‘Kill Venice’: a systems thinking conceptualisation of urban life, economy, and resilience in tourist cities

Mass tourism has been creating increasing complaints and resistances in many tourist cities worldwide. The global Covid-19 health emergency has further affected the complex relationship between the activities of city dwellers and those of the tourist flows. Be the visitors present or abruptly absent, the effects of tourism on housing, labour, and the urban economy as a whole can threaten the very survival of a tourist destination. The ultimate goals of tourist-based transformations are not clear, nor their relationship with the resilience of destinations. A systemic perspective is here offered on tourism in cities, with a focus on the city that likely exhibits the highest level of tourist attraction with respect to its vulnerability, that is, Venice, Italy. Various aspects of its sustainability and resilience, along with the involved interconnection and dependency links, are taken into consideration. Currently proposed alternative scenarios are presented, and their weaknesses commented. Some implications are also addressed for sustainable and resilient transformations. The comprehension of the dynamics that drive a tourist city system, together with the study of its systemic leverage points, appear to be mandatory for effective urban policies and planning

Systemic sustainability and resilience assessment of health systems, addressing global societal priorities: learnings from a top nonprofit hospital in a bioclimatic building in Africa

Health services represent a cornerstone to ensure well-being and human rights, particularly in deprived areas. The resource cost and appropriate use for the implementation of a top-quality hospital in Sudan are here investigated. An emerging approach such as systems-based Emergy Accounting is applied to assess its sustainability and resilience, also relying on Life-Cycle Assessment data to calculate some new unit emergy values. Very few similar studies have addressed civil works so far, even less bioclimatic buildings, while the focus on health systems is an absolute novelty. Particular attention is paid to design in adverse climate and economic conditions, to the humanitarian nongovernmental organisation running the hospital, and to the cutting-edge medical staff and technologies imported from abroad, also letting local practitioners to train in excellence medicine. The system’s direct and indirect socio-ecological requirements are expressed as emergy (resource investment) per patient-day, per cardiac surgical operation, per outpatient visit, and per year. From a quantitative viewpoint, these indicators represent a benchmark for improvement scenarios, comparison with new studies in a deserving field, and future investments, driven by effective healthcare policies. They also provide an overview of the efforts required by nature and society to ensure a human right in conditions of scarcity. Besides the possibility to lower a hospital’s environmental impact (sustainability-oriented) and to keep it functioning over time in changing climate, resource, societal, economic, and geo-political scenarios (resilience-oriented), this study leads to original remarks upon societal priorities and upon the challenges of guaranteeing high-quality health systems in an uncertain century

From Head to Head: An Emergy Analysis of a War Rifle Bullet

Emergy (spelled with an “m”) analysis is a method for environmental and systemic accounting in terms of sustainability and quality of resources used for a product, service or process. In this paper, it is applied to the assault rifles projectiles used in war battlefields. The specific emergy is evaluated in terms of sej/bullet, pointing out the upstream investment made by both the environment and the human society to produce the bullet in its operating war conditions. Comparison is made with alternative uses of the same resources when addressed to the support of development and wellbeing

Ecological sustainability of aquafeed: an emergy assessment of novel or underexploited ingredients

