Abstract
Renewable natural resources, such as solar radiation, rainfall, wind, and geothermal heat, together with ecosystem services, provide the elementary supports for the sustainable development of human society. To improve regional sustainability, we studied the spatial distributions and quantities of renewable natural resources and net primary productivity (NPP) in Hokkaido, which is the second largest island of Japan. With the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) software, distribution maps for each type of renewable natural resource were generated by kriging interpolation based on statistical records. A composite map of the flow of all types of renewable natural resources was also generated by map layer overlapping. Additionally, we utilized emergy analysis to convert each renewable flow with different attributes into a unified unit (i.e., solar equivalent joules [sej]). As a result, the spatial distributions of the flow of renewable natural resources of the Hokkaido region are presented in the form of thematic emergy maps. Thus, the areas with higher renewable emergy can be easily visualized and identified. The dominant renewable flow in certain areas can also be directly distinguished. The results can provide useful information for regional sustainable development, environmental conservation and ecological management.
Highlights
Sustainability combined with emergy assessment and GIS and noted that China’s sustainable development situation was not optimistic
In Hokkaido, the geothermal heat flow mainly derives from volcanoes, and the geothermal heat flow emergy tends to concentrate near volcanoes
In areas with high emergy value winds, wind-power stations should be developed, whereas solar power stations could be considered for areas rich in solar radiation emergy
Summary
Sustainability combined with emergy assessment and GIS and noted that China’s sustainable development situation was not optimistic. Previous studies have shown mapping and visualizing approach has good potentials in supporting regional environmental planning and sustainable development, few research has paid attention on natural renewable sources and its relationship to net primary productivity (NPP) of ecosystem with a GIS-emergy approach. A GIS-emergy approach will be quite useful in mapping, visualizing and evaluating natural renewable resources in a certain area. To know the values and distribution of renewable natural resources and NPP of ecosystem as well as their relationship will provide useful information for local environmental policy making. We chose Hokkaido as our study area, a GIS-emergy approach was employed to analysis the values for all types of renewable natural resources (including solar radiation, geothermal heat, wind, and rain) and their spatial distributions.
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