Emergy-based urban health evaluation and development pattern analysis

The objective of this study is to measure and evaluate the ecosystem health levels of 31 Chinese capital cities in 2004 through an emergy synthesis framework. A system of indicators was developed corresponding to the four factors of urban ecosystem health including efficiency, structure, impact and flux. Furthermore, combined with individual indices, an emergy-based urban ecosystem health index (EUEHI) was proposed to measure and evaluate the health levels among various typical cities in China, which offers an integrated evaluation tool in view of urban production, trade and consumption. The results showed that there are intrinsic differences among six clusters associated with driving mechanisms distinguishing the rankings of urban health levels. After lining the cities of similar health levels with cluster map, the spatial distribution of the urban health is found to be arch-shaped, increasing initially and then decreasing from coast to inner land. This kind of spatial hierarchy is per se compatible and consistent with the hierarchical theory of emergy synthesis. The results also revealed double restrictions of urban health between economy and environment. Moreover, the interaction analysis was used for mirroring the driving mechanism of urban ecosystem health. Three conclusions were arrived at. Firstly, environmental health is inversely related to the economic health in China, indicating that cities cannot achieve win–win between environment and economy in the current urban development mode. Secondly, based on economy-driven mode, four quadrants were divided in the city division map, wherein 43.33% of the concerned cities developed in high economy-restriction mode, which means low economic level is still an important limiting factor for the major cities of China. Finally, based on environment-driven mode, two sections were divided, of which weak environmental dominance mode expounds the special characteristics of urban environment with obvious fragility. 23.33% of the 30 cities were in the intermediate state, which means a few correspondingly unhealthy cities should develop concrete polices for the urban ecosystem restoration.

[1]  Bin Chen,et al.  Emergy account for biomass resource exploitation by agriculture in China , 2007 .

[2]  R. O'Neill,et al.  The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital , 1997, Nature.

[3]  Shu-Li Huang,et al.  Ecology and economy: Emergy synthesis and public policy in Taiwan , 1991 .

[4]  Howard T. Odum,et al.  Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making , 1995 .

[5]  Lixiao Zhang,et al.  Emergy-based urban ecosystem health assessment: A case study of Baotou, China , 2009 .

[6]  A Alling,et al.  "Living off the land": resource efficiency of wetland wastewater treatment. , 2001, Advances in space research : the official journal of the Committee on Space Research.

[7]  João Oliveira Soares,et al.  A multivariate methodology to uncover regional disparities: A contribution to improve European Union and governmental decisions , 2003, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[8]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Assessing the health of coastal marine ecosystems: A holistic approach based on sediment micro and meio-benthic measures , 2006 .

[9]  Shu-li Huang,et al.  Theory of urban energetics and mechanisms of urban development , 2005 .

[10]  S. Ulgiati,et al.  Emergy-based indices and ratios to evaluate the sustainable use of resources , 1995 .

[11]  Silvia Bargigli,et al.  An emergy evaluation of complexity, information and technology, towards maximum power and zero emissions , 2007 .

[12]  J. J. Kay,et al.  A nonequilibrium thermodynamic framework for discussing ecosystem integrity , 1991 .

[13]  Minghong Tan,et al.  Urban population densities and their policy implications in China , 2008 .

[14]  Tim R. McClanahan,et al.  EMergy analysis perspectives of Thailand and Mekong River dam proposals , 1996 .

[15]  Mark T. Brown,et al.  Emergy-based indices and ratios to evaluate sustainability: monitoring economies and technology toward environmentally sound innovation , 1997 .

[16]  Howard T. Odum,et al.  Energy hierarchy and transformity in the universe , 2004 .

[17]  David J. Schaeffer,et al.  Ecosystem health: I. Measuring ecosystem health , 1988 .

[18]  Shu-Li Huang,et al.  Socioeconomic metabolism in Taiwan: Emergy synthesis versus material flow analysis , 2006 .

[19]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Handbook of Ecological Indicators for Assessment of Ecosystem Health , 2007 .

[20]  Guoqian Chen,et al.  Emergy as embodied energy based assessment for local sustainability of a constructed wetland in Beijing , 2009 .

