Resource Accounting for Sustainability Assessment: The Nexus Between Energy, Food, Water and Land Use

" The demands placed on land, water, energy and other natural resources are exacerbated as the world population continues to increase together with the expectations of economic growth. This, combined with concerns over environmental change, presents a set of scientific, policy and management issues that are critical for sustainability.Resource Accounting for Sustainability Assessment: The nexus between energy, food, water and land use offers an approach for multi-scale, integrated assessment of this nexus. It presents a comprehensive and original method of resource accounting for integrated sustainability assessments. The approach is illustrated with three detailed case studies: the islands of Mauritius, the Indian state of Punjab, and the energy economyof South Africa. This provides insights through exploring the relationships between flows of goods, services, and materials, and the funds to be reproduced of natural, human, social, financial, physical, and economic capitals, at multiple scales. The book provides a badly needed quality control on the information used in deliberative processes about policy and planning activities for sustainability and food, water, energy and environmental security issues.This innovative book will be of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners in the fields of sustainability science, international development, industrial ecology, sustainable resource management, geography and ecological economics"--