Fishmeal is the optimal source of protein for fed fish and crustacean species, but the increase in market demand and prices is pushing the aquaculture industry to test alternative protein sources. This paper provides the results of an emergy assessment performed on four partial substitutes for fishmeal – dried microalgae biomass from Tetraselmis suecica and Tisochrysis lutea, insect meal from Hermetia illucens larvae, and poultry by-product meal – and then compares them with the findings of a previously published Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the same topic. By quantifying their degree of dependence on natural resources, the research offers a complementary perspective to that of LCA, thus allowing to obtain a complete picture on the sustainability of the four production systems. Firstly, the results reveal that insect meal has the highest environmental efficiency in terms of total emergy per unit of product, followed by poultry by-product meal. The two closed microalgae cultivation systems are penalized by a low productivity, combined with a high quantity of seawater imported. Secondly, several critical aspects are highlighted by the five emergy-based indicators: in brief, all systems appear to be based on intensive industrial processes, with the imported inputs from the economy representing 99% of total emergy flow (high level of ecosystem stress). Since local renewable inputs are not significantly exploited, higher levels of production amplify the ratio between these resources and the inputs imported from the outer economies (no economies of scale are observed). Finally, the comparison with LCA results confirms a critical point already detected by the emergy assessment (i.e. the crucial contribution of the feed provided to insect and poultry) but also reveals new ones: (i) in the two microalgae systems, the high emergy contribution from seawater versus the high impacts of carbon dioxide and energy needs; (ii) in the insect meal system, the high emergy share represented by human labour and energy needs. In light of the numerous problems found, possible approaches are proposed to increase the environmental performance through changes to each production system and the processes that support it upstream

Tecnologie costruttive, limiti ecologici e sostenibilità sistemica. L’analisi emergetica per valutare un progetto edilizio tra Sahara e Sahel.

Di fronte ai limiti imposti dal nostro pianeta, ci si interroga su come la progettazione possa contribuire a una sostenibilità sistemica al di là di mode e consuetudini. Il difficile contesto africano del Sahara e Sahel è stato visto come un’opportunità per riflettere proprio sul concetto di limite ed imparare a conviverci, in un prossimo futuro, anche in Occidente. Alcune soluzioni di ibridazione tecnologica impiegate in una struttura socio-sanitaria dell’associazione umanitaria Emergency in Sudan sono qui valutate attraverso l’analisi emergetica, cioè un particolare tipo di analisi sistemica in grado di rendicontare sforzi diretti e indiretti compiuti dalla società e dalla natura per realizzare un prodotto o un servizio. Studiando il sistema in esame, la costruzione delle strutture risulta la voce più costosa in termini di energia e materiali. Dal punto di vista emergetico, i pannelli solari termici e il tunnel del vento si rivelano tecnologie con un grande ritorno sull’investimento

On the systemic features of urban systems. A look at material flows and cultural dimensions to address post-growth resilience and sustainability.

Urbanisation is widely recognised as a relentless trend at the global level. Nevertheless, a comprehensive assessment of urban systems able to address the future growth and decline of cities is still lacking. Urban systems today rely on abundant resources, flowing in from other regions, and their future availability and accessibility should be taken into consideration to ensure urban wellbeing and resilience in likely post-growth scenarios. A logical framework to address the challenge of urban planning and management to promote long-term urban system sustainability is proposed. Systems thinking and diagramming are applied, while comprehensively tracking the key material flows upon which cities depend back to their sources. First, the nexus among resources and urban activities is identified, and then its circularity is framed within a wider discourse on urban sustainability and resilience. Discussion is carried out within a two-fold perspective of both existing and newly built environments, while related economies are analysed in order to find possible gamechanging scenarios

Physical constraints on global social-ecological energy system

Energy is the main driver of human Social-Ecological System (SES) dynamics. Collective energy properties of human SES can be described applying the principles of statistical mechanics: (i) energy consumption repartition; (ii) efficiency; (iii) performance, as efficient power, in relation to the least-action principle. International Energy Agency data are analyzed through the lens of such principles. Declining physical efficiency and growth of power losses emerge from our analysis. Losses mainly depend on intermediate system outputs and non-energy final output. Energy performance at Country level also depends on efficient power consumption. Better and worse performing Countries are identified accordingly. Five policy-relevant areas are identified in relation to the physical principles introduced in this paper: Improve efficiency; Decouple economic growth from environmental degradation; Focus on high value added and labor-intensive sectors; Rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption; Upgrade the technological capabilities. Coherently with our findings, policies should support the following actions: (1) redefine sectoral energy distribution shares; (2) Improve Country-level performance, if needed; (3) Reduce intermediate outputs and non-energy final output; (4) Reduce resources supply to improve eco-efficiency together with system performance