Comprehensive evaluation for sustainable development based on relative resource carrying capacity—a case study of Guiyang, Southwest China

On the basis of resource carrying capacity, this study used the revised theory of relative resource carrying capacity, took Guiyang as the study object, and calculated relative carrying capacities of natural resources, economic resources, environmental resources, and social resources from 2003 to 2017. Natural resources were composed of three indicators (energy resources, water resources, and land resources). Human capital resources were incorporated into social resources. Therefore, on the basis of the revised model of relative resource carrying capacity, conclusions were drawn: when taking the whole country as the reference area, Guiyang had an overloaded population from 2003 to 2017 whether under traditional or improved resource-carrying capacity model. But there were different results from these two models. When taking the entire province as the reference area, the result was the opposite. Whether taking the whole country or the entire province as the reference area, contributions of economic resources and social resources to comprehensive resource-carrying capacity were obviously higher than that of natural resources and environmental resources. When taking Guizhou as the reference area, other districts and counties were in the state of surplus, except that Qingzhen was overloaded after 2010 and Xiuwen was overloaded in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Therefore, corresponding countermeasures on sustainable development of Guiyang had been put forward in this study. It is necessary to control the population size, increase the cultivated land resources properly, accelerate regional economic development, strengthen ecological environmental protection, and save energy resources.