The Ecological Impact Assessment of Sea Reclamation Projects Based on Ecological Footprint Analysis: Xiamen Case Study

The ecological footprint (EF) analysis is a quantitative method to assess the sustainability of regional development. On the basis of the theories and methodology of EF, the procedure and the relevant models were developed for estimating the cumulative changes of ecological capacity caused by sea reclamation. And then they were applied to the case study of Xiamen Western Bay based on the calculation of EF and the ecological capacity (EC) of Xiamen from 1984 to 2005, the basic data were mainly from Xiamen Statistical Yearbook (1984-2005). The results showed that the ecological deficits of Xiamen changed from -0.8254 hm²/cap in 1984 to -3.9574 hm²/cap in 2005, suggesting that the increase trend of ecological deficits. The sea reclamation projects in Western Bay from 1983 to 2005 had led to the ecological capacity´s reduction of 77420.54hm², which aggravated the ecological deficits of Xiamen.