Abstract
Global warming has become an increasing challenge due to the impact of human activities on the environment. In this regard, university campuses with various activities and departments have a great impact on the environment. Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is a natural resource depletion assessment tool, with a high level of accuracy, that measures the impact of human activities on the environment. Considering the Ecological Footprint (EF) capabilities, this study developed a method to assess the environmental impacts of a university campus using component-based parameters. The goals of the study are to explore the effective components of EF and to propose some policy guidelines to diminish the human impacts on the environment on university campuses. Five components, including natural gas and electricity consumption, water and food usage, and waste production, were measured in a survey from 2013 to 2016 at the building scale. The mean EF of the campus was 16,484 global hectares (gha). Fossil fuel energy had the highest level of environmental impact with 70.73%, followed by waste production and food and water usage with 26.87%, 1.28%, and 1.12%, respectively. The results demonstrate that the EF Index (EFI) of the case study campus was −0.82, which reveals an unsustainable performance. The EF results were illustrated on an Ecological Footprint Map (EFM), which shows the east and west parts of the camps were more unsustainable.
Highlights
Since0.44 the annual amount of waste and food 1.69 usage roughly is the same at the university, we have generalized the calculation of one year to the others for these components
The Ecological Footprint (EF) of the University of Kurdistan (UOK) campus over four academic years was analyzed and the results such as mean EF per capita (1.69 gha per capita) during this period were compared with other studies
Footprint Assessment (EFA) tool has played a significant role in evaluating sustainable development performance, especially in academic institutes
Summary
Balancing the food supply with this growing market has resulted in the conversion of wetlands into farmlands, indiscriminate felling of forests, overexploitation of fishery resources, and degradation of natural lifedependent areas throughout the planet [2]. The human pressure on the environment in terms of natural resources depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste production has been rising steadily [3]. The human ecological footprint is 60% higher than the world’s ecosystems renewal capability. In 2020, the ecological footprint temporarily decreased due to the widespread effect of COVID-19 pandemic global lockdowns; it is still far beyond what our planet can replenish [4]. The human pressures on the environment have led to a serious problem for the planet, with one piece of evidence being global warming, a crucial environmental challenge [5].
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