Footprint Accounting Research Articles

The role of ecological footprint and the changes in degree days on environmental sustainability in the USA.

In addition to the adverse effect of extreme weather and weather variation across the globe, the ecological deficit accounting associated with the USA is perceived to have further worsen the country's environmental quality. Considering the aforementioned motivation, this study examined the effects of cooling degree days, heating degree days and ecological footprint on environmental degradation in the USA over the period of 1960 to 2016. While employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Bounds testing to cointegration approaches, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is further incorporated in the estimation model to avoid estimation bias thus enhancing a robust estimate. The result overwhelmingly found that the cooling degree days, the heating degree days and the ecological footprint accounting aggravates the country's environmental degradation. Worse still, the study further presents that there is short-run adverse impacts of the heating and cooling degree days, and the short-run and long-run ecological footprint on the country's environmental sustainability. Moreover, there is statistical evidence that the income growth in the USA especially in the long run will not also improve the environmental quality. Irrespective of the income-environmental degradation long-run relationship, the relieving impact of income growth on environmental degradation is observed in the short run. In general, the study presents relevant policy pathway for implementation.

Carbon footprint of construction industry: A global review and supply chain analysis

This paper conducts a global review and a macro-level supply chain analysis focusing on carbon footprint of construction industry worldwide for the period between 2009 and 2020 using the Scopus database. A total of 1833 journal articles are revealed with focus on carbon footprint in the field of construction in general, of which only 115 (6% of the total) studies have a macro-level analysis of the construction sector, providing a more holistic overview of the construction sector from various aspects. These macro-level studies were reviewed and classified based on journal, country, year, method, scope of analysis, type of construction, and period. The findings showed that approximately 60% of these studies focus on the Chinese construction industry and the majority of studies analyzed national-level (75%) and city-level (18%) carbon footprints of construction. On the contrary, global-level analysis has a lower share, which accounted for only 6% of reviewed articles. The review showed that more than 20% of studies use the input-output analysis as the main methodological approach to quantify macro-level carbon emission from construction sector, which is followed by the process-based life cycle assessment with 10% share, where more bottom-up approaches are employed. There are only a handful of articles found in the literature using a hybrid life cycle assessment and global multiregional input-output analysis for carbon footprint accounting of construction. Furthermore, there is also no study found in the literature, which presented a comprehensive regional and global supply chain analysis of construction carbon footprints. The results revealed that the largest portion of carbon emissions stem from the regional and global supply chains of the construction industries. The authors concluded that carbon reduction policies should not only consider the limited regional impacts; however, it must take into account the role of indirect, complex and interconnected global supply chains of construction industries.

Water footprint calculation and assessment of viscose textile

Water footprint standards established by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), this paper proposed a newquantitative indicator for water alkalization, and calculated the water footprints involved in viscose textile production. Inaddition, water footprint accounting results were comprehensively evaluated by LCA polygon method which wasdeveloped to interpret LCA results. Results showed that: (1) water scarcity footprint of viscose textile production was60.511 m3H2O eq/ton, of which 85.71% was from the viscose fiber production; (2) water eutrophication footprint ofviscose textile production was 12.439 kg PO43–eq/ton, the major contribution (84.37%) was given by COD and BOD5;(3) water acidification footprint and water alkaline footprint of viscose textile production were 81.453 kg SO2eq/ton and55.675 kg OH–eq/ton, mainly due to H2SO4and NaOH input during the spinning process, respectively; (4) waterecotoxicity footprint of viscose textile production was 3828.169 km3H2O eq/ton, mainly derived from Zn2+in spinningwastewater; (5) LCA polygon analyses showed that environmental load in the spinning was the largest, followed by thepulping and then the dyeing.Keywords:viscose textile, wa

Methodology and application of flood footprint accounting in a hypothetical multiple two-flood event

Multiple natural disasters are becoming ever more frequent around the world, with both climate change and rapid urbanization increasing the risk of such disasters in human society. Comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of multiple disasters on the industrial and economic system has become an urgent and essential part of urban recovery and sustainable development. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on assessing the indirect economic impacts resulting from such multiple events, and thereafter providing a common quantitative approach within their assessment. With the concept of flood footprint and input-output theory, this study proposes a more externally oriented methodology (flood footprint model) for indirect flood footprint (IFF) accounting and offers various extensive sensitivity analyses based on a hypothetical two-flood event. Based on the two-flood case, we conclude that the total flood footprint of a multi-flood within a given region is larger than the sum of individual flood footprints and this is the same for the IFF due to the combination effect, while the flood footprint is highly constrained by factors such as occurrence time and physical damage caused by the ensuing disaster. This article is part of the theme issue 'Urban flood resilience'.

