Exergetic assessment for ecological economic system: Chinese agriculture

Based on the thermodynamic concept of exergy as a unified measure for environmental resources and economic products, a framework for systems assessment is presented for ecological economies. With a typical systems diagram devised for a general ecological economy with four arm fluxes for free local n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecological modelling 2009-02, Vol.220 (3), p.397-410
Main Authors: Chen, G.Q., Jiang, M.M., Yang, Z.F., Chen, B., Ji, Xi, Zhou, J.B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Ecological economy
Environmental resources
Exergy
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General agroecology
General agroecology. Agricultural and farming systems. Agricultural development. Rural area planning. Landscaping
General agronomy. Plant production
General aspects. Techniques
Generalities. Agricultural and farming systems. Agricultural development
Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...)
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Summary:Based on the thermodynamic concept of exergy as a unified measure for environmental resources and economic products, a framework for systems assessment is presented for ecological economies. With a typical systems diagram devised for a general ecological economy with four arm fluxes for free local natural resources, purchased economic investment, environmental impact and economic yield, system indices of the renewability index, exergy yield ratio, exergy investment ratio, environmental resource to yield ratio, system transformity and environmental stress index are defined for a congregated systems ecological assessment with essential implications to sustainability. As a detailed case study to the Chinese agriculture from 1980 to 2000 with cropping, forestry, stockbreeding and fishery sectors, extensive exergy account and systems assessment are carried out with emphasis on annual and structural variations against social political transitions. For the overall agriculture as a congregated ecological stage, the value of the system transformity is found around 10, the typical value for the general ecological hierarchy as well devised by Odum associated with Lindeman's Tenth Law.
ISSN:0304-3800
1872-7026
DOI:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.10.006