Comparative Analysis of Ecological Footprint on Ecological Campus of a Urban University in China

The componential method of ecological footprint is applied to estimate the ecological footprint of the Xi’an University of architecture and Technology (XAUAT) in 2011. An EF value for the urban public university was calculated as 21,398 global hectares with footprint of 0.71 global hectares and ecological capacity of 1.14 per capita. The components considered in this study include energy for the built environment (58%), food (34%), transportation (2.9%), water usage (2.5%) and waste discards (1.5%). Compared to the large urban universities in North America, university campuses in China show similar high density of land use while appear lower consumption levels and utilization rate of resources.