Urban Forest parks are indispensable areas in cities and have ecological and social advantages, and the quality of their acoustic landscapes is an important factor influencing visitors’ visiting experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the acoustic landscape on psychological stress relief in selected urban forest parks in China. This study used a questionnaire to construct an index system for psychological stress reduction and designed a questionnaire for the perceived impact of stress-reducing acoustic sources with user perception and stress-reducing restoration evaluation as the entry point. The research team conducted field research and online questionnaire survey on the questionnaire.com platform from 1–5 July 2022, in Huolu Mountain Forest Park, an urban forest park in Guangzhou, and collected 266 valid questionnaires. SPSS26.0 was used to analyze the results of the impact of the urban forest park on users’ psychological stress relief. Spearman’s rho correlation analysis and a Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric test were used to reveal the relationship between social, demographic and behavioral factors of tourism and sound source perception, and multiple regression analysis was used to identify the key factors of urban forest park. The results showed that, first, there were significant individual differences and correlations between respondents’ age, education level, visit time and frequency on soundscape perceptions; the older the respondent or the higher the education level, the higher the psychological stress relief evaluation of natural sounds such as birdsong in urban forest parks; the more frequent the visit, the more sensitive the users were to sound source perceptions; and the different visit time periods showed that, when the frequency of the visit was higher, the more sensitive the users were to the sound source. Secondly, natural sounds are important factors for psychological stress relief in soundscape, and natural sounds such as birdsong, cicadas, flowing water, and the sound of breeze blowing leaves have positive benefits and significant contributions to psychological stress relief. Third, the overall restorative evaluation of soundscape perception and the separate evaluation of natural, mechanical, and human-made sounds had significant effects, and the overall restorative evaluation showed that the cumulative contribution value of attractiveness was greater than that of compatibility and consistency. Fourth, soundscape plays a role in psychological stress relief, as evidenced by significant differences in pleasure and arousal levels but not in control.

Against the backdrop of slowing economic growth and increasing environmental pressure, the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, as one of the largest city clusters in the world, has become more driven in its pursuit of high-quality development. We constructed a system of 24 evaluation indexes and used entropy-weighted TOPSIS to calculate and study the high-quality development index of urban agglomerations in the region. First, the level of high quality development (HQD) of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster generally improved from 2010 to 2021, with 2017 was the best year, while 2010 was the worst year. Second, in the multidimensional evaluation of HQD, Jiangsu excels in innovation and people's livelihood with 0.524 and 0.534, respectively; Shanghai (0.531) excels in coordinated development; Zhejiang excels in green and economic development with 0.557 and 0.484, respectively; and Anhui lags behind in all aspects. Third, the development process of HQD in the Yangtze River Delta region is uneven, and the level of HQD development varies greatly among the city clusters in the province. The measurement results show that Shanghai (0.511) has the highest score, followed by Zhejiang (0.484), Jiangsu (0.440) and Anhui (0.435). Fourth, spatial correlation analysis shows that Shanghai and Jiangsu are mainly distributed in the double-high region, Zhejiang is distributed in the high-low region, while Anhui is concentrated in the low-low region. The results of this study help us understand more deeply the characteristics and challenges of high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations and provide a scientific basis for more precise urban development policies.

Heritage buildings are significant humanistic tourism resources for a city. Yangzhou’s heritage buildings have conservation and utilization value and are a key vehicle for promoting urban tourism development. However, there is a lack of research on their spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and subdivision types. This study aims to explore the spatial and temporal clustering and distribution characteristics of Yangzhou’s heritage buildings, as well as the factors contributing to the formation of these distribution patterns, as a means of promoting the tourism development of Yangzhou. Using mathematical statistics and GIS spatial analysis methods, this study analyzes the geographical distribution patterns of 528 heritage buildings and their influencing factors by using average nearest neighbor analysis, an imbalance index, and density mapping. This study reveals the following findings: (1) The temporal distribution shows an “Λ” shape, in which ancient buildings, modern historical sites, and important modern historical sites and representative buildings account for a significant proportion. (2) The temporal center shows a trend of shifting over time, moving from the southwest to the northwest and then to the northeast. (3) The spatial distribution is uneven; most of these are clustered in Hanjiang District, Gaoyou District, and Baoying County, while few are distributed in other regions. (4) The distribution is influenced by both natural and human factors, including topography, water resources, salt merchant culture, revolutionary culture, war culture, and canal transportation culture, with humans and human factors having a more profound impact than natural factors. Based on these findings, strategies such as regional integration and route planning, the prioritization of sustainable tourism development and preservation, and culture fusion and innovative promotion are proposed in this study as references for the all-for-one tourism development and cultural dissemination of Yangzhou.

The development of traditional village tourism destinations is an effective way to ensure the inheritance and development of traditional villages. Scientific analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution patterns and influencing factors of traditional villages can provide a scientific basis and decision-making reference for the protection and development of traditional villages. This study focuses on the development of traditional village tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region, including the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, and the city of Shanghai, and evaluates the tourism responsiveness of village attributes, ecology, socio-economics, and tourism vitality using 14 indicators. This study investigated the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of traditional villages at different spatial scales in the Yangtze River Delta region using entropy, TOPSIS, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and a geographic detector. Key findings included (1) spatial differentiation of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest”; (2) Jiangsu leading in tourism responsiveness and Anhui lagging behind; (3) low tourism responsiveness despite the abundance of resources in traditional villages; and (4) the vitality of tourism and the socioeconomic environment are crucial to responsiveness. In summary, although traditional villages are distributed in clusters, their tourism economic potential is still not fully tapped.

Western China is an inland region facing the problem of water scarcity due to its distance from the sea and mountainous topography. Studying the sustainability, spatial and temporal variation and drivers of water resources in western China is an important way to identify and solve water resources problems in the region. This study constructed a water resources sustainability evaluation index system, including four subsystems and 26 indicators, to examine the spatial, regional variation and temporal evolution of water resources sustainability in 12 provinces from 2012 to 2022. The results show that: (1) interannual trends show fluctuations and differences in resources, environment and socioeconomics; (2) the scores of the water resources and socio-economic subsystems are relatively average, while the water environment subsystem shows significant differences and the water ecology subsystem scores lower; (3) the global spatial agglomeration effect shows a fluctuating and expanding trend, with a significant positive spatial autocorrelation, mainly attributed to density excesses, followed by interand intra-regional differences, leading to an uneven distribution of spatial development, concentrated in two types of spatial agglomerations. Conclusions: Studies have shown that the level of water sustainability in western China is gradually improving and that spatial and temporal differences in water indices are gradually decreasing.