Research On The Spatial Differentiation And Sustainable Development Pathways Of Geoparks In Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Geoparks are protected and managed areas,integrating natural landscapes,geological relic landscapes and cultural landscapes.Geoparks offer people an important platform for recreation and sightseeing while they give tourists access to learn about the mysteries of the earth,appreciate geological landscapes and acquire scientific knowledge.Therefore,geoparks tourism centered on geological tourism,has been recognized internationally as a sustainable tourism.In the process of geoparks development,contradictions have arisen between the protection and development of geological relics,such as the “predatory development” and illegal exploitation and selling of geological relic resources,and environmental damage caused by the construction of infrastructures and tourism facilities.In addition,many other problems such as the incomplete management system,the inadaptation of scientific popularization to the development of geoparks and the increasing demand of tourists,and the lack of standardization of overeall planning of geoparks have affected the development process and sustainable development of geoparks.Taking the construction and development of geoparks in Guangxi Zhuang Automus Region as an example,this paper discusses the sustainable development of geoparks in the Province(or Autonomous Region)and pathways for sustainable development of geoparks.This paper mainly focuses on the following issues:1.Review and generalization of theory and practice for the sustainable development of geoparks.The research on geoparks and geological tourism involves a wide range of fields such as geology,environment,economy,society and culture.This paper begins with the definition of relevant concepts of geoparks,and a review of the present situation and trend of the development of geoparks at home and abroad,and then constructs the theoretical basis for the sustainable development of geoparks based on geology,theory of sustainable development of geoparks,theory of man-land relationship,theory of the construction and management of geoparks and theory of spatial economics.Then the paper presents and elaborates the latest research progress on geoparks at home and abroad,and specifically the present research and progress of geoparks in Guangxi Province,and points out the existing problems.Literature review indicates that the sustainable development research on geoparks is increasingly focused on the interdisciplinary crossing and integration with multi-disciplines including geology,geography,ecology,economics,sociology,management and tourism.In addition,the exploration of man-land relationship and regulation mechanism of geoparks increasingly emphasizes aspects of spatial structure,time course,organizational order,overall effect and coordinated development.Finally,research methods increasingly rely on data collection and analysis,high-tech applications,mathematical statistics and quantitative models.2.Characteristics of geological relics resources of geoparks in GuangxiA large amount of first hand materials and data acquired by data collection,departmental consultation,field research has been used in the paper.Based on the analysis of these materials and data,the paper presents a clear picture of the tectonic background,regional geographical conditions and social and economic development situation of Guangxi Autonomous Region.An extensive investigation has been carried out on the geological evolution process of the formation of typical geological relics,geological relics resource types,geological relics levels,and spatial distribution and structure of geoparks in Guangxi,on basis of which comprehensive analyses are done on resources protection,exploitation and geological tourism development of geoparks in Guangxi.Guangxi enjoys rich geological resources and unique geomorphologic landforms,especially the karst landform as one of the most complete tropical and subtropical karst landforms in the world.In addition,Guangxi has abundant magmatic(granite)landforms,clasolite(quartz sandstone,Danxia)landforms,volcanic landforms,and coastal landforms and marine erosion physiognomy.These abundant geological relic resources constitute the resource base and core geological tourism competitiveness of geoparks in Guangxi.Among the fifteen existing geoparks in Guangxi,there are eight of karst landforms,two of clasolite landforms,one of magmatic intrusive landform,two of volcanic rock landforms and two of comprehensive landforms with the karst landforms enjoying absolute predominance.The paper has analyzed the type,level and structure of geological relics in different geoparks in Guangxi and screened the most important geopark and geological relic resource,which provides evidence for future development of geoparks and protection on geological relics,and standards for the evaluation of geological resource dimension in the sustainable development assessment of geoparks in Guangxi.3.Analysis on characteristics and laws of spatial distribution of geoparks in GuangxiBased on the geology and geography,and,guided by theories of regional planning,spatial economics,man-land relationship and sustainable development,both qualitative research and quantitative analysis have been made on geological and geographical features,ecological and environmental characteristics,socio-economic characteristics and spatial diffrentiation of the spatial distribution on geological relic resources and geoparks in Guangxi,.It is suggested that geotectonic elements in Guangxi can be divided into three geological units,namely,Yunkai continental marginal arc fold belt,the intra-continental fold-thrust belt in the northeastern Guangxi,and the Youjiang back arc basin fold belt.Geoparks in different geological units show significant differences in their geological characteristics.In the zoning of basin and geomorphology,four kinds of zones have been identified,namely the Lijiang and Liujiang peak forest plain landform,the Hongshuihe peak cluster karst depression landform,Zuojiang and Youjiang peak cluster karst depression landform,and non-karst areas.In different watersheds and geomorphological areas,the distribution of geoparks is uneven,among which the number of geoparks in karst landform is the largest,reflecting the outstanding features of karst landform in Guangxi.In the zoning study of fragile eco-environmental areas,this paper selects vegetation