Barbara Smetschka

Combining agent-based and stock-flow modelling approaches in a participative analysis of the integrated land system in Reichraming, Austria

The integrated modelling of coupled socio-ecological systems in land-change science requires innovative model concepts capable of grasping the interrelations between socioeconomic and natural components. Here, we discuss the integrated socio-ecological model SERD (Simulation of Ecological Compatibility of Regional Development) that was developed for the municipality of Reichraming in Upper Austria in a participative 2-year process involving local stakeholders. SERD includes three main components: (1) an agent-based actors module that simulates decisions of farmsteads, the municipal administration and other important actors; (2) a spatially explicit (GIS based) land-use module that simulates land-use change at the level of individual parcels of land and (3) an integrated socio-ecological stock-flow module that simulates carbon and nitrogen flows through both socioeconomic and ecological system compartments. We report on outcomes of a scenario analysis that outlines possible future trajectories depending on both external (e.g. agricultural subsidies and prices) and internal (e.g. innovation, willingness to co-operate) factors. We find that both external and internal factors can affect the behaviour of the integrated system considerably. Local and regional policies are found to be able to counteract adverse global socioeconomic conditions to some extent, but not to reverse the trend altogether. We also find strong interdependencies between socioeconomic and ecological components of the system. Fully evaluating these interdependencies is, however, not possible at the local scale alone and will require explicit consideration of higher-level effects in future research.

Modelling Transport as a Key Constraint to Urbanisation in Pre-industrial Societies

This chapter investigates the constraints for urban growth in pre-industrial societies and focuses on transport as an important component in the functioning of socio-ecological systems. It presents a simple formal model based on sociometabolic relations to investigate the relation between the size of an urban centre, its resource needs and the resulting transport requirements. This model allows, in a very stylised way, light to be shed on some of the physical constraints for urban growth in agrarian societies and a better understanding of how transport shapes the relation between cities and their resource-providing hinterland. The model demonstrates that the growth of urban centres depends upon an extension of the territory and rural population to work the land and generate the supplies cities require. The labour force engaged in urban rural transport rises with the size of urban centre and corresponds to 8–15% of the urban labour force. We find clear indications for a scale limit to agrarian empires, and agrarian centres, due to factors associated with the cost of transport (in terms of human labour time and land). Where this scale limit occurs strongly depends upon agricultural productivity.

Working Time of Farm Women and Small-Scale Sustainable Farming in Austria

Keywords Austria · Agricultural labour time · Agricultural change · Long-term socio-ecological research · Agent-based modelling · Local case study · Gender relations 14.1 Why Link to Boserup’s Approach? Are women farmers a hindrance to progress in agriculture? Is progress in agriculture the solution for feeding the world? How can we find a path to develop agriculture without pushing natural, economic or social limits too far? Can we obtain greater insights into these issues if we study the role of women in agriculture and development? Ester Boserup was the first scientist to ask these questions comprehensively. During her long career, she succeeded in developing a vast pool of data and insights. Ester Boserup promoted women’s role in agriculture as a new perspective through which to understand the link among economic, technological and agricultural development. Her work has been considered a starting point in understanding the importance of women’s role in development globally (e.g., Boserup 1970). Reading her work as students of social anthropology, sociology and biology, we were introduced to thinking about these questions in varying contexts. Her focus on unequal workloads and strategies of using the available time enables researchers to grasp problems for which analysing solely economics will fail (Boserup 1965). It encouraged us to pursue time-use research as a non-reductionist approach for analysing social development, especially gender inequalities and dynamics, when tackling the problems of agricultural structural change.

‘Society Can’t Move So Much As a Chair!’—Systems, Structures and Actors in Social Ecology

From the socioecological perspective, society is conceived as a symbolic system that is coupled with biophysical elements. The biophysical and the symbolic components of society are considered to be coevolving. The expansion of the fossil energy regime, for example, was the result of changes in the symbolic systems of proto-industrial societies. At the same time, these systems were themselves transformed by the material dynamics the new energy regime released. Social Ecology has adopted complex systems theory as a metatheoretical framework to integrate the analysis of both symbolic and biophysical systems and their coevolution. This emphasis on systems in socioecological theory is balanced, to some extent, by a focus on actors in empirical socioecological research. The concept of actors and their agency plays an important role in transdisciplinary research, in local studies and in Environmental History. How are these actor-centered areas of research connected to the systems-centered theoretical framework of Social Ecology? How is agency accommodated in systems, and to what extent can systems and their structures be influenced by actors? This chapter explores these questions both theoretically and in relation to concrete research examples. In doing so, it highlights some of the unresolved theoretical questions in Social Ecology and suggests possible ways they can be answered.

Time Use, Gender and Sustainable Agriculture in Austria

Available time—as much as available money—governs the everyday decision-making of individuals concerning their living space, consumption patterns and means of transportation. Time-use research can serve as an integrative means to encompass social aspects in sustainability research, to integrate a gender perspective in sustainability research and to enable transdisciplinary work. We show how we worked toward these objectives in the project GenderGAP. Here, time use is a crucial factor in decisions concerning production strategies on Austrian farms. Farmers aim to avoid longer working hours and less income than employees from other sectors. Technological change can diminish the workload of farmers, mainly in regions favorable to large-scale industrialized agriculture. Sustainable agriculture with a focus on mixed production and maintenance of cultural landscapes in a lively region should not place a greater burden on the farmers. If organic and small-scale farming increases the workload on women in a traditionally gendered working environment, there are two options for addressing the issue. Either farmers opt for less sustainable methods of production or cease agricultural activity entirely, or farmers opt to adapt to socioeconomic changes and find ways of producing for the increasing market for sustainable products with a new work organization that is attractive to young people and does not place a greater burden on farm women than on men.

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development Practice: Can the Concept of PES Deliver?:

Given the intricate link between biodiversity and poverty, this article critically reflects on the role of mainstreaming biodiversity in development policy and practice. In order to better understand the operational challenges ‘on the ground’, we present some of the dominant development frameworks within which development organizations operate, all with a view to better understand how aid ‘thinks’ and ‘works’. The article then examines the concept of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a potential avenue to mainstream biodiversity into development.

Planning, Residential Decisions and Energy Use in Vienna

Urban planning must address both a changing urban population size and increasing sustainability issues in terms of providing good socioeconomic and environmental living conditions. Households play a major role in that they are affected by urban planning decisions but are partly responsible for the environmental performance (e.g., energy use) of a city. Here, we present an agent-based decision model of the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria, with a population of approximately 1.7 million. The model results are used to assess the spatial patterns of energy use caused by different household types. The outcomes show that changes in households’ preferences regarding the presence of nearby green areas have the most important impact on the distribution of households across the small-scaled city area. Additionally, the results demonstrate the importance of the distribution of different household types regarding spatial patterns of energy use.