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 ca...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.展开更多
Desertification is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world,especially in the arid desert regions.Combating desertification,therefore,is an urgent task on a regional or even global scale.The Taklima...Desertification is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world,especially in the arid desert regions.Combating desertification,therefore,is an urgent task on a regional or even global scale.The Taklimakan Desert in China is the second largest mobile desert in the world and has been called the''Dead Sea''due to few organisms can exist in such a harsh environment.The Taklimakan Desert Highway,the longest desert highway(a total length of 446 km)across the mobile desert in the world,was built in the 1990s within the Taklimakan Desert.It has an important strategic significance regarding oil and gas resources exploration and plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of southern Xinjiang,China.However,wind-blow sand seriously damages the smoothness of the desert highway and,in this case,mechanical sand control system(including sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards)was used early in the life of the desert highway to protect the road.Unfortunately,more than 70%of the sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards have lost their functions,and the desert highway has often been buried and frequently blocked since 1999.To solve this problem,a long artificial shelterbelt with the length of 437 km was built along the desert highway since 2000.However,some potential problems still exist for the sustainable development of the desert highway,such as water shortage,strong sandstorms,extreme environmental characteristics and large maintenance costs.The study aims to provide an overview of the damages caused by wind-blown sand and the effects of sand control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway.Ultimately,we provide some suggestions for the biological sand control system to ensure the sustainable development of the Taklimakan Desert Highway,such as screening drought-resistant species to reduce the irrigation requirement and ensure the sound development of groundwater,screening halophytes to restore vegetation in the case of soil salinization,and planting cash crops,such as Cistanche,Wolfberry,Apocynum and other cash crops to decrease the high cost of maintenance on highways and shelterbelts.展开更多
A fundamental element of sustainable development is that humans live within nature's biological capacity. Quantifying this, however, remains a significant challenge for which there are many emerging tools. The con...A fundamental element of sustainable development is that humans live within nature's biological capacity. Quantifying this, however, remains a significant challenge for which there are many emerging tools. The concept of the Ecological Footprint is one such accounting tool for comprehensive assessment of the status of sustainable development, based on integration of resource consumption and land capacity, reflecting the human impact on the environment. A region's development is defined as unsustainable when the Ecological Footprint surpasses the biological capacity. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint concept was applied in assessing the development of Yunnan Province, China in a period between 1988 and 2006. The results showed that the Ecological Footprint per capita in Yunnan rose from 0.854 gha in 1988 to 2.11 gha in 2006. Ecological deficit, defined as when the human demand on the land surpasses the regions biological productive capacity, emerged in 1991 and quickly increased from 0.02 gha in 1991 to 1.05 gha in 2006. The increase in the ecological deficit is primarily a result of the rapid increase in population and consumption level. To achieve sustainable development in Yunnan, production and consumption rates need to be modified.展开更多
文摘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.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31971731,41771121)the Xinjiang National Key Research and Development Program(2019B00005)+1 种基金the National Key Research and Development Program(2017YFC0506705)the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences(2017476).
文摘Desertification is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world,especially in the arid desert regions.Combating desertification,therefore,is an urgent task on a regional or even global scale.The Taklimakan Desert in China is the second largest mobile desert in the world and has been called the''Dead Sea''due to few organisms can exist in such a harsh environment.The Taklimakan Desert Highway,the longest desert highway(a total length of 446 km)across the mobile desert in the world,was built in the 1990s within the Taklimakan Desert.It has an important strategic significance regarding oil and gas resources exploration and plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of southern Xinjiang,China.However,wind-blow sand seriously damages the smoothness of the desert highway and,in this case,mechanical sand control system(including sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards)was used early in the life of the desert highway to protect the road.Unfortunately,more than 70%of the sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards have lost their functions,and the desert highway has often been buried and frequently blocked since 1999.To solve this problem,a long artificial shelterbelt with the length of 437 km was built along the desert highway since 2000.However,some potential problems still exist for the sustainable development of the desert highway,such as water shortage,strong sandstorms,extreme environmental characteristics and large maintenance costs.The study aims to provide an overview of the damages caused by wind-blown sand and the effects of sand control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway.Ultimately,we provide some suggestions for the biological sand control system to ensure the sustainable development of the Taklimakan Desert Highway,such as screening drought-resistant species to reduce the irrigation requirement and ensure the sound development of groundwater,screening halophytes to restore vegetation in the case of soil salinization,and planting cash crops,such as Cistanche,Wolfberry,Apocynum and other cash crops to decrease the high cost of maintenance on highways and shelterbelts.
基金funded by the National Key Project for Basic Research of China (973), (Grant No.2003CB415100)
文摘A fundamental element of sustainable development is that humans live within nature's biological capacity. Quantifying this, however, remains a significant challenge for which there are many emerging tools. The concept of the Ecological Footprint is one such accounting tool for comprehensive assessment of the status of sustainable development, based on integration of resource consumption and land capacity, reflecting the human impact on the environment. A region's development is defined as unsustainable when the Ecological Footprint surpasses the biological capacity. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint concept was applied in assessing the development of Yunnan Province, China in a period between 1988 and 2006. The results showed that the Ecological Footprint per capita in Yunnan rose from 0.854 gha in 1988 to 2.11 gha in 2006. Ecological deficit, defined as when the human demand on the land surpasses the regions biological productive capacity, emerged in 1991 and quickly increased from 0.02 gha in 1991 to 1.05 gha in 2006. The increase in the ecological deficit is primarily a result of the rapid increase in population and consumption level. To achieve sustainable development in Yunnan, production and consumption rates need to be modified.
