Scarcity of exergy and ecological evaluation based on embodied exergy

The driving force of the earth system is shown to be the cosmic exergy due to radiational difference between the sun and the cosmic background, instead of the solar energy. The scarcity of cosmic exergy availability as the fundamental natural resource for the ecosphere and the human society is revealed by a systematic study on the global consumption of the cosmic exergy in the earth and a budget of the exergy consumption with respect to main terrestrial processes. A conceptual framework or ecological evaluation is developed on the basis of a new concept referred to as embodied exergy in terms of the cosmic exergy consumed directly or indirectly in making or sustaining a general commodity as a product, service or an emission. As a generalization of Szargut’s cumulative exergy consumption in resource analysis, embodied exergy is chosen, in place of embodied energy, to define Odum’s emergy. Concrete calculation schemes for embodied exergy accounting are provided as a systematic revision and rephrasing of existing embodied emergy analysis.     

Cosmic emergy based ecological systems modelling

Ecological systems modelling based on the unified biophysical measure of cosmic emergy in terms of embodied cosmic exergy is illustrated in this paper with ecological accounting, simulation and scenario analysis, by a case study for the regional socio-economic ecosystem associated with the municipality of Beijing. An urbanized regional ecosystem model with eight subsystems of natural support, agriculture, urban production, population, finance, land area, potential environmental impact, and culture is representatively presented in exergy circuit language with 12 state variables governing by corresponding ecodynamic equations, and 60 flows and auxiliary variables. To characterize the regional socio-economy as an ecosystem, a series of ecological indicators based on cosmic emergy are devised. For a systematic ecological account, cosmic exergy transformities are provided for various dimensions including climate flows, natural resources, industrial products, cultural products, population with educational hierarchy, and environmental emissions. For the urban ecosystem of Beijing in the period from 1990 to 2005, ecological accounting is carried out and characterized in full details. Taking 2000 as the starting point, systems modelling is realized to predict the urban evolution in a one hundred time horizon. For systems regulation, scenario analyses with essential policy-making implications are made to illustrate the long term systems effects of the expected water diversion and rise in energy price.     

Resources use and greenhouse gas emissions in urban economy: Ecological input–output modeling for Beijing 2002

The embodiment of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions for the urban economy of Beijing economy 2002 by a physical balance modeling is carried out based on an extension of the economic input–output table into an ecological one integrating the economy with its various environmental driving forces. Included resources and greenhouse gas emissions belong to six categories as energy resources in terms of primary energy and secondary energy; water resource; emissions of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O; exergy in terms of energy sources, biological resources and minerals; and solar emergy and cosmic emergy in terms of climate resources, soil, energy sources, and minerals.     

Exergy as a unified measure of water quality

The concept of exergy has been applied to ecological evaluation, resource accounting and environmental impact assessment. As a suitable indicator for ecological evaluation, exergy analysis presents a unified thermodynamic measure of objective evaluation of resources and environment with exergetic unit. A case study of water quality assessment using exergy analysis is presented. Compared with other existing methods, exergy accounting provides a unitary and objective measure for water pollution as a result of the application of the thermodynamic concept to water quality assessment.     

Carbon emissions and resources use by Chinese economy 2007: A 135-sector inventory and input–output embodiment

A 135-sector inventory and embodiment analysis for carbon emissions and resources use by Chinese economy 2007 is presented in this paper by an ecological input–output modeling based on the physical entry scheme. Included emissions and resources belong to six categories as: (1) greenhouse gas (GHG) in terms of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O; (2) energy in terms of coal, crude oil, natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, and firewood; (3) water in terms of freshwater; (4) exergy in terms of coal, crude oil, natural gas, grain, bean, tuber, cotton, peanut, rapeseed, sesame, jute, sugarcane, sugar beet, tobacco, silkworm feed, tea, fruits, vegetables, wood, bamboo, pulp, meat, egg, milk, wool, aquatic products, iron ore, copper ore, bauxite, lead ore, zinc ore, pyrite, phosphorite, gypsum, cement, nuclear fuel, and hydropower; (5) and (6) solar and cosmic emergies in terms of sunlight, wind power, deep earth heat, chemical power of rain, geopotential power of rain, chemical power of stream, geopotential power of stream, wave power, geothermal power, tide power, topsoil loss, coal, crude oil, natural gas, ferrous metal ore, non-ferrous metal ore, non-metal ore, cement, and nuclear fuel. Accounted based on the embodied intensities are carbon emissions and resources use embodied in the final use as rural consumption, urban consumption, government consumption, gross fixed capital formation, change in inventories, and export, as well as in the international trade balance. The resulted database is basic to environmental account of carbon emissions and resources use at various levels.     

