YSTAFDB: Material Stocks and Flows Database for Sustainability Science

YSTAFDB is a unified database of material stocks and flows for sustainability science, accompanying a Data Descriptor in Scientific Data. It contains over 100,000 records of material cycles, criticality, and recycling data for 62 elemental cycles and various engineering materials. The database was created by Rupert J. Myers of the University of Edinburgh and includes data from the early 1800s to approximately 2013 at spatial scales from cities to global.

Use Cases

• Modeling global material cycles based on the 62 elemental cycles described.
• Analyzing historical trends in material stocks and flows from the early 1800s to 2013.
• Assessing material criticality and recycling rates using the quantitative data records.
• Conducting multi-scale sustainability assessments based on data from city to global levels.

Strengths

• Contains over 100,000 quantitative data records on material cycles, criticality, and recycling.
• Covers 62 distinct elemental cycles and various engineering material cycles.
• Provides data spanning a long temporal range from the early 1800s to circa 2013.
• Includes data at multiple spatial scales, from cities to global.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Rupert J. Myers, University of Edinburgh

Collection Method

Manually prepared data entries, as suggested by the provided template example.

Time Range

Early 1800s to circa 2013

Geography

Global, with data at scales from cities to global