View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Papers U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2012 An energy systems view of sustainability: Emergy evaluation of the San Luis Basin, Colorado Daniel E. Campbell United States Environmental Protection Agency, [email protected] Ahjond S. Garmestani United States Environmental Protection Agency, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usepapapers Campbell, Daniel E. and Garmestani, Ahjond S., "An energy systems view of sustainability: Emergy evaluation of the San Luis Basin, Colorado" (2012). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Papers. 207. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usepapapers/207 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Journal of Environmental Management 95 (2012) 72e97 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman An energy systems view of sustainability: Emergy evaluation of the San Luis Basin, Colorado Daniel E. Campbella,*, Ahjond S. Garmestanib a United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI 02789, USA b United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Sustainable Technology Division, Sustainable Environments Branch, 26 W. Martin Luther King Drive, MS 498, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA article info abstract Article history: Energy Systems Theory (EST) provides a framework for understanding and interpreting sustainability. Received 16 September 2010 EST implies that “what is sustainable” for a system at any given level of organization is determined by the Received in revised form cycles of change originating in the next larger system and within the system of concern. The pulsing 11 July 2011 paradigm explains the ubiquitous cycles of change that apparently govern ecosystems, rather than Accepted 23 July 2011 succession to a steady state that is then sustainable. Therefore, to make robust decisions among envi- Available online 10 November 2011 ronmental policies and alternatives, decision-makers need to know where their system resides in the cycles of change that govern it. This theory was examined by performing an emergy evaluation of the Keywords: Sustainability sustainability of a regional system, the San Luis Basin (SLB), CO. By 1980, the SLB contained a climax stage Cycle of change agricultural system with well-developed crop and livestock production along with food and animal Energy Systems Theory waste processing. The SLB is also a hinterland in that it exports raw materials and primary products Emergy evaluation (exploitation stage) to more developed areas. Emergy indices calculated for the SLB from 1995 to 2005 San Luis Basin revealed changes in the relative sustainability of the system over this time. The sustainability of the Emergy indices region as indicated by the renewable emergy used as a percent of total use declined 4%, whereas, the renewable carrying capacity declined 6% over this time. The Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI) showed the largest decline (27%) in the sustainability of the region. The total emergy used by the SLB, a measure of system well-being, was fairly stable (CV ¼ 0.05). In 1997, using renewable emergy alone, the SLB could support 50.7% of its population at the current standard of living, while under similar conditions the U.S. could support only 4.8% of its population. In contrast to other indices of sustainability, a new index, the Emergy Sustainable Use Index (ESUI), which considers the benefits gained by the larger system compared to the potential for local environmental damage, increased 34% over the period. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Parris and Kates, 2003). According to Adams (2006), one reason for the broad popularity of these ideas may be their vagueness, Sustainability and the related concept sustainable development which has allowed individuals with different special interests to are current popular ideas that have captured the attention of interpret them in ways that conform to their own particular goals, governments, industry, the public, and many scientists, including priorities, and worldviews. In addition, these ideas may be popular economists, ecologists, and environmental scientists (Adams, 2006; because they imply movement toward a solution to the present, Cabezas et al., 2003; Kay et al., 1999; Parris and Kates, 2003; Pezzy pressing, socioeconomic and environmental problems that and Toman, 2002). Sustainable development has been promulgated confront the world, such as the growing environmental impacts of as a goal for environmental systems, i.e., systems composed of civilization on the biosphere (Vitousek et al., 1997) and the economic, social, and environmental components and processes increasing disparity in human-well being between rich and poor (Adams, 2006; Kates et al., 2005). However, defining the goal itself countries (Mock and Steele, 2006). or the state of the system that is to be sustained is often described Emergy Analysis is a holistic approach for understanding in varying ways by different parties (Newton and Freyfogle, 2005; systems that has been applied broadly to assess the sustainability of nations (Brown, 2003; Lefroy and Rydberg, 2003; Ulgiati et al., * Corresponding author. 1994; Lan and Odum, 1994), states (Campbell, 1998; Campbell E-mail address: [email protected] (D.E. Campbell). and Ohrt, 2009; Campbell et al., 2005; Tilley, 1999), provinces 0301-4797/$ e see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.07.028 D.E. Campbell, A.S. Garmestani / Journal of Environmental Management 95 (2012) 72e97 73 (Tiezzi and Bastianoni, 2008), and counties (Lambert, 1999). The Recent studies in EST have promoted developing appropriate universal accounting quantity, emergy, is derived from the opera- technology by modeling the natural world, e.g., Tilley (2003) tion of the principles of thermodynamics as they govern far from proposed a symbiotic collaboration of industrial ecology and equilibrium systems and as they are applied in Energy Systems ecological engineering to ensure that environmental systems will Theory, EST (Odum, 1994, 1996). Determining the value of a product be sustainable in the future. Furthermore, Odum (1971a, 2007) or service by accounting for the solar emergy, i.e., the past use of proposed that the development of working partnerships between available energy converted to solar equivalent joules, that was humanity and nature was the way to attain more sustainable required for its production represents a fundamental change in our environmental systems. understanding of the nature of value and how it can be measured Because nothing lasts forever except arguably the universe itself (Odum, 1971a, 2007; Ju and Chen, 2011). EST and emergy (Odum, 2003), any system state or condition can only be sustained accounting are used in this paper, respectively, as a framework and over a finite time interval. The length of this time interval depends a method for developing a better understanding of the nature of on the external and internal available energies that can be used by sustainability. the system in maintaining its current state. Therefore, in a funda- The goals of this research paper are two-fold. The first goal is to mental manner, what is sustainable for a particular system depends develop, explore, and test a framework for understanding and on the relationship of that system to its external inputs of available interpreting the concept of sustainability that is grounded in EST energies and their rates of change, which in turn depend on the (Odum, 1994). This framework for interpreting “what is sustain- dynamics of the next larger system. In addition, a system’s condi- able” for a given system focuses on understanding the position of tion depends on its internal available energy storages and their the system in the observed cycles of change, which characterize state of depletion or renewal. Thus, from the perspective of EST, systems on all scales of hierarchical organization, and not on the sustainability of any given system state can only be understood illusion of a single condition or end state that will continue in within the context of a system’s internal resources and time series perpetuity. of external forcing functions that are generated in the next larger A second goal of this work is related to its position as part of system. a larger study. This larger study has the overall goal of using readily attainable data to develop general methods to determine if 2.2. Emergy measures of sustainability and system well-being a regional system is moving toward or away from more sustainable states. The first objective under this goal was to find indices that From an Energy Systems perspective, an analysis of “what is accurately reflect the condition of a regional system and its sustainable” for a system must consider