Exploring the temporal and spatial changes, as well as driving factors, of net primary productivity (NPP) of terrestrial ecosystems is essential for maintaining regional carbon balance. This work focuses on the spatiotemporal variation and future trends of NPP and the response mechanisms of NPP to various driving factors. The Theil–Sen estimator, as well as Mann–Kendall and Hurst exponent methods, were used to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics and future trends of NPP, and geographical detectors and correlation analysis were used to reveal the response of NPP to various driver changes to environmental factors. The results showed that the NPP was generally on an increasing trend in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2000 to 2019, with the average NPP value of 550.17 g C m⁻² a⁻¹, of which 85.90% was the increasing regions and 14.10% was the decreasing regions, showing a significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity characteristic. The trend of future changes in NPP is dominated by an anti-persistence trend in the study area, i.e., the opposite of the past trend. Notably, annual precipitation is the most significant positive driver of NPP; while NPP was negatively correlated with population, meanwhile, different land use/land cover (LULC) also significantly affected the spatial distribution of NPP. Besides, there was a two-factor enhanced interaction between the various drivers on NPP, with the highest interaction occurring between temperature and elevation. Overall, this study provides data support for future regional NPP predictions and ecosystem evaluations.

In recent years, on-site visitation has been strictly restricted in many scenic areas due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Cloud tourism”, also called online travel, uses high-resolution photographs taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as the dominant data source and has attracted much attention. Due to the differences between ground and aerial observation perspectives, the landscape elements that affect the beauty of colored-leaved forests are quite different. In this paper, Qixia National Forest Park in Nanjing, China, was chosen as the case study area, and the best viewpoints were selected by combining tourists’ preferred viewing routes with a field survey, followed by a scenic beauty evaluation (SBE) of the forests with autumn-colored leaves in 2021 from the aerial and ground perspectives. The results show that (1) the best viewpoints can be obtained through the spatial overlay of five landscape factors: elevation, surface runoff, slope, aspect, and distance from the road; (2) the dominant factors influencing the beauty of colored-leaved forests from the aerial perspective are terrain changes, forest coverage, landscape composition, landscape contrast, the condition of the human landscape, and recreation frequency; and (3) the beauty of the ground perspective of the colored-leaved forests is strongly influenced by the average diameter at breast height (DBH), the dominant color of the leaves, the ratio of the colored-leaved tree species, the canopy width, and the fallen leaf coverage. The research results can provide scientific reference for the creation of management measures for forests with autumn-colored leaves.