The Elementary Investigation Of JiLin Province' Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint analysis approach is an index system for assessing the sustainable degree of resources ultilization , which occurs when the problem of resource and environment becomes more and more serious all over the world. The process of this approach is firstly to estimate the space that needed by the human activity and the treatment of rejectamenta produced by humanbeing, secondly to compare it with the capacity of the district, and then the sustainable status of an area can be indicated. Ecological footprint theory has already been extensively applied into the study of sustainable development for its many advantage, such as the precise theory framework, simple method of caculation and direct way of expression. In this study, we calculated and evaluated the ecological footprint of Jilin Province by using an improved model, based on large amounts of data on the resources conditions of Jilin province. According to the 10 year ecological footprint sequence from 1993 to 2002, we intended to find a way, which including conservation of nature, wise use of resource and optimization of resource structure, to harmonize the relationship between human development and nature conservation by comparing the developement demond to the potential supply of nature under the normal condition of resource availability and use model.The result shows that the ecological footprint per person increased guradually while the total ecological capacity decreased stablely from 1993 to 2002. The footprint of Jilin is 1.52gha in 2002, which is the largest value during this period, and ecological capability is 0.91gha (the lowest value during this period) in 2001. This result reveals that the ecological deficit exists in the development of Jilin province, and the result of prediction model also shows that this situation will be continuously serious in future. Resource cosumption has exceeded the supply from nature. The resource structure is unbalanced because two types of resource are enough and three types are in lack. Take the food which is used as grazing for example, this has lead to potiential waste of resouces.To meet with the further development and construct a harmonious society, it is necessary for Jilin province to improve the efficience of resource ultilization, reseaonable allocation of resources, and to enhance the competitive capability in resources flow.