• KIEAE Journal
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

This paper introduces emergy(spelled with "m") that is a new environmental indicator in architecture, aiming to clarify conflicting claims of building design components in the process of energy-retrofit. Much of design practitioners' attention on low energy use in operational phases, may simply shift the lowered environmental impact within the building boundary to large consumption of energy in another area. Specifically, building energy reduction strategies without a holistic view starting from natural formation, may lead to the depletion of non-renewable geobiological sources (e.g. minerals, fossil fuels, etc.), which leaves a building with an isolated energy-efficient object. Therefore, to overcome the narrow outlook, this research discusses the total ecological impact of a building which embraces all process energy as well as environmental cost represented by emergy. A case study has been conducted to explore emergy-driven design work. In comparison with operational energy-driven scenarios, the results elucidate how energy and emergy-oriented decision-making bring about different design results, and quantify building components' emergy contribution in the end. An average-size ($101.9m^2$) single family house located in South Korea was sampled as a benchmark case, and the analysis of energy and material use was conducted for establishment of the baseline. Adoption of the small building is effective for the goal of study since this research intends to measure environmental impact according to variation of passive design elements (windows size, building orientation, wall materials) with new metric (emergy) regardless of mechanical systems. Performance simulations of operational energy were developed and analyzed separately from the calculation of emergy magnitudes in building construction, and then the total emergy demand of each proposed design was evaluated. Emergy synthesis results verify that the least operational energy scenario requires greater investment in indirect energy in construction, which clearly reveals that efficiency gains are likely to be overwhelmed by increment of material flows. This result places importance on consideration of indirect energy use underscoring necessity of emergy evaluation towards the environment-friendly building in broader sense.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.141-154
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• 2016

본 연구는 자연환경이 우리의 사회 경제에 기여하는 진정한 가치를 평가하기 위한 노력들 중의 하나인 에머지(Emergy) 개념을 이용하여 국토의 실질적인 생태학적 가치와 사회 경제적 시스템간 상호작용을 규명하고, 국토의 지속성이 어느 정도 단계에 있는가를 평가하여 이를 바탕으로 국토환경용량을 산정하는데 주안점을 두고 시도되었다. 특히 인구에 회자되고 있는 환경용량을 고려한 지속가능한 개발이라는 개념이 논자의 주관에 따라 달리 평가되면서 이러한 지속가능성을 분석해 볼 수 있는 분석적인 틀(framework)이 잘 정비되어 있지 못함과 지속가능한 개발 또는 발전의 기본이 되는 인간과 자연간의 상호작용에 대한 보다 깊은 분석과 평가를 요구하는 현실을 주목하였다. 그리하여 환경용량을 고려한 지속 가능한 발전이 지니는 함의를 토대로 환경과 경제를 통합하여 분석이 가능한 에머지 개념을 이용하여 국토의 지속가능한 개발이 가능한가를 평가하고 우리 국토에 알맞은 환경용량과 지수를 산정하여 국토의 올바른 개발 방향을 모색하고, 이를 통해 국토이용계획의 정책결정에 있어 지속가능한 국토의 이용 및 관리를 유도할 수 있는 정책을 마련하는데 그 기틀을 제공하고자 함을 목적으로 하였다.

• 한국환경과학회지
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.305-314
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• 2008

As forest land takes up 65% of the Korean peninsula, there have been continuing conflicts between the development and conservation of forest land. As the income level has changed over time, the usage of forest land in society has changed. There has been increasing demands for forest land for urban development and recreational use. On the other hand, a large proportion of the land is required to be preserved for the forest and the natural ecosystem in it. The existing management system for the forest land has been designed focusing on the management of the trees on the land, and not the land itself. Due to this limitation, the current management system of forest land has failed to protect the forest land from being developed indiscreetly, making it difficult to conserve and develop the forest land in an efficient way. A major question in forest land management is how to integrate economic use activities with the supporting ecosystems to maximize performance of the ecological-economic system. In order to promote sustainable use of forest resources, and to achieve efficient forest land management, it is prerequisite to evaluation on forest resources of natural ecosystems. Quantitative measures are needed that signify how necessary the services and products of forested ecosystems are to human endeavors. In this study, the natural wealth provided by forest land was quantified based on emergy synthesis. Emergy is a universal measure of real wealth of the work of nature and society made on a common basis. Thus, Calculations of emergy provide a basis for making choices about environment and economy following the general public policy to maximize real wealth. The goals of forest land management to achieve balance between the ecology and economy of its integrated system and to foster equity among the diverse outcomes of the forest land were assessed with emergy. Emergy was demonstrated to holistically integrated and quantify the interconnections of a coupled nature-human system allowing the goals of ecological balance and outcome equity to be measured quantitatively. Doing so will provide a better understanding of the basis of forest land wealth and the consequences of management decisions.