Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 9, 2007). PDF text: 117 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 0.85 Mb UMI publication number: AAT 3236914. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Understanding the environmental implications of consumption and production depends on appropriate monitoring tools. Material flow accounting (MFA) is a method to monitor natural resource use by countries and has been widely used in research and policy. However, the increasing globalization requires the consideration of "embodied" material use of traded products. The indicator raw material consumption (RMC) represents the material use - no matter where in the world it occurs - associated with domestic final demand. It provides a consumption-based perspective complementary to the MFA indicators that have a territorial focus. Several studies on RMC have been presented recently but with diverging results; hence, a better understanding of the underlying differences is needed. This article presents a comparison of Austrian RMC for the year 2007 calculated by six different approaches (3 multi-regional input-output (MRIO) and 3 hybrid life-cycle analysis-IO approaches). Five approaches result in an RMC higher than the domestic material consumption (DMC). One hybrid LCA-IO approach calculates RMC to be lower than DMC. For specific material categories, results diverge by 50% or more. Due to the policy relevance of the RMC and DMC indicators it is paramount that their robustness is enhanced, which needs both data and method harmonization.

The United States is the world's top virtual water exporting nation, but not much is known about the country's internal virtual water flow patterns and the volumes involved. Previous studies have suggested that the import of virtual water, defined as the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service, can relieve pressure on a region's water resources. This study seeks to quantify virtual water flows among U.S. states using the water footprint and input-output analytical methods, and to compare the quantitative results to actual water use volumes in agriculture. The results showed an overall pattern where virtual water is transferred from sparsely populated states mostly in the Midwest, where the country's most fertile agricultural land is located, to the relatively dry Western states, and to the densely populated, but relatively wet coastal regions in the East of the country. For the year 2008, states used 196 Gm3 of water to produce agricultural commodities (crops and livestock) that were exported for consumption in other states. This total virtual water export volume is equivalent to 35 percent of total water withdrawals for all sectors in the U.S., or 41 percent of total rainfall evapotranspiration volume. Gross annual virtual water import volumes were 191 Gm3, giving a net interstate virtual water flow volume of 5 Gm3 for all states. The total virtual water import volume represent 34 percent of total water withdrawals in the U.S., or 40 percent of total rainfall evapotranspiration volume. The estimates in this study cover virtual water flows as a result of trade in 9 primary crops which represent 95 percent of the cultivated area harvested, and trade in nine primary animals that represent nearly 90 percent of animal establishments, and 97 percent of the total national sales in the U.S. for the year 2008. The estimates do not include virtual water flows as a result of trade in processed crop and livestock products and industrial products, which would have resulted in even higher virtual water flow volumes. Commodities making the greatest call on the nation's water resources were corn for grain, with 20 percent of total water use, and milk cows with 17 percent. The total evapotranspiration volume for the nine primary crops analyzed was 332 Gm3/yr. This consists of 93 Gm3 irrigation water (excluding 25 percent irrigation losses), and 239 Gm3 from rainfall, showing that rainfall contributed 72 percent of the total water volumes required to produce primary crops. If irrigation return flows are considered, the proportion contributed by rainfall becomes 65 percent, compared to 35 percent (128 Gm3) for irrigation water. The nine live animals for all states used 636 Gm3 in 2008, with beef cattle taking up 340 Gm3, or 53 percent of the total volumes used for animal production. Net virtual water exports in absolute terms ranged from 91 Mm3/yr in the state of Washington, to 15 Gm3/yr in Iowa, while the minimum net virtual water import value was 47 Mm3/yr in Vermont, to 11 Gm3/yr in Florida. On a per capita basis, the people of North Dakota were responsible for the largest agricultural net virtual export volume (16,011 m3/yr/ca), although the state has only 0.2 percent of the national population. Washington was responsible for the lowest per capita net virtual water export (375 m3/yr/ca). The people of Delaware (0.3 percent the total population) were responsible for the largest net virtual water imports related to agricultural commodities on a per capita basis (1511 m3/yr/ca), with Nevada ranking lowest. In absolute terms, water footprint values in relation to the 18 primary crops and livestock groups ranged from 1157 Mm3/yr in Rhode Island, to 61,471 Mm3/yr in California. Water footprint per capita values ranged from 1,083 m3/yr/capita in New York, to 4,872 m3/yr/capita in Nebraska. Both water footprint and input-output methodologies showed that virtual water transfer constitutes a substantial portion of the water balance in water scarce states such as California, where imports and exports were found to be 13 and 15 percent of total actual water