Human populations or economies are usually the focus for analysis. All productive land and
water areas required on a continuous basis to produce and maintain goods and services
consumed and take care of wastes generated are added together to obtain the footprint. Present
assessments are underestimates of appropriated area. This is partly because today’s practice in
agriculture and other activities are so far handled as “sustainable” practice in the analysis,
which is not correct. Furthermore, the main focus is on the input side, for example areas for
crops, wood production and built-up area. On the output side the current footprint analyses are