• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2017

Damage of both life and property has been increased by natural disaster under the influence of climate change, thus many natural disaster vulnerability researches have been carried out to make adaptation policy and impact assessment of climate change recently. Their method for assessing vulnerability usually have used proxy variables for making vulnerability indices. However, because their results were too qualitative and relative it tends to be hard to make absolute comparison and establish standard of prevention or adaptation ability. Accordingly, this study aimed at quantifying natural disaster vulnerability using emergy through recognizing disaster as the relations between order and disorder by system approach. As a result, ordering energy (4.66E+22 sej/yr) and ordered structure (1.98E+22 sej) of Busan in 2003 and disordering energy (7.80E+18 sej), disordered parts (4.55E+20 sej) and rebuilding energy (3.87E+20 sej) by typhoon Maemi were analysed. And then, this was compared with Hurricane Andrew in Dade County. Through this comparison, if the prevention ability of Busan increases, disordered parts can be reduced against the more powerful disordering energy. Also, prevention for additional damages by disaster is needed to practical rebuilding action. In conclusion, it was able to figure out the impact of disaster quantitatively by natural systems and urban systems showing as common measure. Based on this study and further research to make effective prevention for how much prevention ability should be increased will contribute to producing the scientific data for disaster management policy in future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.138-147
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• 2007

An emergy concept was used to evaluate the environment and economy of the Han River basin in Korea and to suggest policy perspectives far the sustainable utilization of its environment and associated estuarine ecosystem. The economy of the basin used $5.19{\times}10^{23}\;sej/yr$ of emergy in 2005. The economy of the Han River basin was heavily dependent on outside energy sources from foreign countries and other parts of Korea, with internal sources, renewable and nonrenewable, contributing only 15.6% to the total emergy use. The basin's trade balance in terms of emergy showed trade surplus, whereas there was a deficit in monetary terms. The population of the Han River basin was far greater than the carrying capacity calculated using the emergy flow, with renewable carrying capacity only at 1.8% of the basin's population and developed carrying capacity at 14.3%. The economy of the basin imposed a substantial stress on its environment, with an environmental loading ratio of 54.8. Overall, the economy of the Han River basin was not sustainable with an emergy sustainability of 0.02. These are reflected in lower quality of living expressed in the emergy term than the national average. Deconcentration of population and economic activities is needed to reduce environmental stress on the environment of the basin and its valuable estuarine ecosystem. Policies to restore ecosystem productivity of the basin are also needed to ensure the sustainability of the basin's economic activities and the sustainable utilization of the Han River estuary. In this regard, it is urgently needed for the Korean government to implement sustainable management measures for the Han River estuary, a well-preserved, productive natural estuarine ecosystem in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.45-51
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• 1999

Emergy concept was used to evaluate the contributions of a dam construction to the real wealth of our economy. A dam that is proposed as a multi-purpose dam was used to illustrate emergy evaluation methodology. Models for emergy evaluation were constructed with energy systems language, a symbolic modeling language which presents network properties of systems holistically. Water supply was the most important contribution in terms of emergy, which reflects that the dam is proposed for stable water supply to a local region. Generation of electricity was the second in emergy benefits of the dam. Emergy costs were more evenly distributed among the costs which would occur as a result of the dam construction. Emergy yield ratio was 1.30 if sediments are not included, and 1.15 if sediments are included, which results in net yield in both cases. The ratio would, however, fall below 1.0 if rare species within the system boundary are lost as a result of the dam construction because of the high emergy value included in biotic species, which means that emergy costs will be greater than emergy benefits. This study illustrated a new methodology in environmental impact assessment to better manage our environments in an age of diminishing resources.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.289-291
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• 2007

본 연구의 대상해역은 여수반도 남단에 위치한 가막만은 굴을 비롯한 패류양식 생산활동에 기여하는 자연환경의 실질적인 가치와 인간경제 시스템에 대한 EMERGY 분석법으로 평가하고자 한다. 이를 기초로 넙치생산의 지속적인 발전방향을 제시하고자 했다. 2004년 통계를 기준으로 가막만 양식에 유입되는 총 EMERGY의 양은 33.42E+19 sej/yr이고, 이 중 자연환경으로부터 영속성 에너지는 2.95E+20 sej/yr 이며, 주 경제로부터 유입되는 비영속성 에너지는 3.92E+19 sej/yr이다. 자연환경으로부터의 유입이 전체 에너지원의 88%이고, 주 경제로부터의 유입은 12%로서 환경자원에 대한 의존도가 높은 1차 산업의 구조적 특징을 나타내고 있다. Net EMERTY yield ratio는 8.52으로 이는 주 경제로부터 투입된 에너지(비영속성 에너지)에 대해 8배 만큼 수산물을 얻을 수 있는 자원으로서의 가치를 가진다. EMERGY Investment Ratio 0.13은 주 경제로부터 유입된 에너지의 약 7배에 해당하는 에너지를 자연환경에서 얻을 수 있음을 의미한다. EMERGY량이 모두 현재의 EMERGY 생산비대로 생산이 된다는 가정하면 가막만의 패류(굴) 생산량은 환경수용량의 50%정도에도 못 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.507-514
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• 2013

