China's Land Carrying Capacity Based on Man-grain Relationships

With population growth and increasing pressure on land resources,land carrying capacity(LCC) and food safety have been attracting great attention worldwide.From the point of man-grain relationship and by establishing LCC and land carrying capacity index(LCCI) models,this article firstly analyzes the spatial-temporal dynamics of LCC of China from 1949 to 2005 at county,provincial and national levels.Choosing 2005 as a representative year,this article then evaluates the LCC of 264 pastoral regions(semipastoral regions),663 urban regions and 592 poverty stricken regions of the country.The results show that:(1) from 1949 to 2005,with the increase of grain production,the LCC of China has been improved conspicuously,but due to the rapid population growth,the production can only maintain a low level grain consumption;(2) over the past 25 years(1980-2005),the number of population overloading provinces decreased from 23 to 15 and the mangrain relationship has been improved gradually,but there were more overloading provinces than surplus provinces in China;(3) at county level,there were 1572 overloading counties in 1980 accounting for 68.26% of the total counties of the country and where were 649 million people lived,while in 1990,2000 and 2005,the number of overloading counties were 1066,1133 and 1087 respectively,which shows that the man-grain relationship has been improved obviously during the past 25 years;as for spatial distribution,the surplus counties were mainly concentrated in agriculture developed regions,such as Northeast Plain,North China Plain,middle and lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Plain,and overloading counties were mainly located in regions with poor natural environment and low grain production capacity,such as Northwest China,Tibetan Plateau and Loess Plateau and economically developed urban regions,such as Beijing,Tianjin and Shanghai;(4) animal husbandry improved greatly the LCC of pastoral and semi-pastoral regions,while urban regions were overloading for increasing population pressure and more than half of poverty stricken regions were overloading due to critical natural environment and poor economic conditions.

Status of land use intensity in China and its impacts on land carrying capacity

Land use intensity quantifies the impacts of human activities on natural ecosystems, which have become the major driver of global environmental change, and thus it serves as an essential measurement for assessing land use sustainability. To date, land-change studies have mainly focused on changes in land cover and their effects on ecological processes, whereas land use intensity has not yet received the attention it deserves and for which spa- tially-explicit representation studies have only just begun. In this paper, according to the de- gree and reversibility of surface disturbance by human activities, there are four main classes of land use intensity： artificial land, semi-artificial land, semi-natural land, and natural land. These were further divided into 22 subclasses based on key indicators, such as human pop- ulation density and the cropping intensity. Land use intensity map of China at a 1-km spatial resolution was obtained based on satellite images and statistical data. The area proportions of artificial land, semi-artificial land, semi-natural land, and natural land were 0.71%, 19.36%, 58.93%, and 21%, respectively. Human and economic carrying capacity increased with the increase of land use intensity. Artificial land supports 24.58% and 35.62% of the total population and GDP, using only 0.71% of the total land, while semi-artificial land supported 58.24% and 49.61% of human population and GDP with 19.36% of China＇s total land area.

Spatial and Temporal Differences of Urban Land Comprehensive Carrying Capacity in Guangxi

The comprehensive carrying capacity of urban land can reflect the re- source level, economic scale, social development and environmental pressure of ur- ban land carrying. The assessment indicator system of urban land comprehensive carrying capacity was constructed from the 4 aspects of resource, economy, society, environment, and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to evaluate the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity of Guangxi and the 14 cities in 2005-2014, and analyzed its spatial and temporal characteristics as well as the driving forces, with the aim to provide references for improving the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity. The results showed that, the overall urban land comprehensive carrying capacity in Guangxi increased in 2005-2014, and there were significant differences in the land comprehensive carrying capacities among the cities in Guangxi in 2005-2014, in which Liuzhou, Guilin, Nanning belonged to the regions with the highest carrying capacity, while Beihai, Yulin, Wutong belonged to the regions with high carrying capacity, and the carrying capacities of the other cities changed with the changes of time. The economic development degree was an important factor influencing urban land comprehensive carrying capacity, but could not directly represent the urban land comprehensive carrying capacity level.

Assessment of Land Comprehensive Carrying Capacity in Lin'an City

According to regional characteristics and the actual situation in Lin ’an City, an evaluation index system of land comprehensive carrying capacity composed of three support subsystems （eco-environment, social and economic carrying capaci-ties） containing 22 evaluation indexes was established to evaluate the comprehen-sive carrying capacity of land resource in Lin’an City during 2005-2012. Meanwhile, based on the target data of overal land use plan, the level of land comprehensive carrying capacity was predicted at the end of the plan period （2020） .The results showed that land comprehensive carrying capacity had a significant growth in Lin ’an from 2005 to 2012, and the development trend was basical y sustainable. The sub-systems also had been greatly improved, in which the constant improvement of ec-ological environment carrying capacity made the largest contribution to the constant raising of land comprehensive carrying capacity. The degree of coordination between the systems was poor, in which eco-environment carrying capacity had the maxi-mum growth, far more than the social and economic carrying capacities. According to the land comprehensive carrying capacity in 2020, utilization of land resources in Lin＆#39;an city can achieve sustainable development in general. Final y, proposals of im-proving comprehensive carrying capacity were put forward in terms of the enhance-ment of eco-environment protection, accelerating economic development and policy guidance.

