The carrying capacity of the environment and resources is one of the important indices for dividing main functional regions. Considering the connotation of the relative carrying capacity of resources as well as the population and economic factors

a standard for dividing main functional regions was constructed using arithmetic average model. Shandong Province was chosen as the study area and its 17 cities as the basic eval-uation units. Three main functional areas including optimal development area

key development area and de-velopment prohibited area were divided by taking the whole country and the whole Shangdong Province as reference regions. Recommendations were also proposed specifically for the three main functional regions. The results show that the relative carrying capacity model can be applied well in major function oriented zon-ing

which can contribute to promoting regional sustainable development.