Contents
Overview .....................................................................................................................................1
A Fresh View of Earth Systems Management ............................................................1
The Government Role .....................................................................................................3
Research, Policy, and Corporate Issues .....................................................................3
The EPA, World Resources Institute, and the World Bank ......................................4
Examining the Issues in Materials and Energy Flows ...............................................5
USGS Activities in Materials and Energy Flows .........................................................6
Directions and Opportunities for Research ................................................................7
Introduction ................................................................................................................................8
Challenges for the USGS in New Fields of Study .......................................................8
Agenda Design .................................................................................................................8
The USGS Perspective ...................................................................................................9
Industrial Ecology and A New Vocabulary for Emerging Fields
of Study .......................11
Do We Like Where We Are Putting Things? .............................................................11
Industry within Ecology and the Flows of Toxic Materials .....................................13
Sustainability and Ecological Footprints ...................................................................15
The Role of Federal Science ........................................................................................16
The Flow of Mercury in South Florida ........................................................................17
Nitrogen and Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico .............................................................19
Major Issues in Materials and Energy Flows ......................................................................20
Research Issues ............................................................................................................20
Policy Issues ..................................................................................................................22
Corporate Issues ...........................................................................................................24
National and International Activities in Materials and Energy
Flows .............................25
The Federal Interagency Working Group on Industrial Ecology,
Material and Energy Flows ...................................................................................25
Sustainability Indicators and Our Materials Endowment .......................................26
The National Research Council and Materials Flows Accounting
.......................28
Integrated Science for Ecosystem Challenges ........................................................29
The Environmental Protection Agency and Industrial Ecology .............................29
Resource Flows: The Material Basis for Industrial Economies .............................31
Expanding Measurements of National Wealth ........................................................32
Creating the Future: Industrial Ecology in the Earth Science
Century ............................33
Applying Industrial Ecology .........................................................................................33
The Earth Science Century ..........................................................................................35
Geology for a Changing World ...........................................................................38
Responding to the Challenges: The Work of Breakout Groups
........................................39
Research Activities and Opportunities within the USGS ...................................................43
The Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem ................................................................................43
Merging Economic Modeling with Energy and Minerals Programs .....................44
Water as a Material: Water Use in the United States, 1950.1995
........................45
Global Implications of Minerals and Materials Analysis in the
USGS .................48
Urban Dynamics and Resources Demand in the Eastern United States
.............49
Directions and Opportunities for Research in Materials and
Energy Flows ..................50
An Ecosystem Focus for Materials and Energy Flows ............................................50
Spatial Aspects of Materials and Energy Flows ......................................................52
Water: The Largest Materials Flow ............................................................................54
Environmental Geochemistry and Earth System Services .....................................54
Why What We Do Is Important: Reaching and Exceeding the Workshop
Goals ..........55
Selected References ...............................................................................................................56
Appendix 1. Workshop Announcement and Agenda ........................................................57
Appendix 2. List of Speakers and Participants ...................................................................60
A Fresh View of Earth Systems Management
For the 21st century, the USGS and many others throughout government,
academia, and the private sector carry a hopeful vision of better
solutions to the problems of depleting natural resources and creating
excessive wastes. Despite growing numbers of people and their
associated demands for materials, energy, living space, and a
healthful environment, there is cautious but broad optimism about
meeting these challenges.
The optimism stems from realizing scientific capabilities to understand
global materials and energy flows, and recognizing that our societies
can create remarkable efficiencies, both in the way we use materials
and energy and how we reduce and treat waste products.
For this effort, investigators are engaging in whole system views
of the human condition using the tools of materials and energy
flows accounting
and industrial ecology. Materials and energy flows accounting
involves a thorough and holistic view of the materials flow cycle,
wherein materials are tracked throughout their life cycle from
extraction, through manufacturing, consumer use, reuse, recycling,
and disposition. The energy
inputs and losses associated with these activities are critical
to comprehending the full picture of the materials flow cycle.
Such accounting provides the data for industrial ecology and economic
of human activity with the rest of the environment. Industrial
ecology is the “Science of Sustainability” that views and analyzes
industrial systems in much the same way that biological sciences
treat ecosystems. Industrial ecology aims to understand human
systems within an ecological context and design the use of materials
and wastes so as to minimize their impact on the Earth. Socolow
(this volume) described how practicing industrial ecology integrates
industrial systems with the natural world. What industrial ecology
offers the world is a fresh view of environmental management that
sets priorities for concern, gives strong messages for rational
policymaking, and transforms those who damage or destroy the environment
into agents of positive environmental change.
