Spatial Distribution of UNESCO Global Geoparks in China and Its Influencing Factors

Abstract

China is an active responder to the UNESCO Geopark Program, and owns a total of 39 UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp). This paper firstly reviews the history of UGGp in China, and systematically analyzes their spatial distribution with Gini coefficient, Lorentz curve and kernel density estimation (KDE). Next, the influencing factors of the spatial distribution were examined through spatial regression. The main results are as follows: The density of UGGp in China decreases from the east to the west and from the south to the north. The spatial distribution of UGGp in China is extremely non-uniform: most are concentrated in East, Central and Southwest China, while a few are located in Northeast and Northwest China. Spatial regression results indicate that the regional/provincial distribution of UGGp is significantly affected by government support, tourism and infrastructure, slightly affected by landform, and weakly affected by the distribution of geosites. In future, China should prioritize the construction and application of UGGp in geosites with international significance in Northwest and Northeast China, and the government at all levels must provide more supports to developing geosites with regional features.

Global geodiversity components are not equally represented in UNESCO Global Geoparks

“…The high and unique biodiversity in mountains [18,21,70] could also be used to promote the fact that these areas are of great interest in the UGG selection procedure. However, other factors such as government support, tourism and infrastructure also play an important role in selecting UGGs [39]. The lithological diversity inside UGGs is higher in Europe, Asia and globally compared to randomly selected areas within those extents.…”

Unique Geology and Climbing: A Literature Review

“…These also include geomorphosites displaying peculiar landforms and/or geomorphological processes [32,40,41] (see also Coratza and Hoblea in [12]). Geoparks are areas specially designated for geoheritage exploitation for the purposes of tourism, education, and science, as well as for their conservation [7,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] (see also Brilha in [12]). These can be linked to single geosites with outstanding importance, several geosites, geodiversity hotspots, and geographical/geological domains boasting a concentration of geoheritage.…”

“…These establishments serve geotourists (sensu stricto) and many other types of tourists, and these may be essential for joint development of geoheritage management, geotourism, and climbing activities. Although some reviewed sources focus on geoparks (Table 1), the wide international networks of the latter [7,23,24,29] offer more opportunities for analysis of the above-mentioned joint development. Fifth, the geographical focus of the reviewed research direction is centered on continents or big islands (Table 1, Figure 2).…”

“…If coupled with climbing activities, it challenges sustainable development due to the above-mentioned environmental impact of humans. Third, geotourism development is strongly related to the international geopark movement [7,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Although geoheritage lies at the "core" of geoparks, functioning of the latter cannot be restricted to only geotourism and conservation procedures.…”

The Influence of Sports Activities on College Students' Social Adaptability

“…But at the same time, under the impact of foreign politics, economy and culture, China's politics, economy, education, society, culture and so on have become more complex and changeable. In today's society, the society needs talents to play an active role in the development of the social economy, and the ability to adapt to the society should be excellent, their body should be healthy [7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”