Li Peizhe, a sophomore majoring in hotel management of the HNU-ASU Joint International Tourism College of Hainan University (HAITC), recently published a paper titled Climate Adaptation Planning for Cultural Heritages in Coastal Tourism Destinations: a Multi-objective Optimization Approach as the first author in Tourism Management, the top and most authoritative journal in this field.

The impact factor of this journal is 7.432, which ranks it first in SSCI journals of tourism, hotel and leisure management and gives it a high academic influence and reputation. It is worth mentioning that after the submission, the article was directly accepted by the journal for full-text publication without any modification and is expected to be published online in late June this year.

The paper was completed in collaboration with Xiao Xiao, an associate researcher of HAITC, and Professor Erin Seekamp of North Carolina State University. It focuses on the impact of climate change on the cultural heritage of national park in the United States and the optimization model of its adaptation mechanism.

Based on the method of Structural Decision Making (SDM), the paper proposed an Optimal Preservation (OptiPres) model, a decision-making tool based on 30-year sustainability planning of climate change for the historical heritage managers of national park.

The conceptual model of OptiPres.

This paper used the OptiPres model to analyze the impact of climate change on 17 historical buildings on the Cape Lookout National Seashore of the US, put forward three important historical heritage management objectives, and proposed a 30-year heritage protection plan under different budget schemes.

This study not only provides decisions of cultural resources protection for heritage protection administrators of national park, but also offers management references for the sustainable development of global cultural heritages.

HAITC began to select undergraduates to be research assistants in 2018 and appointed the Sustainable Development Research Center to administer them. Through the selection of qualified students as research assistants and teachers as academic tutors, the college intends to be a benign mechanism between tutors and students, helping them realize their learning and research needs.

Li joined Xiao’s research team in May 2020. With outstanding English ability, strong interest in scientific research and excellent academic performance, Li has participated in research reports and discussions in a number of academic conferences at home and abroad and has been recognized by peer experts.

Xiao Xiao (L), an associate researcher of HAITC, instructs Li (R) on scientific research.

The paper he submitted involved the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge of tourism management, environmental science, applied ecology and decision management.

Since May last year, Li has worked hard on this paper and actively discussed its contents with his tutor. During winter vacation in 2021, he stayed in school and wrote the first draft of the thesis. After repeated discussion and revision, he submitted the final draft to Tourism Management in April 2021. It was accepted by the journal in June and will be full-text published soon.

The publication of this thesis also shows the feasibility and effectiveness of the research assistant system of HAITC. 

The college will continue to implement this system in the future to better mobilize students’ enthusiasm for scientific research, improve the quality of talent training, promote teachers’ teaching effectiveness, strengthen the comprehensive level of the college, support the development of world-class discipline construction of Hainan University, and encourage publication of more research results in international high-level journals.