The analysis of ecological footprint of Hubei Province in 2004

The quantitative measurement of Sustainable Development has become one of the frontiers of the present sustainable development research, whose core is to determine whether mankind survives within the bearing capacity of the ecological system. The article deals in some details with the quantitative measure method ( the ecological footprint method) for Sustainable Development established by M. Wackernagel and others since 1996. The research applies the method to calculate and analyse the ecological footprint of Hubei Province in 2004. The result indicates that the ecological deficit per capita of Hubei province was 1.269 82 hm2 in 2004. The ecological footprint deficit shows that the human load has already stayed beyond the regional ecological capacity and the regional natural ecosystem is under great pressure of human activities.