Ecological footprint
Ecological footprint is measurement of how much land, water, and other natural resources are required to produce the resource consumed and to adsorb the waste generated by given population or activity.
Ecological footprint = Population x Consumption x Impact factor / Biocapacity
- Population – Number of individuals in the population.
- Consumption – Amount of resources consumed by population.
- Impact factor – How much impact to the environment by the resources consumption, this value vary depend on the resources.
Biocapacity
Biocapacity refers to the capacity of natural ecosystems to provide resources and absorb waste, while also maintaining their ability to resource regenerate and sustain their productivity over time.
Biocapacity = Biologically productive land and water area x Productivity per unit of area
- Biologically productive land and water area – Total area of land and water that can support human activities such as crop production, forestry, fishing
- Productivity per unit of area – Amount of biological productivity can obtained from the per unit area.
- Earth overshoot day is the day that ecological footprint exceeds the biocapacity
Ecological footprint Vs Biocapacity
- Ecological footprint measure the demand for the natural resources, biocapacity measure the ability to provide resources.
- When ecological footprint exceeds the biocapacity, it indicates that the demand for the natural resource is exceeded then natural regeneration ability, earth can not provide the resource sustainably.
- When biocapacity exceeds the ecological footprint, it indicates that earth has ability to regenerate the natural resource and supply the demand. earth has ability to support human activities sustainably.
- Higher the ecological footprint it may leads to depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity.
- Increasing the Biocapacity and decreasing the Ecological footprint is good for Ecosystems stability
References
See, T. A., Wai, C. W., & Zen, I. S. (2016). Ecological Footprint of Research University Students: A Pilot Case Study in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. MATEC Web of Conferences, 66, 00073. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20166600073
