Quantative Evaluation On Sustainable Utilization Of Rangeland Resources In The Ecotone Of Croplaand And Pastoral Land In Inner Mongolia

Sustainable utilization of grassland resources has been one of the basic strategies for a sustainable development in China. For the sustainable development in the cropping-pastoral interlacing regions, the establishment of a data-based system for sustainability evaluation is urgently needed. In this paper, a series of quantitative indexes were selected to test the applicability of the system by fuzzy mathematic models. This model system was considered to be useful for a number of occasions, including international scientific exchange and negotiations. This is the primary purpose of this study. The setting up of such a system is an innovated approach internationally and domestically. According to the grassland recovery and reinstallation principles and based on the frame of resource sustainable utilization assessment, sustainability of grassland resources was quantitatively evaluated, and further more, sustainability of the grassland resources in the cropping-pastoral interlacing regions were assessed. The main steps involved in the system include: identifying sustainability guideline, establishing evaluating indexes by AHP method, quantitatively evaluating the primary index groups, establishing comparing and identification matrixes, weighting the correlations between indexes at different levels by matrix operation, applying hierarchical functions, and making up the final evaluation results. The evaluation system for the sustainability in the cropping-pastoral interlacing regions is a 4-leveled system, composed of 39 elemental indexes. All these indexes were described systematically and were selected as the basic indexes in the system. Sustainability of the resources, damages to the grassland ecosystem, efforts and achievements made by the human being, and the fairness between generations for using grassland resources in the cropping-pastoral interlacing regions was reflected and evaluated from different angles in this system. Social-economical sustainability in the cropping-pastoral regions was scientifically assessed with this system in different ecological zones in Inner Mongolia. The evaluated results with this system can be used as references for government policy making in various aspects such as regional developmental strategy, mid-long term developmental planning, resources exploration, and etc.