School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Multi-region input-output tables Virtual laboratories Collaboration Life cycle assessment Australia Electronic research infrastructure Compiling, deploying and utilising large-scale databases that integrate environmental and economic data have traditionally been labour-and cost-intensive processes, hindered by the large amount of disparate and misaligned data that must be collected and harmonised. The Australian Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory (IELab) is a novel, collaborative approach to compiling large-scale environmentally extended multi-region input-output (MRIO) models. The utility of the IELab product is greatly enhanced by avoiding the need to lock in an MRIO structure at the time the MRIO system is developed. The IELab advances the idea of the "mother-daughter" construction principle, whereby a regionally and sectorally very detailed "mother" table is set up, from which "daughter" tables are derived to suit specific research questions. By introducing a third tierthe "root classification" -IELab users are able to define their own mother-MRIO configuration, at no additional cost in terms of data handling. Customised mother-MRIOs can then be built, which maximise disaggregation in aspects that are useful to a family of research questions. The second innovation in the IELab system is to provide a highly automated collaborative research platform in a cloud-computing environment, greatly expediting workflows and making these computational benefits accessible to all users. Combining these two aspects realises many benefits. The collaborative nature of the IELab development project allows significant savings in resources. Timely deployment is possible by coupling automation procedures with the comprehensive input from multiple teams. User-defined MRIO tables, coupled with high performance computing, mean that MRIO analysis will be useful and accessible for a great many more research applications than would otherwise be possible. By ensuring that a common set of analytical tools such as for hybrid life-cycle

A Virtual Laboratory (VL) is a novel concept aimed at connecting researchers to research facilities, data repositories and computational tools on a national scale. The Industrial Ecology Lab (IE Lab) is a VL that targets a well-described, significant research challenge: the compilation and use of a time series of Australian sub-national Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) tables.

A growing body of literature discusses the CO 2 emissions of cities. Still, little is known about emission patterns across density gradients from remote rural places to highly urbanized areas, the drivers behind those emission patterns and the global emissions triggered by consumption in human settlements-referred to here as the carbon footprint. In this letter we use a hybrid method for estimating the carbon footprints of cities and other human settlements in the UK explicitly linking global supply chains to local consumption activities and associated lifestyles. This analysis comprises all areas in the UK, whether rural or urban. We compare our consumption-based results with extended territorial CO 2 emission estimates and analyse the driving forces that determine the carbon footprint of human settlements in the UK. Our results show that 90% of the human settlements in the UK are net importers of CO 2 emissions. Consumption-based CO 2 emissions are much more homogeneous than extended territorial emissions. Both the highest and lowest carbon footprints can be found in urban areas, but the carbon footprint is consistently higher relative to extended territorial CO 2 emissions in urban as opposed to rural settlement types. The impact of high or low density living remains limited; instead, carbon footprints can be comparatively high or low across density gradients depending on the location-specific socio-demographic, infrastructural and geographic characteristics of the area under consideration. We show that the carbon footprint of cities and other human settlements in the UK is mainly determined by socio-economic rather than geographic and infrastructural drivers at the spatial aggregation of our analysis. It increases with growing income, education and car ownership as well as decreasing household size. Income is not more important than most other socio-economic determinants of the carbon footprint. Possibly, the relationship between lifestyles and infrastructure only impacts carbon footprints significantly at higher spatial granularity.

Urban environmental sustainability assessment is increasingly a part of urban planning, from the perspective of mitigating local and global impacts and for adapting to regional and global resource constraints and anticipated climate events.We examine general techniques under three categories: consumption-based, metabolism-based and complex systems approaches. We sample recent and salient applications at spatial scales ranging from neighbourhoods to metropolitan regions.The scope and strengths of applications in these categories are complementary especially with regards to the attribution of impact. The first approach assesses environmental sustainability as a function of urban consumption, the second uses a more limited concept of consumption but better represents local and transboundary production activity and the third attributes cause and effect through quantifying relationships and feedbacks throughout the urban system.

Metrics on resource productivity currently used by governments suggest that some developed countries have increased the use of natural resources at a slower rate than economic growth (relative decoupling) or have even managed to use fewer resources over time (absolute decoupling). Using the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource use, we find the contrary: Achievements in decoupling in advanced economies are smaller than reported or even nonexistent. We present a time series analysis of the MF of 186 countries and identify material flows associated with global production and consumption networks in unprecedented specificity. By calculating raw material equivalents of international trade, we demonstrate that countries' use of nondomestic resources is, on average, about threefold larger than the physical quantity of traded goods. As wealth grows, countries tend to reduce their domestic portion of materials extraction through international trade, whereas the overall mass of material consumption generally increases. With every 10% increase in gross domestic product, the average national MF increases by 6%. Our findings call into question the sole use of current resource productivity indicators in policy making and suggest the necessity of an additional focus on consumptionbased accounting for natural resource use. raw material consumption | multiregion input-output analysis | sustainable resource management

Whichever scenario of the future energy system in the UK materialises there will be a need for large-scale infrastructure development to build-up such a system. At present, none of the scenario modelling used in the UK Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan takes into consideration the carbon implications of building a new energy system, albeit nuclear, wind or carbon capture and storage. However, building a new energy system is an energyintensive process, which reduces the overall energy and carbon efficiency of the power generation. Although a new energy system can reduce direct emissions from the energy generation itself, the indirect emissions related to capital investment are very significant and have to be taken into account.

Nation-level Ecological Footprint accounts are currently produced for more than 150 nations, with multiple calculations available for some nations. The data sets that result from these national assessments typically serve as the basis for Footprint calculations at smaller scales, including those for regions, cities, businesses, and individuals. Global Footprint Network's National Footprint Accounts, supported and used by more than 70 major organizations worldwide, contain the most widely used national accounting methodology today. The National Footprint Accounts calculations are undergoing continuous improvement as better data becomes available and new methodologies are developed. In this paper, a community of active Ecological Footprint practitioners and users propose key research priorities for improving national Ecological Footprint accounting. For each of the proposed improvements, we briefly review relevant literature, summarize the current state of debate, and suggest approaches for further development. The research agenda will serve as a reference for a large scale, international research program devoted to furthering the development of national Ecological Footprint accounting methodology.

Future energy technologies will be key for a 15 successful reduction of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. 16 With demand for electricity projected to increase significantly in 17 the future, climate policy goals of limiting the effects of global 18 atmospheric warming can only be achieved if power generation 19 processes are profoundly decarbonized. Energy models, how-20 ever, have ignored the fact that upstream emissions are asso-21 ciated with any energy technology. In this work we explore 22