Evaluation and trend analysis of tourism ecological security in karst areas: A case study for Guangxi

Karst areas are rich in tourism resources, but their natural environments are relatively fragile. According to the tourism development characteristics of Guangxi’s karst areas, this article takes a “pressure-status-response” (PSR) theoretical model, and uses the concept of ecological security including indicators of ecological risk, ecological health and ecological footprint to establish a model for the evaluation of tourism ecological security in a karst area. In the indicator system, karst landforms coverage is represented by ratio of carbonate rock outcrop area. Human activity pressure on the karst landforms is measured in per capita tourism ecological footprint. In addition, 6 new indicators were add into the evaluating indicator system, including tourism economic density, annual average temperature, annual average rainfall, tourism space density, tourist density, and tourist income.The comprehensive index method and the entropy weight method were employed to assess the status and trends of tourism ecological security in Guangxi’s karst areas for 2012 and 2007, and the underlying causes were analyzed for ecological security trends. The results show that，(1) In 2007 and 2012, the tourism ecological security in Guangxi’s karst areas was at a low level, central Guangxi was at a safe level, and other areas were at an unsafe level. (2) According to impact indicators, the differences in ecological security were due to factors including tourism ecological footprint per capita, urban greenbelt area per capita, nature reserve coverage percentage and tourist income per capita. So the economic status and tourism ecology status play an important role in local tourism ecological security. (3) Trends indicate that the tourism ecological security of Guangxi’s karst areas has been gradually improving, while central Guangxi has maintained a secure status and the areas adjacent to central Guangxi have maintained unsafe status. There has been an upward trend in the comprehensive index of tourism ecological security. Wuzhou and Guigang have also maintained an unsafe status, but their comprehensive index of tourism ecological security has a slight downward trend. (4) The tourism ecological security status and trends have no significant correlation with karst distribution.