Conserving Agricultural Heritage Systems through Tourism: Exploration of Two Mountainous Communities in China

Community plays an important role in the preservation of agricultural heritage system(AHS).Recently, many AHS have been valorized as interesting resources for rural tourism. The expectations are that tourism development(TD) can be supportive for the conservation of AHS while creating benefits for local communities. In this study,two mountainous pilot villages(Longxian and Xiaohuang) in a global conservation project for traditional agricutural systems – Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(GIAHS) were selected to identify the relationship between AHS conservation and TD. The study undertook in-depth interviews,and questionnaires of village residents and informal discussions with local villagers. A t-test and a linear regression model were implemented to explore the comparative dimensions of the two communities with different geographical location, economic situation,and stage of TD. The research found some similarities and differences in the two mountainous communities during AHS conservation and TD. Firstly, AHS are preservaed well in both villages unconsiously, while the residents in Xiaohuang value more highly the heritage elements than the respondents in Longxian,and the villagers in Xiaohuang are more worried about their heritage system; Secondly, both villages expect lots of benefits from TD and they clearly perceive more positive than negative impact from tourism and thus approve TD, while the hugedifferent perception on transportation and accessibility in the two villages reflects the bottleneck of TD in Xiaohuang village. At the same time, the respondents from Xiaohuang perceive more positive and fewer negative impact from tourism than the respondents from Longxian. Thirdly, the respondents in the two villages all show positive attitudes towards participation in tourism mostly motivated by the high income expectation. The main factors to determine the community perception in two villages were also analyzed based on the data process. A location-based conceputal framework of AHS conservation in partnership with TD at community scale is proposed at the end of the paper. The dynamics of tourism development, that could enhance a better understanding of the complex relationship between conservation objectives and tourism development are discussed.

On the Joint Development of Tourism Economy and Culture in the Era of Big Data

This paper introduces the origin and development of tourism,the cultural connotation of tourism economy,the history of cultural tourism industry,and the strategic changes of business value and economic development in the era of big data.The strategy of economic and cultural joint development under the environment of ecological tourism is explored by developing the way of ethnic culture tourism and strengthening the interactive development of culture and economy.The competitive advantage of big data is analyzed and the importance of basic content and data collection is emphasized.In addition,the present situation of tourism market is evaluated and improved by constructing reasonable economic benefit analysis model.

Human Settlement Science-oriented Analysis of Rural Tourism Attraction System

Human settlement resources belong to tourist resources in a broad sense. Rural areas with excellent human settlements have become favorable tourist destinations. From the perspective of human settlement science, tourism attraction system model can be established by factors of harmony of rural ecology, harmony of rural life, harmony of rural production and harmony of rural culture. Concrete strategies for improving rural tourism attractiveness based on science of human settlements were proposed from the perspectives of optimization of ecological environment, education of original residents, upgrading of agricultural landscapes and products, and construction of rural tourism culture.

Construction of Spatial Database of Tourism Resources in the Lijiang River Basin Based on MapGIS

GIS and GPS technology was applied to construct spatial database of ecotourism resources in the Lijiang River Basin,the process of constructing database was elaborated,data collection and processing as well as specific schemes of building graphic database and attribute database were introduced,in order to provide data support for optimizing the development spaces of regional tourism resources,regulating development activities,and realizing sustainable development of ecology,environment,tourism economy and society.In addition,this paper also offered data support for eco-environment monitoring,building tourism resource management information system and "Digital Lijiang".

Analysis of the Dominant Types of Rural Tourism in Beijing Suburbs

Taking 140 administrative villages for tourism expert diagnostic training as the object, using the minimum variance method and spatial analysis method, this paper studied leading types of rural tourism industry in Beijing based on a comprehensive analysis of the tourism business types in the villages. The results showed that rural tourism businesses are mostly the combination of many types, dominated by picking gardens and leisure farms, and the second dominant type is the combination of leisure farm and natural village household, with the clear regional distribution. The combined-business structure and its distribution is influenced by geographical location, natural conditions and industrial investment and many other factors. Water element is an important symbol of rural tourism in the suburbs of Beijing. The newly-emerging operation modes should be concluded in the scope of new format.

