Publications

@article{Velasco-Fernandez2015,

title = {The energy metabolism of China and India between 1971 and 2010: Studying the bifurcation},

author = {Ra\'{u}l Velasco-Fern\'{a}ndez and Jesus Ramos-Mart\'{i}n and Mario Giampietro},

url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364032114007515},

doi = {10.1016/j.rser.2014.08.065},

issn = {13640321},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-01-01},

journal = {Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews},

volume = {41},

number = {1},

pages = {1052--1066},

abstract = {This paper presents a comparison of the changes in the energetic metabolic pattern of China and India, the two most populated countries in the world, with two economies undergoing an important economic transition. The comparison of the changes in the energetic metabolic pattern has the scope to characterize and explain a bifurcation in their evolutionary path in the recent years, using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach. The analysis shows an impressive transformation of China's energy metabolism determined by the joining of the WTO in 2001. Since then, China became the largest factory of the world with a generalized capitalization of all sectors, especially the industrial sector, boosting economic labor productivity as well as total energy consumption. India, on the contrary, lags behind when considering these factors. Looking at changes in the household sector (energy metabolism associated with final consumption) in the case of China, the energetic metabolic rate (EMR) soared in the last decade, also thanks to a reduced growth of population, whereas in India it remained stagnant for the last 40 years. This analysis indicates a big challenge for India for the next decade. In the light of the data analyzed both countries will continue to require strong injections of technical capital requiring a continuous increase in their total energy consumption. When considering the size of these economies it is easy to guess that this may induce a dramatic increase in the price of energy, an event that at the moment will penalize much more the chance of a quick economic development of India.},

keywords = {China, Energy, India, Multi-scale integrated analysis, Societal metabolism, sustainability},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Arizpe2014,

title = {An assessment of the metabolic profile implied by agricultural change in two rural communities in the North of Argentina},

author = {Nancy Arizpe and Jes\'{u}s Ramos-Mart\'{i}n and Mario Giampietro},

url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-014-9532-y},

doi = {10.1007/s10668-014-9532-y},

issn = {1387-585X},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-08-01},

journal = {Environment, Development and Sustainability},

volume = {16},

number = {4},

pages = {903--924},

abstract = {The soy expansion model in Argentina generates structural changes in traditional lifestyles, which can be associated with different biophysical and socioeconomic impacts. To explore this issue, we apply an innovative method for integrated assessment-the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism framework-to characterize two communities in the Chaco Region, Province of Formosa, North of Argentina. These communities have recently experienced the expansion of soy production, altering their economic activity, energy consumption patterns, land use and human time allocation. The integrated characterization presented in the paper illustrates the differences (biophysical, socioeconomic and historical) between the two communities that can be associated with different responses. The analysis of the factors behind these differences has important policy implications for the sustainable development of local communities in the area. textcopyright 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.},

keywords = {Biophysical accounting, Chaco, Land-time budget analysis, Multi-scale integrated analysis, Rural development, Societal metabolism, Soy expansion},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Giampietro2009a,

title = {Multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM): Theoretical concepts and basic rationale},

author = {Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi and Jesus Ramos-Martin},

url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360544208001965},

doi = {10.1016/j.energy.2008.07.020},

issn = {03605442},

year  = {2009},

date = {2009-03-01},

journal = {Energy},

volume = {34},

number = {3},

pages = {313--322},

abstract = {The multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach makes it possible to perform a check on the feasibility and desirability of patterns of metabolism of socio-economic systems by providing a characterization at different levels and scales of: (a) the performance of socio-economic activities (for households, enterprises, economic sectors, national economies, world economy) and (b) ecological constraints (micro, meso, macro) by looking at the interference that the metabolism of matter and energy flows controlled by human activity induces on the expected pattern of metabolism of matter and energy flows associated with the self-organization of natural ecosystems. This paper presents three theoretical concepts behind the analytical approach MuSIASEM: (1) how to represent the endosomatic and exosomatic metabolism of societies using Georgescu-Roegen's flow-fund scheme; (2) how to generate a Sudoku effect across representations of different units of production and consumption defined at different levels; and (3) how to perform an impredicative loop analysis when dealing with changes (evolution) of the characteristics of dynamic budgets of metabolized flows, represented across different scales. Since sustainability deals with "becoming systems"-systems becoming something else in their process of evolution-an analysis of sustainability must adopt analytical tools semantically open in their representation of change. MuSIASEM can do that since it is a "multi-purpose grammar", which can be used for building a shared perception and representation of this "becoming" when studying sustainability. That is, it entails an agreement on an expected set of relations between "relevant semantic categories" and "pertinent formal categories" across hierarchical levels and across different narratives; for this reason it represents a clear discontinuity from models developed within the paradigm of reductionism to deal with the issue of sustainability. textcopyright 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.},

keywords = {Exosomatic energy, Impredicative loop analysis, Multi-purpose grammars, Multi-scale integrated analysis, MuSIASEM, Societal metabolism, Sudoku effect},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}