Embracing principles of industrial ecology moves people toward
creative solutions to problems of materials use efficiencies and
eliminating waste. Cohen-Rosenthal (this volume) noted that these
principles include connecting individual firms into industrial
ecosystems, balancing inputs and outputs to natural ecosystem
capacities, reengineering industrial use of energy and materials,
and aligning policy with a long-term perspective
of industrial system evolution. He explained differences between
engineered and self-organizing industrial ecology. He showed practical
ways to achieve new mechanisms, new hypotheses and goals for materials
reuse, and he posed new questions for reducing materials impact.
There is a
hierarchy of materials transformation, from genesis and design
for durability to waste disposal and releases to the environment.
This hierarchy suggests a broad range of new technologies and
business opportunities at all stages of materials transformation.
The principles of industrial ecology also lead to the reorganization
of individual manufacturing facilities, and systems of such facilities,
or eco-industrial parks. We are in a period of discovery with
respect to organizational intelligence, and creating or nurturing
businesses likely to participate in eco-industrial development.
The discovery and consequent development must be based upon sound
data, and developing new data on materials and energy flows at
the local and regional levels. The development must relate to
existing companies and resource-use patterns, and must be connected
to market demands for environmental characteristics to be successful.
There are now several experimental eco-industrial development
sites in the United These sites have in common a trend toward
maximizing cooperative endeavors, and attempting to operate in
particular materials/ energy domains wherein a variety of alternative
“upstream” and “downstream” connections can be made.
The views expressed by the workshop participants are also vital
to the intentions of sustainability. Sustainability is an overarching
idea that encompasses meeting the mutual goals of economic development
and environmental protection for the purpose of fulfilling everyone’s
basic needs. The terms “sustainability” and “sustainable development”
have evolved in the global policy arena since the terminology
was first treated by
the United Nations in 1972, and have become heavily integrated
into shaping policies of the public and private sectors in the
1990’s. Many participants referred to sustainability in their
presentations, and provided a variety of explanations of the term.
Palmer (this volume) discussed sustainability as the level of
consumption of natural resources (water, food, soil, minerals,
wood products, energy), and production of waste products that
can be continued indefinitely by the human population. There is
an “ecological footprint” of humans, which is the impact of people
on the ecologically productive area of the Earth, and which can
be roughly calculated. According to Palmer’s ecological footprint
calculations, in the world of 2050 with a global population of
about 10 billion, our current levels of consumption of natural
resources are not sustainable.
The U.S. Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development
Indicators (SDI’s) has been studying SDI’s since the beginning
of the Clinton Administration. Heintz (this volume) related how
the group is oriented toward producing a fully integrated set
of indicators that show trends toward or away from sustainable
development worldwide. Developing SDI’s is important not only
to focus on how well societies are doing now
in terms of sustainable development, but also to focus on longterm
endowments and liabilities. Thinking in terms of endowments
helps people understand the idea of the stewardship and trusteeship
for which societies throughout the world are all responsible.
Fundamental to this thinking is that the materials now considered
as waste should rather be considered an endowment of raw materials
for the future. Thus, societies move away from producing waste
and move toward systems that become more sustaining by using the
endowments of their own or other
systems. The attention being given to recycling, reuse, remanufacturing,
deconstruction, and similar processes is the beginning of a recognition
that materials extracted from the Earth and processed into various
forms are still all around us, and are in fact an endowment. This
generation and future generations will have the opportunity to
draw upon these; therefore, these materials need to be included
in our accounting. The new message of sustainable development,
and the focus of work on sustainable development indicators, is
on endowments to ensure that what is
passed along to future generations is as good as or better than
what was passed along to us. Part of the full range of endowments,
processes, and current results directly involves activities of
the USGS. Some of these are investigations of water use, exotic
species, and the beginning of land-use change, and they encompass
the intensities of use of materials and energy.
The U.S. Interagency Working Group on Industrial Ecology, Material
and Energy Flows (IE Group) was established by the President’s
Council on Environmental Quality in March 1996. Berry (this volume)
described the IE Group’s overviews of the way material flows have
changed society throughout human history, and materials flows
in the 20th century. The IE Group stresses solutions to materials
flow problems under the headings of recycling, remanufacturing,
redesigning, and rethinking. Recycling deals with reprocessing
and using materials from discarded products to manufacture new
products, or reuse them. Remanufacturing treats disassembling
and cleaning discarded goods, reconditioning and adding replacement
components, is intended to dramatically improve efficiencies of
materials and energy uses in products and processes. Redesigning
also makes recycling easier, and makes disposal less environmentally
damaging. Rethinking asks us to consider ways to provide goods
and services to meet human wants more efficiently. The IE Group
encourages human societies to move toward sustainable solutions
to our materials and energy flow problems. The pathway to sustainable
communities, cities, and regions involves pollution control, process
integration, whole-facility planning,
and industrial ecology. The IE Group advocates seeking less energy
intensity and less material intensity per unit of product or service,
while achieving lower levels of environmental toxicity and risk.
