Analysis Of Natural Resources And Economic Development In Western Gansu Province

Natural resources are fundamental materials on which human beings rely tosurvive and maintain sustainable development. Vital issues regarding population,resources, environment and development have been globally concerned with the sharpincrease of population and the rapid development of economy. The disharmonybetween the resource shortage and the large population is increasingly conspicuous inthe western Gansu Province (referring the 1000 km long areas east to Wushaoling andwest to Xingxing), which indicates sustainable utilization of natural resources hasbecoming extremely urgent. The western Gansu Province will fall behindeconomically unless these essential and significant issues involving both realistic andacademic are taken seriously.The natural resources in the western Gansu Province inthis paper are classified into six types: ①mineral resources;②land resources;③water resources;④climate resources;⑤tourist resources;⑥biological resources.This paper covers their quantities, qualities, spatio-temporal varieties, exploitation,utilization and corresponding consequences, protection, management and so on.Research on monomial resources is generally interdisciplinary study or derived fromrelated sciences such as agrology (land resources), zoology and botany (biologicalresources), geology (mineral and energy resources), hydrology and climatology(water and climate resources), geography (resource geography), environmentalsciences, economics (resource economics), national land economics, ecology(resource ecology), ergonomics and so forth. Information technique, remote sensingtechnique, spatial technique, biologic engineering technique and so on are widelyapplied to survey, estimate, program, manage and utilize natural resources. Based ontheory systems of natural resources, applying various basic research methods ofnatural sciences, and considering series of principles and policies, this paper regardsthe natural resources in the western Gansu Province and corresponding utilization asan organic, consistent and integral system so as to survey the mutual interactions andrelationships among natural resources, environments and the development of thesocietal economy, and investigate their quantities, qualities, characteristics of theirterrain combination, spatial structures and distribution laws, spatio-temporalevolvement and formation environment. This paper puts up forth a lot of suggestionsand recommendations concerning how to reasonably exploit, program, utilize, reform,protect and manage these natural resources, which refer to some advisable guidance todevelop the economy in the western Gansu Province.