The depletion of coastal environmental resources by human activities and its monetary evaluation

The marine environment provides rich and varied resources and services or functions for human’s produc-tion and life. Many countries have competitively exploited and utilized sea and ocean to develop marine economy for someyears. The over-exploitation of marine environment and the overuse of marine resources have led to resource degradation,environmental pollution and ecosystem destruction. Considering the depletion of coastal environmental resources dur-ing planning, governing and decision-making is an important measure to promote the harmonious and sustainabledevelopment of coastal environmental resources and social economy, the main precondition of which is that the depletionof coastal environmental resources by human activities has been monetarily evaluated. Firstly, this paper summarizesrelevant references in this field and analyzes different sorts of depletion of coastal environmental resources caused byhuman activities and the necessity and importance of the monetary evaluation. Finally, this paper extensively discussesthe corresponding evaluation models of the depletion of marine mineral resources, marine organism resources, mari-time transport resources, intertidal zones and shallow seas, and marine environmental functions and services includingenvironmental capacity, gas regulation, disturbance prevention, recreation and biodiversity.

National Ecological Deficit Accounting of China with Detailed Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is a new method to assess sustainable development quantitatively. It translates production into biologically productive areas offering material flows to measure the utilized degree of nature by humankind. At present, China runs ecological deficits because footprints required for consumption are larger than available ones. In the paper, the ecological footprint model is applied to calculate the deficits by resource, environment and import-export accounting. It is clear that the deficits have caused enormous pressure to resource and environment, which would become bigger with more factors of resource and environment being accounted. In the primary production and energy trade, import footprint turned from deficit to surplus after 1996, which benefited the conservation of national resource. But compared with the huge depletion caused by resource and environment, they had small effects on deficits.