Developing indicators to assess agricultural sustainability. Application to the spanish context
- Autores: Nelson Kevin Sinisterra Solís
- Directores de la Tesis: Arturo Vicente Estruch Guitart (dir. tes.), Gabriela Clemente Polo (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2024
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Jacopo Bacenetti (presid.), José María García Álvarez-Coque (secret.), Neus Escobar Lanzuela (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Economía Agroalimentaria por la Universitat Politècnica de València
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: RiuNet
- Resumen
Considering the importance of including quantitative measures in the decision-making process, this dissertation aims to develop indicators with which to assess the environmental and overall sustainability of current agricultural practices in Spain at a regional level. What is sought is the provision of data that work as a starting point from which to support the transition to sustainable agriculture while addressing critical methodological aspects in sustainability assessment. The main methodological choices of this thesis are attributional life cycle assessment, multicriteria techniques for developing of a composite sustainability indicator and using sources of average statistics. Besides providing quantitative information, this dissertation also explores key methodological issues regarding the quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability. In particular, the results, focus on assessing the environmental and the overall sustainability. In section 2.1 of the results chapter, the environmental impacts of conventional and organic vineyards located in a relevant wine region in Spain (Utiel-Requena DOP) are assessed, delving into the influence of the modelling on-field emissions on the impact results. The environmental impacts of tomato and orange production in the main Spanish producing regions are assessed in section 2.2, where also an approach to estimate agricultural inventories from farm accountancy data is developed (section 2.3). The previous approach is adopted in section 2.4, to estimate the environmental impacts of the main crops grown in the Spanish regions. In addition, there is an exploration of a functional unit for a proper representation of the economic role of agriculture according to the target audience. In section 2.5, the overall sustainability of the same crops by developing a composite indicator is assessed, considering the weights assigned to the sustainability attributes and the trade-offs between them as key normative factors in the assessment of sustainability. Overall, the results show differential performances of Spanish agriculture depending on the crop type and region, water management, and farming system. These differences should be interpreted in the context of the primary data sources, modelling assumptions and the scope considered. In brief, it can be concluded that the quantitative evaluation of agricultural sustainability is a complex issue due to the ambiguity of the concept, the intensive use of data required and the highly sensitive nature of agriculture to agroecological aspects and market factors.
