Indicators of sustainable land use: Concepts for the analysis of society-nature interrelations and implications for sustainable development

Session: Environmental Management, Sustainability and Development Sustainable development aims at shaping the socio-economic behavior towards nature in ways that guarantee the preservation of the life-supporting natural systems for future generations. Moreover, it seeks to achieve some kind of ?global justice" with respect to the distribution of natural resources. Steps towards sustainability require fundamental changes in the prevailing production and consumption patterns and lifestyles in the industrial centers of the world. These changes will be influenced by framework conditions set by economic and environmental policy. Indicators may help to understand and describe developments too complex to be grasped as a whole. They make phenomena or trends visible and may be seen as "empirical models of reality". Indicators can support economic and environmental policy by contributing to a simplification and quantification of complex environmental problems. The proposed contribution will analyze the "empirical models" indicator systems put forward recently, e.g. by the World Resources Institute and Eurostat and the "ecological footprint / sustainable process index" concept of Wackernagel, Rees and Narodoslawsky. It will then propose a model which relies on two concepts for the interaction of societies with their natural environment: 1 / Socio-economic metabolism, i.e. the material and energy flows between socio-economic systems and their natural environment. 2 / The colonization of nature, i.e. the conundrum of deliberate interventions into natural systems aimed at their "improvement" with respect to socio-economic goals. These concepts are used to develop "pressure indicators", i.e. indicators which describe socio-economic processes which are highly likely to have environmentally detrimental consequences. These pressure indicators may be used to analyze if current socio-economic trends are directed towards sustainable development. These environmental indicators can be linked to economic actors (economic sectors or activities) as well as to economic indicators, such as the system of national accounts (SNA). They may thus support economic and environmental policy making. Together with "state indicators" which describe socio-economic as well as natural "stocks" (e.g. biodiversity, environmental quality, material infrastructure etc.) and so-called "response indicators" which trace policy measures aimed at alleviating environmental problems, pressure indicators can be used to develop comprehensive systems of sustainability indicators. The proposed contribution will focus on the regional / spatial aspects of such indicator systems. It will draw from the on-going research project "Colonizing Landscapes - Indicators of Sustainable Land Use" in the framework of the Austrian research program "Sustainable Development of Cultural Landscapes". Keywords: Indicators, land use, sustainability, pressures on the environment, economic activities, physical economy, colonization of nature, socio-economic metabolism

The Dematerialization Potential of the Australian Economy

In this paper we test the long term dematerialization potential for Australia in terms of materials, energy, and water use as well as CO2 emissions, by introducing concrete targets for major sectors. Major improvements in the construction and housing, transport and mobility, and food and nutrition sectors in the Australian economy, if coupled with significant reductions in the resource export sectors, would substantially improve the current material, energy and emission intensive pattern of Australia’s production and consumption system. Using the Australian Stocks and Flows framework we model all system interactions to understand the contributions of large scale changes in technology, infrastructure and lifestyle to decoupling the economy from the environment. The modelling shows a considerable reduction in natural resource use, while energy and water use decrease to a much lesser extent because a reduction in natural resource consumption creates a trade-off in energy use. It also shows that trade and economic growth may continue, but at a reduced rate compared with a business-as-usual scenario. The findings of our modelling are discussed in light of the large body of literature on dematerialization, eco-efficiency and rebound effects that may occur when efficiency is increased. We argue that Australia cannot rely on incremental efficiency gains but has to undergo a sustainability transition to achieve a low carbon future to keep in line with the international effort to avoid climate change and resource use conflicts. We touch upon the institutional changes that would be required to guide a sustainability transition in the Australian economy, such as, for instance, an emission trading scheme.dematerialization, physical accounting, stocks and flows, resource productivity, material flows, Australia

Growth, the Environment and Keynes: Reflections on Two Heterodox Schools of Thought

This paper explores the approach of Post Keynesian Economics (PKE) in comparison with ecological economics. While PKE, like all macroeconomics, has failed to address environmental problems it does have many aspects which make compatibility with ecological economics seem feasible. Ecological economics has no specific macroeconomic approach although it has strong implications for economic growth and how this should be controlled, directed and in materials terms limited. We highlight growth as the key area of difference and reflect upon how Keynes himself saw capital accumulation as a means to an end not an end in itself, regarded it as a temporary measure and also was well aware of some of its psychological and social drawbacks.environment, Keynes, post keynesian, ecological economics

The Biophysical Perspective of a Middle Income Economy: Material Flows in Mexico

In this paper we analyse natural resource use dynamics in the Mexican economy during the last three decades. Despite low and uneven economic growth, the extraction and use of materials in the Mexican economy has continuously increased over the last 30 years. During this time, population growth, rather than economic growth, has been the main driving force for biophysical growth. In addition, a fundamental change in the primary sectors, in manufacturing as well as in household consumption, has taken place and is reflected in an increasing importance of fossil fuel and construction materials use. Mexico’s economy is strongly influenced by international trade since the country has opened up for competition on international markets. In the 1970s, Mexico’s main export was primary resources. This has changed and manufactured goods now have much greater importance due to a boom in assembling industries. Mexico, unlike other Latin American countries, has achieved a diversification of production moving towards technology intensive products and now has a better mix in its export portfolio. However, crude oil exports still represent the single most important export commodity. Mexico’s material consumption is still well bellow the OECD average but is growing fast and the current resource use patterns may well present serious social and environmental problems for the medium and long term sustainability of Mexico’s economy and communities. Information on natural resource use and resource productivity could provide valuable information to guide economic policy planning for Mexico’s future.physical accounting, material flows, resource productivity, Mexico

