Systems ecological accounting for wastewater treatment engineering: Method,indicator and application

Wastewater treatment facility is vital for sustainable urban development. In the course of removing contaminants and discharging ready-for-reuse water, wastewater treatment consumes resources and triggers environmental emission during its lifetime. A comprehensive framework to analyze the embodied ecological elements as natural resources and environmental emissions of wastewater treatment is presented in this work. The systems method as a combination of process and input–output analyses is applied and a set of indicators are accordingly devised. Two representative ecological elements, i.e., greenhouse gases emissions and solar emergy of alternative wastewater treatment systems, i.e., a traditional activated sludge wastewater treatment plant and a constructed wetland have been taken into consideration. For each ecological element, five indicators have been calculated and compared to assess the impact on climate change and resources utilizing style of the case systems. The framework raised in this paper is fully supportive for optimal decision-making among different wastewater treatment technologies, and could be transplanted to be applied to systems ecological accounting for other production systems.     

A review of methods to trace material flows into final products in dynamic material flow analysis: From industry shipments in physical units to monetary input–output tables,Part 1

Dynamic material flow analysis (dMFA) is widely used to model stock-flow dynamics. To appropriately represent material lifetimes, recycling potentials, and service provision, dMFA requires data about the allocation of economy-wide material consumption to different end-use products or sectors, that is, the different product stocks, in which material consumption accumulates. Previous estimates of this allocation only cover few years, countries, and product groups. Recently, several new methods for estimating end-use product allocation in dMFA were proposed, which so far lack systematic comparison. We review and systematize five methods for tracing material consumption into end-use products in inflow-driven dMFA and discuss their strengths and limitations. Widely used data on industry shipments in physical units have low spatio-temporal coverage, which limits their applicability across countries and years. Monetary input–output tables (MIOTs) are widely available and their economy-wide coverage makes them a valuable source to approximate material end-uses. We find four distinct MIOT-based methods: consumption-based, waste input–output MFA (WIO-MFA), Ghosh absorbing Markov chain, and partial Ghosh. We show that when applied to a given MIOT, the methods’ underlying input–output models yield the same results, with the exception of the partial Ghosh method, which involves simplifications. For practical applications, the MIOT system boundary must be aligned to those of dMFA, which involves the removal of service flows, sector (dis)aggregation, and re-defining specific intermediate outputs as final demand. Theoretically, WIO-MFA, applied to a modified MIOT, produces the most accurate results as it excludes massless and waste transactions. In part 2 of this work, we compare methods empirically and suggest improvements for aligning MIOT-dMFA system boundaries.     

生态系统生产总值的内涵、核算框架与实施条件——统计视角下的设计与论证

基于已有研究和中国当前实践,对GEP的内涵和核算框架进行理论论证,以期为GEP的后续应用开发提供基本规范。(1)辨析当前GEP已有定义,提出了经过优化的GEP定义:特定时期内一区域生态系统为经济生产和人类其他活动提供的最终产出价值,具体包括生态供应品、生态调节服务和生态文化服务三个组成部分。(2)确定GEP在以下两个方面的应用价值:辅助GDP评价区域发展业绩;为区域生态补偿提供标准。(3)参照国内生产总值(GDP)核算原理,设计出一套生态系统供应品和服务供给表和使用表,在此基础上生成了规范的GEP核算表和核算方法。(4)将框架设计落实到GEP核算实施层面,提出了后续需要考虑的相关分类体系、关键节点、实物和价值核算方法设计等重要问题及解决思路。     

多类型保护地生态承载力核算模型及应用

生态承载力核算是进行保护地科学保护和有效利用的重要基础。多类型保护地是多种类型的保护地分布集中、相邻相连、交叉重叠的地理空间。研究将多类型保护地功能空间与生态系统服务相对应,划分为生态空间、生产空间、生活空间和游憩空间,在此基础上将多类型保护地生态承载力定义为生态系统在这四类空间中维持其重要生态系统服务功能的能力,并将其划分为自然基础承载力、社会经济活动承载力以及游憩承载力,构建了适用于多类型保护地的生态承载力核算框架模型。以三江源国家公园黄河源园区为案例区,进行了生态承载力核算。研究能够为多类型保护地经济建设规模、结构与布局优化调控研究提供科学依据。     

福州市生态系统生产总值核算

开展生态系统生产总值(GEP)核算是推进生态文明制度建设的必要措施,也是将生态效益纳入经济社会发展评价体系的重要举措。本研究以福州市为研究对象,通过构建具有“山、海、城”特色的生态系统价值核算体系,对2015和2018年福州市GEP进行核算,从时空变化角度对福州市GEP进行对比。结果表明: 2015、2018年福州市GEP分别为9205.92、10472.42亿元,人均GEP分别为13.02、14.39万元,生态产品供给服务价值分别为941.81、1102.61亿元,生态调节服务价值分别为6364.20、5988.51亿元,生态文化服务价值分别为1899.91、3381.3亿元。与2015年相比,2018年福州市GEP增加1266.50亿元,增幅为13.8%,主要得益于生态产品供给服务价值和生态文化服务价值的增加。然而,生态调节服务价值减少375.69亿元,降幅为5.9%,主要源于气候调节、水流动调节和水质净化服务价值的减少。福州率先探索建立一套具有山、海、城特色的核算体系,可以为福建省其他城市及我国其他地区的核算工作提供“福州样板”,同时助推建立生态价值实现的长效机制。     

