Arid Zone Research ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (4): 706-715.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2024.04.16

• Ecology and Environment • Previous Articles    

Sustainable development scale of a typical agro-pastoral ecotone based on emergy analysis: A case study of Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia

WANG Xin(), HAI Shan()   

  1. College of Geographical Science, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022, Inner Mongolia, China
  • Received:2023-04-20 Revised:2023-12-11 Online:2024-04-15 Published:2024-04-26

Abstract:

The emergy method was used to analyze the sustainable development status of the ecological and economic system in Ulanqab City in the agro-pastoral ecotone from 2011 to 2020, in order to determine the reasonable scale of regional development and achieve regional sustainable development. The results show that: from 2011 to 2020, the input emergy (F) of Ulanqab City’s ecological-economic system increased steadily; the output emergy (Y) continued to decrease; the environmental load rate (ELR) continued to increase; the emergy was sustainable for 10 years The indicator (ESI) experienced large fluctuations and declined overall. From 2011 to 2016, the emergy sustainable development index of Ulanqab City was higher than 1, indicating that the development of the ecological-economic system was sustainable. From 2017 to 2020, the emergy sustainable development index was lower than 1, indicating an unsustainable state. Therefore, in the short and medium term, it is necessary to increase investment in renewable resources to alleviate the ecological environment degradation and high environmental load caused by the overuse of non-renewable resources. The industry should carry out technological innovation to reduce production costs, improve production efficiency, promote the output of high-emergy value products, and seek new emerging technologies. High-emergy value output sectors replace low-emergy value output sectors; the natural growth rate of regional population needs to be increased in the long term in order to increase regional emergy demand and output. With advantageous transportation location and abundant resources, we will undertake industrial sectors with high emergy output rates and low environmental load rates in surrounding relatively developed areas to enhance regional sustainable development capabilities.

Key words: agro-pastoral ecotone, emergy analysis, sustainable development capabilities, Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia