County-level ecological sustainability assessment based on improved ecological footprint model

According to the deficiencies of traditional EFM, in this paper, the improved EFM (IEFM) was discussed thoroughly. Changwu county of Shaanxi province was taken as the special region to validate the feasibility and usability of IEFM. The results showed that: 1) Ecological footprint per capita of Changwu county was 0.29 hm2, and ecological carrying capacity per capita was 1.23 hm2, thus the ecological surplus per capital was 0.94 hm2; 2) Ecological optimum population was 7.208×105, which the proportion to actual population was 0.24, Ecological efficiency (EE) was 1540 thousand yuan per hm2; 3) Arable land and fossil energy land of Changwu county made up 72% of ecological footprint per capita; Forestry and pasturage land made up 27% of ecological footprint per capita; Built-up land, electric power land, water area and other land make up 1.2% of ecological footprint per capita; 4) ecological footprint per capita and ecological carrying capacity per capita of the IEFM calculation were 0.515 and 5.467 times of EFM, and opposite conclusion was gained in the analysis of the ecological deficit/surplus. This showed that, pressure to natural ecosystems was within the ecological capacity, the ecological system of Changwu county was relatively safe and the whole economic development was in sustainable situation.