Human-Environment System Boundaries: A Case Study ofthe Honghe Hani Rice Terraces as a World HeritageCultural Landscape

Sustainability

Honglian Hua¹  Shangyi Zhou¹ 

[1] School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;

关键词: world heritage cultural landscape;    boundary;    human-environment system;    Honghe Hani Rice Terraces;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su70810733

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Any World Heritage Cultural Landscape requires a clear boundary for administration. One of the administrative goals is sustainability. There is no widely identified way to demarcate the boundary of a World Heritage Cultural Landscape. This paper aims to explore a methodology framework to provide a holistic perspective for demarcating boundaries for a World Heritage Cultural Landscape. Honghe Hani Rice Terraces (HHRT) in Yunnan Province is a new World Heritage Cultural Landscape in China. We use it as a research area to illustrate the methodology framework. The framework of methodology is constructed based on four scales of a human-environment systemidentified by Anne Buttimer. It is used to describe the level of the sustainability of local economy, social organization, natural environment and people’s understanding of the human-environment. Four types of boundaries were investigated in this area. They are the boundary of Malizhai River Basin, the boundary of local water-allocation organization, the boundary of the economic network and the perceptual boundary of the human-environment system. With a comprehensive perspective, we integrated the four types of boundaries to judge the boundary of the core area of HHRT by three criteria, they are: Environmental sustainability, social justice, and the ability to create a new human-environment system. We conclude that some parts of the boundary of the core area of HHRT do not fit the criteria of sustainable development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown