Environmentally-extended input-output and ecological network analysis for Energy-Water-CO2 metabolic system in China

Wenhao Xu; Yulei Xie; Yanpeng Cai; Ling Ji; Bishi Wang; Zhifeng Yang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143931

Environmentally-extended input-output and ecological network analysis for Energy-Water-CO₂ metabolic system in China

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 1:758:143931. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143931. Epub 2020 Dec 5.

Authors

Wenhao Xu¹, Yulei Xie², Yanpeng Cai³, Ling Ji⁴, Bishi Wang⁵, Zhifeng Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
² Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: xieyulei001@gmail.com.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Quality Improvement and Ecological Restoration for Watersheds, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: yanpeng.cai@gdut.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
⁵ State Grid Integrated Energy Planning and D&R Institute, State Grid Integrated Energy Services Group Co. Ltd, Beijing 100052, China.
⁶ School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: xia@me.ustb.edu.cn.

PMID: 33321362
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143931

Abstract

Resource and environmental elements as controlling factors for ecologic and socio-economic are crucial to seek new ideas and paths for development and prosperity. In this study, environmentally-extended input-output analysis and ecological network analysis were combined to develop three ecological networks including energy ecological network, water ecological network, and carbon ecological network for searching the complex relationships among different departments for water utilization, energy consumption, and carbon emissions under considering China as a superorganism with various complex metabolic processes and the most fundamental metabolic materials. The embodied ecological elements intensity, the indirect consumption and emissions, the embodied material flows, the ecological relationships, and the dependence intensities among sectors was obtained through transforming the monetary input-output data to physical data from 2007, 2012, and 2017. The results show that the Energy Ecological Network and Water Ecological Network were in a relatively stable state with a mutualism index greater than 1, and the relationship among different sectors in the CO₂ Ecological Network needs to be further adjusted. AM (Advanced Manufacture) and Agr (Agriculture) played the top exporter and importer roles with AM as the largest embodied energy consumer and CO₂ emitter, and Agr as the largest embodied water user. More measures about resource conservation and emission reduction for AM and Agr are desired. Con (construction) had a strong dependence intensity on other sectors with amounts of over 90%. Resources and environmental effects on Con can be improved by increasing the utilization efficiency of intermediate products. The results could provide scientific policy implications and guidelines to promote the stable and healthy operations by revealing the dynamic change of sectors within the Energy-Water-CO₂ metabolic system in China.

Keywords: China; Ecological network analysis; Energy-Water-CO(2) metabolic system; Industrial relatedness; Resources and environment responses.