ردپای اکولوژیکی

Global and regional environmental issues have become increasingly significant because of rapid population growth and socioeconomic development. Problems such as soil erosion, ecological pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and diminished ecosystem services pose serious threats to human living conditions and sustainable development of economies and societies. Consequently, as the population increases and economic activities expand, leading to greater consumption of ecological resources, assessing environmental security becomes crucial. This study aims to develop a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to evaluate the environmental security of Fars Province by utilizing an ecological footprint method.

Typically, this evaluation employs two fundamental concepts: ecological footprint and ecological capacity. In this context, the per capita ecological footprint and ecological capacity of Fars province were analyzed for the years 2011 to 2021. After determining the per capita ecological footprint and capacity, four indices were calculated: ecological deficit (ED), ecological footprint diversity index (EFDI), ecological pressure index (EPI), and ecological coordination coefficient (ECC).

The results of this study showed that the per capita ecological footprint of Fars province increased by more than 17% during the study period, which, along with the population growth of the province, indicates an increase in pressure on the natural resources. Additionally, pollution levels and agricultural production contributed significantly to this strain. On the other hand, the per capita ecological capacity of the province, dropping from 1.23 gha in 2011 to 1.11 gha in 2021 has increased by 10%. It was also concluded that the per capita ecological capacity of Fars province is significantly lower (less than one-fourth) than its per capita ecological footprint, underscoring the region's vulnerability in terms of its capacity to absorb and regenerate natural resources. The findings indicated that throughout the study period, Fars Province consistently experienced an ecological deficit, which has been rising over time. Furthermore, the assessment of four environmental security indicators all indicate the province's environmental insecurity and the lack of coordination between development and the environment.

According to the results obtained using the investigated indicators in this study, the environmental condition of the province is not suitable and it has worsened over time. Therefore, if the policymakers are looking for sustainable economic development, it is necessary to pay more attention to the province's environment. In other words, it is imperative to implement dynamic and periodic environmental monitoring and to evaluate management strategies to enhance environmental health.

Natural capital is essential for human survival and achieving sustainable development goals. Therefore, a scientific framework is required to evaluate regional natural capitals consumption and their capacity to ensure sustainable development. Natural capitals represent the limiting and irreplaceable factors in human well-being and sustainability of every developmental intervention. Degradation of the accumulation and flows of the natural capitals are the fundamental issues in the discussion of environmental sustainability. The current research has been conducted with the aim of investigating the state of ecosystem sustainability by adopting two approaches of ecological footprint and ecosystem services, and in other words, comparing the amount of demand for resources with the supply of goods and services provided by the ecosystem.

In this research, to investigate the sustainability of Nowshahr's natural and urban ecosystem as the case study, first, the trend of land use changes and its associated phenomena in the region have been investigated using ENVI 5.6 software for processing the satellite images. In order to investigate the change process of the study area, Landsat satellite reference images, TM, ETM+ and OLI sensors were used for the time scale of 2002, 2013 and 2020. Then, the classic ecological footprint of the region was calculated for six types of productive ecosystems, including agricultural lands, pastures, fishing areas, forests, built-up lands, and the carbon demand. The areas of these six land cover types were converted into global hectares using yield and equivalence factors. Subsequently, the maximum amount of ecosystem service flow per global hectare was estimated. And after that, the amount of consumption of natural capital accumulation and the occupation of capital flow in the region were investigated. Finally, the ecosystem stability of the study area was investigated using indicators such as the ecological pressure index (EPI), ecological sustainability index (ESI), ratio of capital stock to flows index, flow occupation ratio index, and excessive natural capital flow index.

According to the research results in the city of Nowshahr, during the period of 2011-2019, the amount of ecological footprint, ecological deficit and pressure have gradually increased, resulting in a reduction of the ecological balance and stability. Only the pasture, forest and fishing areas are in a stable state meaning that the supply of ecological resources is more than the demand, and the pressure is still within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. In the period of investigation, the amount of use of stock to natural capital flow has increased and has reached almost four times of natural capital flow.