Urban development and sustainability challenges chronicled by a century of construction material flows and stocks in Tiexi,China

Construction materials are considerable forces of global environmental impacts, but their dynamics vis‐à‐vis urban development are poorly documented, in part because their long lifespans require elusive and sometimes nonexistent decade‐long high‐resolution data. This study analyzes the construction material flow and stock trends that shaped and were shaped by the development, decline, and renewal of the Tiexi district of Shenyang, a microcosm of China's urban transformations since the early 20th century. Chronicling building‐by‐building the material flows and stock accumulations involved in the buildup of this area, we shed light on the physical resource context of its socioeconomic history. We find that 42 million tonnes of construction materials were needed to develop the Tiexi district from 1910 to 2018, and 18 million tonnes of material outflows were generated by end‐of‐life building demolition. However, over 55% of inflows and 93% of outflows occurred since 2002 during a complete redevelopment of the district. Only small portions of end‐of‐life materials could have been reused or recycled because of temporal and typological mismatches of supply and demand and technical limitations. Our analysis reveals a dramatic decrease in median building lifetimes to as low as 6 years in the early 21st century. These findings contribute to the discussion of long‐term environmental efficiency and sustainability of societal development through construction and reflect on the challenges of urban renewal processes not only in China but also in other developing and developed countries that lost (or may lose) their traditional economic base and restructure their urban forms. This article met the requirements for a Silver/Silver JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .     

A first revision of the Italian Ecoregion map

Abstract

According to advances in phytogeographic knowledge, a revision of boundaries for the Italian Ecoregions have been made. Main changes relate to the southern and eastern limits between Temperate and Mediterranean Divisions. The revision triggered a comprehensive update of Ecoregions for an improved support to biodiversity and sustainable management initiatives.     

Natural climate solutions versus bioenergy: Can carbon benefits of natural succession compete with bioenergy from short rotation coppice?

Short rotation plantations are often considered as holding vast potentials for future global bioenergy supply. In contrast to raising biomass harvests in forests, purpose‐grown biomass does not interfere with forest carbon (C) stocks. Provided that agricultural land can be diverted from food and feed production without impairing food security, energy plantations on current agricultural land appear as a beneficial option in terms of renewable, climate‐friendly energy supply. However, instead of supporting energy plantations, land could also be devoted to natural succession. It then acts as a long‐term C sink which also results in C benefits. We here compare the sink strength of natural succession on arable land with the C saving effects of bioenergy from plantations. Using geographically explicit data on global cropland distribution among climate and ecological zones, regionally specific C accumulation rates are calculated with IPCC default methods and values. C savings from bioenergy are given for a range of displacement factors (DFs), acknowledging the varying efficiency of bioenergy routes and technologies in fossil fuel displacement. A uniform spatial pattern is assumed for succession and bioenergy plantations, and the considered timeframes range from 20 to 100 years. For many parameter settings—in particular, longer timeframes and high DFs—bioenergy yields higher cumulative C savings than natural succession. Still, if woody biomass displaces liquid transport fuels or natural gas‐based electricity generation, natural succession is competitive or even superior for timeframes of 20–50 years. This finding has strong implications with climate and environmental policies: Freeing land for natural succession is a worthwhile low‐cost natural climate solution that has many co‐benefits for biodiversity and other ecosystem services. A considerable risk, however, is C stock losses (i.e., emissions) due to disturbances or land conversion at a later time.     

西部欠发达地区生态经济系统能值分析——以青海省海西蒙古族藏族自治州为例

青海省海西蒙古族藏族自治州（简称海西州）生态环境脆弱,快速发展的工业活动对当地生态环境造成严重破坏。海西州地处青藏高原东北部,是我国重要的生态安全屏障之一,在全国生态建设中处于特殊地位。能值分析法是一种基于热力学理论的环境核算方法。利用能值分析法对海西州生态经济系统运行现状进行评估;并应用能值指标评价海西州生态经济系统的可持续发展水平;通过对能值指标的时间序列分析揭示海西州生态经济系统的发展趋势,以期为海西州生态经济系统的可持续发展提供参考依据。研究结果表明,2016年支撑海西州生态经济系统运行的总能值投入量为6.69×10²⁴ sej,是2010年总能值投入量的1.94倍。在2010-2016年的7年内,不可更新资源的能值投入占当年总能值投入量的比例均超过90%,而可更新资源能值投入量与从系统外输入到海西州的能值量占比均较低。基于能值的指标分析显示：海西州的人均能值使用量、能值密度、能值货币比率、环境负载率分别从2010年的8.84×10¹⁸ sej/人、1.15×10¹³ sej/m²、3.05×10¹⁴ sej/US$、103.02增加到2016年的1.65×10¹⁹ sej/人、2.22×10¹³ sej/m²、9.12×10¹⁴ sej/US$、213.47;而相应的能值产出率、能值可持续发展指数则分别从2010年的2.66×10³和25.84降低到2016年的1.23×10³和5.74。研究结果表明虽然海西州经济得到发展、人民生活质量得到提高,而经济发展对当地不可再生资源依赖较大,给环境造成的压力不断增加。为从长远角度实现海西州的可持续发展,亟需转变经济发展方式,降低对不可更新能源的过度开发。此外,研究结果显示,海西州的能值交换率小于1,这说明研究时间范围内,海西州在对外贸易过程中处于不利地位,因此需增加单位产品的附加值以促进能值流的合理流动。