Handbook of Emergy Evaluation A Compendium of Data for Emergy Computation

Abstract

Folio 4 presents emergy evaluations for 23 agricultural commodities raised in the state of Florida, U.S.A., and for two fertilizers produced and used extensively within Florida. All emergy values have been updated to reflect new global process transformities presented in Folio 1. Products with greater than 5000 ha in traditional commercial cultivation in Florida are included (Pierce, 1995). Alligator, although not in extensive production, is included as an example of Florida aquaculture. Part I has evaluation tables for alligators and agricultural commodities. Part 2 evaluates fertilizer. Part 3 summarizes indices. This folio evaluates three key ratios relevant to agriculture: transformity (sej/ J), an energy specific ratio; emergy per mass (sej/g), a convenient ratio for products usually traded by weight; and empower density (sej/ha/yr), useful for landscape evaluations of energy concentration. Empower density (areal empower density) identifies centers of energy hierarchy and compares spatial organization at a landscape scale similar to measures of development density used by city planners.