PSR Model-based Safety Assessment on Carbon Emission from Land-use in Hu'nan

Based on the ecological security principle, a safety indexing system to access the carbon emission from land-uses for the regions in Hunan province was constructed. It analyzed the carbon emission affected by the spatial settings of various types of land-use and classified the safety status for regions in the province. The results showed that the carbon emission in Hunan was relatively acceptable with an averaged safety score of 0.685 5. The highest score was 0.771 7 for Zhangjiajie City, and the lowest 0.533 3 for Loudi City. From the safety perspective, Xiangtan City (scored 0.622 4) and Loudi City were considered marginal, while the rest semi-secure. Spatial setting on land-use did not seem to be a significant factor on the scoring. The PSR model indicated that the 6 cities induding Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Yueyang, Loudi and Jishou belonged to the high-stress-high-response class, whereas, the 8 cities of Chunzhou, Hengyang, Shaoyang, Changde, Zhangjiajie, Yiyang, Yongzhou and Huaihua the low-stress-low-response category. Realizing the disparities, the safety issue involving carbon emissions from land-use should be a critical criterion in planning the future development for different localities. By combining it with other factors for consideration, such as per GDP energy consumption, proportion of secondary industries, and per capita ecological use of land, an optimized design could be formulated to achieve the most desirable and sustainable outcome for a targeted city or region.