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Informed environmental-economic policy decisions require a solid understanding of the economy’s biophysical basis. Global physical input-output tables ( gPIOTs) collate a vast array ofinformation on the world economy’s physical structure and its interdependence with the environment. However, building gPIOTs requires dealing with mismatched and incompleteprimary data with high uncertainties, which makes it a time-consuming and labor-intensive endeavor. We address this challenge by introducing the PIOLab: A virtual laboratory for building gPIOTs. It represents the newest branch of the Industrial Ecology virtual laboratory (IELab) concept, a cloud-computing platform and collaborative research environment through which participants can use each other’s resources to assemble individual input-output tables targeting specific research questions. To overcome the lack of primary data, the PIOLab builds extensively upon secondary data derived from a variety of models commonly used in Industrial Ecology. We use the case of global iron-steel supply chains to describe the architecture of the PIOLab and highlight its analytical capabilities. A major strength of the gPIOT is its ability to provide mass-balanced indicators on both apparent/direct and embodied/indirect flows, for regions and disaggregated economic sectors. We present the first gPIOTs for 10 years (2008-2017), covering32 regions, 30 processes and 39 types of iron/steel flows. Diagnostic tests of the data reconciliation show a good level of adherence between raw data and the values realized in the gPIOT. We conclude with elaborating on how the PIOLab will be extended to cover other materials and energyflows., Series: Ecological Economic Papers

Die vorliegende Publikation beschreibt mit aktuellenZahlen und Analysen den österreichischen Verbrauchnatürlicher Ressourcen.&nbsp

Environmentally extended multiregional input‐output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3—a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply‐use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building blocks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource extraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Summary Land use is recognized as a pervasive driver of environmental impacts, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Global trade leads to “telecoupling” between the land use of production and the consumption of biomass‐based goods and services. Telecoupling is captured by accounts of the upstream land requirements associated with traded products, also commonly referred to as land footprints. These accounts face challenges in two main areas: (1) the allocation of land to products traded and consumed and (2) the metrics to account for differences in land quality and land‐use intensity. For two main families of accounting approaches (biophysical, factor‐based and environmentally extended input‐output analysis), this review discusses conceptual differences and compares results for land footprints. Biophysical approaches are able to capture a large number of products and different land uses, but suffer from a truncation problem. Economic approaches solve the truncation problem, but are hampered by the limited disaggregation of sectors and products. In light of the conceptual differences, the overall similarity of results generated by both types of approaches is remarkable. Diametrically opposed results for some of the world's largest producers and consumers of biomass‐based products, however, make interpretation difficult. This review aims to provide clarity on some of the underlying conceptual issues of accounting for land footprints.

Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago are small open, high-income island economies with very specific resource-use patterns. This article presents a material flow analysis (MFA) for the two countries covering a time period of nearly five decades. Both countries have a narrow domestic resource base, their economy being largely based on the exploitation of one or two key resources for export production. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, the physical economy is dominated by oil and natural gas extraction and petrochemical industries, whereas Iceland's economy for centuries has been based on fisheries. More recently, abundant hydropower and geothermal heat were the basis for the establishment of large export-oriented metal processing industries, which fully depend on imported raw materials and make use of domestic renewable electricity. Both countries are highly dependent on these natural resources and vulnerable to overexploitation and price developments. We show how the export-oriented industries lead to high and growing levels of per capita material and energy use and carbon dioxide emissions resulting from large amounts of processing wastes and energy consumption in production processes. The example of small open economies with an industrial production system focused on few, but abundant, key resources and of comparatively low complexity provides interesting insights of how resource endowment paired with availability or absence of infrastructure and specific institutional arrangements drives domestic resource-use patterns. This also contributes to a better understanding and interpretation of MFA indicators, such as domestic material consumption.

The report 2015 is the second of the seriesResource Use in Austria. This year’s report focuses on biomass as a key areaof concern, which, besides hydro power, covers a major share of the energy requirements through renewable energies.

Der vorliegende Berichtist der zweite in der Reihe Ressourcennutzung in Österreich.Der diesjährige Bericht fokussiert auf Biomasseals Schlüsselbereich, die in Österreich neben der Wasserkrafteinen Großteil des Energieverbrauchs aus erneuerbarerEnergie abdeckt.

This publication describes Austria’s natural resourceuse using current figures and analyses. A new methoddeveloped for data on construction minerals wasapplied for the first time. &nbsp

Economic development goes hand in hand with an increase in the consumption of natural resources. Some analysts use material flows to describe such relationship [Eurostat 2001, Weisz et al., 2006], or exergy [Ayres et al., 2003]. Instead this paper will use a characterisation of the exosomatic energy metabolism based on expected benchmark values to describe possible constraints to economic development posed by available human time and energy. The aim of the paper is to identify types of exosomatic energy metabolism of different societies to interpret its consequences for economic development. This is done with the application of the accounting methodology called Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM) to the particular case of energy metabolism for the analysis of the economies of Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.

El artículo presenta una aplicación de las metodologías de Análisis de Flujo de Materiales y Análisis Integrado Multi- Escala del Metabolismo Social (MSIASM, siglas en inglés) para la caracterización de modelos de desarrollo económico de Brasil, Chile, y Venezuela, mediante la utilización combinada de datos económicos y de uso de energía y materiales para diferentes sectores y en diversos niveles jerárquicos. El artículo muestra la relevancia de complementar una lectura económica del desarrollo con una lectura biofísica, y llega a la principal conclusión de que el modelo de desarrollo mostrado por las tres economías en el período analizado, basado casi exclusivamente en el sector exterior, no ha sido suficiente para garantizar una estrategia de desarrollo económico a largo plazo que alcance a todos los sectores y componentes de sus economías, incluyendo a los hogares. The article presents an application of both Material Flow Accounting and the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM) accounting method for characterising economic development in Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela by coupling economic data with energy use through different sectors and at different hierarchical levels. The paper shows the relevance of complementing an economical reading of development with a biophysical one, and arrives to the main conclusion that the development model shown by the three economies in the period analysed, based on almost solely increasing exports, was not sufficient for guaranteeing a long-term strategy of economic development able to reach all sectors and components of their economies, including the household sector.