Evaluating old community renewal based on emergy analysis: A case study of Nanjing

Dezhi Li, Bingzhen Du and Jin Zhu

Ecological Modelling, 2021, vol. 449, issue C

Abstract: Renewal of old communities is an inevitable process in urban development. Old community renewal brings multiple benefits to communities and their residents. However, existing studies on the benefits of old community renewal usually focuses on single aspects, such as energy savings or property value increase. An integrated framework that provides a holistic assessment of community renewal benefits is missing. To address this limitation, this paper proposed an emergy-based method to quantitatively assess the benefits systematically from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. Based on the emergy theory, the proposed method coverts various input and output during community renewal process into one standard unit—the solar emjoule (sej). The method was tested in a case study of a community renewal project in Nanjing, China. It was found that the emergy input in the case study was 3.46E+19 sej, while the output from the renewal activity is 1.82E+19 sej. The main benefit of old community renewal of the case study came from the maintenance minimizing and appreciation of fixed asset. Only 1.04% of total benefits of community renewal were social and environmental benefits. This study provides an integrated quantitative approach for benefits evaluation in community renewal projects. Decision makers could use the emergy analysis to conduct holistic assessment of community renewal activities and make informed decisions regarding old community renewal.

Keywords: Old community renewal; Emergy analysis; Benefits evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:449:y:2021:i:c:s0304380021001204

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109550

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