Linked Data Based Framework for Tourism Decision Support System: Case Study of Chinese Tourists in Switzerland

Switzerland is one of the most desirable European destinations for Chinese tourists;therefore, a better understanding of Chinese tourists is essential for successful business practices. In China, the largest and leading social media platform—Sina Weibo, a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook—has more than 600 million users. Weibo’s great market penetration suggests that tourism operators and markets need to understand how to build effective and sustainable communications on Chinese social media platforms. In order to offer a better decision support platform to tourism destination managers as well as Chinese tourists, we proposed a framework using linked data on Sina Weibo. Linked Data is a term referring to using the Internet to connect related data. We will show how it can be used and how ontology can be designed to include the users’ context (e.g., GPS locations). Our framework will provide a good theoretical foundation for further understand Chinese tourists’ expectation, experiences, behaviors and new trends in Switzerland.

Development of Bedulu Village Towards Future Tourism

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world and a promising sector to boost a country’s growth. Bedulu Village in Gianyar Regency, Bali, is a village with high tourism potential. The village has beautiful natural scenery and archaeological heritage sites, which enable tourists to enjoy culture, nature, pilgrimage, and educational tourism. Although some efforts have been made by the locals to improve the quality of tourism, the management of tourism in Bedulu Village is still handled sketchily using a simple system, in addition to a lack of proper human resources and infrastructure. Therefore, Bedulu Village still requires further development for potential tourism attraction in order to become quality tourist destination in the future. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current situation of tourism in Bedulu and determine the necessary development needed for future tourism in Bedulu Village. The data collected from the object of research were analyzed using descriptive-qualitative analytical method. The results from this study are: While Bedulu Village has been adequately prepared in terms of tourist attractions and tourist accommodation, it is still in need of further development in areas, such as infrastructure, marketing, and the empowerment of local community. This will allow the village to stay competitive in the face of mass tourism of nearby places, like Ubud and lead to community’s welfare, which in turn will secure future tourism of Bedulu Village.

Reform and Construction of Tourism Management Major in Higher Vocational Colleges under the Background of Global Tourism

Based on a lot of research on the tourism employers, the employment demands in the current tourism industry have been clear. By communicating and exchanging with the relevant units such as the scenic areas and travel agencies, the tourism posts in the actual work have been combined with the classroom teaching tasks to carry out the school-enterprise cooperation mode, highlight the combination of learning with working with the market as orientation as well as conduct the teaching reform and explore the new mode for the teaching reform of tourism management major combined with the suggestions raised by the tourism units and the current situation of tourism management major so as to contribute to improving the students' employability.

Translation of Metro Station Names in Guangzhou and Foshan from the Perspective of Symbolic Function of Translation Landscape

Guangzhou and Foshan enjoy relatively mature metro network.However,some names of metro stations are over-transliterated in Pinyin.Such a translation method is used in translating general names,nouns of locality and some names of tourist destinations.With translation landscape and linguistic landscape theories,the reasons and impacts of over-transliteration in Guangzhou and Foshan metro will be discussed from the perspective of symbolic function.English names of Metro stations in other cities serve as a reference so as to appropriate solutions.

Standards of Ecological Compensation for Traditional Ecoagriculture:Taking Rice-Fish System in Hani Terrace as an Example

Traditional eco-agriculture provides many ecosystem services which are important for the local environment, especially in mountain areas. In order to encourage the farmers to engage in eco-agriculture,it is necessary to establish an eco-compensation mechanism for them. As the compensation standard is one of key issues in establishing eco-compensation mechanism, this paper calculated the standard based on the farmers' willingness to accept(WTA) and the input-output analysis of eco-compensation. We took the traditional rice-fish eco-agriculture as the research object, conducting field surveys in Hani Terrace of Honghe County. Through the questionnaires in 2011, we obtained the farmers' willingness to accept government compensation and market compensation. Then, the research evaluated the output of eco-compensation, the economic value of rice-fish paddy ecosystem services. Finally, under different market compensation standards, we compared the input and output of government compensation. The results show that, in 2011 the government should to pay farmers 7462 yuan·ha–1·a-1to meet their willingness, but the output(ecological benefit) was only 7393 yuan·ha–1·a-1. However, when the rice price increases 1 yuan·kg-1 because of the limited use of chemicals in the next year, the government just has to pay farmers 4062 yuan·ha–1·a-1 and the surplus will be 3331 yuan·ha–1·a-1.

