Assessment of environmental footprint using geospatial approach to ascertain the Sustainable Development Goal 2030s of India

Utilization of natural resources has multiplied globally, resulting in serious environmental deterioration and impeding the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For the harmonious development of human nourishment and the balance of nature, it is vital to evaluate environmental segments' resource usage, transformation, and residue, referred to as ‘footprint,’ in order to highlight carrying capacity and sustainability. This analysis highlights the Environmental Footprint (EF) of India per state from 2010 to 2020 in terms of hectares per capita. This study evaluates India's biological, hydrological, energy, ecological, and pollution footprints, carrying capacity, environmental pressure, and environmental deficit using 17 distinct parameters categorized under the themes of biological resource, hydrological resource, energy resource, and pollution concentration. We proposed a reoriented methodology and EF concepts that determine India's footprint, carrying capacity, nature of sustainability, environmental pressure index, and its consequential links to the 2030 SDGs. As a result, the biological resources contributed to ~50% of the environmental footprint, while hydrological, energy, and pollutants made up the remaining. Between 2010 and 2020, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal had the highest EF, while Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern provinces had the lowest. During the research period, the ecological deficit in India has increased overall. India impedes the 2030 SDGs; therefore, the study provides a picture of resource consumption, waste generation, economic growth, and societal changes, enabling academics and policymakers to redefine or document policy for a more sustainable future.     

Calculating ecological footprints at the municipal level: what is a reasonable approach for Canada?

No clear ecological footprint calculation strategy is available for small- and mid-sized communities within Canada. By adjusting provincial or national footprint findings using data sets available in the public domain, we develop and test a calculation strategy to estimate municipal ecological footprints. Because the calculation approach is consistent with the Global Footprint Network standardised methodology, it permits meaningful comparisons between communities and with global and national footprint estimates. It offers planners, policy-makers, and community leaders an accessible, straight forward, and cost effective strategy for estimating the ecological footprint at the community and municipal level. The suggested approach is best suited for using the ecological footprint as an awareness and education tool. The large number of limitations associated with calculating the municipal approach and limitations associated with calculating ecological footprints in general at the local level make it an unsuitable tool to inform community planning and policy development.     

皖西大别山区生态足迹实证分析-以金寨县为例

在简要介绍生态足迹模型的基础上,以皖西大别山区金寨县为例,对该地区2002年的经济发展的状况进行了实证分析.结果表明,金寨县2002年的经济发展是可持续的,其中在生态承载力中,林地贡献率最大,其次为草地,分别占77.0%和19.2%;耕地和水域贡献率最低,分别为1.5%和1.3%;在所需的生态足迹中,耕地足迹最大,其次为化石燃料,分别占47.7%和42.0%,草地、建筑用地、水域、林地足迹较小.     

皖南丘陵山区可持续发展的生态足迹分析——以池州市为例

生态足迹理论是一种定量测度区域可持续发展状态的有效方法。以皖南丘陵山区池州市为例，对其1996-2004年生态足迹和生态承载力进行了计算和分析。结果显示，池州市历年的人均生态足迹不断增加，9年时间增加了37．85％，而人均生态承载力却减少了5．49％。该地区历年人均生态足迹均出现赤字，而且呈增长的趋势；自然资源的利用效率不高以及自然资源供需的非均衡性增长导致生态赤字的出现和持续增长；目前池州市的发展模式已超出了自然生态系统的承载能力，处在不可持续的发展状态，并提出了相应的对策和措施。     

乌鲁木齐市近5年生态足迹与生态承载力研究

生态足迹是一种可持续发展程度的生物物理评价方法.阐述了生态足迹的概念和计算模型,设计了城市生态足迹计算方法,对乌鲁木齐市2000-2004年共5年的生态足迹及生态承载力进行了测算.结果表明：各年的生态足迹需求均大于生态承载力,出现了生态赤字现象,该市处于生态不可持续状态.     

