Towards better understanding of sustainable living in sparsely populated areas - a case study of Norderön island [Eco-Tech'12]

Much effort presently goes into research regarding ‘sustainable cities’. This is reasonable in light of the globally rapidly increasing population in urban areas. Much less research is directed to understand how to achieve a more sustainable situation in rural areas, but a substantial number of the world population will live in sparsely populated areas also in future. This study contributes to the understanding of environmental impacts and sustainability issues in sparsely populated areas. The island of Norderön in Jämtland, Sweden, is used as a geographically well-defined case study object. Activities on the island has been screened and green house gas emissions from these activities been estimated using LCA methodology. Special interest was given transportation, since it is often argued that this is a significant sustainability issues in rural areas. It is concluded that solutions adapted to each location are needed to develop sparsely populated or rural areas in a more sustainable direction. Solutions developed for urban areas will often not be applicable or efficient if directly transferred to sparsely populated areas.