Search Results (815)

Studying sustainability in marine and coastal tourism within national parks is essential to balance visitor use with the conservation of fragile ecosystems and biodiversity. In this context, the Galápagos Archipelago is a major coastal and marine destination in Ecuador, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The aim of this empirical study was (i) to identify the principal motivational dimensions in sustainable coastal and marine destinations; (ii) to determine which motivations significantly predict tourist satisfaction in these contexts; and (iii) to establish which motivations influence loyalty in sustainable coastal and marine destinations. The research was conducted in situ, obtaining 407 valid questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis and exploratory factor analysis were applied. The results reveal six motivational factors: learning; heritage and nature; sun and beach; sports; authentic coastal experience; novelty; and social interaction. The motivation that most strongly predicts satisfaction is heritage and nature, followed by novelty. Likewise, the motivation that most strongly predicts loyalty is heritage and nature, with additional influence from sun and beach and sports motivations. These findings provide practical guidance for the development of sustainable destination management plans and contribute to the academic literature on sustainability, satisfaction, and loyalty in coastal and marine tourism contexts. Full article

The aim of this study is to explore the fire resilience of traditional ancient villages in Huizhou, China, and to reveal “traditional environmental planning knowledge” as a spatial survival strategy for high-density settlements. This study adopts a qualitative interpretive paradigm, combining historical geography with a literature review, field surveys, and overlay analysis. The study found that these villages, during site selection, utilized basin topography to construct a multi-level disaster mitigation system encompassing “macro-level water systems, meso-level alleyways, micro-level firewalls, and sandwich fire-extinguishing floors.” This endogenous physical technology, based on defensive awareness and community agreements, achieves a dynamic balance of resilience between humans and the environment. The cultural interpretation based on the indicators in this study primarily reflects the disaster resilience potential of traditional planning. The conclusions should be carefully interpreted within the framework of traditional environmental design. Furthermore, commercial intervention, infrastructure renovation, and population loss are leading to the neglect of this defensive space. This lack of a holistic perspective will trigger the “resilience degradation” of ancient villages. Future research urgently needs to establish a “resilience decay model” to quantitatively assess the disaster resistance capabilities remaining after damage to the surrounding buffer space, based on traditional environmental planning knowledge. Full article

Although prehistoric rock art shelters in remote locations require continuous environmental monitoring for preventive conservation, this need is frequently hindered by the absence of terrestrial connectivity. In this study, we present and validate a hybrid Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring architecture integrating low-power Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) wireless ground-based sensors, edge computing, and dual terrestrial–satellite connectivity, designed for continuous climatic monitoring in heritage areas without terrestrial connectivity coverage. This proof of concept was conducted at the rock art shelter of Los Toros del Barranco de las Olivanas (Tormón, Teruel, Spain), a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site within the Albarracín Cultural Park (PCA), using Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite connectivity provided by EchoStar Mobile. Laboratory and outdoor tests at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) achieved a satellite data delivery rate of 98.6%, while field deployment under adverse conditions—partial vegetation and terrain obstructions, cloudy and rainy weather—yielded a delivery rate of 78.2%, with 100% delivery from sensors to the edge gateway. The system operates below 10 W, enabling autonomous solar-powered deployment. Reliability can be raised above 95% by having the system confirm that each message is received and by managing the order in which messages are sent. The architecture reduces on-site visits by an estimated 75%, significantly lowering the carbon footprint of field campaigns. The proposed system is flexible, scalable, and compatible with future Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), demonstrating that a satellite IoT constitutes a technically feasible solution for continuous environmental monitoring of remote heritage sites worldwide. Full article

Cultural heritage management today faces the challenge of addressing increasingly complex realities. In this context, international organisations focus on identifying heritage attributes that consider not only physical and artistic values, but also symbolic, social and environmental dimensions, a task that has been implemented in recent years and in which significant progress has been made. The aim of this research is to develop a detailed protocol for identifying heritage attributes, using the Alcázar of Seville, a World Heritage Site, as an example. Based on a consolidated methodology, the aim is to outline the work process by identifying the sequence of tasks from the collection, selection and distribution of information to the formation of the transdisciplinary team, the analysis process and the selection of attributes. The result shows a sequenced process in which a wide range of material is reviewed in depth from various disciplines, allowing the identification of attributes beyond cultural significance. This methodological update involves increasing the size of the transdisciplinary team and taking a more social approach to the management of this heritage. The proposal takes the form of a useful working tool for heritage professionals and public administrations responsible for managing world heritage properties. Full article

