Example 6: Annotated student work

SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES —

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

Title: EXAMINING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

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 Example 6: Annotated student work

Contents Page No
Identifying the context ..................................................................................................................3

Research Question .........................................................................................................................4

Hypothesis…….................................................................................................................................4
Apparatus .......................................................................................................................................4

Planning ..........................................................................................................................................5

Variables ..........................................................................................................................................5

Background Information..................................................................................................................5
Methodology (procedure)................................................................................................................6

Results, Analysis and Conclusion ...................................................................................................7-13

Evaluation .........................................................................................................................................13
Application ........................................................................................................................................14

Improving the investigation ..............................................................................................................14

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................14

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Identifying the context:

There are many parameters to measure the economic development of a country. Gross
Domestic Product is the most common parameter used by all the countries. Gross Domestic
Product is the total value of all goods and services produced over a specific period of time1.
Does the economic development always result in the overall wellbeing of the society is a
question that is being asked by people from all areas of life as often economic growth results
in over exploitation of natural resources and environmental pollution which endangers the
health of the people. How do we measure the impacts of human activities on the environment
and make a connection between the economic growth arid environmental health. Tries to link economic growth to the research question
but uses another term: environmental health.

Ecological footprint is used as a tool to calculate how much biologically productive land and
sea is used by a given population, and compares this to how much land and sea is available2.
Productive land and sea areas supports human demand for food, energy, space, fiber and
timber and also absorbs the waste products from human economy. This is used as a tool by
government and other organizations to understand the impact of human activities on the
environment and thus is used for management and communication. Ecological Footprint is A vague link to the research question

measured in terms global hectares which is one hectare of biologically productive area with
an annual productivity identical to the world average. The total biologically productive area on
Earth signifies its natural capital and the annual production its natural income.

It has been found that the ecological footprint has been increasing to such an extent where
there is an overshoot of 20% per person. Time series of the global Ecological Footprint indicate
that human activities have been in an overshoot position for approximately three decades,
and the overshoot is increasing over time3. This is extremely unsustainable and if economic
development is causing this then should we continue with it or not. The context outlines the environmental issue and makes
weak links to the research question created. This context sits
within the 1-2 markband. Each aspect is attempted.

1
Staff, Investopedia. "What is GDP and why is it so important to economists and investors?"
Investopedia. N.p., 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017. <http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/199.asp>.
2
"Ecological Footprint.".earthday.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
3
"Ecological Footprint." Sustainable scale. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.sustainablescale.org/ConceptualFramework/UnderstandingScale/MeasuringScale/EcologicalFootpri
nt.asp X>.

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 Example 6: Annotated student work

Research Question
To what extent does the GDP of a country influences its Ecological Footprint or in other words
how is economic growth related to the environmental impact?
The research question is looking at two different things:
ecological footprint and environmental impact. This makes
the research question too broad for the investigation to
address.

Hypothesis:
According to my perspective I think that GDP has a direct positive correlation between the
ecological footprint as GDP is the amount of goods and services produced by a country in a
year so if the GDP of the country increase this means there is more production of goods and
services provided by the country and the production will only increase if there is demand
increase this in turn relates to total increase in the consumption of resources by the population
which means higher ecological footprint.
Apparatus

• Data of GDP growth in India from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft Excel) The data is not obtained from Excel; this could be
confused here. The mention of the software used for
• Data of ecological footprint of India from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft excel) processing/displaying the data is good to include.

• Data of GDP growth in Pakistan from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft Excel)

• Data of ecological footprint of Pakistan from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft excel)
• Data of GDP growth in Sri Lanka from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft Excel)
• Data of ecological footprint of Sri Lanka from 1961 to 2011 (Microsoft excel)

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Planning This section is considered as part of justification of the

sampling strategy. But this is a list of decisions made.
• Research on the importance of ecological footprint This can be incorporated into the background section
and the methodology section below.
• Research on the growth of GDP of the country (developing countries) so that the GDP
is more due to goods produced compared to services
• Understood the correlation between ecological footprint and GDP
• Selected India as the research area for correlation between ecological footprint and
GDP
• Gathered information about the ecological footprint of the country during 1960 to
2012
• Gathered information about the ecological footprint of the country during 1960 to
2012
• Create a correlation graph by the data gathered
• Analysed the correlation between GDP and ecological footprint of the country

