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| Title | Author(s) | Type | Year | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A systematic review of factors influencing spatiotemporal variability in urban water and energy consumption Understanding which factors influence urban metabolism is a prerequisite for designing policies and plans that effectuate sustainable resource management. A growing number of publications is concerned with these factors. Yet, this emerging field of research lacks a common framework that supports researchers in interpreting their findings, such as generalizability to other cities, and making informed decisions on their research design. Aiming to contribute to building such a framework, we systematically reviewed urban metabolism literature. This review paper presents an overview of factors influencing urban water and energy consumption and their effect on consumption, and it describes the interconnectedness of these factors for six different types of relationships. Results disclose fourteen drivers, changes in societal context that shape consumption patterns, and twenty-one facilitators/constraints. The latter type of factors include consumer, resource and urban landscape characteristics that affect resource consumption by facilitating or constraining specific activities. Findings indicate commonalities between primary studies in terms of prevalent observed effect direction for a given factor. However, the interconnections between different factors can influence the direction and magnitude of effects and thereby result in case-specific variability in consumption patterns. Future research should enhance the understanding of these interconnections, strengthen the evidence for the factors presented here and provide insight in additional factors of influence. It is essential to align these studies in terms of a common terminology, transparent quality assessment and a unified approach to measuring and expressing factors of influence. Connecting with related disciplines working on a common systems approach is key to realize the full potential of urban metabolism research to advance our understanding of cities. | A systematic review of factors influencing spatiotemporal variability in urban ... | Ilse M. Voskamp, Nora B. Sutton, Sven Stremke, Huub H.M. Rijnaarts | Journal Article | academic | 2020 |
Energy
Review Paper
Urban
Water
|
| Methodological framework for the implementation of circular economy in urban systems Urban areas are hubs for innovation, economic activity and growth that hugely influence the development of our society, making those areas important drivers in the global transition towards circular economy. Although global policies are necessary to set the general ambition, local interventions are crucial to realize it. This paper presents a methodological framework aimed at facilitating the understanding and application of circular economy strategies in urban systems, that being a single city, or urban regions. The framework is conceived as a flexible structure that contains a network of potential decisions, describing different convergence and divergence points, and that is meant as a supporting tool for future urban circular economy implementation initiatives. After a literature review and an analysis of specific case studies on urban circular economy implementation, a four-phased methodology is proposed where the territory is explored in order to identify and select initiatives in the areas with greatest potential for circular economy. Actions needed to implement the selected initiatives are finally summarized in a roadmap. Each phase contains recommendations of different tasks to complete and available tools for achieving the expected results. Different approaches to adopt in the application of this methodology are discussed as well, such as production-based vs. consumption-based, and top-down vs. bottom-up. Special emphasis is put on the importance of involving local agents, in order to obtain specific and validated proposals that are adapted to the reality of the territory and the concerns of the stakeholders. Through these comprehensive guidelines, the ultimate goal of this methodology is to help urban systems to foster circular economy principles, and therefore reaffirm their role in addressing and managing global sustainability issues. | Methodological framework for the implementation of circular economy in urban ... | Ana Sánchez Levoso, Carles M. Gasol, Julia Martínez-Blanco, Xavier Gabarell Durany, Martin Lehmann, Ramon Farreny Gaya | Journal Article | academic | 2020 |
Circular Economy
Method
Urban
|
| Evaluating urban water management using a water metabolism framework: A comparative analysis of three regions in Korea As climatic and societal changes increase the prominence of water insecurity, sustainable urban water management focusing on water efficiency and reuse is an increasingly significant issue in Korea and elsewhere. This study uses the urban water metabolism framework to examine patterns of water flows in urbanized areas and evaluate water management performance in three Korean regions: Seoul (a metropolitan city), Ulsan (an industrial city), and Jeju (an urbanized agricultural province). Constructed water metabolism models showed distinct water use patterns and performance across each region in 2015. Seoul largely relied on surface water, while the residential sector’s dominant use of water implies high greywater use and wastewater recycling potential. Ulsan relied on abstracting river water, with lower water availability of the river making Ulsan’s water system less self-sustaining and more vulnerable to climatic risks than Seoul’s. Facing higher water use intensity due to high industrial demand, Ulsan actively promotes industrial wastewater recycling. Jeju showed the highest water use intensity because of the presence of intensive agricultural activities. Nonetheless, Jeju sourced 76% of its water from internal sources, with its water system considered to be the most self-sustaining. These results suggest that the water metabolism framework helps facilitate more holistic understandings and evaluations of the water performance of cities. | Evaluating urban water management using a water metabolism framework: A ... | Jeong, Seongpil; Park, Jooyoung | Journal Article | academic | 2020 |
Case Study
Single point in time
Urban
Water
|
| Spatially explicit material stock analysis of buildings in Eastern China metropoles China is experiencing a period of rapid urbanization and fervent construction activities, which are responsible for the accumulation of large amount of material stocks (MS). Fundamental in every society, buildings not only shape material flows before and during construction, but also during maintenance and demolition, inducing the extraction of resources and the production of construction waste. It is thus imperative to understand the amount, composition, and location of current building MS as a first step to design appropriate management strategies for an environmentally sustainable society. This research uses the latest GIS dataset of buildings in 14 representative Eastern China metropoles to quantify the current status of building MS by employing a bottom-up method. The selection of the study areas relies on the law of the primate city, which permits to quickly target the most important urban areas of a region. We review and discuss existing material intensity (MI) coefficients for Chinese buildings, and produce a new set of MIs manipulating those available in the literature. We then calculate the total MS, MS density, and per capita MS for each city. Results find that in 14 cities 7.9 Gt of building materials are currently stored in a total area of 3790 km 2 , resulting on an average density of 2.1 Mt/km 2. The per capita building MS results being 283 t/cap, and this value correlates with a growth of the per capita GDP. We conclude the research with a hotspot analysis of the spatial distribution of the MS, identifying the MS clusters. | Spatially explicit material stock analysis of buildings in Eastern China ... | Jing Guo, Alessio Miatto, Feng Shi, Hiroki Tanikawa | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Construction
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
|
| Using spatially explicit commodity flow and truck activity data to map urban material flows To analyze and promote resource efficiency in urban areas, it is important to characterize urban metabolism and particularly, material flows. Material flow analysis (MFA) offers a means to capture the dynamism of cities and their activities. Urban‐scale MFAs have been conducted in many cities, usually employing variants of the Eurostat methodology. However, current methodologies generally reduce the study area into a “black box,” masking details of the complex processes within the city's metabolism. Therefore, besides the aggregated stocks and flows of materials, the movement of materials—often embedded in goods or commodities—should also be highlighted. Understanding the movement and dispersion of goods and commodities can allow for more detailed analysis of material flows. We highlight the potential benefits of using high‐resolution urban commodity flows in the context of understanding material resource use and opportunities for conservation. Through the use of geographic information systems and visualizations, we analyze two spatially explicit datasets: (1) commodity flow data in the United States, and (2) Global Positioning System‐based commercial vehicle (truck) driver activity data in Singapore. In the age of “big data,” we bring advancements in freight data collection to the field of urban metabolism, uncovering the secondary sourcing of materials that would otherwise have been masked in typical MFA studies. This brings us closer to a consumption‐based, finer‐resolution approach to MFA, which more effectively captures human activities and its impact on urban environments. | Using spatially explicit commodity flow and truck activity data to ... | Lih Wei Yeow, Lynette Cheah | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
National
Transportation
Urban
|
| Urban Material Flows and Stocks Accounting: A Review of Methods and Their Application The document presents a thorough review of 29 existing urban material accounting methods used in research projects and academic literature to illustrate the multitude of methods that exist and provide a good understanding of them. The analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses of most accounting techniques informing the adapted sector-wide and urban circularity assessment methods that will be developed in the CityLoops project. This is followed by an overview of how the application of various methods has changed over time, informed by the analysis of 194 publications. | Urban Material Flows and Stocks Accounting: A Review of Methods ... | Hoekman, Paul; Bellstedt, Carolin | Report | reports | 2019 |
Review Paper
Urban
|
| Spatial analysis of urban material stock with clustering algorithms: A Northern European case study A large share of construction material stock (MS) accumulates in urban built environments. To attain a more sustainable use of resources, knowledge about the spatial distribution of urban MS is needed. In this article, an innovative spatial analysis approach to urban MS is proposed. Within this scope, MS indicators are defined at neighborhood level and clustered with k-mean algorithms. The MS is estimated bottom-up with (a) material-intensity coefficients and (b) spatial data for three built environment components: buildings, road transportation, and pipes, using seven material categories. The city of Gothenburg, Sweden is used as a case study. Moreover, being the first case study in Northern Europe, the results are explored through various aspects (material composition, age distribution, material density), and, finally, contrasted on a per capita basis with other studies worldwide. The stock is estimated at circa 84 million metric tons. Buildings account for 73% of the stock, road transport 26%, and pipes 1%. Mineral-binding materials take the largest share of the stock, followed by aggregates, brick, asphalt, steel, and wood. Per capita, the MS is estimated at 153 metric tons; 62 metric tons are residential, which, in an international context, is a medium estimate. Denser neighborhoods with a mix of nonresidential and residential buildings have a lower proportion of MS in roads and pipes than low-density single-family residential neighborhoods. Furthermore, single-family residential neighborhoods cluster in mixed-age classes and show the largest content of wood. Multifamily buildings cluster in three distinct age classes, and each represent a specific material composition of brick, mineral binding, and steel. Future work should focus on megacities and contrasting multiple urban areas and, methodologically, should concentrate on algorithms, MS indicators, and spatial divisions of urban stock. None | Spatial analysis of urban material stock with clustering algorithms: A ... | Gontia, Paul; Thuvander, Liane; Ebrahimi, Babak; Vinas, Victor; Rosado, Leonardo; Wallbaum, Holger | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
|
| Conceptualizing Household Energy Metabolism: A Methodological Contribution Urban metabolism assessments enable the quantification of resource flows, which is useful for finding intervention points for sustainability. At a household level, energy metabolism assessments can reveal intervention points to reshape household energy consumption and inform decision-makers about a more sustainable urban energy system. However, a gap in the current urban metabolism research reveals that existing household energy consumption studies focus on outflows in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, and have been mostly undertaken at the city or national level. To address this gap, this study developed a method to assess household energy metabolism focusing on direct energy inflows in the form of carriers, and through-flows in the form of services, to identify intervention points for sustainability. Then, this method was applied to assess the energy metabolism of different households in Cape Town, South Africa, as categorized by income groups. The study argued that the developed method is useful for undertaking bottom–up household energy metabolic assessments in both formal and informal city settings in which more than one energy carrier is used. In cities where only national or city-level data exists, it provides a method for understanding how different households consume different energy carriers differently. None | Conceptualizing Household Energy Metabolism: A Methodological Contribution | Strydom, Adél; Musango, Josephine Kaviti; Currie, Paul K. | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Energy Accounting
Urban
|
| Examining urban metabolism: A material flow perspective on cities and their sustainability The resource challenge associated with anthropogenic forces gained attention in recent years. However, the pathways toward urban sustainability are complicated and depend on local conditions, which need an understanding of the characteristics of urban metabolism (hereafter referred to as “UM”). This study adopts the flow perspective and develops a methodological framework to conduct a local-scale assessment of resource input to an urban system and related consumption, stock, and output. Through categorizing human activities and describing inner flows, a model of urban metabolism is constructed to clarify interrelationships among different sectors within the urban system, enabling the estimation of material dynamics. By determining metabolism profile and resource scarcity, the results reveals how metabolism takes effect on surrounding environment and urban resilience. This methodological framework is demonstrated through a case study of Guangzhou, China. The main characteristics identified are diversified material consumption, high resource intensity, dependence on non-metallic material and fossil energy import, and a high percentage of CO2 emission associated with industrial production. This result is meaningful in understanding the local resource scarcity and driving a regenerative process in Guangzhou, which is an industry-based economy. Advanced policy is further suggested that refers to clean energy use, waste management techniques, rigorous population control, and advanced measures and data sharing platform in urban management. These findings suggest the need to rethink the trajectory of urban development and gain awareness of the need to focus on new local initiatives in resource use optimization. None | Examining urban metabolism: A material flow perspective on cities and ... | Cui, Xuezhu; Wang, Xuetong; Feng, Yunyu | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Integrating lifecycle assessment and urban metabolism at city level: Comparison between Spanish cities Abstract Urban systems are important consumers of resources and producers of wastes derived from the lifestyles and daily needs of their citizens. The quantification of environmental impacts arising from urban metabolism (UM) plays a key role in the design of more sustainable cities and in the development of decision-making strategies into more effective urban policies. This article combines UM and lifecycle assessment methodology to quantify mass and energy flows within the city limits and derived urban environmental pressures, thus prioritizing the environmental perspective of sustainability. This methodology is applied to the two very different Spanish cities of Bilbao and Seville. The results acquired in this study identify the consumption of construction materials, electricity, fossil fuels, and food and beverages as environmental hotspots. The results are primarily affected by differences in the climate (extreme conditions), which mainly affect the consumption of fossil fuels, and differences in purchasing power, which mainly influence the intake of foodstuffs. Further research should focus on data management and quality as well as on designing more efficient cities (e.g., through the introduction of more energy-efficient buildings, sustainable building materials, and public transport) in order to create improvements in their environmental profiles. | Integrating lifecycle assessment and urban metabolism at city level: Comparison ... | González-García, Sara and Dias, Ana Claudia | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Urban
|
| Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework Urbanisation poses new and complex sustainability challenges. Socioeconomic activities drive material and energy flows in cities that influence the health of ecosystems inside and outside the urban system. Recent studies suggest that these flows, under the urban metabolism (UM) metaphor, can be extended to encompass the assessment of urban ecosystem services (UES). Advancing UM approaches to assess UES may be a valuable solution to these arising sustainability challenges, which can support urban planning decisions. This paper critically reviews UM literature related to the UES concept and identifies approaches that may allow or improve the assessment of UES within UM frameworks. We selected from the UM literature 42 studies that encompass UES aspects, and analysed them on the following key investigation themes: temporal information, spatial information, system boundary aspects and cross-scale indicators. The analysis showed that UES are rarely acknowledged in UM literature, and that existing UM approaches have limited capacity to capture the complexity of spatio-temporal and multi-scale information underpinning UES, which has hampered the implementation of operational decision support systems so far. We use these results to identify and illustrate pathways towards a UM-UES modelling approach. Our review suggests that cause-effect dynamics should be integrated with the UM framework, based on spatially-specific social, economic and ecological data. System dynamics can inform on the causal relationships underpinning UES in cities and, therefore, can help moving towards a knowledge base tool to support urban planners in addressing urban challenges. | Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework | Thomas Elliot, Javier Babí Almenar, Samuel Niza, Vânia Proença and Benedetto Rugani | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| Diets, Food Miles, and Environmental Sustainability of Urban Food Systems: Analysis of Nine Indian Cities With ever-growing populations, cities are increasingly interested in ensuring a well-functioning food system. However, knowledge of variation between individual city food systems is limited. This is particularly true in countries such as India, experiencing significant issues related to food security and sustainability. This paper advances the understanding of urban food systems, by analyzing the unique food systems of nine cities within India, through the integration of multiple city-specific data sources including demand of residents, visitors and industries, and commodity-specific supply chains to assess nutrition, environmental impact, and supply risk. This work finds a large degree of intercity food system variability across multiple food system characteristics. Specifically, levels of undernutrition vary, with the percentage of city populations who are underconsuming protein ranging from 0% to 70%, and for calories 0% to 90%. Environmental impacts (consumptive water loss, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions) of urban food demand also show variation, largely influenced by differing composition of residential diet. Greenhouse gas emissions are also largely influenced by location of production and spatially informed energy intensity of irrigation. Supply chain distance (“food-miles”) also vary by city, with the range of 196 (Pondicherry) to 1,137 (Chennai) km/Mg—shorter than more industrialized nations such as the United States. Evaluating supply chain risk in terms of water scarcity in food-producing regions that serve city demand finds production locations, on average, to be less water-scarce than the watersheds local to the urban environments. This suggests water-intensive agriculture may at times be best located at a distance from urban centers and competing demands. | Diets, Food Miles, and Environmental Sustainability of Urban Food Systems: ... | Boyer, D.; Sarkar, J.; Ramaswami, A. | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Food
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Urban
|
| In-use Product and Steel Stocks Sustaining the Urbanization of Xiamen, China In-use product and material stocks are now an essential component of cities and urban ecosystem. They refer to the amount of concerned manufactured products and materials in active use. This study estimates the dynamic in-use stocks of various steel-containing products and steel in the city of Xiamen, China, during 1980-2015 by applying a bottom-up accounting approach. We incorporate 55 categories of steel-containing products that are classified into five main end-use sectors (i.e., buildings, infrastructure, transportation equipment, machinery, and domestic appliances). We find that in-use stocks of more than half of the studied products kept increasing during the period 1980-2015, especially after 2000. Steel stocks in Xiamen have grown up to 4.9 ± 1.4 tons per capita (t/cap) in 2015, from 0.5 ± 0.2 t/cap in 1980. Buildings are the largest reservoirs during the studied period, although its share decreased from 89% in 1980 to 68% in 2015. The dynamic spatial distribution indicates that in-use steel stocks gradually expanded from urban core to the suburban areas during the studied period. Results of this study help to explore how a city’s urbanization is sustained by the growth of in-use product and steel stocks in China that has been quickly urbanized. In-use steel stocks, of which the growth is highly correlated to and probably driven by the population growth, GDP increase, and urban built-up area expansion in Xiamen, may serve as a supplementary indicator for urbanization. | In-use Product and Steel Stocks Sustaining the Urbanization of Xiamen, ... | Lulu Song, Chao Zhang, Ji Han & Wei-Qiang Chen | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Time series
Urban
|
| From the urban metabolism to the urban immune system Urban areas face mounting risks from many sources. Cities pursue myriad tactics to resist, recover from and adapt to shocks and stresses, but little is known about how these approaches relate across the scales of a city nor how cities compare in their abilities. Part of the challenge in addressing these gaps is that the risk to cities is typically studied with an emphasis on one or a few hazards or through the lens of a singular sector. This paper proposes a framework, dubbed the Urban Immune System (UIS) to coalesce and expand industrial ecology research on urban risk management. In the same way that Urban Metabolism (UM) is a unifying framework for urban environmental sustainability, UIS can be a unifying framework for urban resilience, especially related to climate change. Herein, UIS is defined, its many capabilities are dissected and linked to disparate studies; and opportunities for application of the concept are provided. The paper concludes by examining the relationship between UIS and climate change and by identifying those attributes of the UIS that are expected to be of increasing importance under climate change. | From the urban metabolism to the urban immune system | David N. Bristow, Eugene A. Mohareb | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| Towards an interspatial urban metabolism analysis in an interconnected world Cities supply their material needs from various sources, located not only in their nearby region, but also from other places around the world. Consequently, they have significant environmental impact in those areas. ‘Urban metabolism’ is a leading research approach, which advances urban analysis by attempting to quantify the amount of materials and energy that flow through a city. In recent years, this tool has been used widely, but there have been no prior metabolism studies that attempt to locate and quantify the resources and waste flows to and from a city on the local, regional and global scales. The goal of this paper is to present such an approach to urban metabolism, as a means to advance urban sustainability. The manuscript focuses on the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel. It analyzes the overall urban metabolism and identifies the routes followed by the material supplies used by the city and its environmental impact on several spatial scales – local, regional and global. Overall the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa relies on direct and indirect use of approximately 3600 kt of materials a year out of which approximately 47% are imported. Furthermore, 99% of the city related waste is outside Israel and only small portion remains at the regional level and within the city. | Towards an interspatial urban metabolism analysis in an interconnected world | Meidad Kissinger, Zeev Stossel | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Multi-scale
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Construction and demolition waste generation in cities in India: an integrated approach This paper quantifies construction and demolition waste (C&DW) generation rate in Indian cities using bottom-up material flow analysis approach. A dynamic model was applied to different classes of cities in India to investigate how C&DW generation rate varies across different classes of cities. The data on construction and demolition activities in different classes of cities were estimated from information reported in secondary literature. The results show that urban areas in India generated over 150 million tonnes of C&DW in 2016, and almost 50% of waste was generated in small to medium towns. The paper concludes with discussion on opportunities for recycling of C&DW and closing the material loops in Indian cities. | Construction and demolition waste generation in cities in India: an ... | Jain, Sourabh; Singhal, Shaleen; Jain, Nikunj Kumar | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Germany: Hamburg aims to legalize dumpster diving Going through garbage cans to find food is considered an offence in Germany, even if other people have thrown the food away. The city of Hamburg would like Germany to decriminalize this law but also prohibit supermarkets from throwing away food, and fight against food waste. | Germany: Hamburg aims to legalize dumpster diving | Deutsche Welle | Magazine Article | None | 2019 |
Food and agriculture
Urban
Waste (sector)
|
| A literature review and categorisation of sustainability-aimed urban metabolism indicators: a context, indicator, mechanism, outcome analysis Urban metabolism has been advanced as an approach to quantifying energy and resource use and supply in the modern urban system. It is a multidisciplinary approach focused on providing insight into the behaviour of cities for drafting effective proposals for a more humane and ecologically responsible future. Urban metabolism indicators could play an important role in promoting the science and practice of urban metabolism for sustainability. This paper presents a systematic review of literature centred on defining sustainability-aimed urban metabolism indicators to improve the integration of urban metabolism and urban sustainability. Furthermore, this paper concentrates on two indicator sets (emergy synthesis and material flow analysis [MFA]), examining the relationship between these indicators and the three dimensions of sustainability (environment, economy, and society) in the literature. The paper thus builds a bridge between urban metabolism and urban sustainability in the hope that urban metabolism indicators can be used to measure and assess urban sustainability. | A literature review and categorisation of sustainability-aimed urban metabolism indicators: ... | Yan Song, Arjan Van Timmeren, Alexander Wandl | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Indicators - general
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to identify environmental hotspots of urban consumption Understanding the global environmental impacts of local consumption is an area of growing interest among policymakers and consumers. By knowing what products comprise urban consumption “hotspots,” municipalities and consumers alike could take deliberate actions to target and discourage consumption of high-impact products. In this paper, a new method for identifying environmental hotspots of consumption is presented. The main methodological advances are the following: i) material flow analysis of urban areas and life cycle assessment are combined; ii) a 16-year time-series of urban consumption data is used for selection of the most suitable representative products and for trend analysis; iii) representative products are selected systematically from consumption data of 1000 product types; iv) representative products are scaled up to represent consumption of the product groups; v) hotspots are identified by simultaneously evaluating six environmental impacts - acidification, climate change, eutrophication (marine and freshwater), photochemical ozone formation, and resource use; vi) for the case study, hotspots are connected to the city's profiles. The method was applied to the Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo and to Sweden in total. Electronics is a hotspot for all the studied areas and all the studied impacts and should be a prioritized product group for action. Fuel is a hotspot shared by all the areas while vehicles is a hotspot in Gothenburg. Meat is a nationwide hotspot, but not for the cities investigated. Gothenburg and Stockholm could collaborate to find effective measures for their common hotspot machinery. Thus, the method can be used to identify hotspots and find which product types could be part of national versus local programs. | Combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to identify ... | Alexandra Lavers Westin and Yuliya Kalmykova and Leonardo Rosado and Felipe Oliveira and Rafael Laurenti and Tomas Rydberg | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Urban
Zotero2
|
| City of Flows: The Need for Design-Led Research to Urban Metabolism The design of cities has long ignored the flows that shape the city. Water has been the most visible one, but energy and materials were invisible and/or taken for granted. A little over 50 years ago, Abel Wolman was the first to illuminate the role of water flows in the urban fabric. It has long been a search for quantitative data while the flows were mostly seen as separated entities. The fact they invisibly formed the way the city appears has been neglected for many years. In this thematic issue the “city of flows” is seen as a design task. It aims to bring to the fore the role flows can play to be consciously used to make spatial decisions in how and where certain uses and infrastructure is located. Efficient and sustainable. | City of Flows: The Need for Design-Led Research to Urban ... | Rob Roggema | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| Toronto Resilience Strategy Executive Summary: This is Toronto’s first resilience strategy. It sets out a vision, goals, and actions to help Toronto survive, adapt and thrive in the face of any challenge, particularly climate change and growing inequities. Building the Resilience Strategy was a collective effort. We’ve engaged over 8,000 Torontonians in conversations about resilience face to face, over the phone, on social media, at City Hall, in libraries, in parks, and in people’s homes. They told us they want a city where every resident can thrive, where diversity is nurtured and residents have empathy for each other. One where long-term, “all my relations” thinking is considered in every decision. One where residents know the history of Indigenous peoples and are committed to taking action for Truth and Reconciliation. One that is efficient, safe and affordable, and led by brave and caring leaders who reflect the communities they serve. We have developed a set of 10 goals and 27 actions to deliver on this vision. They are organized into three focus areas: people and neighbourhoods, infrastructure, and leadership for a resilient city. Taking action in each of these focus areas will help us achieve the vision. Making Toronto more resilient requires a focus on equity. We know that residents experience resilience differently based on which neighbourhood they live in, and who they are, including in terms of their race, income, and gender. We also know that access to safe and liveable homes and reliable infrastructure is not equitably distributed across the city. For example, apartment towers, where one in three low income families live, are disproportionately vulnerable to extreme heat and power shortages. And we know that vulnerable residents are much less likely to participate in civic processes or see themselves reflected by government. While Toronto is already making exciting strides towards resilient neighbourhoods and infrastructure, more can be done towards realizing resilience across the city. Toronto’s Resilience Strategy builds on a wealth of existing and planned efforts to make Toronto more resilient. It delivers where there are gaps, brings a resilience lens to existing work, and intends to shape future plans coming to Toronto in the coming years. This Strategy is meant to light a spark – to drive action at the City and from business, academia, non-profit organizations, and residents to build a city where everyone can thrive. | Toronto Resilience Strategy | City of Toronto | Report | reports | 2019 |
Urban
Urban Resilience
|
