Publications
Assessing the circularity of nutrient flows related to the food system in the Okanagan bioregion, BC Canada. Journal Article
Harder, Robin; Giampietro, Mario; Mullinix, Kent; Smukler, Sean
In: Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 174 , pp. 105842, 2021, ISSN: 09213449.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agriculture, Circularity, Feed and food trade, Food systems, Nutrient flows, System openness
@article{Harder2021,
title = {Assessing the circularity of nutrient flows related to the food system in the Okanagan bioregion, BC Canada.},
author = {Robin Harder and Mario Giampietro and Kent Mullinix and Sean Smukler},
url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0921344921004511},
doi = {10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105842},
issn = {09213449},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-01},
journal = {Resources, Conservation and Recycling},
volume = {174},
pages = {105842},
publisher = {Elsevier},
abstract = {The “circular bioeconomy” is extensively discussed in science and policy, and its implementation in practice is considered to be a panacea for fixing many current sustainability problems. The circular bioeconomy crucially depends on biological and technical processes capable of recycling nutrients in the right mix, at the right pace, and using only renewable energy. The current lack of circularity of nutrient flows is a critical factor that hampers sustainable food and bioeconomy systems. If we are serious about the sustainability of food and bioeconomy systems, we have to develop more robust tools to study (diagnose) and explore (simulate) the factors determining the circularity of nutrient flows. This paper applies a novel analytical framework to assess the circularity of nutrient flows in modern food systems. This framework can help understand the potentialities of proposed changes in relation to reducing nutrient losses and the dependence on nutrients mined from finite deposits. More specifically, in this paper, we illustrate a quantitative assessment of the flows of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium in a case study \textendash the food system of the Okanagan bioregion in BC Canada. Our study suggests that the proposed approach is effective to inform nutrient management policies in bioregional food systems. In particular, an assessment of the openness of nutrient flows flags the importance of managing organic residuals for comprehensive nutrient recovery and reuse \textendash an activity that is still often systematically neglected due to large feed and food imports and the availability of cheap synthetic fertilizers. This type of analysis is essential if we want to develop effective policies for more sustainable management of nutrients in food and bioeconomy systems.},
keywords = {Agriculture, Circularity, Feed and food trade, Food systems, Nutrient flows, System openness},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Towards a circular nutrient economy. A novel way to analyze the circularity of nutrient flows in food systems Journal Article
Harder, Robin; Giampietro, Mario; Smukler, Sean
In: Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 172 , pp. 105693, 2021, ISSN: 09213449.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Circularity, Feed and food trade, Nutrient flows, System openness
@article{Harder2021a,
title = {Towards a circular nutrient economy. A novel way to analyze the circularity of nutrient flows in food systems},
author = {Robin Harder and Mario Giampietro and Sean Smukler},
url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0921344921003025},
doi = {10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105693},
issn = {09213449},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-01},
journal = {Resources, Conservation and Recycling},
volume = {172},
pages = {105693},
publisher = {Elsevier},
abstract = {Recent years have seen a steep rise in the interest in nutrient circularity. In the context of food systems and waste management, nutrient circularity seems to generally encompass the reduction of nutrient losses and increased recovery of nutrients from various organic residual streams for reuse in agricultural production. Many studies that aim to contribute to improving nutrient circularity in food systems have limited the analysis to a given geographical area. But nutrient circularity likely looks different when the analysis includes what happens outside the borders of the considered area. This paper presents and discusses an analytical framework that allows for the analysis of nutrient circularity not only inside a given geographical area being considered, but also in those parts of the global food system with which the local food system interacts in terms of feed and food trade. This framework explicitly characterizes the impact of system openness associated with feed and food trade. This enables: (i) a separate discussion of four possible interpretations of nutrient circularity \textendash internal and external input and output circularity; and (ii) an analysis of how these four circularity indicators relate to one another depending on system openness. The proposed analysis can thus reveal the extent to which a high level of nutrient circularity in the considered area comes at the cost of a decreased level of nutrient circularity in the places with which feed and food are traded, or vice versa.},
keywords = {Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Circularity, Feed and food trade, Nutrient flows, System openness},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The water metabolism of socio-ecosystems. Epistemology, methods and applications PhD Thesis
López, Cristina Madrid
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2014, ISBN: 9788449050541.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agriculture, Complex systems, Integrated Water Resources Management, MuSIASEM, Socio-ecological system, Virtual Water
@phdthesis{MadridLopez2014,
title = {The water metabolism of socio-ecosystems. Epistemology, methods and applications},
author = {Cristina Madrid L\'{o}pez},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10803/285540},
isbn = {9788449050541},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
pages = {300},
school = {Universitat Aut\`{o}noma de Barcelona},
