scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Evolution and the Influencing Factors of Tourism-Based Social-Ecological System Vulnerability in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4008
Author(s):  
Jun Tu ◽  
Shiwei Luo ◽  
Yongfeng Yang ◽  
Puyan Qin ◽  
Pengwei Qi ◽  
...  

With the rapid development of global tourism, identifying the vulnerability of tourism-based social-ecological systems (SESs) has become an important topic in sustainable development research. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the vulnerability, spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, and influencing factors of tourism-based SESs in the counties of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA). A comprehensive evaluation system containing 46 indicators was constructed using a model that combines a social–economic–ecological model and a pressure–state–response model (SEE-PSR). The entropy and composite index methods were used to calculate the vulnerability values of the indicators, and Geodetector was used to explore the factors influencing system vulnerability in the whole study area. The results showed the following: (1) The mean value of the composite vulnerability index of the TGRA from 2010 to 2018 was 0.4849, indicating a moderate vulnerability state. The system vulnerability of the study area gradually decreased from moderately high to moderately low. (2) There were obvious differences in the spatiotemporal evolution of vulnerability in different counties; high and moderately high vulnerability continued to decrease, moderately low and low vulnerability increased, and moderate vulnerability showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing. Meanwhile, the relative differences in vulnerability among counties were small but gradually increasing. (3) System vulnerability was mainly caused by the social subsystem. Six factors, including the growth rate of the number of tourists and the amount of fiscal expenditure, were more likely to contribute to system vulnerability than other factors. The interaction types were mainly nonlinear enhancement types, supplemented by two-factor enhancement. This study presents an approach for evaluating the vulnerability of tourist destinations and constructing an evaluation index system. In this way, it has reference value for reducing regional vulnerability and promoting sustainable development.

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 472
Author(s):  
Lihua Ma ◽  
Jiupai Ni ◽  
Luuk Fleskens ◽  
Han Wang ◽  
Yunqing Xuan

Non-point source pollution from excessive use of fertilizers in agriculture is a major cause of the eutrophication problem in China. Understanding farmers’ decision-making concerning fertilization and identifying the influencing factors in this process are key to tackling overfertilization and related pollution issues. This paper reports a study on modelling decisions about fertilizer use based on data collected from 200 farmer households in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China, using a well-fitted artificial neural network (ANN) with incorporated variance-based sensitivity analysis. The rate of fertilizer use estimated from the model is in good agreement with observed data. The model is further validated and tested by comparing the simulated and observed values. Results show that the model is able to identify the influencing factors and their interactions causing the variation in fertilizer use and to help pinpoint the underlying reasons. It is found that the farmers’ fertilization behavior is greatly affected by the area of cultivated land, followed by the interaction among farmers’ education level, annual income, and awareness of the importance of environmental protection. Future land consolidation is one of several ways to achieve more sustainable fertilization strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4288
Author(s):  
Siyue Sun ◽  
Guolin Zhang ◽  
Tieguang He ◽  
Shufang Song ◽  
Xingbiao Chu

In recent years, soil degradation and decreasing orchard productivity in the sloping orchards of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of China have received considerable attention both inside and outside the country. More studies pay attention to the effects of topography on soil property changes, but less research is conducted from the landscape. Therefore, understanding the effects of landscape positions and landscape types on soil properties and chlorophyll content of citrus in a sloping orchard is of great significance in this area. Our results showed that landscape positions and types had a significant effect on the soil properties and chlorophyll content of citrus. The lowest soil nutrient content was detected in the upper slope position and sloping land, while the highest exists at the footslope and terraces. The chlorophyll content of citrus in the middle and upper landscape position was significantly higher than the footslope. The redundancy analysis showed that the first two ordination axes together accounted for 81.32% of the total variation, which could be explained by the changes of soil total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, available nitrogen, available potassium, organic matter, pH, and chlorophyll content of the citrus. Overall, this study indicates the significant influence of landscape positions and types on soil properties and chlorophyll content of citrus. Further, this study provides a reference for the determination of targeted land management measures and orchard landscape design so that the soil quality and orchard yield can be improved, and finally, the sustainable development of agriculture and ecology can be realized.


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