coverage,rock desertification area,water erosion thickness,wind erosion thickness and other factors as indicators,and uses county-level administrative regions as unit,then the vulnerability of ecosystem in every county of Guangxi is calculated,using ArcGIS software and mapping.And it also explores the ecological vulnerability and rock desertification in the location of the geolparks,emphasizing the severity of ecological environment issues confronting the the existing geoparks and their adjacent areas as well as the moderation of the geopark development.In the study of economic zoning,Guangxi is divided into five economic zones: the northeastern Guangxi economic zone,the southeastern Guangxi economic zone,the central Guangxi economic zone,the southeastern Guangxi economic zone,and the western Guangxi economic zone.Among them,the number of Geoparks in the economically backward northeast,southeast western Guangxi economic zone,takes up an absolute predominant position,while in the economically developed regions,like the coastal economic zones in central Guangxi and south Guangxi,the number of geoparks is relatively small,indicating that the appeal of geoparks construction in underdeveloped regions is greater than that of developed ones.The paper also adopts nearest neighbor-hood method for a quantitative analysis on the Guangxi Geopark punctate and random distribution.And it takes Geoparks in Guangxi as a punctate measuring object,and results of calculation by using the model show the index of the nearest point in existing geoparks of Guangxi is R = 4.24(> 1),and the spatial distribution is even.In addition,taking the 14 prefecture-level cities in Guangxi as unit,the paper also presents the condition of spatial distribution equilibrium in the geoparks by determination of the balance ratio coefficient,and the usage of the area,population,or economic indicators of different cities,using the method of variation coefficient,balance degree and balance ratio coefficient.The calculation results of the balance ratio coefficient of the geopark indicate that the distribution balance of Guangxi Geopark is at an intermediate level.4.Sustainability assessment of geoparks in GuangxiAccording to the development characteristics of geoparks and the evaluation/revalidation requirements of geoparks organized by the UNESCO Global Geopark Organization,this paper constructs an evaluation index system for the sustainable development of Guangxi Geopark,centering around four dimensions involving the geologic resources dimension,socioeconomic dimension,ecological environment dimension,and park management dimension of sustainable development of Guangxi Geopark,together with 26 evaluation indicators.With the optimal value of each indicator's traits selected as a reference for sustainable development evaluation,and synthetic weight of evaluation indicators obtained by AHP-entropy method,an evaluation model for sustainable development of the geopark is established based on the grey relational projection method,through which a comprehensive evaluation of the sustainable development of 15 Geoparks in Guangxi is conducted.The order of the sustainable development of 15 Geoparks in Guangxi is Leye-Fengshan> Dahua Qibeilong> Beihai Weizhoudao> Guiping>Ziyuan> Du'an Underground River> Luzhai xiaoqian>Luchen> Pubei wuhuangshan> Dayaoshan(Jinxiu)> Yizhou shilin>Linshan haiyangshan>Huanjiang wenya>Guanyang shilin > Napo Geoparks.The evaluation results show that Leye-Fengshan globle Geopark,Dahua Qibeilong,Beihai Weizhoudao,Guiping,Ziyuan national Geoparks with great prospect sustainable development in Guangxi.It is Du'an Underground River,Luzhai xiaoqian,Luchen,Pubei wuhuangshan national geoparks and Dayaoshan(Jinxiu)Geopark with good sustainable development and it is Yizhou shilin,Linshan haiyangshan,Huanjiang wenya,Guanyang shilin and Napo Geoparks with with unsatisfactory sustainable development.Different geoparks perform differently in different dimensions.For instance,Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark,Dahuaqibainong National Geopark,Guiping National Geopark and other Geoparks got higher scores in geological resource,ecological environment and geopark management,but lower in socioeconomic development;Weizhou Island,Luzhaixiangqiao National Geopark,Dayaoshan National Geopark and other geoparks got higher scores in socioeconomic development but lower in geological resources,ecological environment,and geopark management.It is suggested that practical and feasible construction measures should be adopted in light of the deficiencies of the operation of geoparks,so that the geoparks can be developed in a sustainable manner in the future construction.5.Pathways to sustainable development for geoparks in GuangxiA classified protection model for the geological relics in Guangxi Geopark is proposed based on the analysis ofthe current situation of geological relics protection in Guangxi GeoparkFrom the perspectives of the of geological tourism,this paper discusses the development strategy of geological tourism,as well as the expansion of ecotourism in popular science tourism in geoparks.It is suggested that Guangxi should focus on developing two major geological tourism routes,integrating the geological tourism into the tourism industry of Guangxi region,and designing tourism products suitable for the development of geoparks.The paper builds a multi-level comprehensive management model for geoparks involving three major systems,namely,management agencies,management systems,and management personnel.The relationship between tourism development,community economy,and poverty alleviation in Geoparks of Guangxi is discussed from operating systems,protection systems,and support systems,emphasizing their important role in the promotion of community economic development and poverty alleviation.To sum up,this paper establishes the sustainable development pathways for Geoparks in Guangxi from such aspects as the coordination between the protection and development of geological heritage,the integration of geological tourism,ecotourism,and cultural tourism,the construction of geological science education system,the innovation of the management system,the formulation of laws and regulations,the community economic development of the geoparks,and the alleviation of poverty,which is referred to as the “Five-in-One Pathways” composed of geological conservation,geological tourism,geological science,park management,community economy and poverty alleviation.