Research on ecological capacity by ecological footprint model in Guanzhong area

Abstract

Guanzhong area has been the central zone of social and economic activities in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China in recent years. The rapid development of economy in this area has been accumulating increasing pressure on ecological environment. In the paper, the theory and method of ecological footprint are adopted to analyze ecological footprint, ecological carrying capacity, ecological surplus/deficit and ecological footprint pressure index in Guanzhong area between the year of 2001 and 2005. The research results show that the per capita ecological footprint in Guanzhong area increases from 0.650755 in 2001 to 0.988408 in 2005, and the per capita ecological capacity decreases from 0.575225 in 2001 to 0.540421 in 2005. Further more, ecological deficit has emerged in the year of 2001 and the per capita ecological deficit increases to 0.448047 in 2005 while ecological footprint pressure index increases from 1.131305 in 2001 to 1.829070 in 2005. The paper comes to the conclusion that the ecological environment in Guanzhong area has been heavily overloaded, hence it's be at risk for the reason that the intensifying conflict between ecological footprint and ecological capacity has exceeded the natural range of ecological capacity of ecosystems with the increasing use of natural resources in Guanzhong area year by year.