The evolution and research framework of carbon footprint: Based on the perspective of knowledge mapping

Abstract Carbon footprint can monitor the degree of human stress on the ecological environment and has been widely used to measure the level of climate change and sustainable development. To systematically sort out and analyse the development history of carbon footprint research, a keyword co-appearance and literature co-citation knowledge mapping has been drawn, the carbon footprint research hotspots, knowledge bases, research frontiers, and research features have been analysed, from Web of Science core database since 2008 as a data source. From the review, by establishing a carbon footprint research framework from the perspectives of both government and market, the problems of regional environmental governance efficiency, fairness mechanisms, and carbon emission rights are analysed under the government-led and market-led approaches and reviewed the development of carbon footprint research methods. In addition, the boundary and the applicability of the carbon footprint accounting methods has been discussed. The results show: (1) China is increasingly becoming an ideal for carbon footprint research due to its varied and complicated problem of climate and environment. (2) Future research hotspots will focus more on carbon sinks, land use changes, energy consumption, industrial ecology, buildings, livestock, and international trade. (3) Half-life, burst, and centrality indicate that the knowledge bases of carbon footprint are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios, ISO14040 (2006) and Livestock’s long shadow. (4) The latest international fronts of carbon footprint research focus on the carbon footprint generated in international trade, innovations of methods and discrimination and definition of the theory concept, for example, the expression of carbon footprint means the use of either ecological land area units or physical weight units. (4) The research features are mainly concerned with the carbon footprint application of the multi-region input-output model in international trade, multi-scale assessment of human impact on the environment and sustainable development, and resource-environment effects associated with food loss and waste.

Comparison of city-level carbon footprint evaluation by applying single- and multi-regional input-output tables

City-level carbon footprint has been recognized as a useful measure of anthropogenic impact on climate change associated with citizens' activities within the administrative boundary. Although the promotion of consumer responsibility suggests rethinking urban indirect emissions, the detailed methodology is far from satisfactory for realistic applications. Due to the lack of multi-regional input-output tables for most cities, there is a wide application of single regional input-output tables. However, there still lacks further discussion on if there will be an obvious evaluation bias by applying city-level single-regional tables rather than multi-regional ones. To visualize the table coverage on its application consequence, both single- and multi-regional input-output tables were employed to compare disparities in the carbon footprint accounting in the case of Tokyo, Japan. Our analysis shows that the gap of emissions driven by Tokyo's final demand between single- and multi-regional input-output tables was considerably large. Furthermore, the results of multi-regional table were found to be 8.11 MtC higher for coal-generated emissions, 7.83 MtC for crude oil-generated emissions and 2.90 MtC for natural gas-generated emissions than those of the single-regional table. The largest deviation in emissions accounting was observed in the power, gas and heating supply sector, the construction sector and the private service sector. The gap between these two input-output tables was notable for all three types of fossil fuels (coal, crude oil and natural gas). These indicated that coal-generated emissions have been largely ignored by single-regional input-output table. The study highlighted the difference of carbon footprint accounting between these two types of input-output tables. Our findings are intended to assist policymakers and scholars in pinpointing and reallocating sectors that are likely to yield severely biased evaluation of emissions embodied in trade when a multi-regional table is not available.

