This book focuses on environmental footprints that have attracted considerable interest and discussion within academia, policy makers and the public as a tool to assess anthropogenic effects on the environment. It begins with an overview which provides a starting point for understanding the concept of environmental footprints. On the basis of a thorough investigation into the theoretical and methodological aspects of selected environmental footprints that have been widely adopted, a unified framework for structuring, categorizing and integrating various footprint indicators is established. Furthermore, the book brings clarity to the relationship between footprint analysis and life cycle assessment, and challenges the isolation of environmental footprints and planetary boundaries. The findings provide novel insights into the development of environmental footprints for environmental impact assessment and environmental sustainability assessment.

General Introduction.- A Conceptual Framework for Constituting a Footprint Family.- Exploring Some Fundamentals of Environmental Footprints.- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Nice to have or Essential for Environmental Footprints?.- Understanding the Complementarities of Environmental Footprints and Planetary Boundaries.- Benchmarking the National Carbon, Water and Land Footprints Against Allocated Planetary Boundaries.- General Discussion.