An ecological footprint and emergy based assessment of an ecological restoration program in the Loess Hilly Region of China

Dang, Xiaohu; Liu, Guobin; Xue, Sha; Li, Peng

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.09.018

Cited by 26 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The rapid development of the economy has led to rapid urbanization 52 ; hence, although the construction land area occupies a very small proportion of the study area, an obvious growth trend was evident. Starting in 2000, a series of ecological restoration programmes were implemented by the Chinese government 53 and caused significant increases in the conversion of immature forest land and cultivated land to forest land ( Figure S1 ). In addition, an economic development programme caused an increase in the orchard area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ecological restoration projects on changes in land cover: A case study on the Loess Plateau in China

Jing

Yang

Zhao

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Changes in land cover have become key components of global environmental change and represent the impact of human activity. To better understand the fundamental processes of land transition characteristics before and after the implementation of ecological programmes, we determined the dominant systematic changes in land cover in Yongshou, a hilly-gully region on the Loess Plateau. This was achieved by performing an in-depth analysis of a cross-tabulation matrix and a modified spatial dynamic degree model. Our results indicated that (1) forest land and cultivated land were the most important land cover types in Yongshou and their persistence would greatly affect the landscape pattern of the entire region; (2) the most significant changing signals in the study area during the periods 1992–2000 and 2000–2013 were from immature forest land to forest land, cultivated land to orchards and orchards to construction land; and (3) the region that experienced the most changes during 1992–2000 was the densely populated county seat of Yongshou; however, from 2000–2013, the region of most changes was Changning, a town located in the northcentral region of Yongshou. These findings reveal the main characteristics of the land cover changes in this region and provide insight into the processes underlying these changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ecological restoration projects on changes in land cover: A case study on the Loess Plateau in China

Jing

Yang

Zhao

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…The yield factor of each biologically productive land is shown in Table 1. In addition, the area of biologically productive land should be decreased by 12% to account for biodiversity conservation [42].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Security Assessment Based on Ecological Footprint Approach in Hulunbeir Grassland, China

Guo

Wang

2019

IJERPH

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Hulunbeir grassland, as a crucial ecological barrier and energy supply base in northwest China, suffers from a fragile ecological environment. Therefore, it is crucially important for Hulunbeir grassland to achieve the sustainable development of its social economies and ecological environments through the evaluation of its ecological security. This paper introduces the indexes of the ecological pressure index (EPI), ecological footprint diversity index (EFDI), and ecological coordination coefficient (ECC) based on the ecological footprint model. Furthermore, the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model was applied to analyze the main driving factors of the change of the ecological footprint. The results showed that: The ecological footprint (EF) per capita of Hulunbeir grassland has nearly doubled in 11 years to 11.04 ha/cap in 2016, while the ecological capacity (EC) per capita was rather low and increased slowly, leading to a continuous increase of per capita ecological deficit (ED) (from 5.7113 ha/cap to 11.0937 ha/cap). Within this, the footprint of fossil energy land and grassland contributed the most to the total EF, and forestland and cropland played the major role in EC. The EPI increased from 0.82 in 2006 to 1.25 in 2016, leading the level of ecological security to increase from level 3 (moderately safe) to level 4 (moderately risky). The indexes of the EFDI and ECC both reached a minimum in 2014 and then began to rise, indicating that Hulunbeir steppe’s ecological environment, as well as its coordination with economy, was considered to be worse in 2014 but then gradually ameliorated. The STIRPAT model indicated that the main factors driving the EF increase were per capita GDP and the proportion of secondary industry, while the decrease of unit GDP energy consumption played an effective role in curbing the continuous growth of the EF. These findings not only have realistic significance in promoting the coordinated development between economy and natural resource utilization under the constraint of fragile environment, but also provide a scientific reference for similar energy-rich ecologically fragile regions.

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“…In recent years, the ecological footprint model is also applied to project evaluation innovatively. Dang, et al [32] analyzed the ecological-economic process of an ecological restoration program and its implications for land use and environmental policy in the Feimahe catchment in the Loess Hilly Region of China in 1998-2005 by combining the EF model and the energy synthesis method. Taking the South-North Water Transfer Middle Route Project as an example, Wei and Xia [33] calculated the losses of ecological immigrants and provided a more reasonable compensation amount based on the ecological footprint theory.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Evaluation Based on a Three-Dimensional Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study in Hunan, China

Deng

Liu

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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Under the concept of green development, the promotion of ecological sustainable development capability has become an important policy objective of the Chinese government. Based on the three-dimensional ecological footprint model, this paper analyzes the ecological footprint, ecological carrying capacity, and ecological sustainable development capacity of Hunan province from 2005 to 2015. The results show that the total ecological footprint of Hunan increases from 2005 to 2015, in which the forest land ecological footprint accounts for the largest proportion. The ecological footprint depth is always greater than 1, indicating that Hunan has been in a state of ecological deficit; in the context of the distribution, the ecological pressure of Hunan shows a “high in surround while low in central” pattern. The results about the ecological footprint diversity index show that although the ecosystem of Hunan is stability, the level of eco-economic development ability is low. The ecological efficiency represented by GDP per unit of ecological footprint shows that Hunan’s ecological efficiency increases with an average rate of 13.12% annually during 2005–2015 because of the improvement of the factor substitution.

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An ecological footprint and emergy based assessment of an ecological restoration program in the Loess Hilly Region of China

Cited by 26 publications

References 35 publications

Effects of ecological restoration projects on changes in land cover: A case study on the Loess Plateau in China

Effects of ecological restoration projects on changes in land cover: A case study on the Loess Plateau in China

Ecological Security Assessment Based on Ecological Footprint Approach in Hulunbeir Grassland, China

Sustainability Evaluation Based on a Three-Dimensional Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study in Hunan, China

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