use. The ratios of net virtual water import to agricultural water use volumes were very high for relatively humid states such as Rhode Island (nearly 5,000 percent) and Connecticut (more than 3,500 percent), partly showing that factors related to economic structure dominate climatic factors (water endowments) in shaping virtual water flow patterns in most U.S. states. These results suggest that rather than being the main reason behind observed virtual water flow patterns, water availability is complimentary to other factors of production, mainly the availability of suitable agricultural land. Similar to Japan or some European countries, most highly states in the eastern part of the country rely heavily on virtual water imports to meet their local agricultural consumption requirements, while their economies focus on sectors that are less land and water intensive, such as the services industry. The study also revealed that the volumes of international virtual water imports and exports are dwarfed by internal (interstate) virtual water volumes in the U.S., showing an overall preference for home consumption to international trade. The productive value of water ($/m3 used) was found to be much higher for industry and domestic sectors, in comparison to more water intensive agricultural use. While input-output analysis appears less prone to estimation errors and is less laborious to implement, it is limited in assessing the virtual water content of individual commodities when compared to water footprint analysis. However, the two alternative methodologies both produced results that are to a large extent consistent with production and consumption patterns in the U.S. The study adds new insights and information to earlier global studies that did not elaborate much on the internal virtual water flow dynamics of the world's largest virtual water exporter. The knowledge is relevant for this large country, where there are wide variations in water and other natural resource endowments between regions.

In an increasingly globalized world with more and more distributed international supply chains, sustainability studies and policies need to consider socioeconomic and environmental interactions between distant places. Studies of the global biomass metabolism investigate physical flows between and within nature and human systems, thus providing a useful basis for understanding the interrelatedness of changes in one place with impacts elsewhere. Various methodological approaches exist for studying the human-nature metabolism and estimating the land embodied in international trade flows, a core element of assessing telecouplings in the global land system. The results of recent studies vary widely, lacking robustness and thus hampering their application in policy making. This article provides a structured overview and comparative evaluation of existing accounting methods and models for calculating land footprints. We identify differences in available accounting methods and indicate their shortcomings, which are mainly attributable to the product and supply chain coverage and detail, and biases introduced by the use of monetary flows as a proxy for actual physical flows. We suggest options for further development of global land footprint accounting methods, particularly highlighting the advantages of hybrid accounting approaches as a framework for robust and transparent assessments of the global displacement of land use.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-03-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:51:47Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 morceiro_pc_me_arafcl.pdf: 1373503 bytes, checksum: 602d378e5b71ab9e8a041d9e6f365be4 (MD5) / A indústria de transformação possui elevado potencial para alavancar o desenvolvimento econômico e social de uma nação, especialmente, de países em estágios intermediários de desenvolvimento como o Brasil. Desde meados dos anos 2000, está em curso, no Brasil, um processo não desprezível de desindustrialização precoce, que se tornou ainda mais grave no triênio de 2009-2011. A desindustrialização brasileira ocorre pelo encolhimento do valor adicionado manufatureiro no PIB, em valores corrente e constante, como também pela deterioração da posição da indústria de transformação doméstica no comércio exterior. No entanto, o processo recente de desindustrialização do Brasil apresenta algumas especificidades, como a geração de um volume expressivo de empregos e melhora nos indicadores sociais, o que, à primeira vista, parece contraditório ao diagnóstico de desindustrialização / The manufacturing industry has a high potential to leverage both the economic and social development of a nation, especially in countries at intermediate stages of development such as Brazil. Since the mid-2000s, a premature deindustrialization process, which is not to be neglected, has been underway in Brazil. It became even worse during the 2009-2011 triennium. The Brazilian deindustrialization occurs by the shrinkage of manufacturing value added in GDP, in current and constant values, as well as the deteriorating position of the domestic manufacturing sector in foreign trade. However, the recent process of deindustrialization of Brazil has its peculiarities, such as the generation of a significant amount of jobs and improvement in social indicators, which, at first glance, may seem contradictory to the diagnosis of deindustrialization

Thesis (Masters Diploma (Electrical Engineering)--Cape Technikon, Cape Town,1994 / This thesis describes the design, development and implementation of a digitising workstation for the electronics laboratory that utilises the personal computer.

