As an indispensable homestead of human activity, the ecosystem witnesses a large number of human activities.Undoubtedly, the development of socio-economic consumes a variety of natural resources, which places tremendous pressure on the ecosystem.Nevertheless, socio-economic development is the foundation to the human society.Especially, only when the ecosystem is under-loading state, the human economic activities will development sustainably.The coastal zone is not only an important area of Chinese economic in the future, but also a complex compound ecosystem of natural, social and economic.The complexity requires us to realize the coastal ecosystem by using compound ecosystem theory.The Integrated Carrying Capacity (ICC) refers to a comprehensive capacity, in a given period and space resources, to support the regional long-term sustainable development. Therefore the assessment of coastal ICC is essentially important for the coordinated and sustainable development from both economic and ecological aspects.
Through the conceptual model of the "driving force-pressure-state-response-control" (D-PSR-C) and the data accessibility, this paper constructs an assessment indices system and an standard of ICC through a case study of Nantong coastal area, Jiangsu province, China.Based on the analysis of the data collected in this region in 2005, 2008 and 2009, the result shows that: (1) the ICC of land, beach, marine, and regional of its five counties are not exceeded, but some are fully loaded. In 2008 the highest one is Qidong regional ICC, which is 2.679 and under-loading.The lowest one is Haian marine ICC, which is 0.171 and over-loading; (2) from 2005 to 2009, the ICC of beach, marine and regional are on an upward trend, in which the marine and regional ICC of Haimen is increased by 124.61% and 142.98%.One the other hand, the land is on downward; for example, Rudong is decreased by 22.42%; (3) based on the contribution rate analysis of secondary indicator carrying capacity, the key factors of affecting ICC are the rate of the pollutants and energy consumption, the level of regional economic development, and the environmental pressure.
In this paper, the indices system consists of three layers: first-class indicator, second-class indicator, and third-class indicator.The third can also be adjusted by the data availability.In the meantime, the study area of coastal zone is divided into land, shoal, marine, and regional.The assessment model of coastal ICC can be proposed a new research method to assess the coastal carrying capacity.With the regional development stage coefficient theory, the standard of ICC ideal value is adjusted.That can improve the faultiness of traditional method. Moreover by using the contribution ratio analysis of second-class indicator, the key indicator of can be found to support the regional socio-economic development planning.The assessment of ICC will be a fundamental basis for long-term economic sustainable development.