Evaluation of two hydropower plants in Brazil: using emergy for exploring regional possibilities
نویسندگان
چکیده
Two Brazilian hydropower plants (Jupi a and Porto Primavera) located in the same watershed were explored in terms of the global resources needed to support these enterprises using a donor-side approach. Emergy theory and methods although commonly used by environmental scientists, may seem difficult to interpret for policy and decision-makers. Because of this, the possibility of transforming emergy flows and indices into money and area measures is explored in the present paper. Both hydropower plants deliver the same power and rely on practically the same infrastructure but involve very different flooded areas. Indirect areas calculated in terms of emergy show the different spatial distribution of resources. Some realistic alternatives for development were explored from both environmental and economic perspectives by using the emergy investment ratio and taking into account the matching between the enterprises emergy flows and the regional ones. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
منابع مشابه
Impact of floating platforms on the limnological aspects of hydropower plant reservoirs
Floating platforms at the hydropower plant reservoirs are attractive sites for aquaculture, fishing and other recreational activities. However, the unregulated construction of these platforms may negatively affect the fauna, flora and water quality of reservoirs. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of floating platforms on the limnological aspects of Nova Ponte hydropower plant reserv...
متن کاملWealth, Trade and Environment in Brazil and Italy. an Emergy-based Comparison of Carrying Capacity, Economic Performance and Wellbeing
Time and spatial scales matter. Time series analyses have been proven to be useful in capturing tendencies of a country’s economical behavior. Large-scale evaluations at national scale are essential to highlight the basic parameters relevant to smaller scale case studies (regional, local, and sectors). Due to the importance and variability of those parameters or indicators over time and spatial...
متن کاملAn Exploration of the Use of EMERGY in Sustainability Evaluation
This paper has the goal of exploring the possibility of using EMERGY in sustainability evaluation. A case study that compares the sustainability of two maize irrigation systems (furrow vs. solid set sprinkler, both with electric pumping) is used as the basis of the discussion. The furrow irrigation system presents a lower total EMERGY, yielding a lower transformity. The main reason is the lower...
متن کاملEmergy Evaluation and Ecological Footprint Analysis for Regional Environmental Sustainability Assessment: A Comparison
Several methods for regional environmental sustainability assessment have been proposed by the scientific community in the last few years, including two interesting resource-use based tools: Emergy Evaluation (Emergy) and Ecological Footprint Analysis (Footprint). Emergy Evaluation assesses all resources used, directly and indirectly, to support a region economy. Ecological Footprint Analysis e...
متن کاملCritical Analysis of the Swedish Biofuel Policy using Emergy Synthesis
Emergy synthesis is used as a tool for a critical analysis of biofuels promoted by the Swedish energy policies. We evaluate the production process of three different biofuels in Sweden: Ethanol from wheat (Transformity: 9.19E+04 seJ/J, Renewability: 12% Emergy Yield Ratio: 1.15); methanol from willow (second generation biofuel) (Transformity: 6.06E+04 seJ/J, Renewability: 10% Emergy Yield Ratio...
متن کامل