Abstract: As a tool of natural resources accounting in light of ecology, the ecological footprint model developed from one-dimension to three-dimension. The evolution of ecological footprint model was presented in 4 aspects, including scientific problem, model conception, utilization orientation, and explanatory ability. The result revealed that: 1) The ecological footprint model was a biological and physical tool of natural resources accounting, and it made up the shortage of natural resources accounting in SNA. 2) The one-dimension model firstly introduced the concept of biologically productive land to the natural resources accounting, and measured the appropriation of ecology by biologically productive land area; the two-dimension model introduced the concept of ecological carrying capacity, opening up a new vision of land carrying capacity evaluation; the three-dimension model divided natural resources into flows and stocks, depicting the ecological pressure lively. 3) Even though the two-dimension and the three-dimension models were based on the one-dimension model, three models solved different problems respectively, and they were adapted to different scales. 4) The ecological footprint model was a static model, so it couldn’t demonstrate changes in the ecological system and economic system; limit of closure model made the result reflect regional ecology hardly. Further improvement was demonstrated as well.

Key words: a biological and physical tool, ecological footprint, review, natural resources accounting