Need for resource Use Indicators in Cities:

Cities are the focus of the 21st century. Studies indicate that the affluence generated by the cities will attract
more population. As the cities become more industrious, they also become a source of mass pollution and
waste generation.

As the linear flows of the cities were identified as the major cause of environmental impacts, research on
Industrial Ecology in the recent years try to close the loop by using the concepts, including dematerialization,
decarbonization, and life cycle analysis.

While cities have been changing their metabolism from a production based system into a consumption based
system, the approach towards tackling the resulting environmental impacts have also been changing from the
“disperse and diverse” pollution control methods into an integrated pollution control strategy.

Dematerialization as a resource use strategy:

A radical change in the consumption of resource use with the advent of globalization era has changed the
outlook towards pollution control strategies. The focus on material flows has become a rising trend to
conserve resources as well as to mitigate environmental impacts, with an ultimate aim of decoupling
economic growth from the environmental impacts, known as dematerialization. Implementing
dematerialization in urban systems will become an important trend in the future, given the global trend of
rising resource scarcity.

Ecological Rucksack as an Indicator for Dematerialization:

In the material flow studies, the embodied material flow or the ecological rucksack of the products based on
the life cycle analysis, tend to provide a comprehensive measure of the resource intensity of the products, by
complementing the material flow analysis (MFA) data of the product utilization in the area (system or city)
under study. Further, the rucksack studies would help us to achieve dematerialization through development
of technical know-how of the key products and it will be utilized to devise strategies or policies subsequently,
for example, replacing high rucksack materials with low rucksack materials, provision of subsidies or
incentives for dematerializing construction process etc.

Impact Indicators Vs. Resource Use Indicators:

It has been argued that the traditional environmental measures such as pollution abatement, CO2 reduction,
and ecotoxicity management, focus only on the impact, neglect inflow resources, costing higher; and in most
cases failed to treat the root cause of the environmental problems. On the other hand, resource use indicators
such as ecological footprint, ecological rucksack and MIPS were identified as being too simple and also
criticized as the ones, which failed to recognize toxic aspect of the resource use, which concerns a great deal
with human health and social harmony.

Conclusion:

Studies suggest that the combined use of these indicators will reveal both resource use and environmental
impacts, and understanding the relationship between them will be helpful in developing successful strategies
for sustainability in the long-term.