• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-445
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• 2010

An emergy analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expressed as solar emjoules. Total emergy use (371 E20 sej/yr) of the Western Nakdong River Basin is 97 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. Emergy flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 2.9 percent of total emergy use. Emergy yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.03 and 33.27, respectively. Emergy sustainability index, a ratio of emergy yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. It is necessary for an efficient management of Western Nakdong River Basin to reduce pollution load basically and to restructure economic activities into an environmental friendly industrial structure depending on renewable energy and resources.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2000

An EMERGY analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expresses as solar emjoules. Total EMERGY use(720.0 E20 sej/yr) of the Nakdong River Basin is 96 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. EMERGY flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 4 percent of total EMERGY use. Consequently, the ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources was large, like other industrialized areas. EMERGY use per person in the Nakdong River Basin indicates a moderate EMERGY standard of living, even though the indigenous resources are very poor. Population of 6.66 million people in 1996 is already in excess of carrying capacity of the basin. Carrying capacity for steady state based on its renewable sources in only 0.226 million people. EMERGY yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.07 and 28.52, respectively. EMERGY sustainability index, a ratio of EMERGY yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. This study suggests that the economic structure of the Nakdong River Basin should be transformed from the present industrial structure to the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept for the sustainable use of the Nakdong River.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.449-454
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• 2000

Sustainable development has been the key concept, both in economic policies and in environmental management. On the basis of an systems ecology perspective, this suggests the sustainable development of Korea\`s natural environment and economic activity using the EMERGY evaluation. The total EMERGY use(7,730E20sej/yr) in Korea is 81 percent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. The ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources is already large, like other industrialized countries. Continued availability of purchased inputs at a favorable balance of EMERGY trade, currently about 2.85 to 1 net EMERGY, tis the basis for present economic activity and must decrease as the net EMERGY of purchased inputs including fossil fuels goes down. EMERGY yield ratio and environmental loading ratio were 1.23 and 20.30, respectively. The population level is already in excess of carrying capacity. Its carrying capacity for steady state on its renewable sources is only 2.2 million people, compared to 45.9 million in 1977. EMERGY sustainability index is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. Until now the development of a country has been achieved by the economic growth, but it can be sustained in the long run by the use of renewable resource systems. the efficiency of energy usage, and the transformation of the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.45-51
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• 1999

Emergy concept was used to evaluate the contributions of a dam construction to the real wealth of our economy. A dam that is proposed as a multi-purpose dam was used to illustrate emergy evaluation methodology. Models for emergy evaluation were constructed with energy systems language, a symbolic modeling language which presents network properties of systems holistically. Water supply was the most important contribution in terms of emergy, which reflects that the dam is proposed for stable water supply to a local region. Generation of electricity was the second in emergy benefits of the dam. Emergy costs were more evenly distributed among the costs which would occur as a result of the dam construction. Emergy yield ratio was 1.30 if sediments are not included, and 1.15 if sediments are included, which results in net yield in both cases. The ratio would, however, fall below 1.0 if rare species within the system boundary are lost as a result of the dam construction because of the high emergy value included in biotic species, which means that emergy costs will be greater than emergy benefits. This study illustrated a new methodology in environmental impact assessment to better manage our environments in an age of diminishing resources.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.629-636
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• 1996

The developments of mariculture fisheries depend on both the natural environmental inputs such as sun, rain, wind, tide and the economic inputs such as ships, fuels, facilities, labor. for the enhancement of mariculture productivity in Deukryang Bay, a new attempt has been made to connect the environmental resources and the economic activity within one system. This study applies EMERGY analysis that evaluates environmental energies, fuels, goods and services in terms of solar emjoelus. In total EMERGY use $(69.65\times10^{20}\;sej/yr)$ the natural environment inputs is $78\%\;(54.60\times10^{20}\;sej/yr)$. This means that the mariculture in Deukryang Bay depends on mainly environmental resources. Net EMERGY yield ratio was 4.63 which indicated high value as a resource, EMERGY investment ratio was 0.28 that means to gain 3.6 times energy from the natural environment than those of economy. If the fisherie's products are made by renewable EMERGY input to Deukryang Bay, the calculated carrying capacity of fishes, crustaceans, shellfish and seaweeds were 1,140, 110, 1,553 and 9,074 ton/yr, respectively. If the quantity of renewable EMERGY input to mariculture grounds in Deukrysng Bay was calculated-based on only shellfish product, shellfish products was estimated as about 1,195 ton/yr.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.689-700
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• 1996