The stage is set for the 21st century to be the century of the
earth sciences in much the same way the 20th century has been
the century of physics. Humankind has emerged in the past few
decades as a powerful and, in some respects, a dominant geologic
force on the planet. Our need for, and reliance upon, natural
resources, our concern for environmental quality, our concern
for human health that in many cases may have a basis on geologic
phenomena, and our rising concern for the health of the planet
all point toward the potential emergence of the earth sciences.
Bohlen (this volume) argued that indeed the earth sciences should
play a role in shaping the most important debate of the next century.what
will be the global population, what will be the standard of living,
and what will be the state of environmental health. This debate
will not be decided in some grand forum, but rather by thousands
of decisions made around the world by those who might not even
realize they are engaged in the debate or even having an influence
on it. Bohlen’s essentials of the Earth Science Century are (1)
a priority emphasis on the surface of the Earth as a coherent
air, water, and land system; (2) unification of geologic, biological,
and ecological sciences within a social science context; and (3)
new and higher levels of collaboration of practitioners within
the earth science community. Areas ripe for advance include understanding
the Earth in real time, the structure and function of ecosystems,
forward modeling of complex systems, the connectedness of seemingly
unconnected processes, the implications of surface processes for
the origin of life and extinctions, and understanding the surface
and near surface of the Earth.
The USGS is building its scientific strategy to meet the needs
of the Earth Science Century. One goal of this strategy is to
advance the understanding of the Nation’s energy and mineral resources
in a global geologic, economic, and environmental context. The
United States is among the world’s leading producers of energy
and mineral resources, and the Nation’s economic security depends
on maintaining adequate supplies from domestic and nondomestic
sources. The Nation constantly faces decisions involving the supply
and use of raw materials, substitution of one resource for another,
and the environmental consequences of resource development. With
respect to materials and energy flows, the USGS maintains a unique
role within the Federal Government and the private sector in comprehensive
assessments of mineral and energy resources.
A goal advocated by workshop participants is a much higher level
of Earth systems management than has heretofore been practiced.
Earth scientists and others recognize that humankind is becoming
more and more of a dominant force with respect to the surficial
processes of the Earth. Human beings modify the Earth’s hydrological
systems, extract minerals, move soil and rock, enhance erosion,
dredge, farm, manufacture, pollute, dissipate, and dispose on
massive scales. Traditionally, our societies have focused on such
activities in broad financial terms, and have neglected a comprehensive
understanding of the materials terms.the actual factors that diminish
our chances for good stewardship of our planet and for supporting
economic opportunity for our people. For the future, a comprehensive
understanding of materials and energy flows on a global scale
is essential.not only to recognize the scope of human activities
on the Earth’s surface, but also to manage those activities for
sustainable economies and a sustainable environment.
This volume represents an effort to bring together the industry,
academia, and international organizations about roles of the USGS
in materials and energy flows research. The participants met in
November 1998 to identify problems and explore partnerships by
(1) examining the importance of materials and energy flows in
United States and global economies; (2) reviewing national goals
and policies that are based on materials and
energy flows and sustainability precepts, and (3) envisioning
integrated approaches to materials and energy flows research.
The Government Role
The USGS, other government agencies, and the private sector have
tracked materials and energy flows in a variety of ways and for
different time periods for more than a century. The new and challenging
undertaking for these entities is analyzing this vast body of
information in the long-term, national and global context of industrial
development, economy, and social change.and doing it in concert
with each other. There are many roles in this undertaking, and
there is a great mix of participants poised to take the work well
beyond the realm of traditional Earth science investigations.
The role of Federal science in materials and energy flows research
is a “big picture” understanding of processes. That understanding
is necessary in making informed decisions about resources with
sustainability as a priority. Materials assume a role of increased
importance as population grows,
and the built environment grows in a corresponding fashion. Attempts
to maintain growth of the built environment under current practices
risks unsustainable resource use which in turn can lead to ecosystem
decline and habitat destruction. Therefore, it is incumbent upon
Federal agencies like the USGS to pay particular attention to
the growth in materials and energy demands foreseen in the coming
century, and the consequences
of those demands. Schaefer (this volume) argued that materials
flow analyses probably should be an integral part of all USGS
activities.
