• 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.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.449-454
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• 2000

Sustainable development has been the key concept, both in economic policies and in environmental management. On the basis of an systems ecology perspective, this suggests the sustainable development of Korea\`s natural environment and economic activity using the EMERGY evaluation. The total EMERGY use(7,730E20sej/yr) in Korea is 81 percent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. The ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources is already large, like other industrialized countries. Continued availability of purchased inputs at a favorable balance of EMERGY trade, currently about 2.85 to 1 net EMERGY, tis the basis for present economic activity and must decrease as the net EMERGY of purchased inputs including fossil fuels goes down. EMERGY yield ratio and environmental loading ratio were 1.23 and 20.30, respectively. The population level is already in excess of carrying capacity. Its carrying capacity for steady state on its renewable sources is only 2.2 million people, compared to 45.9 million in 1977. EMERGY sustainability index is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. Until now the development of a country has been achieved by the economic growth, but it can be sustained in the long run by the use of renewable resource systems. the efficiency of energy usage, and the transformation of the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.10 no.S_1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2001

An emergy evaluation of the natural environment ant economy of Seoul revealed that Seoul used 1.27 E23 sej/yr of emergy in 1997. The emergy input from the Han River accounted for most of the renewable emergy sources. Emergy imported from foreign countries and other parts of Korea accounted for 97% of the total emergy use in Seoul in 1997, revealing that the economy of Seoul is more dependent on outside emergy sources than for the entire Korean economy. The emergy use per unit area(2.09 E14 sej/$m^2$/yr) was higher than that for the entire country or Pusan, whereas the emergy use per capita(1.22 E16 sej/person/yr) was lower than that for the entire country or Pusan. These results reflect the overcrowded conditions in Seoul where about one fourth of the Korean population now live. They also seem to indicate a lower living standard in Seoul than the average in Korea. The quality of living in Seoul could also be judged by a high environmental loading ratio and a low sustainability index. All there indices suggest that people in Seoul live under a higher environmental stress than the average person in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2000

An EMERGY analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expresses as solar emjoules. Total EMERGY use(720.0 E20 sej/yr) of the Nakdong River Basin is 96 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. EMERGY flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 4 percent of total EMERGY use. Consequently, the ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources was large, like other industrialized areas. EMERGY use per person in the Nakdong River Basin indicates a moderate EMERGY standard of living, even though the indigenous resources are very poor. Population of 6.66 million people in 1996 is already in excess of carrying capacity of the basin. Carrying capacity for steady state based on its renewable sources in only 0.226 million people. EMERGY yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.07 and 28.52, respectively. EMERGY sustainability index, a ratio of EMERGY yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. This study suggests that the economic structure of the Nakdong River Basin should be transformed from the present industrial structure to the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept for the sustainable use of the Nakdong River.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

This paper introduces emergy(spelled with "m") that is a new environmental indicator in architecture, aiming to clarify conflicting claims of building design components in the process of energy-retrofit. Much of design practitioners' attention on low energy use in operational phases, may simply shift the lowered environmental impact within the building boundary to large consumption of energy in another area. Specifically, building energy reduction strategies without a holistic view starting from natural formation, may lead to the depletion of non-renewable geobiological sources (e.g. minerals, fossil fuels, etc.), which leaves a building with an isolated energy-efficient object. Therefore, to overcome the narrow outlook, this research discusses the total ecological impact of a building which embraces all process energy as well as environmental cost represented by emergy. A case study has been conducted to explore emergy-driven design work. In comparison with operational energy-driven scenarios, the results elucidate how energy and emergy-oriented decision-making bring about different design results, and quantify building components' emergy contribution in the end. An average-size ($101.9m^2$) single family house located in South Korea was sampled as a benchmark case, and the analysis of energy and material use was conducted for establishment of the baseline. Adoption of the small building is effective for the goal of study since this research intends to measure environmental impact according to variation of passive design elements (windows size, building orientation, wall materials) with new metric (emergy) regardless of mechanical systems. Performance simulations of operational energy were developed and analyzed separately from the calculation of emergy magnitudes in building construction, and then the total emergy demand of each proposed design was evaluated. Emergy synthesis results verify that the least operational energy scenario requires greater investment in indirect energy in construction, which clearly reveals that efficiency gains are likely to be overwhelmed by increment of material flows. This result places importance on consideration of indirect energy use underscoring necessity of emergy evaluation towards the environment-friendly building in broader sense.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-445
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• 2010

