Study On Sustainable Development Assessment Of Dalian Based On Emergy Analysis

Regional Sustainable Development Evaluation (RSDE) is the theoretical basis to implement sustainable development strategy. At present, the research on sustainable development evaluation is still in groping stage both at home and abroad. Given the fact that an acknowledged index system along with an assessment method has not been established, we select emergy analysis on the basis of studying RSDE methods in the domestic and overseas. For this case, the main contents of this paper include:(1) Built upon sustainable development theory and different kinds of RSDE methods summary analysis, emergy analysis was chose to assess the regional ecological economic compound system sustainable development level and summarize emergy theory systematically. The steps and methods of emergy theory were explained, anong then how to integrate the pollutant discharges to impact on sustainability of the regional ecological economy system by using emergy analysis was vitally analyzed. Then we compared with the previous sustainable development evaluation index to explore the weaknesses and the application scope during the process of index system development.(2) Based on the regional compound ecosystem theory, the RSDE index systemwas built which refined the ecological economy system to three sub-systems:economy, energy and environment according to emergy analysis. The emergy of ecological service for diluting emissions (ES) and emergy loss caused by emissions (EL) to assess the pollutants discharges influences on the environment were selected. The ratio of nonrenewable energy to renewable energy (RNR), energy use per unit GDP (EUPG, J/$), environmental cost per unit GDP (ECPG, sej/$), emissions’impact per unit energy consumption (EIPEC, sej/J) to depict economic and energy sub-systems were chose. Then we selected structural coordination degree (SCD) and scale coordination index (SCI) to depict regional sustainable development status.(3) The evaluation index system was then used to analyze the sustainable development level of Dalian City, China during2000-2010. The results showed that Dalian’s economic and social development heavily relied on local non-renewable resources. Although the economic structure of Dalian was generally optimized, it continueed to face enormous resource and environmental pressures caused by its rapid economic growth. A scheme for sustainable development in Dalian should entail improving energy efficiency, optimizing the economic structure, strengthening pollution control, and subsequently promoting harmonious development of humans and nature. Emergy analysis provides a quantitive decision method for regional sustainable development. The framework established is practical and universal. The operable indicator system could fill up the blank of externality ecological system evaluation in Dalian, and this work is of practical and strategic significance to a certain extent.