Abstract
The evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) is the basis of strategic policy for the development and utilization of regional resources, economic development, and environmental protection. The magnitude of carrying capacity of resources and environment is the result of the balance of multiple aspects including economy, resources, and society. In order to reflect this multi-dimensional vector relationship, a multi-level and multi-targeted evaluation index system needs to be constructed. The paper, adopting the analytic hierarchy process and including PM2.5 (Particulate matter with diameter less than or equal to 2.5 microns in the atmosphere) into the index system, establishes the evaluation system of regional RECC and analyzes the trend of RECC in Hefei city with the index system to put forward the countermeasures of forewarning management. The results are shown as follows: (1) Overall, the RECC in Hefei city presents a declining trend, with a reduction from a middle to lower level during the year 2009 to 2013, of which the year 2010 to 2011 showed the fastest decline and the year 2013 witnessed a slight increase; (2) from the perspective of mutual influence of indexes, the main reason causing the decline of RECC in Hefei city is that the natural resources and environment carrying capacity was in a declining trend from the year 2009 to 2013, respectively declining from middle and high levels to a lower level, while the social economy carrying capacity in Hefei city was in an increasing trend as a whole from the year 2009 to 2013, with an increase from lower level to middle level. From the perspective of the forewarning management of RECC, it focuses on improving the forewarning response system of regional resources and environment carrying capacity, establishes the sharing mechanism of RECC monitoring data and improves the responsibility assigning mechanism of RECC. The study enriches the evaluation index system of RECC and proves that it is reasonable and efficient to build a differentiated index system to scientifically recognize RECC in different regions, having reference value to evaluate similar regional RECC.
Highlights
Resources and the environment, as the foundation of human development, carry all social and economic activities of humans
In terms of the resource dimension, carrying capacity refers to the capacity of resources to supply the environmental system and human needs [6,7,8,9,10]; in terms of the environment dimension, carrying capacity refers to the maintenance function of good environmental quality with the dilution and self-purification of pollution; in terms of the ecology dimension, carrying capacity refers to the capacity to provide supply, adjustment, culture, and support for the existence of humans [11,12,13,14]; in terms of the social and economic dimension, carrying capacity refers to the intensity, scope, and relevant threshold of natural resources and environment to carry humans and social and economic activities of humans and, within the threshold system, the resource and environment system will not sustain obvious degeneration or collapse [14,15,16,17]
Using the above index system to evaluate the RECC of Hefei City between 2009 to 2013, the following results were obtained: in these five years, the RECC of Hefei city declined from medium to weak, except the carrying capacity of social economy increased from weak to medium, both the natural resources and environment carrying capacity of Hefei city declined in different degrees from medium and strong to weaker, respectively, of which the environment carrying capacity had the larger decline
Summary
As the foundation of human development, carry all social and economic activities of humans. Ma Shijun, based on many years of study on ecology and in-depth thoughts of population, food, resources, energy, the environment, and other critical ecological and economic issues faced by human society, put forward the concept of “complex ecosystem of Society-Economy-Nature” in 1984, i.e., a complex system that is formed by human-centered society, the economic system, and the natural ecosystem through synergistic effect within a specific region [3,4]. The study on the response of the social–economic–natural complex ecosystem, taking resources and the environment as the core to human activities, has been widely conducted in the world, and the attention paid to sustainable development issues has been increasing. The Chinese government has constructed a carrying capacity monitoring forewarning mechanism as an important mission of comprehensively deepening the institutional reform of ecological civilization
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