Studies On The Sustainable Development Of Zhouqu County Based On Ecological Footprints

The sustainable development is the milestone of the modern social civilization. The sustainable development of one region is the base of the global sustainable development. The competition of resource and economy between countries is very severe in recent days. In order to enhance their competitiveness, the pattern of growth must be adjusted. That is to say, the sustainable development is the best choice. The correct evaluation of relation between population, resource and environment has very important role on formulating and implemention of the strategy of sustainable development. The ecological footprint is the index and relatively operable approach to evaluating the sustainable development and applies to measure the sustainable development quantitatively. The research on the ecological footprint of one region is an effective mean to understand the sustainable development. Hence, the study of the ecological footprint of one region has important meaning.Based on the model of ecological footprint, the ecological footprint account of Zhouqu is calculated and analyzed in this thesis according to the data of Zhouqu County. The ecological footprint and the ecological carrying capacity of Zhouqu at the year of2009,2010and2011are computed, respectively. The results show that the value of ecological footprint of Zhouqu is not more than that of the ecological carrying capacity. That is to say, the ecological account of Zhouqu is the ecological surplus. Especially, the ecological surplus of forest land is very huge. This shows that the government of Zhouqu plays a very important role in returning the grain plots to forestry and closeing hillsides to facilitate afforestation. Meanwhile, four forestry station of Zhouqu make an important contribution to the ecological surplus. The agricultural productive land is always in ecological deficit. The reason is that the ratio of the plow land is relatively low. However, the capacity of the urbanization of Zhouqu is tremendous.According to the results, the ecological status is containable and reaches the standard of the sustainable development. However, the ecological deficit always exists at some field, such as plow land. The government of Zhouqu should take these seriously.