Quantitative assessment of stress of economic development to environment using ecological stress index

Eco-environmental Stress Index (ESI) is a quantitative indicator for assessing the stress of economic development on ecological environment. The user-friendly method is easy to operate and can be used to evaluate the pressure on ecological environment in space and time. This study upgraded the index construction systems and regional pressure characterization of the ESI method to analyze the trend in stress of economic development to eco-environment in Jilin Province for the period 2000 2010 and to characterize the eco-environmental stress in every city in Jilin Province for 2010. The study provided the scientific basis for the protection of ecological environment and adjustment of industrial structures in Jilin Province. The main results were as follows: 1) With economic development in Jilin Province, eco-environment stress increased. This was especially noted in 2005, when there was an obvious increase in ESI. This trend was mainly driven by significant increases in annual energy consumption, industrial waste gas emission, industrial waste water emission, sulfur dioxide emission and industrial dust emission. 2) Since 2008, eco-environmental stress in Jilin Province changed from environmental pollution (EP) to resource-energy consumption (REC). This was due primarily to industrial dust emission and drastic reduction in agricultural fertilizer. 3) In terms of spatial distribution of eco-environmental stress in Jilin Province, Changchun City, Jilin City and the central region of the province were under high eco-environmental stress while the eastern region of the province was under low stress, with the least stress in the western region of the province. 4) Resources and energy consumption stress in Changchun City, Siping City, Songyuan City, Liaoyuan City and Baicheng City was high, while environmental pollution stress was high in Jilin City, Tonghua City, Baishan City and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. The results suggested that Jilin Province needed to adjust its industrial structure, increase energy utilization efficiency, adopt green GDP accounting system, strengthen supervision and improve eco-environment pressure.