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Resource efficiency strategies are emerging on policy agendas worldwide. Commonly, resource efficiency policies aim at decreasing losses at the waste management stage and, thus, diverge from public interest in more comprehensive resource efficiency measures that include a focus the earlier material life cycle stages. Just in recent years, improvements in the lifetimes of products and increased repair and reuse ability have become policy objectives in some countries. However, the effectiveness of policy measures is usually not assessed, even though it is crucial to support informed policy‐making and efficiently decrease the environmental impact of resource use. In this paper, we provide such an assessment for the copper cycle, the third most consumed metal with sharply increasing demand. Under current practices, in Western Europe and North America, 50% and 44% of the losses by 2050 occur at end‐of‐life collection, and only 2% of losses take place at the recovery stage; in Middle East and Africa for 19% and 54%, respectively. By 2050, most copper would be lost in China with a proportion of 58%. We evaluate the resource efficiency by quantifying the two key parameters, circularity and longevity, that is, how often and how long the material is in use in the anthroposphere. Our results show that the current global longevity of high‐grade copper is 47 ± 2.5 years, and a copper atom is used in 2.1 ± 0.1 applications on average. Ambitious political measures across the life cycle can increase longevity by 85% and circularity by 45%., Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden Württemberg (Germany)

The paper main focus is the inquiry into the models and tools of comprehensive structuring of the innovative educational communication in the digital discourse (innovative educational communication in the digital ambient as construed by the transformative innovative strata and communicative application, facilitated by the modern European and Oriental languages of international communication – English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, accordingly). The problem of theoretical and methodological substantiation of cross-cutting principles, directions, mechanisms, and results of qualitative modeling of macro- and microstructures of verbal means and processing tools in the realm of digital educational communication, as a consolidated linguistic object, is investigated in depth. Mosaic, simulation, multidimensional, and framework approaches to understanding complex dynamic linguistic phenomena and entities, prioritized by this methodological context, allowed us to identify the ontological nature of educational communication units of the globalized languages in the sphere of innovative educational communication. The ICT, e-learning, hybrid learning, digital competencies thesaurus, that facilitates innovative educational communication, is structured to define and categorize the key components of innovative cyberterminology, instrumental to e-learning environment construction and functioning. Suggested are the innovative educational communication macro-, micro-, and supra-structures modeling and digital processing based on three groundwork principles: 1) Intranet educational anthroposphere (the anthropic environment within World Wide Web); 2) Outernet educational anthroposphere (e-reality components, functions outside the realm of World Wide Web); 3) Technogenic educational anthroposphere (trans-oriented anthropic environment components with an anthropic-for-congenerous substituted ontological parameter). The dynamic interaction of the structural tiers of the ICTs content plane within the strata of innovative educational communication is characterized by the anthropogenic and cognitive parameters of the content plane, mediated by the subjective and collective cognitive experience of digital education stakeholders, embodied in the framework digital transformation of innovative communicative educational scenarios.

Current applications of the Ecosystems Services (ES) framework to soils are narrowly defined (e.g., soil-based, pedosphere-based, etc.), and focus on soil properties while treating soil as a closed system. Because soil is an open system, it receives and loses matter across its boundaries within Earth’s spheres (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, ecosphere, and anthroposphere), which also need to be accounted for in economic analysis. In market economies, the market transforms resources from the Earth’s pedosphere and related spheres into goods and services for societal welfare with non-market institutions mediating human and environmental interactions. These transformations and mediations can result not only in welfare but damages as well. The concept of soil ES and ecosystem disservices (ED) is a human-centered framework, which can be a useful tool in business decision-making. Soil ES (e.g., provisioning, regulation/ maintenance, and cultural) are used to produce goods and services, but the value of these ES and ED are not always accounted for as a part of business decision-making. The objective of this review is to illustrate the monetary valuation of ecosystem services of soil systems (SS) with examples based on the organizational hierarchy of soil systems. The organizational hierarchy of soil systems can be used in economic valuations of soil ES by scale (e.g., world, continent), time (e.g., soil, geologic), qualitative and quantitative degrees of computation (e.g., mental, verbal, descriptive, mathematical, deterministic, stochastic), and degree of complexity (e.g., mechanistic, empirical). Soil survey databases, soil analyses, Soil Data Systems (SDS), and Soil Business Systems (SBS) provide tools and a wide range of quantitative/qualitative data and information to evaluate goods and services for various business applications, but these sources of soil data may be limited in scope due to their static nature. Valuation of soil resources based on soil and non-soil science databases (e.g., National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) databases, etc.) is critically needed to account for these ES/ED as part of business decision-making to provide more sustainable use of soil resources. Since most ecosystems on Earth have been modified by human activity, “soil systems goods and services” (SSGS) may be a more applicable term to describe soil contributions (benefits/damages) to economic activity, compared to a term such as “soil ecosystem goods and services.”

This chapter makes a case for unscaling the times of Anthropocene phenomena, such as geological vastness, human agency and past, present and future climate disaster, through the conceptual liquefaction and blending of different time regimes provided by the works of Jean Epstein and Michel Serres. It does so by relating their intellectual concepts and reflections to the rise of electronics and computer-aided simulation. A scene in Epstein’s late film Le Tempestaire (1947), commingling mythical and modern practices of weather control, is analyzed as a primeval scene for the medial handover between time manipulating cinema and the model time of computer simulations. Instead of placing one knowledge practice over the other (the indigenous and local over the dominant and global, the scientific over the mythical, the human over the digital, etc.) the chapter argues for ways of seeing correspondence and continuity between them. It thereby follows the invitation extended by Serres and Epstein, who both theorized and celebrated what this chapter calls “time depth”: not a clash but a compositum of temporal scales that feeds off the abundance and thickness of variable, interconnected times that saturate the geosphere and anthroposphere. Today, when dangerously rapid climate change catapults the planet back into climates last seen millions of years ago, such time depth becomes a prerequisite, not just for sharpening our sensibilities for “deep time,” but also for acknowledging the generous productivity of myth, science and simulation in situating the human amid hybrid temporalities.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a family of fluorinated organic compounds of anthropogenic origin. Due to their unique chemical properties, widespread production, ubiquitous environmental distribution, long-term persistence, bioaccumulative potential, and associated risks for human health, PFAS have been classified as persistent organic pollutants of significant concern. Scientific evidence from the last several decades suggests that their widespread occurrence in the environment correlates with adverse effects on human health and ecology. The presence of PFAS in the aquatic environment demonstrates a close link between the anthroposphere and the hydrological cycle, and concentrations of PFAS in surface and groundwater range in value along the ng L−1–μg L−1 scale. Here, we critically reviewed the research published in the last decade on the global occurrence and distribution of PFAS in the aquatic environment. This is the first study to critically evaluate the occurrence of PFAS at continental scale and the evolving global regulatory responses to manage and mitigate the adverse human health risks posed by PFAS. The review reports that PFAS are ubiquitous despite being phased out—they have been detected in different continents irrespective of the level of industrial development. Their occurrence far from the potential sources suggests that long-range atmospheric transport is an important pathway of PFAS distribution. Recently, several studies have investigated the health impacts of PFAS exposure—they have been detected in biota, drinking water, food, air, and human serum. In response to the emerging information about PFAS toxicity, several countries have provided administrative guidelines for PFAS in water, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Australia. In the US, additional regulatory measures are under consideration. Further, many PFAS have now been listed as persistent organic pollutants. This comprehensive review provides crucial baseline information on the global occurrence, distribution, and regulatory framework of PFAS.