Measuring human demand for natural capital and nature's supply is essential for tracking progress, setting goals, and orientating sustainability policies. By combining the two approaches of evaluating ecosystem services and ecological footprint, it is possible to track human demand and nature's supply from a precise subset of ecosystem services, and therefore ecological balance and sustainability can be examined at the local level. Based on the results of the research, the stability of the region and the status of its ecosystem services is threatened by the cultivated land, and mainly the consumption of fossil energy. Based on the results of the research, in the period of investigation, the stability of the city of Nowshahr has decreased and the status of its ecosystem services are threatened by the cultivated land, and mainly the consumption of fossil energy. During this period and considering factors such as land use level, ecological deficit, footprint depth, ecosystem service flow, ecological pressure index, and ecological sustainability index, agricultural land use was the most unsustainable and fishing was the most sustainable use in city of Nowshahr.

Economic growth and financial development have brought unfortunate consequences, especially in the field of environment and natural resources, because most of the economic activities are closely related to the environment, and in fact, it can be said that the fate of the environment and the economic growth of societies are dependent on each other. In this study, the effects of globalization, economic growth, and financial development on the ecological footprint in Iran have been investigated.
Material and Quantile regression model was used for this research and for the time period of 1360-1400. This method has gradually become a comprehensive method for statistical analysis of linear and non-linear models of response variables in different fields.
Based on the results; in the first and second (lower) quadrants; Economic globalization, economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, and population density have a positive effect on Iran's ecological footprint, and from the third and fourth quarters onwards, the intensity of its influence on Iran's ecological footprint increases. In other words, the indicators of globalization, economic growth and financial development in the first quarter (Q25) and second quarter (Q50) have a positive temporal correlation with Iran's ecological footprint. Then, as the lag components move away and move towards the third (Q75) and fourth (Q95) quartiles, the correlation between the study indicators and Iran's ecological footprint increases.
Discussion and In Iran, due to the abundance of energy and natural resources, the price of energy is low, which has caused excessive and incorrect use of energy. Granting banking facilities with easy conditions, tax exemptions and such for producers of gas and electric appliances with high energy efficiency and imposing heavy taxes on the other hand, lack of financial support and lack of licensing for producers of energy-intensive appliances with low energy labels, granting customs discounts for Importing gas appliances with high efficiency and not allowing entry or high customs duties for importing gas appliances with low efficiency can be useful in reducing energy consumption and ecological footprint.

Due to the importance of ecological indicators in assessing environmental hazards, in this study, the ecological footprint index and biological capacity on Iran's economic growth in the framework of production function were investigated. Based on the results of variables stationary, the long and short run relationships between variables were investigated by applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The results of causality tests indicate that there is a significant causal relationship from capital, labor force, energy consumption, ecological footprint and biological capacity variables to economic growth. The results also shoe that the ecological footprint index, despite the negative impact on economic growth, was not statistically significant. The empirical results also indicate that capital, energy consumption, and biological capacity have a significant and positive effect on economic growth in long run. Therefore, it is suggested that the country's production and trade policies be formulated in such a way that while preserving the biological capacity as much as possible, by limiting the import of goods that destroy domestic biological capacity, help to strengthen the biological capacity as much as possible.

The idea of sustainable growth takes into account resource development, the environment, and the economy. In this century, enormous ecological destruction and the accelerated depletion of natural resources have affected global economic growth, social welfare, and improvements in human health. In some studies, Traditional Total Factor Productivity has used gross domestic product as desirable outputs, and energy, capital, and labor as inputs. gross domestic product as desirable outputs are biased against sustainable growth for the reason that sustainable growth requires not only gross domestic product growth but also human well-being improvements. Hence the human development index has more advantages such as compared to gross domestic product, human development index is rich in meaning and better reflects national development. Ecological Footprint is an index that measures the degree of sustainable development. In an attempt to overcome the limitations of gross domestic product as output and energy as inputs, this paper, takes Ecological Footprint as the index of comprehensive ecological inputs and uses human development index as the output index. It used a new index, Sustainable Total Factor Productivity (STFP), to reflect sustainable growth levels.

