Multiple-scale integrated assessment of societal metabolism: Introducing the approach

In this paper we present several concepts related to integrated analysis of societal metabolism across scales. First we introduce the concept of "dynamic energy budget" of human societies, which is based on the distinction between exosomatic and endosomatic energy flows and the possibility of establishing autocatalytic loops (egg-chicken patterns) among them. Second, we discuss the nature of the dramatic changes that the industrial revolution induced on the characteristics of societal metabolism. Finally, we discuss methodological problems related to the representation of complex adaptive systems. Dealing with sustainability of human societies requires the parallel use of non-equivalent descriptive domains. This, in turn, requires the ability of "scaling up and down" when moving across levels handling parallel non-reducible assessments.