Economic growth in the past two centuries has greatly improved the quality of life. Though the challenges of hunger, poverty, disease and other curable issues still inflict some parts of the world, by and large people across the world are enjoying a high level of economic prosperity, with no historic parallel. Urban areas are at the center of this economic affluence. Embodying less than 3% of the total habitable area, they hold more than half of the global population, consuming most of its resources and generating vast amounts of waste. In spite of their small geographical footprint, cities and their demographic masses manifest immense economic, social, cultural and political influence, achieved through an excessive reliance on resources external to their political boundaries to sustain, function and grow. This functionality creates a disconnect between production and consumption of resources and the related environmental impacts. It is also at the very base of un-sustainability practiced by urban areas. In an effort to understand better their parasitic nature, efforts are underway in to quantify the extent of resource consumption and waste generation in terms of the land area appropriated for providing goods and services. Ecological footprint is a popular indicator for calculating the appropriated land area.

This thesis analyzes the concept of ecological footprint as a sustainable development indicator and examines its use by five urban areas across the continents: Santiago, London, Oslo, Hong Kong and Auckland. Each of these large urban areas modified the original ecological footprint calculation methodology in search of an indicator that is more meaningful and sensitive to local conditions. This research explores these mapping exercises in search of a methodology that can be applied to other urban areas. It concludes that methodological variants that simplify data collection without compromising its quality while reflecting on the bio-physical linkages of resource transportation, consumption and waste assimilation on a regional, national and international scale provide a much better understanding of resource flows, and in effect create a parsimonious and effective indicator.

An effective indicator can facilitate sustainable development benchmarks, providing valuable data for urban planning and policy initiatives to reduce resource consumption, increase waste recycling and move towards local resource appropriation and other sustainable development strategies.