Ecosystem is having a new physical dimension as evidenced by the increasing contribution from man-made plastics synthesized and consumed by our society. Anthroposphere, a brand new constituent, shall be added into the existing lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere as a whole for the ecosystem. This new class of anthropogenically-produced materials is xenobiotic and has its own physical form persistent and building up in the ecosystem. Its occurrence in different ecosystems will increase continuously over time. Its hazards and potentially effects in different ecosystems shall be evaluated with a new framework to advance a better understanding of its long-term impact and the mechanisms involved in the changing world. The impacts from these plastics shall be much more than its non-degradability and the potential hazards as observed and a better understanding based on pure science is required. A new opportunity is ahead of us for a collective and immediate action to assess the new dimension of the anthroposphere in the ecosystems to advance the new knowledge on this research subject.

A simple cognitive anthroposphere model has been developed, which includes the characteristics of natural ecosystems, human populations, industrial production, environmental pollution and the consumption of fossil resources. The surface of the Earth is represented in the form of 20 cells (regions) connected by migration and information links. The influence of various environmental management strategies on the dynamics of the entire system, as well as the sensitivity of the system to climate fluctuations and changes in the internal parameters, was studied. The criterion of optimal control is the standard of living of the population. The conclusion is made about the need to include the "human factor" in the model of global development.

This paper addresses the effects of atmospheric conditions on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and its associated disease, COVID-19. We assess the limitations of bioclimatic correlative models to explain the geographic distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in the context of medical geography. There is a broad consensus that the global distribution of COVID-19 is not random but conditioned by environmental drivers. However, as the COVID-19 distribution becomes global, including tropical climates, the evidence reveals that atmospheric conditions explain, at most, only a limited amount of the space-time dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. The usefulness of approaches based on bioclimatic envelopes is in question since the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19 seems to be the anthroposphere's non-stationary environment. There is a need to clarify further the role of different transmission routes at multiple scales and outdoor and indoor environments beyond bioclimatic envelopes. At this time, the possible influence of the weather in COVID-19 spread is not sufficient to be taken into account in public health policies. Until reliable bioclimatic envelopes of SARS-CoV-2, if any, are found, caution should be exercised when reporting, as this could have unforeseen consequences, mainly when conclusions are based on interim results that have not been subjected to peer review.

The world has been officially confronting the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020 with countries worldwide experiencing a pattern of infectious spikes and regressions. Not surprising, the first to note a surge in COVID-19 cases were environmental scientists. This finding has been derived from wastewater analysis [1]. Scientists around the world have developed methods to detect viral RNA in sewage collected for biological cleaning. While the worldwide accuracy of predictions has been variable, wastewater analysis conducted by a multidisciplinary working group in Thessaloniki, Greece has been praised for its promising results [2]. The critical element of their success is a physicochemical model rationalizing SARS-CoV-2 concentration in wastewater [3]. Porous solids, such as soil and rubbish, may absorb viral fragments, decreasing the measured viral load and the subsequent ability to predict infectious surges. Environmental factors such as flow rate, suspended solids, quality and quantity of organic matter have been used to optimize the detection of viral components. Along with this, the working group in Thessaloniki, Greece, took into account the concept of “total environment” in an attempt to decrease discrepancies in measuring viral loads by previous research groups worldwide. "Total environment," is a novel term pertaining to the interaction of physical and anthropogenic environmental factors. In this context, climate change contributes to the disruption of the balance between the non-living (atmosphere) and the living (biosphere and anthroposphere) systems of the environment, which seems to be related to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2.

Industrial and strategic significance of platinum group elements (PGEs)—Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pd, Pt—makes them irreplaceable; furthermore, some PGEs are used by investors as “safe heaven” assets traded in the commodity markets. This review analyzes PGEs from various aspects: their place in the geosphere, destiny in the anthroposphere, and opportunity in the economy considering interactions among the exploration, recycling of urban ores, trade markets, speculative rhetoric, and changes required for successful technological progress towards the implementation of sustainability. The global market of PGEs is driven by several concerns: costs for extraction/recycling; logistics; the demand of industries; policies of waste management. Diversity of application and specific chemical properties, as well as improper waste management, make the recycling of PGEs complicated. The processing approach depends on composition and the amount of available waste material, and so therefore urban ores are a significant source of PGEs, especially when the supply of elements is limited by geopolitical or market tensions. Recycling potential of urban ores is particularly important in a long-term view disregarding short-term economic fluctuations, and it should influence investment flows in the advancement of innovation.

The generation of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) continues to escalate yearly because of high demand for state-of-the-art and affordable devices. This demand is particularly strong for small consumer electrical and electronic equipment whose usage cycle is waning due to fashion and technological obsolescence. As a result, there is potentially a large ‘pool’ of unused, reusable devices within urban spaces (anthroposphere). This study aimed to assess the magnitude of the reusable stock of EEE with the view to recovery and release into the circular economy. An online questionnaire survey was conducted within a regional group of universities in the United Kingdom to assess the prospects of reusable small EEE within this distinct urban mine (DUM) cluster. The study provides new, distinct definitions for types of DUM, hoarding and stockpiling, and new data for a ‘meso‑level’ DUM on ownership levels and hibernating stocks of reusable EEE. Results show that ownership levels were high, with multiple ownership of devices common and a high degree of product stockpiling and hoarding. Estimates show a stockpile of ∼400,000 small EEE within the survey zone and over 17 million devices across the UK with reuse values of >£13 million and >£571 million, respectively. The frequency of device stockpiling is likely due to perceived residual value. The study suggests that exploitation of reuse value requires prompt recovery of stockpiled items as extended periods in hibernation will result in technical obsolescence, particularly with information and communication technology (ICT) devices. Such recovery requires tailored protocols that considers DUM scale, product reusability, recyclability and redistribution.

The climatic conditions characterizing the troposphere affect the outdoor activities of the population which, in turn, characterize the anthroposphere. Over the past years recent studies examined a possible analytical definition of the outdoor thermal comfort for different types of population acclimatized to their specific residency area. Thanks to the use of the MOCI (Mediterranean Outdoor Comfort Index: an index used to predict the thermal perception of the Mediterranean population in an outdoor environment), the present study aimed at analyzing the psychophysiological response of a Mediterranean subject with respect to climatic conditions different from the original ones after having experienced a quick change. Indeed, thermal stress and discomfort might affect deeply the ability of the subject to carry out outdoor activities. This condition determines the necessity of possessing useful information to plan the best period to perform a journey in distant places and/or perform useful actions that will make the outdoor activity as much comforting as possible (choosing the proper clothes with the right thermal insulation). For this reason, the worldwide environmental conditions during an average year were examined. To be more specific, this study focused its attention on the editing of seasonal spatial maps with the MOCI level curves and on the temporal analysis of the MOCI values characterizing those 6 different cities (one for each continent) reporting the higher number of foreign arrivals.