Earthen heritage constitutes a significant yet vulnerable component of the world’s cultural legacy, encompassing archeological sites, historic monuments, vernacular buildings, and living cultural landscapes. Over the past five decades, approaches to its conservation have evolved in response to changing heritage paradigms. Since their inception in 1972, the international Terra events have played a pivotal role in shaping this field by providing a recurring platform for international exchange, knowledge production, and methodological development. This study aims to examine the shifts in research and practice through the lens of the Terra gatherings. Using a systematic review methodology conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, 638 papers from thirteen Terra proceedings (1972–2022) were analyzed and classified by geographic focus, disciplinary background, knowledge area, heritage type, construction techniques, deterioration factors, and intervention methods. The findings reveal a clear transition from early material and monument-centered approaches toward more holistic, interdisciplinary, and people-centered frameworks, with increasing attention to vernacular heritage, cultural landscapes, heritage management, and capacity building. The analysis also identifies persistent regional imbalances, a strong link between conference location and geographic representation, and a growing focus in recent decades on sustainability, disaster risk reduction, and climate change. Overall, the study demonstrates how trends reflected within the Terra proceedings have evolved and contributed to the discourse in earthen heritage conservation. Full article

Abu Dhabi Sabkha, located along the southern margin of the Arabian Gulf, is among the most scientifically significant arid coastal systems on Earth. Submitted by the United Arab Emirates to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2018 under natural heritage criterion (viii), the site is currently the only documented coastal sabkha where all four diagnostic sedimentary layers, lagoon mud, microbial mat, gypsum mud, and anhydrite nodules, co-occur within a single coastal setting, south of Al Dhabaya and Abu Al Abyadh Islands. This review evaluates Abu Dhabi Sabkha as a geological heritage system by synthesizing its formation processes, UNESCO significance, complete sabkha sequence, microbial and evaporite processes, climatic setting, environmental sensitivity, and conservation requirements. The site operates under a hyper-arid climatic regime with a documented warming trend of +0.43 °C per decade over 1981–2025 (NASA POWER MERRA-2), confirming that the evaporative processes sustaining its geological record are intensifying. Microbial mats facilitate dolomite mineralization via Extracellular Polymeric Substances at a scale unmatched elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf, while gypsum mud and anhydrite nodules record advanced supratidal evaporitic development. Comparative analysis with sabkha systems in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Oman confirms that no other regional coastal sabkha preserves equivalent stratigraphic completeness within a single, actively forming setting. The site faces mounting pressures from urban expansion, coastal reclamation, off-road vehicle movement, groundwater modification, and the increasing frequency of extreme rainfall events, all of which can permanently damage fragile surface structures and microbial systems. Sustainable conservation requires protection zoning, controlled access, multi-scale satellite and drone monitoring, groundwater tracking, and integration into coastal planning frameworks. Abu Dhabi Sabkha should be recognized not as marginal saline terrain, but as a globally important geoheritage system whose scientific value depends on the active preservation of biological, chemical, and physical processes operating together within an irreplaceable coastal setting. Full article

