Ecological Footprint

1

• Ecological Footprint
• Qi Yang
• March 2008

2

• The ecological footprint is a comprehensible
  indicator that can show very clearly the effects
  of society's action on environment .
• The ecological footprint estimates the amount of
  productive land and water a given population
  requires to produce all the resources they
  consume and take in all the waste they make using
  prevailing technology .

3

• People consume resources from all over the
  world, so our ecological footprint can be thought
  of as a big foot--- the sum of our areas,
  wherever we are on the planet.

4
Sustainability Model

• We can calculate how much biological productive
  area we have.
• We can calculate how much we are using.
• Living sustainable means that we are not living
  beyond what is available.

5
Measurements of Sustainable Development

• The biocapacity looks at the supply side of
  the equation. Such measurements put the whole
  onus for sustainable development on the producer.
• The ecological footprint looks at the demand
  side of the equation and places responsibility
  for sustainable development not only on the
  producer but on the consumer.

6

• When EF is greater than biocapacity,
  ecological deficit emerges. Moreover, ecological
  overshoot may occur when overexploitation of
  resources or accumulation of waste exceeds the
  capacity, then triggers the sudden collapse of
  the total ecological system.

7
EF Applications

• 1.Region (country, province, town, university
  campus)
• 2.Personal Ecological Footprint
• 3.Competing technologies (fuel cells)
• 4.Growing Techniques (field tomato vs. hydroponic
  tomato)
• 5. Promote holistic decision making (Policy
  decisions , urban planning decisions)

8
Calculational Method of Ecological Footprint and
Biocapacity

• Resource consumption of the Chinese society
  from 1981 to 2001 will be represented by
  ecological footprint (EF) as an aggregate
  indicator.

9
Components of the Ecological Footprint(six human
activities that require space)

• Growing Crops
• Grazing Animals
• Harvesting Timber
• Accommodating Infrastructure (housing,
  transportation systems, industry, built up land)
• Catching Fish
• Absorbing Carbon Dioxide Emissions (burning
  fossil fuels)

10
(No Transcript)
11
Ecological Footprint Calculational Result of
China

• 1. EF

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
2. Biocapacity
15
(No Transcript)
16
3.Ecological overshoot
17
4. Ratio of GDP to EF per capita

• EF intensity, defined as the ratio of
  the EF and the real status of the economic
  output, which is often represented in GDP, is
  used to depict the resource consumption intensity
  corresponding to unit economic output. The ratio
  of GDP to EF per capita can be regarded as an
  attempt to show the close relationship between
  the land demand and economic output, as
  discussed by Farber et al. concerning the
  relationship between available energy and
  economic output (Farber et al., 2002). However,
  different from what is stated in Chen et al.
  (2004) that the ratio of GDP to EF per capita can
  be considered as a direct measure of the
  efficiency of resource use, it is much better to
  understand this indicator as a numeraire between
  the land area and the currency.

18

• The hypothesis implied by Chen et al.
  (2004) is that the bioproductive land
  consumption growth rate should keep pace with
  the GDP growth rate, which is not always the
  case, especially in China as follows.
• First, the bioproductive land
  consumption growth rate varies in different
  sectors.
• Second, the developing imbalance amongst
  different sectors due to the unbalanced central
  planning investments affects the total
  bioproductive land consumption growth rate of the
  national economy.
• Finally, the bioproductive land does
  not aggregate all the available resources,
  especially the so-called renewable resources in
  China.

19
(No Transcript)
20

• As an operational and vivid tool for
  resource assessment and ultimately a useful
  indicator for decision-maker, the conventional EF
  analysis presents a consistent land area
  numeraire with reliable biophysical foundation,
  whereby the land area is reconstructed and
  calculated as the scarce factor of the ecological
  production.

