Evaluation Of Sustainable Development, Based On The Ecological Footprint Of Yantai City

Ecological Footprint is a useful indicator for measuring the pressure imposed by humanity on natural capital and also a powerful indicator for regional sustainability.The Ecological Footprint(EF) is a measure of how much biologically productive land and water area which an individual,a country,a region or world requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates,using prevailing technology and resource management schemes.In this study,the EF and BC of Yantai were calculated and compared according to the time-trend data from 1997 to 2006.The results showed that:①The ecological footprint per person increased from 1.158 hm~2 in 1997 to 1.9539 hm~2(global hectares) in 2006, and the county faced the ecological deficit of 1.616hm~2 in 2006.②The BC per person decreased from 0.3639 hm~2 in 1997 to 0.3379 hm~2 in 2006.And by comparing the results of EF calculations of Yantai with that of other regions such as China and its provinces,the status of development of Yantai has been significantly in low-level.③Additively,the study also calculated ecological footprint's diversity and development capacity of Yantai based on the results of EF calculations;and then analyzed the correlations between ecological footprint's diversity and ecological footprints per 10~4yuan(GDP),development capacity and yuan(GDP) per person.④The study clearly demonstrates that indicator of development capacity based on ecological footprint is a good tool to assess the status of a region's development and that increasing ecological footprint's diversity would increase the benefits of resources utilization and enhanced evelopmentca pacity.