Ecological Footprint in Selected GCC Economies: The Roles of Water Withdrawals, Food Imports, Governance, Urbanization, Income, and Energy Use

Freshwater scarcity, dependence on food imports, and rapid urban development are key drivers of environmental pressure in the selected GCC countries, and this study examines how these factors relate to the ecological footprint in arid, high-income settings. Using an extended STIRPAT framework, the analysis covers Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar over 2000–2024 and includes annual freshwater withdrawals, food imports, government effectiveness, control of corruption, urbanization, GDP per capita, and energy use. The empirical approach combines PMG-ARDL estimation, method-of-moments quantile regression, standardized coefficients, and robustness checks using Driscoll–Kraay, panel-corrected, and feasible generalized least squares estimators. The results indicate that annual freshwater withdrawals, GDP per capita, and energy use are the variables most consistently and positively associated with the ecological footprint across the main specifications, whereas food imports are generally negatively associated with it. By contrast, the associations for government effectiveness, control of corruption, and urbanization are less stable across estimators. Standardized quantile estimates further suggest that annual freshwater withdrawals have a relatively larger association with ecological footprint at the median and upper quantiles. Because the sample is restricted to four selected GCC countries, the findings should be interpreted accordingly rather than applying to the GCC as a whole.

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