Abstract
Sustainable tourism development depends on the wise use of resources and an understanding of the flows of emergy in these resources. Although emergy accounting provides a better method for measuring the sustainability of an economic system than simplistic quantifications of monetary flows, it is difficult to evaluate specific systems such as tourism due to lack of a powerful accounting method for embodied flows of materials and energy. In this chapter, we compared the four main emergy accounting approaches that are available for studying emergy flows through tourism, distinguished the consumption of emergy by tourists from the equivalent emergy their expenditures could purchase, and demonstrated the insights permitted by these approaches using a case study of tourism in Macao from 1983 to 2007.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abel, T. 2000. Ecosystems, sociocultural systems, and ecological-economics for understanding development: The case of tourism on the island of Bonaire, N.A. Ph.D. thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Abel, T. 2003. Understanding complex human ecosystems: The case of ecotourism on Bonaire. Conservation Ecology 7(3): 10.
Baumgärtner, S., and M. Quaas. 2010. Sustainability economics-general versus specific, and conceptual versus practical. Ecological Economics 69: 2056–2059.
Brandt-Williams, S. 2001. Handbook of emergy evaluation. A compendium of data for emergy computation issued in a series of folios. Folio #4: Emergy of Florida agriculture. Gainesville: Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida.
Brown, M. T., and E. Bardi. 2001. Handbook of emergy evaluation. A compendium of data for emergy computation issued in a series of folios. Folio #3: Emergy of ecosystems. Gainesville: Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida.
Brown, M. T., and V. Buranakarn. 2003. Emergy indices and ratios for sustainable material cycles and recycle options. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 38: 1–22.
Brown, M. T., and S. Ulgiati. 2001. Emergy measures of carrying capacity to evaluate economic investments. Population and Environment 22: 471–501.
Brown, M. T., and S. Ulgiati. 2010. Updated evaluation of exergy and emergy driving the geobiosphere: A review and refinement of the emergy baseline. Ecological Modelling 221: 2501–2508.
Campbell, D. E., S. L. Brandt-Williams, and M. E. A. Meisch. 2005. Environmental accounting using emergy: Evaluation of the state of West Virginia. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett.
DSEC. 2008. Yearbook of statistics. Macao: Statistics and Census Service. http://www.dsec.gov.mo/default.aspx?lang=en-US. Accessed Oct 2012.
Gössling, S., P. Peeters, J. Ceron, G. Dubois, T. M. Patterson, and R. Richardson. 2005. The eco-efficiency of tourism. Ecological Economics 54: 417–434.
Government of Macao. 2012. The historic centre of Macao. World Cultural Heritage Site. http://edocs.icm.gov.mo/Heritage/MWHE3.pdf. Accessed Oct 2012.
Huang, S. L., and H. T. Odum. 1996. Ecological energy evaluation of urban system. Taipei: James Publishing House (in Chinese).
Hunter, C., and H. Green. 1995. Tourism and the environment. A sustainable relationship. London: Routledge.
Jiang, M. M., J. B. Zhou, B. Chen, and G. Q. Chen. 2008. Emergy-based ecological account for the Chinese economy in 2004. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13: 2337–2356.
Lan, S. F., and H. T. Odum. 1994. Emergy evaluation of the environment and economy of Hong Kong. Journal of Environmental Sciences 4: 432–439.
Lan, S. F., H. T. Odum, and X. M. Liu. 1998. Energy flow and emergy analysis of the agroecosystem of China. Ecologic Science 17: 32–39 (in Chinese).
Lan, S. F., P. Qing, and H. Lu. 2002. The emergy analysis of ecological economy system. Beijing: Chemical Industry Publishers (in Chinese).
Lei, K. P., and Z. S. Wang. 2008a. Emergy synthesis of tourism-based urban ecosystem. Journal of Environmental Management 88: 831–844.
Lei, K. P., and Z. S. Wang. 2008b. Municipal wastes and their solar transformities: Emergy synthesis for Macao. Waste Management 28: 2522–2531.
Lei, K. P., F. P. Chen, and Z. S. Wang. 2006. The energy synthesis and sustainability analysis of city’s environment and economy. Acta Ecologica Sinica 26: 439–448 (in Chinese).
Lei, K. P., Z. S. Wang, and S. S. Tong. 2008. Holistic emergy analysis of Macao. Ecological Engineering 32: 30–43.
Lei, K. P., S. Q. Zhou, D. Hu, and Y. Y. Yu. 2010. Ecological energy accounting for the gambling sector: A case study in Macao. Ecological Complexity 7: 149–155.
Lei, K. P., S. Q. Zhou, D. Hu, Z. Guo, and A. Cao. 2011. Emergy analysis for tourism systems: Principles and a case study for Macao. Ecological Complexity 8: 192–200.
Luo, S. M., Y. H. Chen, and F. Yan. 1987. Agriculture ecology. Changsa: Hunan Science and Technology Publishing House (in Chinese).
Miao, H. K., D. C. Huo, Q. Lei, T. Zheng, and C. S. Wong. 1988. Macao. Guangzhou: Sun Yatsen University Press.
Odum, E. C., and H. T. Odum. 1980. Energy systems and environmental education. In Environmental education—Principles, methods and applications, eds. T. S. Bakshi, and Z. Naveh, 213–231. New York: Plenum.
Odum, H. T. 1987. Ecology and economy: “Emergy” analysis and public policy in Texas. Policy Research Project report 78, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin.
Odum, H. T. 1996. Environmental accounting: Emergy and environmental decision making. New York: Wiley.
Odum, H. T. 2000. Handbook of emergy evaluation. A compendium of data for emergy computation issued in a series of folios. Folio #2: Emergy of global processes. Gainesville: Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida.
Odum, H. T., and E. C. Odum. 1983. Energy basis for man and nature, 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Richards, G. 2001. Cultural attractions and Europe tourism. New York: CABI Publishing.
Ulgiati, S., H. T. Odum, and S. Bastianoni. 1994. Emergy use, environmental loading and sustainability, an emergy analysis of Italy. Ecological Modelling 73: 215–268.
UNEP and WTO. 2005. Making tourism more sustainable: A guide for policy makers. Paris: The Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Branch, United Nations. http://www.unep.fr/scp/publications/details.asp?id=DTI/0592/PA. Accessed June 2012.
Vassallo, P., C. Paoli, D. R. Tilley, and M. Fabiano. 2009. Energy and resource basis of an Italian coastal resort region integrated using emergy synthesis. Journal of Environmental Management 91: 277–289.
Yan, M. C., and H. T. Odum. 2001. New visual angle to view eco-economic systems. Beijing: China Zhigong Publishing House.
Zhang, L. X., B. Chen, Z. F. Yang, G. Q. Chen, M. M. Jiang, and G. Y. Liu. 2009. Comparison of typical mega cities in China using emergy synthesis. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 14: 2827–2836.
Zhang, Y., Y. W. Zhao, Z. F. Yang, B. Chen, and G. Q. Chen. 2008. Measurement and evaluation of the metabolic capacity of an urban ecosystem. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 14: 1758–1765.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Science Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lei, K., Zhou, S., Wang, Z. (2014). Emergy Analysis for Tourism Systems: Principles and a Case Study for Macao. In: Ecological Emergy Accounting for a Limited System: General Principles and a Case Study of Macao. Springer Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45170-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45170-6_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-45169-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-45170-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)