A real opportunity exists for an increased government role in
supporting industrial ecology and more efficient uses of material
and energy resources throughout the economy. Berry (this volume)
discussed how the government might maintain and enhance the function
of long-term collection and analysis of critical materials and
energy flow data. The government could develop its research priorities
in this arena in consultation with industry, nongovernmental organizations,
and other key stakeholders. Government agencies might rethink
regulations with respect to (1) definitions of waste, (2) incentives
and disincentives for the more cost-effective use of materials,
and (3) supporting recycling and emanufacturing. Agencies could
set examples in revising their procurement policies, and develop
guidance on what constitutes environmentally preferable products.
The government also has major education functions, and can examine
the impacts of taxes, subsidies, and various marketbased incentives
on materials use, disposal, and efficiency.
In January 1998, the National Research Council (NRC) held a Workshop
on Material Flows Accounting of Natural Resources, Products, and
Residues in the United States. The NRC study arising from the
workshop intends to assess the utility of materials flow data
for making informed decisions about materials use and the expected
consequences of alternative decisions. The study will consider
types of data that are readily
available and types of data that should be obtained. Information
on specific materials would be used as examples to illustrate
how materials flow and reservoir data would be useful to various
ate organizations in making materials and process choices. Schiffries
(this volume) noted that potential applications of materials flow
information include developing suitable national indicators of
materials and resources efficiencies, assessing the national capability
for substituting materials a quickly as they are needed, and
increasing the efficient use of materials by industrial
sectors. Other applications include changing materials use and
processing methods to mitigate environmental impacts, and managing
undesirable materials that are removed from the natural environment
together with desired materials. The NRC also will examine designing
disposal sites, such as landfills, to make materials more easily
extractable at a future date, improving recycled material source-user
relationships, and making quality
and quantity more predictable.
The Federal Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR)
has developed an initiative on “Integrated Science for Ecosystem
Challenges.” Fenn (this volume) described how this initiative
incorporates materials flow in the context of developing, coordinating,
and maintaining a national infrastructure to provide scientific
information needed for effective stewardship of the Nation’s natural
resources. Examples include materials flow research within USGS
programs on abandoned mine lands, wetlands loss studies in the
oil fields of south Louisiana, and natural resources damage assessment
studies in Texas. CENR priorities for FY 2000 include studies
of invasive species, biodiversity, and species decline; harmful
algal blooms, hypoxia, and eutrophication; habitat conservation
and ecosystem productivity; and information management, monitoring,
and
integrated assessments.
Research, Policy, and Corporate Issues
Potential research roles for the USGS and others involve collection
and analyses of data relevant for treating important issues at
a variety of economic and spatial scales. Cleveland (this volume)
argued that the work must be targeted for end users in academia,
government, private, and nonprofit sectors. It must involve less
descriptive analysis and encyclopedic data collection, and more
quantitative modeling and assessment.
Practitioners should think in terms of a global ecosystem driven
by economic subsystems. The economic subsystems require natural
resources (energy and materials) and ecosystem services, create
products, and produce degraded materials that must be assimilated
as waste or recycled. Economic subsystems in today’s world are
overwhelming the natural systems, and growing to become the dominant
physical forces acting within our fixed global environment. These
forces invite research into understanding the historical patterns
of the material and pollution intensity of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). They prevail upon researchers to understand the economic,
technological, cultural, and institutional forces that are driving
those patterns. Finally, they require researchers to understand
what the historical trends and driving forces tell us about the
future.
Cleveland introduced “dematerialization,” or the decrease in demand
for and use of materials by societies. Dematerialization may result
from technical improvements that decrease the quantity of materials
used to produce a good or service. It may result from substituting
new materials with more desirable properties for older materials.
It may be achieved by changes in demand and consumer preferences
for products, by legislation, or by the saturation of bulk markets
for basic materials.
Cleveland noted that there are vast differences in modeling capabilities
for materials and energy flows. There is a National Energy Modeling
System (NEMS) framework that treats the global energy picture
in a thorough and consistent manner. However, no such framework
exists for materials. Investigators should consider a National
Materials Modeling System (NMMS) that focuses on measures of concern
to decisionmakers, whether they be economic, human health and
environmental, national security, or other concerns. The NMMS
envisioned by Cleveland should use a problem-directed, scenario-based
approach, and it should be integrative and multidisciplinary.
The approach should be outward-looking in order to complement
and interact with a variety of public and private groups that
contribute to policy analysis, including other Federal agencies.
