The Calculation And Analysis Of Ecological Footprints Of Hebei Province

Hebei Province in the northern part of North China Plain and north of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, surrounds Beijing and Tianjin and occupies an important position in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic circle. Since the reform and opening up, great achievements of economic and social development have been acquired in Hebei province which has made tremendous contribution to the prosperity and development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic circle. However, with the rapid development of the province’s economy, its ecological environment has been increasingly damaged, and there have been many ecological problems. Such as:a shortage of water resources, water pollution, urban air pollution and marine pollution, serious destruction of forest resources, and low vegetation coverage. This series of ecological problems have pose a serious threat to the sustainable socio-economic development. Therefore, the issue of sustainable development has aroused widespread concern in the people of the province, the coordination of economic and ecological development has become the fundamental goal of Hebei Province’s socio-economic development in the future.Ecological footprint method, which is a biophysical assessment method of the human appropriation of ecological capacity, for measuring the ecological imperative of sustainability. The ecological footprint method put forward in1992and improved by Willliam Rees in1996, and come in china by Zhang zhiqiang in1999, who use it calculated and analyzed ecological footprint of Gansu Province in1998.This paper based on the sustainable development theory as a guide, use the model theory and computational method of the ecological footprint to do the empirical analysis of Hebei ecological footprint in the year2009according to the "Hebei Economic Yearbook (2010)" The results showed that the per capita ecological footprint of Hebei Province in2009was2.9379gha/per, the available ecological capacity was0.4109gha/per and the ecological deficit was2.5270gha/per, the ecological footprint per unit of GDP is1.214gha, and the corresponding types of ecological is1.129. In sum clearly, the impact which the human activites had on the regional ecological and economic systems in these areas was far beyond its ecological carrying capacity. The structure and function of regional ecological and economic system need adjustments. In response to this situation, the paper analyze the reasons which is causing ecological deficit in Hebei Province, and propose a number of measures to achieve sustainable development and recommendations. Such as continue to control population growth strictly, optimize the industrial structure further, increase the protection of arable land and so.