TY - JOUR
T1 - Decentralization & local food
T2 - Japan's regional Ecological Footprints indicate localized sustainability strategies
AU - Tsuchiya, Kazuaki
AU - Iha, Katsunori
AU - Murthy, Adeline
AU - Lin, David
AU - Altiok, Selen
AU - Rupprecht, Christoph D.D.
AU - Kiyono, Hisako
AU - McGreevy, Steven R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN: a constituent member of NIHU, National Institutes for the Humanities, Japan), FEAST Project (No. 14200116 ). We wish to thank Mikel Evans, Laurel Hanscom, Evan Neill, Haoyang Shang, Mathis Wackernagel, and Golnar Zokai for their work on the 2018 edition of the National Footprint Accounts of Global Footprint Network.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/4/10
Y1 - 2021/4/10
N2 - Sustainable management and informed policy making at the sub-national level requires an understanding of regional resource base regeneration and the demand it places on wider geographical areas. Ecological Footprint is one of the most widely used and accepted ecological accounting methodologies and available for calculating multiple consumption categories such as food, housing and transportation. Japan's 47 prefectures are diverse in their urbanization and ageing situations and provide an opportunity for understanding the relationship between regional socioeconomic and demographic factors and Ecological Footprint outcomes. To assess potential environmental impacts and planning implications of future urbanization and ageing, we analyzed the existing relationships between the proportion of urban and elderly populations and incomes, and the total and categorical Ecological Footprint per capita. We used a standard top-down scaling methodology to quantify the Ecological Footprint of prefectures, that included three steps: 1) acquiring national level data of Ecological Footprints, 2) applying environmental extended multi-regional input-output model to derive Ecological Footprint values by economic sector, and 3) scaling down Ecological Footprints to the prefecture level with household expenditure survey and other data sources. We show that Ecological Footprint per capita varies considerable among prefectures, being highest in Tokyo (5.24 global hectare) and lowest in Yamanashi (4.06 global hectare). Prefectures with a higher proportion of urban and elderly population had high total and food Ecological Footprint per capita. Prefectures with higher income per capita also had higher total and food Ecological Footprint per capita. Lower Ecological Footprints of less urbanized prefectures provide an argument for economic decentralization. Policy makers in ageing regions should consider supporting local food activities with elderly populations, as processed food dominates majority part of the food Ecological Footprint.
AB - Sustainable management and informed policy making at the sub-national level requires an understanding of regional resource base regeneration and the demand it places on wider geographical areas. Ecological Footprint is one of the most widely used and accepted ecological accounting methodologies and available for calculating multiple consumption categories such as food, housing and transportation. Japan's 47 prefectures are diverse in their urbanization and ageing situations and provide an opportunity for understanding the relationship between regional socioeconomic and demographic factors and Ecological Footprint outcomes. To assess potential environmental impacts and planning implications of future urbanization and ageing, we analyzed the existing relationships between the proportion of urban and elderly populations and incomes, and the total and categorical Ecological Footprint per capita. We used a standard top-down scaling methodology to quantify the Ecological Footprint of prefectures, that included three steps: 1) acquiring national level data of Ecological Footprints, 2) applying environmental extended multi-regional input-output model to derive Ecological Footprint values by economic sector, and 3) scaling down Ecological Footprints to the prefecture level with household expenditure survey and other data sources. We show that Ecological Footprint per capita varies considerable among prefectures, being highest in Tokyo (5.24 global hectare) and lowest in Yamanashi (4.06 global hectare). Prefectures with a higher proportion of urban and elderly population had high total and food Ecological Footprint per capita. Prefectures with higher income per capita also had higher total and food Ecological Footprint per capita. Lower Ecological Footprints of less urbanized prefectures provide an argument for economic decentralization. Policy makers in ageing regions should consider supporting local food activities with elderly populations, as processed food dominates majority part of the food Ecological Footprint.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126043
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126043
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126043
M3 - Article
VL - 292
JO - Journal of cleaner production
JF - Journal of cleaner production
SN - 0959-6526
M1 - 126043
ER -