Input Management of Production Systems

Abstract

Nonpoint sources of pollution, which are largely responsible for stressing regional and global life-supporting atmosphere, soil, and water, can only be reduced (and ultimately controlled) by input management that involves increasing the efficiency of production systems and reducing the inputs of environmentally damaging materials. Input management requires a major change, an about-face, in the approach to management of agriculture, power plants, and industries because the focus is on waste reduction and recycling rather than on waste disposal. For large-scale ecosystem-level situations a top-down hierarchical approach is suggested and illustrated by recent research in agroecology and landscape ecology.