ABSTRACT
The increasing world population cannot be supported without new infrastructures based on utilization of the oceans, which store almost all water, carbon, and energy resources on Earth. It is important, however, to assess such technologies and systems from the viewpoint of sustainability since the goal is to develop sustainable water, food, and energy resources from the ocean rather than just another means for conventional land-based production. The Inclusive Impact Index (Triple I) is a metric that was developed to assess the environmental sustainability and economic feasibility of ocean utilization technologies to predict their public acceptance. Ecological footprint and environmental risk assessment, which are the basis of the Triple I, are introduced in the first part of this chapter, and the concept and structure of the Triple I are explained in the second part. Then the Triple I calculation method and results for several ocean utilization technologies are described, and some examples of an application of the Triple I metric are presented.
