Evaluation of the Regional Ecological Environment in Central ChinaBased on the Ecological Footprint Model

摘要

The ecological footprint is a quantitative biophysical method commonly used to evaluate the status of regionalecological environment and the degree of sustainable development. In this paper, the concept and calculation process ofthe ecological footprint are introduced by taking a county located in central China as example. Computational analysisand empirical research of the region’s ecological footprint is carried out. It turns out that the per-capita ecological footprintand per-capita Biocapacity of the county is 1.207382hm2 and 0.506497hm2 respectively, so the per-capita ecologicaldeficit of 0.700885hm2appears, which shows that the pressure put by the social development and human activities haveexceeded the Biocapacity of the county and the status of the development is unsustainable. Therefore, on the basis of ourstudy, proposals and measures are raised in the end to build a more sustainable development economy.