The Change of Ecological Footprint and Its Effect on Sustainable Development in Beijing of China

Speeding up the environmental protection and construction is one of the major issues in ＂Greener Olympic Games＂ held in Beijing in 2008. Making a thorough study to find out the reliable measures to ecological resumption in Beijing has an important scientific and practical significance. It can provide scientific basis for making a better decision for ＂Greener Olympic Games＂ held in capital Beijing and development in harmony for society and economy, as well as management for ecological environment. By studying of change of ecological footprint from 1990 to 2003 in Beijing, the paper shows that ecological footprint per capita has a strong relativity with population and GDP, and both of the correlation coefficient between them is about 0.92, as well as the fossil energy land has a position in the lead in ecological footprint items. The study also shows that the ecological capacity per capita in Beijing occupied about 1.25% in global ecological capacity per capita. Began 1990, the ecological deficit in Beijing was about 0.72 hm2, which is at strong unsustainable development at present. Finally, the paper suggests social and economic structure should be adjusted as soon as possible, resources should be strengthen sustainable used and population increasing should be controlled strictly, as well as arable land also should be under control used for built-up areas. Simultaneity, the utilizing ratio of energy sources should be increased, and the consumption of energy sources and ecological deficit in Beijing should be reduced in order to speed up the society and economy development in harmony and sustainment.     

Economic valuation of gas regulation as a Service by rice-duck-fish complex ecosystem

Valuating the fimction of ecosystem services is crucial for accounting green GDP, making a conservation policy of ecological environment and the decision of regional development as well as sustainable development strategy. R ice-duck-fish symbiosis has been promoted in several developing countries as a way of increasing incomes for rice farmers, but investigations of its value have mainly focused on direct economic＇ benefits, such as food and raw material production. Few studies have been conducted on the estimation of indirect services provided by rice-duck-fish complex ecosystem. The gas regulation service and its economic values provided by rice-duck-fish complex ecosystem were studied in Wuhan, China. The major components of gas regulation are O2 emission and greenhouse gases （GHGs, CO2） regulation. The results show that O2 emission from different treatments （including rice-duck （RD）, rice-fish （RF）, rice-duck-fish （RDF） and rice （CK）） ranged from 26,370 kg/ha to 33,910 kg/ha per year. with an economic value of 10,050-12,920 yuan/ha per ）,ear （Chinese currency： 1 euro =10.2475 yuan, August 28, 2007）. The net GHGs exchange varied from 1,200 to 3,320 kg/ha per year; and its economic value ranged from 1,040 yuan/ha to 2,900 yuan/ha per year Consequently, the total economic value of gas regulation provided by symbiosis complex ecosystems ranged from 11,090 yuan/ha to 15,820 yuan/ha per year. and the maximum overall economic value of gas regulation was provided by RDF complex ecosystem. The work will be useful for further understanding of the functions of rice-duck-fish complex ecos.vstem services and supplying the theoretical references to agricultural policy.     

Application of ecological footprint in ecological industrial systems：a study case of maize-MSG production systems

To improve the comparability of the research results of ecological industry, the ecological footprint is appliedto analyze the resource utilization and environmental pollution in various subsystems, taking maize-MSG as a case.Results show that the production process from maize to MSG is a extended process of ecological footprint, and that theecological footprint of the maize production is the biggest; the extension of ecological footprint is followed by the increaseof footprint profit, which means that the extension of production chain is an important method to improve the resourcesprofit; the systems have a big proportion of the indirect energy ecological footprint; the air and water pollution in MSGsubsystem is the most serious. At last, it can be identified that ecological footprint is a good method to measure resourceutilization and environmental pollution in various subsystems of an integrated ecological industry.     

