Managing subsurface geosystem services within geological limits: A sustainable scale framework

The increasing exploitation of geological resources requires sustainable management frameworks that balance resource utilisation with the long-term conservation of the geophysical environment’s functions. Despite growing recognition of geosystem services (derived from geophysical structures and processes), the current literature lacks a comprehensive discussion of their sustainable management that integrates established ecological eco- nomics principles. This study aims to (1) systematically assess existing geosystem services management literature and (2) develop a framework for their sustainable management based on geophysical constraints. Through a systematic review of 40 publications, we find that the literature has developed foundational work on the clas- sification and mapping of geosystem services, with limited subsequent development of operational guidance for sustainable resource management. No existing framework links resource-use rates to geological regeneration capacities and defines sustainable scales in terms of geophysical constraints. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a process-based geosystem service cascade model that links geophysical structures and processes to their functional outputs and societal benefits. This cascade classifies services by function and reveals the regeneration timescales of the geophysical processes that produce them. Guided by the sustainable development principles of Daly (1990), we use this classification to develop a conceptual scheme that identifies which services are suitable for steady-state exploitation and which require pairing with renewable alternatives. The proposed scheme provides a conceptual basis for assessing the scale at which geological resource use can be sustained, grounded in the underlying geophysical structures and processes that determine geological limits and regener- ative capacity.

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