Tourism has been perceived as an environmentally friendly industry for a long term, but the negative impact of tourist irresponsible behavior on the environment cannot be ignored. Tourists’ pro-environmental behavior is crucial to the destination’s sustainable development. Taking stimulus-organism-response theory as a framework, this study explores the factors and mechanisms influencing tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors by integrating cognitive-affective-conative (CAC) theory and motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) theory. Through the PLS-SEM analysis with 548 questionnaires, the driving mechanism of tourists’ pro-environmental behavior was deeply explored. The results indicate that tourists’ environmental knowledge, participation motivation, and opportunity have significant positive effects on pro-environmental behavior, but the role of participation ability on tourists’ pro-environmental behavior is not confirmed. Tourists have significant environmental self-identity and environmental commitment, and these affections actively promote tourists’ pro-environmental behavior. Except for the participation ability, the other three factors, respectively, influence tourists’ environmental behavior through the mediating effects of environmental self-identity and environmental commitment. Given the limited literature integrating CAC and MOA theories within research on tourists’ pro-environmental behavior, these findings provide new perspectives for future research. This research enriches the literature on the factors influencing tourist pro-environmental behavior and also provides practical guidance for promoting tourists’ pro-environmental behavior.
In the context of continuing to promote the construction of an ecological civilization, it is of great significance to explore green development performance. However, most of the literature is based on a single perspective of level or efficiency, lacking a comprehensive examination of both. It is not scientific to explore how to promote green development only from a single perspective, which may be a new advancement by breaking the conventional thinking focusing only on level or efficiency. On this basis, we first established evaluation index systems of green development performance based on a theoretical framework. Furthermore, green development performance was measured with the entropy weight technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and super-EBM models, and finally, we analyzed the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of green development performance using the ESDA method and examined its influencing factors with a geographic detector (GD) and econometric models. The main results were as follows: (1) The trend of the green development level in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2004 to 2017 had an inverted “N” shape, while the overall average green development efficiency continuously increased. (2) In terms of spatial and temporal patterns, both the green development level and green development efficiency showed “high in the east and low in the west” spatial divergence characteristics. In terms of the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of the green development level, the L-L clusters were mainly distributed in the western region. However, for green development efficiency, the L-L clusters were mostly distributed around the H-H clusters. (3) The results of the influencing factor analysis indicated that industrial structure and people’s welfare are still important factors of the green development level. The improvement of green development efficiency was mainly driven by economic development, and the inhibiting effect of energy consumption is significant. In addition, the effect of opening up has not yet changed from a “pollution paradise” to a “pollution halo”.
13 December 2022 in Frontiers in Environmental Science
Family farms, considered the most desirable form of Chinese agriculture, play a pivotal role in promoting rural revitalization and agricultural modernization. The purpose of this study was to summarize the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of family farms to better promote the development of modern agriculture. Using provincial demonstration family farms in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MYR-UA) as the research object, this study applied the nearest neighbor index, kernel density analysis, multiscale spatial clustering analysis (Ripley’s K-function), and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to reveal the spatiotemporal dynamic evolution and influencing factors of family farms. The results indicate that: 1) from 2013 to 2021, family farms exhibited annual increases, and their development stages could be divided into rapid, stable, and slow growth periods. 2) The spatial agglomeration pattern of family farms was significant, and the intercepted points at different time periods show the distribution characteristics of the entire dispersion and local concentration. The spatial evolution characteristics of different types of family farms are nearly consistent with those of the overall family farms. 3) The overall family farms and various types of family farms show a scale effect, which first strengthens and then weakens with the change in geographical distance. 4) The spatial pattern of family farms in MYR-UA is affected by both natural and social factors, of which, social factors had the greatest influence. Finally, based on the findings of the study, policy recommendations for promoting the high-quality development of family farms are proposed.
As part of the modern transport infrastructure, high-speed railways (HSRs) have been considered an important factor affecting eco-efficiency (EE). This study used multisource remote sensing and statistical data from 185 counties representing urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) in China from 2009 to 2018. The study integrated ArcGIS analysis, the Super-SBM (super slack-based measure) model, and the DSPDM (dynamic spatial panel Durbin model) to explore the spatial effects of HSRs on EE. The results showed that the coordinates of the interannual centers of gravity for EE and HSRs both fell in the same county, possessing similar parameter values for the standard deviation elliptical, a negative spatial mismatch index, and obvious spatial mismatch characteristics. In different spatially dislocated areas, the spatial effects of HSRs on EE are variable. Overall, the short-term effects are more intense than the long-term effects, and both the long-term and short-term effects are dominated by the effects of spatial spillover. A new perspective is proposed to explore the green development effects of HSRs, with a view to providing policy implications for the enhancement of EE and the planning of HSRs.