Research on the Spatial Differentiation Characteristics and Sustainable Development of UGGp in China

As of November 2021, 41 UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGps) have been approved in China, which now rank first in the world in UGGps. With the steady increase in the number of UGGps, their geographic and spatial distribution patterns have dynamically changed. The spatial differentiation characteristics play an important role in the future construction planning of the geopark and the sustainable development of regional tourism. This article uses quantitative geographical methods such as the nearest neighbor index, geographic nonuniformity coefficient, and Gini index to quantitatively discuss the spatial differentiation characteristics of UGGps in China with regard to spatial distribution type, equilibrium, concentration, etc., to facilitate breakthroughs in case analysis and theoretical research. The results show that the spatial distribution of UGGps in China is condensed with a high degree of concentration. In terms of geographical divisions, Northern China exhibits more obvious agglomeration, with an imbalance of high numbers in Central China and northern China and low numbers in northwestern China and Qinghai-Tibet. Geotectonic background, endowment of geoheritage resources, and demographic and economic status are the three main reasons for spatial differentiation. The correlation coefficients and principal component analysis indicate that the spatial distribution of UGGps is highly correlated with population and GDP but is not highly correlated with the size of the area. On this basis, suggestions are proposed for regional equalization, diversification of geoheritage types, and multichannel integration in China to realize the sound development of the UGGp network.