RESEARCH ON THE POPULATION CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE LAND RESOURCES IN THE ECONOMIC AREA OF ZHUJIANG DELTA

The authors once made a preliminary research on population carrying capacity of the land in the Economic Area of Zhujiang Delta (EAZD for short) in 1995, and reckoned that the ultimate population in this region will be 23 550 thousand by year of 2000. While the population in being in EAZD was 22.62 million in 1999.This accords with the prefigured result in the rough from the point of view of development. According to the data of plow land resources from the 2000 Statistical Yearbook of EAZD and the study on the population-foodstuff-plow land relationship, this paper calculates the productive potential of plow land and the population carrying capacity of land by year of 2010, and puts forward the countermeasures for improving the population carrying capacity of land in this region.

Research on Land Resource Carrying Capacity:Progress and Prospects

As an important part of resource and environment carrying capacity（RECC）,land resource carrying capacity（LRCC） has focused on the limiting factors on regional development from the scale of land resources for more than two hundred years.After a brief review of the origin and early development of LRCC,the progress of LRCC is summarized as a progression from land resource population carrying capacity（LPCC） to land resource comprehensive carrying capacity（LCCC）,and the hot issues of LRCC have changed from the simple human–grain relationship to more complex social and economic activities–land resources relationships.The corresponding research methods also evolved,from static research to dynamic research,and the assessment factor have evolved from a single factor to a comprehensive index system.Agro-ecological zoning（AEZ）,system dynamics（SD）,ecological footprint（EF）,and comprehensive evaluation methods have come to be viewed as the most representative methods of LRCC in recent years.As a focus of conventional LRCC research,the human–grain relationship still plays a significant role in LRCC evaluation because grain remains the top limiting factor of land resources and is the most significant criterion in the balance between regional population and land resources,especially for very populous countries.More attention should be paid to the accurate calculation of arable land and average food consumption levels to improve the scientific basis of LRCC evaluation.The development of science and technology and the variation of lifestyle are also important factors that influence regional LRCC.As a new topic of LRCC,LCCC has expanded the research field of LRCC in an attempt to reveal the limiting effects of land resource under open systems,but some issues such as carrying mechanism research and the combination of theoretical and applied research are needed in future studies to promote the further development of LCCC.

Assessment of Geological Security and Integrated Assessment Geo-environmental Suitability in Worst-hit Areas in Wenchuan Quake

The Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and geo-hazards triggered by the earthquake caused large injuries and deaths as well as destructive damage for infrastructures like construction, traffic and electricity. It is urgent to select relatively secure areas for townships and cities constructed in high mountainous regions with high magnitude earthquakes. This paper presents the basic thoughts, evaluation indices and evaluation methods of geological security evaluation, water and land resources security demonstration and integrated assessments of geo-environmental suitability for reconstruction in alp and ravine with high magnitude earthquakes, which are applied in the worst-hit areas （12 counties）. The integrated assessment shows that： （1） located in the Longmenshan fault zone, the evaluated area is of poor regional crust stability, in which the unstable and second unstable areas account for 79% of the total; （2） the geo-hazards susceptibility is high in the evaluation area. The spots of geo-hazards triggered by earthquake are mainly distributed along the active fault zone with higher distribution in the moderate and high mountains area, in which the areas of high and moderate susceptibility zoning accounts for 40.1% of the total; （3） geological security is poor in the evaluated area, in which the area of the unsuitable construction occupies 73.1%, whereas in the suitable construction area, the areas of geological security, second security and insecurity zoning account for 8.3 %, 9.3% and 9.3 % of the evaluated area respectively; （4） geo-environmentai suitability is poor in the evaluated area, in which the areas of suitability and basic suitability zoning account for 3.5% and 7.3% of the whole evaluation area.

Ecological footprint of food consumption in China:1982-2004

This paper calculates the land (including water area) requirement for food consumption in both balanced andactual diet in China by ecological footprint analysis. To determine whether logical and actual food demands are withinnatural regenerative ability, carrying capacity (excluding forestry production) is also calculated. Results show that actualdiet patterns were ecologically friendly in the period of 1982-2004 in China, mainly because of the rural moderate dietpatterns. But actual per capita footprint already overran its corresponding logic value of 0.976ha in urban areas in 2002.Productive areas for food production can satisfy the land requirement for actual diet patterns during the researchingperiod in China, nevertheless cannot satisfy that for balanced diet pattern or solve the problem of unbalanced ecologicalfootprint. The continual rising ecological footprint of food consumption in both rural and urban areas indicates that percapita footprint will keep on increasing in China and even may be more than the suggested logic value if no relevantcountermeasures are made to regulate diet patterns. Strictly speaking, China is facing food shortage, both in quality andin quantity.