Abstract
There is a growing consensus that sustainable development requires a behavioral change, forced by firm decision-making. However, existing decision-supporting tools are unlikely to provide relevant information, hampered by the complexity of combined socio-economic and natural systems. Protecting the intrinsic value of ecosystems and providing sufficient natural resources for human use at the same time leads up to a wide span of management, ranging from species traits to governance. The aim of this study is to investigate the interactions between the natural and economic systems from the perspective of sustainable development. The way to reduce systems complexity by selecting key factors of ecosystem functioning for policy and management purposes is discussed. To achieve this, the Pentatope Model is used as a holistic framework, an ecosystem nodes network is developed to select key factors, and a combined natural and socio-economic valuation scheme is drawn. These key factors—abiotic resources and conditions, biodiversity, and biomass—are considered fundamental to the ecosystem properties habitat range and carrying capacity. Their characteristics are discussed in relation to sustainable water management. The conclusion is that sustainable development requires environmental decision-making that includes the intrinsic natural value, and should be supported by ecological modelling, additional environmental quality standards, and substance balances.
Highlights
As natural resources become scarce and ecosystems seem to degrade despite of all improvement measures, continuous resources abstraction is subject to a broad public debate, fed by an increasing demand for resources, restrictions on their use, and climate change [1]
Ecological economics is the scientific domain dealing with the availability, use and allocation of natural resources, envisaging sustainable development within a societal equilibrium
A societal equilibrium aims to define the amount of ecosystem goods that can be obtained from nature, enabling economic growth, welfare and social well-being, without causing ecosystem damage
Summary
As natural resources become scarce and ecosystems seem to degrade despite of all improvement measures, continuous resources abstraction is subject to a broad public debate, fed by an increasing demand for resources, restrictions on their use, and climate change [1]. These examples broaden the discussion from physical resource flows to policy and management They lead to the basic idea of ‘inclusive development’, and in particular to ecological inclusiveness, aiming to safeguard biodiversity and ES G&Ss by reducing resource extraction and pollution, to value ecosystems and natural wealth, to address socio-ecological issues applying multi-level governance strategies, and to ensure access and allocation of resources [3]. This makes sustainability subject to quantification and valuation as illustrated by, amongst others, the European Commission’s integrated ecosystem assessment [15]
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