abstract = {The research line presented in this dissertation is a first attempt to provide a bridge for the communication between Hydrological studies and Social Metabolism. It was born from the observation that water is neglected in Social Metabolism and that current water science, while certain about the need of evolving towards a more interdisciplinary field, still faces challenges in the connection of social and ecosystem analyses. The contribution made here is the definition of an analytical framework \textendashthe Water Metabolism of Socioecosystems- where this connection can be established and which is formed by a conceptual proposal and a methodological toolkit. The document is divided in three parts where the epistemological, the methodological and the formal novelties of the framework are discussed. Part I covers the epistemological reflections related to the analytical framework. It begins in Chapter 1 with the explanation of the challenges faced by current water science and that relate to the need of finding analytical frameworks that contribute useful inputs to integrated management of the water resources (IWRM). As with the case of other resources, IWRM requires the analytical connection of the social and ecosystem dynamics. As a key piece within Sustainability Science the analogy of the metabolism of societies can be used to establish this connection. However, the metabolism concept needs a close examination before its joint use with other conceptions of the relations between humans and nature. After highlighting the need of considering the societal and ecosystem metabolism of socio-ecosystems as two separate but connected processes, a conceptual scheme is proposed in Chapter 2 to describe the metabolic relations between them. In Chapter 3, this scheme is adapted to the specifics of water using some of the most relevant concepts in socio- and eco-hydrology. In this way the water metabolism of socio-ecosystems is defined as the metabolism of the coupled water-human systems. Part II describes the methodological framework. In Chapter 4 the Multi-Scale Assessment of the Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) is presented as an established framework able to deal with the scale issues and the integration of narratives. MuSIASEM is selected as a root and adapted to the analyses of coupled water-human systems. Since water presents some differences with the previous energy-focus analyses, its adaptation requires the inclusion of new scales of analysis \textendashproblemshed and watershed- and new definitions of water as a metabolite \textendashas flow and fund. In Chapter 5 the differences and synergies between MuSIASEM and the water footprint analysis \textendashas one of the tools of the IWRM- are highlighted. In part III four case studies are presented with two objectives. First, Chapter 6 assesses the sustainability of the metabolic patterns I Punjab and Mauritius in order to test the adaptation of MuSIASEM to water and to show how this type of analyses is made functional. Second, Chapter 7 shows how the water footprint accounting methods can complement the analysis of the water flows in MuSIASEM and how MuSIASEM, in turn an provide a space for their contextualization.},
keywords = {Agriculture, Complex systems, Integrated Water Resources Management, MuSIASEM, Socio-ecological system, Virtual Water},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Dell'Angel, Jampel
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2013, ISBN: 9788449040801.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agriculture, Agronomy, Edaphology, governance, Soil
@phdthesis{DellAngel2013,
title = {Abusing the commons? An integrated institutional analysis of common-pool resource governance in conflict situations},
author = {Jampel Dell'Angel},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10803/129471 https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/129471},
isbn = {9788449040801},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-11-01},
pages = {260},
school = {Universitat Aut\`{o}noma de Barcelona},
abstract = {Governance of natural Common-Pool Resources (CPRs) is a central area of sustainability theory and practice. This arena generally lies at the interface between policy and science. Nevertheless, the conflict nature of CPR governance is often not systematically acknowledged in analytical approaches developed for the study of Social-Ecological Systems (SES) and specifically common-pool resources. This dissertation integrates three different bodies of scholarship\textemdashInstitutional Analysis/Commons Theory, Political Ecology, and Societal Metabolism\textemdashand discusses the complementarities and potentials for bringing them together. Moreover, based on this theoretical discussion, it proposes an integrated and modified version of Elinor Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework. The dissertation illustrates the integration of the proposed modified version of the IAD Framework and its application to two case studies, both related to the governance of CPRs in conflict situations but significantly different in terms of geographical and political-economic contexts, institutional arrangements, and kinds of actors involved. Both cases are related to the ecological condition of critically important watersheds, and in both cases government plays a central role; however, the types of conflict and controversy show distinct characteristics. The two cases are not addressed in a comparative way but the take part in the same iterative theoretical/methodological/empirical process. In the first case, the resettlement programs in the Sanjiangyuan area (literally, three river heads) in Qinghai, People's Republic of China, are investigated. In order to preserve the Sanjiangyuan area, which contains the watersheds of the Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong rivers, the Chinese central government has implemented since the year 2000 a program with the aim of resettling the total nomadic population and move them from the grasslands to new, semi-urban conglomerates, transforming their system of production from a predominantly self-subsistence pastoral mobile system to a sedentary system and promoting their integration into the market economy. In the second case, the policy-science interplay behind the geothermal development plans on Mount Amiata in Tuscany Region, Italy, is investigated. Mount Amiata is one of the most important freshwater reserves of central Italy. It has an aquifer that serves over 700,000 people in southern Tuscany and northern Lazio. However, independent studies, local environmental groups, and citizens associations point out that the geothermal activity is depleting and contaminating the Mount Amiata watershed and increasing the rate of degenerative diseases, morbidity, and mortality in the geothermal areas. This dissertation is presented as a hybrid between a “book format” and “collection of essays format.” It is developed in three parts. In Part I, the methodological, meta-theoretical, and theoretical background are discussed. Part II contains five stand-alone essays that relate to the applications and elaboration of the proposed modified IAD approach. In Part III, a conclusive discussion is presented.},
keywords = {Agriculture, Agronomy, Edaphology, governance, Soil},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
AGAUR Grant ID 2017 SGR 230 / Copyright © 2023