The Assessment And Affecting Factors On The Ecological Footprint Of Wood Floor

The theory and method of ecological footprint provided an important means to the quantitative study of sustainable development. Accounting ecological footprint of key forest products and quantitative evaluation of the utilization of ecological resources in industry related to forestry provided a new perspective to the forestry sustainable development research.Using methods such as literature collection, field survey and interview, quantitative analysis, the paper calculated the conversion coefficient of wood floor to its raw materials, constructed the ecological footprint model of the wooden floor, calculated the ecological footprint of wood floor industry in China, assessed the forest resources occupancy in wood floor industry from 2003 to 2013, and discussed the technological, policy, population and economic factors of the ecological footprint.The results showed that:(a) The conversion coefficients of solid wood flooring, laminate flooring and parquet to log were respectively 0.048, 0.061 and 0.088(m3 wood equivalent / m2 wood floor).(b) Based on the proportion of various types of wood flooring output in different years, the conversion coefficients of floors to log were calculated from 2003 to 2013, they were between 0.0537 to 0.0779 and 0.0667 on average, which meant the production of 1 m2 of wood floor needed to consume 0.0667 m3 log.(c) The ecological footprint calculation model of wood floor is: EF( ∑ / ∑) ? P ? r / W/A,EC W ? r ? y., where EF means ecological footprint, EC means ecological capacity, pi is the proportion of wood floor production, P is wood floor production, W is timber production, A is wood production area, r is balancing factor, y is the yield factor.(d) The per capita ecological footprint of China’s wood floor increased from 0.0171 hm2 in 2003 to 0.1255 hm2 in 2013 and per capita ecological capacity fluctuated between 0.14 and 0.16 hm2.(e) Wood floor conversion factor, forest balance factor and forest yield factor directly determined the wood floor ecological footprint. These factors were mainly influenced by forestry policy and scientific and technological level.(f) In the past 10 years, both the area of China’s per capita commercial housing sales and per capita housing new construction were positively correlated to the per capita wood floor ecological footprint, and the correlation were strong.From this we could know, the conversion coefficients of the various types of floors to log were quite different. Conversion coefficient calculation provided a new method to the assessment of the ecological footprint in related industry. Now, wood floor industry in China is in a state of ecological surplus, but the value of ecological surplus is declining. Wood floor ecological footprint is mainly affected by external factors such as forestry policy, scientific and technological level, and internal factors like real estate development,the growth of GDP and so on.