# Ecological Footprint of Developed Countries¶

by Ellen Hsu, Alexis Sophie Kozak and Samita Limbu

Our team analyzed the overall impact of population, HDI (development of a country), and GDP on the ecological footprint per region in a global data set. We also compared different land uses to see which ones were creating a greater proportion of biodeficit or reserve.

## Definitions:¶

### Earths Required = $\frac{Ecological Footprint per Person} {Average Biocapacity per Person}$¶

(Keep in mind - Average Biocapacity per Person is 1.7gha!)

## Data Sample (Cleaned):¶

Original Data (2016)

## A. Population¶

### 1. Do countries with a higher population demand more resources in terms of Earths required per person?¶

• There does not seem to be a definite relationship between Population and Earths Required. There is mainly a cluster of low population countries distributed randomly along the Earths Required axis.
• However, most countries regardless of population are still Earths Required > 1.0.

(Two countries with outlier populations (> 350M), China and India, were not included on this graph. Their Earths Required are 1.95 and 0.67, respectively.)

## B. Developed Countries (as defined by HDI vs. GDP)¶

### 2. Since population doesnt seem to effect Earth's required, does the overall development of a country (HDI, GDP per Capita) effect Earth's required?¶

• HDI and GDP, in part, define the development of a country. HDI is the quality of a basic standard of living. GDP is the output of produced goods and services.
• Developed countries are considered those with HDI >= 0.8. The range(s) for GDP of developed countries is not fully agreed upon by economists but generally hover around $20,000. • As you can see, the countries begin to change around these limits. Earths Required gradually become greater as countries become more developed. ## C. Development of Countries: HDI¶ ### 3. Taking a closer look, do countries with a Higher HDI score have a greater Earth's Required per person?¶ • We explored the relationship between HDI and Earths Required. The datapoints in the scatterplot represent countries. Colors represent different region and the size of the datapoint represents size of the population. • The figure shows that there is a gradual increase in Earths Required as the HDI increases. We used a linear regression model used to fit the relationship with R-squared value of 0.54 • Region may have some impact on the Earths Required. However, the pattern is not as clear from the figure. • Population did not seem to impact Earths Required ### 4. Breaking the HDI down into groups, which HDI groups have a higher Ecological Footprint per person?¶ • The Bargraph shows that, countries with higher HDI score have greater Earths Required. • The figure also indicates that there is a significant difference in ecological footprint between HDI categories ### 5. Hypothesis Testing:¶ #### Hypothesis¶ Developed countries have a higher ecological footprint. If the HDI group consist of score >0.6 Then, the ecological footprint would be larger compared to groups with HDI score < 0.6. #### Null¶ If level of development in a country has no effect on ecological footprint, then the ecological footprint would be random across countries. #### Results¶ • There was significant difference in the Total Eco Footprints among HDI groups (p-value 2.65e-29). This means the development of countries does have an impact on footprint. • The Independent T-Tests between HDI groups shows there was significant difference in the Total Eco Footprint in the range of HDI > 0.5 to HDI <= 0.8. ### 6. Is there a relationship between HDI vs. Biodeficit or Reserve? ### Deficit/Reserve =$Average Biocapacity - Average Ecological Footprint$• The figure shows that there is a biocapacity deficit among countries with higher HDI score, though not in a linear fashion. ## D. Development of Countries: GDP¶ ### 7. Is there a relationship between HDI vs. Biodeficit or Reserve? • Viewing this graph, it is clear that the higher the GDP per Capita, the higher the Ecological Footprint. • Bins were broken down according to references in World Bank and UN Documents. Large disparities in GDP per Capita exist due to large disparities in wealth between countries. ### 8. Which GDP groups display a Deficit or Reserve? Is there a relationship?¶ ### Deficit/Reserve =$Average Biocapacity - Average Ecological Footprint\$

• What is almost clear, is that Countries that are considered "developed" typically fall into a deficit. But our 5th group, somehow, slightly less of a deficit than the surrounding groups. Further study among these groups may be required.
• It is worth mentioning that a slight different arrangement of bins can yield very different results in Bio Deficit or Reserve. Thus there is not a clear relationship between GDP and Bio Deficit or Reserve.

## E. Land Use¶

### 9. Of all the land types, which are creating a reserve? Which are creating a deficit?¶

• All groups have a Carbon Deficit which shows that Urban Land is where most ecological assets are being consumed rather than produced.
• Eco Footprint and Carbon Deficit are rather high around HDI groups 0.7 and 0.8 where countries are reaching a "developed" stage.

### 10. Which land types are making the largest contributions to the overall footprint?¶

• Most groups have a large Carbon Footprint. Carbon Footprint primarily comes from Urban Land. Urban Land consumes a lot resources and produces a lot of waste while other Land Types produce a lot of resources while producing little waste, even absorbing some waste.
• The HDI groups of fully developed countries have dramatically higher eco footprints.

# F. Conclusion¶

As many of you have guessed, it is the more developed countries that are overusing their resources, growing, building, creating more and more of a demand on Earth’s stretched resources.

It is not just a problem in the U.S., it is a problem across the world. It is with the lense of the Human Development Index and GDP per Capita - the defined measures of country development and wealth - that we see an influence on the world's ecological reserves.

## Factoids¶

• The U.S. ranks 184 out of 188 countries in size of Ecological Footprint per person.
• There are 45 developed countries globally. All of them have Earths Required > 1.0 which means all of them are using more than their share of biocapacity.
• There are 143 countries (76%) that are still considered “less-developed”.
51 of them are “developing” (HDI between 0.7 & 0.8) and potentially will reach “developed” stage soon.
• There are 129 countries globally (69%) that have Earths Required > 1.0.

## Further Research¶

• As mentioned, the results of bio deficit/reserve varied wildy. Further research might reveal which specific countries are causing higher bio deficits or reserves and what they have in common.
• The available data set was for one year only. It would be worth researching the changes in ecological footprint and bio deficit/reserve over a span of several years or decades.