Current Situation and Influencing Factors of Pluriactivity in Mountainous and Hilly Rural Areas of Sichuan Province,China

In this study,the current situation of pluriactivity in mountainous and hilly rural areas of Sichuan province was analyzed using representative sample survey data and natural factor data calculated based on 30 m-resolution DEM and GIS.Moreover,using logistic regression model,a quantitative analysis was conducted on factors influencing pluriactivity in terms of individuals,households,communities and natural environmental conditions.The results showed that,(1) only 17.77% of rural laborers in mountainous and hilly areas of Sichuan province were engaged in pluriactivity.Geographically,pluriactivity was mainly chosen according to the "proximity principle",and was concentrated in construction and service industries;(2) the following factors have a significant influence on whether rural laborers in hilly areas engage in pluriactivity:gender,number of years of education,marriage,number of laborers and time to towns.Those with little influence include:age,health,family size,arable land per capita and per capita income,whether there are elderly people over 75 years and children less than 3 years.According to the main factors affecting pluriactivity,the government should enhance vocational skills training for rural laborers in mountainous and hilly areas,especially for female laborers,further improve transport accessibility and encourage rural laborers,especially female laborers to move into pluriactivity to increase the income of farm households.

Cosmogenic ^(10)Be and ^(26)Al Chronology of the Last Glaciation of the Palaeo-Daocheng Ice Cap,Southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The glacial landforms of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau （QTP） provide a unique opportunity to research hemispheric and global environmental changes. In this study, we focus on the glacial history of the palaeo-Daocheng Ice Cap （p-DIC） in the southeastern QTP during the last glacial cycle. Based on field investigations, morphostratigraphy, and surface exposure dating of roche moutonnée, polished surface and moraine debris through the terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides （TCN） ^10Be and ^26Al. We identify glacial deposits of the last deglaciation, with minimum ages of 14.9±1.3-18.7±1.7 ka, the Last Glacial Maximum （LGM） of 24.7±2.2 ka, and the early part of the last glacial period （marine oxygen isotope stage （MIS） 3） of 37.1±3.4-45.2±3.9 ka. Our results show that in this region, the extent of the glacial advance during MIS 3 was larger than that during the traditional LGM （MIS 2）. These ages are consistent with prior chronologies, and the ^10Be age is consistent with the ^26Al age for the same sample. Thus, these data provide reliable constraints on climate change in the QTP, during the last glaciation.

Carrying Capacity of Water Leisure Environment in Eco-cities-A Case Study of Ancient Canal Scenic Area in Yangzhou City

Water leisure tourism is an emerging theme in urban planning, and its planning mode and operation level directly influence the eco-cycle degree of urban development. Tourism activities inevitably impact environmental quality of urban water spaces, and the research on the environmental carrying capacity of such spaces has also become an important prerequisite of tourism planning. Taking the Yangzhou Ancient Canal Scenic Area for an example, the paper constructed the estimated indicators of water leisure tourism environmental carrying capacity on the basis of analyzing scenic geographical resources and tourism economic conditions, and calculated the scenic area's water leisure tourism environmental integrated carrying capacity by the method of barrel extrapolation, providing a reasonable foundation for evaluating the planning conditions in the eco-cycle urban water leisure tourism planning.

Valuation of Ecosystem Services:Research Progress and Prospects

The ecosystem services are material base and natural capital for sustainable development of human being. Valuation of ecosystem services is favorable for people realizing the importance of natural ecosystem to human being, and considering its long-term influence on sustainable development of human society when making decisions. Besides, it is an attempt of ecology, geography and other natural sciences to influence social decision process by economic methods. The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital, written by Robert Costanza et al., in 1997, is generally regarded as a masterpiece for the research of valuing ecosystem services. However, the classifying standard of ecosystem services, the method of various services summation and the purpose for static global value, had confronted many criticisms. Still to now, accurately valuing ecosystem services is not easy, because of the complexity of natural ecosystem, the weak capability of economic system to pricing ecosystem services and the lack of more study in this field. Based on the criticisms summarizing and comprehensive analysis, further study suggestions of ecosystem services valuation is presented: multi-scale integrated and community participation applied in evaluation, dynamic changes of material value and intangible value of ecosystem services, investigation and simulation studies of the marginal value when ecosystem services changed, associated with related areas like ecological compensation research, and research on the market-oriented evaluation of ecosystem's intangible values.

