Societal metabolism and multiple-scale integrated assessment: Empirical validation and examples of application

This paper presents empirical data to validate two points. (1) hn integrate d analysis of societal metabolism bridges an economic view of changes in so cioeconomic systems with a biophysical representation of them. To obtain th is check, it compares a biophysical indicator of development BEP with 24 tr aditional indicators of material economic development. The comparison cover s a sample of 107 countries of the world, comprising more than 90% of the t otal world population (year 1993). (2) The concept of societal metabolism i s useful to make biophysical analysts aware of constraints implied by "econ omic viability" and to make economic analysts aware of constraints implied by "biophysical viability." To prove this point three practical examples of misunderstanding in the field of sustainability analysis are discussed.