Abstract: Coordinating the relationship between the ecological environment and development is the essence of an ecological civilization. At the beginning of construction, assessing the ecological risk of tourism development is helpful in preventing environmental problems that may occur and promoting the sustainable development of tourism industry. Based on the analysis of ecological risk sources and receptors in Awancang wetland of Gansu province in the northwestern China, this article establishes an index system for ecological risk evaluation of tourism development in Awancang Wetland. The ecological risk sources mainly included the construction of road, the infrastructure of restaurant and accommodation, tourism operators and visitors. The mainly ecological risk receptors were water environment, air environment, soil environment, biodiversity and the Tibetan culture. And there are ten indicators in the evaluation index system for evaluating ecological risk: the degree of air pollution, the degree of water pollution, the degree of noise pollution, the degree of soil pollution, biodiversity, vegetation coverage, the wetland area, tourism resource consumption, the degree of culture impact and tourism carrying capacity. Then, the 20 levels of ecological risk caused by tourism development in Awancang wetland were identified according to severity and probability with the method of the Delphi and Risk Assessment Codes. The results show that, among all negative impacts of tourism development in Awancang Wetland, the most important of ecological risk is the negative impact on Tibetan culture, the second is vegetation coverage reduction, the third is water pollution, the fourth is wetland area reduction and biodiversity loss, etc. Finally, the suggestions about how to reduce the different negative impacts by developing tourism in Awancang Wetland were discussed in this paper.

Key words: assessment, Awancang Wetland, ecological risk, Gansu Province, tourism development