keith matthews, kirsty blackstock, kevin buchan, dave miller and mike rivington

“Walking in others shoes”Experience of using the DECOIN tools to characterise sustainability trade-offs

in Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park

Keith Matthews, Kirsty Blackstock, Kevin Buchan, Dave Miller and Mike Rivington

2

The Need for New ToolsOverly simplistic single indicators - monomania

Ad hoc frameworks of incoherent metrics – fail to deliver understanding of trade-offs or relative performance

Methods compatible with multiple dimensions of values/costs

Beyond GDP agenda(s) Questioning the role of growth

Well being

Global challenges – climate change, biodiversity

3

SMILE InnovationsSystemic - not ad hoc – but still limits on social dimension

Multi-scale – explanatory and contextual - dependencies

Multi-metric – but coherent

Key factors, people, money, energy and land

Extents and intensities combined – avoids Jevons Paradox

Feasible?

Communicable?

Useful?

4

CNP case studyBoth an area of land and a new institution for rural

sustainable development.

Assist the CNPA and their partners in delivering the aims of the National Park (Scotland) Act

Transferability of the DECOIN tools

Utility of the DECOIN tools

CNP and other Institutions

6

SUMMA Ag Sector AnalysisPart of co-funding from SG programme

National scale analysis (n+1)

CNP (n)

Time series 1991, 2001, 2007 (at time most recent)

Ag sector well documented – down to small units (IACS/JAC)

Significant as land area (CNP ~ 47% in IACS – most RGR)

Significant policy area

SUMMA – ScotAG and CNPAG

Cairngorms National ParkConsumptive Sector

Productive Sector

Aquatic & TerrestrialEcosystems

Moorland, farmland& woodland

Geologic Uplift

Sun

Wind

Rain & snow

Rivers, lochs &

grd water

Fuel & Electricity

Raw materials & nutri-

ents

Techno-logy Goods

Skills & inform-ation

Laws, grants & design-ations

Nat culture & govern-

ance

Invest-ors & tax payers

Migrants/Tourists

Water

Soil

Moun-tains

Trees

Econ. capital

Culture, skill/know

Waste

Infra-structure

House-holds Tourists

Transport Local governance

Services

Other Biomass

Earth heat flux

Animals & Fish

Animals& Fish

xyxyRenewable energy

Tenure

Comm-uters

xyxyLand-scape

Rep/Image

Services & Government

Manufact. Industry

Primary Industry

xyxyLand Use

Emissions Extents – CNPAG and ScotAG

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

1.10 CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

CNP1991 CNP2001 CNP2007

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

1.10 CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

Sco1991 Sco2001 Sco2007

-0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00

CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

Emissions per ha - 2007

CNP2007 Sco2007

-

2.00

4.00

6.00 CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

Emissions per kgDM - 2007

CNP2007 Sco2007

-2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00

CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

Emissions per MJ - 2007

CNP2007 Sco2007

-

1.00

2.00

3.00 CO2

CO

NOx

SO2PM10

N2O

CH4

Emissions per € - 2007

CNP2007 Sco2007

Emissions Intensities – CNPAG and ScotAG

SUMMA Emergy Analysis

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

1.10

1.20

1.30 Specific Emergy (seJ/€)

Specific Emergy (seJ/gDM)

Transformity (seJ/J)

Specific Emergy (seJ/Ha)

Emergy Investment Ratio = (F+L+S)/(R+N)

Environmental Loading Ratio = (N+F+L+S)/R

Non-renewable Energy Requirement = 1 - (R/(R+N+F+L+S))

Emergy Unsustainability Index = 1 / (EYR/ELR)

Emergy - Intensive Indicators - Scotland

Sco 1991 Sco 2001 Sco 2007

11

MuSIASEM – conceptsMulti-scale and integrated analysis

Mixtures – “opening up the box” – components of averages

Sectors: Societal Average (SA), Households (HH), Paid Work (PW), productive, service and government, agriculture (PS+SG+AG) etc

Regions, NUTS, local authority, intermediate, data zones

Land types

Time series, trajectories

Extents and Intensities together

12

Metrics – the building blocksGVA – gross value added (£)

THA – total human activity (population) THAHH, THAPW, THAPS, THASG, THAAG

TET – total energy throughput

TAL – total available land

Exosomatic Metabolic Rate - EMR = TET/THA

Economic Labour Productivity - ELP = GVA/THA

Not GVA/TET ! – or Subsistence = Industry

Fund-Flow Diagrams

Flow ShareGVApw / GVApw

= 4.07%

ELPFlow/Fund n-1GVApw / HApw

= 24.27 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n

GVApw / HApw = 5.78 £/h

FLOW (GVApw) n-1 (CNP)

£4.36E+07

Fund ShareHApw / HApw

= 0.97%

FUND (HApw)n (Scotland) 1.85E+08h

FLOW (GVApw)n (Scotland) £1.07E+09

FUND (HApw)n-1 (CNP)

1.79E+06h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing


= 0.39%


= 58.95 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n



£2.35E+07


= 0.18%




3.99E+05h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Construction


= 0.3%


= 64.83 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n



£4.78E+07


= 0.16%




7.37E+05h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Production


= 0.37%


= 65.94 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n



£8.49E+07


= 0.17%




1.29E+06h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Business Services & Finance


= 0.36%


= 20.58 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n



£8.56E+07


= 0.29%




4.16E+06h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Public Administration & Services


= 0.5%


= 16.04 £/h

ELPFlow/Fund n



£9.08E+07


= 0.5%




5.66E+06h

Activity and Value Added - Scotland and CNP (2005)Retail, Recreation & Transport

Strengths and WeaknessesSUMMA – up steam and downstream = trade-offs

Emergy – effective summary of resource use

Multi-scale – useful comparisons/standards

Dependence on developers – towards a software tool?

MuSIASEM – inclusion of population as a key factor Decomposition – opens up the box –

Fund-flow – novel way to explore extents and intensities

Strongly empirical – adds to credibility but data dependent

Both coherent and integrative but deal less well with social aspects of sustainability (non-consumption)

Implications for Mainstreaming Implementation gap to use with stakeholders

How to communicate in succinct and accessible but not over simplify

Transparency data, assumptions and methods

Challenge to orthodox views and vested interests – but the beyond GDP agenda gains ground beyond the Anglo-Saxon “periphery”

Mainstreaming means using the tools with rather than for stakeholders – new research processes

Will continue to use DECOIN tools in our research programme but not always comfortable “walking in other’s shoes”.

keith matthews, kirsty blackstock, kevin buchan, dave miller and mike rivington

Documents

land area cnp

cnpag emissions extents

intensities together11metrics

area of land

decoin tools4cnp

decoin toolsutility

musiasem conceptsmultiscale

summa scotag