Fisheries products have to be produced and maintained by work processes from the environment, sometimes helped by people. In Korean fisheries both environmental production and its economic use are included within the windows of system approach. EMERGY is the sum of all inputs expressed as one form of solar energy required directly and indirectly to make a product. Calculating EMERGY flows into Korean fisheries evaluates the real wealth contributed by environmental production and its economic use. Several indices calculated from EMERGY analysis table and a three-arm diagram give perspective on the type and efficiency of the environmental uses. Net EMERGY yield ratio is a measure of its net contribution to the economy beyond its own operation. For adjacent waters fisheries in Korea, the net contribution to the economy is 11.85 or higher, which is a stimulus to the economy that is able to purchase it. EMERGY investment ratio measures the intensity of the economic development and the loading of the environment. The ratio for Korean fisheries as a whole is 0.50, for the adjacent waters fisheries 0.09 and for the shallow-sea cultures 1.28, which is lower than the same index for the industry of the developed country (7.0). The component of environment drawn into production are large compared to purchased investment in Korean fisheries. Much more EMERGY is contained in fisheries products than in the paid services used to process the products. The EMERGY exchange ratio for Korean fisheries as a whole is 6.98, for the adjacent waters fisheries is 10.69 and for the shallow-sea cultures is 1.25. Using market values to evaluate wealth of environment resources is found to be many times too small. Money is paid only to people for their contribution, and never to the environment for its contribution. Macroeconomic value is the appropriate measure for discussing large-scale considerations of an economy, including environment and human goods & services.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2017

Emergy methodology was used to analyze the biophysical basis of Korean agriculture and assess its sustainablility. Total yearly emergy input into Korean agriculture was $7.72{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$ in 2013. Purchased inputs were the dominant emergy source, accounting for 90.1% ($6.95{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$) of the annual input. This clearly indicates that the Korean agriculture is a modern, industrialized system that depends mostly on market goods and services derived from nonrenewable resources. The monetary equivalent of the total emergy input was 18.9 trillion \/yr, 1.5 times greater than the total production cost from farm expense surveys. Emergy return on investment of Korean agriculture was low, with an emergy yield ratio of 1.11. Korean agriculture appears to exert pressure on the environment as revealed by the high environmental loading ratio of 9.30. With very low emergy input from renewable sources (9.7%) and high environmental pressure, Korean agriculture is not sustainable, with an emergy sustainability index of 0.12. This study suggests that higher use efficiency of and lower dependence on nonrenewable purchased inputs need to be prioritized in an effort to enhance the sustainability of Korean agriculture.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.507-514
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• 2013

The Nakdong River being used as drinking water sources for the Busan metropolitan city has the vulnerability of water management due to the fact that industrial areas are located in the upper Nakdong River. This study used emergy analysis method to evaluate ecological-economics of water treatment systems of D water treatment plant (WTP) where located in the downstream of the Nakdong River. The emergy methodology is a system evaluation tool that uses energy as the common currency to compare different resources on a common basis. Emergy yield ratio (EYR) and emergy sustainability index (EmSI) of D WTP were 1.16 and 0.18, respectively. It means not resources and sustainable system but consumer goods and not sustainable system. Ratio of emergy benefit to the purchaser (EBP) shows 2.7 times higher than economic costs. To change the weak water source and situations we need to diversity water intake.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.169-179
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• 2005

With the industrialization in Korea, the economy has invested more resources on industry and less on agricultural production. However, agriculture is still an important industry, since the whole nation depends on rice for their living. And the proportion of agricultural land is relatively large, which leads issuing environmental aspects of agriculture in this country. This study was conducted to evaluate the environmental and economical aspects of agriculture in Korea, using system ecological concept, Emergy. The total Emergy inflow of Korean agriculture was $336.57{\times}10^{20}\;sej{\cdot}yr^{-1}$ in 2003. Emergy yield ratio, the ratio of non-renewable and imported Energy use to renewable Emergy use, was 5.21, which shows the agriculture in Korea has such a value as that of the world oil resources in 1986. Also, total agricultural product was $13.55{\times}10^{16}\;J{\cdot}yr^{-1}$ in 2003 and the Energy inflow was $121.09{\times}10^{20}\;sej{\cdot}yr^{-1}$. From these data, solar transformity of Korean agriculture was estimated as $8.68{\times}10^4\;sej{\cdot}J^{-1}$.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.185-191
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• 2000

Sustainable development has been the key concept, both in economic policies and in environmental management since 1970s. In the view of systems ecology, sustainable resource use strategies are considered to be essential in achieving sustainable development. During the last three decades, the discipline of systems ecology has applied ecological energetic analysis to the evaluation of the contribution of natural environments to economic systems. ENERGY analysis of main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems of a city was made including environmental energies, fuel, and inputs, all expressed as solar emjoules. Total EMERGY use of Pusan was 3.89 E22 sej/yr, about 90 percent of it was purchased sources from outside during eleven years from 1985 to 1995. EMERGY flows from the environment were less than 10 percent. EMERGY yield ratio and environmental loading ratio were 1.10 and 10.45, respectively. EMERGY sustainability index is there(ore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. Development of a city has been achieved in the short run by the economic growth, but it can be sustained in the long run by the use of renewable resource systems.