Abstract

The term 'ecotechnology' has been used since the early 1970s to describe combinations of practices relating to the environment and technological intervention. Despite its common usage, there seems to be little consensus on its practical meaning. In order to better define the term, we conducted a systematic review with a thematic synthesis of all definitions of the term. We searched a suite of bibliographic databases to collate literature referring to the term 'ecotechnology' in variousways. All explicit definitions were extracted fromarticles and were critically appraised to identify 'rich' and 'broad' definitions. Using thematic synthesis, we generate a conceptual framework for definitions of the term 'ecotechnology' based on themes that emerge across all explicit definitions. We test this conceptual model using examples of ecotechnology identified from the articles relating to carbon and nutrients. We identified 1221 articles referring to the term 'ecotechnology' across 9 bibliographic databases, of which 657 were unique articles. Of the 77 carbon and nutrients articles providing definitions, almost half used the term 'ecotechnology' as a buzzword. Some 38 themes were identified across the 49 explicit definitions and these were clustered into 9 groups: combining processes/integrating nature and society; good for society; good for nature; profitability/efficiency; making nature work for society; making society work for nature; improving processes/learning from the environment; components, equipment, machinery (hard technology); and, processes and behaviours (soft technology). As a result, we developed a conceptual framework for the term ecotechnology which can serve as a useful concept unifying and gathering efforts around a common vision. We also developed a working definition for the purpose of a project we were involved in, based on the framework proposed. (C) 2018 European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Ecotech; Environmental engineering; Circular economy; Green economy; Bioeconomy; Ecotechnology

Published in

Ecohydrology and Hydrobiology
2018, Volume: 18, number: 3, pages: 247-261
Publisher: INT CENTRE ECOLOGY, POLISH ACAD SCIENCES

SLU Authors

• Mcconville, Jennifer

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation


UKÄ Subject classification

Economic Geography
Environmental Management


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecohyd.2018.06.008

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96959