Abstract
An ecological footprint is a primary indicator in measuring the sustainability of regional development, especially in resource-based cities. Here, we built an ecological footprint-based framework to assess the sustainability for a resource-based city of Panzhihua, in China. In this framework, a suite of long-term ecological parameters (2000–2020), essentially including Net Primary Productivity (NPP), land cover, as well as social statistical data, was used as the input indices of a provincial hectare ecological footprint model. The model outputs are composed of the ecological footprint (EF), ecological footprint per capita (PEF), ecological capacity (EC), ecological capacity per capita (PEC), ecological deficit/surplus (ED/S), and per capita ecological deficit/surplus (PED/S). Then the sustainable development capability of the city was comprehensively evaluated using a suite of ecological indices, including the ecological pressure index (EPI), ecological footprint per ten thousand GDP (EFG), ecological sustainability index (ESI), and ecological coordination index (ECI). The study reveals that, from 2000–2020, (1) PEC and PED/S presented an increasing trend (0.2401 hm2/person and 2.1421 hm2/person, respectively), while PEF decreased by 1.9 hm2/person. In the case of the ecological deficit, fossil energy land and forest were the dominant land types in controlling the ecological footprint and ecological capacity, (2) EPI and EFG decreased by 6.6381 hm2/person and 2.2462 hm2/person, respectively, and ESI and ECI increased by 0.3436 hm2/person and 0.2897 hm2/person, respectively. These indices also reflect that the utilization rate of natural resources in Panzhihua City has been improved, with enhanced sustainability, as well as a decline in ecological pressure. This ecological footprint-based framework could work as a template for evaluating the sustainability of resource-based cities from positive and negative ecological footprint indices.
Highlights
Based on the above analysis, this paper aims to build an ecological footprint-based framework to assess the sustainability of Panzhihua city from 2000–2020, with a model of the ecological footprint based on a provincial hectare
In order to accurately analyze the changes over time of Panzhihua City’s ecological footprint, we studied the composition of the ecological footprint, ecological capacity, and ecological deficit during the study period
Fossil energy land accounted for the largest share of the ecological deficit, which fell from 94% to 54%, while the grassland ecological surplus rose from 2% to 31% (Figure 3c)
Summary
During the last thirty years, China has experienced rapid growth in its population and urbanization, which have directly or indirectly worsened human consumption of natural resources, even causing various ecological and environmental disasters that severely affect human well-being [1,2]. Sustainable development has become a societal consensus attempting to address various resource and environmental issues, such as air pollution, resource depletion, and global warming [3,4]. A regionally sustainable ecological status is crucial for lessening competition among population, economy, and natural resources in Sustainability 2022, 14, 3067. Sustainability 2022, 14, 3067 a sensible manner [5,6]. Gaps in the modeling methodology and evaluation for regional sustainability exist
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