Hydrological models within inflow forecasting systems for high-alpine hydropower reservoirs can provide valuable information as part of a decision support system for the improvement of hydropower production or flood retention. The information, especially concerning runoff, is however rarely available for the calibration of the hydrological models used. Therefore, a method is presented to derive local runoff from secondary information for the calibration of the model parameters of the rainfallrunoff model COSERO. Changes in water levels in reservoirs, reservoir outflows, discharge measurements at water intakes and in transport lines are thereby used to derive the local, “natural” flow for a given sub-catchment. The proposed method is applied within a research study for the OBB Infrastructure Railsystem division in the Stubache catchment in the central Austrian Alps. Here, the OBB operates the hydropower scheme “Kraftwerksgruppe Stubachtal”, which consists of 7 reservoirs and 4 hydropower stations. The hydrological model has been set up considering this human influences and the high natural heterogeneity in topography and land cover, including glaciers. Overall, the hydrological model performs mostly well for the catchment with highest NSE values of 0.78 for the calibration and 0.79 for the validation period, also considering the use of homogeneous parameter fields and the uncertainty of the derived local discharge values. The derived runoff data proved to be useful information for the model calibration. Further analysis, examining the water balance and its components as well as snow cover, showed satisfactory simulation results. In conclusion, a unique runoff dataset for a small scale high-alpine catchment has been created to establish a hydrological flow prediction model which in a further step can be used for improved and sustainable hydropower management.

Material flow analysis (MFA) is a method of depicting the flow of materials in the anthroposphere and the environment to support environmental management. However, MFA results can contain uncertainties that may be related to the investigation method, calculation process, data quality, data source, or study assumptions. Uncertainty is already an important consideration in tools for environmental management; for example, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) has prompted research discussions related to the uncertainty in databases, periods and characteristic factors. However, few studies have addressed the uncertainty in MFA. The uncertainty issue in MFA is increasingly important to policy makers coping with resource management issues. The objectives of this research are to perform uncertainty analysis for data sets of different materials in MFA and to compare the results of two important uncertainty analysis methods, the Hedbrant and Sӧrme (HS) method and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. In addition, we provide suggestions for research regarding MFA uncertainty analyses in the future. The uncertainty range and likely values of flow data can vary considerably based on the HS method or MC simulation. After analyzing the relationship between the uncertainty range and flow data, likely values can be derived via comparisons of uncertainty method processes, and the uncertainty analysis results of the HS may deviate greatly from those of the MC method. In this scenario, MC simulation is needed to analyze MFA uncertainty, although it requires greater efforts. The results presented here provide new insights and recommendations for further MFA research.

The Anthropocene represents the emergence of human societies as a ‘great force of nature’. To understand and engage productively with this emergent global force, it is necessary to understand its origins, dynamics and structuring processes as the long-term evolutionary product of human niche construction, based on three key human characteristics: tool making, habitat construction and most importantly: social network engineering. The exceptional social capacities of behaviourally modern humans, constituting human ultrasociality, are expressed through the formation of increasingly complex and extensive social networks, enabling flexible and diverse group organisation, sociocultural niche construction, engineered adaptation and resilience building. The human drive towards optimising communication infrastructures and expanding social networks is the key human adaptation underpinning the emergence of the Anthropocene. Understanding the deep roots of human ultrasocial behaviour is essential to guiding contemporary societies towards more sustainable human–environment interactions in the Anthropocene present and future. We propose that socially networked engineered solutions will continue to be the prime driver of human resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of global environmental risks and societal challenges such as climate change, sea-level rise, localised extreme weather events and ecosystem degradation.

We herein explore the connections between the current condition of ecology concerning to sustainable development and the statement of Rutherford regarding the importance of physics to understand sustainability and biological conservation. The recent emergence of organic biophysics of ecosystems (OBEC) may constitute a feasible alternative to fill the gap between conventional ecological thinking and physics, especially thermodynamics. However, our comprehension of sustainability and biological conservation is influenced by the interactions between information and entropy, because we tend to exclude parts of the biosphere as well as their relationships among them. We explore the use of a holistic analysis of sustainability and biological conservation using physics, and also establish a parallelism between Maxwell's demons and human beings. Lastly, the ecological meaning of the hypothetical feasibility of Maxwell's demon at the anthroposphere scale is analyzed starting from the objections of von Smoluchowski, Szilard and Bennet.

Anthropogenic material stocks are expanding at ever-increasing rates across the world, and their environmental and economic impacts draw more and more attention from academia, policy makers, and economic and environmental bodies. As the knowledge base regarding anthropogenic material stocks expands, it is important to not only comprehend the societal side of material stock growth but also its counterpart to the material balance—the natural environment from which the materials used for stocks come from. However, due to difficulties of data procurement, and muted interest in materials which are considered low-value high volume, the environmental burdens related to construction minerals have received less attention so far despite the huge amounts involved. In this study, we employ geographic information systems (GIS) with digital elevation model (DEM) datasets, to form an automated method of detection and measurement of the anthropogenic disturbance of soil and earth at excavation and mining sites, which accounts not only for the material extracted for usage in the anthroposphere, but also its related unused extraction. This geographically explicit method allows to directly pinpoint the location and volume of anthropogenic disturbance. Using Japan as a case study, the results suggest that the ratio of unused extraction to used extraction may exceed 1:1 for construction minerals in Japan. We also find that the environmental effects of anthropogenic activity are bigger than natural soil disturbance by several orders of magnitude, highlighting the need to reduce raw material extraction and increase the efficient use of the existing material stock.

Climate change research and action counteracting it affect everyone and would involve cross-societal transformations reshaping the anthroposphere in its entirety. Scrutinizing climate-related science and policies, we recognize attempts to steer the evolution of climate according to expected (or modelled) futures. Such attempts would turn the anthroposphere into a large "anticipatory system", in which human society seeks to anticipate and, possibly, to govern climate dynamics. The chief aim of this discussion paper is to open a critical debate on the climate change paradigm (CCP) drawing on a strategic and systemic framework grounded in the concept of anticipatory system sensu Rosen (1991). The proposed scheme is ambitiously intended to turn an intricate issue into a complex but structured problem that is to say, to make such complexity clear and manageable. This framework emerges from concepts borrowed from different scientific fields (including future studies and system dynamics) and its background lies in a simple quantitative literature overview, relying upon a broad level of analysis. The proposed framework will assist researchers and policy makers in thinking of CCP in terms of an anticipatory system, and in disentangling its interrelated (and sometimes intricate) aspects. In point of fact, several strategic questions related to CCP were not subjected to an adequate transdisciplinary discussion: what are the interplays between physical processes and social-political interventions, who is the observer (what he/she is looking for), and which paradigm is being used (or who defines the desirable future). The proposed scheme allows to structure such various topics in an arrangement which is easier to communicate, highlighting the linkages in between, and making them intelligible and open to verification and discussion. Furthermore, ideally developments will help scientists and policy makers address the strategic gaps between the evidence-based climatological assessments and the plurality of possible answers as applied to the geopolitical contingencies.

