The Gouy-Stodola Theorem—From Irreversibility to Sustainability—The Thermodynamic Human Development Index

Today, very complex economic relationships exist between finance, technology, social needs, and so forth, which represent the requirement of sustainability. Sustainable consumption of resources, production and energy policies are the keys for a sustainable development. Moreover, a growing request in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-04, Vol.13 (7), p.3995
Main Authors: Lucia, Umberto, Grisolia, Giulia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon dioxide
Economic indicators
Economics
Efficiency
Emissions
Energy
Energy policy
Engineering
Environmental conditions
Environmental impact
Evaluation
GDP
GNI
Gross Domestic Product
Gross National Income
Human Development Index
Indicators
Life expectancy
Per capita
Purchasing power parity
Raw materials
Socioeconomics
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Sustainable use
Thermodynamics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Today, very complex economic relationships exist between finance, technology, social needs, and so forth, which represent the requirement of sustainability. Sustainable consumption of resources, production and energy policies are the keys for a sustainable development. Moreover, a growing request in bio-based industrial raw materials requires a reorganization of the chains of the energy and industrial sectors. This is based on new technological choices, with the need of sustainable measurements of their impacts on the environment, society and economy. In this way, social and economic requirements must be taken into account by the decision-makers. So, sustainable policies require new indicators. These indicators must link economics, technologies and social well-being, together. In this paper, an irreversible thermodynamic approach is developed in order to improve the Human Development Index, HDI, with the Thermodynamic Human Development Index, THDI, an indicator based on the thermodynamic optimisation approach, and linked to socio-economic and ecological evaluations. To do so, the entropy production rate is introduced into the HDI, in relation to the CO2 emission flows due to the anthropic activities. In this way, the HDI modified, named Thermodynamic Human Development Index THDI, results as an indicator that considers both the socio-economic needs, equity and the environmental conditions. Examples of the use of the indicator are presented. In particular, it is possible to highlight that, if environmental actions are introduced in order to reduce the CO2 emission, HDI remains constant, while THDI changes its value, pointing out its usefulness for decision makers to evaluate a priori the effectiveness of their decisions.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13073995