Track: Engineering Management

Abstract

Understanding resource circulation is vital for addressing environmental problems. In the past, resource circulation between the Earth’s natural and societal spaces was balanced. However, due to recent mass production, consumption, and disposal in societal space, such resource circulation is no longer balanced. In this paper, we further develop the domain transition probability model for resource circulation that we proposed previously, and suggest a new five-segment resource circulation model that can consider shortcuts between the domains within it. This model can consider a supply chain consisting of manufacturers and suppliers in societal space, and can be used to analyze the effects of environmental activities on societal space. This model provides several suggestions about the impacts of activities, such as artificial waste purification, recycling, and inventory disposal, on resource circulation, which are based on the results of simple numerical simulations. This model also indicates towards new directions for environmental activities that can improve the Earth’s environment.