Arsenic is a trace element and a global contaminant. There are currently large uncertainties associated with our understanding and quantification of the arsenic cycles in the global environment. This study proposes a research framework where the major anthropogenic processes affecting anthropogenic arsenic cycles (AACs) are identified. A characteristic of this framework is that it divides AACs into two parts: one related to intentional uses, and the other driven by unintentional uses. Several significant features of AACs are summarized as follows: (1) existing studies reveal that AACs at Earth's surface is at the same order of magnitudes as its natural cycles; (2) arsenic mostly enters modern anthroposphere as a companion element of nonferrous metal ores or fossil fuels, and currently there is abundant arsenic reserves relative to the limited intentional use of arsenic; (3) China owns the majority of arsenic reserves and is the biggest producer of arsenic for the present day, while U.S. was the biggest user of arsenic in the whole 20th century; (4) there were several waves of rise and fall of intentional arsenic use in the 20th century of U.S., with the rises driven by various applications of arsenic in agriculture and industry (such as glass making in the 1900s, agricultural applications in the 1920s, and wood preservatives in the 1970s), and the falls mainly resulting from the regulations in response to its toxicity; (5) the majority of intentional arsenic uses are in the form of chemical compounds rather than single substance, and almost all intentional uses of arsenic not only are unrecyclable but also result in emissions that may last years or decades after being used.

The plastic waste disposal strongly raised in importance in the recent past and it is approaching a critical situation worldwide, so requiring putting in practice the criteria of circular economy by avoiding meaningless policy responses against the plastic materials. The world of plastic materials includes a wide range of goods in all the sectors of our life: packaging, construction, biomedicals, etc. The answer to the plastic waste disposal is build an industrial network characterized by reliability, flexibility, sustainability, utility in the industrial cycle and ability to provide useful products to the market. The traditional processes including recycling and energy recovery fulfil only a part of these conditions and need to be assessed in correlation to their real effect on the circular economy such as the uses of the obtained products in the anthroposphere's life cycle, the burdens generated by the processes itself, etc. Among the possible processes that can be more sustainable if compared with the traditional ones, in a real circular economy perspective, those based on thermochemical exploitation of products obtained by plastics are discussed and assessed. The results show that it is possible to transform an expensive and non-resolving plastic waste management system in an industrial network having an intrinsic economic sustainability and, overall, a well-defined role in the economic chain of plastics. The results show that an integration between the present system with the production of petrochemical products, including oil/gasoline/syngas/…, strongly improve the economic performance of the overall waste system, allowing a larger savings of not-renewable resources, a limited greenhouse burden, a release in the market of valuable products instead of poor quality materials and the minimization of waste destined to be landfilled.

The prevailing patterns of consumption and production are not sustainable because they are based on increasing extraction of non-renewable resources (such as fossil fuels or scarce metals) from the Earth’s crust and overuse of life-sustaining ecosystem services (such as CO2 assimilation or the water cycle). One strategy to direct consumption to a sustainable pathway is the circular economy. The goal of the circular economy is to slow down the flow of material resources through the anthroposphere and to return them back to nature in a form that is as compatible as possible with the ecosystem processes. We focus on the first aspect, which means that each unit of material resource that enters the economic system should satisfy as much human needs as possible until it is considered waste. We ask the question if and how the emerging “sharing economy” can contribute to this specific goal. We see the phenomenon of sharing economy as a transformation of sharing practices with means of digital Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The resulting Digital Sharing Economy (DSE) can therefore be considered an important special case of ICT impact on sustainable development. We open up an argument on how sharing in the DSE can be either supportive or counter-productive with regard to the circular economy goals. We present a first framework that provides a guideline for the qualitative assessment of new sharing practices with regard to their potential contribution to a circular economy.

Academic and public interest has been poured into “chemicals in products (CiPs)”, that is, the chemicals of environmental and health concern intentionally added in industrial or consumer goods for additional functions. This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of the fate of CiPs in the “total” environment, that is, a system comprising the anthroposphere (human socioeconomic activities) and the physical environment (the totality of abiotic setting in which organisms and humans live) as two interconnected and interdependent components. Currently, industrial ecologists have well elucidated the anthropospheric fate of products whereas environmental chemists have well elucidated the environmental fate of chemicals. Nevertheless, there is still a need for an integrative, temporally resolved, and mechanistically sound modeling framework for chemicals plus products as an organic whole in the CiP issue.

Sustainability has been at the forefront of the environmental research agenda of the integrated anthroposphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere since the last century and will continue to be critically important for future environmental science. However, linking humans and the environment through effective policy remains a major challenge for sustainability research and practice. Here we address this gap using an agent-based model (ABM) for a coupled natural and human systems in the Smoky Hill River Watershed (SHRW), Kansas, USA. For this freshwater-dependent agricultural watershed with a highly variable flow regime influenced by human-induced land-use and climate change, we tested the support for an environmental policy designed to conserve and protect fish biodiversity in the SHRW. We develop a proof of concept interdisciplinary ABM that integrates field data on hydrology, ecology (fish richness), social-psychology (value-belief-norm) and economics, to simulate human agents' decisions to support environmental policy. The mechanism to link human behaviors to environmental changes is the social-psychological sequence identified by the value-belief-norm framework and is informed by hydrological and fish ecology models. Our results indicate that (1) cultural factors influence the decision to support the policy; (2) a mechanism modifying social-psychological factors can influence the decision-making process; (3) there is resistance to environmental policy in the SHRW, even under potentially extreme climate conditions; and (4) the best opportunities for policy acceptance were found immediately after extreme environmental events. The modeling approach presented herein explicitly links biophysical and social science has broad generality for sustainability problems.

Despite the growing popularity of bottom-up fishery management schemes not all socio-ecological systems respond well to this approach. Unfortunately, due to the heterogeneous nature of socio-ecological systems and lack of long-term, place-based studies we have yet to disentangle the impact of social attributes on their sustainability. The gooseneck barnacle fishery in Asturias, a fishery with a long-standing tradition of bottom-up management schemes and a plethora of spatially explicit data, provides a unique opportunity to test the effect of social attributes on 7, heterogeneous, co-managed, Territorial Use Rights for Fishing (TURFs) areas. We developed an integrated index that reflects the sustainability of each individual Asturian TURF on 2 key spheres of the total environment: biosphere and anthroposphere. Additionally, we carried out detailed surveys to assess both user and governance social attributes in each TURF. The effect of these attributes on the sustainability index was assessed using Linear Regression Analysis, One Way Analysis of Variance and Analysis of Covariance. According to our results, social factors are key drivers for the sustainability of a bottom-up management system. Additionally, bottom-up management schemes promote strong governance social attributes but can be systematically weakened if user-defined social attributes are lacking. Fortunately, user-defined attributes tend to be linked and can have a compensating effect, as was the case in Asturias were conflict resolution mechanisms and strong leadership were able to compensate for low cooperation within the TURFs. Thus, social attributes must be considered when assessing the suitability or sustainability of bottom-up management schemes.

