Abstract:

With the urban planning in Suzhou as an example，this paper discussed the application of ecological footprint in environmental impact assessment for integrated urban planning，performing a useful exploration for an early involvement of the environmental assessment for urban planning in the process of compiling urban planning.At the beginning of urban planning in Suzhou，the ecological bottom line was set as that agricultural land，nonagricultural construction land and water area should not be less than 3 728，2 019 and 1 016 km2 respectively.In the process of urban planning in Suzhou，according to the results of current assessment，cropland is proposed to be a limiting factor while water resources a dominant factor for the urban development of Suzhou.Then the changes in the ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of Suzhou before and after the implementation of urban plan were estimated.The results showed that after the implementation of the urban plan in Suzhou，the ecological deficit per capita will increase.Cropland will be the main contributor to ecological deficit，pasture and energy lands will remain unchanged in their ecological remainder and deficit，and ecological deficit in forests will decrease.On the other hand，construction land and water area will increase in ecological remainder.At last，countermeasures based on the results were put forward to mitigate the ecological deficit and adjust the urban planning in Suzhou: (1) urban development space should be optimized and the capacity of central cities should be improved so as to increase ecological sites area and reduce the ecological deficit of cropland； (2) rail and river transportation with great capacity should be developed in order to reduce traffic energy consumption and vehicle exhaust emissions and decrease the ecological deficit in energy land.

Key words: ecological footprint, ecological carrying capacity, environmental assessment for urban planning, integrated appraisernevrt