Transcript Conceptul de amprentă ecologică

Ecological footprint
CONF ING.EC.DR EUGENIA
Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania
[email protected]
Ecological footprint concept
 Ecological footprint is a technique both analytical
and teaching, assessing not only the capacity for
sustainability of human activities at current levels.
 It is also an effective tool for creating and sustaining
social conscience in decisions
 We can define a footprint for the production
organic surface area required to produce resource
consumption and waste for uptake by a specific
population.
 EA tells us how much "nature" we use to support
our lifestyle and expressed in ha / inhabitant / year
 In formal terms, the ecological footprint (EF) is
defined as the sum of productive ecological
territories (land and water) in various categories
(agricultural land, passtures, forests, sea) which is
required to give all energy resources and material
consumed by a population and to absorb its wastes,
no matter where it is located in that territory
 An integral part in the implementation of this
methodology is the territorial system
sustainability analysis.
 This is the calculation of biocapacity
Biocapacity measured bioproductivity offer.
 In other words, aggregate production of various
types of ecosystems that belong to certain areas
and territories range from arable to pasture,
woods, including the productive marine areas
and built-up areas and degraded land.
 Biocapacity depends on natural conditions, but
also the prevailing agricultural practices.
 For each area, biocapacity can be calculated by
multiplying the area (ha) with an input or an
equivalency factor, which then allows local
production reporting to the world, for that type
of surface.
 Meanwhile, in this way you can turn this area
into global hectares (GHa).
 Comparing global footprint with global
biocapacity or a region or area well defined, one
can evaluate the consumption area.
 Thus, if EF has a value less than or equal
biocapacity - when the studied area has a
standard of living sustainably.
 If EF is greater than biocapacity - the area then
consume more resources than are available in the
area.
 Sustainability requires that natural capital should
not be consumed faster than it is necessary to
regenerate.
 "Natural capital" includes not only all the natural
resources and all surfaces for the support and
waste absorption, but all biophysical processes and
all components of the ecosphere relations that
guarantee essential services life.
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 Consumption categories used in the EF calculation
are:
- foods
- housing
- transport
- consumer goods
- services
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 Categories of land and sea (aquatic surface) used in
the calculation of EF are:
- Energy field, in particular for the absorption of
CO2
- Degraded, unused
- Agricultural land for food production and other
pastures
- Forestry
- Built + constructions (buildings and
infrastructure)
- Sea (waters), although fish resources
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 Detailed analysis of each category of consumption
comes coupled with the necessary land surface by
category necessary for their production.
 One of the classical equations looks like this:
Imapct of human species on Earth=total population
x consmption/inhabitant x used technology
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 From this relation it follows that we can represent
the impact of each category of consumption in the
area of land needed to produce that unit of
consumption.
 Thus, it can be associated with each item
consumed specific surface area, different types:
- Cultivated land area needed to produce food agricultural area
- Grazing area to raise animals - pasture area
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 For each of the units of the consumption or
consumption patterns using a proportionality factor.
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 F - consumption footprint
 Ei - mark derived from the consumption of Ci
 qi - changes in product quantities consumed and
Expressed in ha / kg of product consumed.
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
f- pro capite footprint
Ei - mark derived from the consumption of Ci
N - number of individuals or population
(families, individuals ... depends on the
account size)
Ecological footrpint calculation
methodology
 It is possible to calculate an ecological balance
between human demand of natural resources and
services and the nature of their job.
 Also, we can define and environmental balance by
subtracting the local supply of environmentally
productive area for this type of application area
resulting from the calculation of EF.
 A negative value corresponds to the environmental
ecological deficit situation.
 A positive value corresponds to the environmental
situation of ecological surplus
Bibliography
 Wackernagel M., Rees W. E. (1996), The ecological
footprint. Like reducing the impact of the man on
the earth, Ed. Ambiente, Milano.
 Wackernagel M., Rees W. E., (1996), Impronta
ecologica, Editura Ambiente, Milano.
Thank you!