Research on the Development Path of Green Marine Economy in the Era of Ecological Civilization

This article explores the development path of the green marine economy in the era of ecological civilization.It highlights the importance of developing a green marine economy and how it has become a global consensus.The article suggests that China should take proactive measures to optimize its marine industrial structure,promote marine scientific and technological innovation,strengthen marine resource protection and environmental governance,and enhance the competitiveness of the marine economy.The ultimate objective is to achieve sustainable development of the ocean,expand the blue economic space,and accomplish the goal of green marine economic development.

Stepwise Ecological Restoration:A framework for improving restoration outcomes

Ecosystem degradation is one of the critical constraints for the sustainable development of our planet.However,recovering an ecosystem to a pre-impairment condition is often not practical.The International Restoration Standards provide the first framework for practical guidance on what constitutes the process of ecological repair and how this repair process can be influenced to improve net ecological benefits.In these Standards,Restorative Continuum is highlighted and it recognises that many do not,yet there is still value in aspiring to improvements to the highest extent possible,with some sites potentially being able to be improved in a stepwise manner.Here we elaborate on these Standards by providing a cross-ecosystem theoretical framework of Stepwise Ecological Restoration(STERE)for promoting higher environmental benefits.STERE allows the selection of suitable restorative modes by considering the degree of degradation while encouraging a transition to a higher state.These models include environmental remediation for completely modified and degraded ecosystems,ecological rehabilitation for highly modified and degraded ecosystems,and ecological restoration for degraded native ecosystems.STERE requires selecting tailored restorative modes,setting clear restorative targets and reference ecosystems,applying a systematic-thinking approach,and implementing a continuous monitoring program at all process stages to achieve a resilient trajectory.STERE allows adaptive management in the context of climate change,and when the evidence is available,to“adapt to the future”to ensure climate resilience.The STERE framework could assist in initiating and implementing restoration projects worldwide,especially in developing countries.

Food Security Problems and Solutions in China Based on the Strategy of Sustainable Agricultural Development

China attaches great importance to food security.With the strong promotion of the government,Chinas grain output has achieved a great feat from"shortage"to"surplus in bumper years"and then to"rising steadily",achieving a record"increase for the tenth consecutive year".From the current balance of food supply and demand in China,the food security situation can be guaranteed on the whole.However,if we analyze the food security in China from the perspective of agricultural sustainable development strategy,there are some difficulties,such as the reduction of cultivated land area,the decline of cultivated land quality,the fragility of agricultural ecological environment,and the transformation of residentsconsumption structure.This paper analyzes the difficulties faced by the development of food security in China under the strategy of sustainable agricultural development,and puts forward that to implement the strategy of sustainable agricultural development,it is necessary to realize the coordinated development of food security,science and technology,ecological environment,resources and society.

Sustainable Urban Development Evaluation of Shanghai:An Ecological Wellbeing Performance Perspective

Against the backdrop of aggravating resource and environment restriction,it is an inevitable choice to adopt the sustainable development pattern to maximize social well-being within the ecological threshold.From the perspective of ecological well-being performance,ecological footprint per capita and human development index were selected to construct the evaluation index system for sustainable urban development,and DEA applied to calculate the input-output efficiency,so as to analyze the sustainable development level of Shanghai from 1999 to 2012.The results showed that①human development index,ecological footprint per capita of Shanghai grew in step with economic development,but ecological footprint per capita level exceeded the ecological carrying capacity,thus the overall ecological conditions remained in the state of worsening "deficit";②ecological well-being performance of Shanghai in most years remained in the DEA ineffective state,and the scale return had decreased gradually since 2005.In addition,the paper gave pertinent suggestions.

Sustainable Development of Shanxi Province Based on the Modified Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint model was supplemented and modified, and then applied in the study on Shanxi Province. According to the calculation, Shanxi Province has a financial deficit that surpasses the national per capita ecosystem carrying capacity, and remains in an overloaded and unsustainable state. Shanxi is a large energy province of China, energy exploitation and use leads to the higher ratio of fossil energy, utilization efficiency of energy resources is gradually improved in the economic development. Ecological footprint diversity index and Ulanowic development capacity index of Shanxi Province are both lower than those of Hunan Province that enjoys the highest ecological diversity index among the 6 provinces in central China. Therefore, it is imperative to improve diversity index of ecological footprint for enhancing the development capacity of Shanxi Province.

Ecological Carrying Capacity of Shennongjia Based on Sustainable Development

Ecological carrying capacity is a significant index for measuring sustainability of natural resources in a region. This paper applied ecological footprint counting model to calculate ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of the typical resource-based city—Shennongjia from 2008 to 2012. The results showed that(a) ecological footprint and per capita ecological footprint in Shennongjia area increased from 86,464.48 ha and 1.076 ha. in 2008 to 93,13.59 ha. and 1.171 ha. in 2012;(b) total ecological carrying capacity, and per capita ecological carrying capacity fluctuated, and total ecological carrying capacity > total ecological footprint, per capita ecological carrying capacity > total ecological footprint, thus it had ecological surplus;(c) among all land use types, water resources had the largest ecological surplus, construction land and woodland had the second and third largest; waters and fossil energy land showed ecological deficit and needed outer supply. As a whole, Shennongjia area had an excellent ecological environment with less destruction and good sustainability.

