Societal metabolism analysis

Would societal metabolism analyses be a useful method to consult/include as part of the assessment? As Ana noted during the plenary, a big challenge is zooming in and out -  I also see a comment by Frank in the forum that relates to this.  Societal metabolism analysis allows decomposition of of the flows of inputs and outputs (e..g. water, nutrients) across scales, so can perhaps assist with this tricky challenge.  At present we are specifically applying it to analyse different types of agricultural systems in Europe in relation to the nexus, within the project EU H2020 MAGIC.In principle it is also possible to do this work beyond Europe.   If you would like to know about our ongoing work on the nexus please contact [email protected], the lead of work on agriculture - [email protected] or the overall MAGIC leader [email protected] can also describe previous work using this approach that may benefit the assessment.

Our project also works on the governance of the nexus - and we agree with Anne, and indeed the need to understand power that was noted by Ana during the plenary  - and we would like to argue for the important of governance systems being seen as important analytic topic in its own right, in addition to the analysis of interconnections across natural systems or (e.g. see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.08.001).