An emergy analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expressed as solar emjoules. Total emergy use (371 E20 sej/yr) of the Western Nakdong River Basin is 97 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. Emergy flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 2.9 percent of total emergy use. Emergy yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.03 and 33.27, respectively. Emergy sustainability index, a ratio of emergy yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. It is necessary for an efficient management of Western Nakdong River Basin to reduce pollution load basically and to restructure economic activities into an environmental friendly industrial structure depending on renewable energy and resources.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.629-636
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• 1996

The developments of mariculture fisheries depend on both the natural environmental inputs such as sun, rain, wind, tide and the economic inputs such as ships, fuels, facilities, labor. for the enhancement of mariculture productivity in Deukryang Bay, a new attempt has been made to connect the environmental resources and the economic activity within one system. This study applies EMERGY analysis that evaluates environmental energies, fuels, goods and services in terms of solar emjoelus. In total EMERGY use $(69.65\times10^{20}\;sej/yr)$ the natural environment inputs is $78\%\;(54.60\times10^{20}\;sej/yr)$. This means that the mariculture in Deukryang Bay depends on mainly environmental resources. Net EMERGY yield ratio was 4.63 which indicated high value as a resource, EMERGY investment ratio was 0.28 that means to gain 3.6 times energy from the natural environment than those of economy. If the fisherie's products are made by renewable EMERGY input to Deukryang Bay, the calculated carrying capacity of fishes, crustaceans, shellfish and seaweeds were 1,140, 110, 1,553 and 9,074 ton/yr, respectively. If the quantity of renewable EMERGY input to mariculture grounds in Deukrysng Bay was calculated-based on only shellfish product, shellfish products was estimated as about 1,195 ton/yr.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.102-115
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• 2015

Several emergy researches have been carried out to estimate the value of marine ecosystem services in Korea over the last decade. Their results cannot be compared mainly due to inconsistency in emergy-money ratios used to convert emergy unit into monetary unit. This study aimed at providing a standardized format for the emergy evaluation of the Korean economy and environment for different emergy evaluations to be compatible. Even though the area of the continental shelf increased in this study compared to those of previous studies, areaweighted average tidal range for the entire continental shelf of Korea resulted in smaller tidal range, decreasing the final emergy input from tide. However, emergy inputs from nonrenewable resources and purchased goods and services increased with new categorization and use of more detailed data, combined with updated unit emergy values. This led to higher emergy-money ratio for the Korean economy, indicating that previous emergy valuations might have overestimated the contributions of marine ecosystem to the real wealth of the Korean society. The base year for gross domestic product used in the emergy evaluation needs to be clearly indicated due to its impact on the calculation of the emergy-money ratio. A standardized emergy table for the Korean economy will contribute to ensuring consistency among future emergy researches on the valuation of marine ecosystem services.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 1994

An emergy analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems was made including environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expressed as solar emjoules. The total emergy use (4, 373 E20 sej/yr) is 90 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. The emergy flows from the environment are modest, because the share of global inputs such as ruin and geological uplift flux is modest. Consequently, the ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources is already large, like other industrialized countries. The population level is already in excess of carrying capacity. The emergy use per person in Korea indicates a moderate emergy standard of living, even though the indigenous resource is very poor. If the present economy were running entirely on stored reserves of fuels, soils, woods, etc., it would last about 2 years. Its carrying capacity for steady state on its renewable sources is only 3.3 million people, compared to 43.3 million in 1991. Continued availability of foreign oil at a favorable balance of emergy trade, currently about 7 to 1 net emergy, is the basis for present economic activity and must decrease as the net emergy of foreign oil purchased goes down. Close economic integration with Middle East may determine how long this is possible in the future.