Emergy-based assessment on industrial symbiosis: a case of Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone

Industrial symbiosis is the sharing of services, utility, and by-product resources among industries. This is usually made in order to add value, reduce costs, and improve the environment, and therefore has been taken as an effective approach for developing an eco-industrial park, improving resource efficiency, and reducing pollutant emission. Most conventional evaluation approaches ignored the contribution of natural ecosystem to the development of industrial symbiosis and cannot reveal the interrelations between economic development and environmental protection, leading to a need of an innovative evaluation method. Under such a circumstance, we present an emergy analysis-based evaluation method by employing a case study at Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone (SETDZ). Specific emergy indicators on industrial symbiosis, including emergy savings and emdollar value of total emergy savings, were developed so that the holistic picture of industrial symbiosis can be presented. Research results show that nonrenewable inputs, imported resource inputs, and associated services could be saved by 89.3, 32.51, and 15.7 %, and the ratio of emergy savings to emergy of the total energy used would be about 25.58 %, and the ratio of the emdollar value of total emergy savings to the total gross regional product (GRP) of SETDZ would be 34.38 % through the implementation of industrial symbiosis. In general, research results indicate that industrial symbiosis could effectively reduce material and energy consumption and improve the overall eco-efficiency. Such a method can provide policy insights to industrial park managers so that they can raise appropriate strategies on developing eco-industrial parks. Useful strategies include identifying more potential industrial symbiosis opportunities, optimizing energy structure, increasing industrial efficiency, recovering local ecosystems, and improving public and industrial awareness of eco-industrial park policies.     

基于层次分析法的再生水补给型城市河湖水生态修复技术评价指标体系及其应用

由于城市水资源严重紧缺,再生水作为补给城市河湖景观水体的重要水源,用量逐年加大,随之带来的水环境问题也引起关注,往往需要采用适宜的技术和工程改善水质。然而对于现有的生态修复技术和工程,缺少相应的评价方法和指标体系对其修复效果和工程技术进行综合有效的评估。通过大量的文献及实地调研,结合再生水补给型城市河湖的特点,构建了包含环境效益、技术管理与维护及社会经济功能3个系统、7个准则和19个指标的再生水补给型城市河湖水生态修复技术评价指标体系,采用群组决策的层次分析法（AHP）确定各指标的权重,重要性排序前5位的指标依次是：藻类多样性、水生植物覆盖度、DO、TLI、PI（COD）。以北京市陶然亭湖水生态修复工程为例进行综合评价,研究结果表明,现阶段陶然亭湖水生态修复工程综合评分为3.35分,评价结果属于良。陶然亭湖经过水体生态修复后,水生态系统结构较好恢复;所选工程技术适宜;人员及经济投入适中;对周边环境产生较大正面影响;工程可优后进行推广     

Assessing economic sustainability and ecological efficiency with genuine progress indicator: a case study of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018

To achieve urban sustainability, it is critical to enhance the environment, economy, and society simultaneously. This study adopted the revised genuine progress indicator (GPI) and ecological footprint (EF) to evaluate the ecological efficiency and economic sustainability of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018. Spatial analysis was utilized to identify spatial autocorrelation. A total of 27 cities were then partitioned through k-means cluster analysis. The results showed that GPI and ecological efficiency improved rapidly, but economic sustainability showed a downward trend. GPI and GDP had a high degree of spatial correlation, especially in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Metropolitan Area. However, no spatial correlation existed between GPI and EF. The city with high GEE can reach 3000 $/gha, indicating the city consumed 1 global hectare to create $3000 of genuine economic growth. Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Taizhou were cities with the highest level of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency. The spatiotemporal characteristics of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency revealed in this study will provide theoretical guidance for alleviating ecological pressure and promoting economic sustainable development.

