The Long-Term Industrial Ecosystem Model – Hawai‘i Island
(LIEM–Hawai‘i)
Professors Marian Chertow and Thomas Graedel, Center for Industrial Ecology, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, in cooperation with the staff of The Kohala Center, Hawai‘i, and the Hawai‘i County Department of Research and Development
May 2009
The Vision for a Long-Term Project
More than fifty years ago, C.D. Keeling and his research team began measuring carbon dioxide concentrations at Mauna Loa on Hawai‘i Island. Over time, the data collected strongly demonstrated the relationship between human action and global climate change. These data provide the foundation for discussions of climate change, and the Mauna Loa project continues and grows. A long-term project not unlike Mauna Loa in scope and influence is the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, which has been producing new and exciting ecosystem science results from its New Hampshire watershed site since 1963— nearly 45 years.
Interestingly, much less is known about the ways in which human actions influence the use and loss of global resources than is now known about the cycle of carbon dioxide and the ecology of natural ecosystems. Yet, the need for detailed understanding of these phenomena is increasingly vital as supplies of resources become constrained and the effects of resource use on the environment become increasingly obvious, especially in island settings where sustainability concerns are so immediate.
Realizing the Vision of LIEM–Hawai‘i
To address these problems, we have proposed that Hawai‘i Island serve as a long-term research site to study the stocks, flows, use, loss, and driving factors related to resources. The name of the new project is the Long-Term Industrial Ecosystem Model – Hawai‘i Island or, for short, LIEM–Hawai‘i. Ideas, methods, and tools of the interdisciplinary field of industrial ecology, with its focus on the flows of materials, energy, and water through systems at different scales, provide a strong foundation for the project. We envision a project that will last two decades or more, and will study the past, present, and future of relevant activities on the island with data accessible to all collaborators who wish to engage in this sort of research. Field studies on materials and waste, energy, and water were conducted by researchers at the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology from 2006–2009. Researchers from the Rocky Mountain Institute have studied agricultural development, and there is a several decade history of soil scientists, ecologists, and other natural science researchers studying ecological conditions from prehistoric times to the present.
LIEM–Hawai‘i is being established as a project and laboratory for the study of people, resources, and nature, and their interactions over space and time. It has grown out of the success of the County/Kohala/Yale collaboration and will not only generate useful scientific and policy research, but will also enable island leaders to position Hawai‘i as an important global knowledge resource. This helps to create high quality jobs linked to education and research, sectors which could become a greater part of Hawai‘i Island's economy. LIEM–Hawai‘i stands to contribute long-term usable knowledge to the citizens of Hawai‘i, other islands, cities, the US and other countries, the academy, and globally. All too often our knowledge focuses on shorter-term phenomena; in this project we will take the long view for the sake of a sustainable world today and for future generations.
Read about National Science Foundation funding for LIEM-Hawai‘i in The Kohala Center's media release, or in the Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Research News.