Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 51 OF 157

Main Title Environmental Accounting Using Emergy: Evaluation of the State of West Virginia.
Author Campbell, D. E. ; Brandt-Williams, S. L. ; Meisch, M. E. A. ;
CORP Author National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab., Narragansett, RI. Atlantic Ecology Div. ;North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill. Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.
Publisher Mar 2005
Year Published 2005
Report Number EPA/600/R-05/006 ;NHEERL-AED-03-104;
Stock Number PB2006-100945
Additional Subjects Environmental management ; West Virginia ; Natural resources ; Evaluation ; Biological processes ; Renewable resources ; Sustainability ; Policies ; Environmental effects ; Quality of life ; Import-export balance ; Assessment methods ; Nonrenewable resources ; Emergy ; Environmental accounting
Internet Access
Description Access URL
https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=300066BU.PDF
Holdings
Library Call Number Additional Info Location Last
Modified
Checkout
Status
NTIS  PB2006-100945 Some EPA libraries have a fiche copy filed under the call number shown. 07/26/2022
Collation 120p
Abstract
Historically, questions related to environmental policy have been difficult to solve, because solutions depend on accurately balancing the needs of both human and natural systems. In addition, there has been no good way to express the socioeconomic and environmental effects of policies in common terms. The USEPA has recognized that a knowledge gap exists in our ability to assess the effects of environmental policies using a comprehensive, integrated approach. Assessment methods that can bridge this gap are needed to address complex issues of environmental policy. Based on past studies, environmental accounting using Emergy was identified as a method that had been used by some scientists to bridge the gap. This USEPA Project Report provides a guide to Emergy Analysis methods with particular emphasis on those methods used to characterize a state within the larger context of its region and the nation. An Emergy evaluation of the State of West Virginia was performed as a case study to illustrate the method. The results of the West Virginia case study provided indices that were used to elucidate several questions that environmental managers asked about this state, when considering policy needs for the state as a whole. Assessment methods for quantifying imports and exports to and from states within the United States were further developed in this study. The Emergy Analysis of West Virginia documented the environmental and economic resource base for the state in common terms (i.e. solar emjoules) and the indicators derived from the Emergy evaluation were used to examine questions of self-sufficiency, sustainability, the balance of exchange, and quality of life in the state as a whole.