ARTICLES 此间距15mm Comprehensive Assessment on Tourism Eco-environment of Gansu Province Based on Spatial Data Wang Lili1, 2, Dong Suocheng1, Li Yu1, Wang Peixian1, 2, Qi Xiaoming3 1. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China; 2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3. College of Geographical Science, Inner Mongolian Normal University, Hohot Inner Mongolia 010022, China Abstract: The article studies tourism eco-environment of 14 cit- In recent years, the ability of coordinated ecosystem ies of Gangsu Province, China, based on GIS with many kinds of itself is descending continuously and the survival environ- multi-subject spatial database, such as remote sensing data, obser- ment for humans is presenting an increasingly weak trend vation data and literature data. The research results were as fol- due to the sharp growth of the population and the unreason- lows. First, spatial features of 14 cities’ tourism eco-environment able exploitation of the resources (Shi et al., 2007). Tour- are displayed with five levels of vulnerability respectively. The ism industry is developing rapidly in Gansu Province with vulnerability in Gansu becomes worse from Gannan City, located abundant tourism resources at present and the exploitation in southern Gansu to Hexi Corridor which lies in northwestern of tourism resources has had both positive and negative ef- Gansu. Second, the areas of above the middle vulnerability level fects on its eco-environment. Therefore, it is very meaning- make up 75% of the total areas of Gansu Province. Third, more ful to evaluate tourism eco-environment of Gansu Province than 70% of high-level human and natural tourism resources are to mitigate the eco-environmental side-effects that exploita- in the areas with high vulnerability eco-environment. Fourth, it is tion of tourism resources can bring about and make tourism crucial to develop comprehensive tourism industry in order to im- of Gansu Province sustainable. prove the harmonious development between tourism industry and eco-environment in Gansu Province. 2 General situation of tourism of Gansu Province 此间距上下7mm Key words: tourism eco-environment, assessment, GIS Gansu Province is located in northwestern China, with 1 Introduction latitude 32°11′–42°57′N and longitude 92°13′–108°46′E. It is made up of 14 cities and prefectures, 86 counties, with an Geographic information system (GIS), very useful for area of 4.3×105 km2 and a population of 26.19×106 persons tourism, covers various aspects including facilities, activi- in 2004 ( population density is 61 person / km2 ). ties, services and industries to deliver travel experience. Tourism development of Gansu Province is divided into Spatial data plays an important role in evaluating and plan- three stages. The first stage is the primary development ning these different aspects (Boyd et al., 1994). GIS has characteristics of being exact, real-time and all-around in Foreign exchange earnings Domestic travel income evaluating tourism resources, analyzing tourist markets 60 6 and planning tourism routes (Fu et al., 2001; Dong et al., 50 5 2006; Dye and Shaw, 2007). At present, lots of qualitative USD) 6 40 4 researches are made but only few quantitative ones are fo- 30 3 yuan RMB) cused on tourism environment in China (Li and Gan, 2007). 20 2 9 (10 The quantitative research only deals with regional carrying Foreign exchange earnings (10 10 1 capacity or environmental capacity (Martinez-Alier et al., Domestic travel income 0 0 1998; Mejia et al., 2000; Shi and Gao, 2007). The authors 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 have made a comprehensive analysis on the regional tour- Year ism eco-environment. Fig. 1 Revenue of tourism of Gansu Province from 1998 to 2004 Corresponding author: Wang Lili ([email protected]) 32 Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment 2009 Vol. 7 No.2 ARTICLES stage of tourism from 1979 to 1990. The second stage is the function of GIS is put into use to analyze the spatial distri- initial stage of the rapid development of tourism from 1991 bution features of tourism eco-environment in Gansu Prov- to 2000. The third stage was the rapid development stage ince (Technical route is showed in Fig. 2). from 2001 to 2004 when the number of domestic tourists reached 38.37×106 person-times, increased 85.87% than Topographic diagram Observation data Literature data Remote sensing data that of the Ninth Five Year Plan (1996–2000). The revenue of domestic tourism added up to 1.216 billion yuan RMB DEM Digitization,Projection Interpretation (Wang et al., 2007) (Fig. 1). Assessment on fragility of eco-environment of each index of basis unit 3 Assessment on tourism eco-environment of Spatial attribute tables of GIS Gansu Province Overlay analysis of GIS 3.1 Construct assessment index system Spatial pattern of fragility value of Spatial