mapping environmental injustice

Mapping Environmental Injustice

Christoph Plutzar

Summer School onEnvironmental Conflicts and Justice

Barcelona 2011

Christoph Plutzar | Summer School on Environmental Conflicts and Justice - Barcelona 2011| July 5 2011| 2

Mapping Environmental Injustice

Connected to EJOLT

No results so far …

Emphasis on mapping


Overview

1. The special about spatial- spatial data- geographic information systems

2. Mapping - what is a map?- examples

3. Scientific application: Embodied Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production- HANPP- global map of eHANPP


Spatial data

First Law of Geography:

„all things are related, but nearby things are more related than distant things“(Tobler, 1970)

→ spatial autocorrelationa geographic world without this law would be impossible to learn about or describe, since every point would be independent of ist most immediate surroundings(Goodchild, 2008)


Spatial data

Second endemic property of geographic information:

spatial heterogeneity

(Anselin, 1989)

Tendency for properties to vary from one area to another over Earth‘s surface

→ distribution of objects

→ spatial pattern


Spatial data

Spatial (geographical) data have a spatial key that is based on two (three) continuous dimensions, describing the geographical location on the curved surface of the Earth.

non spatial data: „what?“

spatial data: additionally „where?“

→ geoinformation + attributes

Spatial data are unique and their problems cannot therefore be subsumed under some larger field (Goodchild, 1992)


Spatial data

There are (at least) two views to constitute models of the „real geographical world“ (Haining 2009):

1. The field view conceptualizes space as covered by surfaces with the attribute varying continuously across the space.

2. The object view conceptualizes space as populated by well-defined indivisible objects, as points, lines or polygons.


Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Computer system to collect manage integrate edit analyse displaydata and informationen,that have a relationship to the Earths surface



Geography

Geodesy

Computer sciences

Cartography

Remote sensing

Statistics

Mathematics

Applied sciences:

Regional planning, logistics, environmentalsciences, market research, social sciences, …

GIS



1927 Alfred Hettner: „Die Geographie. Ihre Geschichte, ihr Wesen und ihre Methoden“layer concept of independent levels of data & information

1969 Ian McHarg: „Design with Nature“ 1986 Peter Burrough: „Principles of Geographic

Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment“

1987 International Journal of Geographical Information Systems

1991 Maguire, Goodchild, Rhind: „Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Application“


Mapping

A map is a visual representation of an area - a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes.

Two dimensional geometrically accurate representation of the Earths surface.

But also may represent other spaces (moon, solar system, brain, …), be dynamic or interactive or even three-dimensional.


Mapping examplesExamples taken from

Le Monde Diplomatique „Atlas der Globalisierung“

Maps are not simple GIS maps but developed by a team of specialised cartographers

Most maps have an economic topic that is closely linked to environmental injustice

Examples show the possibilities and power of visualisation provided by maps


Points variable size

Electricity production

renewable sources conventional sources (fossil & nuclear)


Points, lines, area

The truncated South

80% of the world GDP

Stock exchange value: 98% in the North

Important cash flows: > 80% in the North

Travel destinations > 82%

Air ports with > 20 Mio. passengers / year


Lines and arrows

Oil in Africa


Bars

Multiplication of economic powerMultiplication of economic power per capita between 1820 and 1998

More than ten timesLess than ten times


Pies and arrows

Global trade flows

within a regionbetween regions


Distorted areas

Economic performance

Total GDPdisplayed by area

Total GDPdisplayed by area

GDP / capitadisplayed by colour


Distorted areas

CO2 emmisions


Rich and poor


Human Development Index

Gini-Coeffizient

Areas

Rich and poor


Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production

Human appropriation of NPP (HANPP) measures changes in yearly biomass flows in ecosystems resulting from land use

Society

Resources gained

Work / energy invested

Natural ecosystem

Human-modifiedlandscape

Change induced


Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production

Potential vegetation

NPP0

Productivity of potential vegetation(hypothetical vegetation assumed to prevail in the absence of land use; e.g., forests, grasslands, savannahs, deserts, shrubs, etc.

Actual vegetation

NPPact

Productivity of actual vegetation(including croplands, grasslands, built-up area, etc.

NPP remaining after harvest

NPPt

Energy remaining in the ecosystem after harvest

Productivity change(∆NPPLC) Harvest (NPPh)

HANPP

• Indicator of land-use intensity• ‚Pressure‘ indicator • Human domination of ecosystems


Aggregate global HANPP (year 2000)

NPP LC

NPP h

N P P t

Actua lvegetation

Potentialvegetation

N P P 0

HANPP

NPP

[Pg C /yr]

9.3

65.5

6.3

49.9

15.6(23.8% )

Aboveground HANPP in 2000:28.8%


“Metaphysics” of HANPP

ENERGYe.g. biofuels

MATTERe.g. timber

TIMErenewable source

SPACEland area

Einstein:space-timee = mc2


Mapping global HANPP 2000

Aggregate HANPP (NPPLC plus harvest)

Haberl et al., 2007


The rapid growth of the volume of the biomass trade results in a surging spatial disconnect between the places where environmental impacts related to biomass production occur, and the places where biomass is being consumed.

Embodied HANPP allows to attribute to each product the amount of HANPP resulting from its production.

Comparison of HANPP production (Haberl et al 2007) with a map of consumption of embodied HANPP.

Embodied HANPP:Mapping the spatial disconnect between global biomass

production and consumption (Erb et al. 2009)


Step 1: calculation of the national consumption of biomass:

= domestic extraction + biomass imports – exports of biomass-derived products

Step 2: allocation of national consumption using a population density map






„sources“ and „sinks“ of biomass flowscosts ↔ benefitsecological distribution conflictvariation within countries




variation between countries


ReferencesAnselin, L. (1989): What is Special about Spatial Data? Alternative Perspectives on Spatial Data Analysis. Santa Barbara, CA, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis Technical Paper, 89-4.

Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F. Lucht, W. & Haberl, H. (2009): Embodied HANPP: Mapping the spatial disconnect between global biomass production and consumption. Ecological Economics 69: 328-334.

Goodchild, M.F. (1992): Geographical information science. Int. J. Geographical Information Systems, 6: 31-45.

Goodchild, M.F. (2008): Geographic Information Science: The Grand Challenges. In: Wilson, J.P. & Fotheringham, A.S. (eds.): The Handbook of Geographic Information Science. Blackwell.

Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., Gingrich, S., Lucht, W., Fischer-Kowalski, M. (2007): Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104, 12942–12947.

Haining, R. (2009): The Special Nature of Spatial Data. In: Fotheringham, A.S. & Rogerson, P.A.: The SAGE Handbook of Spatial Analysis. SAGE Publications Ltd.

Le Monde Diplomatique (2007, 2009): Atlas der Globalisierung.

Tobler, W.R. (1970): A computer movie: Simulation of population change in the Detroit region. Economic Geography 46: 234-240.


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