Ecological Environment Conservation and Restoration and Sustainable Development of Minqin Oasis

Minqin oasis in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River is a main natural barrier for the Wuwei Basin. Due to the combined influence of human activities and natural factors in the past half a century, water quality in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River decreased and ecological environment deteriorated, which influenced sustainable development of this area and surrounding area seriously. This paper analyzed current situation and reasons of the deteriorated ecological environment in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River, and proposed that water environment regulation was the primary task in the eco-environment control of Minqin area, specifically,(a) By using existing policies, accelerating the construction of water-saving agriculture in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River, water quantity in the lower reaches would be guanranted, water shortage for agricultural production and ecological use in Minqin oasis would be relieved;(b) Unreasonable human activities such as overexploitation of underground water should be controlled strictly;(c) Water conservancy project should be developed vigorously to ensure rate of flow. It was expected that the above schemes would contribute to the benign circulation of ecological environment in Minqin oasis.

The Status of the Ecological Prataculture and Sustainable Development Strategies in Guizhou Province

In accordance with the objective to construct a major province in grassland animal husbandry,the following ways were used for enhancing development,improving the scientific and technological content,increasing the scale of the industry and market development to set up our own ecological grass industry brand and finally reach sustainable development strategy.This paper discussed the status of Guizhou Province grass industry development from the grass industry resources,grassland and animal husbandry production,prataculture technology problem.

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KARST MOUNTAINOUS AREA—A Case Study of Du'an Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi

Ecological security is the main task and applied field of present geography, resources and environment sciences and ecology. Ecological security evaluation will efficiently promote ecological security and environmental construction in regional land use. In this thesis, the authors put forward the index system of ecological security evaluation in karst mountainous area on three aspects, the pressure of resources and eco-environment, the quality of resources and eco-environment, and the ability of environmental protection and ecological improvement. Using the evaluation method with single index, based on the case study ofDu'an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the system of synthetic regionalization of ecological agricultural economy was formed, which includes three regions, south region with basic security and synthetic agricultural development, east region with critical security and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry balanced development, mid-west and south region with ecological insecurity and compounded agriculture and forestry management. Meanwhile, for these regions, the countermeasures of sustainable agricultural development were pointed out, which provide the basis and example for ecological regulation and control of sustainable agricultural development in counties ofkarst mountainous area.

Consumptive ecological footprint and productive ecological footprint: a modification on ecological footprint theory to evaluate regional sustainable development

Ecological footprint theory and its application achievements in global and regional sustainable development systems are studied by consulting the published literature, which finds that the application of ecological footprint theory to regional sustainability evaluation has leaded to a perplexity that the indicated result was inconsistent with the philosophy of sustainable development theory. Illuminated by the mechanical system of the movement of matters, it comes up that ecological footprint based on consumption of biologic production could not tell whether the ecological pressure acts on the specified region, and the original ecological footprint theory also undervalued the development impartiality of a region. A modification on this theory is made by introducing consumptive ecological footprint and productive ecological footprint, in which the latter is taken as the indicator of regional sustainability. The development impartiality can be demonstrated by comparison between the global ecological deficit per capita and regional consumptive ecological deficit per capita.

A Vertical and Horizontal Comparison of Sustainable Development Status in Western China from the Perspective of Ecological Footprint

On the basis of ecological footprint theory, the ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of western China and 12 provinces and cities in 2009 are calculated. From the perspective of ecological footprint, the sustainable development status of west China and 12 provinces and cities in 2009 and 1999 are compared vertically and horizontally. Results assume that no matter weighting by using local or national ecological carrying capacity, the west area laid in the unsustainable development state in 2009; in 1999, the west area was on the unsustainable development stage taking the local and national level as the reference and it was at the sustainable stage at the global level. In 2009, most provinces in western China laid on the unsustainable stage at the local, national and global level. Compared with that in 2009,few provinces in western China were on the unsustainable stage at different levels. In general, the sustainable developmental momentum of western China in 2009 was weaker than that in ten years ago and many provinces and cities decreased to unsustainable state.