The built environment is the cause of most of the material flows in the anthroposphere and the biggest material storage: Over 90 % of the anthropogenic stock stored in durable goods can be found in the built environment, with non-metallic minerals being the main contributor. In Germany, most of the materials that leave the stock due to demolition or renovation are recovered. In Saxony, a German state, the recovery rate is nearly 99 % but only 55% of mineral construction and demolition waste is recycled. There is still substantial potential for closing recycling loops. This requires the combined effort of all those actors that influence these material flows – from the investor and constructor of the single building to those responsible for waste management at municipal level and the waste disposal and construction materials industry. However, the information currently available is insufficient to support an effective urban mining. This will be encountered by an ongoing research project that aims to enhance existing informational instruments regarding construction related material flows in the built environment. The project follows a dualistic research approach considering informational instruments at (1) individual building level and (2) at regional level. The objective of the paper is to present an approach on how material inventories can be better aligned with practical information needs. After introducing the overall concept and methodology as well as describing the process of analysing the current state of information flows, first results considering the structure of material in- and outputs and the needs for information of different actors are presented.

The humans are directly in contact with nanomaterials either they are aware or not about nanotechnology. With passage of time, nanotechnology is offering new frontiers for the humanity and introducing new products in the anthroposphere. It has brought great revolution in the medical field for the detection and treatment of diseases. Nanoimaging, nerve nano-repair, neuro protection, nano-neuromodulation, nano-manipulation etc. are the blessings of nanotechnology. Based on their distinctive characteristics such as high reactivity, small size and large surface area, nanoparticles have promising benefits not only in medical field but also in many other areas. Recently, nanotechnology has emerged as a new frontier in modern agriculture. It is anticipated that nanotechnology may have a major thrust in near future by offering potential applications especially in the field of smart delivery systems of agricultural chemical (nutrient, pesticides etc.) from source to end assimilation. It will lead the scientist towards conservation of resources along with precise agriculture by introducing new sensing methods. Biofortification and nano-packaging of different food is an innovative application of nano-science in food industry which is making it more interesting and applicable. Nano remediation has proved challenging and promising methods to clean the environment providing active adsorption and precipitation for variety of contaminants. Environmental and human risk assessment associated with the use of engineered nano-materials is still a matter of debate. Due to the increased application of nanoparticles in the fields of modern science and technology, the demand to produce these particles has escalated resulting increased contamination of the environment and increased exposure to biota in biosphere. Therefore, this chapter will provide an opportunity for readers to have well understanding of nano-technology and application of nano-materials in future.

Mercury (Hg) in the anthroposphere and its emission into the environment have been increasingly attracting attention. It is agreed upon that a substantial share of Hg is caused by anthropogenic activities. Comprehensive insight into Hg flows is crucial to minimizing exposure risk to humans and the environment. This study is the first to put together a detailed, multiannual (2005 to 2016) Hg balance for the whole manufacturing industry of an industrialized country, namely Austria. It investigates data availability, quality, and the lack thereof by following a systematic approach. Assessed data is combined in a material flow analysis model to estimate and discuss the relevant Hg flows through inputs (raw materials) and outputs (products, wastes, emissions) of the individual industry sectors. Uncertainty ranges are estimated and processed according to error propagation. Hg concentrations for most goods are available, but often of low quality (incomplete, partly non-representative). Data for quantities of goods are mostly available, especially for primary raw materials and production numbers. Nevertheless, publicly available data differs strongly from sector to sector and within sectors. Over the period 2005 to 2016 the Hg throughput varied from 3.4 t/yr ±25% to 4 t/yr ±25%. Primary raw materials and fuels accounted for 70% to 75% of the Hg import, secondary ones for 25% to 30%. Hg export via products was estimated at 35% to 40%, via emissions to air at 20% to 25% and via waste at 40% to 45%.

Dynamically tracking flows and stocks of problematic chemicals in products (CiPs) in the global anthroposphere is essential to understanding their environmental fates and risks. The complex behavior of CiPs during production, use and waste disposal makes this a challenging task. Here we introduce and describe a dynamic substance flow model, named Chemicals in Products - Comprehensive Anthropospheric Fate Estimation (CiP-CAFE), which facilitates the quantification of time-variant flows and stocks of CiPs within and between seven interconnected world regions and the generation of global scale emission estimates. We applied CiP-CAFE to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), first to evaluate its ability to reproduce previously reported global-scale atmospheric emission inventories and second to illustrate its potential applications and merits. CiP-CAFE quantifies the pathways of PCBs during production, use and waste disposal stages, thereby deducing the temporal evolution of in-use and waste stocks and identifying their long-term final sinks. Time-variant estimates of PCB emissions into air, water and soil can be attributed to different processes and be fed directly into a global fate and transport model. By capturing the international movement of PCBs as technical chemicals, and in products and waste, CiP-CAFE reveals that the extent of global dispersal caused by humans is larger than that occurring in the natural environment. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the model output is most sensitive to the PCB production volume and the lifetime of PCB-containing products, suggesting that a shortening of that lifetime is key to reducing future PCB emissions. Keywords: Chemical in product, PCBs, Substance flow analysis, Anthroposphere, Emission, Flow

There has been ever-increasing international interest in investigating the long-term emissions of chemicals in products (CiPs) throughout their entire life cycle in the anthroposphere. Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) is a contemporary example of special interest due to the recent listing of this hazardous flame retardant in the Stockholm Convention and the consequent need for parties to take appropriate measures to eliminate this compound. Here, we conducted a scenario-based dynamic substance flow analysis, coupled with interval linear programming, to forecast the future HBCDD emissions in China in order to assist with the implementation of the Stockholm Convention in this current world's predominant HBCDD manufacturing and consuming country. Our results indicate that, under a business-as-usual scenario, the cumulative HBCDD production will amount to 238,000 tonnes before its phase-out, 79% of which will be consumed in domestic market, accumulate as stocks in flame-retarded polystyrene insulation boards, and ultimately end up in demolition waste. While the production is scheduled to end in ca. 2021, emissions of HBCDD would continue until after 2100. For the entire simulation period 2000–2100, 44% of total cumulative emissions will arise from the industrial manufacture of HBCDD-associated end-products, whereas 49% will come from the end-of-life disposals of HBCDD-containing waste. The most effective end-of-life disposal option for minimizing emissions we found was, a pre-demolition screening combined with complete incineration. Our study warns of the huge challenges that China would face in its eliminating HBCDD contamination in the following decades, and provides an effective methodology for a wider range of countries to recognize and tackle their long-term emission problems of hazardous CiPs. Keywords: Hexabromocyclododecane, Emissions, Chemicals in products, Dynamic substance flow analysis, Interval linear programming, End-of-life

Material flow modeling constitutes an important approach to predicting and understanding the flows of materials through the anthroposphere into the environment. The new "Dynamic Probabilistic Material Flow Analysis (DPMFA)" method, combining dynamic material flow modeling with probabilistic modeling, is presented in this paper. Material transfers that lead to particular environmental stocks are represented as systems of mass-balanced flows. The time-dynamic behavior of the system is calculated by adding up the flows over several consecutive periods, considering changes in the inflow to the system and intermediate delays in local stocks. Incomplete parameter knowledge is represented and propagated using Bayesian modeling. The method is implemented as a simulation framework in Python to support experts from different domains in the development of their application models. After the introduction of the method and its implementation, a case study is presented in which the framework is applied to predict the environmental concentrations of carbon nanotubes in Switzerland. Presentation of a probabilistic modeling method for representing dynamic mass flows.Implementation as simulation framework.Case study: Exposure modeling of carbon nanotubes for Switzerland.