     

高热值城市生活垃圾归类分流处置的能值分析

生活垃圾处理已成为限制城市化进程和城市经济发展的重大问题之一,采用垃圾归类分流处置方法可以有效地促进垃圾减量化和资源化的效果。以西安市典型高校校园生活垃圾为代表性高热值焚烧型城市生活垃圾,通过绘制能值系统图辨析卫生填埋-沼气发电、焚烧发电、生物质燃料混烧发电等3种垃圾处理系统的能值投入和产出过程。依据垃圾物理组成和热值数据分别计算了2种处理系统的能值产出率、环境负载率、能值投资率、可更新能源投入率和能值可持续指数等5项基本能值指标,并从能量利用的角度对3种生活垃圾处理方法的环境可持续性与经济竞争力进行了比较分析。能值分析结果表明,采用生活垃圾焚烧和生物质燃料混烧发电处理法在能量转化效率和环境影响方面具有显著优势,对高热值焚烧型生活垃圾采用“归类分流-集中焚烧处理”的方式有利于提高城市生活垃圾减量化处理的环境效益与经济收益。     

The use of autecological and environmental parameters for establishing the status of lichen vegetation in a baseline study for a long-term monitoring survey

In 1997 the ecological characteristics of the epiphytic species (83 lichens and two algae) of an urban area (Grenoble, France) were determined. Seven autecological indices were used to characterize the lichen ecology: illumination index, humidity index, pH of bark, nutrient status of substratum, ecological index of IAP and frequency. Six clusters (A1-A6) were defined using cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Seven environmental parameters characterizing the stations and the lichen releves were also used: elevation, parameters of artificiality (urbanization, traffic and local land use), IAP, and the percentage of nitrophytic and acidophytic species. Six clusters (B1-B6) were defined using cluster analysis and canonical correspondence analysis. Four clusters (C1-C4) were finally defined using an empirical integrated method combining the autecological and environmental parameters. This final clustering which established the status of the lichen vegetation in 1997 can be reliably used as a baseline study to effectively monitor environmental changes in this urban area.     

A Thermodynamic Geography: Night-Time Satellite Imagery as a Proxy Measure of Emergy

Night-time satellite imagery enables the measurement, visualization, and mapping of energy consumption in an area. In this paper, an index of the “sum of lights” as observed by night-time satellite imagery within national boundaries is compared with the emergy of the nations. Emergy is a measure of the solar energy equivalent used, directly or indirectly, to support the processes that characterize the economic activity in a country. Emergy has renewable and non-renewable components. Our results show that the non-renewable component of national emergy use is positively correlated with night-time satellite imagery. This relationship can be used to produce emergy density maps which enable the incorporation of spatially explicit representations of emergy in geographic information systems. The region of Abruzzo (Italy) is used to demonstrate this relationship as a spatially disaggregate case.     

Evaluating China’s regional energy and environmental efficiency by considering three internal parallel industries

With the rapid development of China’s economy, high energy consumption and high pollution emission have become serious problems. To solve these problems, many studies have been done to evaluate energy and environmental efficiency, as the results can provide valuable information to improve performance. However, the previous research mainly evaluates China’s regional energy and environmental efficiency by considering each region’s industry as a whole system, ignoring the internal structure. In reality, each region mainly includes three parallel types of industry: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Therefore, this paper provides a parallel data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate China’s regional energy and environment efficiency by considering these parallel industrial systems. The following findings can be obtained based on the empirical results: (1) the overall energy efficiency of China is low, and the inefficiency of the economic system is mainly sourced from the lower energy and environmental performance of the primary industry and the tertiary industry. (2) the introduction of the environmental variable (CO₂) leads to the increase of some backward areas’ efficiencies. (3) the energy efficiency of each provincial region is different, and most of them have their own inefficient industries. (4) the total factor productivity of China is declining, mainly because of the decline of technical efficiency.

