Investigation on Sustainable Development in Esfahan County whit Ecological Footprint method

At present unprecedented challenges in the field of human environmental faced. There is wide agreement that earth's ecosystem does not tolerate current levels of economic activity and consumer and the growing trend of it, and no longer able to sustainability. Because the pressure and load on nature are double . When the discussion of stability was raised, it spread among governments and planners around the world and great effort was done. Until the twentieth century was less discussion on urban sustainability and the urban was just raised form factor that contributes to the environment. Ecological footprint was an one of a theories that raised stability in urban and it′s support area. With the expansion of the concept of sustainable development at the international level, several quantitative and qualitative models was presented by scientists for the measurement of sustainable development in urban communities. One of the quantitative models in this way, is a method of ecological footprint, this model by transforming the need for resources and pollution to the need to compensate for it, provide an appropriate criteria for evaluation the effects of modern life. The main objective of this research is that measure Stability of Esfahan County by the ecological footprint method. And seeks to answer the question that: is the capacity (bio capacity) of Esfahan County able to respond the needs of its residents? In this study, we used the concepts of Sustainable development, sustainable city, urban sustainability, healthy town, green city, ecological footprint and the theory of sustainable development and related theories such as neo-classical economics, intergenerational equity, the balance of ingredients and… . This research is based on objective, one an applied research. And the nature and method is based on the analytic. Data requirements were gathered by using attributive data, Library data and web sites and by referring to the relevant organizations too. Then we have used the Ecological footprint method to measure the EF of Esfahan County. Ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity for regeneration. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle. Also we use GIS to analyze and display the data. twentieth century can be called the century of the environment, because other communities, instead of rapid development, calls attention to the consumption optimal material and stable development. Indeed, proponents of sustainable development in ways that humans without destroying its biological capacity caters humanitarian needs. Sustainable urban development is a phenomenon that has economic, social and environmental dimension. Sustainable city is a city that can meet the need of its residents in terms of income generation, employment and economic development and pay attention to the health of its residents in terms of environmental and has no problems in terms of air pollution, green spaces and recreation and spending leisure time and… . With the expansion of the concept of sustainable development at the international level, several quantitative and qualitative models was presented by scientists for the measurement of sustainable development in urban communities. One of the quantitative models in this way, Is a method of ecological footprint, this model by transforming the need for resources and pollution to the need to compensate for it, provide an appropriate criteria for evaluation the effects of modern life. Ecological footprint can be considered from two aspects sustainability index. It first calculates the ecological costs of all the goods and services provided to the population for human consumption. And then shows that people directly and indirectly provides the goods and services they need, from ground. Second, the ecological footprint introduced the idea of "capacity tolerance "or" carrying capacity ". Carrying capacity is "the maximum population the Earth can provide for their needs indefinitely". Ecological Footprint accounts allow governments to track a city or region’s demand on natural capital, and to compare this demand with the amount of natural capital actually available. The accounts also give governments the ability to answer more specific questions about the distribution of these demands within their economy. In other words, it gives them information about their resource metabolism. They also help assess the ecological capacity embodied in the imports upon which a region is dependent. This can shed light on the region’s constraints or future liabilities in comparison with other regions of the world, and identify opportunities to defend or improve the local quality of life. The main objective of this research is that measure Stability of Esfahan County by the ecological footprint method.