Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis Of Societal And Ecosystem Metabolism Research Articles

Scarcity in abundance: The challenges of promoting energy access in the Southern African region

The paper deals with the challenges of energy access, efficiency and security as essential conditions to improve people's living in the Southern African region. It supports energy policies by providing material for an integrated assessment of alternative energy systems at national level. Taking the example of Namibia, the paper applies the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to assess the energy systems and scenarios. Using historical data from 2000 through 2013, the authors initially characterize energy supply and demand conditions of Namibia. Subsequently they conducted simulation analyses to find out a desirable energy policy to promote energy access in Namibia through 2030 under various environmental and societal constraints. The simulation results reveal that sustainable energy access in remote areas can be better achieved by small-scale distributed renewable energy systems rather than by large-scale energy technologies. Moreover, the study shows that energy policies should adopt a broader perspective to face the challenges of sustainable energy access in countries of the Southern African region by designing alternative development pathways rather than focusing on implementing new energy technologies.

Urban metabolism of megacities: A comparative analysis of Shanghai, Tokyo, London and Paris to inform low carbon and sustainable development pathways

Megacities consume a large amount of energy and materials, leading to various environmental impacts. In this paper, multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) is applied to compare and analyze the metabolic characteristics of four global megacities. This paper extends the analytical framework of MuSIASEM to the N-3 level (detailed industries) providing a higher level of details than current applications. Based on model results, among the four global megacities, Shanghai's labor productivity and energy efficiency are lowest given its large manufacturing sector and complex industrial structure. Tokyo's labor productivity is the highest with a productive tertiary sector. London has the lowest exosomatic energy metabolic rate and a mature tertiary sector. Paris has the best social welfare system. Such results highlight key factors affecting the metabolic pathways of the respective cities and provide city planners and policy-makers critical information to support green growth and low carbon development.

Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Charcoal Production in Complex Social-Ecological Systems

We propose and illustrate multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) as a tool to bring nexus thinking into practice. MuSIASEM studies the relations over the structural and functional components of social-ecological systems that determine the entanglement of water, energy and food flows in a complex metabolic pattern. MuSIASEM simultaneously considers various dimensions and multiple scales of analysis and therefore avoids the predicament of quantitative analysis based on reductionism (one dimension and one scale at the time). The different functional elements of society (the parts) are characterized using the concept of ‘processor’, that is, a profile of expected inputs and outputs associated with the expression of a specific function. The processors of the functional elements of the social-ecological system can be scaled-up to describe the metabolic pattern of the system as a whole, and scaled-down by considering the characteristics of its lower-level parts – i.e. the different processors associated with the structural elements required to express the specific function. An analysis of functional elements provides insight in the socio-economic factors that pose internal constraints on the development of the system. An analysis of structural elements makes it possible to study the compatibility of the system with external constraints (availability of natural resources and ecological services) in spatial terms. The usefulness of the approach is illustrated in relation to the use of charcoal in a rural village of Laos.

A societal metabolism approach to job creation and renewable energy transitions in Catalonia

This paper examines the feasibility of renewable energy transition scenarios and employment requirements on a backdrop of the objectives as described by the energy and climate change plan in Catalonia (PECAC 2012–2020). The analysis uses the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach as a framework for bringing together information regarding the demographic change, allocation of working hours, as well as mapping energy flows metabolized through the different compartments of the socio-economic system. Results indicate that the implementation of the energy plan in Catalonia would result in an increase in the overall energy metabolic rate by 2020, meaning 10% more energy is to be consumed per hour available in society. We conclude that this increase is linked to the need for greater primary energy sources for a transition to renewable energy sources, as well as the need for increasing skilled jobs to perform these tasks in the energy sector. For the case of Catalonia, we conclude that this would correlate to a requirement between 8000 and 23,000 new jobs that will imply a shifting in current metabolic patterns should such a transition take place.

