Tourism Environmental Impact Evaluation Framework (TEIEF): Using VGI Data to Assess the Ecological Impact of Tourism in the Danxiashan UNESCO Global Geopark of China

Geoparks play a vital role in safeguarding unique landscapes, but the surge in tourist activity in these areas has raised concerns regarding their ecological impact. To address this issue, this study develops the Tourism Environmental Impact Evaluation Framework (TEIEF), a monitoring tool for evaluating the Ecological impact of tourism in geoparks. The Environmental impact of tourism on Danxiashan UNESCO Global Geopark of China (Danxiashan) is analyzed from multi-year data, revealing a significant expansion of tourism environmental impact between 2009 and 2018. To enhance the precision of this analysis, geotagged photo data from social media were incorporated to discern the spatial distribution and intensity of visitor activity. The data resolution was refined from 1 km to 100 m to allow for a more granular assessment of the geographical extent of this impact, providing a detailed and nuanced understanding of the affected area. The findings underscore the importance of long-term monitoring in geoparks to support sustainable environmental planning and landscape conservation. This study pioneers the applications of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) data to quantify the magnitude of tourism impact, thereby providing a tool to estimate the environmental consequences of tourism development.