Assessing ecological footprint and biological capacity, a tool to achieve sustainable development of Khorasan Razavi province
Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural resources and Environment, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
2 Department of Range and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Abstract
Achieving a sustainable approach to human development, which includes avoiding the destruction of habitats and avoiding the extinction of species, requires a better understanding of the options facing humans for development. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the ecological footprint and biological capacity of Razavi Khorasan province. In this study, the carbon footprint, the ecological footprint of agricultural, horticultural, protein, and aquatic products were integrated to calculate the provincial ecological footprint and the amount of biological capacity in different cities were calculated to analyze the biological capacity at the level of this province. The findings show that the ecological footprint of the entire province is 18,020 thousand global hectares. The total biological capacity of different cities also indicates that the biological capacity of the entire province is 14,362,89 thousand hectares. These cases indicate that Khorasan Razavi province needs an area of about 1.25 times its size to reduce the ecological footprint of the population living in it. A more detailed investigation on the relationship between the two parameters of the total ecological footprint and the total biological capacity shows the important points of the current condition of the use of natural resources and the impact of people living in different cities. The results of this research can provide effective knowledge and tools for policy makers and decision makers of planning and land management, which are necessary for managing the existing ecosystems and environmental assets of the Khorasan Razavi province, as well as the pressure on those ecosystems as a result of human activities.
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