Evaluation of land-use suitability can prevent problems, such as environmental disruption, wastage of resources, and ecological disruption, when unsuitable tourism-based exploration is undertaken in an area. This study summarizes a novel concept and proposes the idea of wellness tourism, which constitutes health preservation, sports and recovery, medical healing, and aged nursing, integrated with Chinese culture. A spatial suitability evaluation system for wellness tourism was developed in a mountain area via the integration of the analytic network process-Delphi. As wellness tourism activities diversified, land suitability was assigned to four kinds of wellness tourism activities, while considering their unique requirements. Comparative analysis and five-degree suitable maps of four kinds of activities revealed that Yining City and its peripheral localities have the potential of functioning as a comprehensive and national wellness tourist destination. The counties of Horgos, Huocheng, Qapqal, Zhaosu, Tekes, Tokkuztara, and Narat should make full use of their strengths, as they have the advantage of catering to different wellness tourism activities. This paper discusses some conceptual aspects of wellness tourism, provides an example for the selection of potential areas for wellness tourism in the mountainous regions of China, and provides baseline information that can support the development of wellness tourism.

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.

Ecological environment assessment would be helpful for a rapid and systematic understanding of ecological status and would contribute to formulate appropriate strategies for the sustainability of heritage sites. A procedure based on spatial principle component analysis was employed to measure the ecological status in Bayinbuluke; exploratory spatial data analysis and geo-detector model were introduced to assess the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics and detect the driving factors of the ecological environment. Five results are presented: (1) During 2007–2018, the average values of moisture, greenness, and heat increased by 51.72%, 23.10%, and 4.99% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 56.70%. However, the fluctuation of each indicator increased. (2) The ecological environment of Bayinbuluke was improved from 2007 to 2018, and presented a distribution pattern that the heritage site was better than the buffer zone, and the southeast area was better than the northwest area. (3) The ecological environment presented a significant spatial clustering characteristic, and four types of spatial associations were proposed for assessing spatial dependence among the samples. (4) Elevation, protection partition, temperature, river, road, tourism, precipitation, community resident, and slope were statistically significant with respect to the changes in ecological status, and the interaction of any two factors was higher than the effect of one factor alone. (5) The remote-sensing ecological index (RSEI) could reflect the vegetation growth to a certain extent, but has limited ability to respond to species structure. Overall, the framework presented in this paper realized a visual and measurable approach for a detailed monitoring of the ecological environment and provided valuable information for the protection and management of heritage sites.

Ecological vulnerability assessment increases the knowledge of ecological status and contributes to formulating local plans of sustainable development. A methodology based on remote sensing data and spatial principal component analysis was introduced to discuss ecological vulnerability in the Toutun River Basin (TRB). Exploratory spatial data analysis and a geo-detector were employed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ecological vulnerability and detect the driving factors. Four results were presented: (1) During 2003 and 2017, the average values of humidity, greenness, and heat in TRB increased by 49.71%, 11.63%, and 6.51% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 165.24%. However, the extreme differences in greenness, dryness, and heat tended to be obvious. (2) The study area was mainly dominated by a high and extreme vulnerability grade, and the ecological vulnerability grades showed the distribution pattern that the northern desert area was more vulnerable than the central artificial oasis, and the central artificial oasis was more vulnerable than the southern mountainous area. (3) Ecological vulnerability in TRB showed significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the trend was enhanced. The spatial distribution of hot/cold spots presented the characteristics of “hot spot—cold spot—secondary hot spot—cold spot” from north to south. (4) The explanatory power of each factor of ecological vulnerability was temperature (0.5955) > land use (0.5701) > precipitation (0.5289) > elevation (0.4879) > slope (0.3660) > administrative division (0.1541). The interactions of any two factors showed a non-linear strengthening effect, among which, land use type ∩ elevation (0.7899), land use type ∩ precipitation (0.7867), and land use type ∩ temperature (0.7791) were the significant interaction for ecological vulnerability. Overall, remote sensing data contribute to realizing a quick and objective evaluation of ecological vulnerability and provide valuable information for decision making concerning ecology management and region development.

The protection of World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) has become a global undertaking, wherein Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is an important aspect of heritage protection. Focusing on the protection of the aesthetic and bioecological values of Bogda (one component of Xinjiang Tianshan WNHS), 17 indicators are selected to construct a Heritage Value Protection Significance Index (HVPSI) and a related Heritage Value Protection Index (HVI). From these, the level of OUV conservation is obtained according to the five aspects of integrity, vulnerability, sensitivity, degree of human impact and environmental factors. The spatial autocorrelation analysis method was applied to the OUV conservation indices to comprehensively reflect the spatial-pattern characteristics of the heritage value in the study area. According to the spatial-division of the HVPSI, the plant community composition and diversity characteristics of different HVPSI zones are analyzed by a field survey (July 2018 and 2019). To verify the rationality of space partition and identify the OUV elements in each HVPSI district, a spatial-econometric model is then used to explore the relationship among HVPSI, HVI and community diversity. This study provides a scientific basis for management of heritage sites and a theoretical basis for further investigation into heritage site indicators.