pattern of tourism resources eco-environment, Gansu Provincce The assessment index system of tourism eco-environ- ment of Gansu Province, including four major indexes and Fig. 2 Technical route of assessment on tourism eco-environment 10 monomial indexes, is constructed on the basis of litera- tures, investigations and Delphi method (Table 1). Tourism 3.3 Data acquisition eco-environment assessment spatial database is constructed The analysis on the environmental quality index based with digitization and Arc/info9.0. The data are mainly from on the provincial unit of China showed that the eco-envi- literature data, computed data, grid data, remote sensing ronment in Gansu Province belongs to a kind of vulnerabil- data and observation data. ity (Elliott-White and Finn, 1998). According to literatures 3.2 Technical methods and the environmental status of Gansu Province, a classifi- cation is made with five levels, which are low vulnerability, The coordinate-system of every single-item dataset is lower vulnerability, middle vulnerability, high vulnerability separately established through digitization and Albers pro- and higher vulnerability. Every single index is given dif- jection method, so that the same space region is covered ferent value according to the basic regional unit and the with all kinds of data. The spatial attribute database of 10 values corresponding to the five levels mentioned above are tourism eco-environmental single-items is separately con- 0.5, 0.3, 0.1, –0.3 and –0.5 according to imbalance method structed. Furthermore, the spatial overlay statistical analysis (Table 2). Table 1 Index system of eco-environment vulnerability Major index Weight Monomial index Weight Note Slope 0.7 Based on 1�1 000 000 DEM * Terrain feature 0.1 DEM 0.3 Based on 1�1 000 000 DEM* Land use intensity 0.3 Based on literature data digitization* Intensity of human activities 0.2 Economic density 0.3 1 km2 grid data* Population density 0.4 1 km2 grid data* Aridity index 0.3 Digitization of observation data** Soil erosion 0.2 Digitization of literature data (Wan et al., 2003) Ecological background 0.5 Vegetation coverage 0.3 Remote sensing data* Ecological service function 0.2 Digitization of literature data (Wang and Ouyang, 2001) Environmental background 0.2 Geological hazard 1 Digitization of observation data* Note:*Data-sharing Network of Earth System Science, http://www.geodata.cn. ** are from the data of Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research. Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment 2009 Vol. 7 No.2 33 ARTICLES Table 2 Membership degree of different indexes Vulnerability types of Lower vulnerability Low vulnerability Middle vulnerability High vulnerability Higher vulnerability eco-environment Value of membership 0.5 0.3 0.1 –0.3 –0.5 degree Slope 0–5 5–8 8–15 15–25 >25 DEM 0–200 200–500 500–1 000 1 000–3 500 >3 500 Suitable for farming and Suitable for forest or Suitable for forest and Suitable for farming, for- Suitable for farming/ Land use intensity forest/ suitable for farm- stock raising stock raising est and stock raising wasteland ing and stock raising Economic density >50 000 20 000–50 000 5 000–20 000 1 000–5 000 0–1 000 (104yuan/km2) Population density 0–1 000 1 000–3 000 3 000–8 000 8 000–20 000 >20 000 (person/km2) Aridity index (Evap- <0.5 0.5–1 1–2 2–10 >10 oration /precipitation) Index of soil erosion Sensitivity level 1 Sensitivity level 2 Sensitivity level 3 Sensitivity level 4 Sensitivity level 5 Desert steppe and alpine Vegetation coverage Forest Scrub forest + Prairie Farmland Non-vegetation meadow Biodiversity conser- Water resource conser- Ecosystem function Flood detention Soil conservation Sand-proof vation vation Period of non-develop- Many kinds of disasters Geological hazard None Dominance in a disaster Many kinds of disasters ment and intense occurrence 3.4 Calculation of environmental vulnerability ince is mainly concentrated in the levels of above middle vulnerability, which makes up 75% of the land area of the Vulnerability is the anti-interference ability of a system, entire province. Low vulnerability and lower vulnerability that is to say, the ecological system can not recover to the areas only account for 25% (Fig. 4). Therefore, the tourism initial state once it changes from one state to the other with eco-environment in Gansu Province is extremely vulnerable. interference (Zhao and Li, 2007). According to formula (1), four major indexes of 14 areas and integrated ecological N vulnerability of the whole province are separately calculated W E d d d d f ¦Wij< I ij 1 i 4;1 j 4 (1) Jiuquan City S i 1 where, f is comprehensive value of eco-environment vul- Zhangye City nerability of regional tourism, Wij is the weight of j (single Jinchang City item) in i (major index); Iij is membership degree value of j (single item) in i (major index).