The development of rural tourism (RT) has great significance in reducing poverty and achieving rural vitalization. Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is a depressed area with rich RT resources due to its unspoiled nature and diverse culture. For future sustainable development of RT in QTP, this paper analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and its influencing factors of RT villages using various spatial analysis methods, such as nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, vector buffer analysis, and geographic detectors. The results show the following. First, the RT villages present an agglomeration distribution tendency dense in the southeast and spare in the northwest. The inter-county imbalance distribution feature is obvious and four relatively high-density zones have been formed. Second, the RT villages have significant positive spatial autocorrelation, and the area of cold spots is larger and of hot spots is smaller. Third, the RT villages are mainly distributed with favorable topographic and climate conditions, near the road and water, around the city, and close to tourism resources. Fourth, the spatial distribution is the result of multifactor interactions. Socio-economic and tourism resource are the dominant factor in the mechanism network. Fifth, based on the above conclusions this study provides scientific suggestions for the sustainable development of the RT industry.

Monitoring the ecosystem health for world natural heritage sites is essential for protecting them and benefits the formulation of more targeted protection policies. This study used Bayanbulak world natural heritage site as a case, established a framework for assessing the ecosystem health through remote sensing based on the parameters of ecosystem vigour, organization, resilience, and services. Then, we verified the obtained results through field sampling. The results show that the ecosystem health in the overall study area had declined over time, however, the health within the property zone remained at high levels and stable. The area proportion of low health was low and primarily distributed in the buffer zone. Thus, in general, the ecosystem in the study area was healthy. Besides, the ecosystem health exhibited distinct spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the degree of agglomeration enhanced over time. In addition, the field vegetation samplings were consistent with the changes in the ecosystem health levels, therefore, the result of RS monitoring of ecosystem health were credible. Thus, this study provides a scientific basis for heritage managers to formulate suitable ecological protection policies and should aid further research on the ecological monitoring of heritage sites.

Globally, mountains have suffered enormous biodiversity loss and habitat degradation due to climate change and human activities. As an agent of biodiversity, evaluating habitat quality (HQ) change is an indispensable key step for regional ecological security and human well-being enhancement, especially for fragile mountain ecosystems in arid areas. In this study, we aimed to propose an integrated framework coupled with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST)-HQ module to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of HQ estimation. We highlighted the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang as an example to validate the model, as it is a typical representative of mountain ecosystems in the temperate arid zone. Specifically, we aimed to assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of HQ over the past two decades and investigate its influencing factors using a geographical detector model. The results show that, first, grassland and unused land were the main land-use types in the study area. The land-use transitions were mainly concentrated in grassland, woodland, water body, and unused land. Second, the total area of very important habitats and general habitats accounted for over 70% of the Tianshan Mountains. The average HQ decreased from 0.5044 to 0.4802 during 1995–2015. Third, the HQ exhibited significant spatial differentiation, and the Ili River Valley and Kaidu River Basin were the hot spots, while the south and east of the Tianshan Mountains were the cold spots. Habitat quality was strongly related to the terrain gradient, with an inverted “U” type. Protected areas of different categories played a vital role in biodiversity conservation. Finally, soil type, land-use change, precipitation, temperature, and grazing intensity were the dominant factors in response to HQ change for both the total Tianshan Mountains and sub-regions, followed by elevation, the relief degree of the land surface, gross domestic product, population density, and distance to tourism attractions. The interaction effects of the influencing factors were improved compared to the effects of the individual factors in each zone. Furthermore, these results provide decision-making criteria for formulating a scientific and systematic protection of ecology and restoration planning systems to enhance the capacity to address climate change.

Xinjiang is one of the world’s most sensitive and vulnerable regions to climate change. However, little is known about the current status and changes in thermal comfort conditions in this area. Using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) derived from the newly available high-resolution dataset HiTiSEA, the spatial–temporal pattern and changes thereof over annual and seasonal scales across Xinjiang from 1981 to 2019 were evaluated. The results reveal that the distribution and change of thermal comfort in Xinjiang have apparent regional heterogeneity and seasonal characteristics. Across all scales, 7 of 10 UTCI thermal stress categories were observed, from slight cold stress to strong heat stress. Annually, the mean UTCI is 3 °C and has significantly increased at 0.37 °C decade⁻¹. The mean number of comfortable days (CDs) is 114 days, with a range from 0 to 189 days. On the space scale, the Tarim Basin experiences the highest UTCI value, while the Ili River Valley, the north side of the Tianshan Mountains, and the peripheral areas of the Tarim Basin have a higher number of CDs. Seasonally, summer has the highest UTCI value, while winter is the lowest. The trend for all seasons is upward, and spring increases fastest. Results also indicate that air temperature has a positive correlation with climate comfort, and the influence of air temperature on climate comfort is most significant. Further research indicates that the range and intensity of population exposure to uncomfortable climates in Xinjiang have increased. The distribution and expansion of population exposure are similar to the population density. These findings contribute to a systematic understanding of the local climate environment and can be helpful for the assessment of the impact of climate change and optimize tourism development.

Taking metropolitan areas as space carriers has become the engine of the Chinese government in its promotion of high-quality development, and this has also become an important measure by which to balance regional development. We used Zipf’s law and the gravity model to study the urban scale distribution characteristics of the Kashgar Metropolitan Area (KMA) in this paper. We also constructed a spatial structure judgment vector for the KMA and put forward the development objectives of different circles. The findings show the following: (1) large cities have a high primacy of development, while small and medium-sized cities are underdeveloped. At present, the KMA is a concentrated monocentric-pattern metropolitan area, with Kashgar City as its core city. (2) The urban built-up area of Kashgar City is expanding to the east and south, where it has broken through the administrative boundary and become integrated with the urban built-up area of Shule County. The spatial structure characteristics of the KMA have been further clarified. The KMA forms three circles: core, middle, and outer. (3) Tumxuk City, Bachu County, Yecheng County, Shache County, and other counties are far from the core city and cannot be connected with Kashgar, but they are closely related to the surrounding cities, forming the Bachu–Tumxuk Urban Group and the Shache–Zepu–Yecheng Urban Group. This study contributes to the understanding of the characteristics of urban scale distribution and the spatial structure of metropolitan areas in arid regions, as well as providing guidance for the formulation of policies for the development of different circles in the KMA.