Green ecology leads the way of sustainable development

On May 13th,the media meeting of the 3rd China Eco-friendly Fab- ric Design Competition (hereinafter referred to as the “Competition”)was held in Beijing. It was announced that the third competition was officially launched. The competition was aimed at collectjing eco-friendly materials, eco-friendly technology, eco-friendly dyes and auxiliaries, one or more standard eco-friendly fabrics and eco-friendly certification products for national textile and garment enterprises.

Rural sustainable development:A case study of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China

Sustainable development is the central theme of modern global development.With the arrival of the urban era,the vulnerability and instability of rural areas have significantly increased,and rural sustainable development faces serious challenges.To address these issues,the study took the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China under the National Sustainable Development Agenda as a case,combined with economic,social and land use data during 2016-2020,and applied Granger causality test method to explore the theoretical and practical pathways of“innovation-driven rural sustainable development”.The results showed that rural sustainable development and economic sustainability displayed a trend of synergistic change,with“explosive”growth from 2018 to 2020.The social sustainability steadily increased from 2016 to 2020.Ecological and spatial sustainability continuously declined during the study period.Moreover,the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone displayed rapid growth during 2016-2020.Although the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone has rapidly improved,it has a weak driving effect on rural sustainable development and economic sustainability.There are two primary challenges that must be overcome to ensure the rural sustainable development of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone.The first challenge is the imbalance among the multi-dimensional relationships in the process of rural sustainable development,and the second challenge is the weakening of rural innovation capacity to drive rural sustainable development.To overcome these challenges,this study proposed a systematic pathway for rural sustainable development in the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone from multidimensions,such as policy actions,technologies,projects,and institutional guarantees,and formed a universal and representative“Zaozhuang model”.This study expands the theoretical foundation of rural sustainable development and provides theoretical and practical support for innovation-driven rural sustainable development.

Existing Problems in Energy Exploitation and Eco-environment Sustainable Development and Their Countermeasures in Northern Shaanxi

The exploitation of coal, petroleum and natural gas in northern Shaanxi not only promoted the rapid development of economy, but also brought about enormous pressure to fragile ecology and resulted to severe water pollution, water and soil loss, vegetation destruction and other ecological environmental problems, so many countermeasures were put forward according to these problems, such as greatly developing circular economy, conducting cleaner production in petroleum enterprises, continuously renewing mining technology and so on.

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.

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.

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.

From the Strategy of Sustainable Development to Pr omoting Ecological Progress

Under the influence of the traditional outlook on development, human beings have created many miracles and accumulated the rich material wealth, at the same time we paid a heavy price, such as waste of resources, environmental pollution and ecological destruction. People truly realize that the regenerative ability of nature is not inexhaustible, and the economic growth also did not improve the quality of life. Therefore, it has become our consensus to get rid of the traditional outlook on development and adopt the Scientific Outlook on Development.

Landscape ecology：the theoretical foundation of sustainable agrolandscape planning and design

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Potentials for win-win alliances among animal agriculture and forest products industries:Application of the princi-ples of industrial ecology and sustainable development

Commercial forests in many parts of the world are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrient-deficient forests often exist in close proximity to large animal feeding operations, meat processing and other food, textile, or other biomass-processing plants, and municipal waste treatment facilities. Many of these facilities produce large surpluses of nitrogen,phosphorus, and organic matter as gaseous ammonia, urea, uric acid, phosphorus compounds,bacterial sludges, and partially treated municipal wastewaters. These co-existing and substantial nutrient deficiencies and surpluses offer ready-made opportunities for discovery, demonstration,and commercial development of science-based, technology-facilitated, environmentally sound,economically viable, and socially acceptable "win-win alliances" among these major industries based on the principles of industrial ecology and sustainable development. The major challenge is to discover practical means to capture the surplus nutrients and put them to work in forest stands from which value-added products can be produced and sold at a profit.

Multi-scale Approaches toward Sustainable Development

Approaches toward the sustainable development need integrated considerations of technical, economical, environmental/ecological and social issues. Current approaches from different disciplines can be grouped into at least three levels: micro-scale, meso-scale and macro-scale. At the micro-scale, green chemistry carries out chemical activities such as chemical design and synthesis so that environmentally benign chemicals can be synthesized without using and generating hazardous substances. Green engineering, at the meso-scale, develops green industrial processes or clean technologies via pollution prevention and cleaner production, which will cause minimal damages or dangers to the environment and ecosystems when the product is manufactured and used. Industrial ecology at the industrial complex or community level seeks to optimize energy and materials use and minimize waste generation in industrial systems or communities by promoting planned materials and energy exchanges. Incorporation of ecological principles with the life cycle thinking in the chemical pathway synthesis, product design, process development, and industrial system and community planning appears to be the most promising engineering approach in achieving sustainable industrial development.