Material Stock and Flow Analysis towards Reducing Environmental Impacts and Increasing Resource Efficiency

Dear Colleagues,

Material flow analysis (MFA) and its more recent counterpart, material stock analysis (MSA), are tools commonly used in the field of industrial ecology for assessing the physical component of our economies. They allow for the identification and targeting of criticalities and best practices that can assist policy and decision making toward a more sustainable future. They are scalable tools with diverse applications: they are capable of capturing the transition of a single material from cradle to grave as well as encapsulating multiple materials that constitute an entire economy, and are applicable to systems from a household scale to a global level system. With their results, they can provide critical insight into future environmental impacts and be used to examine implications related to the resilience of systems to external pressures (such as climate change).

In a time where environmental pressure is reaching new heights and awareness of the limits of resource extraction is growing, MFA and MSA are essential tools to uncover historical material patterns, highlight the processes where improvements are critically possible, and enable the understanding of the efficiency at which resources are extracted and consumed. This Special Issue invites contributions that examine material stock and flows with special attention on efficient resource use at local, national, or global scales. The results should provide insights into how current extraction and use patterns can be improved for a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future. This Special Issue will also consider compelling contributions related to material flow and stock analysis in general.

References:

• Busch, J., Dawson, D., Roelich, K., 2017. Closing the low-carbon material loop using a dynamic whole system approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 149, 751-761, 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.02.166
• Fischer-Kowalski, M., Krausmann, F., Giljum, S., Lutter, S., Mayer, A., Bringezu, S., Moriguchi, Y., Schütz, H., Schandl, H., Weisz, H., 2011. Methodology and Indicators of Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting. Journal of Industrial Ecology 15(6), 855-876. 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00366.x.
• Fishman, T., Schandl, H., Tanikawa, H., Walker, P., Krausmann, F., 2014. Accounting for the Material Stock of Nations. J Ind Ecol 18(3), 407-420. 10.1111/jiec.12114.
• Gierlinger, S., Krausmann, F., 2012. The Physical Economy of the United States of America. J Ind Ecol 16(3), 365-377. 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00404.x.
• Krausmann, F., Wiedenhofer, D., Lauk, C., Haas, W., Tanikawa, H., Fishman, T., Miatto, A., Schandl, H., Haberl, H., 2017. Global socioeconomic material stocks rise 23-fold over the 20th century and require half of annual resource use. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114(8), 1880-1885. 10.1073/pnas.1613773114.
• Miatto, A., Schandl, H., Forlin, L., Ronzani, F., Borin, P., Giordano, A., Tanikawa, H., 2019. A spatial analysis of material stock accumulation and demolition waste potential of buildings: A case study of Padua. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 142, 245-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.12.011.
• Schandl, H., Fischer-Kowalski, M., West, J., Giljum, S., Dittrich, M., Eisenmenger, N., Geschke, A., Lieber, M., Wieland, H., Schaffartzik, A., Krausmann, F., Gierlinger, S., Hosking, K., Lenzen, M., Tanikawa, H., Miatto, A., Fishman, T., 2018. Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity: Forty Years of Evidence. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22(4), 827-838. doi:10.1111/jiec.12626.
• Steinberger, J.K., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., 2010. Global patterns of materials use: A socioeconomic and geophysical analysis. Ecological Economics 69(5), 1148-1158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.12.009.

Dr. Alessio Miatto
Dr. David Dawson
Guest Editors

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• material flows
• material stocks
• resource efficiency
• sustainable extraction
• resource use
• circular economy
• resource efficiency