The agricultural sector in the Sistan region plays a substantial role in the overall income of rural communities. Hence, the viability of production within this industry is contingent upon the well-being and ecological resilience of agricultural systems and their associated natural ecosystems (Shayan et al., 2010). Nevertheless, the Sistan region encounters numerous environmental obstacles, including the scarcity of water, soil salinity, dust storms, and climate change, which pose a significant risk to the sustainability and efficiency of agricultural practices (Van Beek et al., 2008). Hence, it is imperative to evaluate the ecological sustainability of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region and ascertain the optimal practices and strategies for enhancing them.
In contemporary times, the pursuit of a sustainable agricultural system has emerged as a significant policy objective within the agricultural sector of nations (Gafsi et al., 2006). Sustainability is widely acknowledged as a crucial factor in safeguarding the social, cultural, and economic aspects of agricultural production systems. The assessment of sustainability, both in terms of its establishment and preservation, necessitates the utilisation of rigorous and comprehensive methodologies (Angel and Acevedo, 2018). According to Perez (2007), employing comprehensive methodologies to assess sustainability that consider ecological, economic, and social aspects can yield valuable insights into the present condition of ecosystem interventions.
Various quantitative and qualitative methods exist for assessing sustainability and environmental carrying capacity. These include emergy analysis (Brown and Ulgiati, 2004), ecological footprint analysis (Gossling et al., 2002), and emergy footprint analysis (Enayat et al., 2023b). The ecological footprint assessment technique is a computational tool utilised to comprehend the correlation between human activities and the strain imposed on the earth and its resources. The ecological footprint is a metric that quantifies the spatial extent necessary to sustain a particular activity by considering the average area needed to supply the resources consumed and assimilate the resulting waste (Fang et al., 2014). The ecological footprint has demonstrated its distinctive capacity to enhance communication and facilitate direct comparisons between human consumption and natural production capacity through the presentation and analysis of results in spatial units (Giljum et al., 2007).
Although the ecological footprint has gained popularity as a means of communication, education, and resource sustainability planning (Kanitschar et al., 2014), it lacks the ability to assess and compare various types of flows and processes based on their quality hierarchy. In order to address this limitation and other comparable deficiencies, Zhao et al. (2005) introduced a novel approach known as the emergy footprint, which integrates the ecological footprint and the emergy technique. The emergy footprint method takes into account the total effective flows involved in the production of a product. This methodology has been employed in diverse research endeavours, including investigations on the production systems of Yaghooti grapes in Sistan (Enayat et al., 2023a), agricultural products in Iran (Mokhtari et al., 2016), fish farming in China (Zhao et al., 2013), wind farming in China (Zhang et al., 2020), ecological security in Central Asia (Li et al., 2019), and the Shanghai megacity in China (Pan et al., 2018).
The ecological sustainability of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region is a crucial concern that significantly influences the well-being and long-term prospects of society. Given the prevailing circumstances of drought, water scarcity, environmental resource depletion, and climate change, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive and scientifically rigorous assessment of agricultural production systems. This evaluation should be accompanied by the development of viable solutions aimed at enhancing these systems. In this context, the utilisation of the emergy footprint analysis method presents a viable prospect. By considering the entirety of the environmental resources utilised and generated by the system, this approach enables the assessment of the ecological sustainability of the system through the utilisation of comparable indicators. The objective of this study is to assess the ecological sustainability of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region through the application of emergy footprint analysis. In order to accomplish this objective, the research inquiries are outlined as follows:
What is the assessment of the environmental carrying capacity, ecological footprint, ecological surplus, and environmental security of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region?
What is the sustainability performance of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region, and which systems demonstrate greater efficiency and resilience?
What potential measures can be implemented to enhance the ecological sustainability of agricultural production systems in the Sistan region?