Abstract:The designation, conservation and tourism development of agricultural heritage systems, which are embedded with intricate human-nature relations, could significantly influence community livelihoods. Therefore, a livelihood approach is critical for agricultural heritage conservation and the sustainability of the hosting community. Taking Guanhou Village, Xuanhua Grape Garden Urban Agricultural Heritage Site as an example, this study examines impacts of heritage conservation and tourism on the community livelihood system and its implications for community livelihood sustainability. A sustainable livelihood framework is adopted to guide the analysis. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with management officials, village leaders and village residents. The research identified the importance of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designation on raising government support and public awareness on conservation. Tourism emerges as an alternative livelihood to some residents which exerts positive economic influence. However, tourism participation is currently at a low level which restricted the distribution of benefits. The sustainability of local rural livelihood is at risk due to the rapid urbanization, the decline of human resources and the insufficient integration of traditional agriculture with tourism. Practical implications were discussed to enhance local participation and tourism contribution to GIAHS conservation.

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In response to serious environmental and socio-cultural challenges brought about by fast urbanization, the concept of a sustainable city emphasizes the quality of life of urban residents, assuring the importance of parkland provision in urban development. Despite China’s fast urban expansion in recent decades, scant attention has been paid to the development pattern of urban parkland in China and its implications toward urban sustainability. Engaging official data from government sources, this study conducted a spatial-temporal analysis of urban parkland in China. Results support the overall fast increase of urban parkland provision in China with a clear regional disparity. Moreover, the shift of development momentum from the east to the west has been identified in the recent decade. The status of economic development, the progress of urbanization, and the level of urban development investments are identified as key influential factors influencing the temporal changes of urban parkland in China. With the increasing demand for urban parkland and its important role in ensuring urban sustainability, recommendations to improve urban park development in China are proposed, including integrating urban parkland in urban land use management with specific planning guidelines, establishing a dynamic urban parkland monitoring system, incorporating both national and regional policy frameworks catering for both national standards and regional preferences, and shifting urban development investments with more emphasis on urban maintenance expenditure.

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A scientific understanding of the regional differences and convergence characteristics of urban ecological efficiency (UEE) is critical in realizing sustainable green regional development. This study investigated regional differences, evolution trends, and the convergence characteristics of UEE based on panel data on urban administrative units in the Yangtze River economic belt (YREB) from 2004 to 2018, using the super efficiency slacks-based measure(SBM)model, spatial econometric models, and spatial convergence models. Our results include three main findings. First, over the past 14 years, the average value of UEE in the YREB has shown a fluctuating downward trend, with a cumulative decrease of 12.9%. From a zoning perspective, UEE changes from high to low from downstream, to midstream, and upstream regions. Second, UEE in the YREB does not exist in the σ convergence, while the annual difference in UEE increased, with there being significant absolute β convergence as a whole. Third, driven by population scale, economic development level, land urbanization rate, transportation development level, industrial structure, and the level of economic opening, there was significant conditional β convergence for UEE in the YREB; however, the convergence rate of each section was significantly different. In future, the government should hasten the construction of an efficient and fast transportation network, selectively introduce foreign funds, and make use of the spillover effect to improve UEE in order to realize sustainable green development in the YREB.