Spatial and temporal changes of the ecological footprint of China's resource-based cities in the process of urbanization

The development of resource-based cities is under the dual stress of negative externality and urbanization caused by resource exploitation. In order to investigate the pressure faced by China's resource-based cities, this paper took the ecological footprint model to estimate the ecological sustainability in the urbanization process of China's resource-based cities from 2010 to 2016 on different scales. The results show that, the per capita ecological footprint of resource-based cities at the national scale is generally on the rise, and on the regional scale, the per capita ecological footprint of northeast and eastern regions is on the decline, while that of central and western regions is on the rise. Resource-based cities at both the national and regional scales are in the state of ecological deficit, which indicating that the development of resource-based cities in China has exceeded the local biological capacity during the urbanization process from 2010 to 2016. Since the small biological capacity is the main reason for the ecological deficit of China's resource-based cities at the national scale, and the ecological deficit at the regional level is closely related to the natural and social conditions of local development as well as the continued urbanization. Therefore, it is suggested that the local government should formulate scientific and reasonable planning, strengthen the ecological improvement of land resource, change the way of land use, implement energy conservation and emission reduction and promote the sustainable development of resource-based cities. • The per capita biological capacity: the value of resource-based cities at the national scale is low and decreases slightly; on the regional scale, Northeast China has the highest per capita biological capacity. and the per capita biological capacity in Eastern, Central and Western China increases from east to west. • The per capita ecological footprint: the figure of resource-based cities at the national scale is generally on the rise, and on the regional scale, the per capita ecological footprint of northeast and eastern regions is on the decline, while that of central and western regions is on the rise. • Resource-based cities at both the national and regional scales are in the state of ecological deficit, which indicating that the development of resource-based cities in China has exceeded the local biological capacity during the urbanization process from 2010 to 2016.