Evaluation of Tourism Ecological Security and Its Driving Mechanism in the Yellow River Basin, China: Based on Open Systems Theory and DPSIR Model

Abstract

Tourism ecological security (TES) has gradually become a frontier topic because it is related to the virtuous circle of ecosystems and sustainable development, especially in river basins with fragile ecosystems. Based on the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model and open systems theory, we constructed a TES evaluation system in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. Then, the TES index was measured from 2004 to 2019 and its spatio-temporal characteristics and driving mechanism were analyzed. The results show that: (1) In terms of temporal evolution, the comprehensive TES index shows a steady upward trend, but the difference between cities increases over time. Moreover, the proportion of cities with low status levels of TES declined rapidly, while the proportion of cities with high status levels of TES has grown slowly. (2) Spatially, low-TES value cities have always been in the majority, and the high-value cities show a scattered spatial distribution, most of which are along the river. Moreover, TES is randomly distributed in space before 2013, but it shows a significant positive spatial clustering feature thereafter. Specifically, the range of hot spots extends from the intersection of the middle and upper reaches to downstream, while the cold spots are always scattered. Furthermore, the trend surface in the east–west direction is always smooth, while it gradually manifests an inverted U-shape in the north–south direction. (3) In the dynamic transfer, TES lacks the vitality of transfer, but the probability of shifting upward becomes more significant when adjacent to higher-level cities; the opposite is true when adjacent to lower-ranked cities. (4) In terms of the driving mechanism, the factors related to tourism and the economy are the most important driving forces, and the effect of tourism-related factors on TES is becoming increasingly significant. Moreover, the driving mechanism is constructed. Finally, this study provides targeted policy implications for improving TES in the YRB, which has reference value for the development of ecological protection and high-quality tourism.

Evaluation of Tourism Ecological Security Based on Driving Force–Pressure–State–Influence–Response Framework and Analysis of Its Dynamic Evolution Characteristics and Driving Factors in Chinese Province Territory

“…TES evaluation is a specific method for comprehensively diagnosing TES by qualitatively and quantitatively evaluating the ecological environment of tourist destinations [20,31]. Following the principles of science, systematicity, hierarchy, dynamism, and quantification, and considering the pressure of human activities on the ecological environment and the changes in ecological status, researchers have constructed many theoretical frameworks of index system applications to different scenarios, such as pressure-stateresponse (PSR) [32], driving force-pressure-state-influence-response (DPSIR) [7,33], and ecological footprint (EF) [34,35]. Establishing a complete evaluation index system is the foundation of TES research.…”

“…Exploring the influencing factors of TES is crucial for the sustainable development of tourist destinations. The validation methods for influencing factors of TES involve quantitative methods, such as geographical detector [7,28], panel quantile regression [14,33,38], and the spatial quantitative model [7,37]. Alternatively, previous research results can be referenced to qualitatively summarize the influencing factors of tourism destinations.…”

“…These methods can explore the key driving factors of TES; however, they ignore the spatiotemporal nonstationarity of explanatory variables and response variables and use an idealized model with mean regression, which leads to deviations in the research conclusions. For example, He et al measured the driving mechanism of TES using a geographical detector from 2004 to 2019 in the Yellow River Basin of China, and the results showed that the factors related to tourism and the economy are the most important driving forces in the whole basin [33]. Mu et al measured the driving factors of TES using the quantile regression panel method in the Yellow River Basin, and the results indicated that the factors had different effects in different quantiles [14]; however, the results did not reveal the differences in the effect of the driving factors across different regions.…”

Dynamic Evolution Characteristics and Drivers of Tourism-Related Ecological Security in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

“…After that, scholars either resorted to using technology for the processing of spatial information [14,15], or established an evaluation system combined with measurement models, such as the linear weighting method, improved TOPSIS method [16], ecological footprint method [17], Lotka-Volterra symbiosis model [18], DEA model [19], and fuzzy object-element model [20], etc., to quantitatively assess the status of tourism-related ecological security. On this basis, the temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics of tourism-related ecological security have been explored, and scholars mostly use spatial analysis tools, spatial measurement models, Gini coefficients [21], etc., to explore its spatial patterns, spatial agglomeration, spatial differences, and other spatial dynamics [22][23][24]; or evolution over time [25][26][27], and further predicting future trends [23,26,28]. With the depth of the study, the focus of scholars shifted to a higher level of analysis concerning influencing factors.…”

“…Previous studies on tourism-related ecological security have achieved fruitful results, but there are still aspects worthy of in-depth exploration: 1 Most of the existing studies have explored the spatial and temporal characteristics of tourism-related ecological security based on the determination of the ecological security level [15,28,37,49], which has weakened the correlation between regions due to the cross-diffusion of elements, resulting in a lack of studies on the correlation characteristics of tourism-related ecological security and the law of transfer. 2 Current research is mostly focused on identifying the linear influence of factors on tourism-related ecological security [19,26,47], which can clarify the key driving factors, but ignores the dynamic changes in the degree of influence of factors on tourism-related ecological security at different points, and fails to comprehensively grasp the characteristics of the changes in the driving factors of tourism-related ecological security. 3 The existing results are mostly aimed at the whole country [18], provinces [37], individual cities [17], or individual scenic spots [40], key ecological function areas [43], ecologically fragile areas [50], and other typical areas, but not enough research has been carried out on the ecological security of tourism in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which has an important strategic position in China's national development.…”