Based On The "Ecological Footprint" The City Changes Process Analysis

At present, the human society has gained greatachievements in economy, science and technology. However, inthe meantime, it also brought a series of problems, such as,environmental pollution, waste of resources andoverpopulation. An important task before mankind is how torecognise the relationship between humanity and nature, breakdown the contradictions between ecology and economy,society and environment and seek a way of sustainabledevelopment. Currently, there is one quantitative measurementof the sustainable development, The Ecological Footprint Model,which has been studied relatively more in the world. The reasonit was widely used is because of its strong operability, strongconcept image and rich content.This article has conducted a scientific and systematic theoretical study on The Ecological Footprint Model. Taiyuan,Shanxi province, located in the Loess Plateau, is chosen to bethe object of this study. Due to the inefficient development inCoal, Steel and other industries, Taiyuan’s eco-system has beenseriously damaged. This study has accurately calculated,studied and analyzed the indicators of the ecological footprintin Taiyuan between 2003 and 2010. It also explored andpractised the regional application of the theory and method ofecological footprint, and also provided adjustment advices andrecommendations on the application of the theory and methodof ecological footprint in regional sustainable development.Furthermore, it pointed out the drawback of the ecologicalfootprint theory, The Wackemagel Ecological Footprint Method,according which the calculation of the arable land footprintcauses the big difference between the theory of sown area andthe actual cultivated area, due to lack of taking factors like themultiple cropping into account. It, later, analyzed andsummarized the ecological footprint and ecological footprintdeficit in Taiyuan on basis of which, it raised 6 measures thatshould be taken into action in Taiyuan’s future development.This article consist of four parts: the first part is tovertically illustrate the related theories of the ecological footprint model. Through generally analyzing the researchachievements of the sustainable development and on basis ofthe summary of variety of evaluation models, this partintroduced The Ecological Footprint Evaluation Method whichis a method conducting scientific evaluation on sustainabledevelopment. The second part is the Introduction of the currentsituation of the ecological footprint and the applied ecologicalfootprint models in the process of Taiyuan’s urbanization.Based on the profound and comprehensive review on Taiyuan’surbanization process, this part comprehensively illustrates allthe chosen suitable theories to analyse the city’s ecologicalfootprint, including the principles of ecological footprintdemand, ecological carrying capacity and ecological footprintassessment. The third part is to calculate Taiyuan’s ecologicalfootprint and analyze its causes by the ecological footprintmodel. The research was mainly focused on dynamic analysisof Taiyuan’s ecological footprint between 2003 and 2010.Through the analysis on the current situation of environment,resources, population, and economic problems in Taiyuan,especially the use of water resources, this part has providedthe summary and also proposed some recommendations. Usingthe ecological footprint theories and through estimating and calculating Taiyuan’s ecological footprint, forming and countingthe ecological carrying capacity model and accuratecalculation on ecological surpluses and deficits, this paper hasobjectively analyzed the existing problems in Taiyuan’secological sustainable development, Such as, ecologicalcarrying capacity, Ecological surplus and other problems inTaiyuan’s development. In the last part, it has provided somesolution proposals on the ecological sustainability in Taiyuan.