This paper combines the Ecological Footprint and human development index with TFP to use a new framework for STFP. This paper uses a DEA-Malmquist index method to calculate STFP changes in MENA countries during the years 1995–2016 and uses a σ-convergence test method to test the STFP convergence trends for them. We define the Sustainable Malmquist index, as a measure of STFP change, SM can be decomposed into sustainable efficiency change and sustainable technical change. If variable returns to scale are assumed, SEC can be further decomposed into sustainable pure efficiency change and sustainable scale change .

Overall, the average annual STFP in MENA countries was 0.98, indicating that from the perspective that Ecological Footprint, K, and L are input factors and human development index is the output, all states pay much less emphasis on sustainable growth except Bahrain and Turkey. Bahrain ranked first, having the highest average Sustainable Malmquist index and then Turkey ranked second. Bahrain's capital increased by 75 %. After decomposing SM into STC, SPEC, and SSEC, it is being seen that the average STC value was 0.996 meaning that sustainable technology change was stagnant. SPEC has an average value of 1.00, showing that sustainable efficiency has improved. On average, the SSEC was 0.98, indicating that industry structure and scale effects may have not improved. Contraries on category of very high and medium HDI states, have an STC higher than that for category high and low HDI states, suggesting that developed states are superior in terms of STC. Category of high HDI, developed nations with human development index more than 0.8, have an average SPEC value of 1.00. The sustainable growth gap between developing states is the greatest. The σ value of Type medium HDI states contain Iran is the smallest and shows minimal volatility. This indicates that the sustainable growth gap between developed states is small and relatively balanced. The σ values of very high and medium HDI category have fluctuated widely. This indicates that growth in developing states and developed states is not stable. Conclusion Different types of nations should choose different paths to achieve positive sustainable growth. The STFPs of the MENA nations present different features according to different economic levels and environmental protection levels, so formulating distinguished policies of sustainable growth is a necessity. Technical progress should be promoted to achieve sustainable growth. Promoting sustainable technology plays a crucial role in sustainable growth. Policymakers should encourage to research and develop sustainable technologies and raise entrepreneur awareness of eco-environmental protection.

Population growth, changing pattern life, increasing migration to cities, low level of technology and limitation of convenience agricultural land and incorrect use of basic resources would intensify resources damage. While mention to natural resources and environment for keeping their production ability is so important. Desirable keeping of these resources is related to understanding the situation, path and scale of resources changing by measurements like ecological footprint indicator. Because of importance of sustainable issues in different  economical sectors special in agricultural sector because of using more environmental resources in this article ecological footprint indicator in agricultural sector is estimated by using actual land demand approach in Iran during 1376-86 then the results is used to evaluate the sustainable of agricultural activity in and out of country. The results indicated that agricultural activity in Iran is compatible with internal economy and is adverse with global economy. Also never less internal production is secured sustainability, actual land demand was increased specially in these years that mean sustainable situation was depressed in internal economy. So it suggested that must be used actions for adoption of sustainable method in agricultural sector in internal and review the trade pattern in global level.

In the last few decades, the excessive consumption of natural resources, the rapid growth of urbanization and the expansion of industrial activities have damaged the environment and the instability of urban communities. The city of Mashhad faces many problems and problems such as population growth, tourism development, environmental pollution and ecological decline, so efforts to measure various indicators of sustainability of the city are necessary. Therefore, in this research, we tried to evaluate the ecological potential of the city in 2006 and 2006 by calculating the biological capacity and track and comparing them with each other. Biological capacity was calculated by measuring the area of agricultural land, why, fishing and land, and in addition to the parameters mentioned, the parameters of land, energy were also measured in the ecological footprint. In order to calculate these values and convert the land area to the global acres per person in Mashhad, factor and performance factors were used. The results of comparison of biological capacity and ecological trace obtained in 2006 and 2011 indicate ecological deficit of 2.2 and 2.5 hectares in Mashhad city. In addition, the results showed that the biological capacity of the city of Mashhad is not proportional to its ecological footprint and there is instability in the urban structure of Mashhad, in other words, there is no balance between supply and demand.

