Input-Output Analysis On Ecological Footprint In Gansu Province

After reviewing the standard calculation of Ecological Footprint (EF), there is a new calculation of EF introduced, based the Input-output model, which is developed and used widely in recent years. Having showed how to use the method to calculate the EF of an economics system, generally corresponding to a region, country or province, there is also take the EF calculation of Gansu province in 2002 as an example to illustrate how to apply the new method to evaluate the EF and analysis the environment impact.The result of the EF of Gansu in 2002 shows that the EF caused by final domestic demand is 8.73×l0~7ha, nearly twice as the total land area of Gansu, obviously overload the environment supply in Gansu. And the EF exported is 1.26×10~7ha with 91% of the 'energy-density', and EF imported is 2.28×10~7ha with 45% of it.Further, we use the linkage analysis method based on Input-Output model to calculate the land resource linkage effect indexes, which are used to explain the linkage between the sectors (or sector blocks) through the land resource embodied in the products traded and purchased between the sectors. Based on the result, we find that only the agriculture and transportation sector blocks own the potential ability to offer land resource to other sector blocks. On the contrary, the other sector blocks have to gain some land resource out of itself. As the potential ability is considered, the agriculture is bigger than the transportation sectors block.Additionally, we compare the EF change between the 1997 and 2002, using the EF Input-Output method. The result shows that, there is an increase of 1.41×10~7ha in EF caused by final domestic demand comparing to the EF of 1997, and an increase of 2.0×10~5ha in EF export, and an increase of 1.6×10~6ha in EF import. And there is a decrease of the out-of-region support which 22.6% in 1997 and 18.6% in 2002.And also we have checked the change of the EF linkage effect between sectors in 1997 and 2002.We find that the linkage effect in general increase and the potential ability of the agriculture and the transportation to offer the land resource to others decrease.We defined the factors which affect the EF: the productivity of the resource which is explained by the change of resource used to obtain one unit output in a sector, the improvement of the economics, and the final demand. Using the EF data of 1997 and 2002, we analysis the effect of the factor to the EF change, respectively. We find that the three factors' effects to the EF change are not identical except the industry sectors and the change of factor in the agriculture and the industry sectors contribute more than others' to the EF change. The final demand is the main factor, which caused the increase of EF.