Study on Relative Carrying Capacity of Land Resources and Its Zoning in 31 Provinces of China

Abstract

Land carrying capacity is an important indicator to quantitatively assess and judge the extents of sustainable economic developing and coexistent harmonizing between human and nature. The significance of land carrying capacity has been highlighted recently by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which set clear requirements for arable, construction, and ecological lands. Theories and models of land carrying capacity, however, are suffering from the interference of artificial parameter setting and poor applicability. This paper attempts to overcome these limitations and propose a single factor assessment of the carrying capacity of cultivated land, construction land, and ecological land in terms of the relative carrying capacity from the perspective of a single factor assessment. Through mutual comparison, we found that the deviation caused by simulated parameter setting has been eliminated, and the relative status of each province and/or region in China has been obtained, which could provide a reference for the management and utilization of land resources. We argue that China can achieve basic self-sufficiency in both space capacity and food production without placing pressure on the global sustainable development. The results also indicate that carrying capacity state of the advanced development areas such as the eastern coastal region is relatively poor, while the carrying capacity state of the western region is relatively good.