Global multiregional input-output databases (GMRIOs) became the standard tool for track ing environmental impacts through global supply chains. To date, several GMRIOs are available, but the numerical results differ. This paper considers how GMRIOs can be made more robust and authoritative. We show that GMRIOs need detail in environmentally relevant sectors. On the basis of a review of earlier work, we conclude that the highest uncertainty in footprint analyses is caused by the environmental data used in a GMRIO, followed by the size of country measured in gross domestic product (GDP) as fraction of the global total, the structure of the national table, and only at the end the structure of trade. We suggest the following to enhance robustness of results. In the short term, we recommend using the Single country National Accounts Consistent footprint approach, that uses official data for extensions and the national table for the country in question, combined with embodiments in imports calculated using a GMRIO. In a time period of 2 to 3 years, we propose work on harmonized environmental data for water, carbon, materials, and land, and use the aggregated Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Inter-Country Input-Output GMRIO as default in combination with detailing procedures developed in, for example, the EXIOBASE and Eora projects. In the long term, solutions should be coordinated by the international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) Statistical Division, OECD, and Eurostat. This could ensure that when input-output tables and trade data of individual countries are combined, that the global totals are consistent and that bilateral trade asymmetries are resolved.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as transformaÃÃes na economia do Estado da Bahia, com base nos impactos gerados pelo Complexo Industrial Ford Nordeste e nas mudanÃas na configuraÃÃo industrial baiana, bem como identificar os encadeamentos setoriais e setores-chave. Pretende-se tambÃm contextualizar historicamente a indÃstria automotiva, atravÃs de uma anÃlise dos modos de produÃÃo, da inserÃÃo da IndÃstria Automotiva no Brasil e, finalmente, da implantaÃÃo do complexo Ford na Bahia em 2001. AtravÃs da anÃlise da cadeia produtiva do automÃvel, o estudo identifica a formaÃÃo de uma indÃstria motriz capaz de gerar incremento na renda na regiÃo onde està localizada. Abordando aspectos de competitividade da indÃstria automotiva em escala global, esse trabalho busca trazer essa discussÃo do campo teÃrico para o empÃrico. Por fim, o estudo identifica, atravÃs da Matriz de Insumo-Produto (MIP), as repercussÃes econÃmicas ocorridas na Bahia, os benefÃcios causados pela grande renÃncia fiscal decorrente da instalaÃÃo do Complexo Ford em CamaÃari. Outra abordagem atravÃs da MIP serà analisar os efeitos de encadeamento dos setores chaves e sua importÃncia dentro da economia baiana.

The supply chain risk management discipline studies how to address daily and extraordinary risks to avoid vulnerability and to guarantee production continuity. In the case of the electricity sector, the economic impact of interrupting the power supply is depicted by an indicator called the deficit cost, measured in monetary unit per electricity consumption unit (for example, in Brazil, R$/MWh). This value is commonly applied to cost-benefit analysis that results in decisions about maintenance and investment in the electricity system in the medium and long term, in addition to composing the short-term energy price. Most countries in the world have a thermal energy matrix, and cases in which interruption problems occur are mainly due to punctual failures in generation or transmission and last a few hours or days until maintenance is concluded. Brazil, however, has been strongly dependent on hydrological conditions ever since the main generation source became hydroelectric. Since restricted energy supply scenarios last longer, from weeks to months, a better measure for the electricity structural deficit impact is the economic loss in the deficit-affected regional production, translated as the GDP (gross domestic product) region. This dissertation estimates the Brazilian GDP marginal loss due to power deficits by applying an input-output (I/O) matrix analysis methodology and concludes that the officially adopted deficit cost is underestimated. / Sem resumo em português.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a estrutura socioeconômica do Estado do Espírito Santo tendo como foco a suposta \"Vocação para o Exterior\" da economia capixaba, o potencial dos \"Grandes Projetos\" como propulsor na geração de emprego e renda, as perspectivas da economia com os investimentos anunciados entre 2008 e 2015 e a participação do governo no fluxo de renda local. Para alcançar tal objetivo foi construída uma matriz de contabilidade social com duas regiões: Espírito Santo e restante do país. Esta matriz foi desagregada em 110 produtos, 55 atividades, 10 categorias de trabalho e de famílias e 6 tipos de impostos. Na desagregação utilizam-se múltiplas fontes de dados, com destaque para os microdados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio (Pnad) e da Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar (POF) usados para desagregar os tipos de trabalhos e de famílias. Os resultados encontrados sinalizam que os setores com maior multiplicador de produção no Espírito Santo