Dynamic Study On The Land Carrying Capacity Of Cities In Jiangsu Province Based On Ecological Footprint

In the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization initiated since the1990s, the fast growth of urban population inevitably led to the ever-increasing conflicts between land and people. On the one hand, decreasing area of cultivation land made it more difficult to provide enough food for increasing population. On the other hand, economic development also demanded for more construction land. So, agricultural land and construction land were both faced with growing pressure on their land carrying capacity.Jiangsu province, located in the east of China, is one of the most developed provinces with the highest population density. Thus the study on the spatial-temporal characteristics of land carrying capacity in Jiangsu Province is of great significance for the sustainable development of the province.This paper took three typical cities as the main study area, and took1996-2005as the study period. Firstly, the background, content and methods used were described followed by a review on documents. Secondly, the theory of ecological footprint was explained and the quantitative method to calculate ecological footprint of a certain region were presented. In the same part, the application of the theory in the field of land carrying capacity was also elaborated. Thirdly, the characteristics of land use status in Jiangsu Province were summarized. The13cities in the province were divided into4categories according to the two indicators of population density and GDP per unit area. Nanjing, Nantong and Yangzhou were chosen as typical cities for further study. Fourthly, resource consumption of urban population was classified into6biological productive areas. Then the ecological footprint of the3cities during the period was calculated individually. The ecological deficits&surplus were compared among the3cities so that the differences in the productivity of different land use types in each city could be concluded. Policies and measures to increase the land carrying capacity in Jiangsu province were proposed.Main conclusions are:1) from to, land carrying capacity in the three cities had been constantly increasing. Nanjing, as the most developed city of the three, was faced with the highest pressure on its land carrying capacity.2) Land carrying capacity is unbalanced between different kinds of land in3cities. Land type which exerted the heaviest pressure on land carrying capacity differed among the three cities. It was fossil fuel land in Nanjing city during the study period, while it was cultivation land then gradually turned to watershed in Nantong city, and it was initial cultivation land then to fossil fule land in Yangzhou city.3) Land use efficiency in the three cities kept increasing and Nanjing city had the highest rate. Proposed measures included a stricter control on population growth, an increasing investment in agriculture and enhancing management of land resource.