Elham Ebrahimi; Laleh Ebrahimi
Abstract
Introduction: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive assessment method that allows the estimation of cumulative environmental impacts from all life cycle stages of an activity. The destructive effects of agricultural development on the environment are of great importance. Insufficient attention ...
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Introduction: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive assessment method that allows the estimation of cumulative environmental impacts from all life cycle stages of an activity. The destructive effects of agricultural development on the environment are of great importance. Insufficient attention to the pattern of consumption of production inputs in the agricultural sector as the primary consumer of water in Iran can exacerbate environmental challenges. Inputs misuse such as chemical fertilizers to increase agricultural productivity pollutes water and soil resources. On the other hand, in environmental impact assessment studies, crops have received much more attention than horticultural crops, while horticultural crops generally have more water requirements.Material and methods: As Iran, a semi-arid country, is facing a water shortage crisis, in this study, the evaluation of agricultural activities and apple and grape crops is considered. The ecological footprint and life cycle assessment (LCA) are used as suitable solutions for plans to reduce environmental pressures and meet needs to achieve sustainable development goals. Input generation information of Simapro 9.0.0.49 software was used to analyze the environmental impact. Calculations were performed for a functional unit of 1 kg. Life cycle impact was assessed and categorized into six impact groups: cumulative energy demand, ecological footprint, water footprint, global warming potential, greenhouse gas protocol, and eco-indicator (including greenhouse gases, ozone layer, acidification, eutrophication, heavy metals, pesticide, and energy resources).Results and discussion: According to the results, the water scarcity index based on the water footprint for apples was about 1.7 times that of grapes. The ecological footprint of carbon dioxide and surface occupation for apples was 1.3 and 4.65 times that of the grapes. Based on the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen oxides, the potential for global warming was not significantly different between the two crops. Its value for apples was 1.3 times that of grapes. Greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide damages were 1.29 and 4.24 times higher for apples, respectively than for grapes. Consumption of energy sources for one functional unit of two apple and grape crops was 10.1 and 9.13 MJ LHV, respectively.Conclusion: Generally, the evaluation of the environmental impacts of apple and grapes production showed that in most of the studied indicators, apple causes more damage to the environment. However, the reduction of carbon dioxide per kilogram of apple is 44 times the same amount of grapes. Depending on the environmental situation of the study area, it is possible to decide on the cultivation preference of these two crops. Due to the limited water resources in Iran, changing and improving the cultivation pattern on micro and macro scales can significantly affect the environment. Crop management methods such as organic inputs, nitrogen-fixing plants, and tillage management can reduce environmental impacts. The use of biological pest control methods can prevent the improper use of pesticides and toxins, causing minor damage to the environment.
Fatemeh Fathi; Effat Ghorbanian
Abstract
Introduction: Sustainable growth takes into account resource development, the environment, and the economy. In this century, enormous ecological destruction and the accelerated depletion of natural resources have affected global economic growth, social welfare, and improvements in human health. In some ...
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Introduction: Sustainable growth takes into account resource development, the environment, and the economy. In this century, enormous ecological destruction and the accelerated depletion of natural resources have affected global economic growth, social welfare, and improvements in human health. In some studies, traditional total factor productivity has used the gross domestic product as desirable outputs, and energy, capital, and labor as inputs. Gross domestic products as desirable outputs are biased against sustainable growth because sustainable growth requires not only gross domestic product growth but also human well-being improvements. Hence the human development index has more advantages compared to gross domestic product. The ecological footprint is an index that measures the degree of sustainable development. In an attempt to overcome the limitations of the gross domestic product as output and energy as inputs, this paper took ecological footprint as the index of comprehensive ecological inputs and used the human development index as the output index. It used a new index, Sustainable Total Factor Productivity (STFP), to reflect sustainable growth levels.Material and methods: This paper combines the ecological footprint and human development index with Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to use a new framework for STFP. We used a DEA-Malmquist index method to calculate STFP changes in MENA countries during the years 1995–2016 and a σ-convergence test method to test the STFP convergence trends for them. We defined the Sustainable Malmquist (SM) index, as a measure of STFP change. SM can be decomposed into sustainable efficiency change and sustainable technical change.Results and discussion: Overall, the average annual STFP in MENA countries was 0.98, indicating that from the perspective of ecological footprint, K, and L are input factors, and the human development index (HDI) is the output. All states emphasize a little