Assessment of Ecological Carrying Capacity and Ecological Security in China’s Typical Eco-Engineering Areas
Yaxian Zhang,
Jiangwen Fan and
Suizi Wang
Additional contact information
Yaxian Zhang: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100001, China
Jiangwen Fan: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100001, China
Suizi Wang: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100001, China
Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-17
Abstract:
The implementation of ecological restoration programs is intensively changing the original ecological carrying capacity and the status of ecological security. To evaluate the spatiotemporal variation of ecological carrying capacity and ecological security in China’s eco-engineering areas, an indicator system of ecological carrying capacity and ecological security should be developed. This study developed an evaluation indicator system that contains 29 indicators. The indicators were generated by long-time series and multi-source data. The indicator system presents the relationship between ecological carrying capacity and ecological security and reflects the dynamic change of them in eco-engineering areas. We selected the Three-River Headwaters Region (TRHR) and implemented the Ecological Conservation and Construction Program (ECCP) as a case study. The results showed the variation of ecological carrying capacity (ECC) and ecological security (ES) in the TRHR before (2000–2004), during early term (2005–2009), and during medium term (2010–2015) implementation of ECCP, and limiting factors of ecological carrying capacity and ecological security in TRHR was analyzed. The results showed that the ECC index and the ES index were significantly increase, indicating that the ECC improved and that the ES state got better in the TRHR after implementing ECCP. The water conservation was the major factors limiting the increase of the ECC. The leading factors limiting the improvement of the ES were educational expenditure before 2010 and turned into proportion of tertiary industry and investments for ecological restoration after 2010. The implementation of the ECCP has improved the ES state but has also resulted in new problems. It provides a scientific reference for future research on the indicator system of ecological carrying capacity and ecological security in eco-engineering areas and also has vital practical significance to guide the sustainable development of ecological restoration programs.
Keywords: ecological carrying capacity; ecological security; eco-engineering areas; the Three-River Headwaters Nation Park; indicator system; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3923/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3923/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3923-:d:356528
Access Statistics for this article
Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu
More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().