[21]  Shu Tao,et al.  An ecosystem health index methodology (EHIM) for lake ecosystem health assessment , 2005 .

[22]  D. Tilley,et al.  EMERGY-based environmental systems assessment of a multi-purpose temperate mixed-forest watershed of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA. , 2003, Journal of environmental management.

[23]  Zhishi Wang,et al.  Emergy synthesis of tourism-based urban ecosystem. , 2008, Journal of environmental management.

[24]  Shu-Li Huang,et al.  Urban ecosystems, energetic hierarchies, and ecological economics of Taipei metropolis , 1998 .

[25]  Wang Rusong,et al.  Integrative Eco-management for Resource, Environment and Industrial Transformation , 2003 .

[26]  Hao Zhang,et al.  Eco-health evaluation for the Shanghai metropolitan area during the recent industrial transformation (1990-2003). , 2008, Journal of environmental management.

[27]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Ecological indicators for assessing freshwater ecosystem health , 1999 .

[28]  John T. Finn,et al.  Perturbation Theory and the Subsidy-Stress Gradient , 1979 .

[29]  中華人民共和国上海市統計局.  Shanghai statistical yearbook , 1988 .

[30]  Gang Chen,et al.  Emergy analysis for ‘Four in One’ peach production system in Beijing , 2009 .

[31]  Fuliu Xu,et al.  Exergy and structural exergy as ecological indicators for the development state of the Lake Chaohu ecosystem , 1997 .

[32]  Axel Thomas,et al.  Spatial and temporal characteristics of potential evapotranspiration trends over China , 2000 .

[33]  Zhifeng Yang,et al.  Analyses of urban ecosystem based on information entropy , 2006 .

[34]  Jerry Spiegel,et al.  Developing Ecosystem Health Indicators in Centro Habana: A Community‐based Approach , 2001 .

[35]  Bin Chen,et al.  Extended-exergy analysis of the Chinese society , 2009 .

[36]  F. Müller,et al.  Ecosystem Health Indicators , 2008 .

[37]  Cutler J. Cleveland,et al.  Encyclopedia of Energy , 2004 .

[38]  G. Daily.  Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. , 1998 .

[39]  R W Dawson,et al.  Lake ecosystem health assessment: indicators and methods. , 2001, Water research.

[40]  J. Cairns.  Sustainability, ecosystem services, and health , 1997 .

[41]  Shu-Li Huang,et al.  Energetic mechanisms and development of an urban landscape system , 2007 .

[42]  Simone Bastianoni,et al.  Emergy use, environmental loading and sustainability an emergy analysis of Italy , 1994 .

[43]  Yan Zhang,et al.  Measurement and evaluation of interactions in complex urban ecosystem , 2006 .

[44]  Shu Tao,et al.  Marine coastal ecosystem health assessment: a case study of the Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong, China , 2004 .

[45]  Bin Chen,et al.  Exergy analysis for resource conversion of the Chinese Society 1993 under the material product system , 2006 .

[46]  Bin Chen,et al.  Set pair analysis for urban ecosystem health assessment , 2009 .

[47]  Sergio Ulgiati,et al.  Emergy, transformity, and ecosystem health. , 2005 .

[48]  Keith D. Shepherd,et al.  Estimating the environmental costs of soil erosion at multiple scales in Kenya using emergy synthesis , 2006 .

[49]  W. Westman.  How Much Are Nature's Services Worth? , 1977, Science.

[50]  Bin Chen,et al.  Urban ecosystem health assessment based on emergy and set pair analysis—A comparative study of typical Chinese cities , 2009 .

[51]  B. C. Patten,et al.  Ecosystem growth and development. , 2004, Bio Systems.

[52]  Haidong Kan,et al.  Particulate air pollution in urban areas of Shanghai, China: health-based economic assessment. , 2003, The Science of the total environment.

[53]  Simon A. Levin,et al.  The Multifaceted Aspects of Ecosystem Integrity , 1997 .

[54]  Gang Chen,et al.  Emergy-based energy and material metabolism of the Yellow River basin , 2009 .