Terms and Indicators
Statistics related to material flows are usually combined in different indicators. Some of these indicators are listed below. More information on how the statistics are collected, under what legal framework and how they are defined is available on Economy-wide material flow accounts
The following indicators are commonly used in material flow accounting to measure the resource efficiency of a country or region:
Total Material Requirement (TMR) includes the domestic extraction of resources (minerals, fossil fuels, biomass), the indirect flows caused by and associated with the domestic extraction (called "Hidden Flows") and the imports.
Domestic Material Input (DMI) summarizes the domestic extraction of reources and the imports, but excludes the indirect flows associated with the domestic extraction, since they are sometimes difficult to quantify.
Direct Material Consumption (DMC): this indicator accounts all materials that are consumed within or remain in the domestic environment. The quantity is the domestic material input minus the exports out of the economy.
Domestic Processed Output (DPO) is defined by the OECD as "the total mass of materials which have been used in the national economy, before flowing into the environment. These flows occur at the processing, manufacturing, use, and final disposal stages of the economic production-consumption chain."
Total Domestic Output (TDO) includes the domestic processed output (DPO) plus the hidden flows associated with the domestic production.
Net Addition to Stocks (NAS), the materials that are neither released to the domestic environment nor exported, but contribute to a physical increase of the economic processing system itself, e.g. infrastructure, buildings, machinery or other durable goods.
Hidden Flows are materials that are extracted or moved, but do not enter the economy. According to OECD, the "displacement of environmental assets without absorption into the economic sphere", such as overburden from mining operations.
Read more about this topic: Material Flow Accounting
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