EMERGY-based environmental systems assessment of a multi-purpose temperate mixed-forest watershed of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Tilley, David R.; Swank, Wayne T.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2003.08.002

Cited by 83 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Emergy synthesis projects local input flows on a biosphere scale, by converting all the materials, energy sources, human labor, and services required, directly and indirectly, into emergy units that are summed up to yield the total emergy [27,28]. The emergy of all inputs to a system is calculated in terms of solar emjoules (sej) by means of suitable conversion factors called transformities (expressed in sej/J) or specific emergy (expressed in sej/g-or other units).…”

Section: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis for the Urban Metabolic Differences of Two Types of Cities in the Resource-Dependent Region Based on Emergy Theory

Liu

Shi

et al. 2016

Sustainability

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Urban metabolism analysis has become a useful and effective tool to explore urban socio-economic processes. In this research, in order to explore the similarities and differences of metabolic characteristics and variation rules of different types of resource-dependent cities, we selected two cities-Taiyuan and Jincheng, the capital and a traditional resource-dependent city of Shanxi province, respectively, as research subjects, we also established an urban metabolic evaluation framework by employing a set of eight emergy-based indicators from socio-economic data from 2007 to 2014, and compared the similarities and discrepancies from the perspectives of metabolic structure, intensity, pressure, and efficiency, and put forward some suggestions for pursuing sustainable development for both cities and pointed out that more types of resource-dependent cities should be incorporated in future research work.

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Section: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis for the Urban Metabolic Differences of Two Types of Cities in the Resource-Dependent Region Based on Emergy Theory

Liu

Shi

et al. 2016

Sustainability

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“…Emergy concept overcomes use of variety of units to quantify different inputs including materials, energy, and human services (Tilley & Swank, 2003).…”

Section: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Materials Selection for Canadian Construction Industry: An Emergy-Based Life-Cycle Analysis (Em-LCA) of Conventional and LEED Suggested Construction Materials

Hossaini¹,

Hewage²

2011

JSD

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Building industry is a major cause of ecological and environmental problems in the global scale. It accounts for 40% of material and 30% of global energy consumption. Emergy (spelled with an "m") is the energy of one kind (usually solar energy) that is used, directly or indirectly, to make a product or service. The objective of this paper is to identify sustainable construction materials by assessing the specific emergy of major construction materials used in Canada, including a few rapidly renewable materials suggested by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Lifecycle analysis (LCA) of the selected materials was carried out to identify all type of natural, human, and energy resources used in their production process. The specific emergy of each selected material was calculated using the corresponding transformity functions. Results show that rapidly renewable materials suggested by LEED should not be taken blindly without considering the location of construction.

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“…System diagrams provide a holistic picture of the ecosystems, or complex systems, specifying the main forcing functions, internal components, process interactions, etc. [6]. Diagrams are characterised by geographic boundaries and the fundamental elements within them: external sources, natural deposits or storages, primary producers, human activities and settlements (industries and cities, respectively) and institutions that communicate by flows of energy, matter, information, money, people, wastes and heat ( fig.…”

Section: Urban Systems Complexity and Entropymentioning

confidence: 99%

Entropy and the city

Marchettini¹,

Pulselli²,

Tiezzi³

2006

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 93

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The sustainability assessment of a complex human system, such as a city, must start from the knowledge of physical laws and constraints which the development of the system is based on. It is well known that the Second Law of thermodynamics states that an isolated system tends towards maximum entropy, that implies maximum disorder. In general, life seems to contradict the Second Law since we observe that the trend of living organisms is towards the creation of order where previously there was disorder: it is the trend to organize and self-organize. Ilya Prigogine called these systems "dissipative structures" that are thermodynamic self-adaptive systems open to both energy and matter. Human systems (economic, social, urban, etc.) use relations and exchanges with their environment in order to survive and might be identified as dissipative structures far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In particular, the evolution and maintenance of a city is possible due to inputs of natural resources from the terrestrial ecosystems and outputs of heat and wastes into terrestrial ecosystems. Edgar Morin said that the autonomy of a system is funded on the dependence on the environment so that autonomy and dependence are complementary concepts, although they seem in contrast, and there cannot be autonomy without dependence. Different kinds of inputs, especially from the environment, are stored in a city and become part of its "living" structure. Morin's concepts of autonomy and dependence for human systems suggest that those systems must evolve between two extremes: autarchy and globalisation. This paper seeks to show how, in entropic terms, these two configurations are inconsistent with the concept of sustainability.

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EMERGY-based environmental systems assessment of a multi-purpose temperate mixed-forest watershed of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Cited by 83 publications

References 29 publications

Comparative Analysis for the Urban Metabolic Differences of Two Types of Cities in the Resource-Dependent Region Based on Emergy Theory

Comparative Analysis for the Urban Metabolic Differences of Two Types of Cities in the Resource-Dependent Region Based on Emergy Theory

Sustainable Materials Selection for Canadian Construction Industry: An Emergy-Based Life-Cycle Analysis (Em-LCA) of Conventional and LEED Suggested Construction Materials

Entropy and the city

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