土地资源能否生产足够的食物供养未来人口的问题益发受到关注,作为回答这一问题的土地资源承载能力研究也就应运而生。中国科学院自然资源综合考察委员会受全国农业区划委员会委托主持了“中国土地资源生产能力及人口承载量”项目。该项目的研究内容分解为5个基本层次,确定2000年和2025年为研究的时间尺度,并探讨了无具体时间尺度的理想承载力。该项研究以中国1∶100万土地资源图划分的9个土地潜力区为基础,以资源—资源生态—资源经济科学原理为指导,以综合、协调、持续性原则为特色,力图从PRED(资源、环境、人口、发展)的相互关系出发,回答我国土地资源在不同时期可以供养多少人口,提高土地资源承载能力的可能性与途径等问题。

The question that whether the land resource can produce enough food to support the future population has received increasing concern in recent years. As an answer to this question, the study of the carrying capacity of the land resource occurs accordingly. The Commission for Integrated Survey of Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, received the entrustment from the National Commission for Agricultural Regionalization and sponsar-ed the project "The Productivity and Population Carrying Capacity of the Land Resource in China".The study contant of the project is divided into five levels. The years of 2000 and 2025 are taken as the time scale of the study. The study is based on the 9 land potential regions demarcated on the 1:1000000 land resource map of China, is guided by the scientific theories of resources, resource ecology and resource ec onomy, and has the characteristics of compra-hensiveness, coordination and continuitv. Proceeding from the interalations of PRED (Population Resource, Environment, and Development), it makes efforts to clarify the following points: (1) The population number the can be supported in different periods by the land resource of China (2) The possibility to raise the carrying capacity of the land resource, and (3) the ways needed to attain this goal.