Land reclamation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reclamation 

Reclaiming in Mounts Bay, Perth, Australia 1964

 

Hong Kong's old airport (pictured) and new airport were built on reclaimed land

 

The largest city square in the world, the Xinghai Square of Dalian, China, was created entirely through land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or land fill.

In some jurisdictions, including parts of the United States, the term "reclamation" can refer to returning disturbed lands to an improved state. In Alberta, Canada, for example, reclamation is defined by the provincial government as "The process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses." In Oceania, it is frequently referred to as land rehabilitation.

History

One of the earliest large-scale projects was the Beemster Polder in the Netherlands, realized in 1612 adding 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi) of land. In Hong Kong the Praya Reclamation Scheme added 20 to 24 hectares (50 to 60 acres) of land in 1890 during the second phase of construction. It was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken during the Colonial Hong Kong era. Some 20% of land in the Tokyo Bay area has been reclaimed, most notably Odaiba artificial island. Le Portier, Monaco and Gibraltar are also expanding due to land reclamation. The city of Rio de Janeiro was largely built on reclaimed land, as was Wellington, New Zealand.

Methods

Land reclamation can be achieved by a number of different methods. The simplest method involves filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, then filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. The process is called "infilling" and the material used to fill the space is generally called "infill". Draining of submerged wetlands is often used to reclaim land for agricultural use. Deep cement mixing is used typically in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated and hence needs to be contained. Land dredging is also another method of land reclamation. It is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of a body of water. It is commonly used for maintaining reclaimed land masses as sedimentation, a natural process, fills channels and harbors.

Notable instances

East Coast Park in Singapore was built on reclaimed land with a man-made beach.

 

The Flevopolder in the Netherlands, reclaimed from the IJsselmeer, is the largest reclaimed artificial island in the world.

 

Land Reclamation in the Beirut Central District

 

The whole district of Fontvieille, Monaco was reclaimed from the sea

Africa

• The Foreshore in Cape Town
• The Hassan II Mosque in Morocco is built on reclaimed land.
• The Eko Atlantic in Lagos, Nigeria.
• Gracefield Island in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.

Asia

• The whole 3 km² business district of Cebu South Road Properties in Cebu City, Philippines
• Some of the coastline of Saadiyat Island, in the UAE. Used for commercial purposes.
• Much of the coastline of Mumbai, India. It took over 150 years to join the original Seven Islands of Bombay. These seven islands were lush, green, thickly wooded, and dotted with 22 hills, with the Arabian Sea washing through them at high tide. The original Isle of Bombay was only 24 km long and 4 km wide from Dongri to Malabar Hill (at its broadest point) and the other six were Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mahim, Parel, Worli and Mazgaon. (See also Hornby Vellard).
• Much of the coastlines of Mainland China, Hong Kong, North Korea and South Korea. It is estimated that nearly 65% of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea have been reclaimed.
• Inland lowlands in the Yangtze valley, China, including the areas of important cities like Shanghai and Wuhan.
• Much of the coastline of Karachi, Pakistan.
• The shore of Jakarta Bay. Land is usually reclaimed to create new housing areas and real estate properties, for the rapidly expanding city of Jakarta. So far, the largest reclamation project in the city is the creation of "Golf Island", which is still ongoing.
• A part of the Hamad International Airport in Qatar, around 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi).
• The entire island of The Pearl-Qatar situated in West Bay (Doha), Qatar.
• Haikou Bay, Hainan Province, China, where the west side of Haidian Island is being extended, and off the coast of Haikou, where new land for a marina is being created.
• The Cotai area of Macau, where many casinos are located
• Nagoya Centrair Airport, Japan
• Incheon International Airport, South Korea
• Beirut Central District, Lebanon
• The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen
• The shore of Manila Bay in the Philippines, especially along Metro Manila, has attracted major developments such as the Mall of Asia Complex, Entertainment City and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex.
• The city-state of Singapore, where land is in short supply, is also famous for its efforts on land reclamation.
• The Palm Islands, The World and hotel Burj al-Arab off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates
• The Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
• Hulhumalé Island, Maldives. It is one of the six divisions of Malé City.
• Giant Sea Wall Jakarta
• Colombo International Financial City, Sri Lanka
• Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan
• Forest City, an integrated residential and tourism district in Johor, Malaysia
• My Suva park (Fiji), a recreation park for the Greater Suva area

Europe

• Airport of Nice, France
• Large parts of the Netherlands
• Almost all of the Thames estuary including large parts of London
• Almost half of the microstate of Monaco
  • Most of Fontvieille, Monaco
  • Parts surrounding Port Hercules in La Condamine, Monaco
• Parts of Dublin, Ireland including the North Wall, East Wall, Grand Canal Dock and Bull Island
• Parts of Bryggen, Bergen, Norway including the Dreggekaien cruise terminal and other ship services
• Most of Belfast Harbour and areas of Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
• Parts of Saint Petersburg, Russia, such as the Marine Facade
• Helsinki (of which the major part of the city center is built on reclaimed land)
• Barceloneta area, Barcelona, in Spain
• The port of Zeebrugge in Belgium
• The southwestern residential area in Brest, Belarus
• Majority of left-bank and some right-bank residential areas of Kyiv were built on a reclaimed fens and floodplains of the Dnieper river.
• The airport peninsula, the industrial area of Cornigliano, the PSA container terminal and other parts of the port in Genoa, Italy
• The Fens in East Anglia
• Venice, Italy
• Rione Orsini, part of Borgo Santa Lucia, Naples
• A big part of Kavala, city in Greece
• Fucine Lake, Italy
• Waterfront Centre, St. Helier, Jersey
• Airports of Trabzon, Giresun and Rize
• Coastal parks and streets of Istanbul
• Yenikapı, Turkey
• Lake Copais, Greece
• Certain areas of Denmark

North America

• Notre Dame Island in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). In the Saint Lawrence River, 15 million tons of rock excavated from the Montreal Metro underground rail in 1965 to form an artificial island.
• The Chicago shoreline
• The Northwestern University Lakefill, part of the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois
• Several neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts are the result of landfill.
• Battery Park City, Manhattan
• Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn
• Liberty State Park, Jersey City
• Leslie Street Spit, the downtown waterfront south of Front Street, and sections of the Toronto Islands in Toronto.
• Part of Nuns' Island in Montreal
• The Potter's Cay in Nassau, The Bahamas was connected to the island of New Providence
• The shore of Nassau, The Bahamas especially along East Bay street.
• Parts of New Orleans (which is partially built on land that was once swamp)
• Much of the urbanized area adjacent to San Francisco Bay, including most of San Francisco's waterfront and Financial District, San Francisco International Airport, the Port of Oakland, and large portions of the city of Alameda has been reclaimed from the bay.
• Large hills in Seattle were removed and used to create Harbor Island and reclaim land along Elliott Bay. In particular, the neighborhoods of SoDo, Seattle and Interbay are largely built on filled wetlands.
• Mexico City (which is situated at the former site of Lake Texcoco); the chinampas are a famous example.
• Much of Bermuda's St David's Island are reclaimed; the island, the site of Bermuda's international airport, was formerly several smaller islands.

Oceania

• Most of Barangaroo, a current commercial and residential suburb in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales.
• Parts of Darling Harbour, a locality west of the Sydney central business district.
• A large portion of the southern suburb of Sylvania Waters in Sydney, Australia.
• The southernmost portions of runways at Sydney Airport.
• Large portions of Port Botany in metropolitan Sydney.
• Large amounts of the Melbourne Docklands.
• Portions of the Swan River foreshore adjoining the Perth central business district in Western Australia, including the entirety of Mounts Bay (pictured above).
• Considerable areas of Dunedin, New Zealand, including the "Southern Endowment", stretching from the central city to the southeastern suburbs along the shore of Otago Harbour.
• Prior to the Napier earthquake of 1931, significant reclamation of the then-lagoon was undertaken in areas of Napier South and Ahuriri. There were also minor reclamation works undertaken after 1931 on the new low-lying lands brought up by the earthquake.
• Areas around Wellington and Auckland's harbours have also been reclaimed.

South America

• Parts of Panama City urban and street development are based on reclaimed land, using material extracted from Panama Canal excavations.
• The Cinta Costera, in Panama City, Panama
• The entire riverfront of Buenos Aires, Argentina including the port and an airport
• Large parts of Rio de Janeiro, most notably several blocks in the new docks area, the entire Flamengo Park and the neighborhood of Urca
• Parts of Florianópolis.
• Parts of the Historic District of Porto Alegre, including the docks of Port of Porto Alegre and the Beira-Rio Stadium, were built on reclaimed lands of Lake Guaíba between the end of the 19th century and the 1970s.
• Santa Cruz del Islote, in the Caribbean Sea of Colombia, one of the most densely populated islands in the world, was built in an artificial way gaining land from the sea.
• Parts of the Vargas State^[20] in the north of Venezuela, parts of Los Monjes Archipelago, the Isla Paraíso (paradise island) in the Anzoátegui State and the La Salina island in the Zulia State, were built with land reclaimed from the sea.
• Parts of Montevideo, Uruguay, Rambla Sur and several projects still going on in Montevideo's Bay.
• Parts of Valparaíso, Chile.

Agriculture

Land reclamation in progress in Bingzhou (丙州) Peninsula (formerly, island) of the Dongzui Bay (东咀港). Tong'an District, Xiamen, China

Agriculture was a driver of land reclamation before industrialisation. In South China, farmers reclaimed paddy fields by enclosing an area with a stone wall on the sea shore near a river mouth or river delta. The species of rice that are grown on these grounds are more salt tolerant. Another use of such enclosed land is the creation of fish ponds. It is commonly seen on the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong. These reclaimed areas also attract species of migrating birds.

