Emergy Perspectives on the Environmental Performance and Sustainability of Small-Scale Gold Production Systems in Ghana

Asamoah, Ernest Frimpong; Zhang, Lixiao; Liang, Sai; Pang, Mingyue; Tang, Shoujuan

doi:10.3390/su9112034

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…It allows us to transfer the resource inputs (sun, agricultural production, topsoil losses, fuels etc.) into solar emjoules (sej) [21]. Solar emergy is a quantitative indicator that uses different types of energy units to represent the relative energy quality.…”

Section: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island

Jung

Kim

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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Jeju Island experienced an approximately 42% increase in energy consumption from 2006 to 2015 and the demand for energy consumption is expected to continue to increase. Thus, Jeju Island is planning a project entitled "Carbon Free Island by 2030" to promote sustainable development and is required to estimate the environmental carrying capacity for future energy demand changes. The purpose of this study was to calculate the emergy inherent in Jeju Island's energy, materials, and information in 2015 using the emergy analysis method and local characteristics. In addition, this study aimed to estimate the emergy indices to evaluate the environmental carrying capacity for sustainable development in 2005, 2015, and 2030 considering the future energy demand. This study's outputs provide the environmental carrying capacity with emergy indices, such as the percent renewable (%Renew), emergy yield ratio (EYR), environmental loading ratio (ELR), sustainability index (SI), and carrying capacity of the population (CCP) for social and economic activities on Jeju Island, which are expected to be saturated. These findings show regions with heavy tourism require development strategies, including the concept of environmental carrying capacity.

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Section: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island

Jung

Kim

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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“…Despite substantial health effects, underground mining is the most widespread method in the Lolgorian mining area (Achuora et al, 2020;Anderson, 1991). The environmental performance and sustainability of underground mining indicate considerable negative environmental implications (Asamoah et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Social and Environmental Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Practices in Lolgorian, Kenya

Tampushi

Onyari

Muthama

2022

EUR J SUSTAIN DEV RES

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The environmental implications of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) practices have significantly grown, particularly on environment, socio, and livelihoods of the mining communities. The study aims to investigates the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of these practices. A survey research design including primary data as well as a random sample process were employed in the study. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed to randomly selection respondents across the artisanal mining and processing areas. The statistical package for social sciences version 26.0 was used to analyze the data, which included frequency distribution tables, pie charts, bar graphs, percentages, regression, and correlation analyses. According to the data, 97% of gold miners use the mercury amalgamation process, 95.5% operate illegally, and 94.3% do not conduct environmental impact assessments for their mining activities. In terms of ASGM formalization, 68.1% say that poor governance has had an influence on the process, hampered sustainable practices and operations. According to the data, 91.4% of respondents strongly agreed that ASGM provides livelihoods for both women and children, while 73.1% strongly felt that ASGM is more profitable than other forms of livelihoods. The total health implications of hazardous chemical exposure linked with ASGM activities are that 75.5% are aware of major health consequences. Unfortunately, 83.2% of individuals surveyed said they continued to burn amalgam without protective equipment. The environmental implications of ASGM operations have significantly grown, particularly in terms of forest destruction and soil and water contamination (60.4%). The data from model fitting revealed that, at p=0.05, trends, practices, and governance structures were statistically significant with independent variables (X1, X2, X3, and X4) in predicting ASGM environmental sustainability. According to the data, Nagelkerke=0.198, or about 20% of the variance in mining operations in the ASGM sector, may be attributed to the four independent variables. According to the findings of the study, ASGM's current practices and governance structures have a major influence on the sector's environmental sustainability. The study suggests that ASGM formalization be accelerated and decentralized, and that governance mechanisms be operationalized in order to improve miners' skills and knowledge through education and socioeconomic development. Promoting miners' self-regulation is also essential for ensuring environmental sustainability.

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“…Emergy was chosen in this study for two reasons: 1) using this approach, monetary and energy flows can be converted into common units (solar emergy joules) and compared Pulselli et al, 2015). 2) Emergy allows to count for the primary solar energy embodied in production by the ecological sub-system (Brownet al, 2012;Asamoah et al, 2017), allowing to analyse the total environmental and socio-economic support provided to each product or sector of urban economy (Viglia et al, 2018;Pan et al, 2021). For example, transformities incorporate plant biomass production through photosynthesis in addition to sugar fermentation processes to produce bioethanol.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological network analysis of a metabolic urban system based on input–output tables: Model development and case study for the city of Vienna

Galychyn

Fath

Buonocore

et al. 2022

Cleaner Production Letters

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Emergy Perspectives on the Environmental Performance and Sustainability of Small-Scale Gold Production Systems in Ghana

Cited by 15 publications

References 25 publications

Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island

Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island

Assessing Social and Environmental Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Practices in Lolgorian, Kenya

Ecological network analysis of a metabolic urban system based on input–output tables: Model development and case study for the city of Vienna

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