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The Establishment and Application of Environment Sustainability Evaluation Indicators for Ecotourism Environments

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  • Han-Shen Chen

    (School of Health Diet and Industry Management, Chung Shan Medical University, No.110, Sec.1, Jianguo N. Rd. Taichung 40201, Taiwan
    Department of Medical Management, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, No.110, Sec.1, Jianguo N. Rd. Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

Abstract

Kinmen National Park is the only battle memorial-themed natural resource conservation park in Taiwan. With the rapid growth in tourism, Kinmen National Park faces the challenge of managing with the resulting environmental impact. For this study, we adopted the tourism ecological footprint (TEF) and tourism ecological capacity (TEC) to evaluate the ecological conditions of Kinmen National Park from 2002 to 2011. The empirical results indicated the following findings: (a) TEF increased by 8.03% over 10 years; (b) Regarding the environmental sustainability index (ESI), per capita tourism ecological deficit (PTED) yielded a deficit growth rate of 45.37%. In 2011, the ecological footprint index (EFI) was at Level 4 with 1.16, and the ESI was at Level 3 with 0.495. According to the aforementioned results, with the increased scale of tourism to Kinmen National Park, the pressure that ecological occupancy exerted on the national ecosystem exceeded its ecological capacity.

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  • Han-Shen Chen, 2015. "The Establishment and Application of Environment Sustainability Evaluation Indicators for Ecotourism Environments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:4:p:4727-4746:d:48498
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    Cited by:

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    4. Yang Cao & Feng Zhen & Hao Wu, 2019. "Public Transportation Environment and Medical Choice for Chronic Disease: A Case Study of Gaoyou, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Yisong Wang & Jincheng Huang & Shiming Fang, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Natural Capital Based on the 3D Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study of the Shennongjia National Park Pilot," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Xinhao Min & Yanning Wang & Jun Chen, 2022. "Resource Carrying Capacity Evaluation Based on Fuzzy Evaluation: Validation Using Karst Landscape Region in Southwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Adriana Acevedo Tirado & Mariana Ruiz Morales & Odette Lobato-Calleros, 2015. "Additional Indicators to Promote Social Sustainability within Government Programs: Equity and Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-17, July.

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