A related practice is the draining of swampy or seasonally submerged wetlands to convert them to farmland. While this does not create new land exactly, it allows commercially productive use of land that would otherwise be restricted to wildlife habitat. It is also an important method of mosquito control.

Even in the post-industrial age, there have been land reclamation projects intended for increasing available agricultural land. For example, the village of Ogata in Akita, Japan, was established on land reclaimed from Lake Hachirōgata (Japan's second largest lake at the time) starting in 1957. By 1977, the amount of land reclaimed totalled 172.03 square kilometres (66.42 sq mi).

Artificial islands

Artificial islands are an example of land reclamation. Creating an artificial island is an expensive and risky undertaking. It is often considered in places with high population density and a scarcity of flat land. Kansai International Airport (in Osaka) and Hong Kong International Airport are examples where this process was deemed necessary. The Palm Islands, The World and hotel Burj al-Arab off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are other examples of artificial islands (although there is yet no real "scarcity of land" in Dubai), as well as the Flevopolder in the Netherlands which is the largest artificial island in the world.

Beach restoration

Main article: Beach nourishment

Beach rebuilding is the process of repairing beaches using materials such as sand or mud from inland. This can be used to build up beaches suffering from beach starvation or erosion from longshore drift. It stops the movement of the original beach material through longshore drift and retains a natural look to the beach. Although it is not a long-lasting solution, it is cheap compared to other types of coastal defences. An example of this is the city of Mumbai.

Landfill

As human overcrowding of developed areas intensified during the 20th century, it has become important to develop land re-use strategies for completed landfills. Some of the most common usages are for parks, golf courses and other sports fields. Increasingly, however, office buildings and industrial uses are made on a completed landfill. In these latter uses, methane capture is customarily carried out to minimize explosive hazard within the building.

An example of a Class A office building constructed over a landfill is the Dakin Building at Sierra Point, Brisbane, California. The underlying fill was deposited from 1965 to 1985, mostly consisting of construction debris from San Francisco and some municipal wastes. Aerial photographs prior to 1965 show this area to be tidelands of the San Francisco Bay. A clay cap was constructed over the debris prior to building approval.

A notable example is Sydney Olympic Park, the primary venue for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, which was built atop an industrial wasteland that included landfills.

Another strategy for landfill is the incineration of landfill trash at high temperature via the plasma-arc gasification process, which is currently used at two facilities in Japan, and will be used at a planned facility in St. Lucie County, Florida.

Environmental impact

Parts (highlighted in brown) of the San Francisco Bay were reclaimed from wetlands for urban use.

Draining wetlands for ploughing, for example, is a form of habitat destruction. In some parts of the world, new reclamation projects are restricted or no longer allowed, due to environmental protection laws. Reclamation projects have strong negative impacts on coastal populations, although some species can take advantage of the newly created area. A 2022 global analysis estimated that 39% of losses (approximately 5,300 km² or 2,000 sq mi) and 14% of gains (approximately 1,300 km² or 500 sq mi) of tidal wetlands (mangroves, tidal flats, and tidal marshes) between 1999-2019 were due to direct human activities, including conversion to aquaculture, agriculture, plantations, coastal developments and other physical structures. 

Environmental legislation

A map of reclaimed land (grey area) in Hong Kong. Many of the urban areas of Hong Kong are on reclaimed land.

The State of California created a state commission, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, in 1965 to protect San Francisco Bay and regulate development near its shores. The commission was created in response to growing concern over the shrinking size of the bay.

Hong Kong legislators passed the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance, proposed by the Society for Protection of the Harbour, in 1997 in an effort to safeguard the increasingly threatened Victoria Harbour against encroaching land development. Several large reclamation schemes at Green Island, West Kowloon, and Kowloon Bay were subsequently shelved, and others reduced in size.

Dangers

Reclaimed land is highly susceptible to soil liquefaction during earthquakes, which can amplify the amount of damage that occurs to buildings and infrastructure. Subsidence is another issue, both from soil compaction on filled land, and also when wetlands are enclosed by levees and drained to create Polders. Drained marshes will eventually sink below the surrounding water level, increasing the danger from flooding.