Development of a municipal solid waste management decision support tool for Naples, Italy

Naples has experienced serious waste mismanagement during the last several decades. Illegal waste trafficking, the lack of an appropriate municipal solid waste management plan, and the subsidizing of energy generation from indiscriminate waste incineration generated social unrest and an unremitting paralysis of waste services throughout much of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The waste situation in Naples is a “hot spot” that cannot be simply described or explained by theoretical and linear models or analyses based on conventional waste indicators. A novel approach for the assessment of urban solid waste management system performance is proposed to overcome the limitations of conventional methods. When dealing with the production and use of scientific information for governance, scientists, especially those used to just “crunch numbers” have a serious problems in providing a useful input to the process of decision making. This paper presents a method useful for organizing a process of production and use of scientific information in which both scientists and the other social actors can have a bidirectional and constructive exchange of information. The goal of this method is to guarantee the quality of the process of generation and use of quantitative science to generate informed deliberations about policies over Municipal Solid Waste Management. The proposed approach builds on metabolic network theory and multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM). The current metabolic pattern of municipal solid waste in the Metropolitan Area of Naples is described and quantified across hierarchical scales and dimensions. The analysis shows that the current Neapolitan waste management system is characterized by an elevated share (60%) of waste treated outside of the metropolitan ambit, and a low rate of separate collection (37%). Simulation of (i) metropolitan self-sufficiency of urban waste final disposal, and (ii) increased recycling rate show, respectively (i) an increase in both financial burden and local environmental impact; (ii) a lessening of the local environmental impact and an increase of running costs and higher need of local waste processing capacity.

Sustainability Multivariate Analysis of the Energy Consumption of Ecuador Using MuSIASEM and BIPLOT Approach

Rapid economic growth, expanding populations and increasing prosperity are driving up demand for energy, water and food, especially in developing countries. To understand the energy consumption of a country, we used the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach. The MuSIASEM is an innovative approach to accounting that integrates quantitative information generated by distinct types of conventional models based on different dimensions and scales of analysis. The main objective of this work is to enrich the MuSIASEM approach with information from multivariate methods in order to improve the efficiency of existing models of sustainability. The Biplot method permits the joint plotting, in a reduced dimension of the rows (individuals) and columns (variables) of a multivariate data matrix. We found, in the case study of Ecuador, that the highest values of the Exosomatic Metabolic Rate (EMR) per economic sector and Economic Labor Productivity (ELP) are located in the Productive Sector (PS). We conclude that the combination of the MuSIASEM variables with the HJ-Biplot allows us to easily know the detailed behavior of the labor productivity and energy consumption of a country.

Conceptualising slum in an urban African context

Increasing urbanisation and the proliferation of slums require a holistic understanding of the urban metabolism of cities. However, existing urban metabolic analyses exclude a detailed understanding of how urban slums function and contribute to biophysical, including energy, flows. This paper aims at filling this gap by critically investigating the notion of the urban slum in general, the extent to which it differs in the African context, specifically in South Africa, and broadening the understanding of urban slum based on the concept of urban metabolism, using the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach, which was applied to the Enkanini informal settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The analysis shows that South Africa has a more nuanced typology of the notion of urban slums categorised as: (i) townships; (ii) housing-turned-slum; (iii) squatter camps; (iv) site and service settlements; (v) transit camps; and (vi) hybrid multi-structured settlements. Beyond these definitions, the case study illustrates that urban slums, however defined, are complex systems with their own internal flows and processes that are connected in a myriad of ways to the larger urban system. The investigation into the use of Time, Money and Energy in the Enkanini case further revealed the productive (hypercyclic) and consumptive (dissipative) nature of the components of the urban informal settlement. This type of analysis reveals new insights into the linkages between urban informal settlements and the city.

An integrated multi-scale approach to assess the performance of energy systems illustrated with data from the Brazilian oil and natural gas sector

We apply Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) to the performance of society's energy system, and illustrate our approach with data from the Brazilian oil and natural gas sector. Key features of MuSIASEM include the multi-scale property and use of grammars. The former builds on a dual definition of the energy system: functional components or (sub)sectors are described as aggregate energy flows (extensive variables) using top-down information from statistics, while structural components (plants, technologies) are described as unitary operations (intensive variables). Integrating descriptions, we can scale information across the energy system's complex hierarchical organization. Use of an energy grammar mandates the pre-analytical definition of accounting categories, primary energy sources and energy carriers; thermal (e.g., fuels) and mechanical energy (e.g., electricity), and a set of expected relations over the different energy forms. Our preliminary analysis shows that MuSIASEM effectively describes the required investment of energy carriers (in quantity and quality) and other production factors, such as labor, in society's energy sector.

