시스템 생태학적 접근법에 의한 한국의 지속적인 발전가능성 평가 (1) : 한국의 자연환경과 경제활동에 대한 EMERGY 평가 EMERGY Analysis of Korea's Natural Environment and Economic Activity = Evaluation of Korea's Sustainable Development by the Systems Ecology (1)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Sustainable development has been the key concept, both in economic policies and in environmental management. On the basis of an systems ecology perspective, this study suggests the sustainable development of Korea's natural environment and economic activity using the EMERGY evaluation. The total EMERGY use(7,730 E20sej/yr) in Korea is 81 percent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. The ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources is already large, like other industrialized countries. Continued availability of purchased inputs at a favorable balance of EMERGY trade, currently about 2.85 to 1 net EMERGY, is the basis for present economic activity and must decrease as the net EMERGY of purchased inputs including fossil fuels goes down. EMERGY yield ratio and environmental loading ratio were 1.23 and 20.30, respectively. The population level is already in excess of carrying capacity. Its carrying capacity for steady state on its renewable sources is only 2.2 million people, compared to 45.9 million in 1997. EMERGY sustainability index is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. Until now the development of a country has been achieved by the economic growth, but it can be sustained in the long run by the use of renewable resource systems, the efficiency of energy usage, and the transformation of the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept.