The urban ecological regulation based on ecological carrying capacity

The urban ecosystem is a Social-Economic-Natural Complex system consisting of human beings and their surrounding. Because the integrity of function and structure is crucial to the stability and development of urban ecosystem, it is necessary to carry out urban ecological regulation to optimize urban ecological function and structure to promote urban sustainable development in prior situation. Urban problems can be caused by the imbalance between supply and demand, inadequate resilience to pressure, In this paper, the urban ecological carrying capacity is introduced to improve the comprehensive understanding of urban structure and functions, which reflects the capability in urban supportive system to respond the pressure induced by human activities. And urban ecological regulation is established on urban ecological carrying capacity, thereof we select the threshold value and driving factors in analyzing the feature of urban carrying capacity, which can be acted as breakthrough points in regulation. Moreover the integrity of structure and function can be equal to the spatial-temporal dynamic balance in structure and function, views as the pre-condition in ecological regulation, therefore it is essential for regulation to focus on the spatial-temporal balance of carrying capacity. Based on the relationship between ecological security and ecological carrying capacity, the ecological security can be regarded as the goal or standard of urban regulation. In process of urban ecological regulation, driving factors are recognized and some relevant measures referring to three aspects such as technology, human activities and external factors combined with the feedback in process, are improved ecological carrying capacity, herein it is significant for us to regulate the direction, speed and scale of urban development in order to achieve the urban sustainable development. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.