são Alimentos e Bebidas, Produtos de Metal e Alojamento e Alimentação, enquanto Agricultura e Silvicultura, Pecuária e Pesca, Alojamento e Alimentação, e Têxteis e Vestuários são os setores com maior potencial de geração de empregos. O fato de o setor de Alimentos e Bebidas apresentar um multiplicador de produção elevado e a Agropecuária apresentar o maior multiplicador de emprego dentre os setores analisados torna o investimento nesta cadeia produtiva duplamente atrativa para políticas sociais e regionais, uma vez que as principais empresas do ramo encontram-se localizadas no interior, perto das fontes de matéria-prima. No mais, o estado é mais dependente do mercado interno do que do externo e as exportações concentram-se em Celulose, Minério de ferro e Metalurgia, setores pertencentes aos \"Grandes Projetos\". Apesar da importância dos \"Grandes Projetos\" para a economia capixaba, os setores que o constituem não possuem os melhores multiplicadores de produção, apresentando ainda baixos multiplicadores de emprego. Sendo, ainda, setores com elevado percentual de importação de insumos e de exportação, ou seja, com uma cadeia produtiva pouco desenvolvida, estando longe de constituir-se em modelo de desenvolvimento sustentado para a economia do estado. No entanto, os investimentos continuam concentrados nos setores petrolíferos, metalúrgicos e de minério de ferro, que apesar de apresentarem baixo multiplicador de emprego são os que pagam salários mais elevados, o que sugere necessidade de mão de obra qualificada. Ressalta-se que os efeitos induzidos dos investimentos são mais expressivos que os indiretos, ou seja, que os impactos causados pelo consumo das famílias devido ao aumento da mão de obra é maior que o aumento no consumo de insumos. Por fim, ao comparar o Programa Bolsa Capixaba, com o Abono concedido aos funcionários estaduais, observa-se que o mesmo valor aplicado gera percentuais diferentes de retorno na forma de impostos para o governo, 25,60% do valor investido no primeiro programa e 36,36% no segundo programa. No entanto, o percentual de vazamento dos impactos positivos de ambos os programas de transferência é expressivo, atingindo 46,49% dos gastos com o programa Bolsa Capixaba e 40,67% com o Abono. / The objective of this paper is to analyze Espírito Santo\'s socio-economic structure focusing the supposed \"Abroad Vocation\" of capixaba\'s economy, the \"Big Projects\" potential as a propulsive in job and income creation, the economy\'s perspective with the announced investments between 2008 and 2015 and the government participation in the local income flux. To achieve this aim a social accounting matrix was built in two regions: Espírito Santo\'s state and the rest of the country. This matrix has been disaggregated in 110 products, 55 activities, 10 jobs and families categories and 6 taxes types. The disaggregation used multiples data sources, especially the micro-data of National Household Sample Research (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios - PNAD) and Household Budget Research (Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares - POF) used to desegregate the types of jobs and families. The found results signal that Espírito Santo\'s higher production multipliers are Food and Beverage, Metal Products and Accommodation and Food services while Agriculture and Silviculture, Livestock and Fishing, Accommodation and Food and Textiles and Clothing are the sectors with the highest potential for employment generation. The fact of the Food and Beverage sector shows a high production multiplier and the Agriculture sector the higher employment multiplier among the analyzed sectors make the investments on this productive chain doubly attractive for the social and regional politics since that the main companies are inland located, next to the raw material sources. The state is more dependent on the internal market than the external market and the exportation concentrate in Cellulose, Iron Ore and Metallurgy, \"Big Projects\" belonging sectors. Despite the great importance of the \"Big Project\" for capixaba\'s economy, the compose sectors don\'t have the best production multipliers, showing lower labor multipliers. And, also being sectors with high importing percentages, in other words, an undeveloped productive chain, away from being constituted in a developed model sustained for the state\'s economy. However, the investments still concentrated on the petroleum, metallurgic and iron ore sectors, even though they show lower job multipliers they are the sectors that pay the highest salaries, which suggests the necessity of qualified workforce. It\'s important to note that the investments inducted effects are more expressive that the directs, in other words that the impact caused by the families consumption due the workforce rise is bigger than the rise in input consumption. Finally, by comparing the Capixaba Grant Program (Programa Bolsa Capixaba) with the Allowance (Abono) granted to state\'s employees, it should be noted that the same applied amount brings different return percentages in form of government taxes, 25,60% of the invested amount on the first program and 36,36% on the second program. Nevertheless, the leak percentage of the positive impact in both transference programs is expressive, beating 46,49% of the expends with the Capixaba Grant Program (Programa Bolsa Capixaba) and 40,67% with the Allowance (Abono).