Some aspects of Tehran's ecological footprint

Ecological footprint is a way of measuring urban and regional ecological impacts and guides communities toward sustainability. This Technique measures how much land is required to supply our living and lifestyle including food, housing, energy/fuel, transport, and consumer goods and services along with their corresponding energy requirements. This study aims to quantify Tehran's ecological impacts through ecological foot prints technique. it suggests that Tehran's metropolitan per capita ecological footprint corresponding with energy in all of the consumption fields is close to 2.9 hectares. This means that taking into consideration the current consumption pattern, Tehran metropolitan require 22 million hectares in order to meet the relevant energy requirements. Tehran's total per capita ecological footprint is 3.79 hectares. This is corresponded with 28 482 098 hectares. The most conspicuous figure is associated with goods and services sector (2.66). In fact, Tehran's citizens are utilizing nearly 2.5 of their actual share of their ecological capacities and thus abusing their hinterlands. Keywords: Tehran, Ecological footprint, Service sector, Urban hinterland, Sustainability
1. Introduction Most changes in the ecosystem are a result of human land-use practices, including agriculture and industrialization. Urbanization is unique in this regard both in terms of the intensity [...]