TY - JOUR
T1 - A planetary boundary-based environmental footprint family
T2 - From impacts to boundaries
AU - Wu, Linxiu
AU - Huang, Kai
AU - Ridoutt, Bradley G.
AU - Yu, Yajuan
AU - Chen, Ying
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Environmental footprints are of importance for identifying the linkages between human and natural systems. This paper defines a framework for an environmental footprint family that is based on nine major biophysical processes and is linked to the planetary boundaries. Bibliometrics was used to analyze the volume, journals, categories, countries, keywords, priority issues and research prospects of each of the individual footprints. Results show that the total amount of footprint research has been increasing with the United States and China being the regions of highest research intensity based on total publications and frequency of cooperation. Subject category and keyword co-occurrence analyses showed that environmental footprints are widely used as an assessment methodology in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals concerning resource use and pollutant emissions. The most common research topics were energy and supply chain-related carbon footprints, agricultural-related greenhouse gas emissions abatement, volumetric and impact-oriented water footprints, and infrastructure-related environmental footprints. Further research is needed to better align impact-oriented footprints that include regional differentiation with the planetary-scale boundaries. In addition, the earth system is complex and many of the planetary boundaries are inter-related and feedbacks need further definition and quantification. These findings provide an overview of the current state of environmental footprint research which can give direction to future studies.
AB - Environmental footprints are of importance for identifying the linkages between human and natural systems. This paper defines a framework for an environmental footprint family that is based on nine major biophysical processes and is linked to the planetary boundaries. Bibliometrics was used to analyze the volume, journals, categories, countries, keywords, priority issues and research prospects of each of the individual footprints. Results show that the total amount of footprint research has been increasing with the United States and China being the regions of highest research intensity based on total publications and frequency of cooperation. Subject category and keyword co-occurrence analyses showed that environmental footprints are widely used as an assessment methodology in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals concerning resource use and pollutant emissions. The most common research topics were energy and supply chain-related carbon footprints, agricultural-related greenhouse gas emissions abatement, volumetric and impact-oriented water footprints, and infrastructure-related environmental footprints. Further research is needed to better align impact-oriented footprints that include regional differentiation with the planetary-scale boundaries. In addition, the earth system is complex and many of the planetary boundaries are inter-related and feedbacks need further definition and quantification. These findings provide an overview of the current state of environmental footprint research which can give direction to future studies.
KW - Bibliometric analysis
KW - Environmental footprint
KW - Environmental sustainability assessment
KW - SDGs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105071414&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147383
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147383
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85105071414
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 785
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 147383
ER -
