(Résumé de la thèse) Ayant constaté l’échec de ses Objectifs 2010 pour la biodiversité, dont, entre autres, l’incapacité de l’Empreinte écologique à rendre compte de la biodiversité, la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique a adopté en 2011 "Les objectifs d’Aichi (2011-2020) pour la biodiversité". Parmi ceux-ci les objectifs 1 et 2 concernent la prise de conscience des valeurs de la biodiversité, leur intégration dans les processus de planification nationaux et locaux de développement, et leur incorporation dans les comptabilités nationales. Ce en quoi ces objectifs de la CDB convergent désormais avec ceux des Nations Unies concernant le Système de Comptabilité Economique et Environnementale (SCEE). La présente thèse s’inscrit dans ce cadre de questionnement unifié. Elle a le double objectif : (a) de rechercher, fonder et mettre au point une unité de mesure biophysique de la diversité biologique caractérisant tout aussi bien l’ordre naturel que le désordre anthropogénique, et (b) d’incorporer celle-ci dans un nouveau système de comptabilité physique, le Bilan écologique. Celui-ci est susceptible de comparer, à toutes échelles territoriales, le Passif écologique des collectivités urbaines, vu comme le reflet biophysique de leur comptabilité monétaire, à l’Actif écologique de leurs espaces naturels, afin de révéler les relations de cause à effet, et de signifier les impacts cumulés de la perturbation anthropogénique sur l’Ecosphère et la Biosphère. Il aurait ainsi vocation, à terme, à nous permettre de caractériser les voies d’un développement véritablement écologique des territoires. / (Abstract of the thesis) Having noted the failure of its 2010 targets for biodiversity, including, among others, the inability of the Ecological Footprint to account for biodiversity, the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted in 2011 "The 2011-2020 Aichi Targets for biodiversity". Among these, objectives 1 and 2 concern awareness of the values of biodiversity, their integration into national and local development planning process, and their incorporation into national accounts. This how these objectives of the CBD converge now with those of the United Nations for the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). This thesis lie within this unified questioning framework. It has the double purpose : (a) of searching for, founding and developing a biophysical measurement unit of biodiversity, characterizing just as well the natural order as the anthropogenic disorder, and (b) to incorporate it into a new physical accounting system, the Ecological balance sheet. The latter is likely to compare, for all territorial scales, the Ecological liability of urban communities, seen as the biophysical reflection of their monetary accounting, to the Ecological asset of their natural spaces, in order to reveal the relationships of cause and effect, and to signify the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on the Ecosphere and the Biosphere. In the end, it would have so vocation to enable us to characterize the ways of a truly ecological development of the territories.

This thesis presents work on a holistic approach for improving the overall design of solar cooling systems driven by solar thermal collectors. Newly developed methods for thermodynamic optimization of hydraulics and control were used to redesign an existing pilot plant. Measurements taken from the newly developed system show an 81% increase of the Solar Cooling Efficiency (SCEth) factor compared to the original pilot system. In addition to the improvements in system design, new efficiency factors for benchmarking solar cooling systems are presented. The Solar Supply Efficiency (SSEth) factor provides a means of quantifying the quality of solar thermal charging systems relative to the usable heat to drive the sorption process. The product of the SSEth with the already established COPth of the chiller, leads to the SCEth factor which, for the first time, provides a clear and concise benchmarking method for the overall design of solar cooling systems. Furthermore, the definition of a coefficient of performance, including irreversibilities from energy conversion (COPcon), enables a direct comparison of compression and sorption chiller technology. This new performance metric is applicable to all low-temperature heat-supply machines for direct comparison of different types or technologies. The achieved findings of this work led to an optimized generic design for solar cooling systems, which was successfully transferred to the market.