Analysis and Prediction of Land Resources’ Carrying Capacity in 31 Provinces of China from 2008 to 2016

Abstract

The rapid development of urbanization, population growth, and unreasonable use of land resources have made the contradiction between human beings and land increasingly prominent, and the carrying capacity of land resources has become an important factor affecting the sustainable development of a city or even a country. Based on the carrying capacity of agricultural land, construction land, and ecological land in 31 provinces of China, this paper analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of the carrying capacity of land resources in 31 provinces of China from 2008 to 2016 by using single-factor carrying capacity evaluation and comprehensive carrying capacity evaluation methods. The evaluation results were divided into six levels (No pressure, Lower pressure, Low pressure, Medium pressure, High pressure, Higher pressure), and the ArcGIS10.2 software was used for visualization, and the carrying capacity prediction model was constructed to predict the development trend of the comprehensive carrying capacity of land resources in 2020 and 2025. The results showed that China’s land carrying capacity is extremely unbalanced. Whether from the evaluation results of single-factor carrying capacity or comprehensive carrying capacity, we showed the characteristics of high pressure in the east and low pressure in the west, and that the regional land resources have a deteriorating trend. Through the prediction of the future land resource carrying capacity index, it was found that the comprehensive carrying capacity index of land resources in 31 provinces of China will still show an upward trend in the future.