Journal of Geographical Sciences 13, 1 (2003) 19-26 ISSN: 1009-637X www.geog.com.cn The calculation and analysis of ecological footprints, diversity and development capacity of China XU Zhongmin 1, CHENG Guodong 2, ZHANG Zhiqiang 2, Paul H Templet 3, Yongyuan YIN 4 (1. Department of Geography, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China; 2. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, CAREERI, CAS, Lanzhou 730000, China; 3. Louisiana State Univ. Institute for Environmental Studies, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA; 4. University of British Columbia, Sustainable Development Research Institute, B5-2202 Main Mall Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4) Abstract: The ecological footprint of China's provinces is calculated in this paper. In general, China's development is not sustainable because its ecological footprint is beyond its bio-capacity. The sustainability status of each province in China is presented. Ulanowicz's development capacity formula was introduced to discuss the relationship of development and ecological footprint's diversity. The diversity of ecological impacts is related to the efficiency with which an economy uses the source and sink services of the environment and, in this view, should be a factor in economic output. Development capacity, calculated from the ecological footprint and its diversity, is used to examine the relationship of economic output with the structure of the ecological footprint. China and its provinces are presented as a case study to investigate this relationship. The analysis shows that footprint capacity is significant in predicting economic output. Increasing the ecological footprint's diversity is presented as another way to increase development capacity. Key words: ecological footprints; diversity; development capacity; China CLC number: F062.2 1 Introduction Sustainable development has become a widely recognized goal for human society because the deteriorating environmental conditions in many parts of the world indicate that a desirable future may be at stake. In order to move toward sustainable development many managing activities and decision-making processes require new ways of assessing progress (Hardiet al., 1997). The ecological footprint (EF) technique (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996; Wackernagel, 1999) calculates the land area required to sustain resource consumption (source) and waste assimilation (sink) requirements for a defined human population or economy. It estimates the land and water ecosystem area, an entity requires for the maintenance of its life, in a single aggregate index. The reason for its growing use is that expression of the impacts of human consumption and waste creation is directly relevant for sustainable development. One advantage of the ecological footprint is that it can reveal the extent to which local carrying capacity has been exceeded by comparing the land area needed for human consumption with the available supply of ecological productive land. In addition, it can make clear the consequences of increasing consumption patterns, the distribution of access to natural resources, the consequences of trade and the issues of geographical re-allocation of environmental pressure (Vuuren and Smeets, 2000). The ecological footprint concept offers a methodologically simple but comprehensive accounting framework to assess human impact on natural capital. Received date: 2002-07-15 Accepted date: 2002-12-01 Foundation item: NationalNatural ScienceFoundation of China,No.40235053; No.40201019 Author: Xu Zhongmin (1973-), Ph.D. and Professor, specializedin ecologicaleconomics.E-mail:xzmin@lzb.ac.cn