IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v210y2008i1p37-57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of emergy assessment and the Geographical Information System in the diagnosis of small family farms in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Agostinho, Feni
  • Diniz, Guaraci
  • Siche, Raúl
  • Ortega, Enrique

Abstract

In this work, emergy analysis was used in association with the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to improve the evaluation of family-managed farms that adopt either the ecological or the chemical production models. Three small farms, located in Amparo County, in São Paulo state, Brazil, were studied. One of them, Duas Cachoeiras farm, uses agroecological concepts for its agricultural production. The two others (Santa Helena farm and Três Lagos farm) use the conventional chemical model. In an attempt to improve the precision of the data used in emergy analysis, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was incorporated to the GIS tool to calculate the topsoil loss in the farms. The GIS tool also allowed the calculation of the amount of rain water that infiltrates the ground and can recharge the aquifer. This percolated water is a system output and was incorporated in the emergy accounting. Another modification in comparison to previous emergy analyses was that the renewability factor of each input was considered in the emergy accounting. Results showed that the agroecological farm is more sustainable and can be used as a model for small farms in their transition to ecological agriculture. The GIS–emergy tools were used to compare the environmental performance of the four main productive areas of Duas Cachoeiras farm (annual cultures, orchard, forest, and pasture). These results demonstrate the emergy performance of each kind of land use and may be used in watershed planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Agostinho, Feni & Diniz, Guaraci & Siche, Raúl & Ortega, Enrique, 2008. "The use of emergy assessment and the Geographical Information System in the diagnosis of small family farms in Brazil," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 210(1), pages 37-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:210:y:2008:i:1:p:37-57
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.07.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380007003614
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.07.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    2. Wackernagel, Mathis & Onisto, Larry & Bello, Patricia & Callejas Linares, Alejandro & Susana Lopez Falfan, Ina & Mendez Garcia, Jesus & Isabel Suarez Guerrero, Ana & Guadalupe Suarez Guerrero, Ma., 1999. "National natural capital accounting with the ecological footprint concept," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 375-390, June.
    3. Chung-I Wu & Suhua Shi & Ya-ping Zhang, 2004. "A case for conservation," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6979), pages 213-214, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lilian Albornoz Mendoza & Rafael Ortiz Pech & Rodolfo Canto Sáenz, 2020. "La insostenibilidad del desarrollo en las entidades federativas de México. (The Unsustainability of the Development in Mexican States)," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(1), pages 59-86, May.
    2. White, Thomas J., 2007. "Sharing resources: The global distribution of the Ecological Footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 402-410, December.
    3. Kristin Linnerud & Erling Holden & Morten Simonsen, 2021. "Closing the sustainable development gap: A global study of goal interactions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 738-753, July.
    4. Browne, David & O'Regan, Bernadette & Moles, Richard, 2012. "Comparison of energy flow accounting, energy flow metabolism ratio analysis and ecological footprinting as tools for measuring urban sustainability: A case-study of an Irish city-region," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 97-107.
    5. Yue, Dongxia & Xu, Xiaofeng & Hui, Cang & Xiong, Youcai & Han, Xuemei & Ma, Jinhui, 2011. "Biocapacity supply and demand in Northwestern China: A spatial appraisal of sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 988-994, March.
    6. Hoekstra, A.Y., 2009. "Human appropriation of natural capital: A comparison of ecological footprint and water footprint analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1963-1974, May.
    7. Ferng, Jiun-Jiun, 2014. "Nested open systems: An important concept for applying ecological footprint analysis to sustainable development assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 105-111.
    8. Chen, Lujie & Olhager, Jan & Tang, Ou, 2014. "Manufacturing facility location and sustainability: A literature review and research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 154-163.
    9. Agostinho, Feni & Ambrósio, Luís Alberto & Ortega, Enrique, 2010. "Assessment of a large watershed in Brazil using Emergy Evaluation and Geographical Information System," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(8), pages 1209-1220.
    10. Peattie, Ken & Peattie, Sue, 2009. "Social marketing: A pathway to consumption reduction?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 260-268, February.
    11. de Soysa, Indra & Neumayer, Eric, 2005. "False Prophet, or Genuine Savior? Assessing the Effects of Economic Openness on Sustainable Development, 1980–99," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(3), pages 731-772, July.
    12. Mathis Wackernagel & J. Yount, 2000. "Footprints for Sustainability: The Next Steps," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 23-44, March.
    13. Jóhannesson, S.E. & Davíðsdóttir, B. & Heinonen, J.T., 2018. "Standard Ecological Footprint Method for Small, Highly Specialized Economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 370-380.
    14. Hubacek, Klaus & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2006. "Changing concepts of 'land' in economic theory: From single to multi-disciplinary approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 5-27, January.
    15. Brad Ewing, 2010. "Sustainable Colombia : A Comprehensive Colombian Footprint Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 12819, The World Bank Group.
    16. Xiaojie Chen & Jing Wang, 2021. "Quantitatively Determining the Priorities of Regional Ecological Compensation for Cultivated Land in Different Main Functional Areas: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    17. David Lin & Laurel Hanscom & Adeline Murthy & Alessandro Galli & Mikel Evans & Evan Neill & Maria Serena Mancini & Jon Martindill & Fatime-Zahra Medouar & Shiyu Huang & Mathis Wackernagel, 2018. "Ecological Footprint Accounting for Countries: Updates and Results of the National Footprint Accounts, 2012–2018," Resources, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-22, September.
    18. Drupp, Moritz A. & Baumgärtner, Stefan & Meyer, Moritz & Quaas, Martin F. & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2020. "Between Ostrom and Nordhaus: The research landscape of sustainability economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    19. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    20. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:210:y:2008:i:1:p:37-57. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.