From system to landscape: The other orientation of regional material flow analysis

Abstract

Material flow analysis (MFA) is an objective, quantifiable and concise tool for system assessment. As the core content of industrial ecology, it includes bulk-MFA and substance flow analysis (SFA), has been widely applied in different environmental-economic systems at global-level, nation-level, region-level and city-level, and developed into a significant tool in quantifying circular economy, eco-efficiency, low-carbon society and other concepts of sustainable development. In recent years, as MFA at the nation-level come to be a standard research method on the basis of studies carried by World Resources Institute and European Commission, research importance of MFA at smaller scale highlights, and studies of material flow, metabolism and resource flow at regional level become the focus and hotspots of MFA. Based on analysis of existing studies, current status of regional MFA is briefly reviewed from perspectives of research framework, indicator system, data integration and management application, and "black box hypothesis and "systematic metaphor turned out to be the theoretical root of current difficulty of regional MFA. Based on levels of organization integrated with complexity science and grand evolutionary theory, metaphor of "ecosystem in industrial ecology as well as regional MFA is generally analyzed, and the necessity of introduction of "landscape into regional MFA is raised to improve the spatial and cognitive dimension of regional MFA. From "system to "landscape, landscape ecology principles are introduced in the regional MFA, contributions of landscape ecology in regional MFA are generalized in 6 tenets: 1) emphasizing the structural difference between natural ecosystem and socio-economic system, and providing a hierarchical and integrative ecological basis; 2) the landscape (or region) as a basic spatial unit for studying human-nature interactions, providing a holistic approaches to socio-ecological systems; 3) combine "flow in MFA with "source and "sink in landscape, combine "stock or reservoir with "patch, and "flow or flux with "corridor, and transfer "material flow in system into "material flow in space; 4) developing material flow observation, investigation and experiment in landscape, combine subjective and objective data in a mechanistic method; 5) combine material flow of great amount with patch dynamic and assess the environmental impact based on spatial variation; 6) combine MFA with other tools of sustainability assessment like ecological footprint and sustainable livelihood, and providing implications for regional management. Based on "Patch-Corridor-Matrix Model, "patch dynamics, "Hierarchy theory, as well as the "Hierarchical Patch Dynamic Paradigm (HPDP), spatial structure of regional material flow process is established and interpreted. Meanwhile, cognitive schemata of regional material flow process is analyzed and compared from psychological and logical perspectives. For further interpretation of the landscape orientation of regional MFA, multi-scale integrated assessment of material flow analysis, spatial-temporal modeling of material flow process and spatial management of material flow process are discussed deeply. At the end of this paper, regional MFA is further considered from a perspective of interdisciplinary, it concludes that rather than reflects the competition between ecosystem ecology and landscape ecology, paradigm shift from system to landscape of regional MFA solidifies the theoretical basis of MFA, and expands the research field of landscape ecology.