Land amounts added

Asia

Bahrain	76.3% of original size of 410 km2 (160 sq mi) (1931–2007).
Bangladesh	About 110 km2 (42 sq mi) in total and has 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 sq mi) potential (8% of total area) up to 12 metres (39 ft) depth in the territorial sea area.
Hong Kong	Main article: Land reclamation in Hong Kong 67 km2 (26 sq mi) of land was reclaimed up to 2013. Praya Reclamation Scheme began in the late 1860s and consisted of two stages totaling 20 to 24 hectares (50 to 60 acres). Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong International Airport, and its predecessor, Kai Tak Airport, were all built on reclaimed land. In addition, much reclamation has taken place in prime locations on the waterfront on both sides of Victoria Harbour. This has raised environmental issues of the protection of the harbour which was once the source of prosperity of Hong Kong, traffic congestion in the Central district, as well as the collusion of the Hong Kong Government with the real estate developers in the territory. In addition, as the city expands, new towns in different decades were mostly built on reclaimed land, such as Tuen Mun, Tai Po, Sha Tin-Ma On Shan, West Kowloon, Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O.
Macau	170% of the original size or 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi)
India	Mumbai – An archipelago of originally seven separate islands were joined by land reclamation over a span of five centuries. This was done to develop Mumbai as a harbour city.
Indonesia	Jakarta – Giant Sea Wall Jakarta is part of a massive coastal development project at Jakarta Bay.
Japan	Tokyo Bay – 249 km2 (96 sq mi) including the entirety of Odaiba artificial island. Kobe – 23 km2 (8.9 sq mi) (1995).
Philippines	Manila Bay: Main article: Land reclamation in Metro Manila additional 626 hectares along the eastern coast of Manila Bay created in the 1990s to the 88-hectare Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex. The shore road of Manila (Roxas Boulevard) is actually reclaimed land, as well as its extension road to Cavite (Manila-Cavite Expressway / Aguinaldo Boulevard). Cebu South Road Properties, Cebu City, Philippines - Artificial island which is 300 hectares was built along the sea between Mainland Cebu and Kawit Island. This was done to address the increasing need of urban and residential development in Cebu City due to its very progressive economy.
Singapore	Main article: Land reclamation in Singapore 20 percent of the original size or 135 km2 (52 sq mi). As of 2003, plans for 99 km2 (38 sq mi) more are to go ahead, even though disputes persist with Malaysia over Singapore's extensive land reclamation works. Parts of Changi Airport are also on reclaimed land.
South Korea	As of 2006, 38 percent or 1,550 km2 (600 sq mi) of coastal wetlands reclaimed, including 400 km2 (150 sq mi) at Saemangeum. Songdo International Business district, the largest private development in history, is a large-scale reclamation project built entirely on tidal mudflats.
North Korea	In the 1980s, North Korea commenced a "find new land" program to reclaim 300,000 hectares of land (3,000 km2 or 1,160 mi2) in order to expand the country's supply of arable land. The project was unsuccessful and only reclaimed 20,000 hectares (200 km2 or 70 mi2) by the time it was cancelled after the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994. It also contributed to the collapse of the North Korean economy and the subsequent famine in the 1990s. Land reclamation efforts resumed in the 2010s under Kim Jong-un with more success. North Korea constructed artificial islands in the Yellow Sea containing Korean People's Army bases, possibly inspired by Chinese artificial islands in the South China Sea and possibly as bases for long-range ballistic missiles.
United Arab Emirates	Main article: Land reclamation in the United Arab Emirates Dubai has a total of four reclaimed islands (the Palm Jumeirah, Jebal Ali, The Burj al Arab Island, and The World Islands), with a fifth under construction (the Palm Deira). There are several man-made islands in Abu Dhabi, such as Yas Island and Al Lulu Island.

Europe

• Netherlands
  Main article: Land reclamation in the Netherlands

about 1/6 (almost 17%) of the entire country, or about 7,000 km² (2,700 sq mi) in total, has been reclaimed from the sea, lakes, marshes and swamps. The province of Flevoland has almost completely been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee.

• Monaco
  Main article: Land reclamation in Monaco
  • – 0.41 km² (0.16 sq mi) out of 2.05 km² (0.79 sq mi), or one fifth of Monaco comes from land taken from the sea, mainly in the neighborhoods of Fontvieille, La Condamine, and Larvotto/Bas Moulins.

Others

• Eko Atlantic, Lagos, Nigeria—25 square kilometers
• New Zealand – significant areas of land totalling several hundred hectares have been reclaimed along the harbourfronts of Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. In Dunedin – which in its early days was nicknamed "Mudedin" – around 2.5 km² (0.97 sq mi), including much of the inner city and suburbs of Dunedin North, South Dunedin and Andersons Bay is reclaimed from the Otago Harbour, and a similar area in the suburbs of St Clair and St Kilda is reclaimed swampland. The international airports serving Auckland and Wellington have had significant reclamation for runway use.