Rejeski (this volume) stressed that from a policy perspective,
and in terms of understanding toxic substances, the United States
has treated the obvious problems, but many others remain. New
and different data collection and analysis techniques are necessary
to fill the gaps. Flow of materials across political boundaries
will become an even more important issue. Hazardous through the
use of products. Dangers lie in unchallenged
assumptions, especially about driving mechanisms, and materials
flow analyses could help policymakers change their thoughts about
drivers. Current research suggests there are many different sources
of materials pollution than were previously recognized. For example,
the accumulated total of hazardous wastes from individual households
is greater than that generated by industry for particular toxic
materials.
Drake (this volume) offered a corporate perspective using the
example of the automotive industry. The very nature of the industry
requires that materials for the product must be plentiful, and
that recycling these materials is an economic necessity. Currently,
recycling helps to optimize the life cycle of automobiles, and
75 percent of materials in automobiles are recycled. Understanding
materials flow helps planners integrate their thinking about improving
recycling efficiencies. For example, there is a major push to
make individual parts easier to disassemble in order to recycle
them. The overall goals today are to reduce negative environmental
impacts throughout industries, to increase efficiencies in disassembly,
to develop materials selection environmentally sound solutions
to product disposal. Drake concluded that in the automotive industry
today, there is
no inherent contradiction between “environmental” and “business,”
and environmental stewardship is good business practice.
The EPA, World Resources Institute and the World Bank
Industrial ecology principles are important keys to the future
of environmental protection, and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is just beginning its efforts in this arena. Allen
(this volume) described many EPA projects in industrial ecology
that span the spectrum of regional, national, and international
issues, and issues surrounding individual industries and products.
Notable among these are application of life-cycle management to
evaluate integrated solid waste management, and taking a systems
approach to tracking international flows of energy and carbon.
At a regional scale, the EPA is investigating the Triangle J Industrial
Ecosystem Park by developing an input-output analysis of 140 facilities
in a sixcounty region of North Carolina to match resources used
and disposed by these facilities. The EPA is also working on the
eco-industrial park idea in other areas, and on materials flow
applications in designing sustainable communities. At the scale
of individual industries, the EPA maintains a toxic release inventory
useful for understanding materials flow and industrial ecology,
and promotes environmentally conscious design and
commercialization of products and processes. Projects that focus
on individual products include a garment and textile care program
that investigates fiber and textile production and garment manufacture
that can reduce the application of chemicals used in professional
cleaning.
The World Resources Institute (WRI) is continuing its work on
materials flows in industrialized nations. WRI is concerned with
measuring changes in the amount of physical materials entering
and leaving national economies, individual economic sectors, and
watersheds. Rodenburg (this volume) suggested that these findings
might chan e the way people view their environmental problems,
and could play a role in identifying policy opportunities or in
measuring progress towards sustainability. The WRI and EPA cooperatively
developed the Total Material Requirement (TMR), which is the sum
of total material input and hidden or indirect material flows,
including deliberate landscape alterations. TMR is the total material
requirement for a national economy, including all domestic and
imported natural resources. The TMR gives the best overall estimate
for the potential environmental impact associated with natural
resource extraction and use. WRI is reviewing a variety of measures
of the TMR for Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United
States.
Hamilton (this volume) showed how the World Bank group is attempting
to expand its measure of the wealth of nations beyond an assessment
of natural resources. Thus, the wealth of a nation must be seen
increasingly as a broad composite of the value of natural resources,
the well-being of the people, and the sustainability of the resources
and well-being. Sustainability in this case describes well-being
that does not decline over time.
The World Bank is particularly interested in sustainability, in
that the organization helps developing countries to develop further,
and some of the development it sees is not sustainable. The policy
implications suggest that given the large share of agricultural
land in natural capital of low-income countries, sound management
of this land is of great importance. Capturing and reinvesting
economic rents from mineral and petroleum resources is a significant
issue in many middle-income countries. Policy prescriptions for
becoming a high-income country include depleting exhaustible resources
and investing the rents effectively, managing renewable resources
sustainably, investing in produced assets, and increasing investment
in human capital. There is no guarantee that development based
on harvesting bountiful natural resources will lead to development
that is sustainable and equitable.
Examining the Issues in Materials and Energy Flows
Breakout groups decided that, from a policy perspective, in order
to foster responsible stewardship, reduce entropy, and reverse
adverse impacts on human health and ecosystems. The major policy
objective, couched in the form of a question, should be, “How
can we ensure sustainability?” Investigators should define policy
in a way that does not interfere with market goals, by considering
how to handle the probability of increased competition for resources,
and how to maintain access to resources as they become more scarce.
