Population growth and rising demand for natural resources over the last few centuries, pushed the earth into the Anthropocene era, in which human actions are the main cause for environmental changes. To monitor the impact of human activities on the environment, several indicators and approached were introduces: life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, societal metabolism, climate wedges, and the footprint family indicators. Using the indicators and approaches above, this paper presents a model to assess the impact of different factors on the land, water, and carbon footprints of a nation. The model considers five different sectors in an economy: electricity, transportation, construction, food, and water, and the impact of different factors, such as population growth, electricity generation from renewable sources, transition to electric vehicles, etc., on the carbon, water, and land footprint. The model calculates the cumulative emissions, water, and land use, along with fuel amounts for transportation and electricity, and materials for construction. We use the model to analyze the impact of different factors and their combination on the environmental impact of Israel, which is taken as a case study. First, we analyze the carbon, water, and land footprint in 2017, the base year. Second, we predict the consumption in 2050, the target year, and analyze the impact of each factor on the emissions. Third, we analyze the impact of different combinations of factors, and their extents. Finally, we analyze intermediate targets, which are mid-way targets before the destination year, on the cumulative carbon emissions. Our results show that the population growth has the most environmental impact. On the other hand, transition to generate electricity from renewable sources will decrease the emissions but will increase the area needed. Moreover, we saw that most of the land-use in Israel is to grow food, and it is not even in Israel.
Keywords:
Footprint family; GHG emissions; Sustainability modelling; Carbon budget; Resource management