Urban mining (UM) is a metaphorical term to describe the reclaiming of non-renewable resources from the anthroposphere. It provides secondary resources to the economic system with the associated environmental benefits. Urban mining even become an industry in China, processing large quantity of waste generated domestically and internationally, it offers economic growth while associated with environmental and social problems. The sustainability of urban mining development in China is in question. This doctoral study developed a four-dimensional sustainable UM framework, analyzed the multiple attributes and the relevant focal points embodied in the resource, environmental, economic, and social dimensions of urban mining. As a previous teamwork study the author was involved in has explored the resource and environmental issues. This study focused on the economic and social dimension. In the economic dimension, the study constructed a maximal covering location model combining a 0-1 integer programming method on the ArcGIS platform, to solve a location optimization of the 50 national UM pilot bases the China government would like to support. In the social dimension, the key issue is the problem an integration of the informal collection. The study examined the emerging intelligent collection models and theirs comparative advantage. A sustainable urban mining system need the application of the intelligent collection to integrate or replace the informal collection. This study further illustrated the four-dimensional issues in one UM city as a micro case study to explore how UM industry development in one city can impact its industrialization and urbanization and help contribute towards sustainable development. Lastly, an in-depth policy assessment in China for UM brought the study back to the macro level, and its results can formulate specific policy advice for the core question of this thesis - sustainable UM development in China. This study constructs a theoretical four-dimension framework for sustainable UM analysis and strategy planning. And provides specific policy advice for China government decision-making about the UM industry. The experience and lessons of China are also applicable for other developing counties, and for the EU counties with their circular economy targets.

Riparian vegetation is a crucial component of fluvial systems and serves multiple socio-ecological functions. The objective of this review is to follow the scientific trajectory of studies of riparian vegetation throughout history and across regions and fields of knowledge. Such a synthesis is challenging because riparian vegetation is an open co-constructed socio-ecological system at the crossroads of the biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and anthroposphere; thus, it exhibits a wide range of ecological patterns and functioning depending on climatic, morphological and land-use contexts. To address this, we used qualitative and quantitative approaches in our review of the scientific literature. From the scientific perspective, how riparian vegetation is studied has changed over time (e.g. development of modeling and geomatic approaches) and varies among fluvial systems and geographic areas (e.g. its relation to groundwater is usually studied more in Oceania and Asia than on other continents). This review revealed the lack of a single and well-identified scientific community that focuses on riparian vegetation. This is probably due to the nature of the subject, which includes diverse fields of knowledge and several applied issues: biodiversity, forestry, water quality, hydromorphology, restoration, ecology, etc. Some topics are actively regenerated (e.g. biogeomorphological approaches) and others are emerging, which reflects general trends in ecology (e.g. functional approaches). The literature review indicates that a substantial amount of knowledge already exists; therefore, a major priority of our study is to produce a clear and integrative understanding of riparian zone functioning to address the inherent complexity of these zones and remain valid across a wide diversity of geographical contexts. It is also essential to develop detailed analysis of the sociocultural dimension of riparian vegetation to understand the ecology of riparian zones and to improve riparian vegetation management according to local recommendations in order to maintain and improve its functions and services in the face of global changes.

For his settlements homo sapiens has developed, over thousands of years, technical equipment to support and ensure sustenance of water, energy, biomass and construction materials, to maintain the flows and stocks of these goods and to manage the disposal of waste. This technical equipment, a prosthetic outer envelope of the biological skin of humans, evolved in urbanization to a complex artificial physiological system of densely settled and highly mobile human societies. The byproduct of globalization is a net of urban systems embracing Planet Earth. It is the anthroposphere with its own technical metabolism (Baccini and Brunner in Metabolism of the Anthroposphere. MIT Press, Cambridge MA 2012a).

Mitigating mineral extraction is considered to be an important challenge in prolonging resource supplies and protecting the environment at mining sites. This challenge can be faced by retaining metal resources within the anthroposphere with adequate technologies and policies for reducing losses to the environment. In mining and mineral processing, considerable amounts of metals are lost as tailings. In recycling, metal recovery from end-of-life products is limited by economic and technological restrictions. In this study, we evaluate the potential for mitigating mineral extraction by reducing the loss rates in mining and recycling. In this study, global substance flow analysis is conducted for seven metals and the importance of recycling is determined for each metal. Furthermore, the change in potential recycling in the future is discussed in combination with dynamic substance flow analysis. We found that reducing the loss rate in recycling could not fully realize mineral conservation in the year 2000, except in the case of lead. However, we also showed that it will become important as the metal discard increases in the future. The framework of this study supports the sustainable use of metals by introducing the right technologies and policies at the right time.

A comprehensive understanding of the flows and stocks of non-renewable resources plays an important role in the development of sustainable resource use policies. Substance flow analysis (SFA) is an established method to comprehensively analyze resource flows in the anthroposphere, and this paper conducts a quantitative SFA for nickel in mainland China for the year 2009. The analysis shows that total available primary nickel, total available nickel used in fabrication processes and in-use stock of nickel end-products during the year 2009 were 509.28 Gg, 647.25 Gg and 341.83 Gg respectively, and the net import reliance was about 73%. Some sustainability indicators can be derived from the SFA results, and these indicate that the sustainability of the Chinese nickel industry chain could be significantly improved. However, to conduct a comprehensive assessment of resource sustainability it would be necessary to derive systematic SFA indicators. The overall environmental burden exported from the Chinese nickel industry is greater than the imported burden, with the imported environmental burden resulting mainly from the smelting and refining of imported nickel ores. The results indicate that cradle-to-cradle management is important for Chinese nickel industry, including shrinking the milling and refining capacity, improvements to processing technology, and enlarging the capacity for domestic and imported waste management.

Some renewable energy technologies rely on the functionalities provided by geochemically scarce metals. One example are CIGS solar cells, an emerging thin film photovoltaic technology, which contain indium. In this study we model global future indium demand related to the implementation of various energy scenarios and assess implications for the supply system. Influencing parameters of the demand model are either static or dynamic and include technology shares, technological progress and handling in the anthroposphere. Parameters’ levels reflect pessimistic, reference, and optimistic development. The demand from other indium containing products is roughly estimated. For the reference case, the installed capacity of CIGS solar cells ranges from 12 to 387 GW in 2030 (31–1401 GW in 2050), depending on the energy scenario chosen. This translates to between 485 and 15,724 tonnes of primary indium needed from 2000 to 2030 (789–30,556 tonnes through 2050). One scenario exemplifies that optimistic assumptions for technological progress and handling in the anthroposphere can reduce cumulative primary indium demand by 43% until 2050 compared to the reference case, while with pessimistic assumptions the demand increases by about a factor of five. To meet the future indium demand, several options to increase supply are discussed: (1) expansion of zinc metal provision (indium is currently a by-product of zinc mining), (2) improving extraction efficiency, (3) new mining activities where indium is a by-product of other metals and (4) mining of historic residues. Potential future constraints and environmental impacts of these supply options are also briefly discussed.