They must open pathways to multi-use, high-efficiency systems
through combining incentives and removing barriers. For example,
societies must create markets for recycled and reused materials
such as paper, buildings, roads, and oil. Additionally, the Federal
Government should leverage its market position in terms of the
environmental consequences of the purchases it makes. It should
reduce impasses to public confidence and regulatory inefficiencies,
mainly through making policy based on objective evaluation.
From a corporate perspective, Federal agencies should be making
comprehensive information available to the corporate sector. Breakout
groups suggested that agencies could reduce risk to investors
through due process (fairness), decrease uncertainties, and use
one-stop permitting. They should maximize access to resources
for both small- and large-scale users of materials and energy
flows information. Public land-use and
environmental policies have made it difficult to access domestic
resources, and these policies could be considered for revision.
Agencies should promote networking among eco-industrial units
in order to share and integrate proprietary or classified information.
The government should promote the ability to share resources,
particularly in the arena of hazardous/regulated materials where
information exchange encounters many barriers. The government
should consider mass balance audits or assessments to maximize
profits. Finally, it should consider the appropriate roles for
market forces. Where should the government dominate or intervene?
How does the government value or account for negative externalities?
The USGS should foster or expand its function as an “integrator”
of information from ecological, biological, and corporate disciplines.
The USGS should capitalize on “scientific synergy,” and the important
separation it maintains from the regulatory sector. The USGS has
a major role with respect to developing, maintaining, and consolidating
databases. The USGS has a major role in involving data users in
determining which questions the data are designed to answer; however,
this role must be augmented by more aggressive partnering and
networking with other agencies. There is a USGS role for providing
data on the end uses of materials, and providing an historical
data bank with ready access and analysis features. The USGS data
must support research on such key processes as ecosystem structure
and function, and urban systems, and provide knowledge to decisionmakers,
both to attend to other-agency needs and as required by law.
Considerable overlap occurs in public policy, corporate, and sustainability
issues. Among these categories, there will be shifts in time scales
and priorities assigned to each issue. For example, sustainability
addressed through public policy could require a longer term perspective
than corporate treatment of the same issue. Likewise, corporate
prioritization of a social issue would most likely be lower than
public policy prioritization of the same issue. In evaluating
issues, investigators should look both upstream at supplies and
downstream at wastes within any part of the materials flow cycle.
Practitioners should identify where markets work well and where
they do not work well, and concentrate on the latter. They should
examine where government policies (including tax, fiscal, and
land-use policies) do or do not support sustainability from a
national perspective. There is the problem of identifying and
responding to materials and energy flows issues globally. There
is a need for information on natural flows and processes in order
to evaluate the significance of anthropogenic flows. There must
be a consistency of government policies, and ready availability
of government data to the private sector and others who need it.
With respect to research, there is a need to build recognition
of the issues surrounding materials and energy flows and sustainability.
Building the recognition requires new levels of networking because
of the interdisciplinary nature of the issues. The scope and size
of the interest in these issues might be determined by a search
of the World Wide Web.
Investigators must examine the major environmental problems globally,
and prioritize these. They must review how a local entity or activity
fits into the global perspective of environmental problems. Data
at the local, national, and global levels must be used effectively
to interconnect local activities with a global perspective. Materials
and energy flows and their relations to sustainability constitute
the basis for a new emerging
science. This science is dependent upon the resources, economic,
and other databases produced by the USGS and several other government
agencies. The quality of databases needs to be improved to account
for materials in imports, consistency of reporting, and methods
for collecting more metadata. Data reporting that has heretofore
been proprietary needs to be supplied or converted for universal
access, whether voluntary or
mandatory. The USGS needs to continue to evolve its activities
from a focus on data collection to comprehensive data analysis.
USGS Activities in Materials and Energy Flows
Current regional studies of mercury and hypoxia demonstrate strengths
of the USGS and its partners. Gerould (this volume) described
an Integrated Natural Resource Science Program to study problems
believed to be caused by mercury in south Florida. This is a prototypical
effort to involve diverse collaborators in many scientific fields
in the study of a large ecosystem. The work emphasizes the necessity
to consider the impacts of changing environmental conditions throughout
the materials flow process for mercury. The USGS is part of a
multi-agency partnership to assess hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico,
and to seek the sources of the problem. Hypoxia in this case refers
to depletion 18,200 square kilometers along the Louisiana-Texas
coast. The indirect cause of oxygen depletion is thought to be
nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) transported in solution from
agricultural areas of the upper Mississippi River basin, particularly
in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and southern Minnesota. Scavia
(this volume) discussed the scope of this problem, and the policy
actions and science needs for its possible solutions. The problem
illustrates a materials flow process with issues that bear upon
and beyond the activities of 13 Federal agencies.
