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Barry Ness

Barry Ness

Senior Lecturer, Docent

Barry Ness

Structuring problems in sustainability science: The multi-level DPSIR framework

Author

  • Barry Ness
  • Stefan Anderberg
  • Lennart Olsson

Summary, in English

Sustainability science needs approaches that allow for the integration of knowledge across disciplines and scales. This paper suggests an approach to conceptualize problems of unsustainability by embedding the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) scheme within a multi-level institutional framework represented by Hagerstrand's system of nested domains. The proposed taxonomy helps to decipher and to better understand key casual chains and societal responses at the appropriate spatial levels for particular sustainability problem areas. To illustrate the scheme more concretely the example of recent problem-solving efforts for Baltic Sea eutrophication driven by Swedish agriculture is examined. The discussion focuses on how the scheme fulfills the four research strategy requirements within the field of sustainability science and how the scheme is distinct from alternative approaches. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

479-488

Publication/Series

Geoforum

Volume

41

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Other Social Sciences

Keywords

  • DPSIR
  • Hagerstrand
  • Eutrophication
  • Baltic Sea
  • Multi-level
  • Hierarchies
  • Sustainability science
  • Scale

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1872-9398