     

Industrial metabolism of chlorine: a case study of a chlor-alkali industrial chain

Substance flow analysis (SFA) is applied to a case study of chlorine metabolism in a chlor-alkali industrial chain. A chain-level SFA model is constructed, and eight indices are proposed to analyze and evaluate the metabolic status of elemental chlorine. The primary objectives of this study are to identify low-efficiency links in production processes and to find ways to improve the operational performance of the industrial chain. Five-year in-depth data collection and analysis revealed that system production efficiency and source efficiency continued increasing since 2008, i.e., when the chain was first formed, at average annual growth rates of 21.01 % and 1.01 %, respectively. In 2011, 64.15 % of the total chlorine input was transformed into final products. That is, as high as 98.50 % of the chlorine inputs were utilized when other by-products were counted. Chlorine loss occurred mostly in the form of chloride ions in wastewater, and the system loss rate was 0.54 %. The metabolic efficiency of chlorine in this case was high, and the chain system had minimal impact on the environment. However, from the perspectives of processing depth and economic output, the case study of a chlor-alkali industrial chain still requires expansion.     

内蒙古煤矿环境地质问题及其防治对策研究

煤炭是内蒙古最具优势的矿产资源 ,其产值几乎占到该区工业产值的一半。由于历史及政策等因素的影响 ,煤矿开发破坏矿区环境资源、诱发地质灾害和导致环境污染。不同地域矿山开发诱发的环境地质问题不同 ,露天和地下不同的开采方式诱发不同的环境地质问题。国有大中型老矿区地面塌陷问题较为严重 ,成为制约矿山持续发展的主要因素之一。乡镇及个体小煤矿“只开发 ,不治理”加剧了矿山地质环境的恶化。在西部大开发中 ,要吸取“先开发 ,后治理”的历史教训 ,走资源合理开发利用与矿区生态环境保护的绿色矿业之路     

城市产业水污染控制优化研究——以株洲市为例

针对城市产业水污染状况，应用产业结构和工业行业结构优化模型，试图找出城市产业结构调整方法。研究以株洲市为例，根据株洲市产业结构和行业结构特点对模型进行改进和最优化计算。计算结果表明，产业和行业生产用水的调整可以减少废水排放量和实现经济增长。在此基础上，提出了株洲市产业和行业凋整方案，以期实现城市经济发展与环境保护协调发雇。     

城市产业水污染控制优化研究--以株洲市为例

针对城市产业水污染状况,应用产业结构和工业行业结构优化模型,试图找出城市产业结构调整方法.研究以株洲市为例,根据株洲市产业结构和行业结构特点对模型进行改进和最优化计算.计算结果表明,产业和行业生产用水的调整可以减少废水排放量和实现经济增长.在此基础上,提出了株洲市产业和行业调整方案,以期实现城市经济发展与环境保护协调发展.     

Short-term variations in ambient particulates and their sources in Taichung, Taiwan

Environmental assessment methods are generally based on mono-disciplinary approaches drawn from biophysical or social sciences. This paper discusses the use of hierarchy theory to represent ecological systems when building a cross-disciplinary environmental assessment methodology in which a variety of legitimate views are formally taken into account. A hierarchical approach is applied to the study of an environmental problem arising from conflicting water resource allocation requirements among different activities competing for this resource in an eastern Sicilian river basin (Italy). A second case study suggests the usefulness of hierarchy theory in analysing how a community perceives a natural resource and how the concept of natural heritage changes over time.     

The environmental cost of broiler production and carbon sequestration potential of eucalyptus plantations around farms in Mato Grosso do Sul,Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The present study aimed to evaluate the environmental cost of the production process of broilers from the approach of emergy accounting and carbon...     

铅锌冶炼行业循环经济产业链构建

运用循环经济理论,以某铅锌冶炼企业为例,在分析企业能流、物流的基础上,研究了企业的循环经济发展潜力,提出了铅锌冶炼行业"冶炼-制酸-发电-贵金属回收"的循环经济发展产业链模式.研究结果表明,通过构建铅锌冶炼企业循环经济产业链,可以提高企业的资源利用效率,降低能耗和生产成本,减少污染物的排放,获得显著的经济效益和环境效益.     