on sustainable growth except Bahrain and Turkey. Bahrain ranked first, having the highest average Sustainable Malmquist index, and then Turkey ranked second. Bahrain's capital increased by 75 %. After decomposing SM into Sustainable Technical Change (STC), Sustainable Pure Technological Efficiency Change (SPEC), and Sustainable Scale Efficiencychange (SSEC) , the average STC value was 0.996 meaning that sustainable technology change was stagnant. SPEC had an average value of 1.00, showing that sustainable efficiency has improved. On average, the SSEC was 0.98, indicating that industry structure and scale effects may have not improved. Contraries on the category of very high and medium HDI states, had higher STC than that for the category high and low HDI states, suggesting that developed states are superior in terms of STC. Category of high HDI, developed nations with human development index more than 0.8, had an average SPEC value of 1.00. The sustainable growth gap between developing states was the greatest. The σ value of medium HDI states containing Iran was the smallest and showed minimal volatility. This indicates that the sustainable growth gap between developed states was small and relatively balanced. The σ values of very high and medium HDI categories fluctuated widely. This indicates that growth in developing states and developed states was not stable.Conclusion: Different types of nations should choose different paths to achieve positive sustainable growth. The STFPs of the MENA nations present different features according to different economic levels and environmental protection levels, so formulating distinguished policies of sustainable growth is a necessity. Technical progress should be promoted to achieve sustainable growth. Promoting sustainable technology plays a crucial role in sustainable growth. Policymakers should encourage research, develop sustainable technologies, and raise entrepreneur awareness of eco-environmental protection.
Nikta Letafat; Mohammad Hassan Tarazkar
Abstract
Introduction: Environmental degradation such as greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, deforestation and collapsing fisheries indicate that human demand is exceeding the capacity of the biosphere. Therefore, in the most environmental studies, the greenhouse gases emission used an indicator ...
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Introduction: Environmental degradation such as greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, deforestation and collapsing fisheries indicate that human demand is exceeding the capacity of the biosphere. Therefore, in the most environmental studies, the greenhouse gases emission used an indicator of environmental impacts. But, a major weakness of these studies is that greenhouse gases emission such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as the index of environmental damage. In contrast, the ecological footprint represents a comprehensive indicator of anthropogenic pressure on the environment. Ecological Footprint (EF) measures the ecological assets that a population requires to produce the natural resources it consumes and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions. Ecological footprint is expressed in mutually exclusive units of area necessary to annually provide ecosystem services. Recent studies showed that the natural ecosystem of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including land, air and water, has been seriously affected by the various variables. Therefore, in this study a robust set of control variables is identified for ecological footprint as a comprehensive index of environmental degradation. Material and methods: To achieve this goal the Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) method was used for identifying a robust set of control variables. The EBA is a statistical tool, to test whether the variables suggested in previous studies are indeed robustly related to ecological footprint, independent of other explanatory variables included in the regression. Also, the KOF used as the index of Globalization. In addition, specific type of KOF include political, social and overall globalization used in the empirical analysis. The analysis covers 11 countries of MENA region from 1995 to 2014. Results and discussion: The results of Sala-i-Martin EBA showed that energy consumption, GDP per capita, urban population and economic, social and political globalization are robust. Also, the GDP per capita, energy consumption, urban population, have a positive effect on ecological footprint. The average effect of energy consumption on ecological footprint is 0.001 and statistically significant. Therefore, an increase of energy consumption by 10 unit relates to rising ecological pressures by almost 0.01 unit. Also, an increase in the urban population increases the ecological footprint per capita consistently and is statistically significant at 1 percent level. A 0.2 global hectare increase in the ecological footprint is driven by an increase in the urban population by 10 unit. The results showed that, a 10 percent increase in economic and social globalization will enhance ecological footprint by 0.29 and 0.49 unit, respectively. According to the EBA results, a 10 unit increase in political globalization will reduce ecological footprint by 0.16 unit. The findings show that globalization may have different effects on ecological footprint. Conclusions: The findings suggest that economic and social globalization correlates positively with the ecological footprint. In contrast, political globalization have a negative relationship with ecological footprint. According to the empirical results, the negative correlation between political globalization and ecological footprint support the “global environmental governance” hypothesis. On the other hand, the positive relationship between social globalization and ecological footprint did not support the ‘global environmental awareness’ hypothesis in MENA region.
