Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism
= an open framework able to take into account the economic, environmental, social, cultural, technical and political dimensions in an integrated analysis, accounting for different flows such as monetary, energy, waste or water.
URL = http://societalmetabolism.org/?page_id=412
"framework, developed by Mario Giampietro et al. of U of Barcelona for mapping out the patterns, flows and funds of complex entangled real world problems."
Description
1.
"The results of the MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism ) are sets of georreferenced vectorial indicators that are easy to understand, and this is one of the strengths of the method. But it is build on strong and heavy theoretical blocks.
This is the kind of model we need to compare between market efficiency and social knowledge economy/p2p efficiency... "
2. From the Wikipedia:
"MuSIASEM or Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism,[1][2][3][4] is a method of accounting used to analyse socio-ecosystems and to simulate possible patterns of development. It is based on maintaining coherence across scales and different dimensions (e.g. economic, demographic, energetic) of quantitative assessments generated using different metrics. It is designed to detect and analyze patterns in the societal use of resources and the impacts they create on the environment. The approach was created around 1997 by Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi, and has been developed since then by the members of the IASTE (Integrated Assessment: Sociology, Technology and the Environment) group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and its external collaborators. MuSIASEM strives to characterize metabolic patterns of Socio-Ecological Systems (how and why humans use resources and how this use depends on and affects the stability of the ecosystems embedding the society). This integrated approach allows for a quantitative implementation of the DPSIR framework (Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses) and application as a decision support tool. Different alternatives of the option space can be checked in terms of feasibility (compatibility with processes outside human control), viability (compatibility with processes under human control) and desirability (compatibility with normative values and institutions). The ability to integrate quantitative assessments across dimensions and scales makes MuSIASEM particularly suited for different types of sustainability analysis: (i) the nexus between food, energy, water and land uses; (ii) urban metabolism; (iii) waste metabolism; (iv) tourism metabolism; (v) rural development." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MuSIASEM)
Discussion
Andres Delgado:
"SENPLADES working in cooperation with the IASTE group [1] have built an open framework able to take into account the economic, environmental, social, cultural, technical and political dimensions in an integrated analysis, accounting for different flows such as monetary, energy, waste or water. As a result, ultimately we can get congruent relations among the different set of variables.
The results of the MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism ) are sets of geo-referenced vectorial indicators that are easy to understand, and this is one of the strengths of the method. But it is build on strong and heavy theoretical blocks.
- THIS* is the kind of model we need to compare between market
efficiency and social knowledge economy/p2p efficiency... "
More Information
- The book: Resource Accounting for Sustainability: The Nexus between Energy, Food, Water and Land Use. Ed. by Giampietro, M., Aspinall, R.J., Ramos-Martin, J. and Bukkens, S.G.F. Routledge, 2014
- Article: Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MUSIASEM): An Outline of Rationale and Theory. By Mario Giampietro, Kozo Mayumi, Jesus Ramos-Martin.
URL = http://www.ecap.uab.es/RePEc/doc/wpdea0801.pdf
"This paper presents an outline of rationale and theory of the MuSIASEM scheme (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism). First, three points of the rationale behind our MuSIASEM scheme are discussed: (i) endosomatic and exosomatic metabolism in relation to Georgescu-Roegen’s flow-fund scheme; (2) the bioeconomic analogy of hypercycle and dissipative parts in ecosystems; (3) the dramatic reallocation of human time and land use patterns in various sectors of modern economy. Next, a flow-fund representation of the MUSIASEM scheme on three levels (the whole national level, the paid work sectors level, and the agricultural sector level) is illustrated to look at the structure of the human economy in relation to two primary factors: (i) human time - a fund; and (ii) exosomatic energy - a flow. The three levels representation uses extensive and intensive variables simultaneously. Key conceptual tools of the MuSIASEM scheme - mosaic effects and impredicative loop analysis - are explained using the three level flow-fund representation. Finally, we claim that the MuSIASEM scheme can be seen as a multi-purpose grammar useful to deal with sustainability issues. "