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Beyond Inputs and Outputs: Opening the Black-Box of Land-Use Intensity

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Social Ecology

Part of the book series: Human-Environment Interactions ((HUEN,volume 5))

Abstract

Despite their central role in land-use transitions, changes in land-use intensity are only poorly understood, and databases for systematically analyzing change in land-use intensity are largely missing. This knowledge gap is critical because, due to the anticipated changes in global population numbers and food, fiber and energy demand, the development of strategies that aim to reap the benefits of land-use intensification (e.g., the reduced land demand for a certain level of production) while simultaneously avoiding detrimental social and ecological effects will become decisive in the near future. In this chapter, we first review existing approaches to analyzing land-use intensity and discuss existing barriers to land-use intensity research. We then elaborate on what the socioecological method inventory contributes to land system research. We argue that the concepts of socioeconomic metabolism and the colonization of nature are apt to significantly contribute to improvements in the analytical capabilities related to land-use intensity research. The strengths of the socioecological method inventory are its strict application of first principles, a sound and meaningful system boundary between society and nature and its applicability to Social and Natural Science approaches. These aspects are prerequisites for guiding the type of data collation and organization that allow investigation into the feedback cycles between social and natural systems that constitute the trade-offs and synergies of the land system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sometimes called the ‘four Fs’ of land-based resources.

  2. 2.

    The term ‘disintensification’ was proposed by Brookfield (1972) to avoid the ambiguous intensification-extensification dichotomy. An alternative term for the reduction in land-use intensity is ‘de-intensification’, proposed by Boserup (1981). The meaning of extensification, however, is ambiguous, indicating both a reduction in intensity and the expansion of, e.g., cropland. The origin of this ambiguity may lie in the fact that an increase in agricultural production can be achieved via expansion of cropland, i.e., larger areas with the same or lower levels of yields per unit area, in contrast to intensification.

  3. 3.

    In German, ‘Hoftor Bilanz’.

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Acknowledgements

Funding from the European Research Council for the Starting Independent Researcher Grant ERC-263522 ‘LUISE’, from EU-FP7 265104 ‘VOLANTE’ and from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project P20812-G11 is gratefully acknowledged. This book chapter contributes to the Global Land Project (http://www.globallandproject.org).

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  1. Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), Alpen-Adria University, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070, Vienna, Austria

    Karl-Heinz Erb, Tamara Fetzel, Helmut Haberl, Thomas Kastner, Christian Lauk, Maria Niedertscheider & Christoph Plutzar

  2. Institute of Geography and Regional Sciences, University of Graz, Heinrichstraße 36, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Christine Kroisleitner

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    Helmut Haberl

  2. Institute of Social Ecology Alpen Adria University, Vienna, Austria

    Marina Fischer-Kowalski

  3. Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen Adria University Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Vienna, Austria

    Fridolin Krausmann

  4. Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen Adria University Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Vienna, Austria

    Verena Winiwarter

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Erb, KH. et al. (2016). Beyond Inputs and Outputs: Opening the Black-Box of Land-Use Intensity. In: Haberl, H., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Krausmann, F., Winiwarter, V. (eds) Social Ecology. Human-Environment Interactions, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33326-7_4

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