Ecological evaluation of Beijing economy based on emergy indices

An integrated ecological evaluation of the Beijing economy was presented in the paper based on the emergy accounting with the data in 2004. Through calculating environmental and economic inputs within and outside the Beijing economy, this paper discusses the Beijing’s resource structure, economic situation and trade status based on a series of emergy indicators. Through the comparison of the systematic indicators of Beijing with those of the selected Chinese cities, the general status of the Beijing economy in China is identified. The results also show that most indicators of Beijing are located at middle levels among the selected Chinese cities. Particularly, the environmental impacts, expressed by the ratio of waste to the renewable emergy, and the ratio of waste to the total emergy use, are 84.2 and 0.26, respectively in Beijing in 2004, which indicate that the Beijing economy is greatly reliant on the imported intensive fuels, goods and services with high empower density and environmental loading.     

Water resources in unified accounting for natural resources

The aim of this paper is to incorporate the water resources into the unified resources accounting based on scientific objectivity so as to present a brief portrait of the significance of water for the resource conversion and management of the national-scale society in a systems ecological perspective. The water resources in sustaining the human society are incorporated into the total exergy budget and national-scale social exergy accounting framework, not only by accounting the conventionally usable water flowing through society regarding seawater as reference environment, but also by introducing the evaporation exergy of freshwater as essential investment from the hydrological cycle. A case study of the Chinese society 2001–2005 is conducted, with the societal system broken down into seven sectors, i.e., extraction, conversion, agriculture, industry, transportation, tertiary and households sectors, to explore the resource utilization structure based on the proposed accounting method. Typical results for China 2005 showed that the total net input of the societal conventional resource exergy was 87.9 EJ, of which 75.4 EJ was from mineral resources and 22.6 EJ from other resources, while the water resource exergy input amounted to 105.1 EJ, which contributed 54.5% of the total resources exergy investment to the total society. Finally, the exergetic resource use intensities (RUIs) for six sectors were calculated, with the results that RUIs of agriculture and conversion sectors are much higher than those derived from conventional resource accounting.     

Three-scale input–output modeling for urban economy: Carbon emission by Beijing 2007

For urban economies, an ecological endowment embodiment analysis has to be supported by endowment intensities at both the international and domestic scales to reflect the international and domestic imports of increasing importance. A three-scale input–output modeling for an urban economy to give nine categories of embodiment fluxes is presented in this paper by a case study on the carbon dioxide emissions by the Beijing economy in 2007, based on the carbon intensities for the average world and national economies. The total direct emissions are estimated at 1.03E+08 t, in which 91.61% is energy-related emissions. By the modeling, emissions embodied in fixed capital formation amount to 7.20E+07 t, emissions embodied in household consumption are 1.58 times those in government consumption, and emissions in gross capital formation are 14.93% more than those in gross consumption. As a net exporter of carbon emissions, Beijing exports 5.21E+08 t carbon embodied in foreign imported commodities and 1.06E+08 t in domestic imported commodities, while emissions embodied in foreign and domestic imported commodities are 3.34E+07 and 1.75E+08 t respectively. The algorithm presented in this study is applicable to the embodiment analysis of other environmental resources for regional economies characteristic of multi-scales.     

Dynamic mathematics and the blending of knowledge structures in the calculus

This paper considers the role of dynamic aspects of mathematics specifically focusing on the calculus, including computer software that responds to physical action to produce dynamic visual effects. The development builds from dynamic human embodiment, uses arithmetic calculations in computer software to calculate ‘good enough’ values of required quantities and algebraic manipulation to develop precise symbolic values. The approach is based on a developmental framework blending human embodiment, with the symbolism of arithmetic and algebra leading to the formalism of real numbers and limits. It builds from dynamic actions on embodied objects to see the effect of those actions as a new embodiment that needs to be calculated accurately and symbolised precisely. The framework relates the growth of meaning in history to the mental conceptions of today’s students, focusing on the relationship between potentially infinite processes and their consequent embodiment as mental concepts. It broadens the strategy of process-object encapsulation by blending embodiment and symbolism.     

湖南省城市生态竞争力比较研究

在现有城市生态竞争力分析的国内外研究成果的基础上,依据城市竞争力和生态系统相关理论,借鉴国内外评价机构的评价模型和分析体系,构建出基于PSR框架的湖南省地级城市生态竞争力的评价指标体系,并根据2012-2013年统计数据,运用直觉模糊综合评价模型,横向比较分析了湖南省14个地级市的城市生态竞争力情况,明确了现阶段影响湖南省各城市生态竞争力的主要因素,评价了各城市的现状及潜力以及各城市间所具有的竞争优势和劣势.在此基础上,有针对性地提出了促进湖南省各个城市生态竞争力提升的政策建议.     

Binariness and rational choice

The concept of numerical representability of preferences together with maximality is at the heart of the concept of rationality embodied in classical optimization models. The difficulty of representing social preferences arises from inherent intransitivities thrown up by democratic voting procedures and by non-binary choice rules which need to be adopted to cope with these intransitivities. An alternative (weaker) concept of representability is developed and it is shown that this concept can partially accommodate intransitivity and non-binariness. ‘Weak transitivity’ and ‘weak binaries’ conditions are provided and it is shown that these conditions are necessary and sufficient for ‘weak representability’. While the weak transitivity condition would be violated by social aggregation procedures, the non-binary functions used by social choice theorists do indeed satisfy the condition of ‘weak binariness’.     

基于能值理论的中国进出口贸易生态足迹实证研究

生态足迹可以用来定量地分析国际贸易的生态影响和可持续性.传统的生态足迹测算法具有参数不稳定性且忽略了各地区之间真正的生态比较优势,测算的结果误差较大.提出用能值理论模型测算国际贸易中内涵的生态足迹.能值理论模型所使用的能量折算系数、能值转换率等参数在自然生态系统中相对稳定,测算结果相对更加准确.为了反映国际贸易的生态资源利益分配,基于测算的贸易足迹定义了生态贸易条件.对1991-2010年中国贸易足迹的实际测算显示,1991-1995年中国进出口贸易足迹基本平衡,生态贸易条件在波动中趋于上升;而1995年以后进口足迹增长远快于出口足迹增长,净进口足迹不断增大,生态贸易条件不断下降.对净进口足迹影响因素的实证分析表明,总人口、人均收入、每千美元GDP的能源使用量对净进口足迹有显著的正向作用,而第三产业比重对净进口足迹也有不太显著的正向影响.     

Emergy analysis for ‘Four in One’ peach production system in Beijing

‘Four in One’ production system has been widely used for recent years in rural areas of Beijing. The aim of this study is to assess the efficiency and sustainability of the ‘Four in One’ ecological economic system for peach production system (FIOPPS) in the solar greenhouse in Pinggu district, Beijing, by emergy-based ecological analysis. The emergy-based indicators of the FIOPPS are calculated and compared with those of the conventional solar greenhouse peach production system. By comparison, the FIOPPS is proved to be more sustainable with less pressure on the environment, better economic benefit and higher efficiency of agricultural resource utilization, thus worthy of being generalized to boost the ecological agriculture in the rural areas of China.     

A multi-criteria framework as a decision support system for urban growth management applications: Central city redevelopment

The paper introduces a decision support system based on a multi-criteria framework that integrates several socio-economic, physical planning and urban design processes recently used in the U.S. for growth management of central city redevelopment. It formalizes and operationalizes the concept of the ‘critical coalition’, i.e. user groups representative of the community's interests who share common perceived values, objectives and problems within an urban setting. This critical coalition provides the decision model with the socio-economic qualitative input to establish representative priorities and importance weights, and to provide the political base for the implementation of policy actions. The framework is applied to establish locational suitability of development or redevelopment actions within a central city. This application is illustrated with examples from a pilot study to establish the suitability of residential infill within the central business district of the City of Columbus, Ohio.     

