The Multiple Dimensions and Sciences of Sustainability

Transcription

1 The Multiple Dimensions and Sciences of Sustainability Thomas P. Seager, Ph.D. Social and Environmental Research Institute (Greenfield, Massachusetts) Civil Engineering, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)

2 Some of the common themes that I have recognized in the conference: Visioning. What sort of sustainable future can we imagine? What would it look like to us? Will be recognize it when we get there? Cooperation and trust will be required. Both natural and human systems are complex. There are a seemingly infinite number of decision-making entities. Stakeholder and public participation processes are required to both create the vision and assess the potential pathways for achieving it. Different groups may have different objectives. Multi-criteria analysis. Sustainability is a multi-dimensional, socially constructed vision. Many indicators and metrics are incomparable, and it is impossible to select a single best vision or pathway. There are many unique visions, and although the are different, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

3 Some of the themes that I have NOT recognized in the conference: Ethics and morals. What role do ethics play in sustainable development? Can there be consensus on ethical norms that will help guide us towards sustainability? Does there need to be? Too many tools. What we need is more guidance on how to integrate the tools we have, not more of them. Normal disciplinary science. What is the role of science (and technology) in achieving sustainability? Is there (or could there ever be) a sustainability science by itself? Are we past the point of diminishing returns in normal science? What kind of new science is necessary to create knowledge relevant to sustainability? Constraint mindset. When will our understanding of sustainability move beyond the Bruntland concept, or the Natural Step principles of what not to do, and begin to tell us what we should do. Will there ever be consensus on a vision of sustainability?

4 Sustainability is the ethical concept that things should be better in the future than they are now.

5 The Multiple Dimensions of Sustainability ECONOMIC Total Cost Assessment THERMODYNAMICS Exergy Analysis ENVIRONMENTAL Pollution Potential ECOLOGICAL Ecosystem Health SOCIO / POLITICAL Social Capital Direct Materials Intensity Global Warming Potential Biodiversity church attendance Indirect Energy Intensity Total Equivalent Warming Index Ascendancy perception of community support Contingent Exergy Efficiency Toxic Release Inventory Human and Ecotoxicology newspaper readership Intangible Emergy Human Toxicity Potential volunteerism External / Social Coefficient of Exergetic Consumption Pollution Exergy voter turnout Ecofootprint Tropospheric Ozone Formation Potential and others

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13 Technology Industrial Ecology Ecology Ecosystem Health Ecological Economics Health Economics

14 High technology companies (e.g., Polaroid) Conservatory institutions (e.g., University administration) Pop culture (e.g. fast food, TV reruns, etc.)

15 Constraint mindset. When will our understanding of sustainability move beyond the Bruntland concept, or the Natural Step principles of what not to do, and begin to tell us what we should do. Will there ever be consensus on a vision of sustainability?

16 Sustainable decision-making, policy and design Technology Industrial Ecology Ecology Ecosystem Health Ecological Economics Health Economics

17 Souhegan River Water Management Plan New Hampshire

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19 Stakeholders Problem definition Preliminary stakeholder meetings and interviews Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis The ideal WMP would: Protect the ecological health of the River Meet human needs for drinking water and fire Generate flows alternatives Meet the Literature needs review, of industry, field and agriculture especially in times of drought. survey, data gathering Provide a positive shared cultural and educational Engineering experience Model development: for riparian communities. What are the important resources and how can they be measured? Provide tangible and credible benefits to the community Maintain regulatory flexibility Conservation Provide flood damage protection. Plan How would people measure success? Presence Value of predatory Elicitation birds and other wildlife. Analysis Identify conflicts and compromise Dam Management Plan Size and frequency of game fish catch. Structured questionnaire: Which Bacteria criteria counts. Assessment are most important to Stream flow. whom? How do the alternatives Pollutant concentrations. perform relative to the salient stakeholder criteria? Community and public perceptions. Frequency of recreational use (e.g., swimming, fishing, kayaking, hiking, etc.).

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22 Analysis e-mcda conflicts & compromise Deliberation life cycle assessment benefit-cost analysis CONTEXT: trust, legitimacy, uncertainty, scale METHODS: consensus building, participatory and representative democracy, citizen juries risk analysis value elicitation PEOPLE: stakeholders, public, trustee organizations engineering & ecological modeling risk communication non-expert & expert knowledge

23 Constraint mindset. Visioning. Ethics and morals. Cooperation and trust Need to integrate too many tools. Stakeholder and public participation Transdisciplinary science. Multi-criteria analysis.