| Energy Report Municipality of The Hague The Energy Report is an automatically generated report with a snapshot of data from the Local Energy Showcase about the municipality of The Hague. This report can be used as an independent document or as a source in its own reports, provided it includes source and date reporting. Within the framework of the VNG program Energy, the VNG, KING municipalities, VNG International, Rijkswaterstaat and Klimaatverbond Nederland have the Local Energy Showcase (LEE) developed. The LEE provides an accessible and inspiring insight into the energy consumption, generation of renewable energy and energy policy of the 388 municipalities in the Netherlands. The information concerns a conscious selection section on five themes: housing, services, social real estate, renewable energy and mobility. Het Energierapport is een automatisch gegenereerd rapport met een momentopname van gegevens uit deLokale Energie Etalage over de gemeente Den Haag. Dit rapport kan als zelfstandig document gebruiktworden of als bron in eigen rapportages, mits voorzien van bron- en datumvermelding.In het kader van het VNG programma Energie hebben de VNG, KING-gemeenten, VNG-International,Rijkswaterstaat en Klimaatverbond Nederland de Lokale Energie Etalage (LEE) ontwikkeld. De LEE geeft opeen laagdrempelige en inspirerende manier inzicht in het energieverbruik, opwekking van hernieuwbareenergie en energiebeleid van de 388 gemeenten in Nederland. De informatie betreft een bewuste selectieverdeeld over vijf thema’s: wonen, diensten, maatschappelijk vastgoed, hernieuwbare energie en mobiliteit. | Energy Report Municipality of The Hague | Lokale Energie Etalage | Report | reports | 2019 |
Energy (sector)
The Hague
Urban
|
| Incorporating Metabolic Thinking into Regional Planning: The Case of the Sierra Calderona Strategic Plan A metabolic study of the South-Eastern part of the Calderona Mountain Range (Sierra Calderona) was developed in 2014 as a part of the Sierra Calderona Strategic Plan (SCSP). The goal of the study was to define strategies to optimise materials and energy flows in the region and, thereby, enhance the sustainability of the entire regional system. Due to its location on the outskirts of the Metropolitan Area of Valencia, Sierra Calderona presents most of the metabolic challenges and potentials that characterise peri-urban areas, giving the SCSP case a wider and transferable interest. After introducing the scope, rationale, and research questions, the article first summarises the main theoretical and methodological frameworks underpinning the integration of metabolic studies in regional and urban planning. Following our literature review, the article focuses on the way in which the metabolic analyses were inputted and informed the different phases and outcomes of the SCSP: analysis and diagnosis, regional objectives and strategies, landscape and land-use plan, sectoral plans and pilot projects. This approach was based on the combination of complementary analytical methods such as material and energy flow accounting and Ecological Footprint Analysis. Additionally, the article reflects on how new conceptual tools such as the Functional Metabolic Areas were used in the SCSP in order to operate in a complex spatial system and to generate a regional metabolic model. Subsequently, the main contributions and shortcomings of the use of metabolic inputs in the SCSP are discussed by comparing the metabolic assessment approach adopted in the SCSP with available models and methods. Finally, our conclusions suggest potential improvements and future lines of research on a two-way implication between urban metabolism research and regional and urban planning practice. | Incorporating Metabolic Thinking into Regional Planning: The Case of the ... | Juanjo Galan, Daniela Perrotti | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Energy Accounting
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Sub-national
Urban
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| Urban water metabolism information for planning water sensitive city-regions Climate change and growing populations will stretch water resources in many city-regions globally, and urbanisation will continue to degrade water quality and upset natural hydrological flows. These pressures call for alternative urban water management approaches with improved connection with land use planning. Evaluating the water metabolism of urban areas gives a holistic picture of how water flows through and is transformed by urban settlements, to inform land use planning for sustainably managing urban water. Previous research has conceptualised how metabolism science may inform urban land use planning. In this work, we build on to identify how urban water metabolism evaluations can inform urban planning practice. We ask, ‘how can urban water metabolism evaluations support urban and water planning towards water sensitive city-regions?’ Focusing on three Australian capital city-regions, we empirically identify the knowledge needs of practitioners and compare this against the knowledge known to be generated from past urban water metabolism evaluations. This was done within a framework of urban water resource management objectives for water sensitive cities - that is, protection of water resources and hydrological flows, recognition of the diverse functions of water, and resource efficiency and supply internalisation. Based on the findings, the paper discusses five key strategic initiatives for planning for water sensitive city-regions: resource efficiency and hydrological performance benchmarks and targets for urban developments, tailoring programmes for resource efficiency, making case for regional blue-green space networks for improved hydrological performance, small and large-scale infrastructure innovation, and social and institutional innovation in urban water management. | Urban water metabolism information for planning water sensitive city-regions | Silvia Serrao-Neumann and Marguerite A. Renouf and Edward Morgan and Steven J. Kenway and Darryl Low Choy | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Scenario analysis
Sub-national
Urban
Water
|
| Including Urban Metabolism Principles in Decision-Making: A Methodology for Planning Waste and Resource Management Circular economy and urban metabolism concepts have recently received great attention both in the political and academic arenas, starting a roll-over process of the “take, make, and dispose” dominant economic model that is leading to an ongoing increase of resource consumption and waste generation. However, there is a relative lack of guidelines for introducing such concepts in a decision-making process able to support the design of appropriate policies and strategies and the definition of specific actions to cope with such challenges. This paper attempts to contribute to the recent efforts at incorporating these concepts in policy and decision-making processes by providing a methodology for the development of strategic plans for waste prevention and resource management. The proposed methodology, developed within the Urban_WINS project, combines different quantitative–analytical and qualitative methods and tools, together with a participatory process. The methodology was tested in eight EU cities and allowed to formulate several measures and actions aimed at addressing the challenges posed by the current consumption patterns. Moreover, the participatory approach led to the legitimization of the strategic plans, as well as to raise awareness among stakeholders. Although it might require specific tailor-made adjustments, this methodology is suitable to be replicated in other contexts. | Including Urban Metabolism Principles in Decision-Making: A Methodology for Planning ... | Davide Longato, Giulia Lucertini, Michele Dalla Fontana, Francesco Musco | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Circular Economy
Urban
|
| Detailed urban analysis of commute-related GHG emissions to guide urban mitigation measures Modeling and measuring both potential and actual urban greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigations can serve as a foundation for urban sustainability management. A growing number of studies have analyzed various aspects of GHG emissions from the use of private vehicles, emphasizing the significant share they represent of overall emissions, and also exploring measures to reduce these emissions. Commuting to and from work is a significant form of urban travel. Most existing analyses have focused on urban transportation-related emissions at the overall urban scale. Much less research has been published concerning fine-scale emissions analysis of urban commute patterns and specific commuting routes. This manuscript presents a detailed analysis of commute related GHG emissions from private vehicles used by the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Israel) residents. The analysis found that 60% of the overall urban private vehicles related emissions can be attributed to commuting, emitting ~215,000 t CO2e annually. We analyzed GHG emissions related to 257 inter-city and 64 commute routes within the city, ranging between 100 and 5600 t CO2e annually. Potential scenarios for GHG mitigation are also presented showing that relatively mild technological, behavioral and policy changes can potentially save 10–51% of emissions related to commute within the city, amounting to 3000–17,000 t CO2e annually. Findings show that commute-route-specific carbon quantification can be used as a tool for socio-spatial tailored policies, advancing urban GHG mitigation. | Detailed urban analysis of commute-related GHG emissions to guide urban ... | Meidad Kissinger, Ariel Reznik | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Transportation
Urban
|
| The living city - introduction to circular urban metabolism Today the cities of the world are home to almost 4 billion people (54% of the world population) and in the coming years this number will grow considerably. Billions of tons of raw materials are used for their construction and operation, such as water, food, fuel, building materials, etc; once used, they are discarded in the environment as pollution and waste. However, resource consumption and waste disposal are not the only problems to be addressed; issues related to sustainability also include social and economic elements, such as mobility, housing availability, employment, health, education, citizen participation in decision-making processes. This book presents the issues related to urban sustainability, proposing solutions based on the vision of the city as a "living organism". Urban metabolism is a holistic model that allows to trace incoming and outgoing flows (of water, energy, food, people, materials) and that can be used to analyze the functioning of urban areas in relation to the use of resources and infrastructures, providing data and tools to plan and manage the urban environment in a more sustainable way. The book also contains experts contributions and some best practices that implemented urban systems sustainability for the planet and the citizens. Le città del mondo oggi ospitano quasi 4 miliardi di persone (il 54% della popolazione mondiale) e nei prossimi anni questo numero è destinato a crescere considerevolmente. Per la loro costruzione e per il loro funzionamento vengono utilizzati miliardi di tonnellate di materie prime, come acqua, cibo, combustibili, materiali edili, etc., che una volta utilizzati vengono scartati sotto forma di inquinamento e rifiuti. Consumo di risorse e smaltimento dei rifiuti non sono però le sole problematiche da affrontare; le tematiche relative alla sostenibilità includono anche elementi sociali ed economici, come la mobilità, la disponibilità di alloggi adeguati, l'occupazione, la salute, l'istruzione, la partecipazione dei cittadini ai processi decisionali. Il libro presenta le problematiche legate alla sostenibilità urbana, proponendo soluzioni basate sulla visione della città come 'organismo vivente'. Il metabolismo urbano è un modello olistico che consente di tracciare i flussi (di acqua, energia, cibo, persone, materiali) in entrata e in uscita e che può essere usato per analizzare il funzionamento delle aree urbane in relazione all'uso delle risorse e delle infrastrutture, fornendo dati e strumenti per pianificare e gestire l'ambiente urbano in modo più sostenibile. Il libro riporta inoltre le testimonianze di alcuni tra i più autorevoli protagonisti di questo cambiamento di paradigma, e alcune significative buone pratiche, con cui è stato possibile rendere i sistemi urbani a misura di sostenibilità per il pianeta ed i cittadini. | The living city - introduction to circular urban metabolism | Paola Pluchino | Book | academic | 2019 |
Urban
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| Feeding the Urban Metabolism within Planetary Boundaries - A Policy for future-proof Phosphorus Supply of a medium-sized Western European City with respect to its Global Hinterland Cities as concentrated hubs of human activity generate 80% of global GDP, consume 70-75% of natural resources and eject 70% of the planet's waste (UNEP, 2017; UN Habitat, 2017). To satiate their demand, cities are intrinsically dependant on food supply from hinterlands rendering them responsible for global mobility of phosphorus. The element phosphorus is crucial to all life on Earth and is transported in the food supply chain which degrades agricultural soils requiring artificial fertilization. While mining deposits are depleting, health and food security of more than 54% of the global population are at stake (United Nations, 2014). Due to a lack of adequate international governance mechanisms in place, self-governing cities are left with the daunting task of reshaping the anthropogenic phosphorus consumption into a cycle to secure their survival. To test the method of urban phosphorus policy design through the lens of urban metabolism, this thesis answers the question: “How well can the medium-sized Western European city The Hague (NL) safeguard its food supply through a regional phosphorus policy that respects the phosphorus needs of the feeding hinterlands?” Based on review of relevant literature, a methodology of two stages of P policy design was generated and applied to the case study city: Firstly, an analysis of hinterland relations, biogeophysical, socioeconomic and governance dimensions of the regional context provided the foundation for a causal model of governance factors. Secondly, derived policy agenda goals are translated into supporting concrete measures that can be implemented utilizing instruments of various modes of governance. The considered data has been generated in a mixed method approach of qualitative expert interviews, literature review and quantitative substance flow modelling using the software STAN. The resulting impact on the modelled substance flows shows that the proposed policy reduces polluting emissions by 82%, mineral fertilizer imports by 49% and food-borne phosphorus imports by 10%. It increases phosphorus exports by 64% and offers an annual recovery potential from regional wastewater and solid waste flows of nearly one million euros. In conclusion, regional public governance authorities possess the means to substantially alleviate pressure on global hinterlands and ensure regional compliance with the Planetary Boundaries for phosphorus emissions. This thesis represents a first step into research of cumulative urban material governance and indicates the unused potential for increasing resilience of the urban metabolism in synergy with global feeding networks. | Feeding the Urban Metabolism within Planetary Boundaries - A Policy ... | Harseim, Lisa | Thesis | theses | 2019 |
Food and agriculture
Sub-national
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Understanding Waste Management in a MegaCity Increasing urbanization in rapidly growing urban centers in developing countries has lead to the increase environmental pressure on natural resources, but at the same time it opens an opportunity window for the exploration of new approaches in order to help these countries direct their efforts towards sustainable development. In most megacities in developing countries, the fate of postconsumer materials, organic waste and other residuals are not well known. This is a result of the lack of a system of data collection along the waste management chain. In many cases there is no systematic recording and assessment of the amount of waste collected and transported by the municipal or private enterprises. Additionally, some of the final disposal sites lack of a weighing bridge to register the amount of residues landfilled and little or no information is available about the streams of valuable materials recovered and recycled. The previous situation is compounded by the fact that large amounts of recyclables are recovered by an army of informal waste pickers, which is practically invisible to the waste management authorities, that scavenge for materials on the streets and at the final disposal sites. The article will explore the current waste management system situation in Addis Ababa. It will also describe the present state of the methodologies developed in order to determine the fate of the different material streams, to quantify and characterize the waste flows within the city, to portray the different waste management operations, to estimate the number of people working within the formal and informal waste management sectors, and to describe the socio-economic situation of the population involved in the collection, transport, street sweeping, resource recovery and disposal activities. Preliminary results will be presented, as well as the implications that the gained insights could have on sustainable waste management policy-making. | Understanding Waste Management in a MegaCity | Nicolas Escalante, Agata Rymkiewicz, Martin Kranert | Document | reports | 2019 |
Urban
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| Metabolic relationships between cities and hinterland: a political-industrial ecology of energy metabolism of Saint-Nazaire metropolitan and port area (France) Research on urban metabolism (UM) focuses on cities' material and energy systems by identifying paths and transformation processes of all kinds of flows in urban contexts. In particular, scientific studies aim to trace the origin and destination of materials, energy, water, emissions and waste flows in order to understand relationships between cities and other spatial areas (hinterlands) that lead to political, social and environment consequences. This research paper aims to analyze complex power relationships between cities and their hinterlands. In particular, the objective is to understand the nature of these socio-material links. Are they based on synergies and cooperation, or, on the contrary, on unbalanced power and conflicts? We propose an approach which combines methodologies with the tools of Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) and semi-structured interviews, in order to develop a “political-industrial ecology” of energy metabolism (Breetz 2017; Cousins and Newell 2015). We have studied the Saint-Nazaire metropolitan area, which is constituted by an urban area and a port zone. This harbor consists in a complex network of highly energy-intensive industrial sites operating in the steel, petrochemical and agri-food industries. Based on an analysis of energy flows, institutional policies and professional practices, we have identified several situations of metabolic links that exist simultaneously. In conclusion, the metabolic relationships' framework is useful to understand how the “hinterlands-city” relationships shape and are shaped by the city's metabolism. | Metabolic relationships between cities and hinterland: a political-industrial ecology of ... | Jean-Baptiste Bahers, Audrey Tanguy, Stephanie Pincetl | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Energy Flow Analysis (EFA)
Political-Industrial Ecology (PIE)
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Circular Economy Strategies in Eight Historic Port Cities: Criteria and Indicators Towards a Circular City Assessment Framework The circular city is emerging as new concept and form of practice in sustainable urban development. This is a response to the complex and pressing challenges of urbanization, as highlighted in the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The concept of a “circular city” or “circular city‐region” derives from the circular economy model applied in the spatial territorial dimension. It can be associated with the concept of a “self‐sustainable” regenerative city, as stated in paragraph n.71 of the NUA. This paper aims to develop an extensive form of “screening” of circular economy actions in emerging circular cities, focusing on eight European historic port cities self‐defined as “circular”. The analysis is carried out as a review of circular economy actions in the selected cities, and specifically aims to identify the key areas of implementation in which the investments in the circular economy are more oriented, as well as to analyze the spatial implications of the reuse of buildings and sites, proposing a set of criteria and indicators for ex‐ante and ex‐post evaluations and monitoring of circular cities. Results show that the built environment (including cultural heritage), energy and mobility, waste management, water management, industrial production (including plastics, textiles, and industry 4.0 and circular design), agri‐food, and citizens and communities can be adopted as strategic areas of implementation of the circular city model in historic cities, highlighting a lack of indicators in some sectors and identifying a possible framework for “closed” urban metabolism evaluation from a life‐cycle perspective, focusing on evaluation criteria and indicators in the (historic) built environment. | Circular Economy Strategies in Eight Historic Port Cities: Criteria and ... | Antonia Gravagnuolo, Mariarosaria Angrisano and Luigi Fusco Girard | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Urban
|
| Effects of changing population or density on urban carbon dioxide emissions The question of whether urbanization contributes to increasing carbon dioxide emissions has been mainly investigated via scaling relationships with population or population density. However, these approaches overlook the correlations between population and area, and ignore possible interactions between these quantities. Here, we propose a generalized framework that simultaneously considers the effects of population and area along with possible interactions between these urban metrics. Our results significantly improve the description of emissions and reveal the coupled role between population and density on emissions. These models show that variations in emissions associated with proportionate changes in population or density may not only depend on the magnitude of these changes but also on the initial values of these quantities. For US areas, the larger the city, the higher is the impact of changing its population or density on its emissions; but population changes always have a greater effect on emissions than population density. | Effects of changing population or density on urban carbon dioxide ... | Haroldo V. Ribeiro, Diego Rybski & Jürgen P. Kropp | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| Dynamic assessment of construction materials in urban building stocks – A critical review There is a lack of understanding on the different types of dynamics of building stocks, in real life and in models. Moreover, there is now a particular interest in the embodied impacts of construction materials, since with the increasing efficiency of buildings operation, embodied impacts gain more importance in the overall building life cycle. This critical review wants to advance the understanding on the type of dynamics, methods and tools used. The well-known IPAT equation is adapted for building stocks and three dynamics are defined: spatial, evolutionary temporal and spatial-cohort dynamic. A framework is defined that can help researchers choose a method, tool and dynamics of input parameters depending on their research goal, case study and data. Moreover, generally valid conclusions are drawn, including: MFA is useful to model spatially dynamic material flows; GIS is needed to include spatial dynamics. Retrofit, compared to construction and demolition, is understudied and usually analyzed through top-down methods. Material Intensity and Emission Intensity are rarely modeled in a dynamic way. Overall, scholars seem to perform each time more data intensive and complex studies tailored to a specific case study. However, there are big differences in the quality depending on the dynamic of input parameters. | Dynamic assessment of construction materials in urban building stocks – ... | Verena Göswein, José Dinis Silvestre, Guillaume Habert,Fausto Freire | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
Zotero import
|
| The efficient, the intensive, and the productive: Insights from urban Kaya scaling Urban areas play an unprecedented role in potentially mitigating climate change and supporting sustainable development. In light of the rapid urbanisation in many parts on the globe, it is crucial to understand the relationship between settlement size and CO2 emission efficiency of cities. Recent literature on urban scaling properties of emissions as a function of population size has led to contradictory results and more importantly, lacked an in-depth investigation of the essential factors and causes explaining such scaling properties. Therefore, in analogy to the well-established Kaya Identity, we develop a relation combining the involved exponents. We demonstrate that the application of this Urban Kaya Relation will enable a comprehensive understanding of the intrinsic factors determining emission efficiencies in large cities by applying it to a global dataset of 61 cities. Contrary to traditional urban scaling studies which use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, we show that the Reduced Major Axis (RMA) is necessary when complex relations among scaling exponents are to be investigated. RMA is given by the geometric mean of the two OLS slopes obtained by interchanging the dependent and independent variable. We discuss the potential of the Urban Kaya Relation in mainstreaming local actions for climate change mitigation. | The efficient, the intensive, and the productive: Insights from urban ... | Ramana Gudipudi, Diego Rybski, Matthias K.B. Lüdeke, Bin Zhou, Zhu Liu, Jürgen P. Kropp | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Indicators - general
Scaling
Urban
|
| Energy retrofit scenarios material flows and circularity Cities are fast growing and are becoming more and more dependent on external services and supplies to meet their demands. In this context, the building industry can play a major role to reach European and regional targets of low-energy construction and circular design, particularly if considering the need of improving the energy standards and performance of the existing stock. On these premises, this paper presents the findings from recent research and discusses upcoming challenges, in particular: what are the consequences of retrofit operations on material flows, and their impact on circularity and low carbon objectives? In other words, which energy retrofit strategies are being implemented in buildings that could contribute to the production of building’ waste or secondary resources today, but also in the future? The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of different retrofitting scenarios on the energy performance of material flows. These scenarios can directly influence the nature and quantity of the materials used (inflows) and discarded (outflows) by upgrading or renewing the existing building stock. They can also lead to different environmental impacts and vary the embodied potential (through reuse or recycling) of resources. The analysis focuses on selected case studies representative of the housing stock in Brussels (Belgium). The overall objective is to inform, sensitize, and lead various stakeholders to responsible and conscious choices when retrofitting a building by adding concerns of resources efficiency while focusing on reducing energy demands. | Energy retrofit scenarios material flows and circularity | Gobbo, Emilie, Trachte ,Sophie, Massart, Catherine | Conference Paper | None | 2019 |
Case Study
Construction
Energy
Scenario analysis
Urban
|
| Governing the City of Flows: How Urban Metabolism Approaches May Strengthen Accountability in Strategic Planning The article aims to provide an initial insight into if and how urban metabolism perspectives and approaches may strengthen accountability in urban environmental strategic planning. It argues that many of the challenges in governing urban environmental flows successfully result from accountability gaps in strategic planning. The aim of the research is to test the assumption that urban metabolism perspectives and approaches strengthen accountability in urban environmental strategic planning. Applying a four-pillar accountability analysis to the strategic climate and resource plans of New York and Zurich, two cities which put environmental sustainability high on their political agenda, the study traces the role of urban metabolism perspectives and approaches and discusses the benefits these may have for accountable strategic planning with a focus on carbon and material flows. The interim results show on the one hand that implicit urban metabolism approaches are vital for both cities' strategic planning and that they contribute to strengthened accountability in all four pillars of the analysis: responsibility, transparency, assessment and participation. On the other hand, the analysis highlights further potential benefits of urban metabolism perspectives and approaches in urban strategic climate and resource planning. | Governing the City of Flows: How Urban Metabolism Approaches May ... | Cathrin Zengerling | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| Deliverable 3.3 Process model for the two pilot cases: Amsterdam, the Netherlands & Naples, Italy Deliverable 3.3 of Work Package 3 concerns an integrated analysis of the two pilot case studies within the REPAiR project, Amsterdam and Naples, from the vantage point of waste production and processing, and the transition to circular societies. It comprises spatial, social and material flow analyses of the two pilot cases, whilst testing an innovative methodology that was introduced and explained in Deliverable 3.1 [D3.1, AKA the Handbook, Geldermans et al., 2017]. The report addresses additions and clarifications to the methodology presented in Deliverable 3.1. After an update on the basis of technical insights and the work developed in practice within the peri-urban living labs (PULL) workshops carried out so far, an improved classification of Wastescapes is presented. Furthermore, a complete process model to map Wastescapes is provided. A smaller scale of the 'sample' area has been introduced to allow a better interaction with the local stakeholders, deepening the context and cutting into the intermediate scale of the ‘focus-area’. Moreover, the notion of Enabling Contexts is applied to rationalise the links between spatial analysis and eco-innovation solutions (WP5). With regard to the Material Flow Analysis, new insights on data collection and processing are addressed, providing more grip on how to successfully conduct such an MFA. The lion’s share of the report is allocated to presenting the results. For both cases, a rudimentary spatial and socio-economic analysis on a national level precedes a detailed regional analysis: for the Netherlands, this concerns the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, and for Italy the Campania Region and the Metropolitan region of Naples. Embedded in this spatial-social context, the material flow analysis follows six Activity-based Spatial MFA (as introduced inD3.1) steps to pinpoint and analyse waste related challenges and activities. The report finishes with a reflection on the methodology and results. This reflection focuses on four topicsin particular: physico-geographical aspects and waste-sensitivity, Waste(scape) dynamics in space & time, modelling of material flows & data intensity, and the relevance of Enabling Contexts, whilst anticipating the follow up cases as well as a wider field of application. | Deliverable 3.3 Process model for the two pilot cases: Amsterdam, ... | Bob Geldermans (TUD), Alexander Wandl (TUD), Michelle Steenmeijer (TUD), Cecilia Furlan (TUD), Tamara Streefland (TUD), Enrico Formato (UNINA), Maria Cerreta (UNINA), Libera Amenta (UNINA/TUD), Pasquale Inglese (UNINA), Silvia Iodice (UNINA), Gilda Berruti (UNINA), Viktor Varju (RKI), Zoltan Grunhut (RKI), Ákos Bodor (RKI), Virág Lovász (RKI), Zsombor Moticska (RKI), Davide Tonini (JRC), Sue Ellen Taelman (UGent), Kozmo Meister (TUD), Pablo Munoz Uncenta (TUD), Annie Attademo(UNINA); | Report | reports | 2019 |
Activity-based Spatial MFA (AS-MFA)
Case Study
Food Waste
Organic Waste (OW)
Urban
|
| Residential building material stocks and component-level circularity: The case of Singapore The residential built environment plays a crucial role in supporting many human activities. In urban areas however, high-rise residential buildings require significant investment of material resources, which are stacked for a long time over the building's lifetime. Assessing the Material Stock (MS) of buildings has been the focus of several studies for insights into in-use materials and their potential availability as secondary resources. The study of material circularity, or the potential to reuse materials emerging from end-of-life buildings, has so far been mostly limited to metals. This study argues that material stock analysis at individual material or material categories e.g. mineral, or metals, need to be complemented with building component stock estimations to enhance the potential for secondary resource recovery. Based on a bottom-up stock analysis approach, we estimate both the material and component stock of public housing developments in the city-state of Singapore and associated annual in- and out-flows. Results show that public housing in this city, which accommodates over 80 percent of its residents, accounts for 125.7 million tons of non-metallic minerals, 6.52 million tons of steel, 6.45 million windows, 8.61 million doors, 1.97 million toilet accessories, 15.33 million lighting fixtures, 0.99 million kitchen accessories (such as cookstove, kitchen cabinets) and 52.54 million m2 of tiles. The average stock of materials for these residential buildings is estimated at 27.4 tons of non-metallic minerals per capita and 1.4 tons of steel per capita. The average annual inflow of materials has been estimated to be 1.94 million tons for concrete and 0.1 million tons of steel, with a considerably low outflow of 0.31 million tons concrete and 0.02 million tons of steel, implying growth in these material stocks. This study provides a methodological approach to quantify building material and component stock and flows, which can be used by policy makers, urban planners and designers to consider responsible resource consumption. In particular, material and component stock estimations like that reported in this study contribute towards component-level circularity in the built environment. | Residential building material stocks and component-level circularity: The case of ... | Arora, Mohit; Raspall, Felix; Cheah, Lynette; Silva, Arlindo | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Island
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
National
Urban
|
| Developing a Design-Led Approach for the Food-Energy-Water Nexus in Cities Urban communities are particularly vulnerable to the future demand for food, energy and water, and this vulnerability is further exacerbated by the onset of climate change at local. Solutions need to be found in urban spaces. This article based around urban design practice sees urban agriculture as a key facilitator of nexus thinking, needing water and energy to be productive. Working directly with Urban Living Labs, the project team will co-design new food futures through the moveable nexus, a participatory design support platform to mobilize natural and social resources by integrating multi-disciplinary knowledge and technology. The moveable nexus is co-developed incrementally through a series of design workshops moving around living labs with the engagement of stakeholders. The methodology and the platform will be shared outside the teams so that the knowledge can be mobilized locally and globally. | Developing a Design-Led Approach for the Food-Energy-Water Nexus in Cities | Wanglin Yan, Rob Roggema | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Energy (sector)
Food and agriculture