Lake Baikal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest freshwater reservoir on the planet. It is located in the center of Eurasia, in an industrially developing region—Eastern Siberia. Although a regulatory and legal framework exists, quantitative estimates of the pathways of pollutant transport from industrial sources to the lake water area remain insufficiently studied, particularly in the context of seasonal dynamics and the influence of developing industrial sectors. In the present work, a quantitative analysis of the direct atmospheric transport of pollutants from three groups of stationary sources (the Irkutsk agglomeration, the Republic of Buryatia, and the oil-and-gas production areas of Irkutsk Oblast) to the lake surface was carried out for the first time using the HYSPLIT model for the period 2005–2025. About 4.7 million forward trajectories were computed at three heights (250, 500, 1000 m AGL) for each group of sources. It was established that conditions favorable for the transport of impurities to the lake occur in more than half of the cases. However, the spatial distribution of the impact on the Baikal air basin is heterogeneous: the Irkutsk agglomeration accounts for 67.5% of the “hits” (the main contribution being to the air basin of the Southern Basin), the Republic of Buryatia 18.8% (to the Central Basin), and the oil-and-gas areas 19.9% (to the Northern Basin). On the basis of a multifactor analysis, a combined Potential Impact (PI) index was developed that makes it possible to rank regional sources by the degree of their impact on the lake ecosystem, taking into account the emission volume, the probability of delivery, the residence time, and the height of trajectory passage. The results form a scientific basis for optimizing the spatial placement of environmental monitoring networks and for preliminary zoning of environmental risk assessment over the Lake Baikal water area. Ultimately, this study contributes to the sustainable management of the Baikal Natural Territory by providing actionable insights for balancing regional industrial growth with the long-term ecological preservation of the planet’s largest freshwater reservoir. Full article

User-generated content (UGC) offers large-scale, naturalistic data for examining tourism destination image. Focusing on the Historic Centre of Macao (HCM), a World Cultural Heritage site, this study collected 3781 tourist reviews from Rednote, Ctrip, Dianping, and TripAdvisor and developed a multi-model text-mining framework integrating TF-IDF, BERTopic, and RoBERTa. The results show that HCM’s online tourism image comprises four dimensions: perceptions of history, culture, and heritage value; perceptions of spatial landmarks and urban landscapes; modes of travel behavior and embodied experience; and emotional evaluation and tourism experience quality. The TF-IDF results indicate that terms such as architecture, history, Portuguese, church, Ruins of St. Paul’s, and Senado Square constitute the core elements of tourists’ cognitive image. BERTopic further identified 18 valid topics and revealed three interrelated semantic clusters: heritage-space cognition, landmark and district experiences, and integrated tourism experiences. The RoBERTa-based sentiment analysis shows that tourists’ overall evaluations are dominated by positive emotions, while crowding, high visitor density, and gaps between expectations and actual experiences remain important sources of negative evaluations. This study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed framework in the Historic Centre of Macao and provides a methodological reference for tourism image research in other cultural heritage destinations. Full article

Microplastic contamination is an emerging global concern, but its occurrence in high-altitude protected areas has been understudied. This study systematically assessed microplastic abundance, morphology, and spatial distribution in Sagarmatha National Park (SNP), Nepal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Soil samples were collected from 25 sites across four land-use types, including settlement, farmland, forest, and floodplain, at two depths along the Lukla–Phortse trekking corridor during the pre-monsoon season of 2023. Samples were pretreated by density separation and Fenton’s reagent digestion, and microplastics were then detected using a YOLOv11n-seg instance segmentation model. A subset of extracted particles was chemically confirmed by optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy. Microplastics were present in all samples, with concentrations ranging from 80 to 960 particles·kg⁻¹. Fragments were the dominant morphological type, accounting for 65.7% of all particles, followed by fibers and films. Negative binomial regression revealed significant effects of land use and soil depth and their interaction on microplastic abundance. Settlement soils showed the highest concentrations with significant surface enrichment, while farmland soils showed no significant depth effect, consistent with human-dominated plastic sources and tillage-driven redistribution. Elevation was not a significant predictor of contamination. Hotspot analysis identified statistically significant clustering around Lukla and Namche, the two primary tourism hubs. The baseline established in this study provides a foundation for long-term monitoring and targeted waste management in SNP and offers insights to other protected high-altitude environments. Meanwhile, the application of deep learning and O-PTIR to balance the counting efficiency and accuracy is a novel approach that could be adopted by other researchers. Full article

