Analysis of the characteristics and driving forces of the temporal and spatial evolution of ecological security in Inner Mongolia

Ecological security is the basis and premise to ensure the sustainable development of human society and economy. Evaluating the temporal and spatial evolution and influencing factors of ecological security is of great significance to its ecological security pattern construction and regional sustainable development. Based on the localized ecological footprint model, we calculated the ecological footprint, ecological surplus and deficit and ecological stress index of twelve cities across the Inner Mongolia in China from 1990 to 2018. Entropy method was conducted to construct a comprehensive index system, calculating the ecological safety index, and evaluating the state of regional ecological safety and sustainable development. We also combined spatial analysis to reveal its temporal and spatial evolution and analyze the driving factors of temporal and spatial dynamic. The results showed that(1) during the study period, the Inner Mongolia was in a state of ecological deficit, but the growth rate of ecological ca