The Implications of Ecological Sensitivity on Exploitation of Unutilized Land: A Case Study in Ji’Nan City, China

As the cultivated land reserve resources, the unutilized land should be exploited to get the best benefits based on its suitability, meanwhile the exploitation should avoid ecological destruction for the aim of ecological security. Taking of unutilized land in Ji’nan city as a case, the paper established ecological sensitivity analysis model and suitability evaluation model to calculate the exploitation potential of unutilized land. The results showed that limited by environmental factors, the unutilized land located in severely sensitive area and extremely sensitive area accounted for 39.99% of the total unutilized land; 65.87% of the unutilized land are suitable for cultivated land. From the spatial distribution, the unutilized land suitable for cultivated land is mainly distributed in the northern plain region and the south area along the Yellow River region.