This research investigates how tourism development can be balanced with ecological and cultural sustainability in the karst region of Puzhehei, Yunnan, China. In recent years, Puzhehei has experienced rapid tourism growth, resulting in overtourism and placing significant pressure on its fragile karst ecosystems and rich ethnic cultural heritage. The study identifies key challenges, including ecological vulnerability, cultural homogenization, and the absence of integrated governance.

A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining field surveys, stakeholder interviews, GIS-based spatial analysis, and ecological security pattern (ESP) modeling. The research evaluates the economic, ecological, and cultural effects of tourism. Based on the ESP analysis, the research develops a typological zoning framework that classifies the landscape into four categories: priority tourism development areas with ecological resilience, strictly protected fragile zones, ecologically important zones unsuitable for tourism, and potential reserve areas for future activation. This typology informs targeted planning principles and strategies that align tourism development with long-term ecological and cultural sustainability.
The research highlights the urgent need for a paradigm shift toward ecology- and culture-based tourism planning, emphasizing the integration of ecological science, local knowledge, and participatory governance. The analytical methods and design principles presented offer a replicable model for sustainable tourism development in ecologically sensitive areas, aiming to preserve both the natural and cultural distinctiveness of karst landscapes.

Currently, the Southwestern Delta is ill. The inability to produce its essential ecosystem services hinders the Delta from being healthy. Systems that make the Delta economy prosper are the main reasons for this obstruction. If current hazards like salinisation, soil depletion, and nitrogen pollution continue; the livelihood of the peri-urban Delta communities will be under threat. In contrast, the direct relation to the Delta makes them a potential stepping stone for change.

The main question: ‘How can local peri-urban communities be the base of the just transition towards a healthy Delta, which restores the production of ecosystem services and improves the climate resilience of the Delta?’ forms the foundation of this research. This research aims to explore the potential of communities as the missing link in the just transition towards a healthy Delta.

By creating a vision and designing its strategy, the Delta area will be able to produce its ecosystem services from 2050 on. The combination of environmental assessments, mapping and spatial analysis, stakeholder engagement, a SWOT matrix, the development of action perspectives through scenario planning, and a policy review provides the base for a vision towards a healthy Delta. This vision is translated into a strategy where a design catalogue, community engagement approach, and a knowledge network bring everything together in the spatialisation of three zoom-in areas: Schouwen-Duivenland, Oesterdijk, and Haringvliet.

Through education and recognition, the awareness of the Delta communities will rise which will motivate them to be part of the urgent transition towards a healthy Delta. Field labs and knowledge centres stimulate cooperation and sharing of knowledge. The ecosystem can be restored through the collaboration of the communities with other stakeholders. The combination of ecosystem-based adaptation, knowledge networks, and the borderless approach creates a regenerative and resilient Delta that serves as an example to other estuaries in the world.