Evolution of the landscape pattern in the Xin'an River Basin and its response to tourism activities

Tourism activities may interfere with the landscape pattern as a type of human activity. Scientific decision-making in the river basin's tourism development requires a precise understanding of the tourism ac-tivities' complicated effects on landscape patterns. The research object is to ascertain the direction and magnitude of the influence of tourism activities on the landscape pattern in the Xin'an River Basin. The response index (RI) was cal-culated by comparing the dynamic characteristics of landscape pattern metrics and Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) inside and outside the 24 scenic areas. The results show the RI (=-2.56) of the scenic areas is eight times higher than that of the other areas, which indicates the intensity of the tourism activities' negative impact on the landscape pattern. Cultural and low-level scenic areas have more serious landscape fragmentation in general, through the comparative analysis of different types and scales of scenic areas. Combined with the analysis of tourism socio-economic data, scenic area construction is the main factor leading to landscape fragmentation. This study is an effective review of the impact of China's tourism industry on landscape patterns in the past 40 years, and the proposed RI will better help to quantify the effect of tourism activities on landscape patterns.