Vassallo Paolo, Paoli Chiara, Tilley David R, Fabiano Mauro
Department for the Study of Territory and its Resources, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
J Environ Manage. 2009 Oct;91(1):277-89. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.08.017. Epub 2009 Sep 24.
Sustainable development of coastal zones must balance economic development that encourages human visitation from a larger population with desires that differ from the local residents with the need to maintain opportunities for the local resident society and conserve ecological capital, which may serve as the basis for residents. We present a case study in which the sustainability level of a coastal zone (Riviera del Beigua), located along the Ligurian coast of north-western Italy, was assessed through the lens of systems ecology using emergy synthesis to integrate across economic, social and environmental sub-systems. Our purposes were (1) to quantify the environmental sustainability level of this coastal zone, (2) to evaluate the role of tourism in affecting the economy, society and environment, and (3) to compare emergy synthesis to Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle model (TALC). Results showed that 81% of the total emergy consumption in the coastal zone was derived from external sources, indicating that this tourist-heavy community was not sustainable. Tourism, as the dominant economic sub-system, consumed 42% of the total emergy budget, while local residents used the remaining 58%. The progressive stages of the TALC model were found to parallel the dynamic changes in the ratio of external emergy inputs to local emergy inputs, suggesting that emergy synthesis could be a useful tool for detecting a tourist region's TALC stage. Use of such a quantitative tool could expedite sustainability assessment to allow administrative managers to understand the complex relationship between a region's economy, environment and resident society so sound policies can be developed to improve overall sustainability.
沿海地区的可持续发展必须在鼓励更多人口前来旅游的经济发展与当地居民的不同需求之间取得平衡，同时要维护当地居民社会的发展机会并保护生态资本，因为生态资本可能是居民生活的基础。我们开展了一项案例研究，通过系统生态学的视角，运用能值分析方法对意大利西北部利古里亚海岸的一个沿海地区（贝古阿海岸）的可持续发展水平进行评估，以整合经济、社会和环境子系统。我们的目的是：（1）量化该沿海地区的环境可持续发展水平；（2）评估旅游业对经济、社会和环境的影响作用；（3）将能值分析与巴特勒的旅游地生命周期模型（TALC）进行比较。结果表明，该沿海地区总能量消耗的81%来自外部资源，这表明这个旅游密集型社区是不可持续的。旅游业作为主导经济子系统，消耗了总能量预算的42%，而当地居民消耗了其余的58%。研究发现，TALC模型的各个阶段与外部能值输入与本地能值输入比例的动态变化相平行，这表明能值分析可以作为检测旅游地区TALC阶段的有用工具。使用这样的定量工具可以加快可持续发展评估，使行政管理人员了解一个地区的经济、环境和居民社会之间的复杂关系，从而制定合理的政策来提高整体可持续性。