How Green is China＇s Path of Catching Up？ An International Comparative Evaluation

China＇s rise as a global economic power in recent decades has been achieved with tremendous environmental costs. Has China been an abnormally heavier polluter in its development path？ How has pollution accounted for China＇s hyper economic growth？ This study answers these questions by evaluating the environmental effects of China＇s growth using a data set of 61 countries over a period of four decades. The analysis is focused on two pollutant emissions： CO2 emissions, which carry global externalities, and particulate emissions, of which the environmental cost is more domestic. A fractional polynomial （FP） regression model is estimated to project emissions levels per worker based on lagged values of per capita GDP and other variables. It reveals that China＇s CO2 emissions have been higher than the projection for most years with an average margin of over 5.3% while its particulate emissions have exceeded projection by an average margin of more than 7.5%. The excessive emissions levels of both pollutants confirm the severity of China＇s environmental challenges and indicate great potential for the economy to work for a greener growth pattern. On the other hand, contributions of emissions to multi-factor productivity （MFP） growth are estimated by FP regressions based on a human-capital augmented growth model. The results show opposing trends of CO2 and particulates in their ＂contributions＂ to GDP growth, which imply asymmetric incentives to abate the two types of pollution. These findings have important implications for China＇s environmental policy making.     

Another strategy to assess sustainable development

The goal of sustainoble development is to preserve sustainabitity trod simultaneously prevent catastrophe in a man-land .system. However, almost all the existing approaches to assessing sustainable development are to measure the sustainability. namely appraise from the obverse side of the sustainable development. So it seems necessary to attack the same task on the reverse, namely to measure the passibility of eatostrophe. In this paper, with a case study of Tianjin, China. we employ catastrophe theory and models to integrate Tianjin＇s sustainable development indicators, and then deduce the catastrophe risk index （ CRI） to present the level of catastrophic possibility in the city. Applying catastrophe theory, is a new strategy to assess sustainable development and shows great practical significance, especially for those developing regions or countries, who always give more priority to their economy and therefore have more obligation to make sure whether their social economic activities might bring forth any ecological environment catastrophe. Besides, being both qualitative and quantitative, the approach could be employed to explore not only static characteristics bat also dynamic mechanism of man-land system. Although our work is only a maiden attempt and still calls for further effort to improve it, the case study of Tianjin in this paper would assure as the great promising future to apply, catastrophe theory to sustoinable devetopment modeling,     

Strategic thinking on improving the environmental competitiveness of Chinese enterprises

Environmental competitiveness, price competitiveness and non-price competitiveness make up the undivided vital part of product＇s competitiveness. Environmental competitiveness can not only help improve the enterprise＇s key competitiveness directly, but also strengthen it indirectly by improving the products＇ price competitiveness and non-price competitiveness effectively. Instead of being confined to the product itself, there are several element＇s that can determine and influence the product＇s environmental competitiveness, including the manufacturing process, the management of enterprise＆the life circle of the products, etc. Measuring these elements by setting “environmental suitable degree ”, and building up the echelon model to evaluate the environmental competitiveness can help us see about the standard of the enterprises＇ environmental competitiveness. Though many of the national enterprises have price competitiveness to some extend, restricted by all kinds of elements like systems, techniques, policy, the enterprises are weak in environmental competitiveness. Beginning with systems redesign, carrying out the sustainable development, strengthening inner enterprises management, making more efforts on technique innovation, and widely publicizing and teaching the ecological concept, Chinese national enterprises can improve their environmental competitiveness and improve their key competitiveness.     

Environmental hazard and ecological infrastructure construction of hilly city： a case of metropolitan area of Chongqing Municipality

This paper takes metropolitan area of Chongqing Municipality as an example, Chongqing, located at the tail area of the Three Gorges Reservoir; is a typically in-land hilly city in China. A series of serious eco-environmental hazard affecting hilly city, have appeared： the forest landscape has been fragmented; the stability of ecological system has nat been maintained： soil erosion has been serionus; geological disasters have become more and more frequented; the phenomenon of city ＂heat islands＂ is obvious： and environmental pollution is worsened with Iow physical self-puri- fication. All of the hazards above will affect ecological security of the tail area of the Three Gorges Reservoir and sustainable development of Changqing. In order to guarantee ecological security and health of Chongqing and the Three Gorges Reservoir, the eountermeasures for ecological infrastructure construction are put forward： quickly drawing up ecological infrastructure planning of Chongqing Municipality, strengthening the integration and continuation of hilly-water spatial pattern, maintaining the diversity and stability of local ecosystem, establishing the green space system in-cluding suburban.forest, farmland and green space. recovering wetland ecosystem, optimizing industrial structure and urban spatial distribution, developing recycling economy; establishing ecological infrastructure monitoring network and information forecast system, carrying out ecological management for Chongqing Municipality and so on.     

