Study on Relative Carrying Capacity of Land Resources and Its Zoning in 31 Provinces of China

Wei Zhou,Shuai Zhong,Ayman Elshkaki,Lei Shen

doi:10.3390/su13031459

Abstract

Land carrying capacity is an important indicator to quantitatively assess and judge the extents of sustainable economic developing and coexistent harmonizing between human and nature. The significance of land carrying capacity has been highlighted recently by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which set clear requirements for arable, construction, and ecological lands. Theories and models of land carrying capacity, however, are suffering from the interference of artificial parameter setting and poor applicability. This paper attempts to overcome these limitations and propose a single factor assessment of the carrying capacity of cultivated land, construction land, and ecological land in terms of the relative carrying capacity from the perspective of a single factor assessment. Through mutual comparison, we found that the deviation caused by simulated parameter setting has been eliminated, and the relative status of each province and/or region in China has been obtained, which could provide a reference for the management and utilization of land resources. We argue that China can achieve basic self-sufficiency in both space capacity and food production without placing pressure on the global sustainable development. The results also indicate that carrying capacity state of the advanced development areas such as the eastern coastal region is relatively poor, while the carrying capacity state of the western region is relatively good.

Highlights

Facing the twin challenges of growing China’s economy and ameliorating the natural environment, the resources, and environmental problems of China have become serious and affected China’s sustainable development [1]
If the carrying index is greater than 1, it indicates that there is some pressure, and if the carrying index is less than 1, there is no pressure. This paper extends this to construction land and ecological land, that is, how many people’s living demand can be met by the supply of construction land, and how many people’s ecological demand can be guaranteed by the ecological products and services provided by ecological land
The cultivated land in China could meet the populations need for food indicated by the carrying capacity index value of China’s cultivated land which is 0.75

Summary

Introduction

Facing the twin challenges of growing China’s economy and ameliorating the natural environment, the resources, and environmental problems of China have become serious and affected China’s sustainable development [1]. Research on resource and environment carrying capacity (RECC) is critical to address these problems and achieve national sustainable development [2]. Land resource carrying capacity (LRCC) is an indispensable part of RECC and one of the most important driving factors of economic development and environmental change [3]. The research on land carrying capacity includes both single factors such as the carrying capacity of agricultural land, construction land, and ecological land, and comprehensive research on the carrying capacity of land [4]. Typical examples of such research include the work carried out by FAO in 1977 on the carrying capacity of land to population in developing

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Conclusion