Sustainability Assessment of Cultural Heritage in Shandong Province

Although the sustainability of cultural heritage plays important roles in the inheritance of humans’ civilization and history, assessments of such fields is still limited. In this paper, the spatiotemporal analysis method and coupling coordination model were applied to assess the sustainability of cultural heritage in Shandong Province. Results show that (1) the National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units (“cultural units“ hereinafter) of Shandong Province have obvious convergence of spatiotemporal and city distribution; (2) although the tourism response degree of each city vary greatly, their tourism income exhibits positive correlation (i.e., correlation coefficient reaches 0.6639) with cultural units; (3) the coordination between cultural units, capital inputs, and tourism income in different cities is different, mainly shows three levels of well coordination (Jinan, Jining, Qingdao, Yantai, Weifang, and Zibo), general coordination (Zaozhuang, Weihai, Tai’an, Liaocheng, Heze, Linyi, and Rizhao), and poor coordination (Dezhou, Binzhou, and Dongying). These findings imply that the SDGs 11.4.1 is an effective indicator to promote the sustainable development of cultural heritage. However, there are still shortcomings at the city level, and the distribution of heritage and tourism response in the area should be considered in the future.