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| A general data model for socioeconomic metabolism and its implementation in an industrial ecology data commons prototype Until this day, data in industrial ecology (IE) have been commonly seen as existing within the domain of particular methods or models, such as input–output, life cycle assessment, urban metabolism, or material flow analysis data. This artificial division of data into methods contradicts the common phenomena described by those data: the objects and processes in the industrial system, or socioeconomic metabolism (SEM). A consequence of this scattered organization of related data across methods is that IE researchers and consultants spend too much time searching for and reformatting data from diverse and incoherent sources, time that could be invested into quality control and analysis of model results instead. This article outlines a solution to two major barriers to data exchange within IE: (a) the lack of a generic structure for IE data and (b) the lack of a bespoke platform to exchange IE datasets. We present a general data model for SEM that can be used to structure all data that can be located in the industrial system, including process descriptions, product descriptions, stocks, flows, and coefficients of all kind. We describe a relational database built on the general data model and a user interface to it, both of which are open source and can be implemented by individual researchers, groups, institutions, or the entire community. In the latter case, one could speak of an IE data commons (IEDC), and we unveil an IEDC prototype containing a diverse set of datasets from the literature. | A general data model for socioeconomic metabolism and its implementation ... | Stefan Pauliuk, Niko Heeren, Mohammad Mahadi Hasan, Daniel B Müller | Journal Article | academic | 2019 |
Urban
|
| A holistic framework for the integrated assessment of urban waste management systems We report on the development of a holistic framework to organize and integrate quantitative information characterizing the performance of Urban Waste Management Systems (UWMS) across dimensions and scales. The framework builds on the theory of metabolic networks and the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting method. We perceive the UWMS as an organ of a socio-ecological system that modulates the interaction between the metabolic processes of the urban area and those of the embedding ecosystems providing inputs and local sink capacity. Building on these premises, we can define: (i) the flow of wastes produced by the urban system in quantity and quality; (ii) the mix of inputs required for the operation of the different stages of the waste management process, such as technology, labor, energy, water and material flows; (iii) the degree of openness of the system, that is, the imports and exports of urban waste flows in the different stages of its operation; (iv) the final outputs released into the local environment. The proposed framework can accommodate various indicators referring to the socio-economic performance of the UWMS (viability and desirability) and those related to environmental impact/stress (feasibility). Theoretical considerations are illustrated with preliminary data from a case study on the Metropolitan Area of Naples, Italy. | A holistic framework for the integrated assessment of urban waste ... | Rosaria Chifari, Samuele Lo Piano, Sandra G.F. Bukkens, Mario Giampietro | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Indicators - general
Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM)
Urban
Waste
Waste (sector)
|
| Space-time information analysis for resource-conscious urban planning and design: A stakeholder based identification of urban metabolism data gaps The research presented here examined at which spatial and temporal resolution urban metabolism should be analysed to generate results that are useful for implementation of urban planning and design interventions aiming at optimization of resource flows. Moreover, it was researched whether a lack of data currently hampers analysing resource flows at this desired level of detail. To facilitate a stakeholder based research approach, the SIRUP tool – “Space-time Information analysis for Resource-conscious Urban Planning” – was developed. The tool was applied in a case study of Amsterdam, focused on the investigation of energy and water flows. Results show that most urban planning and design interventions envisioned in Amsterdam require information on a higher spatiotemporal resolution than the resolution of current urban metabolism analyses, i.e., more detailed than the city level and at time steps smaller than a year. Energy-related interventions generally require information on a higher resolution than water-related interventions. Moreover, for the majority of interventions information is needed on a higher resolution than currently available. For energy, the temporal resolution of existing data proved inadequate, for water, data with both a higher spatial and temporal resolution is required. Modelling and monitoring techniques are advancing for both water and energy and these advancements are likely to contribute to closing these data gaps in the future. These advancements can also prove useful in developing new sorts of urban metabolism analyses that can provide a systemic understanding of urban resource flows and that are tailored to urban planning and design. | Space-time information analysis for resource-conscious urban planning and design: A ... | Ilse M.Voskamp, Marc Spiller, SvenStremke, Arnold K. Bregt, Corné Vreugdenhil, Huub H.M. Rijnaarts | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Urban Metabolism of Intermediate Cities: The Material Flow Analysis, Hinterlands and the Logistics‐Hub Function of Rennes and Le Mans (France) Although urban metabolism has been a subject of renewed interest for some years, the related studies remain fragmented throughout the world. Most of them concern major cities (megacities and/or national capitals) and, more rarely, intermediate, medium‐sized or small cities. However, urbanization trends show that together with the metropolization process, another one is characterized by the proliferation of intermediate cities. We have studied the metabolism of two French intermediate cities for the year 2012: Rennes Métropole (400,000 inhabitants) and Le Mans Métropole (200,000 inhabitants). To this end, we used material flow analysis (MFA) based on the methodology developed by Eurostat, adapted to the subnational level. This has been made possible by the use, for the first time, of very precise statistical sources concerning freight. We have developed a multiscale approach in order to weigh the urban metabolism of those two cities and to compare it to other cases and larger territories. This allows a better understanding of the specific territorial metabolism of intermediate cities, their hinterlands, and their logistics‐hub function. We conclude with the “urban dimension” of social metabolism, and, thanks to the multiscale approach, to the debate regarding logistical hubs, dematerialization, and territorial autonomy. | Urban Metabolism of Intermediate Cities: The Material Flow Analysis, Hinterlands ... | Bahers, Barles, Durand | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Multi-scale
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Understanding the mechanism of urban material metabolism with ecological network analysis: An experimental study of Wuxi, China Cities are considered to be major consumers of natural resources, creating global resource shortages and environmental challenges. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of material metabolism is crucial for modern cities’ sustainable development. Here we took the city of Wuxi as an example, first constructing a network composed of 8 components. Combining material accounting and ecological network analysis, we analyzed the integrated flow process and components’ weight distributions for 6 years. Additionally, relationships among components were identified, to examine the synergism level of the metabolic system. Our results indicate that Wuxi’s urban system was dependent on its environment, and the integrated material inflow of transportation, household consumption and mining increased to 1.55, 1.36 and 3.36, respectively, during the study period. Environment and household consumption accounted for the largest sectoral weights (20.9% and 20.0%, respectively), while that of manufacturing, and mining changed significantly by 5.1% and 4.4%, respectively. Within the system, the environment supplied resources, agriculture and mining utilized renewable resources, venous industry promoted resource recycling. Mutualism relationships were mainly related to these sectors. However, exploitation and control were the dominant relationships in Wuxi, and the whole system’s synergism level still needed to be improved. This study provides a scientific guidance for the future structural adjustment and resource utilization for Wuxi and the similar medium-sized cities with rapid economic development in China. | Understanding the mechanism of urban material metabolism with ecological network ... | Li, Yanxian; Wang, Xinjing; Tian, Xin; Zhang, Yan | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Biomass
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Emissions
Energy
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Minerals
Time series
Urban
Various Materials
Waste
Water
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Uncovering the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Infrastructure Development: A High Spatial Resolution Material Stock and Flow Analysis Understanding the complexity and sustainability of infrastructure development is crucial for reconciling economic growth, human wellbeing, and environmental conservation. However, previous studies on infrastructure’s material metabolism were mainly conducted on a global or national scale, due largely to lack of more spatially refined data, and thus could not reveal the spatial patterns and dynamics on a city scale. Here, we integrated material flow analysis (MFA) and geographical information system (GIS) for uncovering the spatiotemporal patterns of the material stocks and flows accompanying the infrastructure development at a high spatial resolution for a case of Shanghai, China. From 1980 to 2010, material stocks and waste output flows of Shanghai’s infrastructure system exhibited a significant increase from 83 million metric tons (Mt) to 561 Mt and from 2 Mt to 17 Mt, respectively. Input flows peaked in 2005 due to the economic slowdown and stepped-up policies to cool down the housing market. Spatially, the center and peri-urban areas were the largest container of material stocks and biggest generator of demolition waste, while suburban areas absorbed 58% to 76% of material inputs. Plans to make the city more compact will enhance the service capacity of stocks but may also increase the use of more energy and emissions intensive construction materials (e.g., steel). Prolonging the service lifetime of infrastructure through proper management and increasing the recycling and reuse rate of demolition waste are also identified as highly efficient strategies. | Uncovering the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Infrastructure Development: A High ... | Ji Han, Weiqiang Chen, Lixiao Zhang, Gang Liu | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Time series
Urban
|
| From urban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism: A study of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014 Amid the prolific studies on urban metabolism is the relatively sparse research focusing on a specific industrial ecosystem. A general urban metabolism framework disconnected from specific industrial background is at the risk to misunderstand the key drivers of metabolic process, thereby failing to propose applicable measures for improving its sustainability. This paper aims to develop an industrial ecosystem level metabolism framework. This was conducted by following the major analytical tools such as material and energy flow analysis (MEFA) with a focus on the construction ecosystem, which plays a pivotal role in materializing the urban meanwhile generating negative by-products such as greenhouse-gas (GHG), pollutants, and construction waste. The framework was further applied to the construction ecosystem in Shanghai for confirming the major components it includes. Using the data in Shanghai, it was also discovered that the construction industry is generally less efficient in terms of metabolism. It is indicated that population, urbanization rate, concrete input, real estate investment, and the housing demolished and newly built are principal determinants explaining massive construction and demolition (C&D) waste generation in Shanghai. The framework can facilitate the understanding of construction ecosystem metabolic process, investigation of C&D waste generation and its main drivers, and evaluating and improving urban sustainability at an industrial scale. | From urban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism: A study of ... | Youzhi Zhang and Weisheng Lu and Vivian Wing-Yan Tam and Yingbin Feng | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW)
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Urban
|
| Development of an urban FEW nexus online analyzer to support urban circular economy strategy planning Growth of urban population around the world and, particularly, within urban areas, has placed various pressing challenges on Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) such as food security, water safety as well as energy scarcity and so on. Current studies on urban FEW nexus are mainly focused on the correlation analysis of elements by pairs, while these works are developed separately. With respect to the methods, the existing researches mostly adopt the bottom-up approach, accounting for the direct relationship between the individual production sectors. While the associations between the internal elements of the system still lack of simulation. In this study, we aim at developing an online open access tool for cities, the Urban Circular Economy Calculator (UCEC), which enables to develop different circular economy scenarios associated to FEW management. UCEC v1.0 uses Beijing data as test case. In particular, more than 20 circular economy policies related on food, energy and water are selected and divided into 6 categories. Long-term simulations on the social, economic and environmental impacts are provided to test the trajectories of policy effects. Being an open access tool, UCEC can be used also for supporting participatory processes as an urban management instrument. The solution is economically and financially feasible, due to the low level of technical requirements. The necessity of such a tool is proved by the societal need of transition toward a low-carbon and sustainable framework, which can be effectively supported by the introduction of circular economy. This transition, such as the idea behind UCEC, should preserve (or even improve) the societal wellbeing, while increasing basic resources (i.e.: FEW) accessibility, security and preservation. | Development of an urban FEW nexus online analyzer to support ... | Xue, Jingyan; Liu, Gengyuan; Casazza, Marco; Ulgiati, Sergio | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Emergy Analysis
Food, Energy, Water (FEW)
Urban
Urban Circular Economy Calculator (UCEC)
Zotero import
|
| Waste Market Intelligence Report 2018 Table of contents: Executive summary What’s new? Introduction and purpose Sector overview Industry structure South African market size Cost of landfilling in South Africa Western Cape market size Cost of landfilling in Cape Town Market size according to recycling industry associations Key highlights in 2017/2018 Operation Phakisa Industry waste management plans Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme National Minimum Wage Bill Legislation and regulations The legislative framework for waste management in South Africa New regulatory updates Draft regulations Anticipated legislation Opportunities Organics Market size Opportunities Barriers Recent developments Electronic waste Plastics Market size Opportunity Barriers Recent developments | Waste Market Intelligence Report 2018 | GreenCape | Report | reports | 2018 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Water services and the Cape Town urban water cycle TABLE OF CONTENTS WATER SERVICES AND THE CAPE TOWN URBAN WATER CYCLE .................................................3 1. EVAPORATION ..................................................................................................................6 2. CONDENSATION ...............................................................................................................7 3. PRECIPITATION .................................................................................................................8 4. OUR CATCHMENT AREAS ..................................................................................................9 5. CAPE TOWN’S DAMS ....................................................................................................... 12 6. WHAT IS GROUNDWATER? ............................................................................................. 21 7. SURFACE RUNOFFS ......................................................................................................... 22 8. CAPE TOWN’S WATER TREATMENT WORKS .................................................................... 23 9. CAPE TOWN’S RESERVOIRS ............................................................................................. 28 10. OUR RETICULATION SYSTEMS...................................................................................... 32 11. CONSUMERS ............................................................................................................... 35 12. HOW WE TREAT WASTEWATER ................................................................................... 38 13. RE-USING TREATED WASTEWATER .............................................................................. 43 14. MARINE OUTFALLS ...................................................................................................... 45 | Water services and the Cape Town urban water cycle | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2018 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| A geospatial approach of downscaling urban energy consumption density in mega-city Dhaka, Bangladesh Lack of energy consumption data limits resource optimized urban structure and energy planning in developing countries like Bangladesh. Focusing on mega-city Dhaka as a case, this study applies a geospatial approach of using multi-source national and regional datasets and visual analytics to downscale and estimate energy consumption at a local scale (such as ward and gridcell). The energy consumption density (ECD), as a measure of end energy use in a unit area, was estimated and mapped by linking building floorspace data with residents’ energy use indicators such as per capita energy consumption, household energy expenditure, and mobility (transportation) pattern. This study also evaluated the ECD modelling outputs, and their sensitivity to distance from central business district (CBD) and total building floorspace. Results found a positive correlation between the residential building floorspace and estimated ECD. Regression and sensitivity analysis also identified and mapped significant spatial clusters and outliers in estimated ECD pattern of Dhaka city. This approach and methodology could help similar cities in other developing countries adopt and implement energy focused urban development. | A geospatial approach of downscaling urban energy consumption density in ... | Sikder, SK and Nagarajan, M and Kar, S and Koetter, T | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Energy (sector)
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Urban
|
| A Proposal to Integrate System Dynamics and Carbon Metabolism for Urban Planning Coupling of life-cycle thinking with urban metabolism (UM) has the potential to improve sustainable urban planning. Current urban metabolism models are largely ‘black-box’ methods which do not reveal the non-linearity of feedback loops and complex internal dynamics of urban systems. The integration of system dynamics (SD) with UM based on a life-cycle thinking approach can provide built environment professionals (e.g. town planners, civil engineers, architects) with a ‘transparent-box’ solution for assessing the potential of urban projects, plans, and their implementation. This paper describes the development of a method that integrates input-output (IO) table flows with SD modelling to improve the completeness of UM assessments. This modelling framework can also allow for a ‘nested’ multi-region assessment which takes into account sustainability burdens consequent to urban system changes occurring elsewhere in the national and/or global economy. Pros and cons of this proposal are showcased by the illustration of a model for Lisbon. Conference: 25th CIRP Life-cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference, 30 April – 2 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark | A Proposal to Integrate System Dynamics and Carbon Metabolism for ... | Thomas Elliot, Benedetto Rugani, Javier Babí Almenar, Samuel Niza | Conference Paper | None | 2018 |
Case Study
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Developing urban metabolism indicators for a better usage in metropolitan area municipalities The urban metabolism approach has been proposed for more than half a century. Its applications, especially the indicator analysis, are applied in many domains. By the indicator analysis of an area's metabolism, development strategies and urban design outcomes can be proposed from the perspectives of resource consumption and waste production. Since a large number of activities of metropolitan areas' municipalities have started to integrate urban metabolism issues with urban development, there seems to be a substantial gap in the urban metabolism indicator study of metropolitan areas and corresponding local public administrations. This study is aimed at developing urban metabolism indicator framework, to support the urban design procedure of metropolitan area. To put the proposed indicators into practice, a set of urban metabolism indicators is proposed to be adopted in Amsterdam Metropolitan Areas. The selection process is conducted by using the Delphi method. In doing so, 2-round questionnaire is responded by qualified experts to select the most relevant and practicable urban metabolism indicators. Then, these selected indicators are generated and grouped into different categories. By organising the Peri-Urban Living Lab (PULL) Workshop Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, the potential usage of these indicators will be evaluated. In the meantime, PULL stakeholders will categorise and prioritise these indicators from different fields. Afterwards, the urban metabolism indicator framework will be established based on the perspectives from urban metabolism related stakeholders. This exploration contributes to the field of practical application of urban metabolism indicators in municipalities of metropolitan areas. | Developing urban metabolism indicators for a better usage in metropolitan ... | Yan Song | Conference Paper | None | 2018 |
Indicators - general
Urban
|
| D.3.5. Process model for the follow-up cases: Łódź Deliverable 3.5 of Work Package 3 REPAiR project presents an integrated analysis of the caste study in the Łódź region with a focus on organic waste (Vegetable, Fruit and Garden waste fraction) production and processing, and the transition to a circular society. It comprises spatial, social and material flow analyses of this case study area and follows the guidelines of D3.1 and D3.3. The main goal of the report is to present the status quo of a waste management system in Łódź. The report delivers Spatial, Material Flow and Social Analyses for the Łódź Metropolitan Area. Taking into account assumptions of the REPAiR project, selecting the appropriate type of waste, which will be subjected to a detailed analysis become a necessity. Considering statements of the User Board members, PULL workshops’ participants and bearing in mind challenges facing the Łódź agglomeration in the field of proper waste management, it was decided to conduct the material flow analysis concerning-biodegradable municipal waste regarding the Vegetable, Fruit and Garden (VFG waste) fraction. Finally, this report reflects on the factors disturbing the waste flow and summarize with some policy recommendations. | D.3.5. Process model for the follow-up cases: Łódź | Konrad Czapiewski (IGiPZ PAN), Jerzy Bański (IGiPZ PAN), Marcin Wójcik (IGiPZ PAN), Damian Mazurek (IGiPZ PAN), Anna Traczyk (IGiPZ PAN), Ákos Bodor (RKI), Zoltán Grünhut (RKI) | Report | reports | 2018 |
Activity-based Spatial MFA (AS-MFA)
Case Study
Organic Waste (OW)
Urban
|
| Metabolism of Global Cities: London, Manchester, Chicago The metabolism of cities is at the heart of urban natures. History of cities seen through the metaphor of metabolism -- the conversion of energy from outside an organism into its life-sustaining processes -- reveals the multiple intertwined legacies inherited by human settlements and the biocultural landscapes on which they depend. These cities are best understood not as amorphously “global”, but rather as concretely translocal, successively shaping and reshaping distant (as well as contiguous) biocultural landscapes. In each historical period since the colonial era, emerging cities have sent rhizomes along specific, sometimes very long trajectories to find food for urban monocultures of humans and their unique activities. As a result, all places can be understood as sediments of rhizomal connections from successive periods, both emerging cities and the commodity frontiers that reshaped the lifeways of co-domestic species, human and other, both nearby and far away. Cities arose in a specific sequence, thus, slavery and sugar were keys to the metabolism of imperial London, at the same time transforming biocultural landscapes in Africa and the Americas; later American slavery was deepened and extended into new landscapes to provide cotton to feed the mills of industrial Manchester, together with landscapes incorporated or marginalized in Africa and Asia; finally, industrial cities called forth the food from transformed indigenous landscapes to feed agro-industrial Chicago. I conclude by inquiring into the less visible history of diasporic creativity that may be the enduring earthly basis of cities and indeed of human society, and the kinds of knowledge that might support the conscious evolution of cities as part of nature. | Metabolism of Global Cities: London, Manchester, Chicago | Friedmann, Harriet | Book Section | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Urban
|
| Water Outlook 2018 The purpose of this document is to present an overview of the City of Cape Town’s programme to develop additional water supplies to increase reliability and to avoid the severe restrictions experienced in 2017 and 2018. This program is called the New Water Programme. | Water Outlook 2018 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2018 |
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization The proportion of the global population living in cities and towns is expected to rise from 54 per cent in 2015 to 66 per cent by 2050, which will result in a significant expansion of existing cities, as well as the construction of new cities. Without a new approach to urbanization, material consumption by the world's cities will grow from 40 billion tonnes in 2010 to about 90 billion tonnes by 2050. Therefore, the resource use implications and environmental impacts of urbanization are significant. Resources should now become a central policy concern, in addition to concerns about climate change. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shift this expected urbanization on to a more environmentally sustainable and socially just path. Decisions made today on urbanization and land-use models, as well as on critical infrastructure, will determine whether our investments are future-proof, or whether they lock us on to an unsustainable path. This report calls for a new strategy for 21st Century urbanization, and presents the parallel actions on urban planning, sustainable design, resource-efficient components, and infrastructure for cross-sector efficiency that are required for a transition towards low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially just cities, It also presents the new governance model and the politics of the new imaginative business propositions and experimentation that will make the transition possible. | The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization | Swilling, M. and Hajer, M. and Baynes, T. and Bergesen, J. and Labbé, F. and Musango, J.K. and Ramaswami, A. and Robinson, B. and Salat, S. and Suh, S. and Currie, P. and Fang, A. and Hanson, A and Kruit, K. and Reiner, M. and Smit, S. and Tabory, S. | Report | reports | 2018 |
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Interpreting Circularity. Circular City Representations Concealing Transition Drivers Embodying circular economy transition as a sustainable city concept, circularity in cities is increasingly the subject of policy innovations, urban strategies, and research & development agendas. It seems evident that a circular city should include more than the sum or multiplication of urban circular economies. Nevertheless, prevailing discourses remain till today business focused, and how circular economy creates economic, social, and environmental resilience in cities has yet to be explored. This paper conceptualizes the notion of urban circularity. It introduces an analytical framework sorting existing circularity concepts that are based on design and planning characteristics. Adopting comparative case study research on four contemporary forward-looking spatial representations of 'circular' places, this paper articulates their circularity interpretation. Demonstrating how diverging sustainability framings and political positions are embedded within the studied spatial representations, this paper aims to bring clarity in contemporary circular city approaches for policymakers as well as for spatial practitioners. The paper concludes with an agenda for multi-perspective and multi-dimensional circular city design, which is anchored in place specific and multi-scalar transition relations. It suggests urban landscape design as a disciplinary field to act as a pivot in transdisciplinary circularity design and research. | Interpreting Circularity. Circular City Representations Concealing Transition Drivers | Marin, Julie; De Meulder, Bruno | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Circular Economy
Urban
|
| D3.6 Process Model Hamburg Deliverable 3.6 of Work Package 3 presents an integrated analysis of the case study in the Hamburg region within the REPAiR project with a focus on organic waste production and processing, and the transition to a circular society. The report comprises spatial and materialflow analyses following the methodology proposed by Deliverables 3.1 and3.3 of the REPAiR project. The Hamburg case study area consists of two focus areas, the district of Hamburg-Altona and the County of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein. The report delivers spatial, material flow and social analyses for the focus area Hamburg-Altona and partially for the focus area Pinneberg. Embedded in the spatial-social context, the material flow analysis follows the same steps that have been exemplified in the Deliverable 3.3 for the two pilot case studies of Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and Naples Metropolitan Region. The structure enables the geolocation of the key activities and actors related to material flows to allow a spatial understanding of the actor network atthe focus area level. This understanding is crucial for the development of suitable eco-innovative solutions that will be designed in future steps. The eco-innovative solutions aim at paving the way towards more circular city regions. Finally, this reportreflects on the results of the spatial and material flow analyses with special attention to issues linking waste activities to their effects on space. | D3.6 Process Model Hamburg | Alessandro Arlati (HCU), Andrea C C ALopes (HCU), Andreas Obersteg (HCU), Cesar Coimbra Pascoli (HCU), Ákos Bodor (RKI), Zoltán Grünhut (RKI) | Report | reports | 2018 |
Activity-based Spatial MFA (AS-MFA)
Case Study
Organic Waste (OW)
Urban
|
| Benchmarking urban eco-efficiency and urbanites' perception Urbanization as an inexorable global trend stresses the need to identify cities which are eco-efficient. These cities enable socioeconomic development with lower environmental burden, both being multidimensional concepts. Based on this approach, we benchmark 88 European cities using (i) an advanced version of regression residual ranking and (ii) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Our results show that Stockholm, Munich and Oslo perform well irrespective of the benchmarking method. Furthermore, our results indicate that larger European cities are eco-efficient given the socioeconomic benefits they offer compared to smaller cities. In addition, we analyze correlations between a subjective public perception ranking and our objective eco-efficiency rankings for a subset of 45 cities. This exercise revealed three insights: (1) public perception about quality of life in a city is not merely confined to the socioeconomic well-being but rather to its combination with a lower environmental burden; (2) public perception correlates well with both formal ranking outcomes, corroborating the choice of variables; and (3) the advanced regression residual method appears to be more adequate to fit the urbanites' perception ranking (correlation coefficient about 0.6). This can be interpreted as an indication that urbanites' perception reflects the typical eco-efficiency performance and is less influenced by exceptionally performing cities (in the latter case, DEA should have better correlation coefficient). This study highlights that the socioeconomic growth in cities should not be environmentally detrimental as this might lead to significant discontent regarding the perceived quality of urban life. | Benchmarking urban eco-efficiency and urbanites' perception | Ramana Gudipudia, Matthias K.B. Lüdeke, Diego Rybski, Jürgen P. Kropp | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Urban
|
| D3.7 Process model Pécs Deliverable 3.7 of Work Package 3 concerns an integrated analysis of the follow-up case of Pécs within the REPAiR project, from the point of view of waste production and processing, and the transition (or rather the first steps) towards circular economy. It comprises spatial, social and material flow analyses of the case of Pécs and its agglomeration as a territory to treat as a unit, following the innovative methodology that was introduced and explained in Deliverable 3.1 (D3.1) (Geldermans et al., 2017).While writing this deliverable, as a follow-up case, authors followed the D3.1 methodology and pilot deliverable (D3.3) on AMA and NAP in the elaboration of spatial, social and material flow analysis. In the wastescape categorisation stakeholders’ knowledge was also integrated. With regard to the Material Flow Analysis, new insights on data collection and processing are addressed, in order to provide a successful representation of the most important flows. After a rudimentary spatial and socio-economic analysis at national level the reader can get a deep inside about the region (Baranya county) and the Pécs agglomeration. This analysis enables to understand the challenges and solutions more deeply regarding to both the wastescapes and the peculiarities of flows represented in this document.The analysis in this deliverable revealed that the history of the country and regions (the industrial transition around the systemic change), the trajectory and the changes of the economic structure had a major influence on the wastescapes and their revitalisation processes. Although, there is no circular economy plan or strategy neither for Hungary nor for the investigated area, it can be seen that Pécs –as a frontrunner in sustainability strategic planning and implementation –has positive examples that can contribute to closing the loop, reducing waste, especially when making comparison within the region.The report finishes with a reflection on the methodology and results. This reflection focuses on four topics in particular: physico-geographical aspects and waste-sensitivity, waste(scape) dynamics in space & time, modelling of material flows & data intensity, and the relevance of Enabling Contexts(D3.3, Chapter 2.1.5). | D3.7 Process model Pécs | Viktor Varjú (RKI), Cecília Mezei (RKI), Csaba Vér (BIOKOM), Virág Lovász (RKI), Zoltán Grünhut (RKI), Ákos Bodor (RKI), Tamás Szabó (RKI), Jargalsaikhan Khuslen (Kaposvár University), Azizli Birce (Kaposvár University) | Report | reports | 2018 |
