Sustainable Development Models for the Analysis of the Province of Modena (Italy)

Sustainable development models for the analysis of the Province of Modena (Italy)

S. Bastianoni, M. Porcelli, E. Tiezzi Department of Chemical and Biosystems Sciences, University of Siena, Plan del Mantellini 44, 53100 Siena, Italy

Email: simo@spectrum. chim. unisi. it

Abstract

It is becoming fundamental that public policy is based on a system of values, which are in agreement with the dynamics and equilibria of the biosphere. We present an holistic approach, emergy analysis, essentially devoted to the assessment of sustainable development. With this methodology it is possible to compare the value of human and natural systems on a common basis: the quantity of solar energy directly and indirectly required for the production of an item. This quantity is called emergy and represents the memory of all the energy, matter and time that the biosphere used to make a product available. The emergy concept is the basis of a system of indicators able to evaluate the efficiency, the environmental stress and the sustainable use of the resources, involved in a single process or in systems at various scales. We applied the emergy analysis to study the Province of Modena (Italy), in which seven districts were identified. The Province as a whole has results that are generally worse than the Italian average, expecially for the quantity of imported non-renewable inputs that are fundamental for the local economy. This fact implies that the impact of the economic activities is not only on the Province of Modena itself, but also on the regions from which the energy and material are imported. The Province exports twice the imported emergy. Within the Province of Modena there is not homogeneity among the districts: the Sassuolo district shows the worst results for environmental loading but relatively good efficiencies; while the mountain- hill zone has the lowest environmental impact, still maintaining good efficiency and use of natural resources. Between these two extremes, are all the other districts. Maps are produced in order to show a pattern of sustainability throughout the Province.

1 Introduction

Sustainable development has become an essential factor in international environmental policy, in which a correct resources management is essential.

Sustainable development models and sustainability indicators represent a tool that allows the policy maker to evaluate alternative scenarios, on a scientific basis, both on a local and a national levels. In this paper we propose the use of sustainable development models based on the emergy concept* for the assessment of the resources management in the Province of Modena (Italy). Emergy responds particularly well in the study of one of the fundamental principles of sustainability, as defined by Herman Daly , who asserted a process is sustainable only if the resources are consumed and used at a rate that allows for their continues renovation.

The examined area is located in the center of Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. The provincial territory is structured on 47 municipalities, and is extended on a 2,690 km" area with a population of 608,000. In this work, we produced a large net analysis of the Province of Modena and a detailed study regarding the seven districts in which the territory is divided. The analysis gave us a homogeneous data set from which we calculated all the emergy based indices and ratio, about efficiencies, environmental impacts, etc., in order to characterize the different geographic areas that compound all the examined provincial territory.

2 Emergy and sustainability indicators

Odum defined emergy as the quantity of solar energy necessary (directly or indirectly) to obtain a product or energy flow in a given process. Solar energy is the common basis of all energy flows occurring in the biosphere. The greater the emergy flow necessary to sustain a process, the greater the quantity of solar energy consumed, or in other words, the greater the energy cost for the environment. In this sense, emergy has been described as the memory of all the solar energy consumed during the process^. The units are Joules of solar energy, but are usually called "solar emergy joules" (sej). The emergy approach provides numerous important indicators: in particular, efficiency indices, sustainable indices and economic characterizations^. It is fundamental to distinguish the renewable and non-renewable components of the total emergy that drives a process or that describes a system, as well as the natural and economic inputs. The emergy-based indices that we used in this study are described below*". The emergy investment ratio (EIR) is the ratio of the emergy fed back by the economy to the sum of renewable and non-renewable local emergy inputs. This ratio indicates how effective the process is when using the economy's investment in comparison with alternatives. The emergy yield ratio (EYR) is the emergy of an output divided by the emergy of those inputs to the process that are imported from the "market" (i.e. not

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development 187 provided gratis by the environment). A higher ratio indicates that a process can better compete in supplying a primary energy source for an economy. The environmental loading ratio (ELR) is the ratio of purchased and non- renewable indigenous emergy to renewable environmental emergy. A large ratio suggests a high technological level in the use of resources, often associated to a high level of environmental stress. The stress can be either local or of the zone where the resources are obtained. The emergy availability to a system - in this case, the Province of Modena - can be referred to the population and to the area. In this way, other two indices based on the emergy approach can be calculated. The first is the emergy use per person, which suggests a measure of standard of life in a system. Standard of life should be here intended as availability and use of resources and goods; it cannot be considered as a measure of quality of life in the social sense. The second is the emergy density, that is a measure of the spatial concentration of emergy flow within a system. A high density eventually suggests a high level of technological and industrial development and a local environmental stress. The final index is the ratio between the exported emergy and the imported emergy. A high ratio usually means that the system imports raw materials, transforms and exports them outside as finished products. All these above mentioned indices are very useful to describe and characterize the analyzed system.

3 Results and discussion

The emergy analysis of the Province of Modena has been performed by considering the various subsystems that comprise the examined territory. We considered all the resources that entered the Province and the subsystems and the exports outside the Province . The emergy content of each item was calculated. By this way we evaluated all the resources flows and, by considering their renewability, we analyzed the environmental sustainability of the Province. The results we obtained were compared with the national values (see Table 1).

The total emergy the Province of Modena uses per year is two orders of magnitude less the entire Italy value, which perfectly agrees with the ratio of two systems different dimensions. However, emergy density values indicate a pressure on the environment similar to national average data. This indication can result also by comparing the emergy per person.

Different with respect to the national average, Modena has an export higher than import, both in money and in emergy terms. Higher export values were found in ceramic, textile-clothing , mechanical industry^. This means that the Province imports raw materials, processes them and exports finished goods; consequently, the environmental impact, due to the economical assets in the Province, does not reflect simply an impact on the Province of Modena but also on the regions where energy and raw material are imported from.

188 Ecosystems and Sustainable Development

Table 1. Comparison of the emergy indices of the Province of Modena with the national values.

Fluxes or indices Unit I>/loidena Italy Prcrvim:e

22 Total emergy sej 1 .35•10 1.41-1024 12 12 Emergy density sej/nr 5.02•10 4.69*10 16 16 Emergy use per person sej/person 2.22•10 2.49-10 Exported/imported emergy ratio 2.01 0.49 Emergy yield ratio 1.36 1.79 21.16 10.70 Environmental loading ratio Emergy investment ratio 2.79 1.27

All emergy values are calculated on a yearly basis.

Analyzing sustainability indicators, we can see Modena has an environmental loading ratio twice the national average, meaning that, in proportion, the Province uses a double amount of non-renewable resources (both endogenous and exogenous) with respect to renewable ones. A lower emergy yield ratio value and a higher emergy investment ratio together mean that the Province has a very high import of energy and raw materials with a globally limited utilization of local resources. At this point we looked to the share of the emergy flows inside the Province, examining the seven districts (see Table 2). The results put in evidence some homogeneity among the indicators so that it was possible to identify a pattern of sustainability throughout the seven districts, with areas of higher level of sustainability and areas where sustainability is still very far to be reached. Important observations can be made by analyzing the different total emergy used by the seven districts (see Table 2). In fact we can see that about 50% of this emergy is used within two districts only (Sassuolo and Modena) while the remaining 50% is equally distributed in the other five districts (around 10% per district).

Table 2. Results of the emergy indices for the seven districts of the Modena Province.

ixes or indices Mo

3. emergy ratio 2.01 1.57 1.61 1.44 3.55 1.64 1.

2.65'- 1 0 2.70-10^ 4.62-10* 1.84-10* 1.4: 1.22-10^ 1.50 density (sej/nT) 5.02-10" 6.02-10" 3,07-10" 1.61-10'* 2.26-10" 1.27-10" 8.22

30 6.0EHO- 8.90-10" 7.65-10^ 1.75-10- 9.91 •10' 5.96-10^ 5.73 use per person 2.22•10" 1.83-10" 1 85-10" 1.69-10" 3.30-10" 2.58-10" 2 16

yield ratio 1.36 1.16 1.07 1.34 1.50 1.75 1. . loading ratio 21.16 29.22 14.39 79.85 11:1.30 3.88 40 investment ratio 2.79 6.33 14.39 2.98 2.02 1.34 9. values are calculated on a yearly basis.

