Modified Ecological Footprint Evaluation to include Resource Depletion

摘要

This study is to modify the ecological footprint methodology by incorporating non-renewable or abiotic resources as the additional category. The use of abiotic resource can be quantified as global hectare using thermodynamic approach. A case study on six countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, Sweden, and Vietnam indicates the possibility of using new modified ecological footprint as indicator for sustainable development. The modified EF includes not only biotic resources, but also the abiotic resources. Case studies indicate that modified EF differed from the traditional EF up to 36.5% in one cases, and 24.2% in another case. Most cases, the difference is less than 5%