Activity-based Spatial MFA (AS-MFA)
Case Study
Organic Waste (OW)
Urban
|
| Decentralised Organic Resource Treatments – Classification and comparison through Extended Material Flow Analysis The article presents a classification and comparison of Decentralised Organic Resource Treatments (DORTs), a term that refers to relatively small-scale biowaste treatments that have emerged as a promising alternative to centralised, industrial facilities. Despite growing interest from policy makers and waste professionals, accessible and coherent information on different decentralised treatments is currently not available. To overcome this gap in the literature, we propose an Extended Material Flow Analysis (EMFA) based on a review of the literature and expert interviews. In addition to flows of inputs and outputs, the EMFA also accounts on the economic, normative, and technical aspects of each treatment. The final EMFA database includes seven broad types of DORTs (composting, anaerobic digestion, dehydration, lactic acid fermentation, mulching, vermicomposting and animal valorisation) that are further divided into 18 representative models. The most relevant and comparable variables are summarised in form of synthetic flow diagrams. | Decentralised Organic Resource Treatments – Classification and comparison through Extended ... | Andrea Bortolotti, Stephan Kampelmann, Simon De Muynck | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Urban
|
| Social MFA: Scrap Metal in the Context of Cape Town Materials are all around us. In many ways, they structure our world; economically, socially, and physically impacting the places they move through. In this paper, I approach material flows from a sociological perspective. I am interested in how material flows are sustained (Wallsten, 2015). To do this, I use Cape Town’s scrap metal material flow as a boundary object to study it quantitatively, through urban metabolism’s material flow analysis, and qualitatively, through a sociological case study. I call this a social material flow analysis, which I define as an analysis of a material’s flow in a human system , delimited by space and time . I place it within sociourban metabolism instead of urban metabolism. I have three major findings. (1) My design for a social material flow analysis works and is useful. (2) Capetonian scrap metal exports were twice as large as previously thought. (3) Describing the flow of scrap metal as a social structure highlights the systemic exploitation and extreme insecurity of Capetonian waste pickers. I establish that the social MFA is useful for three reasons. (1) I t allows me to understand the scrap metal fl ow not in economic or environmental terms , but as part of the structure that is Cape Town. (2) It uncovers the relationships that move scrap metal through its value chain. (3) I t provides a foundation for future research. | Social MFA: Scrap Metal in the Context of Cape Town | Logan Gardner | Thesis | theses | 2018 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Foundations of Material and Energy Flow Analysis and Types of Application for Governing Territories and Organisations Material and energy flow analysis (MEFA) is a helpful tool for understanding systems and is essential in several applications. It is based on accounting approach of flows and on mass and energy conservation principles. MEFA was particularly important for industrial development, but it is now also very useful to tackle ecological issues. Indeed, it allows for describing material dynamics and interactions with the environment at different scales: from micro level for an industrial process or an organisation (company, administration ...) to macro level for a territory (city, region, country ...). MEFA can also be performed at a transversal scale when realising a life-cycle inventory for a given product. Even with specific methods for each of those scales, the analysis have common basis and can have similar uses. We identified in literature different typologies of applications: environmental impacts assessment, process optimization, study of material dispersion and deposit, identification of local resources, legislative contribution, communication on environmental impacts and progresses, urbanism consideration, building of a territory shared vision including circular economy and resiliency consideration. MEFA have thus a large panel of applications to tackle sustainable development according different societal and technical perspectives. Hence, it should be included among the governance tools of organisations and territories. However this will be possible only if we success to overcome several difficulties: managing a big amount of data; making feedbacks accessible to uninitiated people through different understanding frameworks; developing legislation in favour of material accounting; and gathering various competences in order to correctly perform and interpret MEFA. L’analyse de flux de matières et d’énergie (AFME) est un outil d’aide à la compréhension des systèmes essentiel pour de nombreuses applications. Elle se base sur une approche comptable des flux et sur les principes de conservation de la masse et de l’énergie. L’AFME a joué un grand rôle dans le développement industriel, mais a surtout connu un regain d’intérêt avec l’émergence des problématiques environnementales. Elle permet en effet de décrire les dynamiques matérielles et les interactions avec l’environnement à différentes échelles : du niveau micro pour un processus industriel ou une organisation (entreprise, administration…), au niveau macro pour un territoire (ville, région, pays…). Il est aussi possible de décliner l’AFME à une échelle transversale en réalisant un inventaire du cycle de vie d’un produit donné. Malgré des spécificités méthodologiques pour chacune de ces échelles, les AFME ont des fondements communs et peuvent avoir des usages similaires. Nous avons ainsi recensé dans la littérature plusieurs typologies d’applications : évaluation des impacts environnementaux, optimisation des processus, étude de la dispersion de la matière et identification des gisements, identification des ressources locales, apport d’éléments juridiques, communication sur les progrès et impacts environnementaux, prise en compte dans les projets d’aménagement urbain et construction d’une vision partagée d’un territoire, de sa dynamique d’économie circulaire et de ses capacités de résiliences. Ainsi, les AFME présentent un large panel d’applications permettant d’aborder le développement durable sous différents angles sociétaux et techniques. À ce titre, elles méritent leur place parmi les outils de gouvernance des organisations et des territoires. Toutefois, avant de généraliser les AFME, il reste un certain nombre de difficultés à surmonter. Il s’agit de pouvoir manipuler des données nombreuses, de restituer les résultats à un public non initié à travers différents cadres théoriques, de faire évoluer la législation en faveur de la comptabilité matière et de mobiliser des compétences diverses et spécifiques pour réaliser et interpréter correctement les AFME. | Foundations of Material and Energy Flow Analysis and Types of ... | Ribon, Benoit; Badariotti, Dominique; Kahn, René | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Multi-scale
National
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Technomass and Cooling Demand in South America: a superlinear relationship? The impact of the increasing technomass (TM) on cooling demand in buildings is explored for cities in South America. The entangled double nature of the building–environment interrelation in an urban context is analyzed. The research question is whether an increase in the building density produces a superlinear increase of energy consumption at the urban scale. Advanced spatially explicit quantitative methods are used to select representative samples of the urban environment and to quantify the volumes of TM in four South American cities. Principal component analysis is used to extract representative urban tissue categories. The Urban Weather Generator tool is used to produce the urban weather data used in building performance simulations. The results confirm the superlinear dependence of the total cooling consumption of each sample in relation to the existing TM in areas with high-rise buildings due to the combined primary and secondary effects, namely, the increase of the total energy needs and the increase of air temperature due to the urban heat island effect. The great significance of the second-order effect poses challenges to current assessments performed on the basis of consumption per m2. The use of the TM indicator can promote the development of climate-sensible urban planning. | Technomass and Cooling Demand in South America: a superlinear relationship? | Palme, M., Inostroza, L., Salvati, A. | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Energy (sector)
Urban
|
| State of the Environment Report 2018 Table of contents: FOREWORD 01 OVERVIEW 08 CHAPTER 1: BIODIVERSITY 11 CHAPTER 2: INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES 23 CHAPTER 3: NATURAL PUBLIC GREEN SPACE 30 CHAPTER 4: FRESHWATER QUALITY 35 CHAPTER 5: COASTAL WATER QUALITY 43 CHAPTER 6: WATER USE 50 CHAPTER 7: WASTEWATER 56 CHAPTER 8: CLIMATE CHANGE 70 CHAPTER 9: AIR QUALITY 76 CHAPTER 10: SOLID WASTE 83 CONCLUSION 90 REFERENCES 92 APPENDIX | State of the Environment Report 2018 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2018 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism of Bangalore City: A Water Mass Balance Analysis Cities are increasingly depending on energy-intensive water sources, such as distant rivers and the ocean, to meet their water demand. However, such expensive sources could be avoided using alternative local sources of water such as wastewater, rainwater, and stormwater. Many cities do not have robust accounts of those localized water resources, as estimating those resources requires comprehensive accounting in complex urban water systems. In this article, we investigate whether an urban metabolism evaluation framework built on the urban water mass balance can help analyze these resources, especially in a rapidly growing developing city. We first refined the water mass balance equation developed by Kenway and his colleagues in 2011 for a developing country context with the inclusion of some significant components such as system loss. Then, we applied the refined equation for the first time to Bangalore city in India, a developing country, for the year 2013–2014 as a real case example, which is a rare water mass balance analysis of its kind. The refined equation helped analyze Bangalore's urban water system. The total available wastewater, stormwater, and rainwater were 656 gigaliters (GL). The gap between water demand and supply could be met if 54\% of this recycled potential were harnessed. Wastewater had enough potential (362 GL) to replace the whole centralized water supply from the Cauvery. A scenario analysis showed that the gap between water demand and supply in 2021 can be met if 60\% of total recycled potential is utilized. This approach can be used to help other cities identify the potential of alternative water sources and support integrated water planning and monitoring water metabolic performance. | Urban Metabolism of Bangalore City: A Water Mass Balance Analysis | Paul, Reba; Kenway, Steven; McIntosh, Brian; Mukheibir, Pierre | Journal Article | academic | 2018 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Scenario analysis
Time series
Urban
Wastewater
Water
Water mass balance analysis
|
| Urbanisation processes as key for analysing construction materials flows and stocks: Paris Region case study Urbanisation processes generate various urban structures (Steadman, 1994) which have a significant effect on urban metabolism, as shown for instance for residential heat-energy demand by Rode and colleagues (2014). Those processes have yet received little attention in studies on construction materials flows and stocks. Indeed, analysis is often based on criteria such as population size or gross domestic product and forecasting on the assumption of homogeneity across national or regional areas (Augiseau and Barles, 2017). Whereas some studies assume different urban structures to forecast inflows (Schiller, 2007), future outflows are generally estimated through average lifetimes or survival functions which do not consider urbanisation processes. Yet statistics show that buildings demolition strongly differs within a country, between rural or urban areas, as well as between urban areas according to their development dynamics (Huuhka and Lahdensivu, 2016). Miatto and colleagues (2017) also show that the survival functions generally used in dynamic materials flows analysis are not adapted to cities like Salford (Greater Manchester, UK) where a significant urban renewal occurred. Considering urbanisation processes would improve forecasting by adapting the parameters used in dynamic models. This would also bring a better understanding of past and present flows dynamics in terms of total mass and distribution between built works, and especially between buildings and networks. Indeed, while debris from building demolition are mainly recycled in road construction in countries like Japan, road networks development declines and may lead to an imbalance between the supply and demand of recycled crushed stone (Hashimoto et al., 2007). Anticipating such changes is important to implement appropriate recycling and dematerialisation policies. Moreover, taking into account urbanisation processes enables a better comparison of flows and stocks in different areas. | Urbanisation processes as key for analysing construction materials flows and ... | Vincent Augiseau, Sabine Barles | Conference Paper | None | 2017 |
Construction
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Conceptualising slum in an urban African context Increasing urbanisation and the proliferation of slums require a holistic understanding of the urban metabolism of cities. However, existing urban metabolic analyses exclude a detailed understanding of how urban slums function and contribute to biophysical, including energy, flows. This paper aims at filling this gap by critically investigating the notion of the urban slum in general, the extent to which it differs in the African context, specifically in South Africa, and broadening the understanding of urban slum based on the concept of urban metabolism, using the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach, which was applied to the Enkanini informal settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The analysis shows that South Africa has a more nuanced typology of the notion of urban slums categorised as: (i) townships; (ii) housing-turned-slum; (iii) squatter camps; (iv) site and service settlements; (v) transit camps; and (vi) hybrid multi-structured settlements. Beyond these definitions, the case study illustrates that urban slums, however defined, are complex systems with their own internal flows and processes that are connected in a myriad of ways to the larger urban system. The investigation into the use of Time, Money and Energy in the Enkanini case further revealed the productive (hypercyclic) and consumptive (dissipative) nature of the components of the urban informal settlement. This type of analysis reveals new insights into the linkages between urban informal settlements and the city. | Conceptualising slum in an urban African context | Suzanne Smit and Josephine Musango and Zora Kovacic and Alan Brent | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Slums and informal settlements
South Africa
Stellenbosch
Urban
|
| On the circularisation of territorial metabolism The circularisation of urban metabolism has appeared as policy objective in cities around the world. But many policies are not “authentically” circular and based on wrong assumptions (Arnsperger and Bourg, 2016). This article prolongs this critical perspective and examines the implications of circularisation for throughput intensity, the spatial structure and socio-technical agencies of metabolistic exchanges. This approach underlines the salience of Political Economy issues that have so far not been addressed in the literature on circular economy. More specifically, we document the existence of cleavages such as pro-growth vs post-growth and technocratic vs emancipatory that are inherent to alternative interpretations of circular economy. Taking into account these issues leads to a more accurate understanding of the social-ecological complexity of urban metabolism, but comes at the cost of lower practical applicability. In order provide operative input to current policy discussions, the complex and mostly idiosyncratic nature of circular metabolism should be addressed in localised, case-specific studies that combine the (mostly quantitative) research on biophysical flows with the (predominantly qualitative) insights on socio-economic transitions. | On the circularisation of territorial metabolism | Stephan Kampelmann | Book Section | academic | 2017 |
Circular Economy
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Downscaling Aggregate Urban Metabolism Accounts to Local Districts Urban metabolism accounts of total annual energy, water, and other resource flows are increasingly available for a variety of world cities. For local decision makers, however, it may be important to understand the variations of resource consumption within the city. Given the difficulty of gathering suburban resource consumption data for many cities, this article investigates the potential of statistical downscaling methods to estimate local resource consumption using socioeconomic or other data sources. We evaluate six classes of downscaling methods: ratio-based normalization; linear regression (both internally and externally calibrated); linear regression with spatial autocorrelation; multilevel linear regression; and a basic Bayesian analysis. The methods were applied to domestic energy consumption in London, UK, and our results show that it is possible to downscale aggregate resource consumption to smaller geographies with an average absolute prediction error of around 20%; however, performance varies widely by method, geography size, and fuel type. We also show how mapping these results can quickly identify districts with noteworthy resource consumption profiles. Further work should explore the design of local data collection strategies to enhance these methods and apply the techniques to other urban resources such as water or waste. | Downscaling Aggregate Urban Metabolism Accounts to Local Districts | Horta, Isabel M. and Keirstead, James | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Scaling
Urban
|
| The Nexus of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Biodiversity Impacts from Urban Metabolism Methodology is developed for linking the urban metabolism (UM) to global environmental stresses on the carbon (C) cycle, nitrogen (N) cycle, and biodiversity loss. UM variables are systematically mapped to the drivers of carbon, nitrogen, and biodiversity impacts. Change in mean species abundance is used as metric of biodiversity loss, by adopting the dose-response relationships from the GLOBIO model. The main biodiversity drivers related to UM included here are land-use change (LUC) and atmospheric N deposition. The methodology is demonstrated by studying the nexus for Shanghai in 2006, based on energy and soybean consumption. Results for Shanghai show a strong nexus between C, N, and biodiversity impact due to electricity consumption and energy used in manufacturing industries and construction. Prioritization of the shift away from coal energy will therefore lead to lowering the urban growth impact on all three dimensions. Road transportation, domestic aviation, and the metal industry impact only the C footprint highly, whereas district energy impacts only biodiversity loss highly, showing a weak nexus. Among the global impacts of soybean consumption in Shanghai on biodiversity loss (due to LUC only), the highest impact occurs in Uruguay (0.52%) followed by Brazil (0.05%) and Argentina (0.02%). The local impact on biodiversity loss (i.e., within China) of soybean consumption in Shanghai is 1.03%. However, the methodology and results are limited due to the partial inclusion of drivers, a carbon footprint based on carbon dioxide emissions only, and limitations of biodiversity loss models. Potential to overcome methodological limitations is discussed. | The Nexus of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Biodiversity Impacts from Urban ... | Singh, Shweta and Kennedy, Christopher | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Carbon
Case Study
China
Nitrogen
Shanghai
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Comparing the material stock of seven cities During the last century, global population increased by a factor of 4 while the global extraction of construction minerals rose by a factor of 34 (Krausmann et al., 2009). This considerable intensification in construction materials use illustrates an urbanisation of the global population leading to the creation and expansion of cities. Today, more than 50% of global population lives in urban areas and this share is likely to increase to 70 % by 2050 (United Nations-Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2014). More specifically, 90 % of the people to be added to the world's urban population by 2050 (around 2.5 billion people), are expected to be concentrated in Asia and Africa where new cities will appear. As such, it is safe to expect that if current trends of urban material use are maintained, the future use of construction materials will follow a similar steep curve. Nevertheless, current levels of material use are unsustainable as they alter a number of ecosystems, put a significant pressure to their local and global environment, and lead to resource depletion. In anticipation of the future needs of construction materials for the creation and expansion of cities, it becomes necessary to better understand of what their material stock consists of. In fact, urban material stock analysis enables to inform about past, present and potentially future needs for construction materials (but also of construction and demolition waste). To gain insights about the quantity and the composition of materials present in urban material stock, this study proposed to briefly analyse and compare seven urban areas, namely Brussels, Melbourne, Paris, Vienna, Beijing, Geneva and Orleans. The methodology used, the materials as well as the built environment components considered will be discussed (Beijing, Geneva and Orléans' building stocks were not calculated by the authors but originate from (Emmenegger et al., 2003; Rouvreau et al., 2012; Serrand et al., 2013; Hu et al., 2010). Furthermore, this research will investigate the link between the quantity of materials with some urban and built environment characteristics such as population, density, number of buildings, average height, average dwelling area, etc. Finally, the results from this research will provide preliminary figures about average material requirements per capita in order to very roughly estimate future needs of construction materials. As a conclusion, this comparative research wishes to explore the urgent issue of construction materials use and waste generation through the lens of urban material stocks. | Comparing the material stock of seven cities | Aristide Athanassiadis, Vincent Augiseau, Fritz Kleemann, André Stephan, Sabine Barles | Conference Paper | None | 2017 |
Construction
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
|
| Bomen CSV Den Haag | Bomen CSV Den Haag | Gemeente Den Haag | Dataset | None | 2017 |
Urban
|
| Local Material and Energy Flow Analysis for the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada To address global environmental challenges, resource use patterns at local and sub-national scales can provide relevant insights into drivers and how these link to local policy and decision-making. The Region of Waterloo is often referred to as “Canada’s Silicon Valley” consists of the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot, and North Dumfries and the tri-cities of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo. Close to Toronto, and reputation of being the tech hub, Waterloo’s population (mainly from immigration) is on the rise and region is under rapid transition from a rural to an increasingly urban system being connected by rapid transit systems. To better understand the region from a systems perspective and to provide input into sustainability policies of the region, the concept of social metabolism is applied. Society’s metabolism measures pressures on the environment where increasing throughput can have negative impacts on ecosystem and human health in the short and long term. Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA) is conducted to calculate derived indicators of biomass and energy use for the Region of Waterloo in accordance with established conventions. Using a number of MEFA indicators, the paper will outline some of the major sustainability challenges in resource use patterns in the region since 2006. This study is the first to conduct a material and energy flow analysis for the Region of Waterloo in three points in time. Data on extraction, consumption, imports, and exports of various biomass and energy flow indicators will be presented. Results from MFA show that the Region of Waterloo has a high import dependency for food crops and high domestic extraction of feed crops mainly fodder corn And results observed from Energy Flow Analysis indicates that the Region of Waterloo imports 100% of its technical energy and is highly dependent on outside markets. This study will encourage discussions on food and energy security in the region and help the policymakers in the region to make informed decisions. This research adds to the growing data points of research on Material and Energy flow analysis and social metabolism and serves as a starting point for more related research in sub-national socio-metabolic studies. None | Local Material and Energy Flow Analysis for the Region of ... | Arunkumar Senthilnayagam | Thesis | theses | 2017 |
Sub-national
Urban
|
| The contribution of the informal economy to urban sustainability - case study of waste management in Tepito, Mexico City This thesis explores the role of the informal economy in urban environmental management. Cities' relation with the environment is mediated by the urban infrastructure, which provides services such as transport or waste management. Beyond the implementation of plans by local governments, the daily operation of such infrastructure is also the result of informal work. Yet, little is known about the nature and impacts of informal work in urban service provision. This thesis tackles this research gap by documenting the everyday operation of domestic waste collection and management in a neighbourhood of Mexico City. The aim of this research is twofold. Firstly, it aims to critically analyse the concept of 'informality' in the case of urban waste management, and to document how informality operates in that context. Secondly, it assesses the contribution of the informal economy to the waste management system, by contrasting it to the key components of urban sustainability. The research presents primary data collected through qualitative fieldwork. Using an urban metabolism framework, it documents waste flows through the urban infrastructure, identifying the role of formal and informal waste handlers along the way. In parallel, it explores the normative discourses of informality that are mobilised in the production of Mexico City's urban sustainability policies. The thesis argues that it is necessary to re-consider the role of informal workers in urban sustainability. In Mexico City, informal and formal waste workers' relationship is symbiotic. Formal waste collection services are sustained by informal work and cash flows. In parallel, informal waste handlers provide the main input (recyclable materials) to the formal recycling industry - this is achieved through the reliance on local solidarity networks and techniques of experimentation and innovation which are characteristic of the informal economy. The informal economy appears to contribute positively to the environmental and social components of urban sustainability. Yet, informal workers are not recognised as legitimate actors in policy making. Instead, the concept of informality is mobilised by civil servants to exclude informal workers from the policy process. This challenges the potential for inclusive governance, a key component of urban sustainability. | The contribution of the informal economy to urban sustainability - ... | Louise Guibrunet | Thesis | theses | 2017 |
Case Study
Mexico
Mexico City
Single point in time
Urban
Waste
|
| Resource management in peri-urban areas (REPAiR): D3.1 Introduction to methodology for integrated spatial, material flow and social analyses The role of Work Package 3 within the REPAiR project is to develop and implement territorial metabolism models. The aim is to analyse, describe and model the case study areas with their subsystems and processes that define the area’s current metabolic patterns, from the vantage point of waste production and waste management. The interrelated domains place, flow & stocks, and behaviour & governance are taken into account with regard to spatial (where?),contextual (what, why, who and how?) and temporal (when?) dimensions. This deliverable – D3.1 – provides an introduction to the methodology for integrated spatial (Task 3.1), material flows (Task 3.2) and social (Task 3.3) analyses. It explains methodological considerations and choices, whilst laying out the approach, developed in close conjunction with the two main pilot case studies Amsterdam and Naples. Subsequently, this handbook provides guidelines for application in the four other case study areas. Task 3.1, concerning the spatial analysis, is located between the investigation of the flows that cross, and are processed within, our urban and peri-urban territories on the one hand, and the study of the spatial effects that these ‘metabolisms’ have on the territory, on the other. A core aspect of Task 3.1 is related to the identification of what REPAiR defines as ‘Wastescapes’. In Task 3.2 of WP3, Material Flow Analysis is used as a tool to study the material flows and stocks of the subsystems of the six case studies, based on consumption patterns and waste production. By introducing a new method for MFA, “Activity-based Spatial Material Flow Analysis” (AS-MFA), specific activities relating to material flows and stocks from waste production in subsystems, the involved actors and their interrelations can be identified. The AS-MFA aims to connect the spatial, material and social analyses in REPAiR. Task 3.3, on social analysis, is dealing with the linkages between sociocultural features and social sensitiveness about general environmental issues, and particularly about waste and resource management. Task 3.3 has a multilevel scope: secondary sociocultural inquiries are focusing on national level specificities, while the primer sociocultural stage of the research and the socioeconomic investigation is done on a local level. The representation and process models developed in WP3 have strong ties with WP4, regarding sustainability impact assessment and evaluation models, and with WP5 concerning eco-innovative solutions and change strategies. Moreover, the models are used as input to the GDSE (WP2) and inform –and are informed by –WP6 with regard to decision models. These interrelations accentuate the importance of common agreements regarding e.g. delineations, data sourcing and processing. Such issues are dealt with in this handbook, whilst underlining the necessity for continuing alignment between work packages of the REPAiR project. | Resource management in peri-urban areas (REPAiR): D3.1 Introduction to methodology ... | Bob Geldermans, Carolin Bellstedt, Enrico Formato, Viktor Varju, Zoltan Grunhut, Maria Cerreta Libera Amenta, Pasquale Inglese, Janneke van der Leer, Alexander Wandl | Report | reports | 2017 |
Activity-based Spatial MFA (AS-MFA)
Method
Urban
|
| The role of port and logistic activities in Brussels Logistics activities are an essential part of the urban economy. In the Brussels-Capital Region, this sector is concentrated in the canal area, as a supplement to port activities carried out there. The neighbourhoods along the canal therefore serve as a space for the concentration and distribution of goods transport necessary for the urban area of Brussels. However, this space is experiencing strong land and political pressure, prompting reconversion and deindustrialisation, to the benefit of housing, commercial and office projects. This movement may have a negative impact on the organisation of logistics in Brussels. More broadly, it highlights the paradoxes and limits of the territorial development policy in Brussels. Les activités logistiques sont une composante essentielle de l’économie urbaine. En Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, ce secteur se concentre dans l’axe du canal, en complément des activités portuaires qui s’y maintiennent. Dès lors, les quartiers bordant le canal agissent comme un espace de concentration et de redistribution des flux de marchandises nécessaire à l’agglomération bruxelloise. Pourtant, cet espace subit une pression foncière et politique forte, poussant à une reconversion et une désindustrialisation, au profit de projets de logements, commerce ou bureaux. Ce mouvement risque d’avoir des conséquences négatives du point de vue de l’organisation logistique bruxelloise. Plus largement, il met en exergue les paradoxes et limites de la politique de développement territorial bruxelloise. | The role of port and logistic activities in Brussels | Mathieu Strale | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Transportation
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism for Resource-Efficient Cities: from Theory to Implementation This report is a review of urban resource assessment tools that can guide a city-level resource efficiency transition, using urban metabolism assessment as the guiding framework. This study was the outcome of a collaboration between the Sustainability Institute (www.sustainabilityinstitute.net) and UN Environment (www.unep.org) under the framework of the Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities (www.resourceefficientcities.org). | Urban Metabolism for Resource-Efficient Cities: from Theory to Implementation | Josephine Kaviti Musango and Paul Currie and Blake Robinson | Report | reports | 2017 |
Agent-based modelling (ABM)
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Emergy Analysis
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT)
Report
Review Paper
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Water management in Brussels: knowledge gained from the long time data series of the Flowbru regional telemetry system The long time data series provided by the Flowbru regional hydrometric network (www.flowbru.be) represents a new opportunity to gain knowledge on the hydrographical system in Brussels. With a combination of data mining analysis, data consolidation, models and in-depth data interpretation, new insights on sewer system performance are obtained. First, the problem of the infiltration of parasitic clear water into the sewer system is addressed. A new methodology is developed to compute the daily volumes of clear water infiltrated in the entire zone treated by the Brussels-North Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). We show the strong seasonal variation of infiltration and how this pattern can be identified in limnimetric time series to highlight sewers which are subject to infiltration. Secondly, the sewer sediment accumulation in the Brussels Right main collector – the largest sewer in the Brussels Region – is studied. The accumulation dynamics are discussed, and a comparison between the present situation and that of the 1980s shows the massive increase in sediment accumulation in recent decades. The potential causes and consequences of this accumulation are discussed briefly. | Water management in Brussels: knowledge gained from the long time ... | de Ville, Nicolas; Verbanck, Michel | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Time series