Scenario analysis of low carbon development in Tianjin, China

Low-carbon economic development has become a.fundamental approach to coordinating economic development and carbon emissions mitigation. As rapid developing economic, aviation and navigation, and financial center of North China. Tianjin＇s energy demand and CO2 emissions are mushrooming, with per capita CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion exceeding 20 t in 2020, which much exceeds current level of USA. In the background of global responding to climate change, China will likely be requested to commit peaking its GHG emissions during 2020-2030, which will inevitable reduce the room of development in Tianjin enormously. Tianjin should make deployment ahead, realizing win-win of addressing climate change and sustainable development, with low-carbon economic development as important strategic mission. First of all, Tianjin should devote more efforts to reducing energy intensity and realizing relative emission reduction. Scenario analysis shows that Tianjin＇s future CO2 emissions will continue to increase rapidly, but they can be significantly reduced by taking measures. Second, Tianjin should get ready for achieving absolute reduction of CO2 emissions as soon as possible, preparing system, technology and talent in advance, making great efforts to establish institutional meehanisms conducive to low-carbon development from now on. starting from energy conservation and emission reduction, actively carrying out low-carbon technology research and development, vigorously developing the tertiary industry with low emissions, developing new and renewable energy resources, actively promote low-carbon consumption.     

Ecological footprint analysis on the traditional rice-fish agricultural area： a case study of Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, China

Qingtian County of Zhejiang Province, China has maintained the traditional rice-fish agriculture for about 2,000 years and formed exceptional cultural heritage based on this kind of production mode, so it was ed by FAO as a pilot site for the rice-fish agricultural heritage systems in 2005. This research has applied the indicators of ecological footprint and biocapacity to monitor the environmental conditions of Qingtian County, aiming to find the impact that the traditional agricultural production mode and the local inhabitants lifestyle have placed on the local environmental conditions as well as the role they have played in maintaining ecological balance, cultural inheritance and regional sustainable development. Results show that Qingtian County is characterized by a nearly breakeven total ecological balance, as opposed to Zhejiang Province, the world and other agricultural regions. However, compared with another rice-fish agricultural region, Congjiang County which enjoys a considerable ecological reserve, Qingtian County has consumed a greater amount of environmental resources. Specifically, about half of the ecological footprint of Qingtian County can be attributed to the cropland （50.8%） while the CO2 area only accounts for 11.2%, which is dramatically different from that of the modern industrialized regions. And a vast of percentage of energy is caused by the combustion of fuelwood which not only requires the land to absorb the CO2 emission it has generated but also occupies the forest where it has been chopped.     

Eco-certification of non-timber forest products in China： addressing income generation and biodiversity conservation needs

Non-timber forest products（NTFPs） can play a key role in sustainable rural development due to their ability to support rural livelihoods while of their role and potential in conservation and development remains weak. Studies have pointed to important knowlidge gaps that may lead to serious exploitation and unsustainable use of the nanral resource ＂NTFP＂ in China. such as（I） lack of basic lknowledge on germplasm and non-existing or incomplete inventory.（2）no in-depth and long-term monitoring and institutional arrangements to ascertain sustainable extraction levels,（3）insufficient market transparency for communities.（4）incomplete knowledge of NTFP domestication and ist effects on product quality and price and the conservation of wild sources, and （5）no existing research on the full length of the commodity chain for major non-timber forest prochucts and the various actors in the chain. remote mountain regions through the sustainable management of NTFPs. The potential and challenges of oraanic,ecological and Fairtrade certification schemes in the context of smallholder farmers are discussed in more detall.     

对外经济发展与生态环境研究

Since China＇s opening to the outside world, a large amomt of foreign investment has flowed into the country. The domestic economy has been full of vigor and vitality after adepting the socialist market economy, which contributes to a higher economic growth. However, ecological enviromnent has a close relationship with the foreign economic development. The good ecological environment and natural resources are the foundation of foreign economir development. With the expansion of its market economy. China is confronted with a series of sustainable development challenges related to population, resources and environmental protection, etc. How we should prevent and control effectively the impact of economic development upon the environment and avoid serious. effect and damages on environmental quality are the key points this paper will discuss.     

