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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.08.017 Byline: Paolo Vassallo (a), Chiara Paoli (a), David R. Tilley (b), Mauro Fabiano (a) Abstract: Sustainable development of coastal zones must balance economic development that encourages human visitation from a larger population with desires that differ from the local residents with the need to maintain opportunities for the local resident society and conserve ecological capital, which may serve as the basis for residents. We present a case study in which the sustainability level of a coastal zone (Riviera del Beigua), located along the Ligurian coast of north-western Italy, was assessed through the lens of systems ecology using emergy synthesis to integrate across economic, social and environmental sub-systems. Our purposes were (1) to quantify the environmental sustainability level of this coastal zone, (2) to evaluate the role of tourism in affecting the economy, society and environment, and (3) to compare emergy synthesis to Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle model (TALC). Results showed that 81% of the total emergy consumption in the coastal zone was derived from external sources, indicating that this tourist-heavy community was not sustainable. Tourism, as the dominant economic sub-system, consumed 42% of the total emergy budget, while local residents used the remaining 58%. The progressive stages of the TALC model were found to parallel the dynamic changes in the ratio of external emergy inputs to local emergy inputs, suggesting that emergy synthesis could be a useful tool for detecting a tourist region's TALC stage. Use of such a quantitative tool could expedite sustainability assessment to allow administrative managers to understand the complex relationship between a region's economy, environment and resident society so sound policies can be developed to improve overall sustainability. Author Affiliation: (a) Department for the Study of Territory and its Resources, University of Genoa, C.so Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy (b) Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, 1421 An Sci./Ag. Engr. Bldg., College Park, MD 20742, USA Article History: Received 2 September 2008; Revised 6 August 2009; Accepted 31 August 2009

ABSTRACT Carbon monoxide (CO) poses dangers to both human and environmental health, sickening thousands of people annually in the United States and decreasing the capacity of the atmosphere to oxidize [...]