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In the Hengduan Mountain region, soil erosion is the most serious ecological environmental problem. Understanding the impact mechanism of water yield and soil erosion is essential to optimize ecosystem management and improve ecosystem services. This study used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) models to separate the relative contributions of land use and climate change to water yield and soil erosion. The results revealed that: (1) Although soil and water conservation has been strengthened in the past 25 years, both water yield and soil erosion increased from 2010 to 2015 due to the conversion of woodland to grassland, which indicates that continuous benefits after the implementation of ecological restoration projects were not obtained; (2) Climate change played a decisive role in water yield and soil erosion changes in the Hengduan Mountain region from 1990 to 2015, and soil erosion was not only related to the amount of precipitation but also closely related to precipitation intensity; (3) The contribution of land use and climate change to water yield was 26.94% and 73.06%, while for soil erosion, the contribution of land use and climate change was 16.23% and 83.77%, respectively.

Although port-city interaction and sustainability are becoming increasingly essential, prospering regional economy and facilitating international shipping trade, problems of their mismatch and incoordination have also been aroused. Thus, research on their relationship is necessary to generate profound enlightenment on how to achieve healthy and benign development for ports and cities. In this paper, a typical Chinese port-city group, six ports and their corresponding port cities in Liaoning are selected as research objects. Firstly, a grey relative relational model and a coupling coordination degree model based on entropy weight method are applied to analyse the port-city interactive trend and degree as well as exploring the relative impacts among internal factors in port and city subsystems. Then, a sustainability analysis box of correlation–coordination is constructed to further investigate the sustainable development status. Finally, strategies for the port-city sustainable development are proposed. The results indicate the six port-city systems have not strongly correlated and are in the stage of coordinated development. Only Dalian and Yingkou have realized sustainable development. Thus, there is still much room for improvement. Measures such as resources integration and dislocation development should be taken into account to optimize the sustainable and coordinated development of the port-city systems.

The current organization of water supply systems demands drinking standards for all the households’ usage of water. Few dual water systems, i.e., systems in which the quality of the water supplied is differentiated by types of use, exist but are mainly circumscribed to developing countries. Besides, bath and showers are so far considered as a potable use of water despite only drinking and cooking activities requiring the high-quality standards of potable water. The present work demonstrates how the principles of dual water systems can be incorporated into the sustainable concept of product-service system (PSS) using a dual water system of a municipal water supply treatment plant in France as a case study. The PSS is based on the water quality, and the bathing activity of households is considered with a dedicated standard for the first time. Two systems are considered, S1 and S2, supplied with the same raw water quality and treated with drinking (S1) bathing standards (S2). The quality parameters considered are total organic carbon (TOC) and turbidity (T) and the potential savings related to costs, material, and energy consumptions are assessed using EVALEAU as a process modeling tool. The treatment lines consisted of powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition, coagulation, flocculation, settling, and rapid sand filtration. Results show that material consumption can be reduced by 41% mainly through the decrease in chemical consumption associated with the change of requirement for the TOC parameter. On the opposite, energy consumption was found dependent on the water of volume treated rather than its quality leading to only marginal savings. The cost was decreased by 37% as a result of the reduction of the chemicals consumed.

Human resources services (HRS) are kinds of services concerning human resources acquisition, development, and allocation provided to employers and workers. The services promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resources market. Recently, the services have been regarded as crucial for the sustainable development of the national economy, attracting policymakers in transforming economies to promote the expansions of the services. This paper presents a systematic study of factors that affect the development of the services. In this text, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was used to explore the configurations of the factors that drive the growth of the services. The data was from province governments’ statistics and influential research reports in China, and each province observation was considered as a case (in fsQCA terms). In this article, the marketization of human resources (MOHR) referring to allocating human resources through the labor market rather than government bureaucracy, is a possible necessary condition for the boom of the HRS. Moreover, we identified seven paths to explain both the high and low development level of HRS. Among the paths, the configuration of general development of regional economy, social legitimacy of the services, and marketization of human resources are the basic conditions that lead to a high growth rate of the HRS. These research findings enriched our understanding of the valid strategies for cultivating the services industry in China and other transforming countries. To cultivate and upgrade the services, we suggested that transforming economies should pay more attention to economic internationalization and speed up the marketization of human resources.

This paper employed advanced panel methods to examine the effects of international tourist arrivals on CO2 emissions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period of 1995–2018. To analyze the predictive power of tourist arrivals for CO2 emissions, the panel Granger non-causality test was employed. Employing the common correlated effects mean group estimator showed that tourist arrival reduces CO2 emissions, while energy consumption and trade openness are the main contributors of CO2 emissions. Results also showed that although first-generation estimators confirmed the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, according to the CCE-MG estimator, an inverted U-shaped association between economic progress and CO2 emissions does not exist. Furthermore, the null hypothesis of non-Granger causality from tourist arrivals to CO2 emissions was rejected. The findings suggest taking a more sustainable approach to tourism development and energy conservation in the long run.

Understanding of the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change, its transitions and Landscape risk (LR) evaluation in earthquake-affected areas is important for planning and urban sustainability. In the present study, we have considered Dujiangyan City and its Environs (DCEN), a seismic-prone area close to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (8.0 Mw) during 2007–2018. Five different multi-temporal data sets for the years 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2018 were considered for LULC mapping, followed by the maximum likelihood supervised classification technique. The individual LULC maps were further used in four time periods, i.e., 2007–2018, 2008–2018, 2010–2018, and 2015–2018, to evaluate the Land Use and Land Cover Transitions (LULCT) using combined remote sensing and GIS (Geographical Information System). Furthermore, multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) techniques were applied for LR mapping. The results of the LULC change data indicate that built-up, agricultural area, and forest cover are the prime categories that had been changed by the natural and anthropogenic activities. LULCT, along with multi-parameters, are suggested to avoid development in fault-existing areas that are seismically vulnerable for future landscape planning in a sustainable manner.

Tourism and agriculture can contribute to destination sustainability by increasing tourist-stakeholder satisfaction. Grown agriculture is an important component of a rural destination attraction. Nonetheless, tourists’ satisfaction with locally grown agricultural food has been unexplored when it comes to linking tourism with agriculture. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the links between demand for locally grown agricultural products at the destination and the levels of satisfaction among visitors. Theoretical views concerning tourist consumption of local agricultural products and its effects were reviewed. Unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted onsite in Tiantangzhai to investigate the relationship between tourism and agriculture with visitor satisfaction. The sample of respondents consisted of 71 participants who shared their views on the relationship between agriculture and tourism at the destination. Findings were presented in a two-level analysis including the industry focus and a soft-laddering technique that revealed deeper insights. Findings indicate that tourist-stakeholders present a demand-driven economy that can be exploited by local agricultural producers and the tourism economy itself. Theoretical implications point to a more sustainable destination image and practical implications highlight the demand-driven implications of tourist expectations and experience satisfaction.