The calculation and analysis of ecological footprints, diversity and development capacity of China

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.