Urban
Wastewater
Water
|
| Circular economy. The Municipality of The Hague This project comprises two pilots, that flow from the Green Deal. The first is the tender for the construction of a waste and recycling centre, which was delivered in late 2016. Sustainable, partly reused material was used. In using such material the municipality also wanted to stimulate the centre’s users to start thinking about the reuse of raw materials. The second pilot is a circular tender process for 72,000 m2 of flooring for various locations. | Circular economy. The Municipality of The Hague | The Municipality of The Hague | Report | reports | 2017 |
Circular Economy
The Hague
Urban
|
| Using Web‐Based Technology to Bring Hands‐On Urban Material Flow Analysis to the Classroom The main objective of this article is to introduce an open‐source, online software tool called OMAT as a teaching tool for performing economy wide‐material flow analysis (EW‐MFA) at urban or regional level in industrial ecology curricula. To that intent, we present a classroom and project activity that was developed for a masters‐level industrial ecology course offered by the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Insights are provided with regards to the outcome of the classroom exercise as well as lessons learned from both an academic and a software development point of view. The OMAT software provides users with a specialized tool to enter and process MFA data in a simple, intuitive way. The usefulness of OMAT as a teaching tool was tested by engaging students in a classroom activity that entailed using OMAT as a tool to perform an EW‐MFA applied to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona for the years 2005‐2011. The aim of this exercise was to teach students specific skills required in performing an EW‐MFA, not through theory classes, but hands‐on through a learn‐as‐you‐go approach. The exercise not only equipped the students with knowledge about MFA, but also introduced them to solving problems as a team, meeting project deadlines, and communicating effectively with colleagues from different disciplines and backgrounds. Even though there is room for further improvements, this exercise showed that OMAT provided a useful addition to traditional methods that allowed students to get a more practical and thorough understanding of the MFA methodology. | Using Web‐Based Technology to Bring Hands‐On Urban Material Flow Analysis ... | Gara Villalba and Paul Hoekman | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Barcelona
Case Study
Method
Spain
Urban
|
| The Life Cycle Assessment of an Energy-Positive Peri-Urban Residence in a Tropical Regime Urban settlements are home to the greatest levels of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption globally, with unprecedented rates of urban expansion occurring today. With the majority of global urbanization occurring along the periphery of urban areas in developing countries, investigation of 'green' building practices designed specifically for 'peri-urban' regions is critical for a low-emitting future society. This study assesses a state-of-the-art residence designed for a middle-class family of four residing in the peri-urban region of Bangkok, Thailand. The residence employs both demand-side management strategies and low-emitting energy supply technology to achieve energy-positive status. To elucidate the influence that key design decisions have on the life cycle sustainability of the home, several variants of the residence are modeled. A process-based life cycle assessment consistent with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14044:2006 standard and following ReCiPe Midpoint life cycle impact assessment methodology is used to quantify the life cycle impacts per square meter of conditioned residence floor area for climate change (582 kilograms [kg] carbon dioxide equivalent), terrestrial acidification (4.01 kg sulfur dioxide equivalent), freshwater eutrophication (30.4 grams phosphorous equivalent), fossil depletion (362 kg iron equivalent), and metal depletion (186 kg oil equivalent) impacts. We model multiple scenarios in which varying proportions of Bangkok's peri-urban detached housing demand are fulfilled by the energy-positive residence variants. Under the best-case replacement scenario (i.e., 100% replacement of future peri-urban detached housing), significant reductions are achieved across the life cycle climate change (80%), terrestrial acidification (82%), and fossil depletion (81%) impact categories for the steel-framed, energy-positive residence. | The Life Cycle Assessment of an Energy-Positive Peri-Urban Residence in ... | Bukoski, Jacob J. and Chaiwiwatworakul, Pipat and Gheewala, Shabbir H. | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Bangkok
Case Study
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Thailand
Urban
|
| Estimating the Potential for Urban Mining in Paris Region Construction materials are the largest flows entering urban areas after water, while they constitute the top waste deposit (Matthews et al., 2000). The consumption of these mostly non-renewable materials generates environmental impacts and land-use conflicts, from extraction to end-life management and especially storage. Moreover, urbanisation strongly constrains local mineral resources extraction, which leads to the extension of the supplying areas. Materials contained in a city today, in the form of buildings and networks, could potentially be recycled tomorrow through urban mining and so partly substitute for primary resources in highly urbanised countries (Brunner, 2011). The joint analysis of flows and stock of construction materials is therefore an important issue in terms of understanding and managing the metabolism of socioeconomic systems. This is bound up with significant methodological challenges concerning the knowledge of flows and stock of existing materials, in terms of quantity and location, along with short-term forecasting which is essential to anticipating and acting on metabolism. A three years research project launched in 2014 by Géographie-Cités laboratory aims at helping regional authorities to set urban mining objectives until 2030. It is financed by the regional council (Région Ile-de-France) which is in charge of the C&D waste management plan, and the regional office for environment (DRIEE) responsible of the quarries regulation plan. First, construction materials flows were studied through a top-down material flow analysis for Paris Region and its administrative divisions (départements) in 2001 and 2013. The Eurostat top-down MFA method adapted to urban and regional scales by Barles (2009) was used. Then the stock contained in buildings and networks was studied in terms of quantity and location for the entire region through a bottom-up assessment. For buildings, a 3D geographical database called BD Topo® was matched with local tax records which contain information on construction years, economic activities and materials in wall structures. Materials stocked in road, rail, electricity, gas, heat and water networks were estimated with BD Topo® and data from networks managers. Domestic material consumption (DMC) of Paris region reaches 2.5 t/inhab. in 2013. Annual net addition to stock amounts for 2.0 t/inhab. while total stock estimation is 226 t/inhab. While non metallic minerals form 95 % of the DMC, used domestic extraction of these materials decreases and only amounts for 85 % of non metallic minerals imports in 2013. Paris urban area (city and petite couronne) has the lowest DMC (1.8 t/inhab.) in the region, but also the most important local and exported processed outputs (0.8 t/inhab.). Regional development plan for 2030 (SDRIF) sets high annual construction objectives for Paris urban area that imply a strong increase of building renewal. Buildings form 79 % of material stock in this area with a building stock density that reaches 12,277 t/ha in 2013. Objectives of the development plan and statistics on demolition during the last decade are used to estimate future input and output flows until 2030 and hence the potential for urban mining. | Estimating the Potential for Urban Mining in Paris Region | Sabine Barles, Vincent Augiseau | Conference Paper | None | 2017 |
Construction
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Single point in time
Sub-national
Time series
Urban
|
| A Database to Facilitate a Process-Oriented Approach to Urban Metabolism In view of urbanization trends coupled with climate-change challenges, it is increasingly important to establish less-harmful means of urban living. To date, urban metabolism (UM) studies have quantified the aggregate material and energy flows into and out of cities and, further, have identified how consumer activity causes these flows. However, little attention has been paid to the networks of conversion processes that link consumer end-use demands to aggregate metabolic flows. Here, we conduct a systematic literature search to assemble a database of 202 urban energy, water, and waste management processes. We show how the database can help planners and policy makers choose the preferred process to meet a specific resource management need; identify synergies between energy, water, and waste management processes; and compute optimal networks of processes to meet an area's consumer demand at minimum environmental cost. We make our database publicly available under an open-source license and discuss the possibilities for how it might be used alongside other industrial ecology data sets to enhance research opportunities. This will encourage more holistic UM analyses, which appreciate how both consumer activity and the engineered urban system work together to influence aggregate metabolic flows and thus support efforts to make cities more sustainable. | A Database to Facilitate a Process-Oriented Approach to Urban Metabolism | Ravalde, Tom and Keirstead, James | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Urban
|
| Impact of the Economic Structure of Cities on Urban Scaling Factors: Implications for Urban Material and Energy Flows in China We explore the population-scaling and gross domestic product (GDP)-scaling relationships of material and energy flow (MEF) parameters in different city types based on economic structure. Using migration-corrected population data, we classify 233 Chinese city propers (Shiqu) as 'highly industrial' (share of secondary GDP exceeds 63.9%), 'highly commercial' (share of tertiary GDP exceeds 52.6%), and 'mixed-economy' (the remaining cities). We find that, first, the GDP population-scaling factors differ in the different city types. Highly commercial and mixed-economy cities exhibit superlinear GDP population-scaling factors greater than 1, whereas highly industrial cities are sublinear. Second, GDP scaling better correlates with city-wide MEF parameters in Chinese cities; these scaling relationships also show differences by city typology. Third, highly commercial cities are significantly different from others in demonstrating greater average per capita household income creation relative to per capita GDP. Further, highly industrial cities show an apparent cap in population. This also translates to lower densities in highly industrial cities compared to other types, showing a size effect on urban population density. Finally, a multiple variable regression of total household electricity showed significant and positive correlation with population, income effect, and urban form effect. With such multivariate modeling, the apparent superlinearity of household electricity use with respect to population is no longer observed. Our study enhances understanding of MEFs associated with Chinese cities and provides new insights into the patterns of scaling observed in different city types by economic structure. Results recommend dual scaling by GDP and by population for MEF parameters and suggest caution in applying universal scaling factors to all cities in a country. | Impact of the Economic Structure of Cities on Urban Scaling ... | Ramaswami, Anu and Jiang, Daqian and Tong, Kangkang and Zhao, Jerry | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
China
Method
Scaling
Urban
|
| Circular Economy in the Construction Sector in Brussels: State of the art, challenges and model to come The Brussels-Capital Region has set up the Regional Circular Economy Program (2016-2020) in order to transform environmental issues into economic opportunities, to relocate the economy to Brussels and to increase the well-being of its inhabitants including passing through the job. This ambitious program aims to transform the current economic model, called linear (extract, produce, consume, discard) into a so-called circular model, where the concept of waste no longer exists. The construction sector in Brussels consumes a lot of resources and produces a lot of waste. Being also a big provider of local jobs, it seems to be the ideal starting point to set up such a model transition. The first part of this study defines the principles of a circular economy and shows how these can be applied to the construction sector. These foundations are then supplemented by an analysis of incoming and outgoing construction material flows at the regional level in order to estimate the economic potential of their re-circularization. Based on these results, a circular economy model for the construction sector is developed and broken down into nine stages illustrated with real examples at the local and international levels. The implications for the building and its actors are underlined. The second part of this study reviews the work begun with stakeholders in the construction sector on defining a clear and shared vision of the circular economy in the Brussels Capital Region and the regional objectives to be achieved. The many actions proposed during these enriching exchanges are exposed. La Région de Bruxelles-Capitale a mis en place le Programme Régional d’Economie Circulaire (2016-2020) afin de transformer les enjeux environnementaux en opportunités économiques, de relocaliser l’économie à Bruxelles et d’augmenter le bien-être de ses habitants en passant notamment par la mise à l’emploi. Cet ambitieux programme vise à transformer le modèle économique actuel, dit linéaire (extraire, produire, consommer, jeter), en un modèle dit circulaire, où la notion de déchet n’existe plus. Le secteur de la construction à Bruxelles consomme énormément de ressources et produit beaucoup de déchets. Etant également un gros pourvoyeur d’emplois locaux, il semble donc être le point de départ idéal pour mettre sur pied une telle transition de modèle. Le premier volet de la présente étude définit les principes d’une économie circulaire et montre comment ceux-ci peuvent être appliqués au secteur de la construction. Ces fondements sont ensuite complétés par une analyse des flux de matériaux de construction entrants et sortants au niveau de la région afin d’estimer le potentiel économique de leur re-circularisation. Sur base de ces résultats, un modèle d’économie circulaire pour le secteur de la construction est développé et décliné en neuf étapes illustrées d’exemples réels à l’échelle locale et internationale. Les implications pour le bâti et ses acteurs y sont soulignées. Le deuxième volet de cette étude reprend le travail entamé avec les parties prenantes du secteur de la construction sur la définition d’une vision claire et partagée de ce qu’est l’économie circulaire en Région Bruxelles Capitale et sur les objectifs régionaux à atteindre. Les nombreuses actions proposées lors de ces échanges enrichissants y sont exposés. | Circular Economy in the Construction Sector in Brussels: State of ... | Athanassiadis, Aristide | Report | reports | 2017 |
Circular Economy
Construction
Urban
|
| Development of a municipal solid waste management decision support tool for Naples, Italy Naples has experienced serious waste mismanagement during the last several decades. Illegal waste trafficking, the lack of an appropriate municipal solid waste management plan, and the subsidizing of energy generation from indiscriminate waste incineration generated social unrest and an unremitting paralysis of waste services throughout much of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The waste situation in Naples is a “hot spot” that cannot be simply described or explained by theoretical and linear models or analyses based on conventional waste indicators. A novel approach for the assessment of urban solid waste management system performance is proposed to overcome the limitations of conventional methods. When dealing with the production and use of scientific information for governance, scientists, especially those used to just “crunch numbers” have a serious problems in providing a useful input to the process of decision making. This paper presents a method useful for organizing a process of production and use of scientific information in which both scientists and the other social actors can have a bidirectional and constructive exchange of information. The goal of this method is to guarantee the quality of the process of generation and use of quantitative science to generate informed deliberations about policies over Municipal Solid Waste Management. The proposed approach builds on metabolic network theory and multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM). The current metabolic pattern of municipal solid waste in the Metropolitan Area of Naples is described and quantified across hierarchical scales and dimensions. The analysis shows that the current Neapolitan waste management system is characterized by an elevated share (60%) of waste treated outside of the metropolitan ambit, and a low rate of separate collection (37%). Simulation of (i) metropolitan self-sufficiency of urban waste final disposal, and (ii) increased recycling rate show, respectively (i) an increase in both financial burden and local environmental impact; (ii) a lessening of the local environmental impact and an increase of running costs and higher need of local waste processing capacity. | Development of a municipal solid waste management decision support tool ... | Chifari, Rosaria; Renner, Ansel; Lo Piano, Samuele; Ripa, Maddalena; Bukkens, Sandra G. F.; Giampietro, Mario | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM)
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Urban
|
| Map of actors and initiatives in circular economy in Montréal In a context of limited resources, where the growing population also has greater access to the middle class and increased purchasing power, the linear economic model in which we operate - extracting resources and producing goods that are then consumed and thrown away - creates increasing pressure on our environment and our societies. In order to respond to the challenges raised by this unsustainable linear trajectory, a new model for implementing sustainable development is gaining popularity. It is about the circular economy, "a system of production, exchange and consumption aimed at optimizing the use of resources at all stages of the life cycle of a good or a service, all by reducing the environmental footprint and contributing to the well-being of individuals and communities (Québec Consensus Group on the Circular Economy, 2016)." Because they concentrate large quantities of resources in their meta-bolism and reject large flows of waste, large cities and metropolises are particularly challenged by the development of the circular economy. Thus, they have recently become leaders in promoting the circular economy on their territory. Among the precursors, Amsterdam, which proposes in 2014 a major action plan including the development of a new district entirely dedicated to the circular economy. Paris, with the Estates General in 2015, Seoul, which wants to become the capital of the sharing economy, Brussels and many other cities have also launched with great ambition in this direction. With a large concentration of researchers working on the circular economy internationally, Montréal already has a leading role on this theme. In this context, a first study was conducted by the EDDEC Institute and the Prospective City Lab to identify the actors who are already contributing to a better circularity of resources in the Montréal area. As a first step, this mapping offered to local organizations the opportunity to become familiar with this innovative concept that is the circular economy by concrete and innovative examples during meetings or-ganized in collaboration with the arrondissements-towns and cities linked (see the detailed methodology in Part II). Subsequently, the data collected made it possible to make a first portrait of the variety of existing actors and initiatives in Montreal (see the synthesis of the results in the third part), both in a thematic and geographical perspective. Symbolic projects as well as contrasting logics between ar-roundings have thus been identified and are presented in the fourth part (see the 8 "initiatives" sheets and the 19 sectoral sheets). Dans un contexte de ressources limitées où la population croissante accède également en plus grand nombre à la classe moyenne et à un pouvoir d’achat accru, le modèle économique linéaire dans lequel nous évoluons — qui consiste à extraire des ressources et produire des biens qui sont ensuite consommés puis jetés — engendre une pression de plus en plus importante sur notre environnement et nos sociétés. Afin de répondre aux enjeux soulevés par cette trajectoire linéaire insoutenable, un nouveau modèle de mise en œuvre du développement durable gagne en popularité. Il s’agit de l’économie circulaire, soit « un système de production, d’échange et de consommation visant à optimiser l’utilisation des ressources à toutes les étapes du cycle de vie d’un bien ou d’un service, tout en réduisant l’empreinte environnementale et en contribuant au bien-être des individus et des collectivités (Pôle de concertation québécois sur l’économie circu-laire, 2016).» Du fait qu’elles concentrent dans leur méta-bolisme de grandes consommations de res-sources et rejettent des flux importants de déchets, les grandes villes et métropoles sont particulièrement interpellées par le dévelop-pement de l’économie circulaire. Ainsi, elles deviennent depuis peu de temps leaders en matière de promotion de l’économie circulaire sur leur territoire. Parmi les précurseurs, ci-tons Amsterdam qui propose en 2014 un plan d’action d’envergure incluant le développe-ment d’un nouveau quartier entièrement dédié à l’économie circulaire. Paris, avec des États généraux en 2015, Séoul, qui veut devenir la capitale de l’économie de partage, Bruxelles et bien d’autres villes se sont également lan-cées avec beaucoup d’ambition dans cette voie. Disposant d’une grande concentration de chercheurs travaillant sur l’économie circulaire à l’échelle internationale, Montréal oc-cupe déjà un rôle de leader sur ce thème. Dans ce contexte, une première étude a été réalisée par l’Institut EDDEC et le Lab Ville Prospective afin de recenser les acteurs qui contribuent déjà à une meilleure circularité des ressources sur le territoire montréalais. Dans un premier temps, cette cartographie a offfert aux organisations locales l’opportunité de se familiariser avec ce concept novateur qu’est l’économie circulaire par des exemples concrets et innovants lors de rencontres or-ganisées en collaboration avec les arrondis-sements et villes liées (voir la méthodologie détaillée en 2e partie). Par la suite, les données recueillies ont permis de réaliser un premier portrait de la variété des acteurs et initiatives existantes à Montréal (voir la synthèse des résultats en 3e partie), à la fois dans une perspective thématique et géographique. Des projets emblématiques ainsi que des logiques contrastées entre ar-rondissements ont ainsi pu être repérés et sont présentés en 4e partie (voir les 8 fiches « initiatives » et les 19 fiches sectorielles). | Map of actors and initiatives in circular economy in Montréal | Scherrer, Franck; Abrassart, Christophe; Crahes, Victorine; Cyr, Caroline | Report | reports | 2017 |
Circular Economy
Urban
|
| From Urban climate to Energy Consumption: Enhancing Building Performance Simulation by Including the Urban Heat Island Effect Cities are dissipative structures. As such, cities generate heat, a phenomenon known as urban heat island (UHI). Even though the UHI is one of the most relevant effects of urbanization on urban climate, up-to-date methodologies to include it in the estimation of buildings’ energy consumption are still scarce. During the last 30 years, different methods and software have been developed to measure a thermal building's demand. Building performance simulation is commonly used to calculate heating and cooling demand. However, such techniques do not adequately include the urban heat island effect, which could have an extreme impact on a building's energy consumption. In fact, building operation is doubly connected with the urban environment: on the one hand, buildings generate heat that warms up the environment, and on the other hand, the urban environment alters building performance by the influence of UHI. In this paper, a methodology to incorporate the UHI effect in building performance simulation is proposed. Urban weather data were downscaled at the urban morphology building level to estimate the cooling demand of different types of residential buildings. The global energy penalty for the whole residential building stock was estimated in four South American Pacific coastal cities. The results indicate that when UHI is incorporated, an increase in energy demand between 15% and 200% can be expected. These results challenge the validity of current assessments performed in absence of the UHI effect. At the same time, these results open up the discussion for the inclusion of urban planning measures aiming at reducing the UHI effect on a building's energy demand. | From Urban climate to Energy Consumption: Enhancing Building Performance Simulation ... | Palme, M., Inostroza, L., Villacreses, G., Lobato, A., Carraasco, C. | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Energy (sector)
Urban
|
| A Hybrid Approach for Assessing the Multi-Scale Impacts of Urban Resource Use: Transportation in Phoenix, Arizona Life cycle assessment (LCA) and urban metabolism (UM) are popular approaches for urban system environmental assessment. However, both approaches have challenges when used across spatial scales. LCA tends to decompose systemic information into micro-level functional units that mask complexity and purpose, whereas UM typically equates aggregated material and energy flows with impacts and is not ideal for revealing the mechanisms or alternatives available to reduce systemic environmental risks. This study explores the value of integrating UM with LCA, using vehicle transportation in the Phoenix metropolitan area as an illustrative case study. Where other studies have focused on the use of LCA providing upstream supply-chain impacts for UM, we assert that the broader value of the integrated approach is in (1) the ability to cross scales (from micro to macro) in environmental assessment and (2) establishing an analysis that captures function and complexity in urban systems. The results for Phoenix show the complexity in resource supply chains and critical infrastructure services, how impacts accrue well beyond geopolitical boundaries where activities occur, and potential system vulnerabilities. | A Hybrid Approach for Assessing the Multi-Scale Impacts of Urban ... | Clark, Susan Spierre and Chester, Mikhail V. | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Phoenix
Single point in time
Transportation
United States
Urban
|
| Using Material and Energy Flow Analysis to Estimate Future Energy Demand at the City Level Cities undergoing rapid growth encounter tremendous challenges, not only in terms of providing services to meet demand, but also in ensuring that development occurs in a sustainable way. This research evaluates the potential contribution of the material and energy flow analysis framework to predicting future energy flows and corresponding CO2 emissions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The research presents a generic material and energy flow analysis model and applies it to the housing stock in Riyadh to estimate future energy demand and to assess associated effects. As the country starts to adopt sustainability measures and plan its transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system towards a renewable-based energy system, an understanding of future energy flows will allow early recognition of potential environmental impacts and provide information to enable accurate predictions of future demand for resources. | Using Material and Energy Flow Analysis to Estimate Future Energy ... | Naif Albelwi and Alan Kwan and Yacine Rezgui | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Scenario analysis
Time series
Urban
|
| Prospecting the Urban Mine of Amsterdam The buildings of Amsterdam contain tons of steel, copper, aluminum and lead. Amsterdam can be seen as an urban mine. In a circular economy, under conditions, the metals of Amsterdam can be mined. Leiden University will write scenarios of urban mining. TU Delft will develop methods to deduce metal content of buildings. The Waag Society will make a geological map of the built environment of Amsterdam. Metabolic will do a ground truth check. Finally, Leiden University will write a draft mining plan. Together, in the AMS project PUMA, we will find out under what conditions Amsterdam as urban mine is viable. Amsterdam is an urban mine. Amsterdam is a wealth of metals. Amsterdam is tons of steel, copper, aluminum, gold. Steel in high-rise buildings, copper in the cables, aluminum in window frames, gold in the telephones. Tons. If you need metals, go prospecting Amsterdam. Obviously, the metals are in use and not free to process yet. It will take time before you can get them out. But in the mining industry this is business as usual - getting any mine running takes decades. Traditionally, mines are underground. There is iron, copper and aluminum in the earth. Ore concentrations are going down, and it takes ever more energy to get the metals out. Worldwide, 7-8% of all energy consumption is now used to producing metals. It takes far less energy to take the metals from urban mines. Still, we have to ask: can it be done? Is it worthwhile? The first step in any mining process is prospecting: the first stage of the geological analysis by physical search for minerals and precious metals. To start, we need to make a geological map of the built environment. Where are the metals, how much, what is the quality, when will these metals become available? We teach the principles of this in a two-year master course, called industrial ecology, run in cooperation between Leiden University and the Technical University of Delft. We participate in a European project, MICA, a consortium involving the European geological bureaus, to develop the methodology of urban prospecting. This project, Prospecting the Urban Mines of Amsterdam (PUMA) will deliver two products. The first is a geological map of the built environment. The results will be shared as open data and visualized in an interactive geological map, giving an overview of available resources, their quality and ‘time to mine'. The second is an outline for an urban mining plan, indicating the steps needed to actually exploit the urban mine. We intend to take this idea further in other, larger projects, funded for example by the EU Horizon 2020 program or the KIC Raw Materials. The project is a joint research of TU Delft, Waag Society, CML Leiden University, and Metabolic. | Prospecting the Urban Mine of Amsterdam | Ester van der Voet, Ruben Huele, Alexander Koutamanis, Boukje van Reijn, Ellen van Bueren, Job Spiering,Tom Demeyer, Gerard Roemers, Merlijn Blok | Report | reports | 2017 |
Amsterdam
Case Study
Copper
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Metals
Single point in time
Steel
The Netherlands
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Global scenarios of urban density and its impacts on building energy use through 2050 Although the scale of impending urbanization is well-acknowledged, we have a limited understanding of how urban forms will change and what their impact will be on building energy use. Using both top-down and bottom-up approaches and scenarios, we examine building energy use for heating and cooling. Globally, the energy use for heating and cooling by the middle of the century will be between 45 and 59 exajoules per year (corresponding to an increase of 7-40% since 2010). Most of this variability is due to the uncertainty in future urban densities of rapidly growing cities in Asia and particularly China. Dense urban development leads to less urban energy use overall. Waiting to retrofit the existing built environment until markets are ready in about 5 years to widely deploy the most advanced renovation technologies leads to more savings in building energy use. Potential for savings in energy use is greatest in China when coupled with efficiency gains. Advanced efficiency makes the least difference compared with the business-as-usual scenario in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa but significantly contributes to energy savings in North America and Europe. Systemic efforts that focus on both urban form, of which urban density is an indicator, and energy-efficient technologies, but that also account for potential co-benefits and trade-offs with human well-being can contribute to both local and global sustainability. Particularly in growing cities in the developing world, such efforts can improve the well-being of billions of urban residents and contribute to mitigating climate change by reducing energy use in urban areas. | Global scenarios of urban density and its impacts on building ... | Güneralp, Burak and Zhou, Yuyu and Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana and Gupta, Mukesh and Yu, Sha and Patel, Pralit L. and Fragkias, Michail and Li, Xiaoma and Seto, Karen C. | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Future Scenario
Global
Multi-scale
National
Scenario analysis
Urban
|
| Meaningful Circular Metabolism The main products of this graduation are a new pattern language to map difficult/technical interventions in spatial tiles, a GIS model for assessing urban metabolism potentials and restrictions and a new approach for applying urban metabolism measurements on neighbourhood level. A personal motivation for me is the relation between the urban metabolism analysis and the impact it has on the urban design. Important questions are ‘where in the city should the urban designer or planner do something?’ and ‘how big does the intervention need to be?’ Often these questions are not addressed properly related to the theory of urban metabolism. The spatial component is often lacking and therefore the impact of urban metabolism on urban design is not well established. This graduation project focuses on bridging that gap. The testcase for this project is the city of Amsterdam.Amsterdam wants to be one of the frontier cities in the subject of circularity. This ambition is shown by the reports the city of Amsterdam has made. However it stays unclear how the analysis and the interventions relate to the context of Amsterdam. Where in the city would which measurements be implemented? And how that would change the city, how would it look? This leads to the research question: What is the spatial impact of the meaningful sustainable measurements, for key urban flows, which create a more circular city of Amsterdam? The studied flows in this graduation project are electricity, heat, drink water and phosphate. The project creates an inventory of twelve spatial intervention in creating circularity for the flows. The inventory contains the 1) spatial requirements and 2) theoretical potential. Based on the spatial requirements an allocation tool is created. This GIS based model for assessing urban metabolism potentials and restrictions is one of the outcomes of this graduation project. This model is not only an analytical step towards the urban design, but an outcome in itself. However the goal of the graduation project was to see what is the spatial impact of urban metabolism. For this a location was chosen based partially on the GIS model. For this location spatial exploration is made The exploration shows the possible potential of each measurement and their spatial impact. By comparing all the possible interventions we get a design brief for the location. Then a more in depth design experiment is made for an area in Slotervaart. This to see how the design can not only be a technical solution but also add to the urban quality. The design zoom-in contains 3 elements which can be replicated in the area of Slotervaart in similar areas. These elements are 1) a housing block with row housing, 2) housing block with high density housing, 3) neighbourhood nutrient hub. The design impressions show how the elements look, work together and add value to the site. Showing the relation between how much the interventions solve and their spatial impact. This shows the real spatial impact of the interventions related to the potential circularity. The used process is a new approach for applying urban metabolism measurements on neighbourhood level. | Meaningful Circular Metabolism | Nap, B. D. | Thesis | theses | 2017 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Electricity