Mathematic education in a cultural setting

The paper develops some proposals for curriculum development in mathematics based on an analysis of the intercultural transmission of mathematical knowledge. By introducing a concept of culture which calls for an analysis of individual and social behaviours, we are lead to recognize ‘ethnomathematics’ as a form of structured knowledge and to recognize ‘matheracy’ as a characteristic behaviour of human beings. Upon these two concepts, we introduce a theoretical framework for curriculum development in mathematics.

Curricular space is conceptualized as a three‐dimensional space with components, contents, methods and objectives considered solidarily. This relies upon an epistemology of action, based on an integration of episteme, techne and praxis. This allows for an approach in which theory and practice are in a dialectical relationship. Special reference is made to the problems of mathematical education for culturally differentiated groups, and in particular to the situation in third‐world countries.     

On the Use of Pseudo Shadow Prices in a Multiperiod Formulation of the Production Planning Problem

A multiperiod linear programming model of the production planning problem is used to argue for a different costing, profit and resource-evaluation procedure in manufacturing. This procedure is based on the concept of ‘pseudo shadow prices’, and it avoids many of the pitfalls associated with the more traditional accounting methodologies. Conclusions are drawn which question the profit objectives used by many firms, as well as by those in academia.     

Extensive fuzziness

In the same way as ‘comprehensive fuzziness’ deals with a-fields of labels, ‘extensive fuzziness’ deals with objects. In this paper, the concept of ‘extensive mapping’ is defined in order to justify the notion of ‘measurable fuzzy function’. This is the natural continuation of the article “Comprehensive fuzziness”, recently published in this Journal.     

基于最优组合赋权的城市生态评价模型及应用

以联合国可持续发展委员会、世界银行等权威机构的典型、高频率的指标为基础,并根据中国统计数据不全的现状,根据可观测性原则,根据"坚持以人为本,全面、协调、可持续的发展观"的科学发展观的内涵构建了适用于地级市行政区的生态评价指标体系。基于最优组合赋权建立了生态评价模型,并对辽宁省14个城市的生态进行实证分析。本文的创新与特色一是通过把人均绿色GDP、单位水资源工业废水负荷等指标纳入"驱动力-压力-状态-影响-响应"框架来构建适用于地级市行政区的生态评价指标体系。二是通过最优组合赋权,实现了各评价对象加权得分与理想点广义距离最小,体现了距理想点越近、得分越高的原理。三是引入Jaynes最大熵原理,基于各评价结果一致性最大的思路确定最优组合权系数,避免了不合理的个别单一赋权方法对组合赋权结果贡献太小的问题。四是实证研究表明,影响辽宁省生态发展最主要的指标是人口增长率、单位水资源工业废水负荷、人均水资源量和人均绿色GDP。     

Generalized best choice problem based on the information economics approach

We consider the problem of choosing the ‘best choice’ among a certain number of objects that are presented to a decision-maker in sequential order. Such a sequential selection problem is commonly referred to as the ‘best choice problem’, and its optimal stopping rule has been obtained either via the dynamic programming approach or via the Markovian approach. Based on the theory of information economics, we propose in the paper the third approach to a generalized version of the best choice problem that is intuitively more appealing. Various types of the best choice problem, such as (1) the classical secretary problem, (2) no information group interview problem, and (3) full information best choice problem with a random walk process, are shown to be special cases of the generalized best choice problem. The modelling framework of information economics has potential for building theory that ultimately would produce practical stopping rules.     

Emergy-based ecological account for the Chinese economy in 2004

This paper provides an integrated study on the ecological account for the Chinese economy in 2004 based on emergy synthesis theory. The detailed flows of the Chinese economy is diagramed, accounted and analyzed in categories using the biophysically based ecological accounting. Through calculating environmental and economic inputs within and outside the Chinese economy, this paper discusses the Chinese international exchange, describes the resource structure, and assesses its sustainability as a whole. Also, the comparison of systematic indicators, such as emergy/dollar ratio, environmental load ratio, and emergy self-support ratio, with those of the other countries is tabled and explored to illustrate the general status of the Chinese economy in the world. Take, for example, the environmental load ratio, which was 9.29 in China 2004, it reveals that the Chinese economy put high pressure on the local environment compared with those of the environment-benign countries, such as Brazil (0.75), Australia (0.86) and New Zealand (0.81). In addition, in this paper, the accounting method of tourism is adjusted based on the previous researches.