Ecological Footprint Accounting of Non- Biodegradable Wastes of Angeles City, Philippines: The Anthropogenic Shift to Biodegradables

This study factored the Ecological Footprint Accounting on the Municipal Solid Wastes of Angeles City, Philippines using the Waste Analysis and Characterization Summary for 2015, with projections subdivided into the solid wastes of Angeleǹos, expressed as waste generation per capita, depict the level of waste consumption, quality of urban habitat, and the acceleration on waste disposal based on the population growth rate and diversion rate. The results were quantitatively analyzed using Ecological Footprint Accounting and interpreted in monetary terms through Benefit-Cost Analysis. The major research processes include: Analysis of waste generation per capita; Waste Projections net of targeted diversion on non-biodegradables; Cost Analysis on diverted wastes; and Income Analysis on Recyclables. The waste generation for the next five years will be generated 90% by households; 10% by educational and other institutions. With waste composition of 37% biodegradable, 20% recyclables and 43% non-biodegradable. By the year 2022, the city is expected to generate 159 kg yr-1∙106 with waste mitigation at a decreasing rate of 96.89% despite the population acceleration at 136% or equivalent to 561,000 constituents. Lastly, the five-year Benefit-Cost Analysis yielded a budgetary savings of PhP395M, equivalent to US$ 7.4M or an average municipal annual cost savings of 39%

Supply versus use designs of environmental extensions in input-output analysis: Conceptual and empirical implications for the case of energy.

Input–output analysis is one of the central methodological pillars of industrial ecology. However, the literature that discusses different structures of environmental extensions (EEs), that is, the scope of physical flows and their attribution to sectors in the monetary input–output table (MIOT), remains fragmented. This article investigates the conceptual and empirical implications of applying two different but frequently used designs of EEs, using the case of energy accounting, where one represents energy supply while the other energy use in the economy. We derive both extensions from an official energy supply–use dataset and apply them to the same single‐region input–output (SRIO) model of Austria, thereby isolating the effect that stems from the decision for the extension design. We also crosscheck the SRIO results with energy footprints from the global multi‐regional input–output (GMRIO) dataset EXIOBASE. Our results show that the ranking of footprints of final demand categories (e.g., household and export) is sensitive to the extension design and that product‐level results can vary by several orders of magnitude. The GMRIO‐based comparison further reveals that for a few countries the supply‐extension result can be twice the size of the use‐extension footprint (e.g., Australia and Norway). We propose a graph approach to provide a generalized framework to disclosing the design of EEs. We discuss the conceptual differences between the two extension designs by applying analogies to hybrid life‐cycle assessment and conclude that our findings are relevant for monitoring of energy efficiency and emission reduction targets and corporate footprint accounting.

Ecological Footprint and Water Footprint of Taipei

Taiwan suffers from many natural disasters and is vulnerable to climate change. A continuous increase in its ecological footprint (EF) would pose numerous threats to the city. Taipei is Taiwan’s most densely populated city. Whether its citizens are consuming more resources because of their high income and high degree of urbanization, thereby burdening the environment, warrants study. In contrast to most top-down EF analyses, in this study, 445 residents were surveyed to calculate their carbon, built-up land and water footprints. Gender, occupation, age, education level and personal annual income do not influence water footprint or EF. Moreover, an individual’s water footprint is not correlated with his or her EF. The built-up land footprint that is obtained in this bottom-up study is similar to that in Taiwan’s top-down national footprint account. However, the personal carbon footprint found herein is smaller than that in the national footprint account, because this study asked respondents only about consumption related to everyday activities. Since Taipei residents have a high income and high daily consumption, the water footprint herein is larger than the top-down water footprint. This bottom-up EF analysis reflects residents’ daily consumption patterns and can be used in future urban decision-making.

Environmental sustainability of grey water footprints in Peshawar Basin: Current and future reduced flow scenarios for Kabul River

Assessing water pollution at basin level is a challenging task. In this study, the environmental sustainability of grey water footprints (WFgrey) of Peshawar Basin in Pakistan was analysed. The release of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from point and non-point sources during the period 1986 to 2015 were studied. Water pollution level (WPL) for normal and 10%-50% future reduced runoff in Kabul River as a result of construction of dams was considered. Methodologies described in Water Footprint Assessment Manual and Grey Water Footprint Accounting Guidelines were followed. Results showed that 30-year annual average of N and P discharges were 24.5×103 t/a and 10.9×104 t/a respectively. The discharge of N and P from non-point sources contribute 97% and 99% respectively. N related WFgrey was 50108 m3/a and 50109 m3/a for P. WPL of N was within the sustainable limit for all reduced runoff scenarios while P-related WPL for normal runoff exceeded sustainable limits and was worse in each reduced runoff scenario. This study confirms the deteriorated water quality of Kabul River and the findings may be helpful for future planning and water resource management of the basin. Keywords: sustainability, grey water footprint, nitrogen, phosphorus, water pollution, Kabul River, Pakistan DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191204.4804 Citation: Khan T, Khan H. Environmental sustainability of grey water footprints in Peshawar Basin: Current and future reduced flow scenarios for Kabul River. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(4): 162–168.

