With the deepening of the concept of “community of life between human and nature”, accelerating the theoretical innovation of river basin ecological civilization is an important task for adhering to and improving socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based on the epochal nature of ecological civilization construction and the specificity of river basins, and taking Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological civilization in the new era as the starting point, this paper intends to put forward the concept of socialist river basin ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and explains the connotation of the concept, the theoretical system, the elemental objects and the practical space involved. The study concludes: (1) socialist river basin ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics in the new era is rooted in Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological civilization, which is an extension of the river basin ecological civilization. It refers to the sum of various spiritual forms and material achievements that achieve high-quality development of the river basin from the perspective of harmonious coexistence and modernization between human and nature. (2) Socialist river basin ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics in the new era takes the concept of “Two Mountains” as its core theory, which is a systematic and interconnected conceptual system. (3) Socialist river basin ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics in the new era is aimed at river basins, pointing to clear elements, including both micro elements of “mountain, river, forest, field, lake, grass and sand”, and macro elements of “upstream and downstream, left and right banks, trunk and tributaries”. These two elements together constitute the “complex basin system” with the unity of object and function. (4) The space targeted by the practice of socialist river basin ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics in the new era follows the division form of production space, living space, and ecological space.

Achieving a sense of well-being for tourists contributes to the social well-being of river and lake tourism destinations. Adopting the constructive grounded theory, this paper explores the elements of tourist well-being in river and lake scenarios and its embodied generating mechanisms. The study finds that: (1) Tourist well-being in the river and lake scenarios consists of positive emotion, immersion, social connection, accomplishment, and self-discovery, of which positive emotion, immersion, and social connection are mainly hedonic well-being. In contrast, accomplishment and self-discovery are mainly eudaimonic well-being. (2) The generation of tourists well-being in river and lake scenarios is the result of the dynamic interaction ofthe presence and absence of tourist’s body with the scenarios. The tourists’ present body generates well-being through embodied experiences (multisensory perceptions, body movements or behaviors, situational interactions, memories and associations) in river and lake tourism scenarios. The tourists’ absent body generates well-being expecta-tions and well-being precipitations through interaction with daily and tourist scenarios. (3) There is a bidirectional constructive relationship between the river and lake tourists’ embodied experience and the sense of well-being. The well-being generated by the tourists will prompt the body to interact with the scenarios again to gain embodied experience, which in turn generates a sense of well-being again. The findings of the study have theoretical and practical value for enhancing tourist well-being in the river and lake tourism scenarios.

Lakes are important tourist attractions on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which are very sensitive to environmental changes and human activities. In order to leverage the relationship of ecological protection, community development and tourism development, we established a tourism destination sustainability index system with the fuzzy Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process based on the stakeholder evaluation framework for sustainable ecotourism. Then, the index system was applied to Qinghai Lake and the relationship of “resource-community-tourism” was jointly evaluated by resource managers, community residents and tourists. Finally, a total of 31 indicators of 6 dimensions were obtained. The relationship between resource and communities obtained the highest weight among the three groups, which reflected the resource-dependent characteristics and green development needs of the lake tourism communities on the plateau. The expert group believed that the ecological index selection for plateau lake destinations should attach importance to biodiversity and environmental conservation from the regional ecosystem perspective. The application of the evaluation method in Qinghai Lake shows its applicability and effectiveness. This paper enhances the participation of stakeholders in the index system establishment for relationship evaluation and provides an alternative method for assessing the sustainability of lake destinations on the plateau with insufficient monitoring data. It can provide decision-making support for a coordinated green development of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Rafting recreation is one of the forms of ecotourism mainly based on river and lake recreation sports, and rafters, rafting water, rafting industry and rafting environment are the symbiotic subjects constituting the rafting recreation system. This paper uses CiteSpace visualization and analysis software, and draws on the theory of “four-component system of ecotourism”, and then analyzes the relevant research results of Web of Science, and finally reaches the following conclusions: The research on rafting recreation lags behind the practice in general, and there was an obvious discontinuity before the 1990s. The research covers the heterogeneity, motivation, experience perception, physical and mental impacts of rafters, scenic river system, flow rate and water quality, rafting safety management, product development and sustainable development of the industry, and the requirements of facilities and activity control in rafting sites. In general, the research perspective has shifted from focusing on the realization of the single goal of the “four-component” to taking into account the elements, and then to the synergy of multiple goals, but the unidimensional study of the “four-component” needs to be deepened, and the synergistic relationship and interaction mechanism with the external environment of the “four-component” need to be improved. It is suggested that China’s rafting recreation research should learn from existing achievements, further deepen the unidimensional research on the “four-component”, and at the same time strengthen the systematic view of the “people-environment-industry” symbiosis, expand the research on the synergistic mechanism of the “four-component” as well as on the mutual influence between the “four-component” and the external environment, so as to provide scientific references for the development of ecotourism in rivers and lakes, as well as for the construction of river and lake protected area systems.

Recreation is a common trend in the utilization of reservoirs in various countries. Taking 4748 large and medium-sized reservoirs in China in 2022 as the research object, the study analyses the pattern of recreational utilization of reservoirs and its influencing factors at multiple scales. The results show that: (1) There are 636 recreational reservoirs in China, accounting for 13.40% of the total number of large and medium-sized reservoirs; the overall recreation utilization rate is low, and varies significantly among eastern, central and western regions of China, with the utilization rate of 11.14%, 15.60% and 13.05%, respectively; water-related recreation area systems are the dominant type of recreation reservoirs. (2) The number of recreational reservoirs in eastern, central and western regions of China accounts for 24.21%, 41.04% and 34.75%, respectively; except for Shanghai and Tibet, recreational reservoirs are distributed in 29 provincail-level regions, more concentrated in the Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and they are distributed in 262 cities out of the 333 prefecture-level cities; 92% of recreational reservoirs are located in areas with precipitation above 400 mm, the Yangtze River basin has the largest number, the river basins in southwest China have the lowest number, and the Huaihe River basin has the densest distribution. (3) The spatial structure is characterized by “one core and one belt”, the one core is Shandong province and the one belt is the band area connected by cities in the Yangtze River basin including Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Changsha and Nanchang. (4) Economic and social factors are main reasons for the spatial distribution differences in recreational reservoirs, 6 indicators such as the per capita disposable income in urban and rural areas, and fixed-asset investment are significant indicators; natural factors directly affect the formation of resource conditions and indirectly affect the transformation of recreational reservoirs. The study can provide a scientific foundation for improving the level of recreational use of large and medium-sized reservoirs and promoting the ecological protection and governance of important rivers, lakes and reservoirs in China.