Response and Simulation of Vegetation in Desert Scenic Spot to Tourists’ Trampling Disturbance

Chenhao XUE, Longtang LI, Jie REN

Abstract


A large number of tourists had a devastating effect to the scenic area. Shapotou and Huangshagudu scenic spots in Ningxia were selected as the research areas. The fait accompli method was used to investigate the response of footpath in the above scenic spots to tourists’ stampede interference. Three different angles and different vegetation types of quadrats were set up to simulate tourists’ stampede mode and observe the vegetation recovery after stampede. The results showed that: (1) The tourist trampling disturbance mainly were limited 0-4 meters distance from the tourist trails, but there was difference for different tourist trails. (2) The index of land cover impact (ILCI) of the investigating sections indicated the 1 meter distance from tourist trail is seriously disturbed; Because of the palisade on both sides of the plank road, the average value of ILCI in north of Shapotou (investigating section 4) is less than 44.9%.(3)With the increase of tourist activity,the coverage of vegetation decline, the height of plant reduce, the quantity and kinds decrease,soil crust fragmentation increase.(4)Because of different angle of sand dune, the impact of tourist activity to vegetation and soil is different.Vegetation and biological crust of sample C which is the biggest angle suffer from the devastation.(5)Based on limits of acceptable change (LAC) visitor questionnaires, the limit of acceptable change in ground coverage was 16.4%. The vegetation coverage should be below this level at desert scenic spots. It shows that there is natural incompatible relationship between tourist demand to the empty and desolate desert and desert ecological management. The results also indicated that the current tourism disturbance had some negative effect on the tourist experience and ecosystem.

 


Keywords


Desert scenic spot; Trampling disturbance; Response; Simulation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ballantyne, R., Packer, J., & Falk, J. (2010). Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modeling. Tourism Management, 32(6).

Bao, J. G., Wu, B. H., & Lu, L. (1999). 20 years of Chinese tourism geography (1978-1998). In C. J. Wu, C. M., Liu, & L. P. Wu (Eds.), Chinese geography at the turn of the century. Beijing: People’s Education Press.

Bates, G. H. (1935). The vegetation of footpaths, sidewalks, car tracks and gateways. Journal of Ecology, 23, 470-487.

Bates, G. H. (1938). Life forms of pasture plants in relation to treading. Journal of Ecology, 26, 452-455.

Carić, H., & Mackelworth, P. (2014). Cruise tourism environmental impacts – The perspective from the Adriatic Sea. Ocean and Coastal Management, 102.

Cole, D. N. (1990). Ecological impacts of wilderness recreation and their management. In J. C. Hendee, G. H. Stankey, & R. C. Lucas (Eds.), Wilderness Management, 425-466.

Cui, F. J. (1995). On the bearing capacity of tourism environment -- one of the criteria for sustainable tourism development. Economic Geography, (l), 105-109.

Deng, J. Y., Wu, Y. H., & Jin, L. (2000). Investigation and evaluation on the impact of recreation in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Journal of Central South Forestry University, (l), 40-46.

Dong, R. j., Dong, Z. B., Wu, J. F., & Guo, F. (2013). Evaluation and development on Yadang land form tourism resources in LopNor of China. Journal of Desert Research, 33(4), 1235-1243.

Hammitt, W. E., & Cole, D. N. (1987). Wildland recreation: ecology and management. New York, USA: John Wiley.

Jeyhun, I, M., Shahriyar, M., Jeyhun, M., & Mayis, A. (2019). Correction to: Re-evaluating the environmental impacts of tourism: does EKC exist?. Environmental science and pollution research international.

Jiang, W. J., Zhu, L. X., Li, J., et al. (1996). The impact of tourism on the ecological environment of Mount Emei and countermeasures. Environmental Science, 17(3), 48-51.

Kim, H., Borges, M. C. & Chon, J. (2005). Impacts of environmental values on tourism motivation: The case of FICA, Brazil. Tourism Management, 27(5).

Kuss, F. R, Graef, A. R, & Vaske, J. J. (1990). Visitor impact management: A review of research (p.256). Washington, USA: National Parks and Conservation Association.

Liu, X. B., & Bao, J. G. (1996). Development of the researches on the environmental impacts on tourist development. Geographical Research, 15(4), 92-100.

Lu, L. (1996). Study on the regional environmental effect of tourism: An empirical analysis of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui province. Environmental Science in China, (6), 17-34.

Lu, Y. T. (1996). Ecotourism and sustainable tourism development. Economic Geography, 16(1), 106-112.

Mi, W. B., Liao, L. j. (2005). A study on the desert tourism in Ningxia. Economic Geography, 25(3), 422-425.

Michailidou, A. V., Vlachokostas, C., Moussiopoulos, N., & Maleka, D. (2016). Life cycle thinking used for assessing the environmental impacts of tourism activity for a Greek tourism destination. Journal of Cleaner Production, 111.

Pope, J., Wessels, J.-A., Douglas, A., Hughes, M., & Morrison-Saunders, A. (2019). The potential contribution of environmental impact assessment (EIA) to responsible tourism: The case of the Kruger National Park. Tourism Management Perspectives, 32.

Smith, S. LJ. (1992). Recreation geog-raphy (B. H. Wu, Trans.). Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Spink J. (1994). Leisure and the environment. London, UK: Butterworth-Heinmann Ltd.

Tan, S. -H., Habibullah, M. S., Tan, S.-K., & Choon, S. –W. (2017). The impact of the dimensions of environmental performance on firm performance in travel and tourism industry. Journal of Environmental Management, 203.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11426

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Xue Chenhao

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/ccc/submission/wizard

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.
  • We only use four mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net; ccc@cscanada.net; ccc@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Cross-Cultural Communication are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail:caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net

Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture