Integrated assessment for sustainable rural development in the Mid Sweden mountain region

• Sustainable rural development have partly different challenges compared to urban areas, both in types of challenges and in solutions possible to implement. Ongoing work at Mid Sweden University addresses such issues in the Mid Sweden mountain region (county of Jämtland) through integrated assessment. The global development has now come to a critical state where humanity act as a new geological force and it is obvious that there are numerous of environmental problems which arise from the present geosphere-biosphere-anthroposphere interactions which urgently need to be addressed. Even though Jämtland is a sparsely populated area with large forests, a lot of hydro power, and only one major city, it is still not obvious how to reach long term sustainability. We can e.g. easily identify tradeoffs between increased biofuel harvesting and development of tourism based on experience of nature. Regional sustainability can be addressed with an ecological systems model based on carbon and energy balances. The model is supplemented with investigations of ecosystem services in the region, intended to capture additional dimensions of sustainable development. A regional model can serve as a support tool for regional decisions aiming for sustainable regional development.

Subject headings

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Annan lantbruksvetenskap -- Miljö- och naturvårdsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Other Agricultural Sciences -- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

sparsely populated areas

human well being

appropriate technology

integrated assessment

ecosystem services

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)