  Global warming is increasingly affecting the ecological balance of the planet. Nowadays, human activities, especially agricultural productions, are thought to be mainly responsible for this phenomenon, as they have led to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between agricultural production and the environment in developing-8 (D-8) countries. To this end, the area of arable land and livestock production index were used as agricultural sector production indices and the ecological footprint (EF) indicator was used as an environmental index. Material and A panel model for studying the agricultural production–environment was established. Also, the estimation of this relationship was conducted for all D-8 countries from 1990 to 2013. According to panel unit root tests and panel cointegration tests, the short and long-run relationships were estimated by Error Correction Model (ECM) and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), respectively. The empirical results revealed that the relationship between EF and per capita Gross Domestic Production (GDP) was N-shaped and statistically significant. Moreover, the results imply that a relative increase in energy consumption, arable land, and livestock production had a positive effect on the EF. Evidence from the study showed that a 10% increase in crop production land will increase EF by 2.15%, while a 10% increase in the livestock production index will increase EF by 1.18% in the long-run. Furthermore, a 10% increase in energy consumption will increase EF by 7.38%. The main finding of this study was that agricultural activities are one of the most important environmental pollutants and have a significant effect on EF in D-8 countries. In addition, crop production has a larger effect on EF compare than livestock production in the long-run.

The ecological footprint is a tool that offers comprehensive comparison of demand and supply of natural resources, has stated objectives and strategies useful in preventing damage and material inequalities, and institutional decisions will lead to the correct duct. This is a descriptive study and sample of this research is Sari that related data to determine the parameters of the ecological footprint of water and energy (electricity and petrol and gas oil and natural gas) is obtained by referring to the authorities and quantitative analysis of 1393. In this study, we tried to be answered this question: Is Sari ecological environment, can meet the basic needs of the population in the provision of water and energy? The results show that the EF Sari 0.735 acres of water and energy has been, that the share electricity consumption by 0.53 largest and lowest share among other things, the use of natural gas in the 0.0053 hectares per person respectively. Since the biological capacity of Iran is 0.8 hectares, So ecological footprint is dedicated 0.735 hectares of Sari means 0.83 times greater than their share in the country's capacity to make life bearable, And with the current trend of consumption of water and energy resources needed to meet of Sari space more than 73 times its current size, and space is needed more than 0.8 of the area.

Population growth, changing pattern life, increasing migration to cities, low level of technology and limitation of convenience agricultural land and incorrect use of basic resources would intensify resources damage. While mention to natural resources and environment for keeping their production ability is so important. Desirable keeping of these resources is related to understanding the situation, path and scale of resources changing by measurements like ecological footprint indicator.
Because of importance of sustainable issues in different economical sectors special in agricultural sector because of using more environmental resources in this article ecological footprint indicator in agricultural sector is estimated by using actual land demand approach in Iran during 1376-86 then the results is used to evaluate the sustainable of agricultural activity in and out of country.
The results indicated that agricultural activity in Iran is compatible with internal economy and is adverse with global economy. Also never less internal production is secured sustainability, actual land demand was increased specially in these years that mean sustainable situation was depressed in internal economy. So it suggested that must be used actions for adoption of sustainable method in agricultural sector in internal and review the trade pattern in global level.

This research is focused on evaluation of environmental impacts of the dense and high-rise urban developments in Elahie neighborhood, Tehran by applying the Ecological footprints analysis. The primary analysis of the land use changes from 1979 till 2005 showed that the built areas increased by 250% whereas the open and green spaces decreased by more than 1.7 times. The degradation of open and green areas by the built areas has been determined as one of the most significant environmental impacts of the high-rise neighborhood development. In addition, it was discovered that the real ecological footprints of neighborhood (to meet its resident's needs) is 5 times more than its statistical area and 1.6 times more than Tehran city. Based on our results, it can be concluded that the Elahie neighborhood is being consumed by more than its real environmental carrying capacity. Furthermore, it seems that there was no plan for green space developments to compensate for the increase in construction of the high-rise buildings during the studied period. Finally it was demonstrated that the Ecological footprint analysis based on the "land consuming" criteria (as a common and measurable criterion) can be applied to and developed as a suitable environmental impact assessment tool of small scale urban developments.