Abstract: Accounting for natural capital utilization is the core in regional sustainable development. Based on the improved three-dimensional ecological footprint model, we analyzed the changes of natural capital utilization in Gansu Province from 1999 to 2016. The driving factors were analyzed using the method of partial leastsquares regression. The ecological footprint per capita of Gansu Province increased first and then decreased. The ecological carrying capacity per capita was relatively stable. The trend of ecological deficit per capita was consistent with that of ecological footprint per capita. The ecological footprint depth and the ecological footprint size per capita indicated that capital flow could not satisfy human demands for natural resources, and that the consumption of capital stock becomes the normal state of social economic development. From the perspective of territorial composition, fossil energy land, cultivated land and waters are the main ways of capital stock consumption. Forest land is the main way of capital flow occupation. The natural capital use of grassland and construction land has undergone a process of transitioning from capital flows to capital stocks. Environmental pollution and energy consumption are the main factors leading to the increases of natural capital utilization in Gansu Province. Ecological construction, scientific and technological progress, land use structure improvement, and environmental governance have alleviated the pressure of natural capital utilization to some extent.

Key words: winter wheat, regulated deficit irrigation, tillering interference, growth redundancy, compensation effect.