Ecological-economic viability as a criterion of strong sustainability under uncertainty
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Ecological Economics, Jahrgang 68, Nr. 7, 15.05.2009, S. 2008-2020.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecological-economic viability as a criterion of strong sustainability under uncertainty
AU - Quaas, Martin F.
AU - Baumgärtner, Stefan
N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to Geir Asheim, Christian Becker, Christoph Böhringer, Luc Doyen, Udo Ebert, Malte Faber, Karin Frank, Lutz Göhring, Anja Humburg, Gebhard Kirchgässner, Frank Krysiak, Achim Lerch, Vincent Martinet, Wolfgang Peters, Hans Nutzinger, Johannes Schiller, Klara Stumpf, Heinz Welsch and Christian Wissel for helpful discussion and comments. Financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation under grants II/79 628 and II/82 883 and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under grant 01UN0607 is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2009/5/15
Y1 - 2009/5/15
N2 - Strong sustainability, according to the common definition, requires that different natural and economic capital stocks be maintained as physical quantities separately. Yet, in a world of uncertainty this cannot be guaranteed. To therefore define strong sustainability under uncertainty in an operational manner we propose to use the concept of viability. Viability means that the different components and functions of a dynamic, stochastic system at any time remain in a domain where the future existence of these components and functions is guaranteed with sufficiently high probability. We develop a unifying and general ecological-economic concept of viability that encompasses the traditional ecological and economic notions of viability as special cases. It provides an operational criterion of strong sustainability under a mild form of uncertainty and for medium spatial and temporal scales. We illustrate this concept and demonstrate its usefulness by applying it to livestock grazing management in semi-arid rangelands.
AB - Strong sustainability, according to the common definition, requires that different natural and economic capital stocks be maintained as physical quantities separately. Yet, in a world of uncertainty this cannot be guaranteed. To therefore define strong sustainability under uncertainty in an operational manner we propose to use the concept of viability. Viability means that the different components and functions of a dynamic, stochastic system at any time remain in a domain where the future existence of these components and functions is guaranteed with sufficiently high probability. We develop a unifying and general ecological-economic concept of viability that encompasses the traditional ecological and economic notions of viability as special cases. It provides an operational criterion of strong sustainability under a mild form of uncertainty and for medium spatial and temporal scales. We illustrate this concept and demonstrate its usefulness by applying it to livestock grazing management in semi-arid rangelands.
KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
KW - Capital (natural and economic)
KW - Ecological-economic systems
KW - Ecosystem services
KW - Funds
KW - Rangeland management
KW - Stocks
KW - Sustainability
KW - Uncertainty
KW - Viability
KW - Economics
KW - Capital (natural and economic)
KW - Ecological-economic systems
KW - Ecosystem services
KW - Funds
KW - Rangeland management
KW - Stocks
KW - Sustainability
KW - Uncertainty
KW - Viability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=65249100818&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8e5ada6f-7ecb-39cc-b02b-36f3b6bd73f8/
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.01.016
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.01.016
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 68
SP - 2008
EP - 2020
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
SN - 0921-8009
IS - 7
ER -