Driven by contamination risks, mapping Vulnerability Indices (VI) of multiple aquifers (both unconfined and confined) is investigated by integrating the basic DRASTIC framework with multiple models overarched by Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The DRASTIC framework is a proactive tool to assess VI values using the data from the hydrosphere, lithosphere and anthroposphere. However, a research case arises for the application of multiple models on the ground of poor determination coefficients between the VI values and non-point anthropogenic contaminants. The paper formulates SCFL models, which are derived from the multiple model philosophy of Supervised Committee (SC) machines and Fuzzy Logic (FL) and hence SCFL as their integration. The Fuzzy Logic-based (FL) models include: Sugeno Fuzzy Logic (SFL), Mamdani Fuzzy Logic (MFL), Larsen Fuzzy Logic (LFL) models. The basic DRASTIC framework uses prescribed rating and weighting values based on expert judgment but the four FL-based models (SFL, MFL, LFL and SCFL) derive their values as per internal strategy within these models. The paper reports that FL and multiple models improve considerably on the correlation between the modeled vulnerability indices and observed nitrate-N values and as such it provides evidence that the SCFL multiple models can be an alternative to the basic framework even for multiple aquifers. The study area with multiple aquifers is in Varzeqan plain, East Azerbaijan, northwest Iran.

Global warming has caused an unprecedented rise in sea levels as well as increased storm intensity. Both phenomena are responsible for an increase in flooding and erosion of many archaeological sites located on the coast, which constitute a weak interface between the hydrosphere, atmosphere, anthroposphere, and lithosphere. The present research project aims to develop a sustainable model for safeguarding archaeological sites from the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation. In addition, by implementing site-specific planning and design based on ecological, bioclimatic, and energy-efficient strategies and techniques, sustainable preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage sites can be achieved to increase sitings and accessibility to sites.

Environmental contextStudies involving modelling are increasingly being performed to better understand how technology-critical elements such as tellurium are transported and accumulated in man-made technological systems. The resulting ‘anthropogenic cycles’ provide estimates of current and anticipated future material releases to the environment, and their associated environmental implications. This information complements data on natural cycles in which the subsequent transport and fate of tellurium in the environment can be examined. AbstractGlobal demand for tellurium has greatly increased owing to its use in solar photovoltaics. Elevated levels of tellurium in the environment are now observed. Quantifying the losses from human usage into the environment requires a life-cycle wide examination of the anthropogenic tellurium cycle (in analogy to natural element cycles). Reviewing the current literature shows that tellurium losses to the environment might occur predominantly as mine tailings, in gas and dust and slag during processing, manufacturing losses, and in-use dissipation (situation in around 2010). Large amounts of cadmium telluride will become available by 2040 as photovoltaic modules currently in-use reach their end-of-life. This requires proper end-of-life management approaches to avoid dissipation to the environment. Because tellurium occurs together with other toxic metals, e.g. in the anode slime collected during copper production, examining the life-cycle wide environmental implication of tellurium production requires consideration of the various substances present in the feedstock as well as the energy and material requirements during production. Understanding the flows and stock dynamics of tellurium in the anthroposphere can inform environmental chemistry about current and future tellurium releases to the environment, and help to manage the element more wisely.

Fracking has become a hot topic in the media and public discourse not only because of its economic benefit but also its environmental impacts. Recently, scientists have investigated the environmental impacts of fracking, and most studies focus on its air and ground water pollution. A systematic research structure and an overall evaluation of fracking's impacts on the environment are needed, because fracking does not only influence ground water but most environmental elements including but not limited to air, water, soil, rock, vegetation, wildlife, human, and many other ecosystem components. From the standpoint of the total environment, this communication assesses the overall impacts of fracking on the environment and then designs a total environmental study paradigm that effectively examines the complicated relationship among the total environment. Fracking dramatically changes the anthroposphere, which in turn significantly impacts the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere through the significant input or output of water, air, liquid or solid waste disposals, and the complex chemical components in fracking fluids. The proposed total environment study paradigm of fracking can be applied to other significant human activities that have dramatic impacts on the environment, such as mountain top coal mining or oil sands for environmental studies.

With the seriously polluted environment due to social development, the sustainability of net primary production (NPP), which is used to feed most lives on the earth, has become one of the biggest concerns that we have to consider for the sake of food shortage. There have been many researches analyzing one or two potential impact factors of NPP based on field observation data, which brings about many uncertainties for further calculation. Moreover, the frequently used process-based models heavily depend on the understandings of researchers about the NPP process. The premises of such models hinder the impact factor analysis from being objective and confident. To overcome such shortages, we collected 27 potential impact factors of global NPP in terms of eight land cover types. The feature variables include atmosphere, biosphere, anthroposphere and lithosphere parameters, which can be obtained from public available remote sensed products. The experiment shows that latitude, irradiance ultraviolet and normalized difference vegetation index are dominant factors impacting global NPP. Anthropogenic activities, precipitation and surface emissivity are influencing NPP calculation largely. However, some commonly used biosphere parameters in process-based models are actually not playing that important roles in NPP estimation. This work provides a new insight in analyzing NPP impact factors, being more objective and comprehensive compared with frequently used process-based models.

While there are well established early warning systems for a number of natural phenomena (e.g. earthquakes, catastrophic fires, tsunamis), we do not have an early warning system for biodiversity. Yet, we are losing species at an unprecedented rate, and this especially occurs in tropical rainforests, the biologically richest but most eroded biome on earth. Unfortunately, there is a chronic gap in standardized and pan-tropical data in tropical forests, affecting our capacity to monitor changes and anticipate future scenarios. The Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network was established to contribute addressing this issue, as it generates real time data to monitor long-term trends in tropical biodiversity and guide conservation practice. We present the Network and focus primarily on the Terrestrial Vertebrates protocol, that uses systematic camera trapping to detect forest mammals and birds, and secondarily on the Zone of Interaction protocol, that measures changes in the anthroposphere around the core monitoring area. With over 3 million images so far recorded, and managed using advanced information technology, TEAM has created the most important data set on tropical forest mammals globally. We provide examples of site-specific and global analyses that, combined with data on anthropogenic disturbance collected in the larger ecosystem where monitoring sites are, allowed us to understand the drivers of changes of target species and communities in space and time. We discuss the potential of this system as a candidate model towards setting up an early warning system that can effectively anticipate changes in coupled human-natural system, trigger management actions, and hence decrease the gap between research and management responses. In turn, TEAM produces robust biodiversity indicators that meet the requirements set by global policies such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Standardization in data collection and public sharing of data in near real time are essential features of such system.

Triclosan (TCS) is a broad spectrum antibacterial agent mainly used in Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products. Its increasing use over recent decades have raised its concentration in the environment, with commonly detectable levels found along the food web-from aquatic organisms to humans in the ecosystem. To date, there is shortage of information on how to investigate TCS's systematic risk on exposed organisms including humans, due to the paucity of systematic information on TCS flows in the anthroposphere. Therefore, a more holistic approach to mass flow balancing is required, such that the systematic risk of TCS in all environmental matrices are evaluated. From the perspective of Substance Flow Analysis (SFA), this review critically summarizes the current state of knowledge on TCS production, consumption, discharge, occurrence in built and natural environments, its exposure and metabolism in humans, and also the negative effects of TCS on biota and humans. Recent risk concerns have mainly focused on TCS removal efficiencies and metabolism, but less attention is given to the effect of mass flows from source to fate during risk exposure. However, available data for TCS SFA is limited but SFA can derive logical systematic information from limited data currently available for systematic risk assessment and reduction, based on mass flow analysis. In other words, SFA tool can be used to develop a comprehensive flow chart and indicator system for the risk assessment and reduction of TCS flows in the anthroposphere, thereby bridging knowledge gaps to streamline uncertainties related to policy-making on exposure pathways within TCS flow-lines. In the final analysis, specifics on systematic TCS risk assessment via SFA, and areas of improvement on human adaptation to risks posed by emerging contaminants are identified and directions for future research are suggested.

