Telecoupling in urban water systems: an examination of Beijing’s imported water supply

Deines, Jillian M.; Liu, Xiao; Liu, Jianguo

doi:10.1080/02508060.2015.1113485

Cited by 113 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Although the telecoupling framework is relatively new , it has been applied to address many different issues, such as trade (of food, energy, sand, forest products, industrial products, and virtual water; Liu 2014, Wicke 2014, Liu et al 2015a,b, Silva et al 2017, land use and land cover change (Eakin et al 2014, Sun et al 2017, species invasion , species migration (Hulina et al 2017), tourism (Liu et al 2015a), water transfer (Deines et al 2016, urbanization (Fang and Ren 2017), wildlife transfer (Liu et al 2015a), foreign direct investment (McKinney 2014), payment for ecosystem services Yang 2013, Liu et al 2016a), knowledge transfer (Liu et al 2015a), conservation (Carter et al 2014, Gasparri et al 2016, Wang and Liu 2017, economic development , and fisheries (Lynch andLiu 2014, Carlson et al 2017).…”

Section: Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration across a metacoupled world

Liu¹

2017

E&S

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220

170

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ABSTRACT. Human-nature interactions are complex and have important implications for achieving sustainable development goals and addressing other global challenges. Although numerous studies have explored human-nature (or human-environment) interactions and generated useful insights, they are largely disintegrated. Because conceptual frameworks are the foundation of quantitative and qualitative integration, many have been proposed but focus mainly on human-nature interactions within a specific system. To reflect human-nature interactions between distant coupled systems, the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) has been developed. However, no framework has explicitly integrated human-nature interactions between adjacent coupled systems, let alone within a coupled system as well as between adjacent and distant coupled systems simultaneously. To fill such an important gap, in this paper I present an integrated framework of metacoupling: human-nature interactions within a system (intracoupling), between distant systems (telecoupling), and between adjacent systems (pericoupling). A metacoupled system is a set of two or more coupled systems that interact internally as well as nearby and far away, facilitated by agents affected by various causes with various effects. By differentiating and integrating intracoupling, pericoupling, and telecoupling, the metacoupling framework advances a systems perspective on global sustainability and human well-being. The framework can help uncover hidden systemic connections such as spillovers and feedbacks that may not be apparent when focusing on a particular system. To demonstrate the utility of the metacoupling framework, I illustrate its application to human-nature interactions within a global flagship nature reserve as well as between the reserve and the rest of the world. The illustration suggests that the framework has the potential to help holistically understand and integrate human-nature interactions from local to global scales, over time, and among organizational levels. Finally, I offer suggestions for operationalizing the metacoupling framework and discuss the need for new policy, governance, and management for a sustainable future across the metacoupled world.

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Section: Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration across a metacoupled world

Liu¹

2017

E&S

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220

170

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“…For instance, some have focused on internal interactions (Bidhendi et al 2008, Lorenzen et al 2010, Bai et al 2012, distant interactions (Sohel et al 2003, Abraham 2010, Deines et al 2016, socioeconomic interactions Shi 2003, Bidhendi et al 2008), or environmental interactions (Tortajada and Castelan 2003, Lorenzen et al 2010, Bai et al 2012, Yan et al 2012. This is partially due to insufficient integrated conceptual frameworks that systematically analyze various components simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban water sustainability: framework and application

Yang¹,

Hyndman²,

Winkler³

et al. 2016

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ABSTRACT. Urban areas such as megacities (those with populations greater than 10 million) are hotspots of global water use and thus face intense water management challenges. Urban areas are influenced by local interactions between human and natural systems and interact with distant systems through flows of water, food, energy, people, information, and capital. However, analyses of water sustainability and the management of water flows in urban areas are often fragmented. There is a strong need to apply integrated frameworks to systematically analyze urban water dynamics and factors that influence these dynamics. We apply the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) to analyze urban water issues, using Beijing as a demonstration megacity. Beijing exemplifies the global water sustainability challenge for urban settings. Like many other cities, Beijing has experienced drastic reductions in quantity and quality of both surface water and groundwater over the past several decades; it relies on the import of real and virtual water from sending systems to meet its demand for clean water, and releases polluted water to other systems (spillover systems). The integrative framework we present demonstrates the importance of considering socioeconomic and environmental interactions across telecoupled human and natural systems, which include not only Beijing (the water-receiving system) but also water-sending systems and spillover systems. This framework helps integrate important components of local and distant human-nature interactions and incorporates a wide range of local couplings and telecouplings that affect water dynamics, which in turn generate significant socioeconomic and environmental consequences, including feedback effects. The application of the framework to Beijing reveals many research gaps and management needs. We also provide a foundation to apply the telecoupling framework to better understand and manage water sustainability in other cities around the world.

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“…Liu, et al [23] assert, for example, that the framework treats "each place as a coupled human and natural system, in which humans and natural components interact not only locally but also across temporal and spatial scales" [23] (p. 1). Studies employing the framework have so far focused on linkages related to specific land uses, sectors, or other natural resources such as soybean and beef production or conservation and water use in places separated by large geographical or functional distances, where the latter is 'measured' in terms of territorial governance structures, for example, administrative regions or nation states (e.g., [18,[24][25][26][27]). While such system boundaries are useful for telecoupling analysis concerned with, for example, trade or material flows, treating systems as spatially discrete places risks presenting them as endogenous wholes, where the differentiated distribution of costs and benefits, as well as the agency among and between actors, are "black-boxed".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the System. Boundary Choices, Implications, and Solutions in Telecoupling Land Use Change Research

Friis

Nielsen

2017

Sustainability

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Land-based production provides societies with indispensable goods such as food, feed, fibre, and energy. Yet, with economic globalisation and global population growth, the environmental and social trade-offs of their production are ever more complex. This is particularly so since land use changes are increasingly embedded in networks of long-distance flows of, e.g., material, energy, and information. The resulting scientific and governance challenge is captured in the emerging telecoupling framework addressing socioeconomic and environmental interactions and feedbacks between distal human-environment systems. Understanding telecouplings, however, entails a number of fundamental analytical problems. When dealing with global connectivity, a central question is how and where to draw system boundaries between coupled systems. In this article, we explore the analytical implications of setting system boundaries in the study of a recent telecoupled land use change: the expansion of Chinese banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. Based on empirical material from fieldwork in Laos in 2014 and 2015, and drawing on key concepts from the 'systems thinking' literature, we illustrate how treating the system and its boundaries as epistemological constructs enable us to capture the differentiated involvement of actors, as well as the socio-economic and environmental effects of this land use change. In discussing our results, the need for more explicit attention to the trade-offs and implications of scale and boundary choices when defining systems is emphasised.

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Telecoupling in urban water systems: an examination of Beijing’s imported water supply

Cited by 113 publications

References 48 publications

Integration across a metacoupled world

Integration across a metacoupled world

Urban water sustainability: framework and application

On the System. Boundary Choices, Implications, and Solutions in Telecoupling Land Use Change Research

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