Abstract:Although sustainability is now a well-established concept, it is less well-established in the management of built heritage attractions. This paper reports research on the application of sustainability indicators for built heritage attractions, as a means to advance a more holistic sustainability assessment approach for the management of this important type of attraction. The research employed a questionnaire-based survey and four case studies designed to provide information concerning sustainability assessment for a substantial sample of built heritage attractions in both the UK and China. It seeks to identify the dimensions of sustainability for such attractions through a consideration of relevant sustainability indicators. The research findings indicate important variations in terms of the importance of key sustainable indicators between the UK and China. The results also provide pointers as to how the set of indicators might be developed further to provide a more holistic and measurable appraisal method to assess the sustainability of the management of built heritage attractions.

The rapid development of digital technologies provides important opportunities for more effective cultural heritage conservation and management. While the concept of cultural landscape has been accepted by the academic community in the cultural heritage field for many years, the digital conservation of cultural landscapes still lacks pragmatic guidance. The aim of this article is to explore an approach for building a digital information system to support cultural landscape conservation and management. The Slender West Lake scenic area, a typical cultural landscape in China, was used as an instrumental case study. A geo-database was designed and established to integrate the information of the natural, cultural, tangible and intangible landscape features of Slender West Lake. The digital information system for cultural landscapes provides a more holistic, dynamic and specific cultural perspective on heritage for landscape conservators. The system provides comprehensive information support for heritage conservation, management and interpretation, which are not achievable with conventional tools. This article has expanded the cultural heritage theory by presenting a practical guide for the digital information management of cultural landscapes. The workflow for building a cultural landscape geo-database can be used as a reference for heritage projects in China and other countries.

A households′ production behavior directly influences the quality of the environment and determines the successful development of nature reserves. Meanwhile, the households′ production behaviors are complicated by interrelated factors, such as protection attitudes, resource endowment, and family wealth. This research evaluated households near the Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province, acquiring data from 436 households around Yang County and Ningshan County in the south slope of Qinling Mountains, China. Based on the collected data, we developed a structural equation model to evaluate the coupling relationships among households' protection attitudes, production behaviors, resource endowment, and family wealth. The results showed that: 1) households with great resource endowment had more negative attitudes, probably due to their greater protection costs; 2) the households with higher education levels had worse protection attitudes; 3) the households with more family wealth were likely to use fewer fertilizers, pesticides, and firewood; 4) the households with more resource endowment showed less production and management behaviors; 5) the enhancement of households′ attitudes improved production behaviors to protection the environment, but the effects were not statistically significant. Our results provide a basis for the government′s protection policy making, exploring the effective management measures that are beneficial for both nature reserve management and community development.