Country	Reclaimed land (km2)	Note
China	13,500+ km2	Land reclamation in China
Netherlands	7,000 km2	Flevoland, de Beemster, Afsluitdijk Land reclamation in the Netherlands
South Korea	1,550 km2
United States	1,000+ km2	Artificial islands of the United States
Japan	500+ km2
UAE	470 km2	Land reclamation in the UAE
Bahrain	410 km2
Singapore	135 km2	Land reclamation in Singapore
Bangladesh	110 km2
Hong Kong	67 km2	Land reclamation in Hong Kong
Qatar	35 km2
Macau	17 km2
Philippines	9.26 km2	Cebu South Road Properties Central Business District and Land reclamation in Metro Manila
New Zealand	3.3 km2	Reclamation of Wellington Harbour
Sri Lanka	2.33 km2	Colombo International Financial City
South Africa	1.94 km2	Cape Town Foreshore
Maldives	0.62 km2
Monaco	0.41 km2	Land reclamation in Monaco

Sustainability measurement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability_measurement 

 

Trees being felled in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, in 2013, to make way for a new coal mining project

Sustainability measurement are tools and methods that attempt to measure the degree of sustainability of processes, products, services, businesses and so forth. Sustainability is difficult to quantify, perhaps even immeasurable. The metrics used to try and measure sustainability involve the sustainability of environmental, social and economic domains, (both individually and in various combinations) and are still evolving. They include indicators, benchmarks, audits, sustainability standards and certification systems like Fairtrade and Organic, indexes and accounting, as well as assessment, appraisal and other reporting systems. They are applied over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Some of the widely used sustainability measures include corporate sustainability reporting, Triple Bottom Line accounting, World Sustainability Society, and estimates of the quality of sustainability governance for individual countries using the Environmental Sustainability Index and Environmental Performance Index. The UN Human Development Index and the ecological footprints are methods to monitor sustainable development over time.

Two related concepts to understand if the mode of life of humanity is sustainable, are planetary boundaries and ecological footprint. If the boundaries are not crossed and the ecological footprint is not exceeding the carrying capacity of the biosphere, the mode of life is regarded as sustainable.

A set of well defined and harmonized indicators can help to make sustainability tangible. Those indicators are expected to be identified and adjusted through empirical observations (trial and error). The most common critiques are related to issues like data quality, comparability, objective function and the necessary resources. However a more general criticism is coming from the project management community: "How can a sustainable development be achieved at global level if we cannot monitor it in any single project?".

Sustainability need and framework

Sustainability development has become the primary yardstick of improvement for industries and is being integrated into effective business strategies. The needs for sustainability measurement include improvement in the operations, benchmarking performances, tracking progress, and evaluating process, among others. For the purposes of building a proper sustainability indicator, framework is developed and the steps are as follows:

1. Defining the system- A proper and definite system is defined. A proper system boundary is drawn for further analysis.
2. Elements of the system- The whole input, output of materials, emissions, energy and other auxiliary elements are properly analysed. The working conditions, process parameters and characteristics are defined in this step.
3. Indicators selection- The indicators is selected of which measurement has to be done. This forms the metric for this system whose analysis is done in the further steps.
4. Assessment and Measurement- Proper assessing tools are used and tests or experiments are performed for the pre-defined indicators to give a value for the indicators measurement.
5. Analysis and reviewing the results- Once the results have been obtained, proper analysis and interpretation is done and tools are used to improve and revise the processes present in the system.

Sustainability indicators and their function

See also: Sustainability metrics and indices

The principal objective of sustainability indicators is to inform public policy-making as part of the process of sustainability governance. Sustainability indicators can provide information on any aspect of the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities. Building strategic indicator sets generally deals with just a few simple questions: what is happening? (descriptive indicators), does it matter and are we reaching targets? (performance indicators), are we improving? (efficiency indicators), are measures working? (policy effectiveness indicators), and are we generally better off? (total welfare indicators).

The International Institute for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development established the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) in 2006 to evaluate sustainability initiatives operating in agriculture and develop indicators for their measurable social, economic and environmental objectives.

One popular general framework used by The European Environment Agency uses a slight modification of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development DPSIR system. This breaks up environmental impact into five stages. Social and economic developments (consumption and production) (D)rive or initiate environmental (P)ressures which, in turn, produces a change in the (S)tate of the environment which leads to (I)mpacts of various kinds. Societal (R)esponses (policy guided by sustainability indicators) can be introduced at any stage of this sequence of events.

Politics

See also: Environmental politics and Environmental governance

A study concluded that social indicators and, therefore, sustainable development indicators, are scientific constructs whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making. The International Institute for Sustainable Development has similarly developed a political policy framework, linked to a sustainability index for establishing measurable entities and metrics. The framework consists of six core areas:

1. International trade and investment
2. Economic policy
3. Climate change and energy
4. Measurement and assessment
5. Natural resource management
6. Communication technologies.

