Resource

Management
Prof. Ji HAN
College of Sustainability and Tourism

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Sustainability-oriented resource management

1. What is Sustainability

2. Goals of Sustainable Resource

CONTENTS
Management

3. How to Manage Resource Sustainably

What is
Sustainability?
Definition of sustainability

Meeting the needs of the

present without
compromising the ability
of future generations to
meet their own needs

-United Nations World Commission of

Development and Environment
Definition of sustainability
Sustainability is found in the triple bottom line: Environmental protection
and resource conservation, social well-being and equity, and economic
prosperity and continuity. This is sometimes called “People, Planet,
Profit”.
For a project, or program, even a city or nation, to be sustainable, it’s
essential that these critical elements be in balance. This balance defines
how a project, or community, can continue functioning over the long term.
The way we traditionally worked on infrastructure, a large part of this
balance was missing. Today, project planners and owners are becoming
more aware of the things that truly define successful infrastructure.
As we see and document unprecedented changes, including rising seas,
fiercer storms, income and opportunity inequality, and resource constraints,
to name a few, municipalities and other civil entities are seeking better,
more sustainable solutions to infrastructure challenges over the long haul.
They are leveraging new promising research on products, methods,
procedures and the like that fulfill infrastructure needs, but are lighter in
impact and conceived in a transparent, inclusive decision process. Clearly,
this is a topic that transcends our traditional engineering approaches, and
really considers the“big picture”. Doing true sustainable infrastructure
considers what we previously called externalities, things like quality of life,
social costs and benefits, unintended consequences, economic
development, and more.
From unsustainable to sustainable

Declining
resources and
ecosystem services
Through innovation, creativity & the
unlimited potential for change we can
reopen the walls of the funnel to a Third
Industrial Revolution!
Increasing
demand for resources
and ecosystem services
Goals of Sustainable
Resource Management
Goals of sustainable resource management
1. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions to the systematic accumulation of materials
taken from the earth.

• We cannot take more from the Earth’s crust than

Inefficient Use Efficient Use is redeposited again.
• We are releasing billions of years of sequestered
material (esp. oil and gas) over a very short
Tight Technical period of time into the biosphere.
Dissipative Use
Cycles • Nature cannot tolerate this, as the substances are
either directly toxic to living systems, or they alter
the physiochemical conditions that are necessary
Abundant to support life.
Scarce Metals
Metals
• Though we will require metals, but the question is
how do we extract them, from where, and how do
we manage them?
Renewable
Fossil Fuels • Fossil fuels are not a part of this future unless you
Fuels
are directly injecting carbon back into the wells.
Goals of sustainable resource management
2. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to the systematic accumulation of substances
produced by society

Inefficient Use Efficient Use

Abundant &
Persistent and
Breakdown
Unnatural
Easily

Element cycle
Tight Technical Human vs. Natural
Dissipative Use
Cycles

Sen & Peucker-Ehrenbrink, ES&T, 2012.

• Society produces over 70,000 synthetic chemical compounds commercially, many of them persistent as
they cannot easily be metabolized by the biosphere.
• Examples include DDT, PCBs
Goals of sustainable resource management
3. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions to the ongoing physical degradation of
nature

• We must not systematically undermine the ability

of nature to“pay the bills”, as photosynthesis is
Inefficient Use Efficient Use
the only large scale net producer of order on
Earth.

• We must also maintain its productive capacity.

Resources from Resources from • Currently we are experiencing worldwide

poorly managed well-managed
deforestation, soil erosion, increased salinity of
ecosystems ecosystems
soils, depletion of fisheries, and loss of biodiversity.
Goals of sustainable resource management
Primary reserve
A sustainable management case, Yellowstone Park in USA
Special use area

Park development area Special nature reserve

Goals of sustainable resource management
4. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions to conditions that systematically undermine
people’s abilities to meet their own needs

Unsafe and Safe and • In order to be able to achieve the first three system
unhealthy healthy conditions, society must also be sustainable.
production production • We must meet human needs worldwide
and use and use

Violations of Respect for

human rights human rights

Sufficient
Economic
resources
barriers
for livelihood
How to Manage
Resource Sustainably
Sustainability = complexity

Open system with

respect to energy
Closed system with
respect to matter
1) Nothing disappears
2) Everything disperses

« Photosynthesis
pays the bill »
Sustainability is
about the ability of
our own human
society to continue
indefinitely within
these natural
cycles

Slow geological cycles Slow geological cycles

(volcano eruptions and (sedimentation and
weathering) mineralization)
Why hard to achieve the sustainability？

No one sees the system

Learning-feedback-decision Loop
Real World
• Unknown structure
• Dynamic complexity
• Time delays
• Impossible experiments

Virtual World

• Implementation • Known structure

• Controlled experiments • Selected
• Game playing Information • Missing
• Inconsistency Decisions • Enhanced learning
feedback • Delayed
• Short term • Biased
• Ambiguous

• Inability to infer Strategy, Structure, Mental • Misperceptions

dynamics from Decision Rules Models • Unscientific
mental models • Biases
• Defensiveness
 System dynamics model

• System Dynamics is a computer-aided approach for strategy

and policy design.

• The main goal is to help people make better decisions when

confronted with complex, dynamic systems. The approach
provides methods and tools to model and analyzes dynamic
systems. Model results can be used to communicate essential
findings to help everyone understand the system’s behavior.

• It uses simulation modeling based on feedback systems theory

that complements systems thinking approaches. It applies to
dynamic problems arising in complex social, managerial,
economic, or ecological systems. It can be applied to social,
J.W. Forrester
managerial, economic, ecological, and physiological systems
Jay Forrester, MIT, Industrial Dynamics, 1961
“One of the seminal books of the last 20 years”-- NY Times
Flowchart of system dynamic modeling

• Map the salient forces that contribute to a persistent

problem;

• Convert the map into a computer simulation model,

integrating the best information and insight available;

• Compare results from simulated “What If…” experiments

to identify intervention policies that might plausibly
alleviate the problem;

• Conduct sensitivity analyses to assess areas of uncertainty

in the model and guide future research;

• Convene diverse stakeholders to participate in model-

supported “Action Labs,” which allow participants to
discover for themselves the likely consequences of
alternative policy scenarios
 Forecasting
• The practice of predicting what will happen in the future by
taking into consideration events in the past and present.
• Basically, it is a decision-making tool that helps businesses
cope with the impact of the future’s uncertainty by
examining historical data and trends.
• It is a planning tool that enables businesses to chart their
next moves and create budgets that will hopefully cover
whatever uncertainties may occur.
 Backcasting
• A method used in planning.
• It begins with outlining a desired goal or object.
• Next, identify the programs and policies needed to connect
that desired future back to the present.
Begin with the
1 end in mind

2 Move backwards from

Visioning the vision to the present

Future

3 Move step by step

towards the vision

Present
ABCD method
 Ji HAN
Email: jhan@apu.ac.jp