German fishery’s adaptation to historic events,Western Baltic Sea, 1890–1950

Marine social-ecological systems (SES) have been providing important cultural, social, and economic services for many centuries. They are, however, increasingly threatened by fast changing environmental, ecological, and socio-economic conditions. As historical marine research is increasingly developing into a multidisciplinary endeavour, it offers outstanding points of departure to analyse historic events and the response and adaptation of the respective SES. Such knowledge helps to inform today’s fisheries management and promotes successful management of changing ecosystems. Here, we compile and analyse historical data (1890–1950) of the German Western Baltic Sea fishery SES. This period is characterised by a series of strong impacts due to political, technological, economic, and ecological changes, such as two world wars, a global economic crisis, and other economic or ecological disasters. In our opinion, potential negative effects of those events were in the past attenuated by the system’s high capacity to adapt. However, most of the fishers´ historic options on how to respond and adapt have recently become no longer available. New threats (e.g. climate change) have emerged instead. We conclude that today’s fisheries management needs to integrate options of adaptation by exhausting all present or future opportunities. Adaptive fisheries management should not only focus on environmental change but need to include socio-economic change as well.     

Using a Set of Strategic Indicator Systems as a Decision-making Support Implement for Establishing a Recycling-oriented Society - A Taiwanese Case Study (16 pp)

Background Scope and Aims. To realize the vision of sustainable development (SD) originating from the ‘only one earth’ philosophy, and to integrate the conceptions of ecology and sustainability into the planning and decision-making criteria of urban growth management, the establishment of a recycling-oriented society (ROS) is essential. However, before the above intention can be achieved, it is indispensable to develop a system of strategic indicators for supporting a radical reformation of the urban development plan. Therefore, this study, based on the conception of the new urban development pattern ROS, attempted to carefully choose a sample city in Taiwan for launching a preliminary case study, and furthermore designed and proposed a concise and strategy-oriented assessment indicator system termed ROSAIS. ROSAIS, on the one hand, can act as a compass for understanding resource using efficiency and recycling status during city development and, on the other hand, can serve as an implement supporting decision-making for ROS construction.Methods According to the definition and spirit of ROS, the structure of ROSAIS should clearly represent the relationship between resources and environment in human activities. The eco-efficiency indicator system (EEIS) and environmental symbiosis indicator system (ESIS) can be considered two key sub-indicator systems, and are the necessary components of ROSAIS. EEIS chooses the dominant production sectors in urban economic activities to calculate their eco-efficiency (EE). Separately, for obtaining a consensus regarding the framework of ESIS, the questionnaire approaches and expert consultation, together with the research experience and foundation of current relevant studies and indicator systems, are applied when crucial resource and environmental issues and respective indicators are selected.Results and Discussion The calculation results of EEIS in this case study indicated that among the three dominant production activities (agricultural, fishery, and animal husbandry sector) the fishery sector has the highest EE, which indicates that the fishery activities and resources significantly influence the sustainability of the economic-environmental system of the sample city. Furthermore, according to a consensus achieved in ESIS, local green spaces, resource recovery, energy consumption pattern change, freshwater conservation and greenhouse effect abatement were considered as the five crucial issues influencing how the case study city can develop into an ES-city. The rate of local green spaces, resource recycling, freshwater conservation and the rate of reduction of nonrenewable energy use as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were used to evaluate the above five issues.Conclusion This case study is unparalleled in Taiwan. Even in Japan, where ROS legislation has been implemented, this kind of study remains in the preliminary stages. Furthermore, when communicating the indicator results, it is essential to provide the context and countermeasures of the crucial issues that are faced. The two sub-indicator systems proposed in this case study could comply completely with the above-mentioned requirements. For example, the EEIS provides information for achieving a balance between environmental burden and economic benefits among dominant production sectors; the ESIS provides information for setting strategies for overcoming the crucial issues faced. Recommendation and Outlook This study recommends that urban planers should consider the construction of the corresponding strategic indicator system to be indispensable, and makes further use of the indicator results related to the environmental education of residents for identifying and promoting participation with ROS, and turning them into implements for supporting urban SD decision-making. Furthermore, a successful indicator system depends on data availability and quality. This study recommends that urban planers should pay considerable attention to constructing relevant data collection channels, databases and the data quality.     