Environment investment： transition from end-investment to multi-investment

Environmental investment must change its direction from end-investment to multi-investment, such as ecological construction, recycling economy and environmental protection. Only it can meet the needs of breaking the bottleneck of resources and environment for Chinese sustainable development. And the transition can hero us realize low-ost and highspeedy increasing of economy, as well as the construction of ecological health, beautiful environment economic development and harmonious new society. Material recycling in ecosystem can run well by self-organization and self-regulation by nature with low-cost and even non-cost. So, the environmental investment in ecological construction should be the profits maximum investment. But it needs country＇s support in financial policy on ecological or environmental compensation. Recycling economy is a brand-new pattern of economic growth, which formed gradually in the course of mankind exploring and practicing sustainable development. Fountainhead prevention, reducing and whole processing control are its significant characteristics, which are digerent from any former economic and environmental protection system. Investing in technology development and relevant industry of recycling economy should be the other major field of environment investment in China in the future.     

Resource integration of regional economic development in northwest China

Northwestern area is the most arid and underdeveloped area in China. Lots of researches have been doneto find the approaches to alleviate poverty. But there are some problems, for example, how to invest, how to use capital,and why the utilization rate is ambiguous. Water, capital and human resources are analyzed in this paper to be comparedwith their Utilization rates. As a result, according to the dependences of economic growth on those resources, a newapproach has been selected to organize the integration ways among these resources for economic development innorthwestern China. The efficient ways to develop northwestern China are： firstly, use the wanting resources mosteffectively to make an efficient integration model of multiple resources. For example, enhance the utilization rate of waterto raise the value of other resources. Secondly, invest more in basic factors for economic development to upgrade thecompetitiveness in the western China. For example, invest more in primary education and sustainable development ofbasic natural resources in order to have more power for sustainable development.     

Assessment of the agricultural sustainability of Shaanxi Province,China

It is significant for the study on the sustainable development of regional agriculture to monitor and measurethe trend of agricultural development with an effective method. The sustainable development of regional agricultureshould accord with regional population, rural economic development, social progress, resource and environmentalsupport. This paper establishes the evaluating indicators system of sustainable development of regional agriculture,evaluates the agricultural sustainable development in Shaanxi Province with a comprehensive multi-indicator method,analyzes the support of resource and environment for regional agriculture by the resource-development index and theenvironment-development index, and gets the conclusion that the indicators, such as education level, the income gapbetween urban and rural residents, the per capita area under cultivation and the consumption of pesticides and chemicalfertilizers per hectare, are the main factors to restrict agricultural sustainability, and that the pressure of the developmentof subsystems of population, economy and society on the subsystems of resource and environment turns out to bestronger and stronger. Agricultural environment gets better, but resource becomes one of the important factors to restrictthe development of regional agriculture. In a word, this paper highlights the potentials and limitations of sustainableagriculture of Shaanxi and helps identify the development direction in the future.     

Coordination of economic development and ecological environment in resource exhausted cities

This paper establishes the evaluation index system of ecological environment and economic development in resource exhausted cities, and calculates the level of economic development and ecological environment during the year 2005-2012 by using the entropy method. Furthermore, this study analyzes the coordination degree and coordinated development degree by using the coordination model. The results show that the coordination relationship of economic development and ecological environment continues to improve from 2005 to 2012 in most of these resource exhausted cities. By 2012, other resource depletion cities are in all kinds of hierarchical coordination except Yichun and Hegang. From the standpoint of coordination development degree, although most of these resource exhausted cities have been increased continuously but the level is also lower except in Tongling and Xinyu. Finally, this paper puts forward the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions according to the results of the analysis.     

