Assessing the capacity of local ecosystems to meet industrial demand for ecosystem services

Metrics for a nature-positive world: A multiscale approach for absolute environmental sustainability assessment

Absolute environmental sustainability (AES) metrics include nature's carrying capacity as a reference to provide insight into the extent to which human activities exceed ecosystem limits, and to encourage actions toward restoration and protection of nature. Existing methods for determining AES metrics rely on the frameworks of Planetary boundaries (PB) and Ecosystem Services. This work provides new insight into the relationship between these methods and demonstrates that AES metrics based on the framework of techno-ecological synergy (TES) are better suited to encouraging nature-positive decisions. PB-based AES metrics downscale planetary boundaries or upscale local ecosystem services, but they partition available services among all users across the planet and make limited use of biophysical information. In contrast, TES-based metrics follow a multiscale approach that accounts for local ecosystem services estimated by biophysical data and models, and combine them with downscaled services from multiple coarser scales. These metrics can provide credit to stakeholders for local ecosystem services, thus encouraging ecosystem protection and restoration. Generally, the PB framework focuses on processes of global importance which currently include nine planetary boundaries that are critical for global stability. The TES framework considers ecosystem services from local to global scales and can be used for determining absolute environmental sustainability precisely at any spatial scale. Theoretical analysis shows that TES-based metrics are more general and can be specialized to PB-based metrics under certain conditions. Through case studies at multiple spatial scales and for various ecosystem services, we show that TES-based metrics are more robust, less subjective, and better suited for encouraging transformation to a nature-positive world.

Identification of Priority Implementation Areas and Configuration Types for Green Infrastructure Based on Ecosystem Service Demands in Metropolitan City

During urbanization in developing countries, fragmentation of green infrastructure due to increasing populations and the expansion of construction land leads to an extremely serious imbalance between the supply and demand for urban ecosystem services. In this study, the central city of Zhengzhou, a central city in central China, was selected as the study area and the excessive demand for six ecosystem services, namely, air purification, flood regulation, heat regulation, hydrological regulation, CO2 sequestration and recreational services, was quantitatively evaluated. The entropy method was used to calculate the weights of various ecosystem services, and spatial overlay analysis was performed to obtain the comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand. Finally, bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to explore the response of population density to comprehensive excessive demand for ESs. The results of this study indicate that: (1) The most prevalent need is for more CO2 regulation service throughout the study area. (2) Except for hydrological regulation service, the spatial distribution of the remaining highly excessive ecosystem service demands are mostly concentrated in old neighborhoods. (3) Of the six excessively demanded economic services, rainwater regulation obtained the greatest weight, reflecting the poor urban infrastructure configuration for countering the rapidly increasing threat of flooding caused by climate change in the city. (4) The comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand results show that there are eight priority green infrastructure implementation blocks in the central city of Zhengzhou. (5) There were three agglomeration types between population density and comprehensive excessive demand for ESs: high-high type, low-high type and low-low type. The spatial distribution characteristics of population density and comprehensive ES demand are positively correlated. The results of this study could help to provide information for decision making when delineating the priority areas and types of green infrastructure implementation in developing cities.

Assessing Ecosystem Services Supply-Demand (Mis)Matches for Differential City Management in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

With the global increase in population and urban expansion, the simultaneous rise of social demand and degradation of ecosystems is omnipresent, especially in the urban agglomerations of China. In order to manage environmental problems and match ecosystem supply and social demand, these urban agglomerations promoted regional socio-ecological integration but ignored differential city management during the process of integration. Therefore, it is necessary to design a general framework linking ecosystem supply and social demand to differential city management. In addition, in previous studies, ecosystem services supply–demand amount (mis)match assessment was emphasized, but ecosystem services supply–demand type (mis)match assessment was ignored, which may lead to biased decisions. To deal with these problems, this study presented a general ecosystem services framework with six core steps for differential city management and developed a double-indices (amount and type) method to identify ecosystem services supply–demand (mis)matches in an urban agglomeration. This framework and the double-indices method were applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration. Ecosystem supply–demand amount and type (mis)match levels and spatial pattern of twenty-six cities were identified. Twenty-six cities in the YRDUA were classified into five kinds of cities with different levels of ES supply–demand (mis)matches for RS, three kinds of cities for PS, and four kinds of cities for CS. Differential city management strategies were designed. Despite its limitations, this study can be a reference to giving insights into ES supply–demand (mis)match assessment and management.

A perspective on the role of uncertainty in sustainability science and engineering

The Trans-Atlantic Research and Development Interchange on Sustainability Workshop (TARDIS) is a meeting on scientific topics related to sustainability. The 2019 workshop theme was "On the Role of Uncertainty in Managing the Earth for Global Sustainability." This paper presents the perspectives on this topic derived from talks and discussions at the 2019 TARDIS workshop. There are four kinds of uncertainties encountered in sustainability ranging from clear enough futures to true surprises. The current state-of-the-art in assessing and mitigating these uncertainties is discussed.

Life Cycle Assessment for the Design of Chemical Processes, Products, and Supply Chains

Design in the chemical industry increasingly aims not only at economic but also at environmental targets. Environmental targets are usually best quantified using the standardized, holistic method of life cycle assessment (LCA). The resulting life cycle perspective poses a major challenge to chemical engineering design because the design scope is expanded to include process, product, and supply chain. Here, we first provide a brief tutorial highlighting key elements of LCA. Methods to fill data gaps in LCA are discussed, as capturing the full life cycle is data intensive. On this basis, we review recent methods for integrating LCA into the design of chemical processes, products, and supply chains. Whereas adding LCA as a posteriori tool for decision support can be regarded as established, the integration of LCA into the design process is an active field of research. We present recent advances and derive future challenges for LCA-based design.

Nature-Based Solutions Can Compete with Technology for Mitigating Air Emissions Across the United States

Despite the proliferation of control technologies, air pollution remains a major concern across the United States, suggesting the need for a paradigm shift in methods for mitigating emissions. Based on data about annual emissions in U.S. counties and current land cover, we show that existing forest, grassland, and shrubland vegetation take up a significant portion of current U.S. emissions. Restoring land cover, where possible, to county-level average canopy cover can further remove pollution of SO₂, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NO₂ by an average of 27% through interception of particulate matter and absorption of gaseous pollutants. We find such nature-based solutions to be cheaper than technology for several National Emission Inventory sectors. Our results with and without monetary valuation of ecological cobenefits identify sectors and counties that are most economically attractive for nature-based solutions as compared to the use of pollution control technologies. We also estimate the sizes of urban and rural populations that would benefit from this novel ecosystem-based approach. This suggests that even though vegetation cannot fully negate the impact of emissions at all times, policies encouraging ecosystems as control measures in addition to technological solutions may promote large investments in ecological restoration and provide several societal benefits.