The human society cannot be considered in isolation from nature; and human activities are always in need of environmental analyses. Therefore, communities require tools for determining the biosphere dynamics and the biophysical limitations of earth in order to assess the systems subdued by humans. The ecological footprint is among the most important tools in this regard. It evaluates the relationship between humans and resources and is defined as the total area of land and water in different ecological levels, needed to produce all the resources that people consume, and absorb the wastes they produce. The ecological footprint calculation is in fact the expansion of a quantitative method to illustrate the importance of investigating the effects the inhabitants’ consumption has on the productive and non-productive land systems. This method can be employed in any area with comparable results. In this study, the ecological footprint of Isfahan was estimated considering the five basic factors of urban life: food, shelter, transportation, goods, and services. In 2011, the per capita ecological footprint was calculated as 3.9 global hectares. This means that, the productive land and sea required for providing the needed resources and the sinks to absorb the waste resulting from the activities of each Isfahan citizen is 3.9 global hectares.
