A geopark is the best place for scientific knowledge dissemination, recreation and regional economic development. However, research on science tourism in China’s national geoparks is still in its infancy and the theory is lagging behind practical development needs. For the purpose of exploring the shortcomings and optimization paths of geoparks in science tourism development, here, we used Koktokay World Geopark as the research object and examined the internal advantages, internal disadvantages, external opportunities and external challenges. Then, using 17 indicators, such as natural resource endowment, a SWOT-AHP model was constructed to systematically analyze the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats. The analysis found that advantages > disadvantages > opportunities > threats. The SWOT four-quadrant strategy was positioned at the first quadrant, and the advantage–opportunity strategy should be based on its internal advantages and make full use of the external opportunity conditions. Based on the results, suggestions were made to maintain resource advantages, obtain policy opportunities and improve the transportation conditions and the interpretation system; hence, in this study, a reasonable path for the development of science tourism in Koktokay World Geopark was explored and theoretical references for the science tourism and sustainable development of other geoparks were provided.

Ecosystem degradation and conversion are leading to a widespread reduction in the provision of ecosystem services. It is crucial for the governance of regional land spaces to rapidly identify key areas for ecosystem restoration. Herein, we combined the InVEST Habitat Quality Model with the granularity inverse method to identify ecological sources in Jiashi county, China, based on the “source-corridor” ecological security pattern paradigm. The minimum cumulative resistance model and circuit theory were adopted to diagnose the ecological “pinch points”, barrier points, break points, and key restoration areas for land space. Our results show that: (1) the area of the ecological source and the total length of the ecological corridor were identified as 1331.13 km2 and 316.30 km, respectively; (2) there were 164 key ecological “pinch points” and 69 key ecological barrier points in Jiashi county, with areas of 15.13 km2 and 14.57 km2, respectively. Based on the above ecological security pattern, recovery strategies are put forward to improve regional ecosystem health. This study describes the best practices which can be used to guide the planning and implementation of ecosystem restoration at the local landscape scale.

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With the ongoing expansion of tourism, a conflict has arisen between economic growth in the tourism industry and environmental preservation, which has attracted the interest of government and academic groups. Because it enables the adaption of tourist activities and buildings in the tourism area in order to protect the natural resources of the scenic area while seeking economies of scale, the tourism environmental carrying capacity system is an essential tool for resolving this conundrum. It also enables tourist sites to grow sustainably while understanding their limitations and carrying capacity. This study uses Citespace 6.1.2 and VOSviewer 1.6.18 analysis software to conduct a bibliometric analysis and review of 297 articles on tourism environmental carrying capacity. This analysis includes early warning studies, assessment models and management tools, and analyses of keyword co-occurrence and emergent word co-occurrence. The article’s conclusion makes recommendations for further research, including the division of each interest group, improved dynamic forecast and early warning of tourism environmental carrying capacity, and the development of an objective, scientific model of tourism carrying capacity.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is humanity’s mutual treasure; the history and civilization of humans are preserved in ICH. In particular, the protection of national ICH has become a principal focus of the Chinese government’s current active promotion of digital protection and innovative ICH development. Since ancient times, the Yangtze Delta region in China has been known as the “country of honey and milk”, and it remains home to many priceless historical and cultural artifacts. This paper combines the Geodetector tool and GIS spatial analysis in order to study as an example the spatial distribution pattern of national ICH in the Yangtze Delta region. The study demonstrates that the quantity and type of structures of national ICH in various provinces and cities differ from one another in terms of spatial distribution characteristics. In general, the spatial agglomeration of ICH is significant, and the spatial divergence between regions is obvious, showing a pattern of spatial distribution characterized by agglomeration in the southeast of the Yangtze Delta region and dispersion in the northwest, presenting different degrees and scales of distribution into groups and bands across each province and city. The indicators of different dimensions were discretized in ArcGIS, then entered into the Geodetector software. The results show that government support is the leading force in promoting the development of ICH, with scores of 0.630 and 0.597 for the secondary indexes. Social humanity serves as an important condition for the development of ICH, and the scores for the relevant secondary indexes were 0.461 and 0.146. Economic development provides the material basis for the further development of ICH, and the scores for these secondary indexes were 0.175 and 0.266. The natural environment determines the basic pattern of the spatial distribution of ICH, and the scores of the relevant secondary indexes in this case were 0.196 and 0.081. The results prove our hypothesis that government support is a core element. Interactions among the factors enhanced their influence on the spatial distribution of ICH. In addition, based on the exploration of the spatial structure of ICH, this research also provides several suggestions for the inheritance and development of ICH in the Yangtze Delta region and puts forward proposals for a future research agenda.