The dynamic analysis on ecological footprint and ecological capacity of Hebei province

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate ecological carrying capacity of Hebei province during 2005 and 2011. The ecological footprint and carrying capacity were analyzed with ecological footprint model, and the difference between ecological footprint and carrying capacity was concluded. Furthermore, an assessment was made on the ecological footprint per ten thousand GDP during 2005 and 2011 by the method of ecological footprint to evaluate the sustainable development. The results showed that: (1) the ecological footprint per capita of Hebei province had increased year by year from 2.6566hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to 3.3233hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The changes of the ecological carrying capacity per capita were not significantly, the ecological deficit per capita increased from 2.0856hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to 2.7548hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . (2) The ecological capacity per capita basically maintained at 0.5640hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> -0.5759hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . (3) The ecological deficit increased at an annual growth rate of 5%. (4) Ecological footprint per ten thousand Yuan GDP decreased from 1.0668 hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to 0.4602 hm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .