Analysing the impact of demographic development on sustainability via infrastructure networks
by Joachim Geske; Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs; Tobias Kronenberg
International Journal of Global Environmental Issues (IJGENVI), Vol. 11, No. 3/4, 2011

Abstract: Within the next decades unprecedented demographic changes (ageing and population decrease) will impact on most developed and with delay developing nations. The resulting changes in age structure and geographical distribution are expected to cause substantial adjustments. We present an analysis to test the simple demographic sustainability hypothesis that this development will improve sustainability of economic activities. For this purpose implicit adjustments of infrastructure networks to demographic changes are derived by linked demographic, economic and technical models. The results suggest that economic growth dominates contractive trends. Therefore, the hypothesis is rejected. Furthermore, the findings reveal a strong spatial heterogeneity of adjustment necessities due to migration patterns. Thus, the explicit consideration of the spatial dimension of demographic changes will foster the reliability of analyses of the consequences of demographic changes. Nevertheless spatial heterogeneity poses a serious challenge to the definition of sustainability.

Online publication date: Thu, 23-Oct-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues (IJGENVI):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com