Quantitative evaluation of sustainable development based on ecological footprint method: a case study of Tianjin

Since the concept of sustainable development emerged in the late 1980s, more and more countries and re-gions have been utilizing sustainable development as their developing strategy. But decades have passed without any effective methods available to quantitatively assess sustainable development. Since the ecological footprint evalua-tion method initiated in 1992, it has become popular in quantitative assessment of sustainable development because of its convenience, easy-understanding, and reliability. As one of the biggest coastal cities in north China and the economic center of the Bohai Coastal Region, Tianjin's gross domestic product (GDP) was 369.762 billion yuan in 2005, accounting for 2.0% of the whole nation's GDP. The paper analyzes Tianjin's development with the ecological footprint method, and the results show that Tianjin's ecological footprint and biocapacity in 2005 were 2.507gha/cap and 0.276gha/cap respectively. The ecological defi cit was 2.230gha/cap. And from 1980 to 2005, Tianjin's ecologi-cal defi cit per 104 yuan GDP decreased; while per capita ecological def icit has been tending to increase rapidly in recent years. All these results demonstrate that Tianjin is in a state of unsustainable development.

From economic prosperity to ecological sustainability──A theoretical and practical concern of sustainable development in China

China. a country with more than 1. 2 billion people, is undergoing a rapid industrializationand urbanization. While brings wealth and hopes to people, the economic prosperity has to pay the priceof the ecological degradation. What kind of dynamics and cybernetics is needed to lead a sustainabledevelopment and ecological health? How to deal with the complicated relationships between social transi-tion , economic growth and environmental change? This article is to present some theoretical and practicalconcerns from the viewpoint of human system ecology with some cases of small towns in the coastal areaof China.

Sustainable Development of Wuhan City Based on Methods of Conventional Ecological Footprint and Emergy Ecological Footprint

This article uses the conventional ecological footprint method and its improved model of ecological footprint to analyze the state of the sustainable development of Wuhan City in 2009, the results show that the per capita ecological deficit calculated by the method of emergy ecological footprint is 3.8629 hm2, and the per capita ecological deficit calculated by the method of conventional ecological footprint is 2.0169 hm2. The results obtained by the two methods respectively show that current development of Wuhan is unsustainable. The emergy ecological footprint method introduces the energy flow to reflect the relationship between human resource demand and supply of nature to human and adopts parameters—emergy conversion rate and energy density to calculate the ecological carrying capacity data which is more accurate.

The Role of Ecotourism Potentials in Ecological and Environmental Sustainable Development of Miankaleh Protected Region

Protected areas are considered as suitable environments for tourism development where the performance of tourism, consumer, and economic activities consistent with each region based on total management plan provides the context for sustainable tourism development. Therefore, the aim of the present study1 was to explore the role of ecotourism potentials in the environmental development of Miankaleh Protected Region using a descriptive, analytical, survey method. It also aimed to examine factors affecting sustainable tourism development in the region under study. The data were collected using documentation and library techniques, field methods, questionnaires, note taking, observation, and conducting interviews with people, tourists, and authorities in charge of ecotourism development. The research population included people living in Noushahr, of whom 384 families, 30 experts, and 100 tourists were selected as the respondents in the research sample using Cochrane formula. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, and Spearman test through SPSS. The results of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between ecotourism potentials, environmental, economic and sociocultural development in the region under study.

On the Sustainable Development of the Design of Semiotics and Ecological Aesthetics

Semiotics is the meta-science of researching the general theories of symbols.Design is the result of the production practice of the human society,and what are designed is to meet the first demand of the human society and is the most important cultural creation;i.e.,the material cultural creation.All the cultural phenom ena are symbol phenomena,so the design phenomenon is also a kind of symbol phenomenon.The ecological aesthetics is a new aesthetic form,studying ecology itself,and it develops from the ecological aesthetic standard.This paper attempts to illustrate the relation of the two fields and find out how to realize sustainable development with the lead of the social values and the mainstream culture.

THOUGHTS ON CONSTRUCTING THE DEMONSTRATING AREAS OF THE ECOLOGICAL REBUILDING AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN HEXI REGION

Based on the field investigations, this paper analyzes systematically the achievements and problems of constructing the demonstrating areas of the ecological rebuilding and economic sustainable development in Hexi, Gansu Province, and then the thoughts on constructing the demonstrating areas are brought forward. It is considered that all kinds of ecological demonstrating areas should be merged in order to construct large scale characterized demonstrating areas which go beyond the district. In other words, in Hexi Region, Zhangye District should be constructed as the largest ecoagriculture demonstrating area of high technology; Wuwei District should be constructed as the largest ecological demonstrating area of agricultural comprehensive exploitation; JiuJia District, which is the shortened form of Jiuquan and Jiayuguan, should be constructed as the largest ecotourism demonstrating area; and Jinchang City should be constructed as the largest ecoindustry demonstrating area. At the same time, the constructing pattern should be selected according to the actual circumstances; science and technology should be applied to construct the demonstrating areas and accelerate the industrialization in the big market. Additionally, it is important to smooth the constructing system and implement the flexible and efficacious running mechanism, and it is suggested that the committee should be organized to administer the ecological demonstrating areas in Hexi Region.