21

• Moreover, EF intensity, defined as the
  ratio of the EF and the real status of the
  economic output, which is often represented in
  GDP, is used to depict the resource consumption
  intensity, also in the global ecologically
  average sense, thus providing direct proportional
  index between the bioproduction and the economic
  production. The results of EF analysis can
  therefore be regarded as the quantified
  foundation to assess the global environmental
  change from a biophysical and global ecological
  average view.

22
References

• Chen, G.Q., 2006. Scarcity of exergy and
  ecological evaluation based on embodied exergy.
  Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical
  Simulation 11, 531552.
• Chen, D.J., Cheng, G.D., Xu, Z.M., Zhang, Z.Q.,
  2004. Ecological footprint of the Chinese
  population, environment and development.
  Environmental Conservation 31 (1), 6368.
• CAY, China Agriculture Yearbook, 19822003. China
  Statistical Publishing House, Beijing.
• CCIY, China Coal Industry Yearbook. 19822002.
  China Coal Industry Publishing House. Beijing.
• Wackernagel, M., Monfreda, C., Schulz, N.B., Erb,
  KH., Haberl, H., Krausmanh F., 2004b. Calculating
  national and global ecological footprint time
  series resolving conceptual challenges. Land Use
  Policy 21, 271278.
• Wackernagel, M., Monfreda, C., Schulz, N.B., Erb,
  KH., Haberl, H., Schulz, N.B., 2004a. Ecological
  footprint time series of Austria the Philippines
  and South Korea for 19611999 comparing the
  conventional approach to an actual land area
  approach. Land Use Policy 21, 261269.
• Wackernagel, M., Onisto, L., Bello, P., Linares,
  A.C., Falfn, I.S.L., Garca, J.M., Guerrero,
  A.I.S., Guerrero, N.G.S., 1999. National natural
  capital accounting with the ecological footprint
  concept. Ecological Economics 29, 375390.

23

• Deutsch, L., Jansson, A ., Troell, M., Ro
  nnba ck, P., Folke, C., Kautsky, N., 2000. The
  ecological footprint communicating human
  dependence on natures work. Ecological Economics
  32, 351355.
• Farber, S.C., Costanza, R., Wilson, M.A., 2002.
  Economic and ecological concepts for valuing
  ecosystem services. Ecological Economics 41,
  375392.
• Fricker, A., 1998. The ecological footprint of
  New Zealand as a step towards sustainability.
  Futures 30 (9), 559567.
• Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F., 2001. How
  to calculate and interpret ecological footprints
  for long periods of time the case of Austria
  19261995. Ecological Economics 38, 2545.
• Herendeen, R.A., 2000. Ecological footprint is a
  vivid indicator of indirect effects. Ecological
  Economics 32, 357358.
• Kratena, K., 2004. Ecological value added in an
  integrated ecosystemeconomy modelan indicator
  for sustainability. Ecological Economics 48,
  189200.
• McDonald, G.W., Patterson, M.G., 2004. Ecological
  footprints and interdependencies of New Zealand
  regions. Ecological Economics 50, 4967.
• Moffatt, I., 2000. Ecological footprints and
  sustainable development. Ecological Economics 32,
  359362.
• Monfreda, C., Wackernagel, M., Deumling, D.,
  2004. Establishing national natural capital
  accounts based on detailed ecological footprint
  and biological capacity assessment. Land Use
  Policy 21,
• 231246.
• Opschoor, H., 2000. The ecological footprint
  measuring rod or metaphor. Ecological Economics
  32, 363365.
• Rapport, D.J., 2000. Ecological footprints and
  ecosystem health complementary approaches to a
  sustainable future. Ecological Economics 32,
  367370.

24

• Thanks for your attention

25

• The equivalence factor represents the world
  average potential usable productivity
  contained in a given bioproductive area relative
  to the world average potential usable
  bioproductive areas, which is aggregated on the
  anthropogenic mode of the utilization of biomass,
  thereby excluding some of the biomass beyond the
  human utilization scope.
• Yield factors are determined by the variable
  ratio between the given bioproductive area and
  the global average bioproductive area of the same
  land used in long periods of time.