Mohammad Hassan Tarazkar; Navid Kargar Dehbidi; Zeinab shokoohi
Volume 16, Issue 4 , January 2019, , Pages 17-32
Abstract
Introduction:
Global warming is increasingly affecting the ecological balance of the planet. Nowadays, human activities, especially agricultural productions, are thought to be mainly responsible for this phenomenon, as they have led to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. ...
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Introduction:
Global warming is increasingly affecting the ecological balance of the planet. Nowadays, human activities, especially agricultural productions, are thought to be mainly responsible for this phenomenon, as they have led to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between agricultural production and the environment in developing-8 (D-8) countries. To this end, the area of arable land and livestock production index were used as agricultural sector production indices and the ecological footprint (EF) indicator was used as an environmental index.
Material and methods:
A panel model for studying the agricultural production–environment was established. Also, the estimation of this relationship was conducted for all D-8 countries from 1990 to 2013. According to panel unit root tests and panel cointegration tests, the short and long-run relationships were estimated by Error Correction Model (ECM) and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), respectively.
Results and discussion:
The empirical results revealed that the relationship between EF and per capita Gross Domestic Production (GDP) was N-shaped and statistically significant. Moreover, the results imply that a relative increase in energy consumption, arable land, and livestock production had a positive effect on the EF. Evidence from the study showed that a 10% increase in crop production land will increase EF by 2.15%, while a 10% increase in the livestock production index will increase EF by 1.18% in the long-run. Furthermore, a 10% increase in energy consumption will increase EF by 7.38%.
Conclusion:
The main finding of this study was that agricultural activities are one of the most important environmental pollutants and have a significant effect on EF in D-8 countries. In addition, crop production has a larger effect on EF compare than livestock production in the long-run.
lotfali Kozegarkaleji; Arman Moslemi; Mohammad Moradi; Hossein Rafie Mehr; Abbas Amini Zadeh
Volume 16, Issue 3 , October 2018, , Pages 25-44
Abstract
Introduction:
The concept of sustainable development is expanding internationally, and therefore scientists have provided several quantitative and qualitative models for measuring the sustainable development of communities and cities. One of these tools, which attracts more attention in the scientific, ...
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Introduction:
The concept of sustainable development is expanding internationally, and therefore scientists have provided several quantitative and qualitative models for measuring the sustainable development of communities and cities. One of these tools, which attracts more attention in the scientific, political and educational levels, is the assessment of ecological footprint. According to this method, the development is considered unsustainable, when the ecological footprint is higher than the biomass of the region. The ecological footprint approach has been used to measure the sustainability of major cities around the world, such as London, Liverpool, and Paris. The aim of this research is to measure the stability of Tabriz city using the ecological footprint method.
Material and methods:
In this research, descriptive-analytical and quantitative methods were used. The data of this research are mainly quantitative. The population under study included all households living in Tabriz. All data were obtained either from documents (e.g., library and electronic databases) or during field works. In this study, cluster random sampling method was used. The city of Tabriz was categorized into 10 regions based on municipalities and from each region several blocks were selected by sortition. A syncretistic ecological footprint method (a combination of inductive and deductive methods) was used to calculate the ecological footprint in the urban areas. The data necessary for initial analyses were obtained using the country’s statistical data. These include energy consumption, forestry, and its utility.
Results and discussion:
To determine the ecological footprint of Tabriz, data from food, carbon dioxide emissions from transportation, heating from natural gas, water, electricity, and the amount of waste was used. The results show that the city of Tabriz requires an average of 10.86 trillion hectares of land per year for landfill. The required area to absorb the carbon derived from the consumption of the natural gas for each citizen and the whole population is 135 square meters and 20,795 hectares, respectively. The electric power footprint of each citizen of Tabriz is 0.17 hectares. Finally, the water consumption footprint of Tabriz city is 0.020 hectares.
Conclusion:
The results of this study indicate that the ecological footprints of Tabriz city in categories such as food products, transportation, heating from natural gases, water, electricity, and the land needed for waste disposal were 3.30 hectares. Our results suggest that the city of Tabriz relies on a region beyond East Azarbaijan Province to meet its biological needs and sustainability. The amount of consumables in Tabriz shows that food with 2.73 hectares has the highest share compared to other factors. The lowest amount of area needed for waste disposal was 0.77 square meters per person. Since Iran's biocapacity is 0.8 hectares, the ecological footprint of 3.30 hectares in Tabriz city indicates that the city allocated 125.4 times more than its share of the country's biological capacity to itself.
