The effect of water footprint and economic growth on environmental degradation: applications of optimization modeling

Abstract

In this study, the effect of economic growth, energy consumption, biological capacity, and trade liberalization on the economic water footprint of consumption as an indicator of environmental degradation was investigated. An optimization framework was developed to find the maximum values of economic water footprint based on environmental, ecological, energy, and technical constraints. The results of the study showed that the simulated relationship can be used together to estimate long-term relationships between variables, there is a positive and significant relationship between ecological footprint and biological capacity and a negative and significant relationship between trade globalization and economic water footprint. The middle form of the ecological footprint N also increases energy consumption leading to an increase in the economic water footprint. Moreover, the results showed that there is a relationship with economic growth, and this indicates that the increase in economic growth in this region will lead to further destruction of the environment.