Abstract:

Geological relics are an important part of the tourism resource supply system in the Yellow River Basin. The average nearest neighbor， kernel density estimation and spatial autocorrelation are used to explore the spatial distribution pattern of 1 481 important geological relics in the Yellow River Basin， and on the basis of which an evaluation index system for the development potential of geotourism in the Yellow River Basin is established， and with the help of entropy weight-TOPSIS model， the potential of geotourism development of the Yellow River Basin is deeply explored. The results show that： （1） The important geological relics in the Yellow River Basin are clustered， but there are significant differences in the degree of clustering of different types and grades of geological relics. （2） The geological relics in the Yellow River Basin as a whole show a pattern of "dense in the middle reaches， sparse in the upper and lower reaches， one main and two sub-mains， and a band-like extension"， and the Shanxi-Henan border zone in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River is the absolute core distribution area of geological relics. （3） The distribution trend of positively correlated agglomeration is obvious on the global scale， but the spatial correlation characteristics of geological relics of different types and grades differ significantly in local space. （4） The spatial differentiation and polarization distribution trend of the development potential of geotourism in the Yellow River Basin is obvious， with the number of cities with high potential and higher potential being relatively small， and the number of cities with low potential and lower potential accounting for 46.09%， and a gradient decreasing in the spatial distribution of geotourism potential from downstream to upstream， and a gradient increasing from downstream to upstream.

Key words: important geological sites, spatial pattern, geotourism, potential evaluation, Yellow River Basin