Abstract
Thresholds are an emergent property of complex systems and Coupled Natural Human Systems (CNH) because they indicate “tipping points” where a complicated array of social, environmental, and/or economic processes combine to substantially change a system’s state. Because of the elegance of the concept, thresholds have emerged as one of the primary tools by which socio-political systems simplify, define, and especially regulate complex environmental impacts and resource scarcity considerations. This paper derives a general framework for the use of thresholds to calculate scarcity footprints, and presents a volumetric Threshold-based Water Footprint (TWF), comparing it with the Blue Water Footprint (BWF) and the Relevant for Environmental Deficiency (RED) midpoint impact indicator. Specific findings include (a) one requires all users’ BWF to calculate an individual user’s TWF, whereas one can calculate an individual user’s BWF without other users’ data; (b) local maxima appear in the Free from Environmental Deficiency (FED) efficiency of the RED metric due to its nonlinear form; and (c) it is possible to estimate the “effective” threshold that is approximately implied by the RED water use impact metric.
Highlights
The 21st century’s problems are increasingly systemic and rooted in the indirect connections of a complex Coupled Natural–Human system (CNH) [1]
This paper presents the simple mathematics of a Threshold-based Water Footprint (TWF), which is a special case of the generalized Threshold-based Footprint (FT)
To compare Blue Water Footprint (BWF), Relevant for Environmental Deficiency (RED), from Environmental Deficiency (FED), TWF, and FWF, a synthetic experiment is constructed for a theoretical stream flow
Summary
The 21st century’s problems are increasingly systemic and rooted in the indirect connections of a complex Coupled Natural–Human system (CNH) [1]. Decision making is confounded by indirect effects, joint effects, and unintended consequences. Leaders are calling for the development of sustainability metrics that link decisions to their systemic consequences [2]. Threshold metrics indicate “tipping points” where a complicated array of social, environmental, and/or economic processes combine to substantially change a system’s state. Because of the elegance of the concept, thresholds have emerged as one of the primary tools by which socio-political systems simplify, define, and especially regulate complex environmental impacts. The elegance of thresholds makes them both very useful and very dangerous, because they facilitate both simplification and oversimplification of the concept of “impact” in complex systems. It is important to develop methods of characterization for human consumption and its impacts that are compatible with the ubiquitous threshold-based regulatory paradigm
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