The United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme has defined sustainable political development in a way that broadens the usual definition beyond states and governance. The political is defined as the domain of practices and meanings associated with basic issues of social power as they pertain to the organisation, authorisation, legitimation and regulation of a social life held in common. This definition is in accord with the view that political change is important for responding to economic, ecological and cultural challenges. It also means that the politics of economic change can be addressed. They have listed seven subdomains of the domain of politics:

1. Organization and governance
2. Law and justice
3. Communication and critique
4. Representation and negotiation
5. Security and accord
6. Dialogue and reconciliation
7. Ethics and accountability

Metrics at the global scale

See also: Sustainability metrics and indices

There are numerous indicators which could be used as basis for sustainability measurement. Few commonly used indicators are:

Environmental sustainability indicators:

• Global warming potential
• Acidification potential
• Ozone depletion potential
• Aerosol optical depth
• Eutrophication potential
• Ionization radiation potential
• Photochemical ozone potential
• Waste treatment
• Freshwater use
• Energy resources use

Economic indicators:

• Gross domestic product
• Trade balance
• Local government income
• Profit, value and tax
• Investments

Social indicators:

• Employment generated
• Equity
• Health and safety
• Education
• Housing/living conditions
• Community cohesion
• Social security

Due to the large numbers of various indicators that could be used for sustainability measurement, proper assessment and monitoring is required. In order to organize the chaos and disorder in selecting the metrics, specific organizations have been set up which groups the metrics under different categories and defines proper methodology to implement it for measurement. They provide modelling techniques and indexes to compare the measurement and have methods to convert the scientific measurement results into easy to understand terms.

United Nations indicators

The United Nations has developed extensive sustainability measurement tools in relation to sustainable development as well as a System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development

The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has published a list of 140 indicators which covers environmental, social, economical and institutional aspects of sustainable development.

Benchmarks, indicators, indexes, auditing etc.

In the last couple of decades, there has arisen a crowded toolbox of quantitative methods used to assess sustainability — including measures of resource use like life cycle assessment, measures of consumption like the ecological footprint and measurements of quality of environmental governance like the Environmental Performance Index. The following is a list of quantitative "tools" used by sustainability scientists - the different categories are for convenience only as defining criteria will intergrade. It would be too difficult to list all those methods available at different levels of the organization so those listed here are at the global level only.

• Benchmarks

A benchmark is a point of reference for a measurement. Once a benchmark is established it is possible to assess trends and measure progress. Baseline global data on a range of sustainability parameters is available in the list of global sustainability statistics.

• Indices

A sustainability index is an aggregate sustainability indicator that combines multiple sources of data. There is a Consultative Group on Sustainable Development Indices

Air quality index Child Development Index Corruption Perceptions Index Democracy Index Environmental Performance Index Energy Sustainability Index Education Index Environmental Sustainability Index Environmental Vulnerability Index

GDP per capita Gini coefficient Gender Parity Index Gender-related Development Index Gender Empowerment Measure Gross national happiness Genuine Progress Indicator (formerly Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) Green Score City Index Gross National Product

Happy Planet Index Human Development Index (see List of countries by HDI) Legatum Prosperity Index Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare Life Expectancy Index Sustainable Governance Indicators. The Status Index  ranks 30 OECD countries in terms of sustainable reform performance Sustainable Society Index SDEWES Index Water Poverty Index

• Metrics

Many environmental problems ultimately relate to the human effect on those global biogeochemical cycles that are critical to life. Over the last decade monitoring these cycles have become a more urgent target for research:

water cycle carbon cycle phosphorus cycle

nitrogen cycle sulphur cycle oxygen cycle

• Auditing

Sustainability auditing and reporting are used to evaluate the sustainability performance of a company, organization, or other entity using various performance indicators. Popular auditing procedures available at the global level include:

• ISO 14000
• ISO 14031
• The Natural Step
• Triple Bottom Line Accounting
• input-output analysis can be used for any level of organization with a financial budget. It relates environmental impact to expenditure by calculating the resource intensity of goods and services.

• Reporting
  • Global Reporting Initiative modelling and monitoring procedures. Many of these are currently in their developing phase.
  • State of the Environment reporting provides general background information on the environment and is progressively including more indicators.
  • European sustainability 
• Accounting

Some accounting methods attempt to include environmental costs rather than treating them as externalities

• Green accounting
• Sustainable value
• Sustainability economics 

Life cycle analysis

A life cycle analysis is often conducted when assessing the sustainability of a product or prototype. The decision to choose materials is heavily weighted on its longevity, renewability, and efficiency. These factors ensure that researchers are conscious of community values that align with positive environmental, social, and economic impacts.

Resource metrics

Part of this process can relate to resource use such as energy accounting or to economic metrics or price system values as compared to non-market economics potential, for understanding resource use.

An important task for resource theory (energy economics) is to develop methods to optimize resource conversion processes. These systems are described and analyzed by means of the methods of mathematics and the natural sciences. Human factors, however, have dominated the development of our perspective of the relationship between nature and society since at least the Industrial Revolution, and in particular, have influenced how we describe and measure the economic impacts of changes in resource quality. A balanced view of these issues requires an understanding of the physical framework in which all human ideas, institutions, and aspirations must operate.