The same situation was observed regarding the emergy imported from the other economical sites. This underlines the fact that the Modena and Sassuolo districts have the highest technological level, but also the highest environmental stress: in these two districts, the environmental loading ratio is higher than the provincial average (Table 2). However, there is a difference between these two districts. The Modena district is a densely populated area, in which the concentration of people creates high concentration of emergy and the consequent environmental stress. In fact, considering the emergy per person, one observes that Modena utilizes low emergy per habitant, so that it requires less resources than other districts. We don't observe the same situation looking to Sassuolo district. It represents the least sustainable area of the Province, since it has a high environmental impact (the highest found in any analysis made at a territorial level), imports large quantities of resources for its industrial activities, while extracting from its territory huge quantities of inert (nonrenewable) materials. This situation indicates a structural fragility of the system because it tends to exhaust rapidly its own and external resources. The former will not be available for the future generations while the latter put the industrial area in a position of high dependency from exogenous non renewable resources. Both of these factors give Sassuolo an internal weakness, since it relies on resources that can become scarce or dependent on geo-political conditions. A diametrically-opposite situation was observed in the Hill-Mountain district. This area covers half the entire Province but it has the lowest population density. In this area there is a large use of renewable resources, e.g. utilizing local water to produce hydroelectric energy. This district shows the lowest environmental loading and the lowest emergy density in the Province, partially due to the large extension of the territory. The export/import emergy ratio and the emergy yield ratio however indicate a good productive efficiency. The last four districts, which comprise the provincial territory, don't show figures away from the values we calculated at provincial level, regarding both resources management and the environmental impact. All this data are summarized in sustainability maps (Figure 1 and 2).

4 Conclusions

In this study we have analyzed the environmental stress and the sustainable use of resources in the territory of Modena Province (Italy). We have used the emergy analysis to evaluate all the fluxes of material and energy that characterize the system, using, as a common basis, the solar energy required to obtain them.

The analysis demonstrates that overall the Modena Province is a system highly dependent from outside resources. It has a higher environmental loading respect to the national average, due to a lower use of local resources, especially renewable, and an excess of nonrenewable imported energies and materials. Within the Province we identified different areas characterized by a diametrically opposite use of resources. The Sassuolo district was found to be least sustainable, as the emergy analysis demonstrated an exceptionally high

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development 191

Mirandolau

Carpi' ) 29.22- , /

Cast&franco, ,26.6

Hill-Mountain

3.88

Figure 1. Map of distribution of the Environmental Loading Ratio among the seven districts of the Province of Modena

192 Ecosystems and Sustainable Development

Miraiidola 3.07

Hill-Mountain 1.27

Figure 2. Map of distribution of the Emergy density (measured in 10** sej/yr) among the seven districts of the Province of Modena

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development 193

environmental loading, typical of large urban center and high productive areas. On the other hand, the Hill-Mountain district seems to be in a situation of "sustainability paradigm" with its low environmental loading, high efficiency and renewable resources utilization. The Modena district (containing the city of

Modena) has high environmental loading but the lowest emergy per person in the Province, meaning that the stress to the environment is not high for an urban area. This analysis demonstrates the emergy approach applied to a territorial level. We have striven to show how this technique is particularly suitable to understand the sustainability of a zone starting from the analysis of matter and energy fluxes, and focusing the attention on the sustainable use of the resources. This method supplies sustainability indicators to the policy maker, in his/her effort to analyze, evaluate and classify the examined areas and to propose alternatives.

Acknowledgments

We thank the administration of the Province of Modena for financial and technical support (especially given by Dr. Eriuccio Nora and Dr. Giovanni

Rompianesi). Cofm. MURST 97 CFSIB.

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