Sustainability-Oriented Planning of Low-Altitude Takeoff/Landing Points and Air Route Network for County-Level Tourism Development: A Case Study of Huangling County

Low-altitude tourism, which integrates the low-altitude economy with cultural tourism, is a key driver of the sustainable transformation of county-level tourism, offering a low-carbon alternative to ground-based travel in topographically constrained regions. Taking Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, as a case study, this research develops a systematic framework for siting takeoff and landing points and planning low-altitude tourism routes based on suitability analysis and the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model. Fourteen indicators across four dimensions—topography, land use, transportation accessibility, and scenic connectivity—were evaluated, with weights objectively determined by the entropy weight method. GIS-based spatial analysis identified six candidate points. The results show that safety-sensitive factors (distances to residential areas, schools, and hospitals) carry the highest combined weight (40.97%), followed by terrain factors (34.91%). An MCR model was then applied to extract preliminary spatial corridors via least-cost path analysis. The integrated ‘suitability evaluation–resistance modeling–network analysis’ approach offers a replicable framework for low-altitude tourism planning in similar regions.