Publications

@phdthesis{Cadillo-Benalcazar2015,

title = {El uso de la gram\'{a}tica del musiasem para el an\'{a}lisis cuantitativo de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas alimentarios},

author = {Juan Jos\'{e} Cadillo-Benalcazar},

url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10803/322819},

isbn = {9788449057977},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-01-01},

pages = {293},

school = {Universitat Aut\`{o}noma de Barcelona},

abstract = {In modern times, science is facing the challenge of how to represent the interaction between socio-economic systems and ecological systems, which together can be regarded as socio-ecological systems, in order to quantitatively analyze their sustainability. To face this challenge it is necessary to break the traditional reductionist approaches of science, to build an alternative paradigm that is aware of the unavoidable limitations in quantitative representations of these systems. These limitations arise from the lack of understanding that socio-ecological systems are complex systems organized across different levels of organization. From this perspective, socio-economic system and ecological systems can only be observed across different scales and dimensions. Indeed, the dynamics of these interactions cause any activity that happens in one to affect the other and vice versa, thus providing an analytical framework for sustainability. From an acknowledgment of these limitations, the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) introduces the concept of grammar as a means to overcome the epistemological challenge of representing complex systems. A grammar is defined as a set of relations established between semantic categories, previously defined, and formal categories in order to obtain a representation able to be operationalized in quantitative terms across different scales and dimensions. Thus, grammar is proposed as an analytical tool capable of assessing the sustainability of the socio-ecological system without falling in the risk of an excessive simplification of quantitative reductionism. A key aspect of the sustainability of any society is the proper fulfillment of basic needs such as food. In this regard, although the planet produces enough food for all, there are about 805 million people suffering from hunger and a third of production is lost or wasted. It is also expected that in the future these conditions will worsen as a result of reliance on technological inputs used in food production, changes in the diet of the population (with more animal products), biophysical resource depletion and climate change. Faced with this tragic reality, institutions and decision-making authorities have stressed the urgent need to devise strategies aimed at food security. There is a need to have an overview, which includes what society consumes; the inner vision of the metabolism, and where food comes from, how it is produced and what is consumed; the external view of the metabolism. Only then, can you have a holistic knowledge to discuss and improve strategies aimed at food security. In this thesis I tested the utility of the grammar renderer MuSIASEM as socio-ecological instrument, able to identify vulnerabilities in the food systems of societies and its potential as a source of information -based on the coherent integration of demographic, economic and biophysical variables- for decision-making. Three case studies - Mauritius, the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador as a whole \textendash were used for such a test.},

keywords = {Food, MuSIASEM, sustainability},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {phdthesis}

}