A dynamic assessment of Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity in Guangzhou using RS and GIS

Abstract

The sustainable urban development research is a hot spot in science, economics, society etc. The Ecological Footprint (EF) method, which originally developed by Wackernagel and Rees in the mid-1990s, is a useful approach to detect the sustainability of the city. The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a measure of human demand on the bioproductive land area that is required to support the resource demands of a given population or specific activities. Comparing with Biocapacity (BC), which represents the bioproductive supply, EF provides a valuable tool to evaluate the carrying capacity of the earth and human appropriation of resources.