An approach to develop grey water footprint accounting

Abstract Grey water footprint (GWF) is an indicator that represents the water quality issues embedded in producing a product in form of freshwater volume. This indicator converts the pollution loads to the equivalent volume of freshwater with respect to the assimilative capacity of the receiving water body. This study develops the method of accounting multiple-pollutant GWF with ecological perspective. For demonstrating the developed methodology, original samples were taken from trout farms in the Kabkian River, south-western Iran, and the pollution exports are calculated in first step. In the second step, river is modelled for determining the local-oriented water quality standards. Finally, total multiple-pollutant GWF is determined. Here, equations are developed for considering dissolved oxygen (DO) in accounting GWF due to the critical role of this parameter in aquaculture and fish production. In addition, a state-of-the-art coefficient is introduced to alter the formulation for including the environmental issues of receiving water body in accounting GWF. This can provide a framework for considering Eutrophication, saline intrusions, minimum environmental flow and DO deficit of river, in addition to the risks of micropollutants in water footprint assessments. Nevertheless, the results of case study show that GWF is nitrogen-related for trout farming. It equals 195 m3/ton but it may fluctuate depending on the local development strategies and their consequences on the environmental issues. Consequently, the proposed methodology can broaden the prospect of the application of GWF and enhance the role of environmental capacity in this indicator.

Assessment of regional crop-related physical-virtual water coupling flows

Agriculture is the sector with the largest water usage globally, as well as within China. Water is a limited resource that represents the base for regional food security. Modern water science has revealed that crop production consumes not only so-called blue water (surface and ground water), which is at the core of current agricultural water policies, but also so-called green water (rainwater). As driven by natural-socio-economic (“ternary”) activities, water related to the crop production chain (i.e. pre-, during- and after-production) flows in coupled physical and virtual (the “two-dimension”) forms through physical water consumption, virtual water embedding and inter-regional virtual water flows. In this work, based on a physical-virtual water flow theory framework, we have developed a quantification approach for regional crop-related physical-virtual water flow processes, with a focus on the water quantity. This quantification integrates green and blue water footprint accounting and virtual water flow network simulations. We applied this approach in a case study for six western provinces along the “Silk Road Economic Belt” in China over the period 1985−2013. Ten major crops were considered in the case study. Our results show significant crop-related physical-virtual water flows among the six provinces. In terms of blue water, 49% of the irrigation water supply was consumed in the crop production we considered, 31% of which was converted to virtual water flows. Moreover, we find that a trade-off exists between water use efficiency and associated economic value along the physical-virtual water flows. For example, Xinjiang has suffered water stress due to crop production, with a net virtual water export of 21×109 m3/a, but has a high economic income of 314 million CNY/a as a result of the water flow. This study highlights the importance and necessity of improving traditional agricultural water management, which focuses on reducing blue water consumption through engineering strategies, by integrating physical-virtual water flow assessments in order to achieve both high resources and economic efficiencies in water use, as well as both green and blue water savings. Specifically, we propose three key steps towards attaining this goal: (1) To consider both the physical and virtual water flows in modern agriculture water saving technologies as well as policies; (2) to invest in and enhance academic capabilities for quantifying, analysing and optimizing agricultural physical-virtual water flows; (3) to build a modern agricultural water management system targeted towards healthy and sustainable physical-virtual water flows in order to finally achieve both water sustainability and food security goals.

