The day-by-day increasing interest on appropriate resource management and environmental integrity calls for a unified measure of resource quality, in order to provide a rational, science-based method for evaluation of commodities, energy, societal and environmental services. This course describes the Emergy approach and the role of emergy in environmental management and policy making. Specifically the course: •Describes the theoretical basis, calculation procedures and applications of emergy •Introduces the concept of Unit Emergy Value (transformity, specific emergy, emergy intensities), a characterization factor expressing the energy of one type required to produce a good or a service •Provides formulas and procedures for emergy calculations •Deals with the use of emergy to evaluate natural capital, environmental services, economies and international trade, economic sectors and production processes, land use and land use change •Compares the emergy approach to other, complementing environmental and economic evaluations Five chapters course stressing emergy concepts, theory, and principles.Each chapter is composed of 4 sessions.One or two sessions each chapter is devoted to a case study that includes “hands-on” computation of emergy or simulation of models to reinforce lecture material and extend understanding of systems concepts.
