Assessment of Land Use Ecological Footprint in an Iranian Small City

ABSTRACT: The ecological footprint as an indicator estimates the effect of population and industrial products process on ecosystem by evaluating and calculating the used energy and materials in a city, region or country. Dehgolan County is located in Kurdistan province between Hamadan and Sanandaj cities. Dehgolan is one of the important and effective counties of Kurdistan in agriculture. However, with the population growth in the county and especially in Dehgolan town, productive and fertile lands have been invaded incrementally due to constructions in recent years. This is the main cause of severe reduction in the biological resources of the county. The main goal in this research is to evaluate and assess the rate of ecological footprint indicator of different land uses in Dehgolan County and its change during 2005 -2011, and moreover try to find different of ecological footprint and biological capacity in this county. A criteria-based method is used to calculate the footprint of land uses in this paper. Based on Ress and Wakeregnal perspectives, major land uses include forest, pasture, cropland, fisheries and builtup land. Results show that the most increase in rate of ecological footprint belongs to pasture (270%) and forest (94.7%) in 2005 -2011. Also the most decrease in biological capacity related to cropland (-9.6%). Difference between footprint and biological capacity has constantly increased and reached its maximum universal level (1.133 hectares) in 2011.