Abstract: Ecological footprint（EF）,being a kind of non-monetary tool for ecosystem evaluation,has been a major biophysical measuring method used recently worldwide to determine degrees of sustainable development,and has drawn much attention from both domestic and abroad since it was developed by Wackernagel and Rees in 1996.To sum up types of areas different in productivity,equivalence factor was introduced to relate average primary biomass productivities of lands different in land use（i.e.cropland,pasture,forest,fishery area） to regional average primary biomass productivity encompassing all types of lands in a given year.So,equivalence factor is an important parameter in EF calculation and its accuracy directly affects reliability and comparability of the calculation.To facilitate analysis of ecological footprint spatially at a regional scale,equivalence factors for various types of lands in different provinces and in the country were worked out based on net primary production（NPP） of the vegetation and the 1-km MODIS data of the country in 2001.Results show that in terms of the equivalence factor of the country,it was 1.71 for cropland and built-up land,1.41 for forest area and ‘energy source' land,0.44 for pasture and 0.35 for fishery area,while in terms of the equivalence factors of various provinces,it varied greatly because lands different in land use within a region were different in relative productivity.Generally,the equivalence factors followed the sequence of cropland> forestland> pasture> fishery area.

Key words: ecological footprint, equivalence factor, net primary production, China