The Lion Man sculpture (UNESCO World heritage), a left mammoth tusk and mammoth ivory fragments from the excavations in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, Lone valley, Swabian Alb, Germany, were non-invasively analysed by means of external ion beam analysis (IBA) at the microfocus beamline at the particle accelerator AGLAE. The Lion Man was reconstructed from about three hundred mammoth ivory fragments, while the tusk is a separate find, and the fragments are individual pieces that could not be placed in the Lion Man. A characteristic trace element fingerprint, based on zinc, bromine and strontium contents, was established according to previous IBA studies of Aurignacian-era mammoth ivory and allowed for a comparison of the mammoth ivory objects. The specific Hohlenstein-Stadel cave trace element fingerprint could be distinguished from that of other Aurignacian sites in Europe but closely resembles that of the contemporary ivories from the neighbouring Hohle Fels cave. Although this study highlights that the Lion Man sculpture is chemically inhomogeneous due to diagenetic alterations, the left tusk and individual ivory fragments are chemically very similar to the Lion Man. However, further analyses are required to relate them to the same animal. Secondary minerals such as black manganese oxide dendrites and iron-rich aluminosilicates could be identified on the Lion Man and the other ivory objects at the surface. While dendrites are a characteristic diagenetic feature of mammoth ivory, the origin of iron-rich aluminosilicates can be linked either to sediment traces or surface treatment and use wear of the sculpture. Iron-rich zones are identified on particular parts of the Lion Man, namely, at the snout and at the left forearm with decorative signs. The snout is also particularly enriched in carbon, whose origin still needs to be clarified. Full article

AI-based interpretation is increasingly used in heritage tourism, yet its relationship with stewardship-relevant visitor responses remains insufficiently theorised. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study examines how visitor-perceived AI-based interpretation is associated with emotional experience and conservation-oriented behavioural intention at the Emei Mountain-Leshan Giant Buddha World Heritage Site in China. Survey data from 418 adult visitors collected in 2025 were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. AI-based interpretation was positively associated with perceived authenticity (β = 0.657), parasocial interaction (β = 0.530), emotional experience (β = 0.355), and conservation-oriented behavioural intention (β = 0.117). The direct association with conservation-oriented behavioural intention was small. Approximately four-fifths of the total AII-CBI association was accounted for by statistically significant indirect pathways through authenticity, parasocial interaction, and emotional experience. Emotional experience was the strongest proximal predictor of conservation-oriented behavioural intention (β = 0.422). Supplementary indirect-effect and moderation analyses further indicate that authenticity-based and relation-based pathways link AI interpretation with stewardship-oriented intention, and that the AII-authenticity association is stronger among first-time visitors. These findings extend smart-tourism research beyond technology acceptance by showing how AI interpretation can operate as a heritage-communication resource when it is perceived as authentic, socially engaging, and emotionally meaningful. Full article

Cultural sustainability at World Heritage Sites depends on whether heritage meanings remain publicly intelligible and experientially meaningful, not only on conservation outcomes or visitor management. Yet empirical evidence remains limited on how authorized heritage meanings are received, negotiated, and spatially anchored by visitors. This study examines the transformation of expert-informed authorized heritage meanings into visitor heritage identity at the Yungang Grottoes, China. Through thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured expert interviews, an expert-informed analytical framework was developed and consolidated into four case-specific identity dimensions: National, Ethnic, Cultural, and Place Identity. Based on 325 valid on-site questionnaires, the study combines Likert-scale measurement, open-ended response coding, and period-level cultural mapping. Results show that Cultural and National Identity were most strongly recognized, while Ethnic and Place Identity were more closely linked to interpretive mediation, prior knowledge, and embodied spatial experience. In cultural mapping responses, respondents most frequently anchored National Identity in Early Period caves, Ethnic and Cultural Identity in Middle Period caves, and Place Identity across more distributed landscape and atmospheric settings. Four Authorized Heritage Discourse–Visitor heritage identity relational patterns were identified: correspondence, partial alignment, negotiation, and divergence/extension. The findings offer a visitor-centered and spatially differentiated approach to evaluating sustainable heritage interpretation by extending conventional conservation-, management-, and satisfaction-oriented indicators toward visitor meaning-making, identity negotiation, and spatially situated interpretation. Full article

