Comprehensive Land Carrying Capacities of the Cities in the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone and their Spatio-Temporal Variations

Abstract

The comprehensive land carrying capacities of seven cities in the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone between 2007–2014 were assessed using a multi-criterion comprehensive evaluation approach and an index of 27 indicators, and cluster analysis was conducted to identify the spatial-temporal variations of the cities’ comprehensive land carrying capacities. The results showed that the carrying capacity of the water and soil resources of the cities had declined except Dongying City; in contrast, the carrying capacities of the eco-environment, the social resources and the economy and technology of the seven cities had all arisen. The carrying capacities of social resources of Dongying and Weihai were markedly higher than the other five cities. The carrying capacities of economy and technology of Qingdao and Dongying were high, the capacities of Weihai and Yantai were moderate, and the capacities of Weifang, Rizhao, and Binzhou were low. In general, the comprehensive land carrying capacities of the eastern cities were higher than those of the western cities, which was similar to the spatial pattern of the economy development of those cities. In addition, positive correlations were identified between the comprehensive land carrying capacity and the per capita land for construction, areal proportion of wetland to total land, percentage of green space to build up area, per capita public green space, comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste residues, urbanization rate, area of per capita urban road, per capita GDP, economy density, fixed-assets investment per area, etc. However negative correlations were discovered between the comprehensive land carrying capacity and the discharge of industrial waste water per 10,000 Yuan RMB GDP, as well as the proportion of added value of the primary industry to total GDP. Finally, we discussed measures to improve the comprehensive land carrying capacities of the cities, such as elevating the intensive land utilization and economic development, decreasing the proportion of added value of the primary industry to total GDP, promoting energy saving and emission reduction, etc.