Study On The Spatio-temporal Evolution And Influencing Factors Of Ecological Footprint In Xi’an

As a mega-city in the central/western regions of our country,Xi’an has been developing rapidly in terms of industrialization and urbanization since the " One Belt One Road”initiative was put forward.However,in recent years,with population expansion and rapid economic growth,the relationship between humankind and natural ecosystems has continued to deteriorate,and a series of development problems have gradually emerged,such as serious environmental pollution,insufficient supply of resources,insufficient land supply for population growth,all of which have serious impacts on the healthy development of social economy in Xi’an.Relieving and eliminating the contradiction between economic/social development and the ecological environment is an important issue facing Xi’an at the current stage of development.The ecological footprint analysis method calculates the size of the ecological footprint from the demand side and the size of the eco-capacity from the supply side.After comparing the two,the sustainable development state of the research object is evaluated.This paper calculates the ecological footprint,ecological carrying capacity,and ecological deficit/surplus of Xi’an from 1990 to 2019,and analyzes the evolution of Xi’an’s ecological footprint in time and space,and finally uses the partial least squares regression model to analyze the factors influencing the evolution of the eco-footprints of Xi’an.The results show that from 1990 to 2019,the per capita Ecological Footprint of Xi’an City has shown a continuous growth trend.The per capita Ecological Footprint of Xi’an City has increased from 0.8077hm2/cap to 1.7567hm2/cap,a growth rate of 117.50%.In the past 30 years,the ecological situation of Xi’an has shown an ecological deficit.The total ecological deficit has increased from 2,377,300 hectares in 1990 to 15.261,500 hectares in 2019,with a growth rate of 541.97%.The ecological condition of Xi’an is not optimistic.The ecological footprint per RMB 10,000 yuan GDP has been declining year by year in fluctuations.The ecological footprint of per RMB 10,000 yuan GDP has decreased from 4.3691 hm2/RMB 10,000 yuan in 1990 to 0.1923 hm2/RMB 10,000 yuan in 2019.The decline in the ecological footprint of per RMB 10,000 yuan GDP indicates that the resource utilization mode of Xi’an’s economic development has gradually changed from the ineficient type in the past to the efficient and resource-saving type now.Over the past 30 years,the ecological footprint of Xi’an has been mainly distributed in the three central districts and surrounding counties,among which the Yanta District has changed the most.In 2019,the ecological footprint of Yanta District accounted for 15.11%of the total ecological footprint of Xi’an,with an ecological footprint of 2.4336 million hectares,followed by Chang’an District and Weiyang District,with ecological footprints of 1.8695 million hectares and 1.4533 million hectares,respectively.By establishing a partial least squares regression model between the ecological footprint of Xi’an and the possible influencing factors,it is concluded that the influencing factors that affect the evolution of the ecological footprint of Xi’an,by the order of their VIP values,are urban residents’ per capita consumption expenditure,total energy consumption,total population,per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents,primary industry GDP,secondary industry GDP,gross domestic product(GDP),tertiary industry GDP,urban population,number of patent applications,urbanization rate,fixed asset investment in the whole society,Total value of imports and exports,and rural population.