Phillips (this volume) outlined the USGS Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem
Program. The 5-year effort begun in 1996 provides relevant information
on nutrient and sediment conditions affecting the bay. The program
also is investigating the response times and factors affecting
nutrient and sediment dynamics, and selected living resources.
This information was used in the evaluation of nutrient-reduction
strategies in 1997, and will be used for the final assessment
in the year 2000. The program attempts to clarify the principal
factors affecting nutrient and sediment transport and their relation
to the changes in the sources of these constituents in selected
hydrogeomorphic regions of the watershed.
The USGS is relating surface and subsurface characteristics to
water quality and living-resource response over several temporal
scales through studies in selected watersheds, and river and estuary
reaches within hydrogeomorphic regions. The USGS is considering
merging economic modeling with Energy, Minerals, and other programs.
Whitney (this volume) explained the philosophic, strategic, and
product-enhancement rationales for deve oping energy/economic
modeling in the commodities. Strategically, the development of
firstapproximation models is vital for setting commodity and regional
priorities in national and global energy supply studies. Finally,
from a product-enhancement point of view, geologic
information is more usable if investigators understand geologic,
technological, and economic constraints on resource development.
Thus, the USGS would do well to encourage economics as a “second
language.” The USGS could conduct simple strategic modeling internally
for identifying priority commodities and regions. It could also
provide critical geologic data for economists, including quantity,
quality, and environmental impact of development and use of resources.
The USGS could build partnerships by collaborating with the experts
on large-scale, longterm models, such as the National Energy Modeling
System and models used by universities and industry.
Solley (this volume) described a little-noticed but potentially
historic environmental turnabout wherein water use in the United
States declined by about 10 percent from 1980 to 1995. This decline
was concurrent with a population increase of 16 percent, and implies
that people are finding ways to use water more efficiently. The
decline in water use runs contrary to the conventional belief
that water use rises with economic and population growth. The
USGS has systematically tracked water use in the United States
since 1950, and has noted some significant trends. Most of the
increases in water use from 1950 to 1980 were the result of expansion
of irrigation systems and increases in energy development. Higher
energy prices in the 1970’s, and large drawdown in ground-water
levels in some areas increased the cost of irrigation water. In
the 1980’s, improved application techniques, increased competition
for water, and a downturn in the farm economy reduced demands
for irrigation water. The transition from water-supply management
to water-demand management encouraged more efficient use of water.
New technologies in the industrial sector that require less water,
as well as improved plant efficiencies, increased water recycling,
higher energy prices, and changes in the laws and regulations
to reduce less water being returned to the natural system after
use. The enhanced awareness by the general public to water resources
and active conservation programs in many States has contributed
to reduced water demands.
The USGS has interests in patterns of mineral production and use
in developing countries that will play key roles in attaining
sustainable societies. One example of the situation is population
growth rate compared with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.
Using this comparison, many countries with the highest rates of
population growth are also the countries with the lowest GDP per
capita. Menzie (this volume) explained how the USGS also compared
Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United States over the period
1965.95 with respect to several population and consumption trends.
The rates of population growth are approximately the same for
Japan and the United States; however, the growth in the Republic
of Korea accelerated rapidly in the late 1960’s, and continues
to outpace that of the United States and Japan. Correspondingly,
the rate of aluminum consumption per capita in the Republic of
Korea is rapidly approaching that of the United States and Japan
in the late 1990’s, and the per-capita consumption of cement in
the Republic of Korea accelerated past that of the United States
and Japan in the mid-1980’s. By 1995, per-capita consumption of
copper in the Republic of Korea exceeded that of the United States
and Japan, whereas the Republic of Korea’s consumption of salt
remained well below that of the other two countries.
The USGS is discovering that economic activities in developing
countries will account for an increasing share of global materials
flows. Increasing consumption by developing countries will result
in significant increases in environmental residuals and significant
changes in supply patterns. Developing countries will produce
an increasing share of deleterious environmental residuals, including
those that are purposely or accidentally emitted via air and water.
Materials flows analysis by individual commodity explains reasons
for and consequences of change, which is not possible if data
are aggregated by physical quantity or value.
The USGS is studying the spatial dynamics of the Baltimore-Washington
corridor, and trends and issues for materials flow in the region.
Robinson (this volume) showed that construction aggregates are
the most dominant mineral resources used in the United States.