Research on regional capability constructive models of clean development mechanism

Global climate change has been identified as the first of the top ten environmental problems in the world. As climate change will have serious effects on the social and economic development and everyday, living of people in the world, many of the countries and governments are taking untiring efforts to combat climate change. As one of the important mechanisms of reducing greenhouse gas （GHG） emissions in the Kyoto Protocol, Clean Development Mechanism （CDM） has not only provided chance for developed countries to fulfill greenhouse emission reduction obligations, but also provided an opportunity for developing countries to combat climate change under the sustainable development frame. The dual objectives of developed countries＇ GHG emissions＇ reduction obligation achievement and developing cotmtries＇sustainable development will be achieved under the CDM. As a country with responsibility; China has been positively developing CDM projects and promoting energy saving and emissions reduction during the three yeors after the Kyoto Protocol came into force, and CDM projects development has always been in the front tank in the world. However; as the vast clime within China, notable differences occur in different regions. In order to promote the CDM development in China, it is necessa~T to have regional CDM capability construction in accordance with the practicality in different regions. Based on the Slat Analysis of developed CDM projects and current CDM development status in China, problems in the CDM development of China, including the inefficiency in small and medium-sized CDM Projects＇ development, over centralization of CDM development scope and especially the differentiated provincial CDM projects developing capability are pointed out in the paper： What＇s more, reasons for the problems are analyzed from fire leading.factors, including policy orient, information asymmetry and weak CDM capability, In order to promote CDM projects development in China, a new CDM capability, construction model is put forward in the paper.     

Energy efficiency and economic growth of China： 1953-2006

Energy plays an important role in the economic life. With the rapid development of economy, the constraint of energy on the sustainable development of economy is becoming more and more obvious. This paper just Studies the factors influencing energy efficiency of China and the relationship between energy efficiency and China＇s economic： growth. By using time series multivariable linear regression methods with China＇s relevant data from 1953 to 2006, this paper constructs the regression model to analyze the factors that would impact energy, efficiency. After that, a regression model of China＇s real output to capital, labor and energy e lficiency is conducted to estimate the marginal contribution of every factor to the real output to prove the fundamental influence of energy efficiency to the economic growth. In the end, some policies and recommendations are also put forward in order to improve the energy efficiency; of China.     

On sustainable development of agriculture in oasis： a case study of Hexi Corridor, Gansu, China

Hexi Corridor is one of the most potential areas in the China＇s Western Development in 21^st century.However,the problems - the sustainable development of oasis agriculture,the ecosystem of the oasis edge,the landscape structure,the population density in oasis,water resources and land resources in oasis are deteriorating and have restricted the sustainable development of society and economy in this area.This paper summarizes the problems at present,and puts forward the concept of protecting and constructing the oasis environment and sustainable development for the sustainable development of the oasis agriculture in the Hexi Corridor.     

On division management for environmental system of China： lessons from European local sustainable development

The concept of sustainable development, after being brousht forward, has become a shibboleth in the world, at national and local levels. In Europe, this concept is implemented from the local to tha nation, even to the Continent. The local sustainable development mainly consists in two factors： one is the renovating method continually invented by European Secretariot of ICLEI, and the other is that the local authorities towards sustainability are co-operated by the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign. The coo-budget method is the outcome of tbese factors, For our country is a big country, on rapid progression of indastrialization and urbanization, with a large population and scarce resoarces per capita, it is practically significance to study us soon as possible the methodology. Experience from European local sustainable development may help us to resolve the handicap of departraent division in local a, tbority.     

Development of suburb farm landscape in the process of urban-rural overall planning from the perspective of ecological economics： a case study of Chengdu City

With the accelerating development of Chinese urbanization and the widening gap between rural and urban areas, urban-rural overall planning is to be an inevitable choice for economic and social development. However, the specific patterns and methods in urban-rural overall planning are greatly different. From the persperctive of ecological economy, taking the main physical and biological pattern of the farmland as research objects, this paper analyzes the components and characteristics of farm landscape, the relationship between farm landscape exploitation and rural tourism, and the role of farm landscape exploitation in planning urban and rural development. It expatiates on the pattern, method and principle of farm landscape development. Furthermore, based on the actual development case, this paper explores how to make high-grade tourism products with scientific and reasonable farm landscape development method, how to increase peasant income, how to improve urban and rural ecological economic environment, so as to promote urban-rural overall planning.