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Heat
Phosphorus
Urban
Water
|
| Contributions of Local Farming to Urban Sustainability in the Northeast United States Food consumption is an important contributor to a city's environmental impacts (carbon emissions, land occupation, water use, etc.) Urban farming (UF) has been advocated as a means to increase urban sustainability by reducing food-related transport and tapping into local resources. Taking Boston as an illustrative Northeast U.S. city, we developed a novel method to estimate sub-urban, food-borne carbon and land footprints using multiregion-input-output modeling and nutritional surveys. Computer simulations utilizing primary data explored UF's ability to reduce these footprints using select farming technologies, building on previous city-scale UF assessments which have hitherto been dependent on proxy data for UF. We found that UF generated meagre food-related carbon footprint reductions (1.1-2.9% of baseline 2211 kg CO2 equivalents/capita/annum) and land occupation increases ( | Contributions of Local Farming to Urban Sustainability in the Northeast ... | Goldstein, Benjamin P. and Hauschild, Michael Z. and Fernández, John E. and Birkved, Morten | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint Analysis (must be removed)
Food
United States
Urban
|
| Embodied GHGs in a Fast Growing City: Looking at the Evolution of a Dwelling Stock using Structural Element Breakdown and Policy Scenarios: Embodied GHGs in a Fast Growing City Africa is currently experiencing rapid population growth and accelerated urbanization. This demographic shift will require a large amount of new construction material resulting in substantial environmental impact. For many cities on the continent, data gaps make specific quantification and robust prediction of this impact highly difficult. This article presents a method to assess the stock dynamics and embodied emissions of a rapidly growing urban built environment using a bottom-up, typological approach. This approach allows for the identification of appropriate engineering solutions for decarbonization by localizing embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the different constructive elements with a revisited Sankey diagram. Different alternatives regarding housing type and construction techniques are compared. The city of Johannesburg is used as a case study to illustrate the relation between building types, technologies, and embodied GHG of its residential building stock. This new visualization uncovers the most material- and GHG-intense dwelling types and building elements. The adapted Sankey represents the building stock and its drivers in a simple way, allowing clear understanding of the consequences of potential alternatives. The business-as-usual scenario indicates 100.5 megatons carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-eq) for new construction between 2011 and 2040. The results of the dynamic model over time show that only a combination of a densified building stock with multistory buildings and the use of alternative construction materials and techniques show real potential to decelerate GHG emissions (33.0 Mt CO2-eq until 2040) while aiming to provide adequate and sustainable housing for all. | Embodied GHGs in a Fast Growing City: Looking at the ... | Verena Göswein, Jonathan Krones, Giulia Celentano, John E. Fernández, Guillaume Habert | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Time series
Urban
|
| Quantifying and mapping embodied environmental requirements of urban building stocks Cities and their building stocks result in huge environmental impacts which are critical to reduce. However, the majority of existing studies focus on operational requirements or on material stocks. To date, very few studies have quantified embodied environmental requirements of building stocks and spatialised them. This study describes a bottom-up approach to spatially model building stocks and quantify their embodied environmental requirements. It uses a highly disaggregated approach where each building's geometry is modelled and used to derive a bill of quantities. Construction assemblies relevant to each building archetype (derived based on land-use, age and height) are defined using expert knowledge in construction. The initial and recurrent embodied energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions associated with each material within each assembly are calculated using a comprehensive hybrid analysis technique. This model is applied to all buildings of the City of Melbourne, Australia. Results show that rebuilding the City of Melbourne's building stock today would require 904 kt of materials/km2 (total: 32 725 kt), 10 PJ/km2 (total: 362 PJ), 17.7 Million m3 of embodied water/km2 (total: 640.74 Million m3) and would emit 605 ktCO2e/km2 (total: 23 530 ktCO2e). This study demonstrates the breadth of the model outputs, including material stocks maps and breakdowns of life cycle embodied requirements by material, construction assembly, building and building typology at the city level. Using such model, city councils can better manage building stocks in terms of waste processing, urban mining and circular economy, as well as reducing embodied environmental requirements over time. | Quantifying and mapping embodied environmental requirements of urban building stocks | Stephan, André and Athanassiadis, Aristide | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Australia
Case Study
Construction Materials
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Melbourne
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Connecting land-use and water planning: Prospects for an urban water metabolism approach The current fabric of urban areas is largely the result of past land development and land-use planning decisions. Historically, there was relatively little consideration of the impact of these decisions upon hydrological systems within and outside urban areas. Despite their close relationship, urban and regional planning and water resources management have typically been carried out separately and guided by different institutional arrangements. The range of impacts of urbanisation on hydrological systems at the city-region scale, and the dependence of urbanised areas upon these systems, call for better integration between the sectors of urban and regional planning and water resources management to ensure the sustainability and resilience of cities and their regions to future changes and uncertainties. This paper evaluates the extent to which planning mechanisms currently support integration between land-use and water resource sectors. The evaluation draws on a comparative analysis of 113 statutory and non-statutory planning mechanisms in three Australian capital city-regions: South East Queensland, and the Melbourne and Perth Metropolitan regions. Results indicate that the function of water at the city-region scale, including its role in supporting environmental connectivity, needs to be better understood and considered by land-use planning systems; improved institutional capacity is required to enable both sectors to deal with future changes and uncertainties related to water resources; and emergent planning trends supportive of the consideration of water connectivity at the city-region scale are yet to be fully implemented. Based on the results, the paper concludes by exploring how the concept of urban metabolism may facilitate better integration between the two sectors, along with the identification of best suited planning mechanisms and needed changes in governance and institutional arrangements conducive to integration. | Connecting land-use and water planning: Prospects for an urban water ... | S. Serrao-Neumann and M. Renouf and S.J. Kenway and D. Low Choy | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Comparison
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Scenarios for achieving absolute reductions in phosphorus consumption in Singapore Phosphorus is a resource that is utilized with efficiency in most parts of the world. Farmers fertilize with increasing precision; wastewater treatment plants strip phosphorus from sewage; and industries make use of phosphorus byproducts. Why, then, do incidents of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms related to excessive phosphorus outflows continue to intensify? Incremental improvements in phosphorus use efficiency and monitoring of individual phosphorus waste streams no longer seem sufficient to dampen these environmental impacts. A radical shift in perspective is needed, one in which phosphorus is treated as a resource rather than as waste. Using substance flow analysis, we explore various types of phosphorus management scenarios for a specific system, for the urban city-state of Singapore. These scenarios are jointly framed with the urban planning agency of Singapore and takes into consideration both behavioral and infrastructural changes to the status quo. These scenarios include strategies and technologies such as composting, separated incineration of organic and non-organic waste, anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and wastewater, and dedicated anaerobic digestion of food waste and wastewater. Publicly available UN Comtrade data is used to establish temporal trends in phosphorus consumption between 1989 and 2012. Phosphorus waste outputs are verified via empirically collected data on household and commercial waste generation. The results of this paper demonstrate how the transition from a linear to a closed-loop phosphorus cycle might be possible for Singapore, an island that is an important test bed for planning the sustainable metabolism of future urban areas. | Scenarios for achieving absolute reductions in phosphorus consumption in Singapore | Pearce, Bin Bin J.; Chertow, Marian | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
National
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Time series
Urban
|
| Comprehensive evaluation on industrial & urban symbiosis by combining MFA, carbon footprint and emergy methods—Case of Kawasaki, Japan One proposed strategy to solve current environmental challenges is industrial and urban symbiosis (I/UrS); however, appropriate evaluation methods are needed so that the potential benefits of I/UrS can be quantified. Several evaluation methods have been applied separately to study I/UrS, but no integrated studies have been conducted by applying different methods in the same case study area. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a comprehensive framework to evaluate I/UrS by combining the material flow analysis (MFA), carbon footprint (CF) and emergy methods. First, we developed a unified database and step-by-step process to clarify the waste distribution and recycling processes in an industrial city. Then a baseline scenario and an I/UrS scenario were set up to define the baselines and effects of I/UrS and compare the results. Finally, the three methods were applied to identify physical features in the I/UrS system. The MFA-based results showed that the use of I/UrS led to a 6.4% reduction in the physical value of material use. The CF-based results indicated that reduction of waste and by-products results in a 13.8% reduction in CO2e emissions. The emergy-based results showed that, with the implementation of I/UrS, the value of the emergy sustainability index (excluding labor and services) improved greatly (a 49.2% emergy reduction) as compared with the baseline case (a 14.3% reduction). In addition, the effects of implementing I/UrS by waste and by-product exchanges for blast furnace slag, scrap steel, waste paper, and waste plastic were evaluated. Whereas the CF reductions of unit ton of blast furnace slag is relatively low, emergy reductions of that is comparatively high. If policymakers only consider CF results when addressing the issue of climate change, the effects on emergy will be underestimated in this case. We conclude that the main actors in this area release huge emissions, but they also have a high potential to reduce their environmental loads. In addition, with appropriate designs, waste paper and plastics recycling could be highly efficient. Finally, the integration of the three evaluation methods should contribute to creating a low carbon and more resource independent society. | Comprehensive evaluation on industrial & urban symbiosis by combining MFA, ... | Satoshi Ohnishi and Huijuan Dong and Yong Geng and Minoru Fujii and Tsuyoshi Fujita | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Industrial Symbiosis
Japan
Kawasaki
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Metals
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| Evaluation Approaches for Advancing Urban Water Goals Urban areas (especially cities) are challenged in meeting their direct water needs from local sources. They also exert strain on global water resources through their indirect (virtual) water use. Agencies concerned with urban water management have visions and goals for managing direct water use, but indirect use is only inferred in more global visions for sustainable consumption. There is limited quantification of 'urban water performance' at the macro urban scale (whole of city) to monitor progress toward these goals. It is constrained by a lack of clarity about the evaluation approaches that best serve them. We ask, How can the evaluation approaches described in literature advance urban water management goals? We reviewed the utility of eight evaluation approaches, including urban water system modeling, urban metabolism (territorial and mass balance), consumption (life cycle assessment, water footprinting, and input-output analysis), and complex systems (ecological network analysis and systems dynamics) approaches. We found that urban metabolism based on water mass balance is a core method for generating information to inform current goals for direct urban water use, with potential for being 'coupled' with the other approaches. Consumption approaches inform the management of indirect water use. We describe this in a framework for urban water evaluation to give greater clarity to this field and flag the further research that would be needed to progress this. It includes the recommendation to differentiate the evaluation of direct and indirect urban water, but to also interpret them together. | Evaluation Approaches for Advancing Urban Water Goals | Renouf, Marguerite A. and Kenway, Steven J. | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Method
Research and Analysis
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Water
|
| Transforming the Cement Industry into a Key Environmental Infrastructure for Urban Ecosystem: A Case Study of an Industrial City in China Under the dual pressure of environmental constraints and increasingly thin profit margins, the cement industry in China is in a predicament. To alleviate the environmental and the economic pressure of the cement industry and to tackle the problem of delayed environmental infrastructure construction, this article introduced an urban ecosystem in which the cement industry was transformed into an effective complement to environmental infrastructure. The Xinfeng Cement Industrial Park in China, which has a production capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum (Mt/a) of clinker, was chosen as a case study. Our methodology involved proposing technologies to develop an efficient cement plant-centered urban ecosystem; evaluating its environmental and economic performance; identifying barriers in its promotion; and proposing supportive policies. Results showed that the city's waste recycling ratio rose from about 50% to 70%, saving 0.6 Mt/a of coal equivalent and reducing about 3.0 Mt/a of resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The life span of the city's landfill site was extended by about 30 years. The total investment was 3.2 billion yuan (about US$480 million),1 with an average payback period of 3 years. The Xinfeng Cement Industrial Park was transformed from an energy-intensive consumer and a significant CO2 emitter to a key industrial waste recycler, a crucial municipal waste co-processor, an important new building material supplier, and a potential energy producer. Last, the 'not-in-my-back-yard' (NIMBY) effect from constructing new environmental infrastructure was also avoided. | Transforming the Cement Industry into a Key Environmental Infrastructure for ... | Cao, Xin and Wen, Zongguo and Tian, Haikui and De Clercq, Djavan and Qu, Lili | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
China
Construction Materials
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Material flow analysis of the residential building stock at the city of Rio de Janeiro The extensive use of materials in building stocks contributes to the scarcity of natural resources and impacts from construction and demolition waste (CDW). Therefore, the concern with the efficient use of materials and CDW management made several countries conducted mapping, analysis and performance improvement in activities related to CDW using Material Flow Analysis (MFA). The city of Rio de Janeiro had a high urban development and building stock growth from the beginning of the last century, in which the amount of material consumed has not been documented. This study presents an MFA approach to assess the materials in-use and further flows of CDW from the residential building stock in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The material in-use was estimated from the extrapolation of the Material Intensities (MI) per different building types to the total constructed area in this city considering land occupation. The building types were modelled from the designs of typical buildings in Brazil. An analysis of urban development supported the estimation of buildings age and their remaining lifetime while national standards supported the time of replacement of building elements during the use phase. Results show that the stock in 2010 had about 78,828,770t of building material with MI between 2.58 and 0.74 t/m2; concrete and aggregates have the higher MI. The Use phase of the buildings will move about 9,807,690t of materials until 2090. These findings support further environmental impacts assessments and decision-making for planning CDW management and strategies for the efficient use of materials. | Material flow analysis of the residential building stock at the ... | Condeixa, Karina and Haddad, Assed and Boer, Dieter | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Brazil
Case Study
Construction Materials
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Rio de Janeiro
Single point in time
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Eco-benefits assessment on urban industrial symbiosis based on material flows analysis and emergy evaluation approach: A case of Liuzhou city, China Chinese government promotes ecological civilization in the “13th five year planning” (2016–2020) period. As a result, ecological impacts become highlight in the national circular economy practices. To apply the eco-industrial development strategy to address the intertwined industrial and regional economic development, as well as related environmental and ecological challenges is key point. Urban industrial symbiosis provides a novel approach to realize the above expectation. Traditional evaluation on circular economy provided critical environmental insights, while to date, ecological evaluation has been rather few for urban industrial symbiosis promotion. With this circumstance, this paper developed an integrated material flows analysis (MFA) and emergy evaluation model to investigate the environmental and ecological benefits of urban industrial symbiosis implementation in one typical industrial city in China. Local oriented urban industrial symbiosis network was analyzed. Inter flows and related environmental benefits of symbiotic network were quantified with MFA, and further ecological impacts were evaluated with emergy approach and the designed emergy index. From the environmental perspective, results highlighted, in general, urban industrial symbiosis generated significant life cycle environmental benefits, especially the reduction of upstream resource mining and downstream waste disposal within the regional metabolism. In total, around 204.7 million tons ore mining, 6.9 million ton solid waste and 2.3 million tons CO2 emissions were reduced per year. From the ecological perspective, total emergy input was reduced by 1.3×1022 sej, which reflected the reduction of ecological burden. Particularly, as a key indicator for ecological lost caused by pollution, dilution emergy was decreased by 2.5×1016 sej, resulting from carbon mitigation co-benefit of urban industrial symbiosis. This paper provided modeling approach to understand the ecological benefits and trade-offs of circular economy practices, and critical insights on regional eco-industrial development. It will shed a light on ecological civilization construction in China in the new national planning period. None | Eco-benefits assessment on urban industrial symbiosis based on material flows ... | Sun, Lu; Li, Hong; Dong, Liang; Fang, Kai; Ren, Jingzheng; Geng, Yong; Fujii, Minoru; Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Ning; Liu, Zhe | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Case Study
Industrial Symbiosis
MFA-Emergy
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism: A review with reference to Cape Town Improved sustainability of cities requires equitably distributed and ecologically safe, if not restorative, infrastructure systems, as well as reduced reliance on resources from beyond urban boundaries. To shape infrastructure systems in a sustainable and equitable manner, knowledge about the sources and demands of the resources they convey is necessary, as well as the technologies which ensure their efficient use and safe return to the environment. This paper undertakes a basic urban metabolism assessment to examine resource consumption in the City of Cape Town. It examines the type and quantity of resources which fuel the city and its people, in order to highlight prospects for the sustainability of Cape Town. Key findings from resource profiles of Cape Town show that annual energy and water consumption, which are feared to be approaching system limits, have actually shown decline in consumption since 2007 and 2011 respectively. The key intervention to reduce energy consumption and resultant carbon emissions lies in reducing low-occupancy private car usage, while the key limitations to reducing raw water abstraction through wastewater reuse is the limited ability to store and redistribute it. Comparing maps of resource access to maps of material stocks shows that while the city periphery experiences low resource access, resource stocks are potentially quite dense. The spatial location of resource stock, flow and consumption represents a useful tool for detailed urban planning and service delivery, and is a gap in need of researching. Although flows of food are difficult to track, estimates suggest that 11.6% of the food processed in Cape Town is grown within municipal boundaries and interventions for keeping nutrients in the system should be explored. Examining the flow of people between suburbs over time shows that migration dynamics are entrenching poverty in already high poverty suburbs, as people with economic means are more likely to move to better serviced suburbs than invest in their current ones. This presents a need for the city to invest in these underserviced areas, so as to retain personal investment. Key recommendations for urban and resource planning are the integrated analysis of resource nexuses using system dynamics modelling, as well as integrating departments within the municipality, to enable more holistic intervention strategies. To aid this, research into a baseline examination of differential spatial and temporal flows of resources at suburb level is currently underway. | Urban metabolism: A review with reference to Cape Town | Paul Klugman Currie and Josephine Kaviti Musango and Nhlanhla Desire May | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Cape Town
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
South Africa
Urban
|
| Sustainable urban systems: Co-design and framing for transformation Rapid urbanisation generates risks and opportunities for sustainable development. Urban policy and decision makers are challenged by the complexity of cities as social-ecological-technical systems. Consequently there is an increasing need for collaborative knowledge development that supports a whole-of-system view, and transformational change at multiple scales. Such holistic urban approaches are rare in practice. A co-design process involving researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders, has progressed such an approach in the Australian context, aiming to also contribute to international knowledge development and sharing. This process has generated three outputs: (1) a shared framework to support more systematic knowledge development and use, (2) identification of barriers that create a gap between stated urban goals and actual practice, and (3) identification of strategic focal areas to address this gap. Developing integrated strategies at broader urban scales is seen as the most pressing need. The knowledge framework adopts a systems perspective that incorporates the many urban trade-offs and synergies revealed by a systems view. Broader implications are drawn for policy and decision makers, for researchers and for a shared forward agenda. | Sustainable urban systems: Co-design and framing for transformation | Webb, Robert and Bai, Xuemei and Smith, Mark Stafford and Costanza, Robert and Griggs, David and Moglia, Magnus and Neuman, Michael and Newman, Peter and Newton, Peter and Norman, Barbara and Ryan, Chris and Schandl, Heinz and Steffen, Will and Tapper, Nigel and Thomson, Giles | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Urban
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| An Urban Metabolism and Carbon Footprint Analysis of the Jing-Jin-Ji Regional Agglomeration Urban energy metabolism includes processes for exploiting, transforming, and consuming energy, as well as processes for recycling by-products and wastes. Embodied energy is the energy consumed during all of these activities, both directly and indirectly. Multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis can calculate the energy consumption embodied in flows among sectors for multiple cities or regions. Our goal was to address a problem apparent in previous research, which was insufficient attention to indirect energy flows. We combined MRIO analysis with ecological network analysis to calculate the embodied energy consumption and the energy-related carbon footprints of five sectors in three regions that comprise the Jing-Jin-Ji agglomeration, using data from 2002 and 2007. Our analysis traced metabolic processes of sectors from the perspective of final consumption. Based on the embodied energy analysis, we quantified the indirect energy consumption implied in exchanges of sectors and its distribution and identified the relationships formed through the indirect consumption to analyze the roles of providers and receivers in the system. Results showed that the embodied energy consumption for the Jing-Jin-Ji region increased from 2002 to 2007 as a result of increased energy consumption in Tianjin and Hebei. Overall, consumption of Beijing decreased likely attributable to the fact that government policies relocated industries during this time in anticipation of the Olympic Games. The relationships among sectors changed: Beijing changed from a net exporter to an importer, whereas Hebei changed from a net importer of energy from Beijing to an exporter to Beijing, and Tianjin served as an importer in both years. | An Urban Metabolism and Carbon Footprint Analysis of the Jing-Jin-Ji ... | Zheng, Hongmei and Fath, Brian D. and Zhang, Yan | Journal Article | academic | 2017 |
Energy (sector)
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Waste Market Intelligence Report 2017 Table of contents: List of figures List of tables List of acronyms and abbreviations Executive Summary Introduction and purpose Industry overview Industry structure Market size for South Africa Market size for the Western Cape Policy and regulation Waste management policy and legislation in South Africa Recent legislative changes Opportunities Recyclables Organics e-Waste Construction and demolition waste Untapped opportunities Funding and incentives The Western Cape: Africa’s green economy hub GreenCape’s support to businesses and investors References Annexure A – Western Cape Tonnages Annexure B – Producer Responsibility Organisations | Waste Market Intelligence Report 2017 | GreenCape | Report | reports | 2017 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Comparing a territorial-based and a consumption-based approach to assess the local and global environmental performance of cities In the framework of pressing local and global environmental challenges it is essential to understand that cities are complex systems dependent on and linked to the rest of the world through global supply chains that embody an array of environmental flows. Cities are thus a complex articulation that intertwine local and global challenges which rely at their extended hinterland for their resource use and pollution emission. To assess the environmental sustainability of an urban area in a comprehensive manner, it is not only necessary to measure its local and direct environmental performance but also to understand and take into account its global and indirect environmental counterparts. This paper presents a comparative analysis of a territorial-based and a consumption-based approach to estimate both direct and embodied resource use and pollution flows for the case of Brussels Capital Region (Belgium). The territorial-based approach is based on local energy, water and material consumption measured data as well as measured data on waste generation and pollution emissions. The estimation of indirect resource use and pollution emissions (or consumption-based approach) is based on the regional IO-tables of the city-region of Brussels extended with multi-region input-output tables, taking into account the global flows of consumption. The comparison of these two approaches is particularly relevant in the case of cities that have limited productive activities and limited or no extraction of materials as the impact on the hinterland is often underestimated or neglected by local (environmental) policies which are only based on territorial-based figures. The results show that the indirect primary energy use, \{GHG\} emissions and material use estimated by the consumption-based approach is more than three times higher than local measures indicate. The embodied water use, estimated via IOA, was over 40 times higher than the local water consumption. These results show that territorial-based approach using local data underestimate the resource needs and pollution emissions of a city and can therefore be insufficient or even be misguiding. By mapping the origin of embodied flows it is in fact possible to illustrate the open character of an urban economy and its dependence on the global hinterland. Finally, this paper discusses the possibility and relevance to combine these two approaches to create a hybrid framework that measures the full environmental performance of cities both accurately and comprehensively. | Comparing a territorial-based and a consumption-based approach to assess the ... | Aristide Athanassiadis and Maarten Christis and Philippe Bouillard and An Vercalsteren and Robert H. Crawford and Ahmed Z. Khan | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Comparison
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Domestic extraction (DE)
Global
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Multi-scale
Raw Materials Equivalent (RME)
Single point in time
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Various Materials
Zotero2
|
| A heat vulnerability index: spatial patterns of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity for Santiago de Chile Climate change will worsen the high levels of urban vulnerability in Latin American cities due to specific environmental stressors. Some impacts of climate change, such as high temperatures in urban environments, have not yet been addressed through adaptation strategies, which are based on poorly supported data. These impacts remain outside the scope of urban planning. New spatially explicit approaches that identify highly vulnerable urban areas and include specific adaptation requirements are needed in current urban planning practices to cope with heat hazards. In this paper, a heat vulnerability index is proposed for Santiago, Chile. The index was created using a GIS-based spatial information system and was constructed from spatially explicit indexes for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity levels derived from remote sensing data and socio-economic information assessed via principal component analysis (PCA). The objective of this study is to determine the levels of heat vulnerability at local scales by providing insights into these indexes at the intra city scale. The results reveal a spatial pattern of heat vulnerability with strong variations among individual spatial indexes. While exposure and adaptive capacities depict a clear spatial pattern, sensitivity follows a complex spatial distribution. These conditions change when examining PCA results, showing that sensitivity is more robust than exposure and adaptive capacity. These indexes can be used both for urban planning purposes and for proposing specific policies and measures that can help minimize heat hazards in highly dynamic urban areas. The proposed methodology can be applied to other Latin American cities to support policy making. | A heat vulnerability index: spatial patterns of exposure, sensitivity and ... | Inostroza, L., Palme, M., De la Barrera, F. | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Urban
|
