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Resource Flow Analysis

Resource Flow Analysis. ScottMatthews 12-712 / 19-622 Lecture 8. Administrative Issues. HW 3 Graded (avg 45) HW 4 Due Wednesday Project Updates Only 5 groups submitted plans last week. Recap of Last Time. Ecological footprint Relevant metric (equiv land use)

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Resource Flow Analysis

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  1. Resource Flow Analysis ScottMatthews 12-712 / 19-622 Lecture 8

  2. Administrative Issues • HW 3 Graded (avg 45) • HW 4 Due Wednesday • Project Updates • Only 5 groups submitted plans last week

  3. Recap of Last Time • Ecological footprint • Relevant metric (equiv land use) • Concerns/issues about data and assumptions • Gallery show

  4. Mass Balance • Fundamental principle of engineering / environmental engineering (law of conservation of mass) • Commoner: “everything must go somewhere” • Physical quantities • Energy • Calories, etc. • Relevant: stocks and flows, ins and outs

  5. Source: USGS

  6. Material (Resource) Flow Analysis • Has existed for 100 years, but formalized as a modeling technique more recently • Tool to link impacts with material uses • Simple: materials book-keeping • Complex: dynamic flow analyses • Inevitably an IN=OUT issue • Is this trivial? Is it relevant? Do others realize? • We tend to underestimate complexity – i.e. simple materials in fact very complex flows

  7. MFA – Definition (Brunner) • A systematic assessment of stocks and flows of a material at a given space/time • Connects sources and pathways with sinks, intermediate flows

  8. Basic Plan for an MFA • Begin building a simple IN=OUT model • Start assembling IN, OUT flow data • Are there many more relevant IN, OUT flows? • Is there a substantial stock or sink? • Do we have sufficient data to quantify them? • Continue iterating as data and time allow • When done, summarize as many disaggregate stocks and flows as possible • Typically express results “over life cycle”

  9. Source: Brunner

  10. Source: USGS “MFA and Sustainability”

  11. Source: Yale STAF Project

  12. Cadmium USGS Report

  13. Postel (1996) - Water

  14. Computers • What Data do we have? • What data do we need? • Can we do a “good enough” job?

  15. Group exercise • Split into groups • Try to do computer MFA for 2008

  16. Source: USGS, Obsolete Computers, “Gold Mine,” or High-Tech Trash? Resource Recovery from Recycling

  17. Policy Relevance of MFA • Can we track natural versus anthropogenic flows? • JIE paper – Cadmium – only way to reduce is to eliminate inflow • But inflow is byproduct of Zinc; either need to eliminate zinc production or cut off co-product • Structure of such studies – and construction of the stock/flow models – yields insights • Can we learn more about connections between stocks and flows, our activities?

  18. MFA Issues • Data / methods are largest barriers (conceptually simple otherwise) • What about uncertainty?

  19. Sankey Diagrams • Generally used for Energy flow analyses • Implicit assumptions • The diagrams concern quantity sizes that are related to a period in time or to a functional unit, such as a product unit. • The quantity scale is proportional (i.e., twice the quantity is represented by an arrow that is twice as wide). • Inventories are not taken into account (i.e., there is no stock formation). • An energy or mass balance is maintained.

  20. Source: WRI, http://www.wri.org/image/view/9529/_original

  21. Lead Flows 1970 (USGS)

  22. Lead Flows 1993

  23. To Dos • HW 5 coming Wednesday. • Start tracking your expenses AND your general “material/resource” flow starting tomorrow am. Will need to for HW.

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