Emergy unsustainability index for agricultural systems assessment: A proposal based on the laws of thermodynamics

被引：26

作者：

Artuzo, Felipe Dalzotto ^{[1
,2
]}

Allegretti, Gabriela ^{[3
,4
]}

Benedetti Santos, Omar Inacio ^{[5
,6
]}

da Silva, Leonardo Xavier ^{[7
,8
]}

Talamini, Edson ^{[7
,9
]}

机构：

[1] Brazilian Inst Bioecon INBBIO, Rua Afonso Tochetto 8, BR-99900000 Getulio Vargas, RS, Brazil

[2] Res Grp Bioecon Appl Agribusiness NEB Agro, Rua Afonso Tochetto 8, BR-99900000 Getulio Vargas, RS, Brazil

[3] Brazilian Inst Bioecon INBBIO, Endereco Av Soledade 159-302, BR-90470340 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[4] Res Grp Bioecon Appl Agribusiness NEB Agro, Endereco Av Soledade 159-302, BR-90470340 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[5] Brazilian Inst Bioecon INBBIO, Travessa Democrat 45,Apt 301, BR-93214360 Sapucaia Do Sul, RS, Brazil

[6] Res Grp Bioecon Appl Agribusiness NEB Agro, Travessa Democrat 45,Apt 301, BR-93214360 Sapucaia Do Sul, RS, Brazil

[7] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Fac Econ FCE, Dept Econ & Int Relat DERI, Av Bento Goncalves 7712, BR-91540000 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[8] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Interdisciplinary Ctr Studies & Res Agribusiness, Av Bento Goncalves 7712, BR-91540000 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[9] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Bioecon Res Grp, Interdisciplinary Ctr Studies & Res Agribusiness, Av Bento Goncalves 7712, BR-91540000 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

来源：

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT | 2021年 / 759卷

关键词：

Bioeconomics; Thermodynamics; Energy; Emergy; Exergy; Entropy; Agriculture; Livestock; SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT; SOIL-EROSION; SELF-ORGANIZATION; ENERGY ANALYSIS; HOMO-SAPIENS; FOOD DEMAND; ENTROPY; WATER; RESOURCES; CLIMATE;

D O I：

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143524

中图分类号：

X [环境科学、安全科学];

学科分类号：

08 ; 0830 ;

摘要：

The anthropic effects of agriculture call for more sustainable systems. Agricultural sustainability conventionally communicates an idea of perennity. However, the sustainability of living open systems, like agricultural systems, can be regarded as a mere utopian idea when the effects of the laws of thermodynamics are taken into account. Under such physical laws, what really exists is the fact that any system alone has the property of unsustainability. The rate of entropy production can denote the potential level of the unsustainability of a system. The higher the rate of entropy production in an agricultural system, the higher its potential for unsustainability. Directlymeasuring entropy in living open systems is unfeasible. Even so, such systemsare subject to the laws of thermodynamics. Indirect measurements of entropy in living open systems can be assessed by approximation through an analysis of the energy flows of the system. We used emergy analysis to account for the energy flows and compare the unsustainability among agricultural systems. However, the indicators proposed by emergy analysts have been more aligned with the perspective of sustainability. To change this perspective, we propose an emergy unsustainability index applied in this paper specifically to agricultural systems (EUIAS). EUIAS is not a simple inversion of the ESI obtained by the ratio between the Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR) and the Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR). The use of renewable exergy stored from one production cycle to another is one of the peculiarities of long-term agricultural systems. Therefore, quantifying the renewable and non-renewable fractions of resources used is fundamental to the EUIAS. A higher EUIAS means that an agricultural systemismore dependent on non-renewable economic resources than renewable resources, and, in general, environmental impacts are higher due to the use of non-renewable resources. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

引用

页数：13

共 144 条

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