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Is the Netherlands sustainable or not? The answer inherently involves addressing the issues of system boundaries, statistical units and a vision of sustainability. As an analytical answer we offer the Intenscope (IS), a two-dimensional graphical tool based on dimensionless percentages of triple rate ratios which overcomes several limitations of sustainability analyses. First, it is not sensitive to the size of statistical units so an area with twice the amount of resources of another, with double the population (and double the total consumption) would have the same triple ratio of population:biocapacity:consumption. Second, the IS is sensitive to anomalies which may originate either from the use of arbitrary statistical units (e.g. the boundaries of a city) or those which may indicate truly unsustainable practices. To judge spatial sustainability we use ecological footprint data from which we construct a plausible country plot based on the IS. Despite the relative nature of IS-analyses, the employed consumption:biocapacity ratio inherently refers to the absolute limit of sustainability: we cannot continually use more resources on a global scale than nature provides us with. The analysis introduces some associations of human preferences and attributions of settlement types which may help to elaborate sustainability policies based on voluntary action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of plotting four-dimensional data in two dimensions without loss of information; namely, the dataquadrate concept. Here objects are represented as quadrates instead of points in a practical 4-axis Cartesian coordinate system. This procedure helps us imagine and analyze complex relations where four different, non-negative variables influence processes. This tool is of high utility for analyzing specific human–environment issues. Here we analyze a monetary measure (gross domestic product; GDP), a hedonic measure (subjective wellbeing), a limiting measure (ecological footprint) and a demographic measure (human population). Our system adds new insights to the de-growth debate discussed in a Journal of Cleaner Production special issue (vol. 18, 2010) and systematically illuminates lots of confusing paradoxes such as the downward sloping part of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the Jevons'' paradox, and the Easterlin paradox. In this paper all these phenomena are analyzed for the USA and for China in 1990 and in 2007. By utilizing such methodology, when mitigating environmental problems we are not limited to negative, restrictive messages but are enabled to create new strategic ways of problem solving about how to optimize the human ‘celestial footprint’ (the ratio of human wellbeing to human environmental load). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]