The biophysical perspective of a middle income economy: Material Flows in Mexico

We analyse natural resource use dynamics in the Mexican economy during the last three decades. Despite low and uneven economic growth, the extraction and use of materials in the Mexican economy has continuously increased during the last 30 years. In this period, population growth rather than economic growth was the main driving force for biophysical growth. In addition, fundamental changes have taken place in the primary sectors, in manufacturing, and in household consumption and these are reflected in an increasing emphasis on the use of fossil fuels and construction materials. Mexico’s economy has been strongly influenced by international trade since the country commenced competing in international markets. In the 1970s, Mexico mainly exported primary resources. This pattern has changed and manufactured goods now have a much greater importance due to a boom in assembling industries. In contrast with other Latin American countries, Mexico has achieved a diversification of production, moving towards technology-intensive products and a better mix in its export portfolio. However, crude oil exports still represent the single most important export good. Mexico’s material consumption is still well below the OECD average but is growing fast and the current resource use patterns may well present serious social and environmental problems to the medium and long term sustainability of Mexico’s economy and community. Information on natural resource use and resource productivity could provide valuable guidance for economic policy planning in Mexico.Natural resources, resource use patterns and dynamics, physical accounting, material flows, resource use efficiency, Mexico

Socio-Ecological Regime Transitions in Austria and the United Kingdom

We employ the concepts of socio-ecological regime and regime transition to better understand the biophysical causes and consequences of industrialization. For two case studies, the United Kingdom and Austria, we describe two steps in a major transition from an agrarian to an industrial socio-ecological regime and the resulting consequences for energy use, land use and labour organization. As the first step, the coal based industrial regime co-existed with an agricultural sector remaining within the bounds of the old regime. In the second step, the oil/electricity based industrial regime, agriculture was integrated into the new pattern and the socio-ecological transition had been completed. Industrialization offers answers to the input and growth related sustainability problems of the agrarian regime but creates new sustainability problems of a larger scale. While today?s industrial societies are stabilizing their resource use, albeit at an unsustainable level, large parts of the global society are in the midst of the old industrial transition. This poses severe problems for global sustainability.socio-ecological regimes, metabolic profiles, transition, social metabolism, energy flows, land use, labour, industrialization, United Kingdom, Austria

Long Term Trends in Resource Exergy Consumption and Useful Work Supplies in the UK, 1900-2000

Our aim is to explain historical economic growth in the UK economy by introducing an empirical measure for useful work derived from natural resource energy inputs into an augmented production function. To do this, we estimate the long-term (1900-2000) trends in resource exergy supply and conversion to useful work in the United Kingdom. The exergy resources considered included domestic consumption of coal, crude oil and petroleum products, natural gas, nuclear and renewable resources (including biomass). All flows of exergy were allocated to an end use such as providing heat, light, transport, human and animal work and electrical power. For each end-use we estimated a time dependent efficiency of conversion from exergy to useful work. The 3-factor production function (of capital, labour and useful work) is able to reproduce the historic trajectory of economic growth without recourse to any exogenous assumptions of technological progress or total factor productivity. The results indicate that useful work derived from natural resource exergy is an important factor of production.exergy, energy, efficiency, economic growth, United Kingdom

Different trajectories of exosomatic energy metabolism for Brazil, Chile and Venezuela: using the MSIASM approach

Economic development goes hand in hand with an increase in the consumption of natural resources. Some analysts use material flows to describe such relationship [Eurostat 2001, Weisz et al., 2006], or exergy [Ayres et al., 2003]. Instead this paper will use a characterisation of the exosomatic energy metabolism based on expected benchmark values to describe possible constraints to economic development posed by available human time and energy. The aim of the paper is to identify types of exosomatic energy metabolism of different societies to interpret its consequences for economic development. This is done with the application of the accounting methodology called Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM) to the particular case of energy metabolism for the analysis of the economies of Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.Development, Energy, Social Metabolism, MSIASM, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela

Socio-metabolic Transitions in Developing Asia

A possible sustainability transition in developing Asia needs to complement the ongoing transition from an agrarian to an industrial socio-ecological regime. As is known from other world regions, an agrarian-industrial transition involves a major increase in material and energy flows (corresponding to a 2-4 fold increase in the demand for raw materials and energy). The socio-metabolic profile of the South-East Asian region still shows relatively low material and energy consumption per capita, suggesting that major growth may follow. Infrastructures that are closely bound-up in bulk material flows (transport, energy and food sectors) will be critical to future developments. The paper illustrates the challenge and potential solutions from a number of case studies.socio-ecological regime, metabolic profile, industrial transformation, developing Asia, sustainability transition