How is biocapacity calculated?
The amount of biocapacity available per person globally is calculated by dividing the 11.2 billion global hectares of biologically productive area by the number of people on Earth (6.3 billion in 2003). This ratio gives the average amount of biocapacity available on the planet per person – 1.8 global hectares.
What is the equation used to calculate biocapacity reserve?
The biocapacity of an area is calculated by multiplying the actual physical area by the yield factor with the appropriate equivalence factor. Biocapacity is usually expressed in global hectares (gha).
How do you quantify the ecological footprint and biocapacity?
Biocapacity is measured by calculating the amount of biologically productive land and sea area available to provide the resources a population consumes and to absorb its wastes, given current technology and management practices.
What is the biocapacity of the Earth in 2021?
1.5 global hectares per person
The nowcast produced the following estimates: The biocapacity for the world in 2021 is estimated at 1.5 global hectares per person. In contrast, humanity’s Ecological Footprint is 2.7 global hectares per person, of which 61% is carbon Footprint.
What is a biocapacity deficit?
ecological deficit / reserve OR biocapacity deficit / reserve. The difference between the biocapacity and Ecological Footprint of a region or country. An ecological deficit occurs when the Footprint of a population exceeds the biocapacity of the area available to that population.
How do you calculate global hectares?
Measurements of demand for resource production and waste assimilation are translated into global hectares by dividing the total amount of a resource consumed by the yield per hectare; and by dividing the waste emitted by the absorptive capacity per hectare.
How do you manually calculate your Ecological Footprint?
To calculate your housing footprint you need to work out your personal share of home energy use, water use and waste disposal. This means collecting figures for your home’s annual energy, water and waste use and dividing it by the number of people in your home, to get your individual share.
What is a biocapacity surplus?
Biocapacity measures the area of biologically productive land and water actually available to provide renewable natural resources and absorb CO2 waste. Biocapacity deficit/surplus: Biocapacity deficit is when Ecological Footprint exceeds biocapacity; biocapacity surplus is when biocapacity exceeds Ecological Footprint.
What does it mean to have a biocapacity reserve?
Conversely, an ecological reserve exists when the biocapacity of a region exceeds its population’s footprint. If there is a regional or national ecological deficit, it means that the region is importing biocapacity through trade or liquidating regional ecological assets.
How is biocapacity measured?
Biocapacity is measured by calculating the amount of biologically productive land and sea area available to provide the resources a population consumes and to absorb its wastes, given current technology and management practices. To make biocapacity comparable across space and time, areas are adjusted proportionally to their biological productivity.
What is the difference between the ecological footprint and biocapacity?
Both the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity are expressed in global hectares —globally comparable, standardized hectares with world average productivity. Each city, state or nation’s Ecological Footprint can be compared to its biocapacity.
Who maintains the national footprint and biocapacity accounts?
They are now being maintained by York University’s Ecological Footprint Initiative for the Footprint Data Foundation ( www.FoDaFo.org ). FoDaFo was established in 2019 by York University and Global Footprint Network to be the stewards of those National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts.
What is biocapacity deficit and why does it matter?
If a population’s Ecological Footprint exceeds the region’s biocapacity, that region runs a biocapacity deficit. Its demand for the goods and services that its land and seas can provide—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption—exceeds what the region’s ecosystems can regenerate.