Oil imports by country

Energy returned on energy invested

Main article: Energy returned on energy invested

When oil production first began in the mid-nineteenth century, the largest oil fields recovered fifty barrels of oil for every barrel used in the extraction, transportation, and refining. This ratio is often referred to as the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI or EROEI). Currently, between one and five barrels of oil are recovered for each barrel-equivalent of energy used in the recovery process. As the EROEI drops to one, or equivalently the net energy gain falls to zero, the oil production is no longer a net energy source. This happens long before the resource is physically exhausted.

Note that it is important to understand the distinction between a barrel of oil, which is a measure of oil, and a barrel of oil equivalent (BOE), which is a measure of energy. Many sources of energy, such as fission, solar, wind, and coal, are not subject to the same near-term supply restrictions that oil is. Accordingly, even an oil source with an EROEI of 0.5 can be usefully exploited if the energy required to produce that oil comes from a cheap and plentiful energy source. Availability of cheap, but hard to transport, natural gas in some oil fields has led to using natural gas to fuel enhanced oil recovery. Similarly, natural gas in huge amounts is used to power most Athabasca Tar Sands plants. Cheap natural gas has also led to ethanol fuel produced with a net EROEI of less than 1, although figures in this area are controversial because methods to measure EROEI are in debate.

Growth-based economic models

Insofar as economic growth is driven by oil consumption growth, post-peak societies must adapt. M. King Hubbert believed:

Our principal constraints are cultural. During the last two centuries we have known nothing but exponential growth and in parallel we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture, a culture so heavily dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its stability that it is incapable of reckoning with problems of nongrowth.

Some economists describe the problem as uneconomic growth or a false economy. At the political right, Fred Ikle has warned about "conservatives addicted to the Utopia of Perpetual Growth". Brief oil interruptions in 1973 and 1979 markedly slowed – but did not stop – the growth of world GDP.

Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by fossil fuels in the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), and hydrocarbon fueled irrigation.

David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), place in their study Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy the maximum U.S. population for a sustainable economy at 200 million. To achieve a sustainable economy world population will have to be reduced by two-thirds, says the study. Without population reduction, this study predicts an agricultural crisis beginning in 2020, becoming critical c. 2050. The peaking of global oil along with the decline in regional natural gas production may precipitate this agricultural crisis sooner than generally expected. Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that coming decades could see spiraling food prices without relief and massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before.

Hubbert peaks

Hubbert Peak vs Oil Production

There is an active debate about most suitable sustainability indicator's use and by adopting a thermodynamic approach through the concept of "exergy" and Hubbert peaks, it is possible to incorporate all into a single measure of resource depletion.The exergy analysis of minerals could constitute a universal and transparent tool for the management of the earth's physical stock.

Hubbert peak can be used as a metric for sustainability and depletion of non-renewable resources. It can be used as reference for many metrics for non-renewable resources such as:

1. Stagnating supplies
2. Rising prices
3. Individual country peaks
4. Decreasing discoveries
5. Finding and development costs
6. Spare capacity
7. Export capabilities of producing countries
8. System inertia and timing
9. Reserves-to-production ratio
10. Past history of depletion and optimism

Although Hubbert peak theory receives most attention in relation to peak oil production, it has also been applied to other natural resources.

Natural gas

Main article: Peak gas

Doug Reynolds predicted in 2005 that the North American peak would occur in 2007. Bentley (p. 189) predicted a world "decline in conventional gas production from about 2020".

Coal

Main article: Peak coal

Peak coal is significantly further out than peak oil, but we can observe the example of anthracite in the US, a high grade coal whose production peaked in the 1920s. Anthracite was studied by Hubbert, and matches a curve closely. Pennsylvania's coal production also matches Hubbert's curve closely, but this does not mean that coal in Pennsylvania is exhausted—far from it. If production in Pennsylvania returned at its all-time high, there are reserves for 190 years. Hubbert had recoverable coal reserves worldwide at 2500 × 10⁹ metric tons and peaking around 2150 (depending on usage).

More recent estimates suggest an earlier peak. Coal: Resources and Future Production (PDF 630KB), published on April 5, 2007 by the Energy Watch Group (EWG), which reports to the German Parliament, found that global coal production could peak in as few as 15 years. Reporting on this Richard Heinberg also notes that the date of peak annual energetic extraction from coal will likely come earlier than the date of peak in quantity of coal (tons per year) extracted as the most energy-dense types of coal have been mined most extensively. A second study, The Future of Coal by B. Kavalov and S. D. Peteves of the Institute for Energy (IFE), prepared for European Commission Joint Research Centre, reaches similar conclusions and states that ""coal might not be so abundant, widely available and reliable as an energy source in the future".

Work by David Rutledge of Caltech predicts that the total of world coal production will amount to only about 450 gigatonnes. This implies that coal is running out faster than usually assumed.

Finally, insofar as global peak oil and peak in natural gas are expected anywhere from imminently to within decades at most, any increase in coal production (mining) per annum to compensate for declines in oil or NG production, would necessarily translate to an earlier date of peak as compared with peak coal under a scenario in which annual production remains constant.

