Introduction
Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) refers to non-material benefits and non-physical contact of humans with the watershed. Among the indicators of CES are aesthetic and spiritual values, a sense of place and inspiration, and knowledge system and educational values. First, humans understand the environment based on their culture and then receive non-material benefits from the ecosystem. On the other hand, tourism is one of the activities that have an impact on the culture and services of ecosystems. Actually; tourism is an economic, cultural, and social phenomenon that is related to the movement of people to a place outside their place of residence. Tourism can have different effects such as changes in values, people's behaviour, communal life relationships, lifestyle, security levels, etc. In this regard; considering this importance, the current research was conducted to assess the effect of tourism activities on the components of CES Eskandari Watershed located upstream of the Zayandeh Roud dam watershed. This watershed is located in Isfahan province and includes the cities of Boein and Miandasht, Tiran-Koron, Chadgan, Khansar, Fereidan, and Fereidon Shahr.
Materials and methods
The current research is of applied and descriptive-analytical type, its data has been collected through library methods, observation, and field studies, including questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Based on this; after examining the tourism attractions of the study area, to evaluate the effect of tourism on CES, indicators were designed in the form of a questionnaire based on the Likert spectrum. The Likert spectrum includes answers from very little (1) to very much (5). In the following, the validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by expert specialists. Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the reliability of the investigated indicators. Cronbach's alpha for a sense of place, aesthetic and spiritual values, and knowledge system and educational values indicators were obtained as 0.85, 0.93, and 0.88, respectively. Then, by surveying the area, tourists were asked to complete the questionnaires. Finally, the analysis of the collected data and statistical comparison was done using the one-sample t-test in SPSS software. In the next step; to evaluate CES in Eskandari Watershed, the number of people visiting natural tourism areas was also used. In this regard; first, the number of visitors was calculated, and then to express the dimensionless tourism index, the range from zero to one was classified into four categories with the same range.
Results and discussion
The research results indicate that in total, tourism activities have played an effective role in the CES. Of course, this effect is not the same in different dimensions and the indicators of CES including aesthetic and spiritual values, sense of place and inspiration, and knowledge system and educational values, respectively, have been assigned the first to third priority. In this regard; to measure the sense of place and inspirations, the indicators of tourists' interest intensification, increasing the value of the region, emotions, more visits and more sense of responsibility of tourists were used. The aesthetic values include spatial diversity, correcting the defects and defects of the spaces, increasing the quality and beauty, increasing the physical identity and the apparent order of the space of the region. In addition; the indicators of more respect for social laws, increase in responsibility and courage to express thoughts, more respect for the rights of others, adherence of tourists to the promotion of peace and human rights laws, and improving the knowledge of tourists on how to use natural resources are related to the component of the knowledge system and educational values. Also, the results of the significance test indicated the significant effect of tourism activities on CES components (P=0.05). In addition, the number of people visiting tourist areas after tourism activities has been evaluated positively. In this regard, the cities of Fereidon shahr, Khansar, Chadgan, Fereidan, Boein and Miandasht, and Tiran and Koron respectively, have received the most tourists.
Conclusion
In total; the greatest impact of tourism activities on the indicators of increasing the quality and beauty of the region (30.00), more visits by tourists as a result of tourism activities (28.30), and more respect for the rights of others with an average of 23.50. In addition, the number of people visiting tourist areas after tourism activities has been evaluated positively. Actually; tourism activities in this area have caused people to get more connected to natural tourism areas, so that all their imaginations, feelings, and enthusiasm to visit the area are affected by tourism activities. However; since the mentioned effects are far from the ideal level, to influence the tourism activities in the region, it is suggested to strengthen the supervisory and executive mechanisms and planning according to the potentials of the region along with the creation of infrastructure for tourism and ecotourism.
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