Land, water and carbon footprints of circular bioenergy production systems

Renewable energy sources can help combat climate change but knowing the land, water and carbon implications of different renewable energy production mixes becomes a key. This paper systematically applies land, water and carbon footprint accounting methods to calculate resource appropriation and CO2eq GHG emissions of two energy scenarios. The ‘100% scenario’ is meant as a thinking exercise and assumes a complete transition towards bioenergy, mostly as bioelectricity and some first-generation biofuel. The ‘SDS-bio scenario’ is inspired by IEA's sustainable development scenario and assumes a 9.8% share of bioenergy in the final mix, with a high share of first-generation biofuel. Energy inputs into production are calculated by differentiating inputs into fuel versus electricity and exclude fossil fuels used for non-energy purposes. Results suggest that both scenarios can lead to emission savings, but at a high cost of land and water resources. A 100% shift to bioenergy is not possible from water and land perspectives. The SDS-bio scenario, when using the most efficient feedstocks (sugar beet and sugarcane), would still require 11–14% of the global arable land and a water flow equivalent to 18–25% of the current water footprint of humanity. In comparative terms, using sugar or starchy crops to produce bioenergy results in smaller footprints than using oil-bearing crops. Regardless of the choice of crop, converting the biomass to combined heat and power results in smaller land, water and carbon footprints per unit of energy than when converting to electricity alone or liquid biofuel.

Ecological footprint accounting: A multi-scale approach based on net primary productivity

The Ecological footprint accounting is a resource accounting tool that is used to track the sustainability of human systems. In this paper, we present a new approach to calculate the Ecological Footprint metrics at different geographic scales using Net Primary Productivity data. Our study focuses on the town of Afourar, Morocco, as a case study examined at three different scales; national, regional, and provincial scale. In contrast with other studies, our footprint accounting results are expressed in what we have called territorial hectares. The accounting results show that geographic scale has a significant influence on the footprint model, where three cases of sustainability were found. This implies that the efforts to maintain the sustainability of territories are more important at some scales than others. We argue that the relationship between sustainability and geographic scale is both strong and complex and that sustainability is a spatially relative concept. Therefore, we conclude that multi-scale analysis is crucial for making sustainable decisions and management policies.

Defying the Footprint Oracle: Implications of Country Resource Trends

Mainstream competitiveness and international development analyses pay little attention to the significance of a country’s resource security for its economic performance. This paper challenges this neglect, examining the economic implications of countries resource dynamics, particularly for low-income countries. It explores typologies of resource patterns in the context of those countries’ economic prospects. To begin, the paper explains why it uses Ecological Footprint and biocapacity accounting for its analysis. Data used for the analysis stem from Global Footprint Network’s 2018 edition of its National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. Ranging from 1961 to 2014, these accounts are computed from UN data sets. The accounts track, year by year, how much biologically productive space is occupied by people’s consumption and compare this with how much productive space is available. Both demand and availability are expressed in productivity-adjusted hectares, called global hectares. Using this biophysical accounting perspective, the paper predicts countries’ future socio-economic performance. This analysis is then contrasted with a financial assessment of those countries. The juxtaposition reveals a paradox: Financial assessments seem to contradict assessments based on biophysical trends. The paper offers a way to reconcile this paradox, which also elevates the significance of biophysical country assessments for shaping successful economic policies.

Accounting global grey water footprint from both consumption and production perspectives

Grey water footprint (GWF) accounting has previously been conducted at the global level using a bottom-up approach but lacking detailed industrial information. Here we applied a multi-region input-output approach based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) to quantify global GWF of 40 countries/regions with 35 economic sectors. The GWF from both the production perspective (GWFP), and the consumption perspective (GWFC) are quantified. The results show that the global GWFP/GWFC was 1507.9 km3 in 2009. Except for the “Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing” sector, the industrial sectors with the largest GWFC were “Food, Beverages and Tobacco”, “Construction”, “Chemicals and Chemical Products”, and “Textiles and Textile Products”. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) had a larger GWFP than their GWFC, which accounted for over half of global GWFP (53.6%), and their GWFP was mainly generated from the production of domestic final demand. In contrast, the OECD29 and EU27 groups of countries i.e. the country groups consisting mainly of economically advanced nations, had larger GWFC than their GWFP. Overall, the OECD29 and EU27 outsourced 134.8 km3 and 64.4 km3 of their grey water respectively, mostly to large newly advanced economies such as the BRIC group of countries, which, in turn, were collectively outsourcing 112 km3 of grey water. Quantitative approaches are thus suggested for development, aimed at shared responsibility for water pollutant discharge among poor exporters and wealthy consumers.