基于能值生态足迹的海岛可持续性评估——以舟山为例

基于能值理论,结合生态足迹方法,构建能值生态赤字/盈余、渔业足迹强度(D)、社会发展压力指数(I)和经济协调指数(Q)参数评价海岛可持续性,选取典型海岛城市浙江省舟山市作为案例研究。结果显示:2003—2017年舟山能值足迹、能值承载力均呈上升趋势;人均能值生态足迹共增加15.78 hm²,增幅为63.26%;人均能值承载力增加5.20×10² hm²,增幅为82.86%;其中,化石能源用地能值足迹增加最多,社会经济承载力增加最多,而自然承载力却有所下降。能值生态赤字/盈余和经济协调指数不能完全反映区域可持续性,区域渔业足迹强度的不断增加表明当前的渔业经济模式不满足可持续发展要求,社会发展压力指数增大也进一步表明舟山的发展状况偏离了可持续性的轨道。     

'People, planet and prosperity': The determinants of humanity's environmental footprint

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption on the basis of biologically productive land area required per capita with prevailing technology. Such footprints represent a partial measure of the extent to which the planet, its regions, or nations are moving along a sustainable development pathway. They vary between countries at different stages of economic development and varying geographic characteristics. The determinants of environmental footprints in some 113 countries from around the world have been evaluated. Dimensional analysis techniques from engineering and the physical sciences are employed to determine the relative significance of population density, economic wealth, and intensity of pollutant emission. Variations about the resulting ‘power‐law’ correlation suggest the extent to which individual nations are currently frugal or profligate in terms of their resource use and environmental impacts. The scatter associated with footprints, or closely related parameters, also indicates the uncertainty inherent within the international datasets needed to compute them, as well as differences in local climate and terrain. Nevertheless, national footprints alert humanity to the necessity of living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere in order to ensure ‘environmental sustainability’.     

A discussion to promote global sustainability techniques for motivating plastic waste to minimize carbon footprints

This paper emphasizes the significant challenges facing the sustainable environment, including managing and handling plastic waste and reducing carbon footprints. To tackle these challenges, it is essential to identify people's awareness levels of waste handling techniques and their pro-environmental behaviors. The study focuses on Guwahati, one of the most important cities in Northeast India, which generates increasing plastic waste daily. The paper aims to identify the factors contributing to the reduction of carbon footprints resulting from plastic waste management activities. The data collected from 1326 respondents was analyzed using factor analysis, and the reliability of the dataset was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha (0.84 for the awareness level of waste management techniques and 0.780 for the prevalent mode of plastic waste management techniques). KMO (0.796), Bartlett's test of sphericity (p < 0.001), and determinant score (0.019) were used to assess the data adequacy and factorability of the dataset, and the results were found to be satisfactory. Principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and varimax orthogonal rotation method were used to identify high-loaded factors by reducing the number of variables. The results showed that two highly loaded components, namely awareness level of waste management techniques (AWMT) and prevalent mode of plastic waste management techniques (PWMT), explained 27.53% and 24.34% of the total variance, respectively, with eigenvalues of 3.35 and 2.88. The regression model confirmed the statistical significance of these factors (p < 0.001) and their relationship with the dependent variable, greenhouse reduction (GHGR). The study proposes that minimizing carbon footprints in the environment can be achieved by focusing on a limited number of controllable factors such as AWMT and PWMT. This study provides valuable insights to the authorities in controlling waste generation and achieving a pollution-free environment.     

Creating local ecological footprints in a North American context

Many urban areas face conflicts between economic growth and environmental limitations. The ecological footprint is popular for communicating the global impacts of local activities, and if calculated at the local level, should be useful in emphasising the impacts of local planning, engaging community members, and allowing intra-community comparisons. We compare the two dominant methods for local ecological footprints: the compound and component methods. Both fail to adequately represent local footprints in North America. We propose a hybrid component method that takes advantage of the benefits of the component method but incorporates interpolation from the compound method to address data limitations. Grounded in Montreal, Canada, a city currently facing significant conflict between environment and growth, the study applies the hybrid method and discusses its potential benefits and limitations for community activists and planners.     

成都市可持续发展测度与分析

生态足迹是一种定量测量人类对自然利用程度的方法，已经被广泛应用于定量测度区域或城市的可持续发展。成都地处我国西部，是西部大开发的战略高地和“桥头堡”，对西部地区的发展起着示范、先导、辐射和带动作用。采用生态足迹理论和计算模型对成都市各类土地面积进行量化，具体计算出成都市的生态承载力、供需结构。计算结果表明，2003年其人均生态足迹超过了它的人均生态承载力，生态经济系统存在生态赤字，必须采取措施提高生态承载力，减少生态压力，探讨可持续发展的道路。     

Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: A comparative analysis of twenty-four US cities

