A Modified Methodology for Regional Material Flow Analysis and its Application to Four Municipalities in China

Abstract

The rapid economic development is inevitably accompanied with resource depletion and environment degradation. To understand the status of material metabolism and identify effective solutions for environmental protection in China, this study develops a novel and standardized methodology for accounting regional material flows. Compared with previous studies, the proposed methodology takes renewable energy into consideration and provides a more accurate estimation method for non-metallic minerals used for construction. Then, the proposed approach is used to assess the material metabolism of four municipalities in China during 1997-2017. The results show that the domestic extraction and domestic processed output experience an increasing trend and then appear to decrease at the end of study period. Furthermore, Chongqing consumes the largest amount of material with lowest resource utilization efficiency, while Shanghai is predicted to enjoy a generally decline in domestic material consumption per capita. Finally, some policy implications are achieved for sustainable development in China.