The Nakdong River being used as drinking water sources for the Busan metropolitan city has the vulnerability of water management due to the fact that industrial areas are located in the upper Nakdong River. This study used emergy analysis method to evaluate ecological-economics of water treatment systems of D water treatment plant (WTP) where located in the downstream of the Nakdong River. The emergy methodology is a system evaluation tool that uses energy as the common currency to compare different resources on a common basis. Emergy yield ratio (EYR) and emergy sustainability index (EmSI) of D WTP were 1.16 and 0.18, respectively. It means not resources and sustainable system but consumer goods and not sustainable system. Ratio of emergy benefit to the purchaser (EBP) shows 2.7 times higher than economic costs. To change the weak water source and situations we need to diversity water intake.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.473-480
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• 2005

The cost of the construction and management of new apartment buildings was evaluated using a monetary analysis and an emergy concept to provide a new perspective regarding the housing policy of Korea. The systems of analyses were typical apartment buildings with an area of $76.03m^2$ per household in Korea built on the same size of land area. Three apartment buildings with different stories were evaluated and compared; 5-story, 15-story, and 20-story apartment buildings. The durable years of those apartments were assumed to be 40 years. The total cost of the construction and management of an apartment building was divided into three categories of construction, land purchase, and management. A 20-story apartment showed the highest cost and a 15-story apartment the lowest in the monetary cost analysis. In contrast, the emergy evaluation revealed a different pattern in the cost of construction and management, the cost increasing from a 5-story apartment to a 20-story one. This means that the higher the apartment constructed, the greater the cost in terms of real wealth. This result suggests that new evaluation methodologies like the emergy analysis should be used together with the monetary analysis to provide better insights on the national housing policy.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2017

Emergy methodology was used to analyze the biophysical basis of Korean agriculture and assess its sustainablility. Total yearly emergy input into Korean agriculture was $7.72{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$ in 2013. Purchased inputs were the dominant emergy source, accounting for 90.1% ($6.95{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$) of the annual input. This clearly indicates that the Korean agriculture is a modern, industrialized system that depends mostly on market goods and services derived from nonrenewable resources. The monetary equivalent of the total emergy input was 18.9 trillion \/yr, 1.5 times greater than the total production cost from farm expense surveys. Emergy return on investment of Korean agriculture was low, with an emergy yield ratio of 1.11. Korean agriculture appears to exert pressure on the environment as revealed by the high environmental loading ratio of 9.30. With very low emergy input from renewable sources (9.7%) and high environmental pressure, Korean agriculture is not sustainable, with an emergy sustainability index of 0.12. This study suggests that higher use efficiency of and lower dependence on nonrenewable purchased inputs need to be prioritized in an effort to enhance the sustainability of Korean agriculture.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to analyze emergy flows of rice for evaluating the value of rice production and sustainability. Emergy analysis evaluates the sustainability of systems or processes considering all the inputs to make a product or a sevice. In this study, we analyzed the emergy flows and indices of rice productionand compared the regional emergy values using statisticcal analysis: input materials, hours per unit area(10a), and production costs. As the results, we found that the rates of external investment (EIR= 18.87) and environmental loading (ELR=21.7) are significantly high during the rice cultivation. However, emergy yield ratio(EYR) shows that rice is a valuable resource because EYR is 5.12 and environmental Sustainability IndexSI value is as low as 0.24 and it shows rice has low sustainability. This study also shows that Chungcheongnam-do has the highest SI value for rice production due to low environmental loading and abundant natural energy during rice cultivation. These results of rice emergy flows and sustainability assessments could provide a way of sustainable rice cultivation with decrease of environmental loading from fertilizer.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.243-252
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• 2006

The emergy concept was used to valuate the contributions of a tidal flat ecosystem included in the fourth stage reclamation plan for the Youngsan River area to the Korean economy. Emergy contributions of the ecosystem were compared with those of economic valuations performed on the same ecosystem. The tidal flat ecosystem contributed 3.55 million EmW/ha annually. This, however, cannot be compared directly with those of the economic valuations because both methodologies approach the valuation of ecosystems in different perspectives. The emergy methodology is a donor-based valuation in which what goes into making a product or service is measured, while the economic valuation is a receiver-based approach in which human receivers determine the value of an ecosystem product or service. An emergy valuation was conducted for the three ecosystem functions included in the economic valuations to compare the results of both methodologies on the same basis. Fishery production and pollutants removal contributed 9.86 million EmW/ha/yr and 0.88 million EmW/ha/yr, respective1y. The conservation value of the tidal flat ecosystem was 3.55 million EmW/ha/yr. Overall, the emergy valuation that try to include works of both human and nature on the same basis resulted in higher economic contribution of the tidal flat ecosystem than that calculated by the economic methodologies in which only human works are measured based on the willingness-to-pay of people. This study showed that the emergy concept could provide an alternative tool for policy decision-making regarding utilization and conservation of ecosystems by approaching the ecosystem valuation from a different perspective than that of economic methodologies.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.841-856
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• 2008

This research outlines a new method for evaluation of shellfish production in Gamak Bay based on the concept of EMERGY. Better understanding of those environmental factors influencing oyster production and the management of oyster stocks requires the ability to assess the real value of environmental sources such as solar energy, river, tide, wave, wind, and other physical mechanisms. In this research, EMERGY flows from environment sources were 76% for shellfish aquaculture in Gamak Bay. EMERGY yield ratio, Environmental Loading Ratio, and Sustainability Index were 4.26, 0.31 and 13.89, respectively. Using the Emergy evaluation data, the predicted maximum shellfish aquaculture production in Gamak Bay and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, U.S.) designated area in Gamak Bay were 10,845 ton/y and 7,548 ton/yr, respectively. Since the predicted shellfish production was approximately 1.3 times more than produced shellfish production in 2005, the carrying capacity of Gamak Bay is estimated to be 1.3 times more than the present oyster production.