| China's rapid development is accompanied by the heavy drain on resources and serious environmental destruction. The imbalances between the supply and demand of resources and serious ecological overloading in some areas have presented themselves. Henan is a province of large population and resources, so its development into a newly-emergent kernel region of central China is a microcosm of China's development.With sustainable development as the inevitable choice, China has developed its basic national policy of resource conservation and environmental protection as well as goals of developing a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Human survival and development must rely on various resources, and eco-environment is inevitably contaminated by the discharge of wastes from human production and living activities. For the limited capacity of resource supply and environment's capacity to waste and pollution, we must ensure the human activities within the capacity of resource supply and environmental endurance, i.e., within the resource carrying capacity (abbreviated as "RCC") and environmental carrying capacity (abbreviated as "ECC1"). With RCC and ECC1 in the scope of ecological carrying capacity (abbreviated as "ECC2") in nature, sustainable development must be built on the basis of ECC2.ECC2 study is aimed at regulating and controlling human activities, building a harmonious environment of advancing economy, progressing society and friendly environment on the basis of scientific evaluation of the present carrying capacity supply and demand. Beginning in 1960s, the carrying capacity study has been a multi-disciplinary focus for half a century. Its major study can be summarized as RCC, ECC1, and ECC2. Relevant outcomes are relatively concentrated in studies of single factor carrying capacities, and comprehensive carrying capacity studies basically remain combination of single factor carrying capacities. In addition, the earlier studies paid scant attention to the ECC2 of the non-renewable resources, which is ignorant of the fact that the rapid economic development at present depends to a large extent on non-renewable resources.This article discusses the ECC2 of non-renewable resources, attempts to build theoretical sequences of comprehensive ECC2, including resource ECC2 and environmental ECC2, and emphasizes that the resource ECC2 should include the resource ECC2 of renewable resources and non-renewable resources.Commonly applied to evaluating regional resources and environment respectively from the perspectives of area and energy, the ecological footprint theory and emergy theory, as the latest achievements in the field of sustainable development evaluation, are more suitable for comprehensive evaluation of carrying capacities. Considering the advantages of the two theories, with theoretical sequences of comprehensive ECC2 as reference, this paper discusses the computational model of comprehensive ECC2 and applies it to a case study of Henan Province.The contents of the dissertation are as follows:(1) Regional development should be established on the basis of ECC2, which mainly includes RCC and ECC1. Both the ecological footprint theory and emergy analysis theory can be applied to the ECC2 evaluation model while the current carrying capacity study is insufficient:no complete theoretical system was built for ECC2 study; the focus of RCC and ECC1 was mainly on single factor carrying capacities analysis; the theoretical study of comprehensive ECC2 which integrates RCC and ECC1 was relatively poor. The concept of comprehensive ECC2 suggested and the stress on the ecological carrying function of non-renewable resources are suggested. Comprehensive ECC2 should include non-renewable RCC; theoretical sequence of comprehensive ECC2 is to be built; the model and methods of comprehensive ECC2 quantitative analysis are to be analyzed in combination with ecological footprint theory and emergy analysis theory. (2) A prevalent theory of sustainable development evaluation, the ecological footprint reviews the progress of study on ecological footprint theory and methods and further points out several aspects that ecological footprint theory should strengthen: ecological footprint classification studies of renewable resources and non-renewable resources; the time series as well as time-space configuration studies of ecological footprint and ECC2; study of ecological footprint in the planning field. Farmland multi-cropping index, consumer data optimization processing and other improved ecological footprint models are to be used, and the ecological supply and demand from 1990 to 2007 in Henan Province quantified. A comprehensive analysis of resources and environmental conditions, including population, resources, economy and other indicators in Henan Province is to be conducted.(3) The emergy analysis theory is able to solve the problems existing in previous energy studies, and promote the energy study, but it takes insufficient account of the environmental impact and has incomprehensive carrying capacity studies. Based on the emergy model, the emergy input and output conditions of the agro-ecosystems in Henan Province from 1990 to 2007 are to be analyzed, and the changes of relevant factors compared. The continuously increased emergy investment ratio and auxiliary inputs in Henan Province result in more emergy output and yet more pressure in regional environment at the same time. Organic emergy input should be increased, agriculture and eco-agriculture developed, biological technology and other measures used, agro-ecosystem productivity improved and negative impact on the environment reduced in the future.(4) Emergy transformity is an important concept of emergy theory. Because the emergy transformity was sometimes misused, this dissertation proposes the concept of emergy transformity variation coefficient and its computational model and applies them to the emergy analysis of Henan Province. Emergy transformity variation coefficient is considered to contribute to combination of theory and practice.(5) The ecological footprint theory and the emergy theory are interrelated and complementary to each other. With emergy methods integrated into the ecological footprint accounting system, the emergy ecological footprint model is to be built, the emergy ecological footprint of Henan Province calculated, the results similarities and differences between the emergy ecological footprint and traditional ecological footprint compared, and problems existing in the current emergy ecological footprint studies pointed out.(6) Accounting model of comprehensive ECC2 is presented by drawing on the models and methods of ecological footprint and emergy analysis. The comprehensive ECC2 of Henan Province is estimated with focus on analysis of the supply and demand of non-renewable resources ECC2, and the carrying time limit of non-renewable resources is predicted in two scenarios. We believe that the finite non-renewable resources will push the mankind forward into the future low-energy society, so human beings should be prepared to take precautions to promote a smooth transition to the low-energy society.Principal innovations:the concept of comprehensive ECC2 is put forward and theoretical sequences of comprehensive ECC2 and quantitative models built; emergy transformity variation coefficient is advanced and applied to case studies; farmland multi-cropping index corrects the production factors, perfects the ecological footprint computational model; developing countermeasures are offered upon such long-term quantitative analysis as ecological footprint, emergy analysis, emergy ecological footprint, comprehensive ECC2 of Henan Province.
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