Equivalence factors are used to convert physical hectares of different types of land, such as cropland and pasture, into the common unit of global hectares.
As with any calculation system, Footprint accounts are subject to uncertainty in source data, calculation parameters, and methodological decisions. Exact error bars or standard errors for calculations have not been rigorously compiled, and no full, comprehensive, and quantitative estimate of uncertainty has yet been carried out.
Several organizations, including Global Footprint Network, are seeking to allocate resources towards obtaining more accurate estimates of this nature. These data sets are official, widely obtainable, and are available in a consistent format across nations, allowing comparisons to be made between countries. The data are taken at face value, except where a substantial error is apparent and recognized widely by the research community for example, historical fisheries catch distortions or jumps of two orders of magnitude in trade flows for a single year.
Global Footprint Network encourages national governments, statistical offices, and research organizations to participate in collaborative reviews of data quality and methodology. Like other accounting systems, such as the Systems of National Accounts and GDP, Ecological Footprint accounts build on a single, clearly defined research question, and attempt to provide the best possible objective, transparent, and scientific answer to this question.
The process of initially defining a research question inherently involves normative judgments about which questions are important to pursue. Once a research question is identified, however, answering it is a scientific process. Ecological Footprint accounts do not say anything about what should be, or what any person or group of people should do. No normative or opinion-based judgments or weighting factors enter into Ecological Footprint accounting methodology. For example, the equivalence factors that allow different land types to be aggregated in the common unit of global hectares are based on empirical measurements of productivity.
As an organization, Global Footprint Network does not engage in environmental advocacy other than to suggest that the maintenance of accurate ecological accounts has an important role to play in decision making. At the national level, Global Footprint Network maintains the National Footprint Accounts, which provide benchmark Ecological Footprint results for nations from This carbon footprint, typically measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide, is an initial step towards calculating a full carbon Footprint, which in turn is one piece of the total Ecological Footprint.
A carbon Footprint translates tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the demand this places on biological capacity, measured in terms of the total area, in global hectares, required to sequester these carbon emissions. The Ecological Footprint of a biological resource represents the amount of biologically productive land and water area required to produce that material.
Ecosystems simply do not create water in the same manner as timber, fish, or fiber products. As a result, the Footprint of a given quantity of water cannot be calculated with yield values in the same manner as a quantity of crop or wood product. A water footprint can also be calculated based on the area of catchments or recharge zone needed to supply a given quantity of water.
The area obtained from this calculation, however, cannot be added to other Ecological Footprint land areas, as this would create double counting a forest, for example, can be used for both timber production and as a water catchment, but adding these two values together would count the amount of forest available twice.
Ecological Footprint accounts do directly reflect the influence of water availability on the biocapacity of ecosystems. Estimates of the amount of biocapacity that is dependent on freshwater supply, or of the lost capacity associated with water use for non-bioproductive purposes, could be calculated. As the relationship between freshwater and biological capacity is highly site specific, this analysis would need to be completed at a regional or local scale on a case-by-case basis.
Toxics and pollutants released from the human economy that cannot in any way be absorbed or broken down by biological processes, such as many types of plastics, cannot be directly assigned an Ecological Footprint. As the Ecological Footprint measures the area required to produce a material or absorb carbon dioxide emissions, materials such as mercury that are not created by biological processes nor absorbed by biological systems do not have a defined Ecological Footprint although their extraction, processing, and transport may have an associated carbon Footprint , for example.
Many of the most important concerns surrounding toxic materials, such as future storage risks and human health impacts, are best captured by indicators other than the Ecological Footprint. Many of these materials can cause damage to ecosystems when they are released into the environment, however, and this resultant loss of biocapacity can be measured using Ecological Footprint accounting and allocated to the activity that caused the release of the pollutant.
The relationships between pollution and ecosystem damage are very site specific, data intensive, and difficult to calculate in practice. Even if no specific calculation is undertaken, however, any loss of biocapacity associated with the release of pollutants will be reflected in future assessments of the affected area.
One tonne of copper thus does not have an Ecological Footprint in the same way as one tonne of timber, which requires bioproductive area for its creation. There is, however, an Ecological Footprint associated with the energy and other materials used in extracting, refining, processing, and shipping these mineral resources, and together these are often reported as the Footprint of the mineral. Additionally, when mined materials such as mercury or arsenic enter the environment, they may cause damage and a loss of productivity.
