Research On Sustainable Development Of Resource-based City Based On Material Flow And Ecological Footprint Model

In the view of establishing indicator system of sustainable development of resource-based city, this research combined the Material Flow Analysis method and the Ecological Footprint Model to evaluate the state of ecological sustainable development of Tongling City during 2000-2010. Factor analysis was employed to get the final score of sustainable development. Sustainable developing strategies were provided and research results would offer experiences for other resource-based cities which were struggling to achieve the real sustainable development.Theories and methods about Material Flow Analysis, Ecological Footprint Model and sustainable development were summarised and discussed. Material Flow Accounting and Ecological Footprint system was set up. Material input, output and efficiency indicators were analyzed. Ecological footprint and biological capacity was calculated. Evaluation indicator system was established based on these indicators. Sustainability of the economic-environmental system was explored and some suggestions were provided. The results were showed as follows:From the view of material flow analysis, direct material input was increasing. The proportion of import decreased and the domestic material extraction increased. Hidden flow and solid waste emissions were the main sources of environmental pressure of Tongling City. Solid waste emissions demonstrated "up-down-up" trend. Environmental pressure of Tongling City was lower than other resource-based cities, while resource productivity needed improvement.From the view of ecological footprint, the ecological deficit continued to grow. The demand for fossil fuel land and arable land considerably increased. Tongling was highly dependent on the development of high energy consumption enterprises. Resource shortage acted as the barrier of Tongling’s development. Regional comparison results showed that Tongling fell behind other cities in the aspect of resource utilization efficiency. There was a great pressure on the ecosystem.From the view of evaluation of indicator system, environmental factor experienced a great fluctuation. The implemention of the circular economy and the resource utilization of solid waste alleviated the environment pressure in a short period of time but could not ensure long-term effects. The score of environmental factor decreased due to the structural contradiction.Resource factor kept a downward trend, which was closely related to the early industry background of Tongling City. The resource factor weighted higher than the environmental factor and became the most important limiting factor of sustainable development. The high proportion of the secondary industry, high energy consumption and low resource productivity needed to be improved.Sustainable development factor demonstrated that despite the improvement of resource utilization, Tongling City still depended largely on higher resource consumption. To solve the problems of exhaustion of mineral resources, arable land, ecological restoration of mining area, Tongling City needed to adjust the proportions among the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and transform the mode of economic development by building circulation economy.