science

Human Footprint

Human Footprint is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Human Footprint rather than just read about it. In short: The Human Footprint is an ecological footprint map of human influence on the terrestrial systems of the Earth. It was first published in a 2002 article in the journal BioScience by Eric W.

Key takeaways

Human Footprint belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Human Footprint to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Human Footprint from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Human Footprint is an ecological footprint map of human influence on the terrestrial systems of the Earth. It was first published in a 2002 article in the journal BioScience by Eric W. Sanderson, Malanding Jaiteh, Marc A. Levy, Kent H. Redford, Antoinette V. Wannebo, and Gillian Woolmer. A map of human influence became possible with the advent of high-resolution satellite imagery in the 1990s.

Method The map is made to a resolution of 1 km2 (0.39 mi2) and is an aggregate of eight factors: major roadways, navigable waterways, railways, crop lands, pasture lands, the built environment, light pollution, and human population density. In order to compare the effect of influence from different factors, the magnitude of influence for each factor was ranked on a scale of 0–10. These eight factors measure four types of data, which are cumulatively used as a measure of human influence: population density, land transformation, accessibility, and electrical power infrastructure. The first Human Footprint map was published in 2002 with data that had been collected in the early 1990s, approximately 1993. In 2016, an updated map was published using the same methodology, using data from 2009. Due to incomplete satellite imagery, the original Human Footprint map did not include Antarctica nor some of the Small Island Developing States of the Pacific Ocean. Marine and freshwater systems are excluded, as different factors would be necessary to map human influence.

Other Human Footprint The original human footprint was conducted at 1 km2 (0.39 mi2), which is considered too coarse to monitor the impact of human activities at the operational scale for many species with small home ranges. To allow human footprint maps to account for extremely localized interactions, human footprint indices now exist at resolutions as high as 10 m2 (110 ft2) in countries such as Brazil . Such a resolution allows for assessing the impact of human impacts on the environment for species with limited home ranges and operating in highly localized environments.

Change over time The Human Footprint increased by 9% from 1993 to 2009, at least partly attributable to a human population increase of 23% and a global economy increase of 153% during the same period. Though population and economic growth far exceed the growth of the Human Footprint, the areas that saw increased human influence were those with the highest biodiversity.

See also Carbon footprint: the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent Last of the Wild: a complementary global map produced in the same 2002 study that shows the wildest remaining areas of each biome

References

External links publication via academic.oup.com paywall Sanderson, Eric W.; Jaiteh, Malanding; Levy, Marc A.; Redford, Kent H.; Wannebo, Antoinette V.; Woolmer, Gillian (2002). "The Human Footprint and the Last of the Wild". BioScience. 52 (10): 891. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0891:THFATL]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0006-3568.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Human Footprint

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Human Footprint claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Human Footprint before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Human Footprint ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Human Footprint

In research: Human Footprint appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Human Footprint in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Human Footprint is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental impact assessment, Environmental indices, Maps, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Human Footprint outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Human Footprint in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Human Footprint means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Human Footprint out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Human Footprint in simple terms?

The Human Footprint is an ecological footprint map of human influence on the terrestrial systems of the Earth. It was first published in a 2002 article in the journal BioScience by Eric W.

Why does Human Footprint matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Human Footprint?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Human Footprint.