Ecological Footprint Method

The ecological footprint method has received widespread attention and application as an evaluation tool to measure the impact of human activities on the environment [36]. The ecological footprint theory believes that human survival and development require the consumption of a certain amount of natural resources and the emission of a corresponding amount of waste, and the provision of these natural resources and the consumption of the corresponding waste require a certain area of ??land to support it; in a given population and economy Under the conditions, the more natural resources consumed and waste discharged by economic development, the larger the land area required, and the greater the pressure economic development puts on the environment. Ecologists express the impact of human activities on the environment vividly as "ecological footprint". In other words, the ecological footprint is the sum of the productive land and water areas required to support the population of a region and the land area required to absorb the waste generated, referred to as biologically productive land. The maximum biologically productive land area that a region can provide is the ecological carrying capacity of the region. If the ecological footprint of a region's economic development exceeds its ecological carrying capacity, there will be an ecological deficit; if it is less than its ecological carrying capacity, it will show an ecological surplus. A region's ecological deficit or ecological surplus reflects the sustainability of the region's economic development.

In 1992, Canadian ecologist Rees proposed the idea of ??"ecological footprint", believing that a regional ecological footprint is the need to produce the resources required for the consumption of a specific region's population and to assimilate the waste generated by the consumption of these populations. The productive land area and water body area provided by the ecosystem [37]. In 1996, Wackernagel and Rees published the monograph "Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth", which systematically proposed the ecological footprint theory and its calculation method [38]. Wackernagel et al. proposed an ecological footprint assessment framework at the national and global scales in 1997, and calculated the ecological footprints of 52 countries [39]. Since then, the ecological footprint method has been studied and applied in more and more countries. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has published the ecological footprint of countries around the world every two years since 2000. Ireland, Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and other countries have carried out long-term series of ecological footprint accounting and analysis. The concept of ecological footprint was introduced into my country in 1999, and subsequently research on ecological footprint was rapidly carried out in the country. With the support of WWF, relevant research departments have released the "China Ecological Footprint Report" every two years since 2008. In recent years, more and more regions and cities in my country have carried out empirical research on ecological footprint, which has promoted and enriched the application and development of ecological footprint in my country [40].

Because the ecological footprint method has the advantages of clear concept, simple calculation method, large amount of information covered, and easy acquisition of required data, this method has a wide range of applications, including national and regional sustainable development assessments. , construction land planning in the process of urban construction, tourism ecological footprint of scenic spots, energy ecological footprint, regional ecologically appropriate population, water resources ecological footprint, and national large-scale project construction assessment, etc. However, some researchers believe that the ecological footprint method has problems that are difficult to solve: for example, the ecological footprint method is a static analysis method that can only evaluate the development status of a region; in reality, land functions have multiple properties, and the ecological footprint method has The functions of land are simplified, resulting in calculation errors, etc. These shortcomings limit the application of the ecological footprint method in policy planning and other aspects to a certain extent.