| Volume control: Stormwater and the politics of urban metabolism This paper engages with emergent conceptualizations of political-industrial ecology to understand the politics surrounding how the volume, composition, and material throughput of stormwater in Los Angeles is calculated and applied by experts. The intent is to examine the unfolding relationship between the volume and material flow of stormwater, and the social, political, and technical practices involved in identifying stormwater as a new and underutilized water resource. Specifically, it seeks to understand how the active processes of calculating the metabolic inflows and outflows of stormwater in Los Angeles serve as a way for the city to render value and meaning to the flows of stormwater. I suggest that the ways urban metabolisms are calculated reflect a volumetric approach to environmental governance that serves to achieve certain political goals. I refer to this type of governance as volume control—a way of organizing technopolitical interventions around overcoming problems related to the volume of resources flowing and circulating into, through, and out of cities and industrial systems. I argue that understanding this form of governance relies on taking a political-industrial ecology approach that accounts for both the social and material dimensions of resource flows. While the categories and motivations of stormwater governance remain contested over time and space, it is shown that stormwater in Los Angeles needs to be understood in relation to the ecological systems and scientific, political, and cultural practices designed to make it into a resource and align with existing patterns of growth and development. | Volume control: Stormwater and the politics of urban metabolism | Joshua Cousins | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Political-Industrial Ecology (PIE)
UM review paper import
Urban
Wastewater
Water
|
| African Urbanization: Assimilating Urban Metabolism into Sustainability Discourse and Practice Shaping sustainable, equitable African cities requires strengthened investigations into the cities' current resource flows, infrastructure systems, and future resource requirements. The field of urban metabolism (UM) offers multiple forms of analysis with which to map, analyse, and visualize urban resource profiles. Challenges in assessing UM in African cities include data scarcity at the city level, difficulty in tracking informal flows, lack of standardized methods, and the open nature of cities. However, such analyses are needed at the local level, given that city practitioners cannot rely purely on urban planning traditions of the global North or the typically broad studies about urban Africa, for supporting strategies toward sustainable urban development. This article aims to draw together the concepts of sustainable development and UM and explore their application in the African context. Further, the article estimated resource profiles for 120 African cities, including consumption of biomass, fossil fuels, electricity, construction materials, and water, as well as emissions of carbon dioxide. These resource profiles serve as a baseline from which to begin assessing the current and future resource intensity of these cities. It also provides insights into the cities' relative resource impact, future consumption trends, and potential options for sustainability interventions. | African Urbanization: Assimilating Urban Metabolism into Sustainability Discourse and Practice | Currie, Paul Klugman and Musango, Josephine Kaviti | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Biomass
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Comparison
Construction Materials
Electricity
Fossil Fuels
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| A multi-year, multi-scale analysis of urban sustainability In an urban world human well-being and global sustainability are connected to cities and the way they function. However, the ability and political willingness of local authorities and urbanites to take action to significantly reduce urban negative biophysical impacts is limited. This manuscript presents the results of a research which aimed to examine the extent to which existing and potential measures within and outside urban boundaries can reduce the urban ecological footprint and advance urban sustainability. It focuses on the town of Ra'anana, Israel, as a case study examined over a decade. It identifies the contribution of different urban activities (e.g., transportation, food consumption etc.) and stakeholders (e.g., urban residents, municipality, the state etc.) to the changes of the urban footprint over time. It then examines the potential contributions of selected measures (e.g., plans, technology implementation, behavioral change, etc.) within and outside the town's boundaries to minimize the urban footprint. The research joins a small group of studies that have examined urban footprints over time and an even smaller number that tried to examine the potential footprint reductions from sustainability actions taken at different spatial scales. | A multi-year, multi-scale analysis of urban sustainability | Anat Dor and Meidad Kissinger | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Electricity
Food
Multi-scale
Transportation
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
|
| Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans The world is increasingly concerned with sustainability issues. Climate change is not the least of these concerns. The complexity of these issues is such that data and information management form an important means of making the right decisions. Nowadays, however, the sheer quantity of data is overwhelming; large quantities of data demand means of representation that are comprehensible and effective. The above dilemma poses questions as to how one incorporates unknown climatologic parameters, such as urban heat, in future urban planning processes, and how one ensures the proposals are specific enough to actually adapt cities to climate change and flexible enough to ensure the proposed measures are combinable and compatible with other urban planning priorities. Conventional urban planning processes and mapping strategies are not adapted to this new environmental, technological and social context. In order come up with more appropriate urban planning strategies, in its first section this paper analyzes the role of the urban planner, reviews the wide variety of parameters that are starting to be integrated into the urban planners practice, and considers the parameters (mainly land surface temperature, albedo, vegetation, and imperviousness) and tools needed for the assessment of the UHI (satellite imagery and GIS). The second part of the study analyzes the potential of four catalyzing mapping categories to integrate urban heat into spatial planning processes: drift, layering, game-board, and rhizome. | Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans | Leyre Echevarria, Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Frank van der Hoeven | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
The Hague
Urban
|
| The Efficiency of Informality: Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Informal Recycling in Bogotá, Colombia The dual challenges of increasing urbanization and consumption are centered in cities in the Global South, where growing waste production threatens public and environmental health. Reuse and recycling are widely recognized to provide broad environmental benefits. Although most industrialized cities replaced their informal recycling sectors with municipally run recycling schemes and have had to build their recycling rates anew, most industrializing cities in the Global South remain centers of recycling and reuse through the work of informal workers. Bogotá, Colombia, is emblematic of many cities in the Global South seeking to modernize their city, in part by formalizing their recycling system. This article asks: What are the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission implications of this modernization? Using interviews and observation in combination with life cycle assessment, we compare GHG emissions resulting from the baseline case (1,200 tonnes per day [t/d] recycled through informal channels; 5,700 t/d landfilled) to three alternative scenarios that formalize the recycling sector: the prohibition of informal recycling; a reduction in informal recycling coupled with a scale-up of formalized recycling; and the replacement of informal recycling with formal recycling. We find that the baseline recycling scenario, dependent on the informal sector only, emits far fewer GHGs than do all formalization scenarios. Three processes drive the results, in order of magnitude: informal textile reuse (largest GHG savings); landfilling (largest emitter of GHGs); and metal recycling (GHG savings). A hybrid model could combine the incentives and efficiency of the informal system with the better working conditions of the municipal one. | The Efficiency of Informality: Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Informal ... | Vergara, Sintana E. and Damgaard, Anders and Gomez, Daniel | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Scenario analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Enhanced Performance of the Eurostat Method for Comprehensive Assessment of Urban Metabolism: A Material Flow Analysis of Amsterdam Sustainable urban resource management depends essentially on a sound understanding of a city's resource flows. One established method for analyzing the urban metabolism (UM) is the Eurostat material flow analysis (MFA). However, for a comprehensive assessment of the UM, this method has its limitations. It does not account for all relevant resource flows, such as locally sourced resources, and it does not differentiate between flows that are associated with the city's resource consumption and resources that only pass through the city. This research sought to gain insights into the UM of Amsterdam by performing an MFA employing the Eurostat method. Modifications to that method were made to enhance its performance for comprehensive UM analyses. A case study of Amsterdam for the year 2012 was conducted and the results of the Eurostat and the modified Eurostat method were compared. The results show that Amsterdam's metabolism is dominated by water flows and by port-related throughput of fossil fuels. The modified Eurostat method provides a deeper understanding of the UM than the urban Eurostat MFA attributed to three major benefits of the proposed modifications. First, the MFA presents a more complete image of the flows in the UM. Second, the modified resource classification presents findings in more detail. Third, explicating throughput flows yields a much-improved insight into the nature of a city's imports, exports, and stock. Overall, these advancements provide a deeper understanding of the UM and make the MFA method more useful for sustainable urban resource management. | Enhanced Performance of the Eurostat Method for Comprehensive Assessment of ... | Voskamp, Ilse M. and Stremke, Sven and Spiller, Marc and Perrotti, Daniela and van der Hoek, Jan Peter and Rijnaarts, Huub H. M. | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Research and Analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Assessing urban sustainability of Chinese megacities: 35 years after the economic reform and open-door policy Driven by unprecedented economic development for more than three decades, China's urbanization level rose from 17.9% in 1978 to 54.8% in 2014. This breakneck speed of urbanization has resulted in myriad environmental problems and social inequities. To gauge the urban sustainability of China, our study focused on ten megacities which are socioeconomic centers of the country. We evaluated the three dimensions of sustainability using a set of sustainability indicators, including Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), Ecological Footprint (EF), Biocapacity, Environmental Performance Index (EPI), City Development Index (CDI), Human Development Index (HDI), Gini coefficient, and Urban-rural income ratio. Based on time-series data from 1978 to 2012, our study has produced the following findings: (1) The values of GPI for the ten megacities started to increase since 2006 after a relatively constant period between 1994 and 2005; (2) The pressures of economic growth on the environment (EF) increased while biocapacity decreased for the ten megacities, with smaller biocapacity deficits for western cities; (3) The overall level of human wellbeing (HDI) increased; (4) Socioeconomic inequality (Gini and urban-rural income ratio) widened, but the widening trend seemed to have ceased in recent years for most of the ten megacities; and (5) Certain aspects of urban environment and city development (EPI and CDI) improved gradually, particularly in waste treatment and infrastructure development. Our findings suggest that, to achieve overall urban sustainability, China must move away from maximizing economic development and focus on improving environmental quality of its megacities. | Assessing urban sustainability of Chinese megacities: 35 years after the ... | Lu Huang and Lijiao Yan and Jianguo Wu | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Indicators - general
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban Food Consumption in Metro Manila: Interdisciplinary Approaches Towards Apprehending Practices, Patterns, and Impacts Food consumption is a local activity related to environmental impacts at different scales. Yet, the link between eating food as a social and cultural practice and the global implications of food consumption has not been sufficiently explored. We adopt a multidisciplinary approach to relate social practices with the biophysical flows of food products at the household level. Focusing on middle-class households in Metro Manila, the Philippines, we conduct qualitative interviews to highlight preferences, habits, and perceptions about food consumption. In parallel, we collect quantitative information on food purchased. We relate our results to national trends by analyzing the recent evolution of national food expenditures. Finally, we review environmental impacts related to main food categories. Our research points to the significance of socioeconomic factors on food consumption, notably the presence of domestic help or the professional situation of household members. One main finding is the identification of eating out as an important and growing trend in Asian cities, which causes a shift of resource consumption and related environmental impacts from the household to the service sector. | Urban Food Consumption in Metro Manila: Interdisciplinary Approaches Towards Apprehending ... | Burger Chakraborty, Laura and Sahakian, Marlyne and Rani, Uma and Shenoy, Megha and Erkman, Suren | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Food
Household
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Monitoring Urban Copper Flows in Stockholm, Sweden: Implications of Changes Over Time In this study, a substance flow analysis (SFA) for copper (Cu) was conducted, in which the inflow, stock, and outflow (in the form of diffuse emissions to soil and water) for Stockholm were estimated for 2013 and compared with a previous study from 1995, hence allowing a discussion on changes over time. A large number of applications containing Cu were analyzed (including power cables, copper alloys, heavy electrical equipment, tap water systems, roofs, cars, various consumer electronics, wood preservatives, and contact cables for the railroad). The results show that the inflow of Cu to Stockholm has increased between 1995 and 2013, both in total and per person, mainly as the result of an increase in heavy electrical equipment, power cables, and cars. The stock remains relatively unchanged, whereas the outflow has increased. For the outflow, the emission increase from brake linings is of greatest quantitative importance, with an estimated 5.8 tonnes annual emission of Cu to the environment of Stockholm in 2013 compared to 3.9 tonnes in 1995. Given that increasing inflows of limited resources drive the global demand, continuous monitoring of flows through society and management of outflow routes are crucial, including improvement of national legislation and regional environmental plans as well as efforts to increase resource-use efficiency and recycling. | Monitoring Urban Copper Flows in Stockholm, Sweden: Implications of Changes ... | Amneklev, Jennie and Augustsson, Anna and Sörme, Louise and Bergbäck, Bo | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Copper
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The Concept of City Carbon Maps: A Case Study of Melbourne, Australia Cities are thought to be associated with most of humanity's consumption of natural resources and impacts on the environment. Cities not only constitute major centers of economic activity, knowledge, innovation, and governance—they are also said to be linked to approximately 70% to 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions. This makes cities primary agents of change in a resource- and carbon-constraint world. In order to set meaningful targets, design successful policies, and implement effective mitigation strategies, it is important that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting for cities is accurate, comparable, comprehensive, and complete. Despite recent developments in the standardization of city GHG accounting, there is still a lack of consistent guidelines regarding out-of-boundary emissions, thus hampering efforts to identify mitigation priorities and responsibilities. We introduce a new conceptual framework—based on environmental input-output analysis—that allows for a consistent and complete reconciliation of direct and indirect GHG emissions from a city. The 'city carbon map' shows local, regional, national, and global origins and destinations of flows of embodied emissions. We test the carbon map concept by applying it to the greater metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia. We discuss the results and limitations of the approach in the light of possible mitigation strategies and policies by different urban stakeholders. | The Concept of City Carbon Maps: A Case Study of ... | Wiedmann, Thomas O. and Chen, Guangwu and Barrett, John | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Review Paper
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Changes of human time and land use pattern in one mega city's urban metabolism: a multi-scale integrated analysis of Shanghai Human time and land use are important elements in terms of one mega city's urban metabolism, thus, it is critical to find an integrated approach to evaluate their contributions. In this paper a dual-fund analytical framework has been developed by employing the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to analyze the metabolic pattern of one mega city from economic, social and ecological dimensions. A case study of Shanghai was undertaken to study its historical pattern changes and evaluate the possible results with the implementation of the 13th Five Year Plan. Research results show that shanghai relied on the extraneous labor force to fulfill the need of working hours and economic transition in Shanghai occurred with the booming development of tertiary sector. Shanghai's land resource is very scarce to meet its need of development, leading to a need of adopting integrated efforts to. In order to achieve the proposed targets, economic labor productivity and land use performance should be improved through the application of various measures, including industrial and energy structure optimization, energy saving, capacity building and circular economy. | Changes of human time and land use pattern in one ... | Lu, Yangsiyu and Geng, Yong and Qian, Yiying and Han, Wenyi and McDowall, Will and Bleischwitz, Raimund | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Method
Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism profiles. An empirical analysis of the material flow characteristics of three metropolitan areas in Sweden Knowledge about the characteristics and driving forces of material flows in urban areas is crucial, as the pathways towards sustainability depend on local conditions. Currently, Urban Metabolism research focuses on the analysis of trends and transitions in different stages of city development, on developing classification systems and identification of metabolism profiles for urban areas. A novel framework for characterizing cities metabolism is provided using Urban Material Flow Accounting indicators as the basis. A Material Flow Accounting study is conducted for three cities in Sweden, from 1996 until 2011: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. Based on the urban metabolism characteristics framework, three distinct profiles are proposed: consumer-service; industrial; and transitioning. Stockholm's material needs are mainly for final consumption. When compared with the other two cities, material flows follow a more stable trend and have lower dependency on external systems due to the marginal production and export of goods. Gothenburg has the most resource intensive metabolism. It requires several times larger material inputs than the other two cities and produces much larger outputs, for benefit of the rest of the country and the world. Consequently, \{CO2\} emissions are higher in Gothenburg. Malmo characteristics are more complex than Stockholm's with higher material needs in particular construction minerals. Its dependency on external flows is low, due to the fact that the economy and exports are based on domestically extracted Non-Metallic Minerals and Biomass. | Urban metabolism profiles. An empirical analysis of the material flow ... | Leonardo Rosado and Yuliya Kalmykova and João Patrício | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Domestic extraction (DE)
Fossil Fuels
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Imports and Exports
Metals
Minerals
Research and Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Urban Metabolism Analyst Model (UMan)
|
| Evaluating urban sustainability potential based on material flow analysis of inputs and outputs: A case study in Jinchang City, China Many cities are facing environmental challenges with rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. It is critical to evaluate this new urban reality and its sustainability potential to generate appropriate solutions for a sustainable future. The urban metabolism framework is commonly applied to understand appropriate strategies to achieve sustainability for urban systems. In this study, material flow analysis was applied in conjunction with specific socio-economic indicators to model urban metabolism and evaluate appropriate urban metabolism changes for Jinchang City, China between 1995 and 2014. Structural decomposition analysis and decoupling analysis were used to explain and evaluate the sustainability potential of Jinchang City. Changes in material consumption and the waste generation of Jinchang City indicated a long-term unsustainable trajectory, evidenced by continuously increasing material inputs and outputs. We also found a significant reduction in air pollution, with declining sulphur dioxide emissions and dust; all are indicators of improvement in air quality. What is of special note is that industrial production was concurrently greatly increasing. These indicators suggest a positive improvement in sustainability beyond simple incrementalism. The study showed that MFA techniques can be used as valuable tools for understanding urban metabolism, evaluating urban sustainability, and suggesting strategies for the timely addressing of urban sustainability issues. This strategy is important in the face of China’s increasing industrial capacity. | Evaluating urban sustainability potential based on material flow analysis of ... | Li, Ying; Beeton, R. J. S.; Halog, Anthony; Sigler, Thomas | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Biomass
Case Study
Construction Materials
Energy
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Metals
Minerals
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Structural, geographic, and social factors in urban building energy use: Analysis of aggregated account-level consumption data in a megacity Residential and commercial buildings comprise approximately forty percent of total energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. Yet, while California spends $1.5 billion annually on energy efficiency programs, limited research has explored how building energy consumption varies within cities, including the social and structural factors that influence electricity and natural gas use. We present results from an analysis of aggregated account-level utility billing data for energy consumption across the over two million properties in Los Angeles County. Results show that consumption in L.A. County varies widely with geography, income, building characteristics, and climate. Several higher-income areas have greater total energy use per building even in cooler climates, while many lower-income regions rank higher for energy use per square-foot. Energy consumption also correlates with building age, which varies widely throughout the region. Our results demonstrate the many complex and interrelated factors that influence urban energy use. While billing data is critical for devising energy efficiency programs that actually realize estimated savings and promote more sustainable cities, opening access to such data presents significant challenges for protecting personal privacy. The presented approach is adaptable and scalable to cities seeking to develop data-driven policies to reduce building energy use. | Structural, geographic, and social factors in urban building energy use: ... | Erik Porse and Joshua Derenski and Hannah Gustafson and Zoe Elizabeth and Stephanie Pincetl | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Energy Accounting
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Towards a Dynamic Approach to Urban Metabolism: Tracing the Temporal Evolution of Brussels' Urban Metabolism from 1970 to 2010 Urban metabolism (UM) is a way of characterizing the flows of materials and energy through and within cities. It is based on a comparison of cities to living organisms, which, like cities, require energy and matter flows to function and which generate waste during the mobilization of matter. Over the last 40 years, this approach has been applied in numerous case studies. Because of the data‐intensive nature of a UM study, however, this methodology still faces some challenges. One such challenge is that most UM studies only present macroscopic results on either energy, water, or material flows at a particular point in time. This snapshot of a particular flow does not allow the tracing back of the flow's evolution caused by a city's temporal dynamics. To better understand the temporal dynamics of a UM, this article first presents the UM for Brussels Capital Region for 2010, including energy, water, material, and pollution flows. A temporal evaluation of these metabolic flows, as well as some urban characteristics starting from the seminal study of Duvigneaud and Denayer‐De Smet in the early 1970s to 2010, is then carried out. This evolution shows that Brussels electricity, natural gas, and water use increased by 160%, 400%, and 15%, respectively, over a period of 40 years, whereas population only increased by 1%. The effect of some urban characteristics on the UM is then briefly explored. Finally, this article succinctly compares the evolution of Brussels’ UM with those of Paris, Vienna, Barcelona, and Hong Kong and concludes by describing further research pathways that enable a better understanding of the complex functioniong of UM over time. | Towards a Dynamic Approach to Urban Metabolism: Tracing the Temporal ... | Athanassiadis, Aristide and Bouillard, Philippe and Crawford, Robert H. and Khan, Ahmed Z. | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Electricity
Emissions
Energy
Energy Balance
Fossil Fuels
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Infra-urban
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Research and Analysis
SO2
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Wastewater
Water
|
| Extended Exergy Accounting for Karachi Exergy is stepping stone for thermos-economic analyses of complex system. In this paper, we presented an exergy-based resources accounting framework for urban systems. The cumulated exergy consumption in transformations of various resources and energy are presented in details. A case study of Karachi in Pakistan was conducted, in which the main energy supplier is found to be natural gas, followed by coal, nuclear Power and petroleum. The fluxes of labor and capital were also quantified by the exergy metrics, showing that the labor force input to Karachi is twice as much as that of the economy in context of the whole societal system. None | Extended Exergy Accounting for Karachi | Jahangir, Soomro; Chen, Bin; Wakeel, Muhammad | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA)
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Urban carbon transformations: unravelling spatial and inter-sectoral linkages for key city industries based on multi-region input-output analysis With around 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly attributed to cities, attempts to mitigate climate change impacts must seriously consider urban carbon transformations. Two challenges are currently constraining urban planning decisions around decarbonisation. Firstly, a lack of detailed knowledge about city-induced emissions occurring outside of the city boundary hampers the design of mitigation strategies that involves the city's ‘hinterland'. Secondly, the complexity of interconnections between industries and regions located upstream or downstream the supply chain of urban economic activity makes it difficult to implement specific, effective and efficient decarbonisation policies. In this study, a multi-scale, multi-region input-output model with nested regions at city, state, nation and world level is employed to study the carbon footprints and the inter-sectoral linkages in terms of embodied carbon emissions of the two largest metropolitan areas of Australia, Melbourne and Sydney. The results show that imported emissions make up more than 50% of the city carbon footprints, with most of them attributable to goods (excluding food) and services (excluding electricity). This highlights the importance of promoting mitigation measures both within and outside of the city. The energy, mining and agriculture sectors - usually located outside of city boundaries - all have significant carbon linkage multipliers associated with city demand, indicating the need of pursuing carbon mitigation measures in these sectors. The linkage analysis pinpoints to crucial sectors that need to be targeted in future investments towards urban decarbonisation to minimise emissions and to maximise positive economic effects for urban and regional economies. The study also provides an improved understanding of the differences and similarities between Australia's two main cities. It is envisaged that this type of analysis will become increasingly relevant to other cities as the spatial resolution of multi-region input-output databases continues to improve. | Urban carbon transformations: unravelling spatial and inter-sectoral linkages for key ... | Guangwu Chen and Michalis Hadjikakou and Thomas Wiedmann | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Research and Analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
hybrid
|
| Spatial variation in the ecological relationships among the components of Beijing's carbon metabolic system In this paper, we construct a spatially explicit model of carbon metabolism for the flows of carbon among the components of an urban area. We used the model to identify spatial heterogeneity in the ecological relationships within a carbon metabolic network. We combined land-use and cover type maps for Beijing from 1990 to 2010 with empirical coefficients and socioeconomic data to quantify the flows. We used utility analysis to determine the ecological relationships between the components of the system and analyzed their changes during urban development. We used ArcGIS to analyze their spatial variation. We found that the positive utilities in Beijing decreased over time and that negative relationships mostly outweighed positive relationships after 2000. The main ecological relationships were distributed throughout the entire urban area before 2000; subsequently, exploitation, control, and mutualism relationships became concentrated in the southeast, leaving competition relationships to dominate the northwest. Mutualism relationships were most common for natural components, but were not stable because they were easily disturbed by urban expansion. Transportation and industrial land and urban land were the most important contributors to exploitation and control relationships and may be important indicators of spatial adjustment. Increasing competition relationships unbalanced the carbon metabolism, and limitations on the area of land available for development and on the water resources led to increasingly serious competition. The results provide an objective basis for planning adjustments to Beijing's land-use patterns to improve its carbon metabolism and reduce carbon emission. | Spatial variation in the ecological relationships among the components of ... | Xia, Linlin; Fath, Brian D.; Scharler, Ursula M.; Zhang, Yan | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Throughflow Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| GIS‐based Analysis of Vienna's Material Stock in Buildings The building stock is not only a huge consumer of resources (for its construction and operation), but also represents a significant source for the future supply of metallic and mineral resources. This article describes how material stocks in buildings and their spatial distribution can be analyzed on a city level. In particular, the building structure (buildings differentiated by construction period and utilization) of Vienna is analyzed by joining available geographical information systems (GIS) data from various municipal authorities. Specific material intensities for different building categories (differentiated by construction period and utilization) are generated based on multiple data sources on the material composition of different building types and combined with the data on the building structure. Utilizing these methods, the overall material stock in buildings in Vienna was calculated to be 380 million metric tonnes (t), which equals 210 t per capita (t/cap). The bulk of the material (>96%) is mineral, whereas organic materials (wood, plastics, bitumen, and so on) and metals (iron/steel, copper, aluminum, and so on) constitute a very small share, of which wood (4.0 t/cap) and steel (3.2 t/cap) are the major contributors. Besides the overall material stock, the spatial distribution of materials within the municipal area can be assessed. This research forms the basis for a resource cadaster, which provides information about gross volume, construction period, utilization, and material composition for each building in Vienna. | GIS‐based Analysis of Vienna's Material Stock in Buildings | Kleemann, Fritz and Lederer, Jakob and Rechberger, Helmut and Fellner, Johann | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Concrete
Construction Materials
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Glass
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Metals
Minerals
Plastics
Research and Analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
Wood
Zotero import
hybrid
|
| City Carbon Footprint Networks Progressive cities worldwide have demonstrated political leadership by initiating meaningful strategies and actions to tackle climate change. However, the lack of knowledge concerning embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of cities has hampered effective mitigation. We analyse trans-boundary GHG emission transfers between five Australian cities and their trading partners, with embodied emission flows broken down into major economic sectors. We examine intercity carbon footprint (CF) networks and disclose a hierarchy of responsibility for emissions between cities and regions. Allocations of emissions to households, businesses and government and the carbon efficiency of expenditure have been analysed to inform mitigation policies. Our findings indicate that final demand in the five largest cities in Australia accounts for more than half of the nation's CF. City households are responsible for about two thirds of the cities' CFs; the rest can be attributed to government and business consumption and investment. The city network flows highlight that over half of emissions embodied in imports (EEI) to the five cities occur overseas. However, a hierarchy of GHG emissions reveals that overseas regions also outsource emissions to Australian cities such as Perth. We finally discuss the implications of our findings on carbon neutrality, low-carbon city concepts and strategies and allocation of subnational GHG responsibility. | City Carbon Footprint Networks | Chen, Guangwu and Wiedmann, Thomas and Hadjikakou, Michalis and Rowley, Haze | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Methane
