Evaluation Of Ecological Carrying Capacity Based On Ecological Footprint Model In Hohhot

The contradiction between the natural ecological system and economic development system has increasingly become the focus of scholars’study. The ecological footprint model provides a method used to measure the gap between the human economic system demand for the natural ecosystem and natural ecosystem carrying capacity. When a region’s ecological footprint exceeds the ecological carrying capacity, it will lead to an ecological deficit. An ecological deficit shows that the region’s human consumption has gone beyond the biomass provided by natural ecosystem and that the regional development is in an unsustainable position to maintain this overload state and can only rely on excessive consumption of the stocks and imports. Conversely, when a region’s ecological footprint is less than the ecological carrying capacity, it is characterized by an ecological surplus. An ecological deficit shows that the biomass provided by the region’s natural ecosystem can satisfy the demand of human beings and that the regional development is in a sustainable state.Hohhot is Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s political, economic and cultural center, and the key zone of country main functional area planning. For nearly a decade the economy has been at the stage of rapid development with the average GDP growth being 15.8% between the years 2005 to 2014. Population grown was 2.637 million to 3.031 million from 2005 to 2014. The rapid development of the economy and the growing population is bound to lead to the growing demand of ecological resources. But our land is limited so the biomass provided by the natural ecological system is also limited. Can the output provided by the natural ecological system satisfy our requirements? Based on the calculation of Hohhot’s ecological footprint, there is a decades worth of intuitive data analyzing this problem.Generally, this article can be divided into two parts:the first part is the theoretical basis of the research, for a detailed analysis about the theories of ecological footprint’ relevant concepts, to fully understand the proposed about ecological footprint model and its domestic and abroad application, lay a solid foundation for the study. The second part is empirical research. Firstly, introduced the general situation, economic development situation and the status of the different types of land use of the natural environment in Hohhot. Secondly, the establishment of ecological footprint model by selecting indicators the study area, collect relevant data, calculated the ecological footprint, ecological carrying capacity and ecological deficit/surplus, and the results made dynamic timing analysis and classification analysis, the final draw appropriate conclusions.Analysis results show that in 2014, the per capita ecological footprint of Hohhot is 4.9184 ha/person and the per capita ecological carrying capacity is 0.8363 ha/person. The per capita ecological footprint is per capita ecological carrying capacity of 5.88 times, meaning that Hohhot’s year of ecological consumption is equal to 5.88 years of ecological system supply. It shows that we are consuming our earth at a fast pace. Hohhot’s ecological deficit was 4.0821 ha/person in 2014. For the current situation of ecological deficit, my paper puts forward some suggestions: enhance the level of agricultural science and technology, protect the ecological productive land, improve the utilization of ecological resource, and improve the quality of the population.