The spatial coupling characteristics between the construction of Qingzang National Park Cluster and the sustainable development of local communities

The development of Qingzang national park cluster is part of China’s efforts to establish a major ecological civi-lization project in the Qingzang Plateau,in line with global sustainable development goals.Based on preliminary scientific investigation and research in the Qingzang Plateau,the construction of the park cluster will include 21 national parks.To mitigate the conflict between conservation of the national park cluster and the develop-ment of local communities,this study proposes an analysis framework to identify the spatial coupling features between the national park cluster and sustainable development of communities.Four elements were selected to construct the analysis framework,including natural conditions,geographic location,cultural background,and national policies.This framework was applied to the 457 township communities within the 21 national parks.Results show the weak influence of the construction of the national park cluster for approximately 304 township communities,without significant spatial coupling traits,while the remaining 153 communities demonstrated significant spatial coupling features.These latter townships had developed four types of spatial coupling with na-tional parks,including eco-migrants,transportation hubs,characteristic cultures,and border development,which account for 17.4%,35.3%,19.8%,and 27.5%of the 153 townships respectively.A composite type with more than one spatial coupling feature was also found for 14 communities within the 153 townships.This provides a reference for policy making towards four major types of interactive modes between townships and the national park construction for the sustainable development of Qingzang Plateau.

Evaluation and structural analysis of the functions of the Tibetan Plateau National Park Cluster

National parks are useful entities for looking at coordinated efforts to improve the Tibetan Plateau’s function as an ecological safety barrier and the region’s green development.Research on the characteristics of the function structures of the Tibetan Plateau’s national parks is vital to promoting their systematic and coordinated development.This paper combines the pressure-state-response model,the rank-size rule and a coupling and coordination model to identify and evaluate the functions of national parks on the Tibetan Plateau and to analyze the categories,hierarchy and structures behind those functions.The results indicate the following:(1)The Tibetan Plateau National Park Cluster needs to maintain internal and external relations.Internally it needs to rationally allocate resources between ecological protection,recreation and community development,and externally it needs to promote its role as an ecological security barrier and promote regional green development by rationally ranking and organizing the individual national parks,so as to handle their co-evolution of functions at multiple scales.(2)Ecological protection,recreation and community development are the most prominent functions of the Tibetan Plateau National Park Cluster,but there is scope to develop their scientific research and education functions.The Zipf index shows that their multi-functional level conforms with the rank-size rule,indicating balanced development.Individual national parks need to strengthen their optimal functions according to their characteristic localization.(3)The degree of coupling between the functions of the Tibetan Plateau National Park Cluster is 0.7809,and the degree of coordination is 0.6227,which indicates a very strong coupling and moderate coordination.The coupling strength and degree of coordination between the multiple functions vary greatly among the individual national parks,which reflects their different function structures.There are four function structure types:fully coordinated,optimally developed,moderately developed and moderately underdeveloped.This study contributes to research on evaluating the functions of national park clusters and analyzing their structures,and it serves as a reference on optimizing and sustainably developing the Tibetan Plateau National Park Cluster.