Evaluating Spatial Patterns and Drivers of Cultural Ecosystem Service Supply-Demand Mismatches in Mountain Tourism Areas: Evidence from Hunan Province, China

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) represent fundamental expressions of human-environment interactions. A comprehensive assessment of CES supply and demand offers a robust scientific foundation for optimizing the transformation of ecosystem service values to improve human well-being. This study integrates multi-source datasets and employs Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling with the ArcGIS platform to analyze the spatial distribution of CES supply and demand in Hunan Province, a typical mountain tourism regions in China. Furthermore, geographical detector methods were used to identify and quantify the driving factors influencing these spatial patterns. The findings reveal that: (1) Both CES supply and demand demonstrate pronounced spatial heterogeneity. High-demand areas are predominantly concentrated around prominent scenic locations, forming a “multi-core, clustered” pattern, whereas high-supply areas are primarily located in urban centers, water systems, and mountainous regions, exhibiting a gradient decline along transportation corridors and river networks. (2) According to the CES supply-demand pattern, Hunan Province can be classified into demand, coordination, and enhancement zones. Coordination zones dominate (45–70%), followed by demand zones (20–30%), while enhancement zones account for the smallest proportion (5–20%). (3) Urbanization intensity and land use emerged as the primary drivers of CES supply-demand alignment, followed by vegetation cover, distance to water bodies, and population density. (4) The explanatory power of two-factor interactions across all eight CES categories surpasses that of any individual factor, highlighting the critical role of synergistic multi-factorial influences in shaping the spatial pattern of CES. This study provides a systematic analysis of the categories and driving factors underlying the spatial alignment between CES supply and demand in Hunan Province. The findings offer a scientific foundation for the preservation of ecological and cultural values and the optimization of spatial patterns in mountain tourist areas, while also serving as a valuable reference for the large-scale quantitative assessment of cultural ecosystem services.