The essence of sustainable development (SD) is to deliver social and economic development without compromising environmental quality. Material Flow Analysis or Substance Flow Analysis (M/SFA) is a well-established method to assess the sustainability of socioeconomic development and environmental change, particularly from the perspective of improving material/substance flow efficiency. A material/substance flow chart or accounting table makes SD assessment results comprehensive, comparable and verifiable by (1) providing systematic information and indicators for SD assessment, (2) identifying critical pathways, links and key substances in the anthroposphere, and (3) allowing the dynamic interaction between material flow and social, economic and/or environmental processes to be analyzed. However, the role of M/SFA in SD assessment could be expanded by strengthening simultaneous analysis of various features of material/substance flows, integrating M/SFA with other assessment methods, improving sustainability indicators, and further developing standardized methods for material classification, data acquisition and processing, and measuring indirect flows and unused flows. It is anticipated that future improvements in monitoring material/substance flows in the anthroposphere will provide more systematic information, allowing M/SFA to play an even greater role in SD assessment.

The term Anthropocene, which is used by many scientists to refer to the current era, reflects various environmental issues caused by anthropogenic activities. The energy flows and conversions in the anthroposphere and the anthropogenic impacts on the ecosphere, as two major aspects of the physical part of industrial ecology, are both subject to the laws of thermodynamics. After an introduction to human–environment systems and industrial ecology in the Anthropocene, this review focuses on the role and applications of thermodynamic analysis in industrial ecology based on a thermodynamic definition of human–environment systems at four levels, i.e., the ecosphere (A), the anthroposphere (B), the supply chain (C), and the foreground system (D). It argues that process engineering thermodynamics (at level D) and ecological energetics (at level A) are the most mature applications, and the primary benefit added by thermodynamic analysis to industrial ecology lies in the physical validation and quantitative formulation of thermodynamics. The review also indicates the challenges of using thermodynamic analysis to understand the physical complexity of industrial ecology and to guide sustainability decision-making call for a joint effort by thermodynamic analysis and ecosystems ecology and for more insights from social sciences.

The total environment includes 5 closely-linking circles, in which biosphere and lithosphere are the active core. As global population increases and urbanization process accelerates, arable land is gradually decreasing under global climate change and the pressure of various types of environmental pollution. This case is especially for China. Land is the most important resources for human beings' survival. How to increase and manage arable land is the key for sustainable agriculture development. China has extensive marshy land that can be reclamated for the better potential land resources under the pre- condition of protecting the environment, which will be a good way for enlarging globally and managing arable land. Related studies have been conducted in China for the past 30years and now many results with obvious practical efficiency have been obtained. For summarizing these results, salt-soil will be the main target and related contents such as nutrient transport, use types, biodiversity and interactions with plants from molecular biology to ecology will be covered, in which the interactions among biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and anthroposphere will be focused on.

This paper investigates, by means of material flow analysis, the supply management of iron during a historical period of increased demand and induced shortage. The Austrian economy during World War I, when numerous raw materials had to be substituted by secondary sources, is analyzed as an example. The relative abundance of iron in the anthroposphere allowed a 40% increase in annual iron production in 1916 compared to peacetime, made possible by regulation. Almost half of the observed increase resulted from enhanced scrap utilization, covering up to 25% of total demand. By contrast, in peacetime, only 15% of iron consumption was covered by scrap. This sharp increase (from 330,000 to almost 600,000 tons/year) was accomplished by establishing authorities and regulations to guarantee sufficient metal supplies to industry and the military. Regulation was limited to pricing and inventories of scrap stocks. Purchase or confiscation of iron goods under civilian possession by the authorities proved unnecessary, while this was not the case for other metals. Although in-use iron stocks were not exploited, a severe shortage of civilian iron goods occurred since almost all iron produced was designated for military use. The historical data illustrate the short-term effectiveness and limits to extensive regulatory measures.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to highlight the importance of senses, emotions and sentiments which create the climate at a commercial venue. Services Anthroposphere is a new interdisciplinary concept and terminology employed in the provision of services. The term “Anthroposphere” was adopted from Geosciences by combining its meanings with the vital role of atmospherics and that of human action. By broadening this term, new ideas that inspire people to follow are arising. Terminologies help in creating short path in understanding meanings in vocational training. Interdisciplinary terms provide a broader perspective of the concept. Result is the enrichment of communication.

Tin is an essential industrial metal with many applications from plastics to electronics. In contrast to other metals, tin reserves are very small with a static lifetime of 22 years. Mining is heavily concentrated in a few countries. Together, these characteristics render primary tin supply potentially vulnerable to short and long-term disruptions. An increased use of secondary tin resources (e.g., scrap from retiring products) could replace primary tin and thereby mitigate both challenges. In order to identify the potential for secondary resource use, it is necessary to know both where tin is accumulating in the anthroposphere and where tin could be recovered most effectively. We first analyzed the global, historical tin metabolism on a highly aggregated level to identify areas of stock accumulation. Subsequently, we studied the contemporary (2005) U.S. tin cycle in more detail to detect flows rich in tin for potential recycling. Most of the tin mined globally in the 20th century has been accumulating in landfills due to a relatively short lifetime and low recovery rates. The global tin reservoir in landfills has reached about double the size of current reserves, while products in use constitute about half the amount in reserves. In addition, substantial amounts of tin have accumulated in steel (where it forms a tramp element and is virtually lost for future recovery). Landfills might become important tin mines in the future, however, currently more attractive is a focus on in-use stocks, where tin is available in higher concentrations. Today, the U.S. has a post-consumer recycling rate of about 28%, exclusively in alloy form. The most important current source of post-consumer recycled material is lead acid batteries. Products that are good candidates for improved end of life recycling include containers and electronics, although this potential is not currently being harvested in the U.S.

Sustainability has a plethora of ambiguous definitions, partly because there are no consistent timescales acceptable to all interested authors. Co-evolutionary processes between the anthroposphere and the biosphere offer an alternative to sustainability and hence the timescales could be examined by a simple systems analysis. We consider a system of anthropospheric food energy demand and entropy production to evaluate the timescales of sustainability at past technological revolutions in the anthroposphere. Our analysis suggests that each of technological revolutionary steps, the Neolithic/Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Revolutions, has forced the sustainability timescale to decrease by an order of 2. However, we suggest that the minimum timescale of the most recent sustainability is 100–400 years, which is longer than that implied by other sustainability indices (∼100 years). The recently emerged concept of ‘futurability’, an ideal form of sustainability, could help seek futurable states of human–environment interactions beyond the next few hundred years.