Physical Hydronomics: Application of the exergy analysis to the assessment of environmental costs of water bodies. The case of the inland basins of Catalonia

The water cycle is governed by the thermodynamic laws. Therefore Thermodynamics and more specifically Exergoecology, that is the application of the exergy analysis in the evaluation of natural fluxes and resources on Earth, could help to build a solid cost structure based strictly on Physics and far...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy (Oxford) 2009-12, Vol.34 (12), p.2101-2107
Main Authors: Valero, Antonio, Uche, Javier, Valero, Alicia, Martínez, Amaya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Environmental costs
Exergy
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Physical hydronomics
River basin
Water framework directive
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Summary:The water cycle is governed by the thermodynamic laws. Therefore Thermodynamics and more specifically Exergoecology, that is the application of the exergy analysis in the evaluation of natural fluxes and resources on Earth, could help to build a solid cost structure based strictly on Physics and far away from price policies or subjectivities. Any type of degradation of water bodies along their rivers, lakes, etc., could then be quantified. Moreover, the physical information of the resource can be unified into universal units (energy units), and the monetary conversion of exergy costs is automatic through conventional energy prices. This paper presents a new discipline named “Physical Hydronomics”, as a guide to assess environmental costs included in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD).
ISSN:0360-5442
DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2008.08.020