Ecological footprint for environmental sustainability in Ilorin Metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria
Loading...
Date
0012-02-20
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press
Abstract
Ecological footprint (EF) is an indicator that accounts for human demand in the environment compared
with the sizes of the bio-productive land and sea areas. This research was carried out to determine the EF for
environmental sustainability in Ilorin Metropolis. Empirical surveying, which involved systematic random
sample technique, was used to select residential households in each community for this investigation. The
EF indicators, which include food, energy and waste consumptions, were determined empirically. The bio
capacity (BC),ecologicalstressanddeficitweredetermined,fromthelandusedasenvironmentalsustainable
areas in Ilorin, using Google Earth Mapping. The results revealed that energy has the highest EF of 44%,
followed bywasteandfoodwiththefootprintof25%and5%,respectively.Adeficitof38%wasobtained,and
this requires eight times the BC to balance the EF of the population. This implies that people are consuming
more of the energy and generating more wastes than they consumed food.