Abstract
The development of the complex and multi-dimensional urban socio-economic system creates impacts on natural capital and human capital, which range from a local to a global scale. An emergy-based multiple spatial scale analysis framework and a rigorous accounting method that can quantify the values of human-made and natural capital losses were proposed in this study. With the intent of comparing the trajectory of Beijing over time, the characteristics of the interface between different scales are considered to explain the resource trade and the impacts of emissions. In addition, our improved determination of emergy analysis and acceptable management options that are in agreement with Beijing’s overall sustainability strategy were examined. The results showed that Beijing’s economy was closely correlated with the consumption of nonrenewable resources and exerted rising pressure on the environment. Of the total emergy use by the economic system, the imported nonrenewable resources from other provinces contribute the most, and the multi‑scale environmental impacts of waterborne and airborne pollution continued to increase from 1999 to 2006. Given the inputs structure, Beijing was chiefly making greater profits by shifting resources from other provinces in China and transferring the emissions outside. The results of our study should enable urban policy planners to better understand the multi-scale policy planning and development design of an urban ecological economic system.
Highlights
Due to the complex and multi-dimensional urban socio-economic system, the knowledge of the organizational structure, urban energy and material inward-outward flows [1], capturing the trade-offs between natural, economic and social capital [2] is a major step towards the design of sustainable development schemes
They indicate the spatial boundaries of the urban system, renewable emergy (R), i.e., the rain, wind, tides, waves, etc., Nature does work that indirectly supports the activities of the world socioeconomic system
Our research focused on the characteristics of the interface in Beijing between different scales based on an emergy synthesis approach, in order to highlight the resource trade and environmental impact and separate the inwards/outwards flow, economic and ecological losses between different scales
Summary
Due to the complex and multi-dimensional urban socio-economic system, the knowledge of the organizational structure, urban energy and material inward-outward flows [1], capturing the trade-offs between natural, economic and social capital [2] is a major step towards the design of sustainable development schemes. Analysis of individual urban processes is not enough for understanding the inherent functional principles and evaluating their environmental performance since such a narrow view may indistinguishably consider international and regional trading [4] or shift the environmental impacts to the other parts of local economic activities life cycle [5]. Challenges for urban development from a sustainable perspective have been divided into two categories: (1) modes of resource supply; (2) the activity boundary that outlines the emissions emitting operations for which a city is responsible and that must be accounted for in the city’s mass/energy balance. There is an urgent need to develop a quantitative methodology that can evaluate both the resource supply and the adverse environmental effects of urban socio-economic systems at different scales and take into account how they affect the urban system’s dynamics and sustainability.
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