Environmental accounting on a communal level: A tool to support environmental management and decision-making by communal executives

Starting from an ecological perspective of urban-industrial areas, environmental accounting is used to analyse and to evaluate which environmental impacts are the result of communal activities (e.g. the results of different kinds of water supply systems). Therefore, the anthropogenic fluxes, the changing quality of areas as well as the processes between the environmental fields are taken into account. The approach is based on methodical elements of te Life Cycle Analysis and the Environmental Impact Assessment. Looking at the ‘urban systems’ within the communal activities, ‘ecological modelling’ gives us a new and fuller picture of the spatial and temporal character of urban metabolism. The approach supports the perception of cumulative effects and the postponement of environmental problems and opens new horizons for process-oriented environmental planning within the community. Greater efficiency and a decrease in costs can be arrived at by leaving ‘end of the pipe’ strategies; opportunities for a better planning process and measures for different individuals and organisations can be drawn up. A data base which acts as a ‘support system’ implements the computer-aided approach to environmental accounting.     

Nutrient management in food production: achieving agronomic and environmental targets

The notion of management has undergone many changes during the past century. Nowadays, management is perceived as "specialized activity to achieve targets." Skill in management is the single most important factor determining the economic and environmental performance of agroecosystems. Nutrient management is "management of nutrients to achieve agronomic and environmental targets;" it requires proper understanding of nutrient cycling, site- and farm-specific guidelines and technology, and often direct coaching. These activities are diverse and complicated, especially in mixed farming systems that involve both crop and animal production. To be effective, economic and environmental targets must be coherent, flexible, and controllable. They also must be defined and implemented quantitatively at strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Data from farms in Poland and The Netherlands are used to show how economic incentives, provided through governmental policies and measures in both countries, can improve nutrient-use efficiency by a factor of 2 on many intensively managed mixed farming systems.     

Synthesis of Hybrid Gas Permeation Membrane/Condensation Systems for Pollution Prevention

ABSTRACT

Pollution prevention is a major economic and environmental issue in the chemical processing industries. This paper addresses the design of cost-effective recovery systems for vaporous emissions, systems that allow environmentally sound recycling of the recovered components for re-use within the process as a means of pollution prevention. A methodology is proposed to design optimal hybrid systems that involve gas permeation membranes and vapor condensation systems. The design methodology is presented as a mixed-integer, nonlinear program. Based on a fixed structure of the system, a short-cut formulation is derived. Additionally, the incorporation of the system into the emerging mass integration methodology is presented. It is demonstrated, through an industrial case study, that hybrid membrane/condensation systems possess advantages over either separation technique alone.     

“Green” economic development in China: quantile regression evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt

As China’s economy began transitioning from one focused on high-speed growth to one focusing on high-quality development, sustainable green development has become the main goal pursued by the government. This study empirically measures the marginal impact of per capita GDP, technological innovation level, industrial structure, openness, fiscal decentralization, and urbanization level on per capita wastewater discharge in 11 provinces (cities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2008 to 2018 using a quantile model. The key findings were as follows: (1) factors such as the per capita GDP, industrial structure, foreign direct investment, and urbanization in the YREB significantly increased water resource pollution; (2) the quantile model regression results showed that the relationship between economic growth and ecological pollution followed the so-called environmental Kuznets inverted U-curve. Wastewater discharge per capita was low in areas with low per capita GDP, meaning that the ecological environment in these areas was more fragile and that the environmental pollution costs due to economic growth were therefore relatively much higher in these areas; (3) fiscal decentralization significantly reduced water resource pollution in relatively developed areas although the effects in the relatively developing areas were not significant; and (4) the effects of technological innovation on reducing water resource pollution in the YREB were positive but not very significant. The results also confirmed that traditional patterns of economic growth increased water pollution in the YREB. For this reason, the government needs to urgently improve policies—for example, upgrading economic structures, preventing over-urbanization, speeding up technological innovation, introducing environmentally friendly foreign investment, and providing more rewards to best practitioners of environmental governance—that is conducive to the achievement of green ecological development.