Evaluation of Ecological Footprint Index in Khuzestan province cities

Accurate prediction of the ecological footprint (EF), an effective indicator for measuring urban sustainable development, enables better protection of life-supporting ecosystems and alleviates discrepancies in area development, resource utilization, and environmental protection. Due to the importance of this indicator to support sustainable development, in this study, EF index was measured for Khuzestan province. EF is calculated for each city residents in the sectors of food, transportation, housing, consumer goods and services, and by agricultural, pasture, forest, sea, energy and buit-up lands; Also, the biodiversity of the cities and the ecological deficit / surplus of the biological productive lands of the cities have been estimated to inform the development sustainability in Khuzestan province. Calculations show that in agricultural land, Haftkele highest and Omidieh lowest, In forest and energy land, Andimeshk highest and Andica lowest, In pasture land, Hendijan highest and Shadegan lowest, In sea land, Hendijan highest and Hoveizeh lowest, In Built-Up land, Haftkel highest and Ahwaz lowest had ecological footprint. Total ecological footprint shows that Hendijan with 3.909 highest and Dezful with 1.144 lowest have ecological footprint. The difference between the ecological footprint of cities, the food factor has had the most impact. Eight cities of Bandar-e-Mahshahr, Abadan, Ahvaz, Khorramshahr, Andika, Shadegan, Gotvand and Omidieh with 75% of the province's population have a 2017356 hectare deficit of land. By compensating for this deficit from the surplus biological capacity of other cities, Khuzestan province needs 913702 hectares of land to meet the demands of its residents. Therefore, it can be concluded that EF of Khuzestan residents is beyond its borders, exploitation of resources is more than their ecological potential, losses and pressure on natural resources is high, there is no self-sufficiency and development of Khuzestan province is unstable.