PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (9): 1107-1114.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2010.09.013

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ecological Sustainability Assessment Based on Material Flow Analysis: A Case Study in Shenzhen City

HUANG Songlin1,2, WU Jiansheng1,2, PENG Jian1,2, HUANG Xiulan1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China;
    2. Key Laboratory for Earth Suuace Processes of Ministry of Education, and College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2010-01-01 Revised:2010-05-01 Online:2010-09-25 Published:2010-09-25

Abstract:

To study the relationship between economic development and environmental pressures of the economic system, the material inputs and outputs of the economic system in Shenzhen City during the period from 1992 to 2007 were calculated and analyzed by the material flow analysis (MFA). The material intensity and material efficiency in Shenzhen were compared with other distrios using the same indicators. The results showed that Shenzhen relied greatly on outside resources and the material inputs of its economic system changed obviously in 2004. The key point for controlling material consumption was to control the amount of material inputs. Shenzhen is on the third stage of city development, and the material inputs go down slowly and the material outputs rise. Shenzhen is getting ride of the reliance on the outside materials step by step but the eeo-environmental system is still under a great pressure. Shenzhen’s resource production efficiency and environment efficiency are improving. The improvement of technology increases the efficiency of material use. So the costs of material consumption and environment pollution are becoming lower and lower. The interaction between economic system and eco-environmental system can be divided into two stages. Shenzhen is now experiencing the transformations from relative sustainable development to absolute sustainable development.

Key words: ecology, MFA, Shenzhen City, sustainable development