An integrated carbon footprint accounting and sustainability index for palm oil mills

Palm oil industry has received criticism from various parties on the issue of sustainability and the greenhouse gases. Carbon footprint accounting are widely used as a metric of climate change impacts and the main focus of many sustainability policies among companies and authorities. However, carbon footprint accounting has limitation to represent sustainability as a whole and may resulting inaccurate selection of further mitigation. This paper evaluates sustainability and greenhouse gases simultaneously using an integrated palm oil mill carbon footprint accounting (POMCFA) and palm oil mill sustainability index (POMSI) method. The integration was performed via the adoption of data synchronization of the carbon footprint accounting and sustainability assessment. The analysis shows that highest carbon dioxide equivalent emission was contributed by palm oil mill effluent followed by diesel consumption and water consumption. In terms of sustainability scoring, the results show that the environmental aspect achieved the lowest scores compared to other aspects (social and economy). Weaknesses identified include diesel consumption, palm oil mill effluent and boiler emission. The assessment analysed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent and sustainability scoring demonstrates its potential to provide comprehensive mitigation selection purposes.

Linking city‐level input–output table to urban energy footprint: Construction framework and application

AbstractMultiregion input–output (MRIO) models have become increasingly important in economic and environmental analysis. However, the current resolution of most MRIO models fails to capture the heterogeneity between subregions, especially in cities. The lack of city‐level MRIO tables has impeded the accomplishment of city‐level studies and hampered the understanding of the relationship between urban growth and consumption, and teleconnections to other regions. In this paper, we propose a partial survey‐based multiple‐layer framework for MRIO table compilation of a Chinese province that distinguishes city‐based regions. This framework can effectively address a large number of data processes and retain consistency between layers. Using the framework, we first compile a nested Hebei‐China city‐level MRIO table and then apply city‐level energy footprint accounting of the North China urban agglomeration. Our results present the critical role of Hebei cities in energy supply in 2012 and quantify energy use embodied in goods for the domestic trade. Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, and Handan are distinctive cities in the energy supply chain of other regions, for both less developed and developed regions. This multiple‐layer framework represents a feasible approach for developing subregional‐level MRIO models and offers the possibility to analyze global trade at the subregional level with limited data. The data and results from the analysis in this article are available for download from China Emission Accounts and Datasets.

The Energy Related Water Footprint Accounting of A Public Organization: The Case of A Public University in Thailand

Energy is the one of the most important driven forces of the organization activities. The energy consumption in the organization depends on two modes of utilization, fuel used for transportation and electricity generation. Since there is a significant relation between energy and environment, the impact of the energy production on the environment is the crucial agenda the organization should be accounted for. The greenhouse gas is not only the main concern regarding the energy production but also the water consumption because the fuel or electricity production require a large amount of water. This has the direct impact on the water security so people in the organization should have the responsibility for the water usage contributed to the energy production. As a result, the ecological indication, water footprint, was utilized to quantify the amount of water used for the production of fuel and electricity used in the organization. The analysis was conducted between January to April 2018 which is the second semester of the 2017 academic year. The amount of fuel and electricity used in this period was collected and the water footprint was calculated. The results show that the gasoline use has contributed to the highest amount of water consumption.

Increasing the accuracy of marine footprint calculations

One of the most used sustainability indicators of the past decades is the Ecological Footprint (EF). Criticism of the EF has often been aimed at its lack of accuracy. The marine component (MF) has been identified as one of the most sensitive parts of the calculations. The aim of this study was to assess and quantify this purported inaccuracy of MF and attempt to highlight its methodological weak points, using Iceland, an economy dominated by the fishing industry, as a case study. Checking for known areas of sensitivity within the calculations, such as trophic levels (TL) and discount rate (DR), MF was calculated based on figures of fish consumption by the Icelandic nation, as estimated by surveys made by the Icelandic Directorate of Health (DoH) and the University of Iceland Nutrition Research Unit (NRU) as well as inland consumption figures from fishmeal and oils from the Association of Icelandic Fish Meal Producers. The results were then compared with results from Global Footprint Network’s (GFN) National Footprint Accounts (NFA). The results indicate that the reported sensitivities associated with MF calculations can lead to a seriously distorted outcome. In the case of Iceland this translates to an overestimated MF. For other countries this could show up as underestimated MF, especially for net importers of marine produce. As well as known weak areas such as TL and DR, the study highlights data gaps as the most important source of bias. Filling data gaps with estimates may thus be the most effective way to increase the accuracy of MF.