An integrated framework for regional studies: Emergy based spatial analysis of the province of Cagliari

This research proposes an integrated framework
to investigate human-dominated systems and
provide a basic approach to urban and regional
studies in which the multiple interactions between
economic and ecological processes are considered as
a whole. Humans generate patterns of land use,
infrastructures and other settings and redistribute
ecosystem functions as flows of energy and matter
for self-maintenance. To understand these emerging
interactions between humans and ecological processes,
human activities (e.g. transformation processes,
land conversions, use of resources) and biophysical
agents such as geomorphology, climate and natural
cycles need to be considered. Emergy Analysis
(spelled with an “m”) is then used as an environmental
accounting method to evaluate different categories
of resource use with reference to their environmental
cost. A case study of the Province of Cagliari (in the
island of Sardinia, Italy) is reported and the procedure
for allocating emergy flows, assigning them to
districts and managing point data is discussed. Outcomes
plotted on a map showed non-homogeneous
spatial distribution of emergy flows throughout the
region, suggesting the way ecosystem functions are
affected and restructured by the human economy.