The Footprint of carbon released from the combustion of fossil fuels is thus defined as the amount of productive area required to sequester the carbon dioxide emissions and prevent its accumulation. An alternative method would be to calculate the consumption of fossil fuels according to the productive area required to regenerate them, which would result in a carbon Footprint many hundreds of times higher than the current calculation.
The Ecological Footprint is not an indicator of the state of biodiversity, and the impact of a particular activity or process on biodiversity does not directly affect the Ecological Footprint calculation for that activity. These two practices will have very different consequences for the available future capacity of the forest to produce timber, which would be reflected in future biocapacity assessments but not in current Ecological Footprint accounts.
Although not a direct measure of biodiversity, the Ecological Footprint supports biodiversity assessment and conservation in two important ways. First, the Ecological Footprint can be used as a large scale indicator of the underlying drivers or pressures that cause biodiversity loss.
In addition, the Ecological Footprint can also be used to translate the consumption of a given quantity of material such as one kilogram of paper into the specific local land area from which it was harvested such as one square meter of forest in Finland.
After this initial translation, complementary indicators and assessment tools can be used to measure the impact on biodiversity associated with harvesting from that ecosystem. Nuclear power has been included as a separate footprint component in national Footprint calculations since Because it is difficult to calculate the extent of the nuclear demand on the biosphere, it was assumed that one unit of nuclear electricity had an equivalent Footprint to one unit of electricity produced with a world average mix of fossil fuels.
This change has been implemented in the edition of the National Footprint Accounts. The National Accounts Committee concluded that the emissions proxy approach for calculating the Footprint of nuclear electricity was not scientifically sound because:. Actual carbon emissions associated with nuclear electricity are included in the National Footprint Accounts. However these emissions are only one among many environmental considerations relevant to nuclear power.
Therefore, for most nations, the effect of this methodological change on their results reported here will negligible.
However, for countries with significant nuclear power supply such as Belgium, Finland, France, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, the method change influenced their national Footprint values to a greater extent. This exclusion of the nuclear Footprint component does not reflect a stance on nuclear energy. It simply acknowledges that only some aspects of nuclear energy are easily measured in terms of demand on regenerative capacity, the research question addressed by the Ecological Footprint.
However, the Living Planet Report—Japan for included an estimate for the biocapacity implications of the Fukushima accident. Jump to the Content FAQs. General What is the Ecological Footprint? What does the Ecological Footprint measure? Which Footprint calculator should I use? What is biocapacity? What is overshoot? How is an Ecological Footprint calculated?
After finding out the ecological footprint for every product, you would add all your answers to figure out the overall ecological footprint. Let's say you are growing carrots and corn on your farm and you want to figure out your farm's ecological footprint based solely on your crop production.
First, let's calculate the ecological footprint of your corn:. Now, let's do the same for your carrots:. Therefore, the ecological footprint of growing your crops is:.
This means that in order to grow your crops, you would need 1. You can add in more terms to take into consideration other factors, like how much electricity you might need to run your farm.
To see if your farm is sustainable, you should check whether the ecological footprint you calculated is less than the biocapacity of the land you are growing your crops on.
If so, your farm is producing crops at a rate that the land can handle. The equation can also be applied to different individuals and situations. If you are growing crops and wanted to calculate your own ecological footprint, for example, you would take into account the annual yield of the product on your farm instead of the annual national yield, and calculate the yield factor for your particular location relative to the world.
The product does not have to be a crop, either. The equation can be applied to other goods such as electricity. If you want to find out your own ecological footprint, some organizations have set up online calculators. Check out the following for a few examples:. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.
Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Earth Overshoot Day is marks the date we all of humanity have used more from nature than our planet can regenerate in the entire year. Earth Overshoot Day has moved from late September in to July 29 in This means investing in technology and infrastructure that will allow us to operate in a resource-constrained world.
It means taking individual action, and creating the public demand for businesses and policy makers to participate. Each country has its own ecological risk profile: The majority of countries are running ecological deficits, demanding more from nature than their ecosystems can regenerate. Others depend heavily on resources from elsewhere, which are under increasing pressure.
The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool that helps countries manage their ecological resources and secure their future. Communities and city planners around the globe use our tools to guide land use and budget decisions, track sustainability progress, and support better sustainability policy and actions. Jump to the Content. Ecological Footprint The Ecological Footprint is the only metric that measures how much nature we have and how much nature we use. The Footprint helps: Countries improve sustainability and well-being.
Local Leaders optimize public project investments. Individuals understand their impact on the planet. How the Footprint Works Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demand on and supply of nature.
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