Evaluation of Agro-Ecosystem Health Using Energy-Use Efficiency and Overproduction of Entropy

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

2 2MSc. Student in Agroecology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

Abstract

There is an increasing call for a standardized framework to monitor and evaluate sustainability in agriculture. In recent years, a large number of models of system simulation have been developed in order to assess agro-ecosystems sustainability. This paper presents a brief description of an indicator for the sustainability of agro-ecosystems, based on the energy efficiency and overproduction of entropy. Agro-ecosystem sustainability is then evaluated using energetic input and output parameters of Jovain Agricultural and Industrial Company in Sabzevar in 2005 and 2009. The results indicated that the different kind of crops have different environmental sustainability. Various reasons could be caused these differences, but in many cases the extensive use of inputs was the important reason. The characteristics of the crop itself play a minor role. Although the method allows only rough estimations of entropy in agro-ecosystems. It can be stated that, sustainability was improved due to a reduction of artificial energy input comparing to the results that obtained in 2005 and 2009. Nevertheless, all the examined crop fields are far from reaching a sustainable state from a thermodynamic point of view in both years.
 

Keywords

References

  1. Agricultural Systems; 2006; 90: 226-242.
  2. Zahedi Sh S. Challenges facing sustainable
  3. development from ecotourism point of view.
  4. Journal of Modares; 2003; 3: 89-103. [In Persian]
  5. Asadi A, Varmazyar H. Assessing the
  6. sustainability of agricultural systems. Rahbord;
  7. ; 21: 261-288. [In Persian]
  8. Bell S, Morse S. Measuring Sustainability:
  9. Learning by Doing, Earth scan, London. 2003. p.
  10. Neshat N. Entropy, negative entropy and
  11. information. Library Journal; 2006; 40: 63-76.
  12. Steinborn W, Svirezhev Y. Entropy as an
  13. indicator of sustainability in agro-ecosystems:
  14. North Germany case study. Ecological
  15. Modelling; 2000; 133: 247–257.
  16. Wan S. A Spatial decision support system for
  17. extracting the core factors and thresholds for
  18. landslide susceptibility map. Engineering
  19. Geology; 2009; 108: 237-251.
  20. Luna B, Langbein W B. The Concept of
  21. Entropy in Landscape Evolution, Geological
  22. Survey Professional Paper, U.S. Govt. Print.
  23. Off, Washington. 1963. p. 187.
  24. Smith C S, McDonald G T. Assessing the
  25. sustainability of agriculture at the planning
  26. stage. Journal of Environmental Management;
  27. ; 52: 12-37.
  28. Stockle C O, Papendick R I, Saxton K E,
  29. Campbell G S, van Evert F K. A framework
  30. for evaluating the sustainability of agricultural
  31. production systems. American Journal o

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics