A Study on the Estimation of Environmental Carrying Capacity and Sustainability in National Land using the Emergy Synthesis

Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island

“…An analysis of the environmental carrying capacity using emergy analysis will reveal and improve the vulnerabilities that could hinder sustainable development, thus having the potential to enhance sustainability. However, because the environmental carrying capacity of Jeju Island shows better results than those of South Korea as a whole, from Kim and Chang's work [6], we can, therefore, expect opportunities to enhance Jeju Island's environmental carrying capacity in the future by improving the sustainable development of the island.…”

“…Each item is closely related because renewable energy is basically powered by solar energy. Therefore, duplicate calculation errors can occur [6]. The emergy of RE was selected as the item with the highest amount of emergy [23,24].…”

“…This amount corresponded to about 279 times the energy of the wave item; however, after examining the contribution of emergy, it was found that the contribution of the rain, wind, and sun items was less than the contribution of the wave item, which had the highest emergy in RE (2.43 × 10 21 sej/year). Therefore, if simple comparisons are made without considering the difference between the different types of energy, the value of the actual energy contribution to the region cannot be evaluated properly [6]. [28], (7) Liu et al [29], (8) Cohen et al [30], (9) Ascione et al [31].…”

“…This increase in energy demand will lead to an increase in the use of fossil fuels, which can pose a threat to the sustainable development of Jeju Island. To promote sustainable development, Jeju Island is striving to conduct a program called "Carbon Free Island by 2030" by implementing a smart grid, replacing combustion engines with electric cars, and generating electricity as 100% renewable energy [6]. It is necessary to assess quantitatively whether such efforts can actually achieve sustainable development, however.…”

“…However, unlike Yunnan Province and Zengcheng, where electricity can be generated, Jeju Island received 39% of its electricity from the mainland in 2016 by using a high voltage direct current (HVDC) system [16]. Hossaini and Hewage [15] sought to understand the flow of energy, materials, and money using emergy analysis [15], but they did not consider the tourism industry, which accounts for nearly 26% of Jeju Island's total industrial sector [6]; tourism is, therefore, an essential factor in analyzing energy flow. The characteristics of Jeju Island are unique in South Korea in terms of the island's electricity supply and tourism industry development, so it is necessary to estimate the environmental carrying capacity of Jeju Island by including both electricity supply and tourism in the emergy analysis.…”