Ecological Footprint Assignment and Urban Growth Analysis

This report investigates the ecological footprint, defined as the area of land and water needed to produce consumed goods and manage waste, and its relationship with urban growth. It highlights the impact of population growth on resource depletion, emphasizing the role of urbanization in increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The report discusses the effects of urbanization, including the use of forest and agricultural lands, and the role of vehicles in increasing the carbon footprint. It also touches upon the importance of energy utilization, the impact of technological advancements, and the need for sustainable practices and governmental policies to mitigate the negative impacts of human activities on the environment. The assignment stresses the need to reduce the exploitation of Earth's natural resources by promoting waste management and energy efficiency to build a sustainable environment.

Running head: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH OF POPULATION
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH
Ecological Footprint Assignment and urban growth of population
Ecological footprint can be referred to as the outcome of activities performed by human
that is measured in terms of the area of the useful land and water required to produce the goods
used up and the wastes formed. This is actually a resources accounting tool that helps to measure
how much biologically productive land or sea is being used up by the given population. The
urban growth of the population is a very common phenomenon around the globe for the past few
years. Wu, (2014) have identified four primary categories of environmental influences due to the
urban growth. According to Fang, Heijungs & de Snoo,(2014), the human population will pass
the 6 billion mark. The collective ecological footprint has already outstripped the planet's natural
resources. This depletion of natural resources is marked by the impact of the rapid growth of
population in the suburbs. As it stands now, approximately 500 million of the people on this
planet are responsible for the 50 % emission of the carbon dioxide emissions, and the as per the
trends the population growth will continue resulting in the further reduction of the natural
resources (Wu, 2014).
Urbanization
It has been found that mountains are the dwelling place to about one tenth proportion of the
population of the world and cover about 25 % of the total land surface of the earth. They covers
almost half of the biodiversity. Due to the overexploitation of the natural resources by the
growing population the ecological carrying capacity of the ecosystem is decreasing. The main
concept of the ecological footprint is to find out the bio-productive land required by humanity for

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH
the consumption of the non renewable sources. Higher ecological footprint is related to
urbanization, due to the use of forest or agricultural lands, use of natural resources and energies.
Smoke emitted by the vehicles in the urban areas acts as the key contributors for vehicular
population. The report released in the year 2001 by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change), provided a clear connection between the environment and the human induced
greenhouse gas emission (Fang, Heijungs & de Snoo, 2014).The increased use of the vehicles
have increased the carbon footprint of the sub-urbs which was not this high earlier. The data for
the ecological footprint can be reduced by a number of factors such as increasing the share of
waste separation or waste recycling. Other ecological footprints left by the population growth are
the diminishing of the pastoral lands and the forests.
Energy utilization and ecological footprints
The three types of fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas, together account for about 83 %
of the total energy consumption. Energy consumption and ecological footprint are proportional
to each other. Canada has currently a per capita consumption of about 5.5 kW power. Previously
the per capita consumption of energy was much less as there was much less car around, absence
of centralized heating system. Energy is recognized as one of the key factors for the social and
industrial development in the suburban areas. Rabid population growth in the suburban areas has
catered to increased industrialization in those areas (Sadorsky, 2014). Urbanization had caused
production swings from lesser amount of energy intensive agriculture to the more energy
intensive manufacturing. Urbanization has facilitated fuel switching and decentralization of the
rural energy sources such as traditional wood burning (Sadorsky, 2014). All these had lead to
more energy consumption and thus depletion of the conventional energy reserves.

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH
Technologies
As per the global footprint network, the current ecological footprint is 1.4 times bigger
than the ecological productive area of the planet. The technology based present form of this
planet is not sustainable. The advances in the hydraulic fracturing techniques or horizontal
drilling may propel the industry to longer length and greater depth, but they are also posing
challenges on the sustainable environment. Recently scientists are looking forward to the
development of technologies that are environment friendly and are more sustainable reducing the
ecological footprint. These technologies may include machineries for waste management,
electrical appliances consuming less energy, sustainable vehicles.
In conclusion it can be said that Humanity's ecological foot print has exceeded the
biocapacity of the earth by more than twenty percent. This is due to the indiscriminate use of the
natural resources such as the energy, water, air and forest resources. In order to reduce the
further outstripping of the foot prints, it is required to check the human exploitation of the natural
resources of the Earth. Proper governmental policies and human awareness can help in building a
more sustainable environment.

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ASSIGNMENT AND URBAN GROWTH
References
Fang, K., Heijungs, R., & de Snoo, G. R. (2014). Theoretical exploration for the combination of
the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints: Overview of a footprint family.
Ecological Indicators, 36, 508-518.
Sadorsky, P. (2014). The effect of urbanization and industrialization on energy use in emerging
economies: implications for sustainable development. American Journal of Economics
and Sociology, 73(2), 392-409
Stechbart M., Wilson J. (2010) PROVINCE OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT AND
BIOCAPACITY ANALYSIS. Produced for State of Ontario's Biodiversity 2010 report
province of Ontario. Retrieved from:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/content/images/uploads/Ontario_Ecological_Footprint_
and_biocapacity_TECHNICAL_report.pdf
.
Wilson, B., & Chakraborty, A. (2013). The environmental impacts of sprawl: emergent themes
from the past decade of planning research. Sustainability, 5(8), 3302-3327.
Wu, J. (2014). Urban ecology and sustainability: The state-of-the-science and future directions.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 125, 209-221.