| An agricultural scientific and technological demonstration park (AST park) is a multifunctional, capital-input intensive modern agricultural demonstration base, an area for the innovation, demonstration (incl. sightseeing), and extension of high-tech achievements. The AST park is a new form of intensive agricultural production and industrialized management, a new form of agricultural modernization, a new growth tip of agriculture, and a bridge between agricultural science and technology and rural economy. It serves as a media in the transformation of high-tech achievements into realized productivity. To date, a number of AST parks with different scale and types have been established in China. At issue is how to analyze and evaluate the construction and management of the AST parks. Some evaluation methods have been established, such as the layered indices system, economic profit system, expert's scoring system, etc. Each method, however, has its own shortcomings. Some are too complicated for practical use, some incomparable, and some too feeling-dependent. The emergy theory and emergy evaluation method can avoid the above-mentioned shortcomings. With this method, the relationship between human being and nature and between the environmental resources and social and economic value can be analyzed. 'Incomparable' elements, e.g. environmental factors, production factors, scientific and technological factors, and economic indices can be converted into solar energy and hence become comparable. The AST parks can thus be evaluated ecologically and economically. Comparison among AST parks and at different time for a given AST park is thus feasible. The contribution of natural resources, social activities, science and technology, labor, and commodity to the economy and environment can be practically evaluated.In this thesis, Guangzhou National AST park was studied as an example. Data of natural, geographic, and economic resources and indices during 2000-2004 were investigated and/or calculated based on the ecological-economical complex system theory. The emergy flow map was drawn using the emergy evaluation theory and method. Emergy converting rate of papers, books, achievements, and training were calculated. Emergy input and output indices of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in the core, demonstration, extension, and the whole park were analyzed. Correlations among emergy evaluation indices were investigated. A new evaluation method based on emergy flow analysis was put forward. The new method was then compared with the 'five-high and six realization' method adopted in Guangdong and the expert's scoring method and validated. Strategies were proposed for optimizing structure and improving ecological and economical quality of AST parks. The main results are:1. Both emergy input and emergy output were increasing continuously for Guangzhou National AST park during 2000-2004. Emergy output was increased by 83.79% and emergy input by 13.37%. The emergy output depended mainly on the transformation of the park's core area-originated achievements in the demonstration and extension areas with a dependency of 98.53%. The emergy input of agricultural film, renewable and non-renewable environmental resources were decreased by 38.01%, 34.8% and 15.3%, respectively. Emergy density and environmental carrying capacity were increased by 34.43% and 83.70%. Per-capital emergy use, emergy investment rate and emergy productivity were increased by 10.80%, 124.61%, and 61.42%. Emergy output rate, sustainability index and emergy cost per production value were decreased by 37.87%, 66.19% and 52.69%. It was shown that in the AST park, the economic scale is expanding quickly, the ecological and economical efficiency is increasing year by year and the economic and scientific and technological competitiveness is strengthening. Marginal profit is decreasing. While the environmental burden is growing.2. There are differences in the changes in emergy indices among core, demonstration and extension areas and their correlations. Total emergy input, total emergy output, emergy density, environmental carrying capacity, per-capital emergy use, emergy investment rate, and emergy productivity were all increasing year by year. Sustainability index is decreasing year by year. Emergy productivity was stable in the core area, but decreasing in the demonstration and extension areas. During the four years, the emergy input/output ratio increased dramatically in the core area (from 1:2.29 to 1:2.9) and extension area (from 1:8.9 to 1:14.5), but decreased in the demonstration area. The input/output ratio was extension area>core area>demonstration area. Total emergy output of the extension area in the park during the five years achieved 8.99E+22, or 99.22% of the whole park. There were correlations in the changes in emergy indices among core, demonstration, and extension areas. The correlation coefficient between demonstration area and extension area was greater than that between core area and demonstration area, the latter being greater than that between core area and extension area. The contribution of core area, demonstration area and extension area to the AST park was mainly from the direct effect of extension area (P=0.93～0.98), while the core area and demonstration area contributed to the AST park indirectly via the extension area. Guangzhou National AST park is a typical innovative and extension park. Technical innovation is generated in the core area of the park; while economic growth was realized in the extension area. The demonstration area serves as the media in the technological transformation with demonstration, training and extension as main measures. The development capacity and sustainability of extension area was greater than that of demonstration and core areas, showing its layers and grades in structure and function.3. Emergy input and emergy output of primary, secondary and tertiary industries of the park increased year by year, with an annual growth rate of 20%-21%. Emergy cost per production value decreased year by year. The ratio of emergy output of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries was about 70%:20%:10%. The emergy input/output ratio of secondary and tertiary industries was 1:15.5-15.6, which was greater than that of the primary industry. Annual growth rate of primary industry was 20.80%. This coincided with the emergy productivity of the three industries. There were correlations between the emergy productivity and emergy cost per production value of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The correlation coefficient between primary industry and secondary industry was greater than that between primary industry and tertiary industry, which was greater than that between secondary industry and tertiary industry. The correlations were very significant for the emergy cost per production value among the three industries, but insignificant for emergy productivity. The primary industry made essential contribution to the AST park. A fast development of primary industry will enhance the development of secondary and tertiary industries. Scaling up and investing more to the service and processing aspect are crucial if an AST park is to become stronger and bigger.4. The emergy evaluation indices (environmental carrying capacity and per-capital emergy use) and the method proposed in this study were applied to the evaluation of the 13 functional areas of Guangdong modern AST park. The results obtained using the emergy evaluation method were highly consistent with those obtained by the expert panel using the 'five high and six realization' method. The correlation coefficient between the scores obtained by different methods was 0.92 and very significant.5. Three strategies should be adopted to promote the healthy development of Guangzhou National AST Park. At first, emergy input should be increased and five key industries should be enhanced, i.e. seed and seedling, environment-friendly production materials, agricultural product processing, agricultural information and agricultural sightseeing. Secondly, the structure of the park among the three industries should further be streamlined. Priority should be given to the development of tertiary industry, with emphasis on the construction of agricultural information center and the hardware and software for agricultural sightseeing. The service and processing industry should be enhanced in order to achieve a harmonious development among primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. Thirdly, the development of cycling agriculture and ecological agriculture should be stimulated and the running quality of the park should be improved. For example, utilization of earth energy, proper treatment and reuse of polluted water, and development of biomass energy industry will help reduce the pressure on the environmental carrying capacity of the park.
|
PDF Full Text Request