Fissionable materials

Main article: Peak uranium

In a paper in 1956, after a review of US fissionable reserves, Hubbert notes of nuclear power:

There is promise, however, provided mankind can solve its international problems and not destroy itself with nuclear weapons, and provided world population (which is now expanding at such a rate as to double in less than a century) can somehow be brought under control, that we may at last have found an energy supply adequate for our needs for at least the next few centuries of the "foreseeable future."

Technologies such as the thorium fuel cycle, reprocessing and fast breeders can, in theory, considerably extend the life of uranium reserves. Roscoe Bartlett claims 

Our current throwaway nuclear cycle uses up the world reserve of low-cost uranium in about 20 years.

Caltech physics professor David Goodstein has stated that

... you would have to build 10,000 of the largest power plants that are feasible by engineering standards in order to replace the 10 terawatts of fossil fuel we're burning today ... that's a staggering amount and if you did that, the known reserves of uranium would last for 10 to 20 years at that burn rate. So, it's at best a bridging technology ... You can use the rest of the uranium to breed plutonium 239 then we'd have at least 100 times as much fuel to use. But that means you're making plutonium, which is an extremely dangerous thing to do in the dangerous world that we live in.

Metals

Main article: Peak copper

Hubbert applied his theory to "rock containing an abnormally high concentration of a given metal" and reasoned that the peak production for metals such as copper, tin, lead, zinc and others would occur in the time frame of decades and iron in the time frame of two centuries like coal. The price of copper rose 500% between 2003 and 2007 was by some attributed to peak copper. Copper prices later fell, along with many other commodities and stock prices, as demand shrank from fear of a global recession. Lithium availability is a concern for a fleet of Li-ion battery using cars but a paper published in 1996 estimated that world reserves are adequate for at least 50 years. A similar prediction for platinum use in fuel cells notes that the metal could be easily recycled.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus supplies are essential to farming and depletion of reserves is estimated at somewhere from 60 to 130 years. Individual countries supplies vary widely; without a recycling initiative America's supply  is estimated around 30 years. Phosphorus supplies affect total agricultural output which in turn limits alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.

Peak water

Main article: Peak water

Hubbert's original analysis did not apply to renewable resources. However over-exploitation often results in a Hubbert peak nonetheless. A modified Hubbert curve applies to any resource that can be harvested faster than it can be replaced.

For example, a reserve such as the Ogallala Aquifer can be mined at a rate that far exceeds replenishment. This turns much of the world's underground water  and lakes into finite resources with peak usage debates similar to oil. These debates usually center around agriculture and suburban water usage but generation of electricity  from nuclear energy or coal and tar sands mining mentioned above is also water resource intensive. The term fossil water is sometimes used to describe aquifers whose water is not being recharged.

Renewable resources

• Fisheries: At least one researcher has attempted to perform Hubbert linearization (Hubbert curve) on the whaling industry, as well as charting the transparently dependent price of caviar on sturgeon depletion. Another example is the cod of the North Sea. The comparison of the cases of fisheries and of mineral extraction tells us that the human pressure on the environment is causing a wide range of resources to go through a depletion cycle which follows a Hubbert curve.

Sustainability gaps

Sustainability measurements and indicators is an ever-evolving and changing process and has various gaps to be filled to achieve a proper framework and model. The following are some of the breaks in continuity:

• Global indicators- Due to difference in social, economical, and environmental conditions of countries, each country has its own indicators and indexes to measure sustainability, which can lead to improper and varying interpretation at the global level. Hence, there should be common indexes and measuring parameters that would allow comparisons among countries. In agriculture, comparable indicators are already in use. Coffee and cocoa studies in twelve countries using common indicators are among the first to report insights from comparing across countries.
• Policymaking- After the indicators are defined and analysis is done for the measurements from the indicators, proper policymaking methodology can be set up to improve the results achieved. Policymaking would implement changes in the particular inventory list used for measuring, which could lead to better results.
• Development of individual indicators- Value-based indicators can be developed to measure the efforts by every human being part of the ecosystem. This can affect policymaking, as policy is effective only if there is public participation.
• Data collection- Due to improper methodology applied to data collection, dynamics of change in data, lack of adequate time and improper framework in analysis of data, can lead to measurements that can be outdated, inaccurate, and unpresentable. Data collections are intended to be from the grass-roots level and there can be proper framework and regulation associated with it. It is intended to have a proper hierarchy of data collection starting from local zones to state level to national level and finally contributing to the global level measurements. Data collected can be made easy to understand so that it could be correctly interpreted and presented through graphs, charts, and analysis bars.
• Integration across academic disciplines- Sustainability involves whole of the ecosystem and is intended to have a holistic approach. For this purpose measurements intends to involve data and knowledge from all academic backgrounds. Moreover, these disciplines and insights are intended to align with the societal actions.