Abstract
Humans’ demands for biological resources and energies have always been increasing, whereas evidence has shown that this demand is outpacing the regenerative and absorptive capacity of the planet. Since China is experiencing unprecedented urbanization and industrialization processes, how much impact this has imposed on the earth during economic development worldwide is conspicuous. Therefore, this paper tries to examine the environmental impact in detail and track its changes in a typical city of Central China, Wuhan, based on ecological footprint analysis. By calculating the ecological footprint and its components in terms of biologically productive land areas during the period of 1995–2008, it is found that the ecological footprint increased in fluctuations from 1.48 gha per capita to 2.10 gha per capita, with the carbon footprint contributing most within the whole time period. Compared to the tiny declining biocapacity of the region, a gradually aggravated ecological deficit in the city was observed, which increased from 1.12 gha per capita in 1995 to 1.79 gha per capita in 2008. Component analysis on the trends of the ecological footprint and ecological deficit reveals that the impact on the ecosystem induced by humans’ demands for resource production and energy consumption became greater than before, and cutting down the consumption of fossil fuels could reduce the carbon footprint and the overall ecological deficit of the city.
Highlights
It has been widely recognized that sustainable development with various species on the planet is the common pursuit of human beings
It represents the impact of human consumption activities and waste assimilation requirements on the natural ecosystems, and is able to compare the consumption with the amount of resources that nature can produce in the same time
Ecological footprint analysis presents an overall view on the people’s impact on natural resources and how the resources are utilized within the region, for instance whether they are overused or what amount of resources is maintained for sustainability
Summary
It has been widely recognized that sustainable development with various species on the planet is the common pursuit of human beings. Instead of calculating what population a particular region can support sustainably, the ecological footprint indicator directly shows the areas of biologically productive land appropriated to sustain a defined population, which were described as “footprints” that humans impose on the earth’s surface [9]. It represents the impact of human consumption activities and waste assimilation requirements on the natural ecosystems, and is able to compare the consumption (footprint) with the amount of resources that nature can produce in the same time (biocapacity)
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