Sustainable agricultural development in natural heritage sites poses a challenge, requiring food security without compromising the conservation of ecosystems and their outstanding universal values (OUV). The Galapagos Islands, recognized as a Natural World Heritage, have problems of scarce water and arable land, compounded by anthropogenic pressures such as high population and tourism growth and dependence on food imports. The objective of this research is to evaluate the environmental impacts of implementing agricultural greenhouses in the Galapagos by applying a traditional environmental matrix alongside a UNESCO World Heritage approach, integrated with a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, to formulate strategies for strengthening local agriculture without compromising ecosystems. This study employed a semi-quantitative methodological approach, integrating three key aspects: (i) a baseline of agricultural information and water availability on the islands; (ii) an integrated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approach to greenhouse implementation; and (iii) sustainable agricultural development and environmental impact mitigation strategies. The results of the traditional EIA and the UNESCO approach through the OUV showed negative impacts classified as insignificant to moderately significant. For the evaluated design, these impacts can be managed through the active participation of academia, the community, and government entities. However, their scalability depends on a more in-depth analysis of the potential long-term risks associated with the availability of natural resources, microplastic pollution, and the use of agrochemicals. Among the proposed strategies, the importance of monitoring water and soil quality and of agricultural and environmental education campaigns in the community was highlighted. This study presents agricultural greenhouses as well-known alternatives for food self-sufficiency, adapted to the realities of the island territory and the objectives of ecosystem conservation. The proposed methodological approach can be applied in protected areas to promote conservation and sustainable agricultural production. Full article

Archaeological feature detection at complex, mixed-environment sites requires accurate, efficient methods for identifying subtle morphological signatures. This study presents a semi-automated remote sensing pipeline for the detection and delineation of archaeological earthworks at Cahokia Mounds (Illinois, USA), a major Mississippian urban center and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Three LiDAR datasets, two collected via UAV-mounted sensors and one from a piloted aircraft survey, were processed into Digital Terrain Models and transformed into Local Relief Models (LRM). K-means clustering was applied to segment the LRMs into feature classes, followed by contour bounding using the OpenCV library to outline mounds and borrow pits. Additionally, SAR-derived Local Incidence Angle (LIA) rasters from PALSAR-3 and Sentinel-1 were processed through angular deviation mapping to identify slope anomalies associated with archaeological features. Results across all five datasets demonstrate the complementary strengths of LiDAR and SAR: LiDAR excels at resolving elevation-defined features such as mound footprints, while LIA captures directional slope behavior that highlights mound edges, borrow pit rims, and linear features such as causeways. Comparative analysis of LiDAR acquisition frequencies reveals minimal differences in archaeological feature recovery between pulse settings, suggesting that sensor platform choice matters more than power-density tradeoffs for this application. Despite the need for human review to filter modern disturbances and natural false positives, the integrated workflow meaningfully accelerates prospection and reduces interpretive subjectivity. The methods are scalable, site-invariant, and work with open-access data, making them applicable to archaeological landscapes worldwide. Full article

Long-standing studies of historical cultural spaces have primarily focused on the preservation of heritage objects and landscapes, while insufficient attention has been paid to the structural relationships, land-use transformations, and cultural–ecological processes that sustain their long-term continuity. Taking the World Heritage site of Lijiang as a case, this study develops a three-dimensional structural decoding framework composed of spatial base, spatial network, and spatial entity, together with an analytical pathway of “Identification–Interpretation–Evaluation–Synthesis–Practice.” By integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches with multi-source data, the study establishes an evidence chain linking historical processes and contemporary conditions to examine the formation mechanisms, continuity, and contemporary deviations of Lijiang’s historical cultural space. The results show that terrain–habitat adaptability, water system coupling, and environmental risk avoidance shaped environmental adaptation; historical corridors, landscape perception, and core node associations organized spatial networks; and functional diversity, cultural capital agglomeration, and spatial-scale compatibility supported entity-based spatial practices. Although tourism development, urban expansion, and land-use transformation have not completely dismantled these historical relationships, they have caused localized deviations in ecological boundaries, path continuity, visual connections, functional vitality, and spatial scale. This study argues that the governance of historical cultural spaces should shift from preserving isolated heritage objects to sustaining cultural–ecological relationships that support memory, identity, spatial practice, and adaptive land governance. Full article