Changes of human time and land use pattern in one mega city's urban metabolism: a multi-scale integrated analysis of Shanghai

Human time and land use are important elements in terms of one mega city's urban metabolism, thus, it is critical to find an integrated approach to evaluate their contributions. In this paper a dual-fund analytical framework has been developed by employing the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to analyze the metabolic pattern of one mega city from economic, social and ecological dimensions. A case study of Shanghai was undertaken to study its historical pattern changes and evaluate the possible results with the implementation of the 13th Five Year Plan. Research results show that shanghai relied on the extraneous labor force to fulfill the need of working hours and economic transition in Shanghai occurred with the booming development of tertiary sector. Shanghai's land resource is very scarce to meet its need of development, leading to a need of adopting integrated efforts to. In order to achieve the proposed targets, economic labor productivity and land use performance should be improved through the application of various measures, including industrial and energy structure optimization, energy saving, capacity building and circular economy.

Toward an integrated assessment of the performance of photovoltaic power stations for electricity generation

In this paper a photovoltaic (PV) technologies for electricity generation accounting scheme is proposed and applied. The adopted scheme aims to overcome limitations of conventional indicators such as EROI (Energy Return on Investment) and EPBT (Energy Payback Time) and to present a more comprehensive description of energy and material transformations. The proposed methodology is based on the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach. In this work, four dimensions of sustainability which should be addressed for the purpose of identifying the limiting factors of photovoltaic systems for electricity production are presented: Energy and Material Accessibility; Environmental Health Desirability; Technological Achievability; and Socioeconomic Acceptability. In relation to these four dimensions, the direct and indirect requirements of flow and fund elements (silver, energy carriers and water as flows; human time and land as funds) in photovoltaic power stations based on crystalline silicon wafer cells are evaluated and the implications of the overall performance and limitations of the present PV systems are discussed. These parameters are also compared with other electricity production technologies as well as benchmarked against the performance of the energy and mining sector of a modern country (Spain). It is concluded that the availability of silver could constrain photovoltaic cell manufacturing. Furthermore, the low power density of photovoltaic installations could drive a remarkable land rush. Finally, the human labor allocated in the fund-making process could represent a serious constraint in respect to the requirements of the metabolism of modern societies.

Understanding slums: analysis of the metabolic pattern of the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This paper illustrates an innovative approach to characterize the metabolic pattern of informal urban settlements or slums with the aim to better understand the factors that affect the material standard of living of slum residents, the dynamics of slum development and the interaction of the slum with its wider socioeconomic context. The proposed system of accounting, multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM), integrates socioeconomic and spatial data and studies energy and monetary flows in relation to the pattern of human activities and land uses. The theoretical basis of the approach is illustrated with data from Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In particular, we show how to construct taxonomies of accounting categories to characterize: (1) the set of activities carried out by the slum dwellers, to which to link assessments of flow rates per hour; (2) the set of land uses or spatial elements making up the slum, to which to link assessments of flow densities per hectare. The analysis of the interaction of Vidigal with its wider socioeconomic context focuses on monetary flows and transport (job commuting).

A holistic framework for the integrated assessment of urban waste management systems

We report on the development of a holistic framework to organize and integrate quantitative information characterizing the performance of Urban Waste Management Systems (UWMS) across dimensions and scales. The framework builds on the theory of metabolic networks and the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting method. We perceive the UWMS as an organ of a socio-ecological system that modulates the interaction between the metabolic processes of the urban area and those of the embedding ecosystems providing inputs and local sink capacity. Building on these premises, we can define: (i) the flow of wastes produced by the urban system in quantity and quality; (ii) the mix of inputs required for the operation of the different stages of the waste management process, such as technology, labor, energy, water and material flows; (iii) the degree of openness of the system, that is, the imports and exports of urban waste flows in the different stages of its operation; (iv) the final outputs released into the local environment. The proposed framework can accommodate various indicators referring to the socio-economic performance of the UWMS (viability and desirability) and those related to environmental impact/stress (feasibility). Theoretical considerations are illustrated with preliminary data from a case study on the Metropolitan Area of Naples, Italy.