Variables
Independent Variable: Growth domestic production rate Clearly stated here and is appropriate to the research
question.
Dependent Variable: Ecological footprint
Control Variables year (period of study) and geographical location (continent) and
source of data

Background Information:
I have taken three different countries from the Indian sub- continent. The countries which Only three countries used; this is not going to generate
sufficient data.
have been chosen are done under one criteria which is the economic status of the country.
Three countries here are all developing countries and as a result have been working more
towards the secondary and primary sector hence producing more goods than services. This is
important because as the ecological footprint is the amount of natural resources used to fulfil
ones requirements. So by using developing countries as a sample we can easily find out is there
any correlation between GDP and ecological footprint of a country. The correlation between This describes the sampling choices, but is not clearly
justified.
these two variables would also tell how there is an increase in the consumption pattern of a
country in relation to its GDP.

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Methodology (procedure)
• I decided to have a research on the bases of secondary data.
• I went on different sites mentioned in the bibliography to understand and These should be mentioned here too.

comprehend details about the ecological footprint and GDP

• Gathered data about different countries in relation to the GDP (per capita) and
ecological footprint) with keeping their status of development.
• Took the geographical location of the countries the same so that there is a fair
research on the correlation between ecological footprint and GDP of a country
• Used the data obtained from the website http://www.footprintnetwork.org to draw Part of ethics and risks for a secondary data investigation.

graph which would help me to find out the correlation between the ecological
footprint and GDP
• Results would be interpreted and analysis of the data would be provided
• A conclusion would be drawn by looking at the results

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RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

Percentage change : the website percent-change.com/ was used to find out the percentage
change in the ecological footprint in each different years. This site has been used to find out
the percentage change for each country listed for the experiment and the data for this been This processing choice is not really clear for the research
question stated.
taken from the Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 respectively.

Table 1: ecological footprint of India

Year Ecological footprint GDP Per Capita
(per global hectare) ($)

1961 0.60 232

1966 0.61 239

1971 0.70 272

1976 0.72 280

1981 0.75 303

1986 0.90 344

1991 0.82 398

1996 0.90 483

2001 0.80 589

2006 0.98 784

2011 1.25 1,063

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 Example 6: Annotated student work

Figure 1: graph showing correlation between ecological footprint and GDP of India's growth

We can see that there is a strong relation between growth of ecological footprint and growth Analysis of each country is done. The research question
requires the countries to be compared for overall patterns.
of GDP of India over a period of 50 years. There has been an increase of 0.65 global hectare in
relation to $831 for the same period There is an increase from 0.60 per global hectare and
$232 GDP per capita to 1.25 per global hectare to 1,063 GDP per capita in the span of 50 years.
from 1961 to 2011. The data shows that there has been a substantial growth in both the areas.
But when the GDP has been growing in a steady rate there has been fluctuation in the growth
of ecological footprint.

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Table 2: ecological footprint of Pakistan

Year Ecological footprint GDP Per Capita
(per global hectare) ($)

1961 0.52 230

1966 0.53 289

1971 0.63 338

1976 0.61 359

1981 0.65 424

1986 0.65 488

1991 0.70 554

1996 0.75 610

2001 0.75 619

2006 0.88 743

2011 0.77 762

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Figure 2: graph showing correlation between ecological footprint and GDP of Pakistan

There is strong positive relation between the growth of ecological footprint and the growth of
GDP. During the span of 50 years there has been a GDP growth of $532 which is a healthy sign
of development and also there has been increase of a 0.51 per global hectare in terms of
ecological footprint. During this time span there has been a change from the 0.52 per Global
hectare and $230 GDP per capita in 1961 to 0.77 per global hectare and $762 GDP per capita
by 2011.

