Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Ecological footprint of Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Environmental Science, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan 173 230, India
2 School of Sciences, PP Savani University, Surat 394 125, India
 

Unsustainable resource use on earth must be addressed from a variety of perspectives and at multiple levels of governance. Understanding the environmental consequences of urban-dwellers will become increasingly important as the human population urbanizes. Having access to reliable, cross-cutting, quantitative city-level sustainability measures is crucial. By taking into account local facts, scientific analyses can assist in providing solutions. Emergence analysis, material flow analysis, data development analysis and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) are only some of the assessment methodologies that have been offered. EFA has been used to assess urban sustainability in a number of cities as a useful analytical and planning tool. The purpose of this study is to assess the sustainability of Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, India, using four EFA components: crop land, grazing land, forest land and infrastructure land footprints. According to the study, the total ecological footprint of Solan district is 6865.30 gha, and its components are in the following order: crop land footprint (3287.40 gha) > infrastructure land footprint (2088.21 gha) > grazing land footprint (978.03 gha) > forest land footprint (511.67 gha).

Keywords

Crop land, ecological footprint analysis, forest land, grazing land, infrastructure land, sustainability.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Rees, W. E., Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out. Environ. Urban, 1992, 4, 121–130.

  • Galli, A., Wiedmann, T., Ercin, E., Knoblauch, D., Ewing, B. and Giljum, S., Integrating ecological, carbon and water footprint into a ‘footprint family’ of indicators: definition and role in tracking human pressure on the planet. Ecol. Indic. (Suppl. C), 2012, 16, 100–112.

  • Hoekstra, A. Y., Human appropriation of natural capital: a comparison of ecological footprint and water footprint analysis. Ecol. Econ., 2009, 68, 1963–1974.

  • Wilson, J. and Anielski, M., Ecological footprints of Canadian municipalities and regions. Canadian Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canada, 2005, p. 59.

  • Sterner, T. et al., Policy design for the Anthropocene. Nature Sustain., 2019, 2, 14–21.

  • Meyer, K. and Newman, P., The planetary accounting framework: a novel, quota-based approach to understanding the impacts of any scale of human activity in the context of the planetary boundaries. Sustain. Earth, 2018, 1(4).

  • Ward, B. and Dubos, R., Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet, Penguin, London, UK, 1972.

  • Sala, S., Ciuffo, B. and Nijkamp, P., A systemic framework for sustainability assessment. Ecol. Econ., 2015, 119, 314–325.

  • Pulselli, F. M., Moreno Pires, S. and Galli, A., The need for an integrated assessment framework to account for humanity’s pressure on the earth system. In The Safe Operating Space Treaty: A New Approach to Managing our Use of the Earth System (eds Magalhães, P. et al.), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2016, pp. 213–245; ISBN-13: 978-1-4438-8903-2.

  • Repetti, A. and Desthieux, G., A relational indicator set model for urban land-use planning and management: methological approach and application in two case studies. Landsc. Urban Plann., 2006, 77(11), 196–215.

  • Hernández, M. S. and De, H. M. J., Indicators of urban sustainability in Mexico. Theor. Empir. Res. Urban Manage, 2010, 7(16), 46–60.

  • Monfreda, C., Wackernagel, M. and Deumling, D., Establishing national natural capital accounts based on detailed ecological footprint and biological capacity accounts. Land Use Policy, 2004, 21(1), 231–246.

  • GoI, Census of India 2001: size, growth and distribution of population in India. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2011, pp. 1–60.


Abstract Views: 403

PDF Views: 146




  • Ecological footprint of Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract Views: 403  |  PDF Views: 146

Authors

Jyotsana Pandit
Department of Environmental Science, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan 173 230, India
S. K. Bhardwaj
Department of Environmental Science, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan 173 230, India
Anish Kumar Sharma
School of Sciences, PP Savani University, Surat 394 125, India

Abstract


Unsustainable resource use on earth must be addressed from a variety of perspectives and at multiple levels of governance. Understanding the environmental consequences of urban-dwellers will become increasingly important as the human population urbanizes. Having access to reliable, cross-cutting, quantitative city-level sustainability measures is crucial. By taking into account local facts, scientific analyses can assist in providing solutions. Emergence analysis, material flow analysis, data development analysis and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) are only some of the assessment methodologies that have been offered. EFA has been used to assess urban sustainability in a number of cities as a useful analytical and planning tool. The purpose of this study is to assess the sustainability of Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, India, using four EFA components: crop land, grazing land, forest land and infrastructure land footprints. According to the study, the total ecological footprint of Solan district is 6865.30 gha, and its components are in the following order: crop land footprint (3287.40 gha) > infrastructure land footprint (2088.21 gha) > grazing land footprint (978.03 gha) > forest land footprint (511.67 gha).

Keywords


Crop land, ecological footprint analysis, forest land, grazing land, infrastructure land, sustainability.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv122%2Fi8%2F978-980