After briefly reviewing some conceptual underpinnings of sustainable cities, this paper analyses and compares sustainable cities initiatives in 24 US cities. The central question addressed in the paper is why some cities seem to take sustainability more seriously than others. Numerous demographic, socioeconomic and other characteristics of the cities are correlated with an Index of Taking Sustainability Seriously, which is a composite of some 34 different variables indicating whether each city engages in specific sustainability programmes, policies or activities. Many of the standard explanations, such as the income and wealth of the community, the liberalness of the city and the growth pressures placed on the city, are found to exhibit no correlation with the seriousness of the sustainability effort. What do correlate with the Index are: reliance on manufacturing, where having more residents employed in manufacturing industries is associated with less seriousness; and, the age of the population, where cities with older populations take sustainability more seriously. This has three implications for the future development of sustainable cities. First, some of the cities that might be said to need sustainability programmes the most—cities with heavy manufacturing that are more prone to pollution production—are the least likely to take such programmes seriously. Secondly, as cities' manufacturing bases decline, they should find it increasingly feasible to engage in sustainability initiatives. And, thirdly, as the populations of cities age, policy-makers should also find it easier to support, develop and take seriously sustainability programmes.     

以“生态足迹”的方法衡量青藏高原可持续发展能力

通过论述青海西藏两地环境质量总体向好的结论引证青藏高原生态盈余。用"生态足迹"和"人类发展指数"两种指标来衡量青藏高原的可持续发展能力,结果表明青藏高原有着较好的生态盈余,但人类发展指数值偏低,限制了青藏高原的可持续发展能力。应通过提高公共服务能力,加强生态系统管理,减少碳足迹来实现青藏高原的生态文明。     

Biopolymer from industrial residues: Life cycle assessment of poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from whey

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has turned into a powerful tool to critically and straightforward assess the holistic impact of bio-based plastics and other bio-based products. In order to assure at the same time ecological soundness and to support the economical success of a bioproduct, an early assessment already in the stage of product development is needed. This strategy helps to identify and subsequently to avoid ecological “hot spots”. Assessment by using the sustainable process index (SPI), a member of the ecological footprint family, is considered as an especially viable strategy to realize this goal. The software SPIonExcel was developed to make the assessment methodology easily applicable and operator-friendly.During the process of development for archaebacterial production of poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) biopolyesters from the industrial surplus material whey, a SPI assessment was accomplished to optimize the process in terms of ecological sustainability. As the major outcome, the resulting ecological footprint was comparable with that of competing fossil plastics. Additionally, optimization potentials to further increase the ecological competitiveness were highlighted and quantified. In addition, the developed PHA production process was compared with production of whey powder as the competing, conventional application of surplus whey. Also in this case, the novel PHA production process was superior according to the SPI calculations.     

Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: a comparative analysis of twenty-four US cities

After briefly reviewing some conceptual underpinnings of sustainable cities, this paper analyses and compares sustainable cities initiatives in 24 US cities. The central question addressed in the paper is why some cities seem to take sustainability more seriously than others. Numerous demographic, socioeconomic and other characteristics of the cities are correlated with an Index of Taking Sustainability Seriously, which is a composite of some 34 different variables indicating whether each city engages in specific sustainability programmes, policies or activities. Many of the standard explanations, such as the income and wealth of the community, the liberalness of the city and the growth pressures placed on the city, are found to exhibit no correlation with the seriousness of the sustainability effort. What do correlate with the Index are: reliance on manufacturing, where having more residents employed in manufacturing industries is associated with less seriousness; and, the age of the population, where cities with older populations take sustainability more seriously. This has three implications for the future development of sustainable cities. First, some of the cities that might be said to need sustainability programmes the most--cities with heavy manufacturing that are more prone to pollution production--are the least likely to take such programmes seriously. Secondly, as cities' manufacturing bases decline, they should find it increasingly feasible to engage in sustainability initiatives. And, thirdly, as the populations of cities age, policy-makers should also find it easier to support, develop and take seriously sustainability programmes.     

Interaction Between the Environment and Animals in Urban Settings: Integrated and Participatory Planning

