Emergy-based environmental accounting of one mining system

Evaluation of regional sustainability through emergy analysis: a case study of nine cities in the Yellow River Basin of China

The Yellow River is an important ecological shelter zone and economic belt in China. However, rapid urbanization and industrialization has produced a fragile ecological environment conditions and unbalanced economic development in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Ecological protection and high-quality development of the YRB has been China's national strategy since 2019. As the only coastal province with the largest economy and population in the YRB, the sustainable development of Shandong Province is of great importance in the region. This study evaluated the dynamic trend of sustainability levels of the nine cities in Shandong Province in the YRB through emergy analysis. Emergy-based indicators were established and analyzed from 2010 to 2019, taking account of the ecological service emergy (ESE) needed to dilute pollutants and emergy equivalent loss (EEL) on ecosystem quality and human health damage. Results showed that emergy sustainable indicators (ESI) in Tai'an, Heze, Dezhou, and Liaocheng ranged from 1 to 10, which had the potential for sustainable development. The ESI value of Jinan, Jining, Zibo, Dongying, and Binzhou was less than 1, which indicated that these cities were under great ecological pressure. The value of emergy indicators for sustainable development (EISD) of the nine cities all declined from 2010 to 2016, but remained stable from 2017 to 2019. Based on findings from the emergy analysis regarding policy implications and local conditions, the study concludes by providing proposals to improve regional sustainability.

Emergy-based ecological efficiency evaluation and optimization method for logistics park

With the rapid development of logistics park, how to evaluate and optimize the ecological efficiency of logistics park to achieve its sustainable development has become a concern of academia. In order to achieve this goal, this paper puts forward a method based on emergy, which processes the data in a unified dimension. By constructing the ecological efficiency evaluation model of logistics park, it quantitatively evaluates the ecological efficiency of logistics park, and analyzes the correlation between various factors and ecological efficiency. The application results of H logistics park show that fuel oil, information technology, net profit, and waste gas are closely related to the ecological efficiency of logistics park, and the correlation coefficients are 0.8248, -0.6949, 0.8544, and 0.7661, respectively. On this basis, the paper puts forward some suggestions to improve the ecological efficiency of the logistics park. This paper provides theoretical and methodological support for the evaluation and optimization of the ecological efficiency of the logistics park.

Mapping the knowledge domain of the evolution of emergy theory: a bibliometric approach

Bibliometric and visualization tools are effective for uncovering information contained in vast amounts of literature data. We retrieved publications from the Web of Science (2008-2020) and used the Statistical Analysis Toolkit for Informetrics (SATI) and CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of emergy studies, review the focus of the studies, summarize current research, and identify academic trends. The SATI-based charts provided an overall description of yearly published articles, literature sources, high-frequency keywords, authors, institutions, and highly cited papers. CiteSpace was applied to determine the frontiers and hotspots of emergy theory. A dual-map analysis was used to reveal the connection between multiple disciplines. Keyword clustering analysis was performed to evaluate research hotspots. Moreover, burst analysis and timeline maps presented a holistic picture of cutting-edge issues and the evolutionary trajectory of emergy studies in recent years. An alluvial flow map analysis of the landmark literature depicted the transmission of knowledge in the emergy field. In addition, this article also evaluated the current status of collaborative research in emergy-related fields. The results can provide a reference for researchers to explore hot issues or target a specific field of study.

Emergy Based Decoupling Analysis of Ecosystem Services on Urbanization: A Case of Shanghai, China

In order to respond to rapid urbanization, understanding the relationships between urbanization and ecosystem services (ESs) is of practical importance to move toward sustainable urban development. In this study, an emergy-GIS based method is proposed to evaluate ESs. Spatiotemporal emergy values of water retention (WR), air purification (AP), carbon sequestration (CS), soil conservation (SC), and biodiversity conservation (BC) were quantified and relationships among these ESs were analyzed by taking China’s largest city, Shanghai, as a case. The decoupling analysis was conducted to study the relationship between urbanization and ESs. Results show that the total value of regulating ESs had declined by 8.24% from 2005 to 2010. Chongming had the largest value of ESs, followed by Pudong. There is a synergetic relationship among AP, CS, and SC, while a tradeoff appears between WR and other services. Irregular “U” shape relationships between the decrease of ESs and urbanization indicators were observed. Results from decoupling analysis show that ESs experienced weak decoupling from urbanization in most districts. Finally, policy implications were raised based on the study results.