in 1990 and enhanced their well beings. But the socially backward Kami could not get benefit from the institutions that existed during that time and had less chance to enhance their well beings. After the set up of different endowments during late 199os, i.e.,hand over of forest management to users groups in line with the concept of community forest,environment to use the forest resources became better for all the groups, along with the management of the forest. This enhanced the well beings of all the groups in the study village. However, the ability of Kami to use the forest resources to enhance their well beings was still lacking behind. The reason was partially due to the difference in endowments carried over from the endowments before 199o, and partly due to their occupational work and location of their settlements.     

Impact of labor transfer on agricultural land use conversion at rural household level based on Logit model

Since land and labor force are primary resources to be used and controlled by rural households, the allocation of labor forces will influence land uses, and further lead to land use conversion. The present study used the Binary Logit model to investigate the influence of labor force transfer, characteristics of rural households, location, and land market on agricultural land use conversion at rural household level. This study was conducted based on 329 valid questionnaires, which were obtained in Changshu, Rudong, and Tongshan counties, respectively representing the southern, middle and northern areas of Jiangsu Province. The results showed that land market participation, location, zonal difference and labor transfer had strong influences on agricultural land use conversion. The participation of land market had a strong positive effect on land use conversion, especially for the farmland converted to the fishpond. The nearer to the county seat, the more conversion of land use occurred. Particularly, the labor force transfer caused by wage employment decreased this conversion probability, while the labor transfer caused by self-employment led to more conversion; and the increasing of income from labor transfer increased the conversion. Moreover, land use conversions demonstrated zonal difference, which were more in Rudong and Changshu counties than in Tongshan County, and the factors influencing this conversion were different in the three regions.     

Rural landscape types and recreational value spatial analysis of valley area of Loess Plateau: A case of Hulu Watershed,Gansu Province,China

Rural landscape is a complex of natural landscape and human landscape, with various values. The recreational value of rural landscape is a kind of comprehensive benefit with economic, social and ecological, which is provided by the rural landscape as a recreational resource. Loess Plateau is located at the junction of northern and northwestern of China, with serious water and soil erosion and fragile ecological environment. Jingning County is the national poor county, belonging to Liupanshan concentrated poverty areas. Hulu Watershed in Jingning is the typical valley area of Loess Plateau. In the past few decades, Jingning facing the fragile ecology and poverty, has been focusing on apple industry, forming unique rural landscape, exploring an ecological development path, and making much progress in green industrialization and urbanization. The author, according to the apple tree's growing stages, divided the rural landscape of Hulu Watershed into 15 types and analyzed its spatial patterns. The recreational value of Hulu Watershed was evaluated at 1.8 × 10~8–3.6 × 10~8 yuan(RMB) in 2014, by Travel Cost Method and Contingent Valuation Method. The territorial differentiational features of recreational value were that the higher value landscape types concentrated in the surrounding areas of towns and central villages, and the areas along the traffic and river had more development potentiality. The main influence factors were the construction of rural landscape and the development of recreation industry. And the development paths of different landscape types were also proposed. The research conclusions can provide reference for the landscape exploration and recreation industry development in the similar underdeveloped areas in the valley area of Loess Plateau with fragile ecology and poverty.     

Quantitative Evaluation of Ecological Cumulative Effects and Zoning Regulations for Prefectural Mining Units in China

Although the development of energy and mineral resources strongly supports China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization,it has led to a series of ecological and environmental problems.Strengthening the spatial regulation considering the ecological and environmental protection on energy and mineral resource development areas is an important aspect of realizing China’s sustainable development.In this study,we mapped,categorized,and analyzed the ecological cumulative effects of the Chinese 134 prefectural mining units based on the pressure-state-response model,which is demonstrated as impact of mining activities on ecological environment,ecological environmental fragility,and ecological function.This investigation developed a stress zoning typology of the mining units based on scores of three dimensions of the ecological cumulative effects and classified 134 prefectural mining units into eight types of stress zones.A series of regulation and policy suggestions have been proposed to different types of zones from three aspects:space control,intensity control,and development mode control.The application of this evaluation and spatial zoning system will contribute to the refined spatial management of China’s mining areas.