Dynamics of urban consumption and resulting impacts on ecological footprint: A longitudinal study of Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract

This study investigated the ecological impact of citizen consumption in Khulna, the third-largest city in Bangladesh, focusing on five primary sources of carbon emissions: food consumption, shelter-related activities, mobility, goods consumption, and services. Utilizing Landsat 5 and 8 imageries, the research tracked land use changes over two decades. To estimate the carbon footprint, about 651 sample data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Biocapacity data was obtained using supervised image classification techniques in ArcGIS, with calculations conducted for 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022 to identify trends. Results revealed that Khulna City Corporation emits approximately 0.76 million tons of carbon annually, translating to 0.209 global hectares per person. The largest emission contributors were shelter-related activities and food consumption, accounting for 41.35 % and 39.41 % of total emissions, respectively. The city's ecological footprint was 0.209 global hectares per capita, with a biocapacity of 0.076, resulting in an ecological deficit of 0.134 global hectares per person, indicating that the ecological demand exceeds the biocapacity by 2.7 times. Over the past two decades, Khulna's biocapacity declined by 0.026 global hectares per capita, from 0.1028 in 2002 to 0.076 in 2022. Overall study provides a framework for assessing consumer level carbon footprint focusing on SDGs 11 and 13 which will help policymakers, urban planners and environmentalists in strategic planning to reduce carbon footprint and increasing environmental sustainability.