Various tools have been developed to quantify sustainability of cities and countries and various aspects of sustainability includes aesthetic, environmental, financial, functional, political and social. Environmental Sustainability of urban or rural area can be measured with ecological footprint. Ecological footprint can be defined  as “the amount of bio productive land and sea required supporting a person’s lifestyle”. It is a sustainability evaluation tool to measure pressure on natural world due to human activities, applicable in various domains. 

 Ecological footprint of a city can be calculated using individual’s requirement of productive land and sea using their current expenses in housing, transport, food, consumer items, private services, public services, capital investment and miscellaneous sectors. Supply and demand of natural resources can be calculated for specific regions, cities, individuals, organisations or a bigger area.  Ecological footprint can be expressed in global hectares. Human consumption of resources equivalent to average productivity of global hectares is expressed in ecological footprint. Ecological footprints standard 2009 provides guidance to calculate ecological footprint using tools such as consumption land-use matrix (CLUM), environmentally extended Input-Output life cycle assessment (EEIO-LCA), process based life cycle assessment (P-LCA). 

In 2007, global ecological footprint was about 1.5 times the

earth’s bio-capacity. Significant difference can be observed between the ecological footprints of the continents. North America has an ecological footprint of 8.7 global hectares (gha) per person. In contrast, Africa has a footprint of 1.4 gha per person.

Urbanization has been identified as a triggering factor for larger ecological footprint as it increases resource consumption.  Ecological footprint of the cities in the UK  based on the number of plants required to meet current consumption trend includes Newport and Plymouth  as number 1 requiring less resources (2.78 planets), London as 44 (3.05 planets) and Winchester as 60 (3.62 planets). Natural assets such as ecosystem services and built-up areas represents biocapacity of the area. Biocapacity deficit is a condition when ecological footprint exceeds the region or population’s biocapacity whereas biocapacity reserve is a condition when region or population’s biocapacity exceeds its footprint calculation. Footprint network‘s calculation reflects Laos, Seychelles, Sudan, Romania and Lithuania as top 5 biocapacity deficit countries whereas French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Gabon and Congo as top 5 countries with biocapacity reserve.