Change of Ecological Footprint and Analysis of Ecological Sustainability——Taking Zhangjiakou City as an Example

This paper researches the ecological sustainability of Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, China, using the ecological footprint model. According to the study we find that Zhangjiakou City was in the situation of ecological deficit from 1990 to 2000 and the deficit had the enlarging tendency. In 1990 the per capita ecological footprint was 0.964 and the per capita ecological capacity was 0.5 l 8, thus it can be calculated that the per capita ecological deficit was 4）.446. However in 2000, the per capita ecological footprint increased to 1.068, at the same time the per capita eco- logical capacity decreased to 0.471, then the per capita ecological deficit in 2000 was 4）.597. Furthermore, this paper studies the ecological sustainability of the city from the changes of the ecological footprint of per 10,000 yuan GDP and the productivity of ecological system. Finally the authors point out the shortage of the model and the way to improve it.

Discussion on Characteristics of Crustal Deformation along the Zhangjiakou-Bohai Sea Seismotectonic Zone

The Zhangjiakou-Bohai Sea fault zone located in the northern part of the North China region is a seismotectonic zone controlling the present-day strong earthquake activities. Under the effect of regional principal compressive stress with the direction of NEE-SWW, a series of NE-trending active tectonic zones have developed, which form a group of conjugated shear fracturing systems and control the occurrence of the present-day strong earthquakes. The feature of crustal deformation around this fault zone is studied in the paper. The long-term crustal deformation pattern from GPS measurements exhibits a relatively complete left-lateral strike-slip movement along the active fault zone. However, studies on crustal deformation by stages indicate that a series of NE-trending large-scale anomalous gradient zones have appeared along the Zhangjiakou-Bohai Sea fault zone before moderately strong earthquakes. They are represented respectively by the activities of the Tangshan-Hejian, the Sanhe-Laishui and the Yanhuai-Shanxi seismotectonic zones. This may indicate the occurrence of med-term precursors to moderately strong earthquakes along Zhangjiakou-Bohai Sea zone. The results in the paper show that the crustal deformation pattern before strong earthquake reveals the information of strain status in the deep seismogenic zone, while the chaotic pattern after the occurrence of strong earthquake represents the adjustment of the covering strata.

A Study on Spatial Variation of Water Security Risks for the Zhangjiakou Region

Zhangjiakou region is situated in an agro-pastoral ecotone with a fragile ecosystem. While it has limited surface water resources available and serious groundwater over-exploitation, the city is located in the water conservation zone for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development area, so its water security is crucial for the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Therefore, it is of vital significance to determine the zoning management of water resources and decision-making according to the magnitude of water resource security risks. This study built an indicator system for water security risk assessment in line with the principles of scientific validity, comparability, operability, and data availability, and this system gives weights to these indicators using the AHP approach. County-level multi-source data for the study area, based on water resource zones, were collected by using mathematical statistics and 3 S technology. With normalized data and a weighting method the water security risks were calculated. The results showed large spatial variations of water security risks in Zhangjiakou on the scales of geomorphic and administrative units as well as river basins. High-risk areas are extensive in the Bashang Plateau, and extremely high risk values are found in the Baxia areas. On the watershed scale, high-risk areas are mainly distributed in the inland river basins and the Yongding River basin. The risk values of the Luanhe River, Chaobai River and Daqing River basins in the Zhangjiakou region tend to decrease from north to south. For the northern and western areas of the Bashang Plateau, the factor of "vulnerability of the disaster-prone environment" contributes the most to the water security risk level. Agricultural water use constrains industrial and ecological water use, but in the context of inadequate water resource endowments, the urban population concentration and industrial development are the main causes of water shortages and water pollution so they contribute more to water security risks. This study of the spatial variation of water security risks in Zhangjiakou can provide an important scientific reference for zone-based management and decision-making for reducing the water security risks in the farming-pastoral ecotone.

Evolution of Landscape Pattern and Tourism Service Value in Zhangjiakou City

Zhangjiakou is a northern Chinese city that hosted the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. As an important ice and snow tourist destination, it is essential to investigate Zhangjiakou’s rate of landscape pattern change,the landscape ecological security level, and ecosystem service value, particularly the tourism ecological service value during its construction. With land use data from 2000 to 2020, this study comprehensively analyzed the dynamic changes in Zhangjiakou, including land use dynamics, the land use transfer matrix, landscape vulnerability,landscape disturbance, ecosystem service value, tourism ecological service value, and other aspects. The results show that the landscape pattern in Zhangjiakou was greatly disturbed from 2015 to 2018, and the landscape ecological security was threatened in the process of landscape pattern adjustment. By 2020, after the landscape pattern was adjusted and stabilized, the landscape ecological security was restored, and the ecosystem service value was significantly improved, especially the tourism ecological service value. The results of this study will play an important role in promoting the optimization of Zhangjiakou’s ice and snow landscape pattern and the improvement of tourism ecological value. In addition, it provides important lessons for the development of other ice and snow tourist destinations.