Safe operating space for humanity at a regional scale
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4239356 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John F Mclaughlin (Western Washington University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Conservation Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1195-5449 • E-ISSN: 1708-3087 |
| Publisher | Resilience Alliance (PUBLISHER • CA) |
| DOI | 10.5751/es-10171-230243 |
| OpenAlex | W2807834762 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 15 |
The planetary boundaries framework defined safe limits to human impacts on essential Earth-system processes. Subsequent assessments concluded that impacts exceed most delineated boundaries. Societal responses to these results have been insufficient to restore safety. One factor impeding effective action is differences in scale between planetary boundaries and national, regional, or local scales where many impacts and solutions originate. I have contributed toward a resolution by developing a regional scale framework and an approach to translate boundaries across spatial scales. I developed the framework for a county and river basin in the Pacific Northwest. The framework includes six state variables related to planetary scale analogues. Boundary translation can be achieved by aggregating hydrologic processes across scales. Because of greater process certainty and lower spatial heterogeneity at the regional scale, regional boundaries can be defined with more precision than global analogues. The region has exceeded five boundaries and is close to the remaining one. Effects of existing and proposed policies will be to exceed boundaries further. Likely consequences include irreversible degradation in river functions, severe water shortages, impaired water quality, human health impacts, and extinctions of iconic salmonids. In most cases, policy and enforcement mechanisms to restore conditions within regional boundaries are in place, but they have been ignored or misapplied. New initiatives with potential to restore safety are being pursued by indigenous peoples, who also are most directly affected by boundary transgression. By clearly delineating regional boundaries and identifying consequences of boundary transgression, this framework may complement indigenous efforts with policy imperatives for other stakeholders in the region
Cartography · Environmental resource management · Geography · Humanity · Political science · Computer Science · Engineering Diagnostics and Reliability · Environmental Science · Ergonomics and Human Factors · Industrial Engineering and Technologies · Law
Exploring landowners' perceptions, motivations and needs for voluntary conservation in a cultural landscape
The Boundaries of the Planetary Boundary Framework
Approaches for aggregating data from the regional to the global level
Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science
Integrated modeling of urban water metabolism and ecosystem services
Securing the social foundation
Downscaling doughnut economics for sustainability governance
Push and pull in the sustainable development of ecological landscape and ecological resources
How close are European countries to the doughnut-shaped safe and just space? Evidence from 26 EU countries
A framework to allocate responsibilities of the global environmental concerns
Assessing global agri-food system exceedance of national cropland limits for linking responsible consumption and production under SDG 12
Challenges and opportunities for operationalizing the safe and just operating space concept at regional scale
Sharing the safe operating space
Planetary Boundaries and the Doughnut frameworks
Re-grounding cumulative effects assessments in ecological resilience
The Natural Flow Regime
Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere
Anticipating Critical Transitions
Global Consequences of Land Use
Planetary boundaries
A safe operating space for humanity
Allocating a 2 °C cumulative carbon budget to countries
Towards a revised planetary boundary for consumptive freshwater use
Spatial variability in sustainable development trajectories in South Africa
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
From Planetary Boundaries to national fair shares of the global safe operating space — How can the scales be bridged
Methods and approaches to modelling the Anthropocene
Institutions for managing global climate change
Haida Marine Planning
Planetary Boundaries
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |