1. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Soil Erosion and Disaster Protection/College of Environment and Resource, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China 2. Key Laboratory of Spatial Data Mining & Information Sharing (Ministry of Education of China), Fuzhou 350116, China 3. Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA 4. Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China 5. College of Geography and Tourism, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
China’s rapid economic development has initiated the deterioration of its ecological environment, posing a threat to the sustainable development of human society. As a result, an assessment of regional sustainability is critical. This paper researches China’s most forested province, Fujian Province, as the study area. We proposed a grid-based approach to assess the regional carbon footprint in accordance with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) carbon emission guidelines. Our method of assessment also introduced carbon emission indicators with our improved and published Net Primary Production (NPP) based on process simulation. The carbon footprint in Fujian Province from 2005–2017 was calculated and examined from a spatiotemporal perspective. Ecological indicators were used in the sustainability assessment. The research draws the following conclusions: 1) the carbon footprint in the eastern regions of Fujian Province was higher due to rapid economic development; 2) that of the western regions was lower; 3) an uptrend in the carbon footprint of Fujian Province was observed. All five ecological indicators based on carbon emissions and economic and social data showed an ecologically unsustainable trend over 13 years in the research area due to unsustainable economic development. Therefore, it is urgent to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection. Our research provides scientific references for achieving ecological civilization and sustainability in a similar region.
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