Non Equilibrium Thermodynamics and the City: A New Approach to Urban Studies

Pulselli, Riccardo Maria; Ciampalini, Francesca; Galli, Alessandro; Pulselli, Federico Maria

doi:10.1002/adic.200690056

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The science of city is mainly devoted to the application of concepts and methods of complex systems to cities [6][7][8][9]. A city is indeed an adaptive dynamical system which grows in size and population, and consumes energy to maintain its function and structure [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency and irreversibility of movements in a city

Biazzo

Ramezanpour

2020

Sci Rep

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We know that maximal efficiency in physical systems is attained by reversible processes. It is then interesting to see how irreversibility affects efficiency in other systems, e.g., in a city. In this study, we focus on a cyclic process of movements (home to workplace and back to home) in a city to investigate the above question. To this end, we present a minimal model of the movements, along with plausible definitions for the efficiency and irreversibility of the process; more precisely, we take the inverse of the total travel time per number of trips for efficiency and the relative entropy of the forward and backward flow distributions for the process irreversibility. We perform numerical simulations of the model for reasonable choices of the population distribution, the mobility law, and the movement strategy. The results show that the efficiency of movements is indeed negatively correlated with the above measure of irreversibility. The structure of the network and the impact of the flows on the travel times are the main factors here that affect the time intervals of arriving to destinations and returning to origins, which are usually larger than the time interval of the departures. This in turn gives rise to diverging of the backward flows from the forward ones and results to entropy (disorder or uncertainty) production in the system. The findings of this study might be helpful in characterizing more accurately the city efficiency and in better understanding of the main working principles of these complex systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency and irreversibility of movements in a city

Biazzo

Ramezanpour

2020

Sci Rep

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“…The physical definition of entropy typically yields interpretation of the city as a thermodynamic system, identified within the literature particularly with regard to postulated links between entropy, the irreversibility of the second law of thermodynamics, and a notion of ‘sustainability’ [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. This approach has its roots with both the work on non-equilibrium thermodynamics of Ilya Prigogine, and that of the economist Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen, who considered entropy in relation to the economic process [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entropy and its Application to Urban Systems

Purvis

Robinson

2019

Entropy

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Since its conception over 150 years ago, entropy has enlightened and confused scholars and students alike, from its origins in physics and beyond. More recently, it has been considered within the urban context in a rather eclectic range of applications. The entropy maximization approach, as applied by Alan Wilson and others from the 1960s, contrasts with considerations from the 1990s of the city as a thermodynamic dissipative system, in the tradition of Ilya Prigogine. By reviewing the relevant mathematical theory, we draw the distinction among three interrelated definitions of entropy, the thermodynamic, the figurative, and the information statistical. The applications of these definitions to urban systems within the literature are explored, and the conflation of the thermodynamic and figurative interpretations are disentangled. We close this paper with an outlook on future uses of entropy in urban systems analysis.

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“…Emergy analysis method developed by Odum (1987) is an analytic approach for ecosystem. This method can not only assess all kinds of materials and energies of ecosystem on the same standards to carry out quantitative analysis but also provide the basis for quantitative study of input and output for national or regional ecosystem (Campbell et al 2005;Pulselli et al 2006;Campbell and Lu 2009;Rugani et al 2011;Su et al 2011;Zhu et al 2012;Hossaini and Hewage 2013;Giannetti et al 2013;Coscieme et al 2014), various subsystems and specific production systems (Brown and McClanahan 1996;Odum 1996;Kang and Park 2002;Gasparatos 2011), assessment of natural resources utilization (Chen et al 2006;Zhu et al 2009;Lv and Ling 2010;Lu et al 2012), economic policymaking (Odum 1996), coordination of international trade relationships (Yu and Wang 2010;Lu and Zhao 2013) and so on (Lan et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergy analysis of paddy farming in Hunan Province, China: A new perspective on sustainable development of agriculture

Xiang

2016

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

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The multi-functionality of paddy farming has become a hot issue recently. Paddy farming provides numerous ecosystem services that are crucial to human well-being. However, evaluation of the contribution of paddy farming to human well-being usually focus on its economic value, while its non-market services are usually ignored. Only evaluating the market profits or market relative benefits cannot reflect comprehensively the contribution of paddy farming to people's well-being. This will affect people's choices for or against paddy farming activities and people's opt for invest or not invest in it. A comprehensive evaluation of paddy farming can provide an important reference for the government and society to conserve the multi-functionality of paddy farming and achieve sustainable development. To this end, this paper reports a case evaluation of paddy farming in Hunan, the largest rice producing as well as rice yield province in China, and uses emergy theory to make a comprehensive evaluation for paddy farming. The emergy evaluation results of the paddy ecosystem in Hunan are as follows, in 2010, the input emergy of the paddy ecosystem in Hunan is 2.51E+22 sej and the output emergy is 6.31E+22 sej. For the input emergy, the part from natural resources is 1.96E+21 sej and the part from human society is 2.32E+22 sej; for the output emergy, the part from products is 2.22E+22 sej, the part from impositive externality is 4.16E+22 sej and the part from negative externality is-7.41E+20 sej. Taking the non-market outputs into consideration, the gains from the human economic society's 1 $ input in paddy farming, emergy sustainability index (ESI) and emergy profit rate are respectively 2.73 $, 3.53 and 151.31%. If the evaluation leave out the non-market output, the three indexes are only 0.96 $, 1.24 and 30.67%. The research results show that non-market services of paddy farming contribute significantly to human well-being. Therefore, in order to protect the multi-functionality of paddy farming and achieve the sustainable management, the government should take reasonable measures and make incentive plans.

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Non Equilibrium Thermodynamics and the City: A New Approach to Urban Studies

Cited by 7 publications

References 2 publications

Efficiency and irreversibility of movements in a city

Efficiency and irreversibility of movements in a city

Entropy and its Application to Urban Systems

Emergy analysis of paddy farming in Hunan Province, China: A new perspective on sustainable development of agriculture

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