Energy metabolism of the Balearic Islands (1986–2012)

Researchers from multiple disciplines point to the link between fossil fuel consumption and socio-ecological deterioration. Studying the energy metabolism of the Balearic Islands (1986–2012) gives insights on the ecological, economic and social consequences of regional specialization in mass tourism. The methodology applied, Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM), has been developed in the last decades to analyze societal metabolism from the perspective of complex systems. This study has allowed us to see that since the entry of Spain in the European Economic Community in 1986, the real-state/tourism business model has been reinforced giving place to a higher level of consumption of fossil fuels, an increase in work instability and a diminishing of labor productivity.

A Metabolic Profile of Peru: An Application of Multi‐Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) to the Mining Sector's Exosomatic Energy Flows

SummaryThe present Peru's metabolic profile study poses the specific question, What are the long‐term national energy system implications of the recent government‐supported growth of the mining sector? The question is addressed by analyzing interactions between human economic activity (in hours) and electricity input flows (in joules) in the mining sector of the Peruvian economy in 2000 and 2010, with a projection for 2020. The methodology is based on the multi‐scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM), which is an application of Georgescu‐Roegen's bioeconomics approach. Empirical results found for the national economy show: (1) the massive increase in size of the energy system, which is explained by exploitation of the Camisea natural gas (NG) reserves, and (2) the potential for establishing a carbon lock‐in in the electricity sector, owing to increasing construction of electricity plants based on NG as their primary energy source. Empirical results specific to the mining sector indicate: (1) the extremely high electricity metabolic rate of the mining sector (61.6 megajoules per hour in 2010), which was found to be 11 times the rate of electricity used per hour of human activity in the building and manufacturing sector in Peru, and (b) the potential increases in the proportion of electricity used in the mining sector (flow share), which could jeopardize the availability of high‐quality primary energy supplies for the rest of society. In light of these implications, it is argued that the Peruvian government's strong support for growth of the mining sector may have to be reconsidered.

Bioeconomic sustainability and modelling energy systems

Modelling energy systems in the neoclassical economic approach has been done for many years; however, from the point of view of bioeconomic sustainability, this approach does not measure the true energy costs to society. Problems such as the global energy crisis, energy-efficiency-related issues, CO2 emissions and climate change require alternative approaches, more interdisciplinary. This paper briefly presents some examples of models used to examine energy systems. Jevons paradox and the rebound effect are discussed in the context of energy efficiency and bioeconomic sustainability. The multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) built on the conceptual base of Georgescu-Roegen's 'minimal' bioeconomic programme is introduced as an alternative approach.

Analogy between Sudoku and the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism

This paper illustrates the analogy between Sudoku and the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM). MuSIASEM is a transdisciplinary approach aimed at checking the viability, desirability and feasibility of actual and projected metabolic patterns of society. Building on Georgescu-Roegen's flow-fund model, it defines what the system is in terms of fund elements (human activity, managed land, power capacity), and what it does in terms of flow elements (energy, food, water, monetary flows). The accounting method of MuSIASEM generates a multi-scale, multi-dimensional representation of flow and fund elements that shares essential features with Sudoku, including mutual information and impredicativity between bottom–up and top–down causality. Data organization employed in MuSIASEM reveals the internal and external constraints that operate on the societal metabolic pattern and that determine its viability and feasibility domain. The dynamic equilibrium between the hypercyclic and dissipative macro-compartments of society expresses itself as a regional constraint on the viability of the metabolic pattern. The MuSIASEM approach is illustrated with case studies including the energy metabolism of Spain and the metabolic pattern of Mauritius.

Poverty, Socioeconomic Metabolism, and the Multi-scale Integrated Analysis Approach

Envisioning socioeconomic systems as metabolic systems allowed Georgescu-Roegen to build a ‘flow-fund’ model of production. Striving to implement Georgescu-Roegen's bioeconomic paradigm some of his followers designed a method of meta-analysis (as a higher level of analysis) of the socioeconomic metabolism subject to the laws of thermodynamics called Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM). The resulting multi-scale integrated analytical toolkit was devised to investigate tradeoffs and synergies between different development goals. This paper introduces the basic MuSIASEM terminology and investigates the use of this approach to analyze the multidimensional concept of poverty, concept essential to a sustainable economy.

