Ecological Footprint as a Sustainability Metric

Dr. Mary J. Thornbush is presently a researcher of the Ecological Footprint Initiative based in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Canada. She has over 80 publications in the areas of applied geomorphology and environmental and urban sustainability. Her doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford addressed urban sustainability through a study of air emissions from transport in central Oxford and investigated their impacts on the weathering of its historical limestone buildings. Her relevant publications include a special journal issue on Geography, Urban Geomorphology and Sustainability in Area (2015) as well as books such as Vehicular Air Pollution and Urban Sustainability: An Assessment from Central Oxford, UK (2015, Springer) and a volume on Urban Geomorphology: Landforms and Processes in Cities (2018, Elsevier).

• Chapter 1: Introduction – overview and relevant background, including published (cross-disciplinary) research that provides a context and justification for the study.- Chapter 2: The Ecological Footprint – tracking the evolution of this sustainability metric.- Chapter 3: Biocapacity accounting – used to develop a context for carrying capacity set against the Ecological Footprint.- Chapter 4: Case study – national scale case consideration of Costa Rica as an example of a developing country set amid the contemporary context of sustainable development.- Chapter 5: Implications – examines the contribution for sustainable development, using the Sustainable Development Goals as a springboard for discussion.- Chapter 6: Quality Analysis – presents caveats of the methodology based on the National Footprint Accounts.- Chapter 7: Conclusion – summary of the findings and contribution of the brief, including address of path dependency and final consideration given to sustainability metrics and sustainable development.