Quantitative evaluation of sustainable development based on ecological footprint method： a case study of Tianjin

Since the coneept of sustainable devetopment emerged in the late 1980s, more and more countries and regions have been utilizing sustainable development as their developing stratety. But decades have passed without any effective methods available to quantitatively assess sustainable development. Since the ecological footprint evaluation method initiated in 1992, it has become popular in quantitative assessment of sustainable development because of its convenience, easy-understanding, and rehability. As one of the biggest coastal cities in north China and the economic center of the Bohai Coastal Region, Tianjin＇s gross domestic product （GDP） was 369. 762 billion yuan in 2005, accounting for 2.0°of the whole nation＇s GDP. The paper analyzes Tianjin＇s development with the ecological footprint method, and the results show that Tianjin＇s ecoiogical footprint and biocapacity in 2005 were 2.507gha/cap and 0.2 76gha/cap respectively. The ecological deficit was 2.230gha/cap.And from 1980 to 2005,Tianjin＇s ecological deficit per 10^4 yuan GDP decreased;while per capita ecological deficit has been tending to increase rapidly in recent years.All these result demonstrate that Tianjin is in a state of unsustainable development.