In urban ecosystems, the ecological system has become completely unbalanced; this, in turn, has led to an increase in well-known problems such as air pollution, ground pollution, and water pollution. This imbalance has also led to the growth and spread of pathogens harmful to man, animals, and plants. Urban sustainability indicators, both global and local, also “indicate” the percentage of population, but these refer only to the human population, not the animal population. Cities need good waste, water, and air management, effective traffic planning, and good zoning of businesses, crafts, and services; over and above these activities, cities also need for planning to take into account the existence of pets (dogs, cats, and etc.) and nonpet animals (insects, birds, mice, etc.). Cities tend to be designed around humans and “on a human scale,” without taking into account the fact that a huge animal population is living side by side with people. That explains why overcrowding tends to go hand in hand with urbanization; all these populations, including humans, need to adapt to new spaces and often need to drastically change their behavior. This is a fact that must be included when drafting sustainable city plans. The supposed strategy is that of “integrated-participatory” control of the interactions between the environment and animals in the cities. Strategy will focus on the development of integrated approaches and tools for environment and animal management in the context of urban settings. This will require such specific methods as ecological balance sheets and ecoplans for the planning, management, and control of the interrelation among environment, animal, and public health. The objective is to develop a better understanding of urban biodiversity and of urban ecosystem functioning, in order to understand and minimize the negative impacts of human activities on them. The research will focus on assessing and forecasting changes in urban biodiversity, structure, function, and dynamics of urban ecosystems, with relationships among society, economy, biodiversity, and habitats.     

The use of the ecological footprint in local politics and administration: results and implications from Norway

Our experiences calculating a local ecological footprint of Oslo form the basis for a discussion of key methodological aspects supporting the use of local sustainability indicators. The footprint's strength is its ability to communicate simply the complexity of global environmental challenges. Initially developed for measuring per capita consumption at the national level, the footprint has been adopted at local and regional levels. We argue for adjustments in the footprint methodology when shifting from a national to a local policy context, to ensure the indicator's applicability in local politics and administration. First, the analysis should be limited to consumption aspects relevant to the local environmental policy agenda. Second, the analysis should integrate as much genuine local data as possible. We argue also that a standardised methodology based on the national footprint approach, with the main purpose of international benchmarking of cities, cannot but reduce the indicator's usefulness for administrative/political guidance, due to the methodology's lack of transparency and inability to identify local variations.     

Stretching “smart”: advancing health and well-being through the smart city agenda

ABSTRACT

Contemporary smart cities have largely mirrored the sustainable development agenda by embracing an ecological modernisation approach to urban development. There is a strong focus on stimulating economic activity and environmental protection with little emphasis on social equity and the human experience. The health and well-being agenda has potential to shift the focus of smart cities to centre on social aims. Through the systematic and widespread application of technologies such as wearable health monitors, the creation of open data platforms for health parameters, and the development of virtual communication between patients and health professionals, the smart city can serve as a means to improve the lives of urban residents. In this article, we present a case study of smart health in Kashiwanoha Smart City in Japan. We explore how the pursuit of greater health and well-being has stretched smart city activities beyond technological innovation to directly impact resident lifestyles and become more socially relevant. Smart health strategies examined include a combination of experiments in monitoring and visualisation, education through information provision, and enticement for behavioural change. Findings suggest that smart cities have great potential to be designed and executed to tackle social problems and realise more sustainable, equitable and liveable cities.     

Sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes

This paper examines the minerals industry's response to sustainable development in the area of waste disposal and argues that leadership and guidance are still needed to forge collective agreement on norms and standards of practise. To encourage further debate, the paper develops a set of sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes, and discusses the implications for current and future practise. In practise, the principles can guide waste disposal decisions through the consideration of what risk and magnitude, in any given local context, a particular management solution poses to their application. The sustainability challenge in the management of tailings and waste rock is to dispose of material, such that it is inert or, if not, stable and contained, to minimise water and energy inputs and the surface footprint of wastes and to move toward finding alternate uses. Future trends in mining and processing may compound the challenges of waste management, as lower ore grades increase the ratio of waste produced for a given unit of resource, and emphasise the urgency and need for the industry to adopt new approaches. New technologies and innovations, such as thickened tailings, dry stacking and paste backfill, have greatly increased the waste disposal methods available to meet the future challenges to sustainable development.     

The use of the ecological footprint in local politics and administration: results and implications from Norway

Our experiences calculating a local ecological footprint of Oslo form the basis for a discussion of key methodological aspects supporting the use of local sustainability indicators. The footprint's strength is its ability to communicate simply the complexity of global environmental challenges. Initially developed for measuring per capita consumption at the national level, the footprint has been adopted at local and regional levels. We argue for adjustments in the footprint methodology when shifting from a national to a local policy context, to ensure the indicator's applicability in local politics and administration. First, the analysis should be limited to consumption aspects relevant to the local environmental policy agenda. Second, the analysis should integrate as much genuine local data as possible. We argue also that a standardised methodology based on the national footprint approach, with the main purpose of international benchmarking of cities, cannot but reduce the indicator's usefulness for administrative/political guidance, due to the methodology's lack of transparency and inability to identify local variations.