Community Regeneration Based on CPTED Theory: A Case Study of Rosengard Residential Area in Sweden

With urban development and social transformation, residential areas in some western countries have been faced with safety problems and community deterioration. In order to solve these problems through community planning, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design(CPTED) theory had been applied to practice. Rosengard residential area in Malmo, Sweden was a typical example of underclass community with physical and social problems. However, regeneration programme based on CPTED theory aimed to change the community from a problematical area to a safe and attractive neighborhood. Multidimensional analysis was carried out to illustrate the relationship between environmental improvement and security from community image, traffic system, territoriality and natural surveillance perspectives. This study could be considered as a referential approach for community construction and regeneration in China.

Effect of soil-rock system on speleothems weathering in Bailong Cave,Yunnan Province,China

Bailong Cave with its well-developed Middle Triassic calcareous dolomite’s system was opened as a show cave for visitors in 1988. The speleothem scenery has been strongly weathered as white powder on the outer layers. Study of the cave winds, permeability of soil-rock system and the chemical compositions of the dripping water indicated: (1) The cave dimension structure distinctively affects the cave winds, which were stronger at narrow places. (2) Based on the different soil grain size distribution, clay was the highest in composition in the soil. The response sense of dripping water to the rainwater percolation was slow. The density of joints and other openings in dolomite make the dolomite as mesh seepage body forming piles of thin and high columns and stalactites. (3) Study of 9 dripping water samples by HYDROWIN computer program showed that the major mineral in the water was dolomite.

A Multi-Resolution Photogrammetric Framework for Digital Geometric Recording of Large Archeological Sites: Ajloun Castle-Jordan

The generation of reality-based 3D models of archeological sites is the future of representing existing ancient structures. Such approach requires substantial economic and logistical costs which limit this application. In this context, this paper presents the use of photogrammetric workflow, based on Structure from Motion techniques (SfM) to derive 3D metric information from Structure-and-Motion images. The interdisciplinary 3D modeling framework consists of fusion of multi resolution images from both overlapped low-altitude aerial and multi-view terrestrial imagery. The acquisition of aerial photographs survey was based on archived oblique aerial stereo pair photos acquired from the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East (APAAME) project, while terrestrial of close range photos covering the castle walls has been acquired using portable camera. Camera calibration and orientation were carried out by VisualSFM, CMPMVS (Multi-View Reconstruction) and SURE (Photogrammetric Surface Reconstruction from Imagery) software. The resulted cloud points were processed using cloud Compare, MeshLab, Agisoft, and Skethup Softwares. A complete 3D digital geometric recording of the site was accomplished based on dense 3D point clouds with realistic metric accuracy and photorealistic performance to meet all the surveying and archaeological needs. The final Ajloun castle’s digital model geometry was added as a 3D building layer on Google Earth.

Periodic Solutions for a Kind of Second-Order Neutral Differential Equation on Time Scales

In this paper,the existence of periodic solutions and nonnegative periodic solutions for a kind of second-order neutral differential equation on time scales is considered.The partial increment is a fixed constant if the time scale is the real number set and is a multiple of the periodic of the time scale if the time scale is not the real number set.By means of a fixed point theorem due to Krasnoselskii,some sufficient conditions are obtained.

Measuring Quality of Economic Growth Incorporating Environment and Social Welfare:a Total Productivity Approach with an Application on China

By extending the traditional productivity theory,a new concept total productivity( TP) is introduced. Using a directional distance function approach,the concept is applied to measuring economic growth of 8 economic regions of China covering an 18 years period( 1997—2014) and test its convergence. Results showed that TP grew at an average rate of 6. 6% per year led mainly by technical change( 6. 5%). When environmental undesirable outputs are included,the Middle Yellow River,Northwest and Southwest regions of China witnessed higher productivity changes. Results of the convergence analysis revealed that China had made progress in reducing regional imbalance in growth. Inclusion of undesirable output showed that the energy-saving emission reduction policies had speed up the convergence rate of TP and environment oriented productivity. However,China's welfare oriented productivity is still very low.