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Table 3: ecological footprint and GDP Sri Lanka

Year Ecological footprint GDP Per Capita
(per global hectare) ($)

1961 0.71 342

1966 0.80 362

1971 0.75 416

1976 0.67 467

1981 0.77 571

1986 0.75 660

1991 0.88 732

1996 1.10 890

2001 1.12 1,052

2006 1.22 1,323

2011 1.30 1,727

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Figure 3 : graph showing correlation between ecological footprint and GDP of sri Lanka

For Sri Lanka there is a 0.59 hectare increase in the ecological footprint in the past 50 years
and an increase of $1385 in its GDP during this time span. even though economic growth has
been steady for the same period the growth of ecological footprint kept fluctuating. Though
the general trend is that both the variables are directly proportional there are some exceptions
like the one mentioned above. As a whole there is a positive change in both the GDP per capita
and Ecological footprint (per global hectare) from 0.71 ecological footprint per global hectare
and $342 GDP per capita to 1.30 ecological footprint (per global hectare) and $1727 GDP per
capita from the year 1961 to 2011.
The data plotted in figure 1, figure 2 and figure 3 has been done by the use of Microsoft excel
2016. I have used a bubble graph to show the correlation between the two variable GDP and
Ecological Footprint. The data would be more clearly presented as correlation and
not line graphs. The mention of percentages at the start is
While looking at the graphs of the three countries we can easily see a positive relation between then not presented.
the growth of GDP and Ecological Footprint. In all the countries we could see a steady growth A simplistic conclusion, but the graphs show a wider range of
patterns and trends that should be mentioned in the
in both the aspects showing that one has an impact on the other especially GDP has an impact conclusion.

on the growth of ecological footprint.

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CONCLUSION
We can see that there is a good correlation between the growth of Gross Domestic Product of This was not done in the processing.

a country and the growth of its ecological footprint.GDP indicates the economic growth and
ecological footprint indicates the impact of human activities on the environment. A positive A vague statement

correlation shows the growth of a GDP results in use of natural resources.

Even though overall there is a positive correlation but the change is not constant as we can
see the most prominent evidence to this is in case of Pakistan where between 2006 and 2011
there is a major drop in the ecological footprint and a slow constant increase in the GDP of the
country. These contrasting results might also be due to other factors such as the population of
the country might have been affected by natural disaster, epidemics etc. which are not taken
into consideration for the research. A brief discussion under the conclusion section.
Overall the discussion aspect is not attempted.
Microsoft excel worksheet was used to make the graphs for each of the different countries.
The graphs used for comparing the GDP and Ecological footprint are bubble graphs.
EVALUATION
The GDP of a country definitely affects the ecological footprint thereby affecting the health of
the environment. The Ecological Footprint is not an accurate evaluation tool of environmental Consideration of the tool used, but it is vague.

Sustainability as it undervalues the impacts of human activities on the Earth. Other

measurements such as carbon footprint and water footprint could also be considered for
measuring the impact of human activities on the Earth.
All the data taken for the experiment is secondary data taken from the official sites. There is a
margin of error as the data extracted has been gathered by analysing the graphs on these sites
as the data was not provided in a numerical form. Identifies this weakness but no further depth to reach the
higher markbands.

The calculations and the graphs created are done by the help of Microsoft excel 2016 so the
graph made are very accurate and reliable. The biggest limitation in this study is not taking
other factors into consideration such as natural disaster, technological advancements,
weather conditions which might have influenced the GDP and ecological footprint of these
countries. Very general

Countries from other continents could also have been taken for a better comparison which
would have made the result more reliable for any application. A reasonable suggestion

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APPLICATION
GDP of a country can be used for understanding the impacts of human activities on Earth and No application is stated. This section just tries to justify why
GDP is a good measure; this is part of the evaluation section.
can help us in understanding the various aspects of economic growth. It also helps us
understand the implications of economic growth on the environment and change the way
economic growth is measured. It also tries to answer the question if economic growth is equal
to prosperity and environmental wellness.
IMPROVING THE INVESTIGATION
The GDP of a country does not provide a comprehensive picture of the development of a
country. Other measures such as Human Development Index and Happiness Index could be
used for a better measurement. Though we use ecological footprint to find out how much
resource is used it would not give an accurate measurement of the resources used thereby
undermining the impact of human activities on Earth. Parameters such as carbon footprint
could be also be included. Reasonable further ideas for investigation are made.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• "Global Footprint Network." Global Footprint Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.
• "Percent-Change.com, Percent Change Calculator." N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2017.
• Staff, lnvestopedia. "What is GDP and why is it so important to economists and
investors?"
• Investopedia. N.p., 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/199.asp>.
• "Ecological Footprint." Sustainable scale. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
• <http://www.sustainablescale.org/ConceptualFramework/UnderstandingScale/M
easuringScale/EcologicalFootprint.aspx.
• -Ecological Footprint." .earthday.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

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