Aggregate mining is most intensive in the eastern United States,
with Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, and Virginia, reporting 1,500 to 5,000 tons mined
per square mile during 1995. Upward trends in aggregate demand
continue because of urbanization, growing transportation networks,
and intensified use of land. The trends create issues of shifts
in intensity of land use and economic activity, in resource needs
and availability, and in rates of change of demand, quality of
life, and resource management and use. The
resource management issues are of primary interest to the USGS,
and include lack of public awareness of processes needed to meet
demand. The issues also include concentrating and consolidating
the industry, sterilizing the resource and minimizing waste, and
mismatches between markets and management units. The research
response to these issues is encapsulated in a Mid-Atlantic Geology
and Infrastructure Case Study. The study is identifying geologic
sources of high-quality aggregate resources, and documenting the
producers of aggregate, and aggregate recycling and disposition
over the past 35 years. Part of the work is to develop and calibrate
tools for forecasting regional aggregates demand and analyzing
landmanagement planning with respect to aggregates.
Directions and Opportunities for Research
There are opportunities for the USGS in analyzing materials flow
distribution, and distribution studies can take advantage of USGS
strengths. Such studies involve not only producing the numbers
for materials, but also understanding the spatial distribution
of materials throughout extraction,
transport (specifically, environmental transport), and disposition.
For some materials such as water, the natural flows will overwhelm
anything that humans produce. In other cases, the industrial sources
of a particular material such as cadmium will dominate. However,
looking simply at input-output for a country, for example, is
not sufficient, particularly if the interest is in effects of
a toxic material.
Potential directions and opportunities for USGS research in materials
and energy flows include an ecosystem focus in terms of structure
and function, multiple impacts, nonlinear responses, are hidden
flows, remote effects of consumption, leakages in the materials
flow stream, and proposing solutions to leakage problems. Researchers
should be incorporating ecosystem services into our analysis of
materials flow and sustainable development. Biological scientists
are accustomed to looking at work of this type with a systems
focus, and are valuable contributors in considering the ecosystem
wealth that must be maintained in order researchers do not consider
those basic ecosystem functions, they will be doing a disservice
in the long term to our hopes of achieving sustainability of any
kind of wealth.
Kirtland (this volume) discussed the importance of continuing
education and communication about industrial ecology, sustainability,
and materials and energy flows. The subject matter could be greatly
enhanced by placing the information in a spatial context by mapping
at all scales the flows, transformation, and uses of specific
materials. Investigators should consider the vulnerability of
eco-industrial infrastructures to natural hazards. They should
understand and communicate the myriad interactions in industrial
ecosystems to best position society for the realization of a sustainable
future. They should look to miniaturization technology, and how
high-design, lowmaterials products affect the recoverability and
reusability of materials, and also lead to dematerialization.
They should investigate how the flow and transformation of materials
might change under climate and other global changes. Researchers
need to look closely at how the transformation of materials affects
the landscape. They should investigate how the flow and transformation
of materials affect human health. Finally researchers need to
be vigilant as they look for improvements in industrial systems.
That vigilance will minimize the probability that societies succumb
to the unintended and often ironic consequences of their actions.
The structure of the USGS Water Resources Division (WRD) positions
it well for work in materials and energy flows. The WRD is geographically
dispersed in each State throughout the Nation, and possesses multidisciplinary
talent in all its principal offices. Issues of State, regional,
and national importance can be readily addressed based on that
organizational structure. Additionally, the WRD maintains contracts
with a large number of partners; for example, the WRD had approximately
1,200 partnerships throughout the Nation in 1997. Ongoing WRD
the transport and fate of certain metals, water quality in paved
and unpaved areas, the effects of sewer systems on water resources,
studies dealing with forest harvesting, calcium depletion, nitrogen
cycling, and the geochemistry of mercury. Additionally, the National
Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) has
generated many spinoffs, particularly with respect to nutrient
evaluation; and WRD maintains a large program in monitoring and
evaluating abandoned mine lands.
Plumlee (this volume) described how the USGS potentially can apply
materials flow expertise that it has developed in the mineral-resources
realm to other issues, including ecosystems, climate, hazards,
and human health. Researchers should engage in “materials forensics,”
looking carefully for the sources of materials and linking materials
flow, for example, with geochemical tracers such as stable radiogenic
isotopes. Earth scientists the role of natural hazards in materials
flow. Finally, researchers should place the United States in its
global perspective with respect to their investigations through
the links of resources, climate, and environment that define the
global context.
Throughout the Nation and around the world, research by the USGS
and its partners continues to improve our understanding and awareness
of materials and energy flows. Scientific advances will ultimately
translate into new techniques for study, model policies for materials
and energy uses, and other lessons with global applications. This
workshop provided strong messages about rethinking our global
environmental problems of the
present and the future, and about advancing new directions for
managing materials and energy flow systems of the Earth with the
beginning of the 21st century.