{"title":"Living in the ‘doughnut’: Reconsidering the boundaries via composite indicators","authors":"Gianluca Gucciardi , Tommaso Luzzati","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112864","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The concept of planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009) and the need for social minima were integrated by Raworth (2012, 2017) into a ’doughnut-shaped’ framework, representing a ’safe and just space’ for humanity. Empirical assessments have revealed that no country currently falls within this ’doughnut’. However, to what extent do the results depend on the methodological assumptions, and could a less stringent metric, allowing trade-offs between indicators, improve these outcomes? Preserving the core of Raworth’s theoretical framework, we address these questions by constructing two separate sets of composite indicators for the social and environmental dimensions. Following an uncertainty-based approach, we obtain the two sets by combining alternative normalisation, weighting, and aggregation techniques. This approach yields a new, easily communicable, and robust metric for the ‘safe and just space’. Our analysis strengthens previous findings, showing that even with less stringent criteria, no country currently falls within the doughnut, underscoring the substantial gap to be addressed in both social and environmental policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 112864"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Indicators","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24013219","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The concept of planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009) and the need for social minima were integrated by Raworth (2012, 2017) into a ’doughnut-shaped’ framework, representing a ’safe and just space’ for humanity. Empirical assessments have revealed that no country currently falls within this ’doughnut’. However, to what extent do the results depend on the methodological assumptions, and could a less stringent metric, allowing trade-offs between indicators, improve these outcomes? Preserving the core of Raworth’s theoretical framework, we address these questions by constructing two separate sets of composite indicators for the social and environmental dimensions. Following an uncertainty-based approach, we obtain the two sets by combining alternative normalisation, weighting, and aggregation techniques. This approach yields a new, easily communicable, and robust metric for the ‘safe and just space’. Our analysis strengthens previous findings, showing that even with less stringent criteria, no country currently falls within the doughnut, underscoring the substantial gap to be addressed in both social and environmental policies.
期刊介绍:
The ultimate aim of Ecological Indicators is to integrate the monitoring and assessment of ecological and environmental indicators with management practices. The journal provides a forum for the discussion of the applied scientific development and review of traditional indicator approaches as well as for theoretical, modelling and quantitative applications such as index development. Research into the following areas will be published.
• All aspects of ecological and environmental indicators and indices.
• New indicators, and new approaches and methods for indicator development, testing and use.
• Development and modelling of indices, e.g. application of indicator suites across multiple scales and resources.
• Analysis and research of resource, system- and scale-specific indicators.
• Methods for integration of social and other valuation metrics for the production of scientifically rigorous and politically-relevant assessments using indicator-based monitoring and assessment programs.
• How research indicators can be transformed into direct application for management purposes.
• Broader assessment objectives and methods, e.g. biodiversity, biological integrity, and sustainability, through the use of indicators.
• Resource-specific indicators such as landscape, agroecosystems, forests, wetlands, etc.