Multi-scale integrated analysis of rural Laos: Studying metabolic patterns of land uses across different levels and scales

This paper presents an application of the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to the analysis of rural land uses. Using secondary data on farming systems in Laos, we illustrate how the concept of metabolic pattern can be used to establish links between the various indicators of performance of rural systems. To this purpose, we characterize the socioeconomic activities in rural Laos by a series of quantitative indicators defined across: (i) different hierarchical levels of organization described at different scales (i.e. households, rural villages, administrative regions and the whole country) and (ii) different dimensions of analysis, including economic, agronomic, social, biophysical, and ecological analysis. The MuSIASEM approach simultaneously employs two non-equivalent criteria for quantification. The observed rural system is described in terms of an integrated set of flow elements (money, food, energy, water, fertilizer and other materials), which are mapped against two distinct fund elements: (i) a multi-level matrix of human activity (flows being expressed in terms of intensity per hour) and (ii) a multi-level matrix of land uses (flows being expressed as density per hectare). Our case study shows that in this way it is possible to move across different hierarchical levels, scales and dimensions, to arrive at an integrated representation of the metabolic pattern of farming systems.

A multi-scale analysis of urban waste metabolism: density of waste disposed in Campania

The waste crisis in Campania has inspired a vast amount of studies. Nevertheless, very little research has been done to explain the figures of waste generation and disposal in the region. The analyses carried out so far according to the indicators used by official statistics – i.e. Waste Generated, Waste Generated per capita and Separate Collection – fail to represent this hot spot case. This paper attempts to bridge this gap. Adopting the rationale of a new accounting system, the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM), two waste indicators are proposed to complement the conventional ones: the Metabolic Rate of Waste and the Density of Waste. Then a multi-scale analysis of the Density of Waste Disposed (DWD) tests its suitability to characterise Campania’s waste patterns. The data cover the period from 1999 to 2007. The results show that the DWD complements available indicators and further helps to explain the biophysical pressure and ecological unsustainability of the waste management in the region. The multi-scale analysis shows that regional data hide a relevant territorial diversity, emergent in the provincial analysis and even more so in the municipal one. These results have implications for governance and for the debate about mono-scale versus multi-scale solutions to waste management problems. Finally, the analysis allows some analytical generalisations on the suitability of the DWD to detect situations of potential waste crisis in other study-contexts.

Generating better energy indicators: Addressing the existence of multiple scales and multiple dimensions

High energy prices and the growing concern for “Peak Oil” have put energy analysis, once again, on the front burner. However, before speculating about possible roadmaps regarding our energy future, it would be wise to develop better quantitative analyses. This paper flags the existence of systemic epistemological flaws in the current use of aggregate energy indicators and presents an alternative approach capable of dealing with the issue of multiple dimensions and multiple scales. Starting from a critical appraisal of the aggregate indicator “Economic Energy Intensity” it shows that economic and biophysical variables are often correlated and that their value is determined by characteristics which can only observed across different levels and scales. Complex metabolic systems (systems that use energy to maintain and reproduce themselves) are operating simultaneously at different scales. This implies that changes in the characteristics of parts, defined at the local scale, and changes in the characteristics of the whole, defined at the large scale can only be obtained after establishing a scaling mechanism in the analysis. In order to deal with the issue of scale in energy accounting, we propose to make a distinction between three different categories: (i) primary energy sources (PES) – establishing a link between energy quantities and the associated requirement of biophysical gradients, at the large scale, on the interface black-box/context; (ii) energy carriers (EC) – defining the set of energy inputs required by technical devices for expressing useful functions, at the local scale, within the parts operating inside the black-box; (iii) end uses (EU) the set of functions to be expressed by society across hierarchical levels for reproducing itself. Finally, the paper presents examples of quantitative results obtained using an innovative method of analysis – Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM). We conclude that by using this new accounting method it is possible to generate a better understanding of external and internal constraints determining the desirability and viability of the metabolic pattern of societies.