The impact of tourism on soils in Zhangjiajie World Geopark

The soil hardness, soil water content and soil bulk density along the trails of six scenic spots in the Zhangjiajie World Geopark were measured and analyzed, and the integrated effects of tourism trampling on soils were evaluated for each scenic spots by calculating its soil impact indexes （SII） in the park. The results indicated that visitors＇ activities caused a serious influence on the soil in the park, especially in the two most used scenic spots-- Yellowstone Village and Gold Whip Stream. The impact of tourism on soil mainly occurred within 3 m along the trails. The impact shapes are classified into six type as single-sided node type, double-sided node type, cross node type, single-sided linkage type, double-sided linkage type and short-cut linkage type. Of six types of impact shapes, the single-sided node type and double-sided type were dominant. The average water contents of soil for six scenic spots at sample areas of 1 m, 2 m and 3 m from trial is 36.6%, 24.5% and 2.2% lower than that of the control area, respectively. The average soil hardness for six scenic spots at 1m, 2 m, and 3m from the trails tramped increased 167.9%, and 122.2%, and 15.8%, respectively, compared with the control area. Soil bulk density increased 26.5% at 1 m and 20.9% at 2 m from the trails. The main countermeasures for reducing the range and extent of tourism impact on soil are discussed.

Using autologistic spatial models to simulate the distribution of land-use patterns in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province

Nowadays, spatial simulation on land use patterns is one of the key contents of LUCC. Modeling is an important tool for simulating land use patterns due to its ability to integrate measurements of changes in land cover and the associated drivers. The conventional regression model can only analyze the correlation between land use types and driving factors but cannot depict the spatial autocorrelation characteristics. Land uses in Yongding County, which is located in the typical karst mountain areas in northwestern Hunan province, were investigated by means of modeling the spatial autocorrelation of land use types with the purpose of deriving better spatial land use patterns on the basis of terrain characteristics and infrastructural conditions. Through incorporating components describing the spatial autocorrelation into a conventional logistic model, we constructed a regression model （Autologistic model）, and used this model to simulate and analyze the spatial land use patterns in Yongding County. According to the comparison with the conventional logistic model without considering the spatial autocorrelation, this model showed better goodness and higher accuracy of fitting. The distribution of arable land, wood land, built-up land and unused land yielded areas under the ROC curves （AUC） was improved to 0.893, 0.940, 0.907 and 0.863 respectively with the autologistic model. It is argued that the improved model based on autologistic method was reasonable to a certain extent. Meanwhile, these analysis results could provide valuable information for modeling future land use change scenarios with actual conditions of local and regional land use, and the probability maps of land use types obtained from this study could also support government decision-making on land use management for Yongding County and other similar areas.

Welcome to Zhangjiajie Scenic Spot

ocated in western part of Hunan Province. Zhangjiajie Scenic Spot is one of the very famous and beautiful scenic spots in China. It has entered in the list of World Natural Heritage Site. Chinese Key Scenic Spot. and one of the Class 4A State Scenic Spots for the first time, by virtue of its sandstone peaks and well-preserved environment of virgin forest. In addition. it was also chosen as a China’s Civilized Scenic Spot and China’s First-rank Tourist City. due to its well-equippedaccommodation and fine service and management.