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Nitrous oxide
Research and Analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Material Flow Analysis in Quebec: Methods and operationalising challenges in a circular economy perspective | Material Flow Analysis in Quebec: Methods and operationalising challenges in ... | Audrey Morris | Thesis | theses | 2016 |
Circular Economy
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Urban
|
| Urban Food Consumption in Metro Manila: Interdisciplinary Approaches Towards Apprehending Practices, Patterns, and Impacts Food consumption is a local activity related to environmental impacts at different scales. Yet, the link between eating food as a social and cultural practice and the global implications of food consumption has not been sufficiently explored. We adopt a multidisciplinary approach to relate social practices with the biophysical flows of food products at the household level. Focusing on middle-class households in Metro Manila, the Philippines, we conduct qualitative interviews to highlight preferences, habits, and perceptions about food consumption. In parallel, we collect quantitative information on food purchased. We relate our results to national trends by analyzing the recent evolution of national food expenditures. Finally, we review environmental impacts related to main food categories. Our research points to the significance of socioeconomic factors on food consumption, notably the presence of domestic help or the professional situation of household members. One main finding is the identification of eating out as an important and growing trend in Asian cities, which causes a shift of resource consumption and related environmental impacts from the household to the service sector. | Urban Food Consumption in Metro Manila: Interdisciplinary Approaches Towards Apprehending ... | Burger Chakraborty, Laura and Sahakian, Marlyne and Rani, Uma and Shenoy, Megha and Erkman, Suren | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Food
Manila
Philippines
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| Uncovering driving forces on urban metabolism—A case of Shenyang Exploring the sustainability of urban ecosystem is becoming a key area in global sustainable development. Urban metabolism is an effective analysis tool for the study of urban ecosystem. In this regard, how to evaluate the level of urban sustainable development and identify the key factors that affect urban metabolism is critical. Many studies on urban metabolism have been explored during the past half century, but few concerns about the key factors that affect urban metabolism. Therefore, this paper fills such a gap by combining emergy and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) methods in order to analyze the sustainable development level and identify the driving forces of emergy utilization, respectively. A typical industrial city, Shenyang in northeast China, was chosen as a case study city in this paper. Results show that renewable resource utilization in Shenyang was very limited from 2000 to 2010, while nonrenewable resources and the imported resources increased rapidly. During this period, total emergy utilization of Shenyang increased from 8.52 × 1022 sej to 21.53 × 1022 sej, and emergy density increased with annual increasing rate of 10.34%, demonstrating a fast development of the economy and high level of resident's consumption. \{LMDI\} method was employed to analyze the driving forces of emergy consumption from the aspects of scale, structure and intensity. Results show that the rapid increase of emergy utilization in Shenyang was mainly caused by the expansion of economic scale, while emergy intensity greatly contributed to offset total consumption, and industry structure played a marginal role, with a minor value for its growth. Based upon these results, several policy recommendations were raised, including the use of more renewable and clean energy sources, a regenerative and preventative eco-industrial development approach, and capacity-building efforts, so that the overall environment pressure on urban development can be reduced. | Uncovering driving forces on urban metabolism—A case of Shenyang | Lu Sun and Huijuan Dong and Yong Geng and Zhaoling Li and Zhe Liu and Tsuyoshi Fujita and Satoshi Ohnishi and Minoru Fujii | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
China
Energy/Emergy
Research and Analysis
Shenyang
Urban
Urban Ecology
|
| Lisbon's womb: an approach to the city metabolism in the turn to the twentieth century The consumption and production of food products in the municipality of Lisbon in the 1890-1900 decade is assessed with the support of historical cartography and statistical resources. For the first time, food production in a municipality in the turn to the twentieth century is accounted and simultaneously subject of a visual analysis of the land used for agriculture and of the water infrastructures that supported such uses. Agriculture occupied at least 40 % of the territory of the city, while the built environment occupied no more than 16 % of the territory. However, local production of food was far from supplying most of the citizens' needs, and substantial food imports were needed. In this context, the municipality behaved like a heterotrophic system, highly dependent on the external supply of resources. Moreover, comparing to other European cities at the time Lisbon was facing in the end of the nineteenth century a late and slow transition from an agrarian social metabolism to an industrial one, suggesting that Lisbon was still relatively high-solar-powered as compared to other European cities at the time that were already highly fossil-fuel-powered. | Lisbon's womb: an approach to the city metabolism in the ... | Niza, Samuel and Ferreira, Daniela and Mourão, Joana and d'Almeida, Patrícia Bento and Marat-Mendes, Teresa | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Lisbon
Portugal
Time series
Urban
|
| Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: Waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile In this paper we examine two central concepts of urban metabolism (‘system boundaries' and ‘flows'), and explore how to approach them as a means to politicise urban metabolism research. We present empirical findings from two case studies of waste management, in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile, looking at: the materiality of waste flows, the actors involved in them, and how waste flows relate to issues of environmental justice. We argue that urban metabolism, as a methodology to understand urban sustainability, has the potential to produce knowledge to trigger urban transformations, and to analyse the social, political and environmental aspects of waste management in urban areas. | Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: Waste ... | Louise Guibrunet and Martin Sanzana Calvet and Vanesa Castán Broto | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Political ecology
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
|
| Energy intensities of urban form: a gravitational analysis for the Metropolitan City of Milan and Lombardy region, Italy The tremendous quantities of energy masses that flow within cities in the past years have influence the behavior of societies at the regional and urban scale. In the last two decades, urban metabolism research has become an important tool used to create government awareness on natural resource transformations, anthropogenic consumption patterns, sustainability practices, biodiversity importance, land use covers, and energy and resource management. There is a high need for cities to account for sustainable long-term management practices in order to design and better implement policies that can protect the rights of future generations. The research examines the Italian case study of the Lombardy region and the Metropolitan City of Milan. Identifying the distinct states of urban consumption flows and understanding the basis for transitions between states and the contributing of transition literature. Applied Gravitational Model and Geographic Information System applications to analyze the dynamic variation of energy consumption flows by sector (residential, industrial, tertiary, urban transport and agriculture) over a period of time by focusing on the regional and urban level (Zhang et al., 2012). The research identified, modeled and quantified energy flow centers of gravity in the Metropolitan City of Milan and Lombardy region. The research renders not only an account of the energetic inputs/outputs involved it visualizes the extended geographical relations through tracing energy type sources and achieving maximum efficiency in the use of natural resources and maximum disturbance to the ecosystems. Understanding the urban metabolic profile of cities and regions by applying gravitational modeling and geographic information systems can aid political leaders, planners, architects and engineers to identify energy flow intensities at the urban and regional level thus, provide scientific support for adjusting future energy management strategies. EURA Conference 2016: City Lights, Cities and Citizens Within/Beyond/Notwithstanding the Crisis | Energy intensities of urban form: a gravitational analysis for the ... | Qichao Zhao, Gabriela Fernandez, Eugenio Morello | Conference Paper | None | 2016 |
Energy (sector)
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Global Sustainable City-Regions: Mumbai, Shenzhen, Reykjavik, Portland, Budapest, Glasgow and Rotterdam This policy report, entitled ‘Global Sustainable City-Regions,' covers the work developed by the lecturer, Dr Igor Calzada, MBA, as the editor of the publication and students/participants of the first edition of the New Masters course MSc in Leadership for Global Sustainable Cities from September to December 2015 at the Institute for Future Cities in the Business Faculty at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (Scotland - UK). Specifically, this policy report follows a two-sequential-module structure: • The first module, entitled ‘Global Cities: Sustainability and Society,' consists of six methodological units. • Thereafter, the second module, entitled ‘Public Policy, Governance and Strategic Change in Cities,' consists of five methodological units. The policy report focuses on three urban global issues in a comparative basis. The MSc was developed in a team-based dynamic by applying qualitative action research methodologies to understand and interpret each case and to benchmark and contrast with other cases that addressed the same global urban issue. As a result, the following three global urban issues and seven Global Sustainable City-Region case studies were selected. Each student/participant worked on each of them, as follows: Global Southerners · Mumbai (Kirsten MacDonald) · Shenzhen (Ning Qiu) Resilient Contradictors · Reykjavik/Iceland (Christopher Dynes) · Portland/Oregon (Gemma Murray) · Budapest (Nikolett Watson-Puskás) Regional Networkers · Glasgow/Scotland (Gavin McAdam) · Rotterdam/Randstad (Frankie Barrett) Download the policy report: www.translokal.com/publishing More information: igor.calzada@compas.ox.ac.uk Reference: Calzada I. et al. (Ed) (2016), Global Sustainable City-Regions: Mumbai, Shenzhen, Reykjavik, Portland, Budapest, Glasgow and Rotterdam, Translokal - Academic Entrepreneurship for Policy Making - Publishing, Donostia in collaboration with City Protocol Society & Institute for Future Cities, University of Strathclyde. Calzada I. (Ed) [MacDonald, K., Qiu, N., Dynes, C., Murray, G., Watson-Puskas, N., McAdam, G., & Barrett, F.] (2016), Global Sustainable City-Regions: Mumbai, Shenzhen, Reykjavik, Portland, Budapest, Glasgow and Rotterdam, Translokal - Academic Entrepreneurship for Policy Making - Publishing, Donostia in collaboration with City Protocol Society & Institute for Future Cities, University of Strathclyde. ISBN (e-book): 978-84-942752-7-2. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3053.1609. | Global Sustainable City-Regions: Mumbai, Shenzhen, Reykjavik, Portland, Budapest, Glasgow and ... | Calzada, Igor | Book | academic | 2016 |
Budapest
Case Study
Glasgow
Mumbai
Policy
Portland
Reykjavik
Rotterdam
Shenzhen
Urban
|
| Using change detection data to assess amount and composition of demolition waste from buildings in Vienna Major waste streams in urban areas result from the demolition of buildings. In the case of lack of data ondemolition waste generation at the municipal level, the quantity and composition of demolition wastesfrom buildings can be estimated by multiplying the volume of demolished buildings, which is takenfrom statistical data sets, by their material composition. However, statistical data sets about the numberand thus total volume of buildings demolished are often incomplete. This paper presents an alternativeapproach to validating demolition statistics (number and volume of buildings demolished) and subse-quently demolition waste generation by applying change detection based on image matching to the casestudy of the city of Vienna, Austria. Based on this technique, building demolition activities not reportedto statistical municipal departments can be identified. Results show that in the city of Vienna, demolitionstatistics yield a total volume of 1.7 M m3/a demolished building volume, while change detection basedon image matching yields a total volume of 2.8 M m3/a. Consequently, demolition waste generation fig-ures solely based on statistical data probably underestimate the total waste generation, which can havesignificant consequences for the estimation of landfill space and recycling plant capacity required. Forthis reason, the approach presented is not only a useful tool for validating existing data on demolitionwaste generation and demolition statistics, but can also be used when these data sets are not existent atall. | Using change detection data to assess amount and composition of ... | Fritz Kleemann; Hubert Lehner; Anna Szczypińska; Jakob Lederer; Johann Fellner | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Austria
Case Study
Construction Materials
Single point in time
Urban
Vienna
Waste
|
| Metabolic heat production by human and animal populations in cities Anthropogenic heating from building energy use, vehicle fuel consumption, and human metabolism is a key term in the urban energy budget equation. Heating from human metabolism, however, is often excluded from urban energy budgets because it is widely observed to be negligible. Few reports for low-latitude cities are available to support this observation, and no reports exist on the contribution of domestic animals to urban heat budgets. To provide a more comprehensive view of metabolic heating in cities, we quantified all terms of the anthropogenic heat budget at metropolitan scale for the world's 26 largest cities, using a top-down statistical approach. Results show that metabolic heat release from human populations in mid-latitude cities (e.g. London, Tokyo, New York) accounts for 4-8% of annual anthropogenic heating, compared to 10-45% in high-density tropical cities (e.g. Cairo, Dhaka, Kolkata). Heat release from animal populations amounts to | Metabolic heat production by human and animal populations in cities | Iain Stewart; Chris Kennedy | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Electricity
Heat
Urban
|
| Resource consumption drivers and pathways to reduction: economy, policy and lifestyle impact on material flows at the national and urban scale An analysis of material flows that also considers economic and social indicators has been performed at the national (Sweden) and urban scale (Stockholm and Gothenburg) to study the dynamics of resource use during the last two decades. A summary of policies related to resource consumption implemented at the EU, national and local scale is presented and their probable effects discussed based on empirical evidence. The resource consumption trends indicate that the implemented policies have failed to bring significant reductions in resource and energy throughput. Resource consumption has increased both in Sweden as a whole and in the studied cities. Moreover, the consumption of construction materials and electronics has grown exponentially, even when normalized by population. The few success stories are the absolute reduction in fossil fuel consumption achieved in Stockholm, building energy reduction by halve and complete abolishment of oil as the heating fuel in Sweden. The lifestyle characteristics that have an impact on resource consumption include high income, car ownership, large residential floor space, social movements and trends related to dietary choices. The consumption of electronics, textiles and cosmetic products was shown to have increased considerably. The same quantities of food are consumed, but the diet has changed. Waste generation by far outpaces improvements in recycling. In recycling, waste-to-energy is growing faster than material recycling, which impedes the development of a circular economy. The main limitation of the policies implemented to-date is that they only address efficiency of use, but do nothing to reduce the demand for resources. In addition, efforts have so far been restricted to energy consumption. The reality is that we must urgently reduce the consumption of all resources, not just fossil fuels. We call for greater concern and more action towards reducing nonfuel resource consumption. | Resource consumption drivers and pathways to reduction: economy, policy and ... | Yuliya Kalmykova and Leonardo Rosado and João Patrício | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Gothenburg
National
Policy
Stockholm
Sweden
Urban
|
| Towards more comprehensive urban environmental assessments: exploring the complex relationship between urban and metabolic profiles Urban areas cover 2% of the Earth's land surface, host more than 50% of global population and are estimated to account for around 75% of CO2 emissions from global energy use. In order to mitigate existing and future direct and indirect environmental pressures resulting from urban resource use, it is necessary to investigate and better understand resource and pollution flows associated with urban systems. Current urban environmental assessment methodologies enable the quantification of resource use and pollution emissions flows entering, becoming stocked and exiting urban areas. While these methodologies enable to estimate the environmental effect of cities, they often consider urban areas as being static and homogeneous systems. This partial and simplistic representation shadows the complex spatio-temporal interrelationships between the local context and its associated local and global environmental pressures. This characterisation of urban systems is a significant limitation, not only for the urban environmental assessments, but also for the identification of their drivers as it may lead to inadequate urban environmental policies. To overcome this limitation and effectively reduce glocal urban environmental pressures, it is necessary to better understand the complex functioning of cities and identify their drivers. This research developed a comprehensive urban environmental assessment framework that helps to better explicit and understand the complex relationship between an urban system and its environmental profile in a systemic and systematic way. This framework was applied to the case study of Brussels Capital Region (BCR). Results from the application of this framework show that urban systems are neither static nor homogeneous. In fact, different relationships between the urban and metabolic profiles appear when considering different spatial scales and temporal intervals as well as different urban and metabolic metrics. The establishment of BCR's urban profile showed that components that shape the urban system evolve in an organic way over time. Moreover, the spatial expression of an urban system portrays its heterogeneous aspect and how different metrics of the same urban indicator can reveal distinct facets and challenges for an urban area or a neighbourhood. Finally, it was demonstrated that the relationship between urban indicators is different for each spatial scale and therefore knowledge from one spatial scale is not necessarily transferable from one scale to another. The establishment and analysis of BCR's metabolic profile also underlined the complex functioning of cities as each flow has a different temporal evolution and spatial expression. Due to the multifaceted and intertwined aspect of metabolic flows it becomes clear that no single parameter enables to explain or predict their behaviour. This leads to the conclusion that a great number of questions still need to be considered, understood and answered before effectively and coherently reducing environmental pressures from cities. The developed framework proposes a number of concrete steps that enable existing and new cities to better understand their metabolic functioning and ultimately transition towards less environmentally harmful futures. | Towards more comprehensive urban environmental assessments: exploring the complex relationship ... | Aristide Athanassiadis | Thesis | theses | 2016 |
Belgium
Biomass (must be merged with other Biomass)
Brussels
Carbon
Carbon Monoxide (CO)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Circular Economy
City
Construction Materials
Domestic extraction (DE)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Electricity
Emissions (must be merged with Emissions)
Energy
Food
Global
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Imports and Exports
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Metals
Minerals
Multi-scale
NOx
Natural Gas
SO2
Single point in time
Social Metabolism
Time series
Urban
Waste
Wastewater
Water
Zotero import
|
| Transnational city carbon footprint networks - Exploring carbon links between Australian and Chinese cities Cities are leading actions against climate change through global networks. More than 360 global cities announced during the 2015 Paris Climate Conference that the collective impact of their commitments will deliver over half of the world's urban greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2020. Previous studies on multi-city carbon footprint networks using sub-national, multi-region input-output (MRIO) modelling have identified additional opportunities for addressing the negative impacts of climate change through joint actions between cities within a country. However, similar links between city carbon footprints have not yet been studied across countries. In this study we focus on inter-city and inter-country carbon flows between two trading partners in a first attempt to address this gap. We construct a multi-scale, global MRIO model to describe a transnational city carbon footprint network among five Chinese megacities and the five largest Australian capital cities. First, we quantify city carbon footprints by sectors and regions. Based on the carbon map concept we show how local emissions reductions influence other regions' carbon footprints. We then present a city emissions 'outsourcing hierarchy' based on the balance of emissions embodied in intercity and international trade. The differences between cities and their position in the hierarchy emphasize the need for a bespoke treatment of their responsibilities towards climate change mitigation. Finally, we evaluate and discuss the potentially significant benefits of harmonising and aligning China's carbon trading schemes with Australia's cap and trade policy. | Transnational city carbon footprint networks - Exploring carbon links between ... | Guangwu Chen and Thomas Wiedmann and Yafei Wang and Michalis Hadjikakou | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Global
Methane
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Nitrous oxide
Research and Analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Toward a Political Ecology of Biosocial Relations. Rethinking the Urban Water Metabolism beyond the City This working paper examines the concept of metabolism and its potential as a critical analytical lens to study the contemporary city from a political perspective. The paper illustrates how the metabolism concept has been used historically, both as a metaphor to describe the technological, social, political and economic dimensions of human-environment relations, and as a concrete analytical tool to quantify and better understand how flows of matter and energy shape the territorial and spatial configurations of cityscapes. Drawing on the example of the urban water metabolism of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), it is argued that contemporary approaches to metabolic analysis should be extended in two ways to increase the integrative potential of the urban water metabolism concept. On the one hand, the paper demonstrates that a political ecology approach is particularly well-suited to illuminate the contested production of urban environments and move beyond a narrow technical, managerial and state-centric focus in research on urban metabolic relations. On the other hand, the paper advocates for an approach to metabolic analysis that views the urban environment not simply as a relatively static exteriority that is produced by dynamic flows of matter, energy and information, but rather as a dynamic, nested and co-evolutionary network of complex biosocial and material relations, which in itself shapes how various metabolisms interact across scales. The paper then concludes by briefly discussing how a combination of metabolic analysis and political ecology research can inform urban water governance. In sum, the paper emphasizes the need for metabolic analysis to remain open to a plurality of different knowledge forms and perspectives, and to remain attentive to the inherently political nature of material and technological phenomena in order to allow for mutually beneficial exchanges between various scholarly communities. | Toward a Political Ecology of Biosocial Relations. Rethinking the Urban ... | Schulz, Karsten; Bruns, Antje | Report | reports | 2016 |
Accra
Case Study
Ghana
Political ecology
Single point in time
Urban
Water
|
| An Urban Approach to Planetary Boundaries The achievement of global sustainable development goals subject to planetary boundaries will mostly be determined by cities as they drive cultures, economies, material use, and waste generation. Locally relevant, applied and quantitative methodologies are critical to capture the complexity of urban infrastructure systems, global inter-connections, and to monitor local and global progress toward sustainability. An urban monitoring (and communications) tool is presented here illustrating that a city-based approach to sustainable development is possible. Following efforts to define and quantify safe planetary boundaries in areas such as climate change, biosphere integrity, and freshwater use, this paper modifies the methodology to propose boundaries from a city's perspective. Socio-economic boundaries, or targets, largely derived from the Sustainable Development Goals are added to bio-physical boundaries. Issues such as data availability, city priorities, and ease of implementation are considered. The framework is trialed for Toronto, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, and Dakar, as well as aggregated for the world's larger cities. The methodology provides an important tool for cities to play a more fulsome and active role in global sustainable development. | An Urban Approach to Planetary Boundaries | Hoornweg, Daniel and Hosseini, Mehdi and Kennedy, Christopher and Behdadi, Azin | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Comparison
Future Scenario
Method
Planetary boundaries
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The greening of neoliberal urbanism in Santiago de Chile: urbanisation by green enclaves and the production of a new socio-nature in Chicureo This study analyses the linkages between neoliberal urbanism and urban greening in the making, maintaining and living of urban enclaves in Chicureo, in Santiago's metropolitan countryside. Anchored on Urban Political Ecology proposals, this research examines the role of a new urban metabolism of material flows and subjectivity driven by the urban enclaves in the production of a new socio-nature in Chicureo. The findings suggest that the assemblage of innovations in neoliberal planning, market environmentalism and elitist utopianism is generating green enclaves that reproduce social privilege and environmental inequality. Nevertheless, tensions and conflicts account for possibilities of alternative directions in Chicureo's development. | The greening of neoliberal urbanism in Santiago de Chile: urbanisation ... | Martin Sanzana Calvet | Thesis | theses | 2016 |
Case Study
Chile
Santiago de Chile
Urban
|
| State of Energy Report 2015 Table of contents: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ENERGY DATA SHEETS 2.1 Cape Town energy balance 2012 2.2 Cape Town energy and emissions overview tables 2.3 Cape Town sustainable energy indicators 2.4 Global greenhouse gas emissions 2.5 Local air pollution from energy sources 2.6 Cape Town land use and population density INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 3.1 Report overview, method and data sources 3.2 Systematising the energy data collection process 3.3 ‘Spatialising’ Cape Town energy data 3.4 Energy conversion factors 3.5 Emission coefficients and the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting (GPC) . 25 THE ENERGY POLICY ENVIRONMENT 4.1 National policy and legislative context 4.2 Energy-related local government mandates and functions emanating from national policy CAPE TOWN ENERGY SUPPLY AND DEMAND OVERVIEW 5.1 The current picture 5.2 Trends and developments: demand and supply overview 5.3 Energy and greenhouse gas emissions 5.4 Electricity distribution business overview 5.5 Cape Town benchmarked CAPE TOWN ENERGY DEMAND 6.1 Residential sector 6.1.1 Household energy sources and related demand trends 6.1.2 End-use energy applications 6.1.3 Energy services for sustainable development 6.1.4 Energy poverty and relative cost of household fuels 6.2 Commercial and industrial sectors 6.2.1 Commercial and industrial fuels and related demand trends 6.3 Transport and mobility 6.3.1 Transport-sector energy overview 6.3.2 Road-based private transport 6.3.3 Transport modal split 6.3.4 Public transport 6.3.5 Commuter trip length 6.4 Local government 6.4.1 Local-government sector energy overview 6.4.2 Data and comparability of data over time 6.4.3 Buildings and municipal operations using electricity, and efficiency projects 6.4.4 Vehicle fleet 6.4.5 Solid waste sector CAPE TOWN ENERGY SUPPLY 7.1. Supply overview 7.2. Energy supply sources 7.2.1 Coal 7.2.2 Liquid fuels and natural gas 7.2.3 Electricity 7.2.4 Demand-side measures and energy efficiency interventions 7.2.5 Renewable and sustainable electricity and energy 7.2.6 Impact of renewable energy and energy efficiency on City of Cape Town revenue 7.2.7 Wood REFERENCES APPENDICES 9.1 Method notes 9.2 Sector demand 9.3 Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC) 9.4 Supplier survey of grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems in Cape Town, May 2014 | State of Energy Report 2015 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2016 |
Cape Town
Urban
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| Waste Market Intelligence Report 2016 Table of contents: List of acronyms List of figures List of tables Executive summary Introduction and purpose Industry overview Industry structure Market size South African Western Cape Policy and regulation Waste management policy and legislation in South Africa Working with municipalities Recent legislative changes Existing legislation that will have implications in 2016 Draft legislation Opportunities and barriers for alternative waste management technologies Recyclables Paper and cardboard Plastics Glass e-Waste Construction and demolition waste Waste to energy Challenges faced by waste to energy projects Existing and emerging waste to energy opportunities Opportunities in Western Cape municipalities Funding and incentives Manufacturing incentives The Western Cape: Africa’s growing greentech hub GreenCape’s support to businesses and investors References | Waste Market Intelligence Report 2016 | GreenCape | Report | reports | 2016 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Material Quickscan for Rotterdam and Den Haag Material flow analysis, strategies for circular economy transition | Material Quickscan for Rotterdam and Den Haag | Metabolic | Report | reports | 2016 |
Abbreviated MFA
Case Study
Rotterdam
The Hague
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism in Syracuse, NY – introduction This special issue of Urban Ecosystems contains a series of papers related to assessing urban metabolism in Syracuse, NY. These papers were developed under the Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory Awards Program funded by the National Science Foundation. Objectives of this two-year project (2009–2011) in Syracuse, NY were to investigate: a) changes in urban metabolism and the urban forest ecosystem, b) spatial and temporal dynamics related to water and air quality, and c) how human preferences can influence green infrastructure implementation and outcomes. From a historical perspective, energy metabolism (respiration) in Syracuse became increasingly centralized in the urban core between 1840 and 1950, and has since become more diffused. The ratio of city respiration to net primary production in the county exceeded 1:1 by 1860. After a period of intensive industrialization and land use conversion from forests to farms, the respiration to production ratio reached a maximum of 9:1 in 1930. Increased forest cover and improved agricultural yields, along with declining urban population and deindustrialization, reduced this ratio to just under 2:1 by the 2000s. Achieving lower respiration to production ratios require either increased local production of food and fuels or decreased per capita energy consumption (Balogh et al.). Currently, the urban forest in Syracuse provides about $2.4 million dollars per year in ecosystem services of carbon sequestration, air pollution removal and reduced building energy use. Urban forest structure and functions have changed in recent years with tree cover and total tree population declining in the late 1990s to early 2000s and then increasing again by 2009. Most of this change was likely precipitated by a major storm in the late 1990s and limited development that facilitated natural regeneration. This regeneration is altering the structure of the forest as many invasive and pioneer species are dominating the regeneration. This change in structure will have an impact on future ecosystem services derived from the urban forest (Nowak et al.) In comparing carbon dioxide (CO2) flux between a downtown site and a residential site, CO2 fluxes were strongly influenced by surrounding land use, particularly impervious surfaces, vegetation and traffic volume. The downtown site had relatively constant positive fluxes due to vehicular traffic, while the residential site was dominated by vegetation influences in the leaf-on period, producing maximum negative fluxes (sinks) around mid-day. Understanding these variable source-sink relationships in urban areas have important implications for CO2 budgets, carbon cycles and climate modeling (Buckley et al.) Measurements of dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity and turbidity in streams in the Syracuse area revealed a “Jekyll-Hyde” analogy. Under dry conditions, the streams behaved like a headwater stream, but during storms, the streams had greater discharge and rapid swings in oxygen, temperature, conductivity and turbidity. These dynamics could be dampened by increasing soft, absorbent surfaces (green infrastructure) in the city (Limburg et al.). Investigation of resident receptivity and preferences toward green infrastructure implementation in Syracuse revealed that a “government participation” scenario of tree planting on street parking strips and a “household participation” scenario that put rain barrels and rain gardens in randomly selected private residential lots would contribute to a modest reduction in storm water peak flow and total runoff volume across a sewershed. These results support sustainable storm water management planning that addresses citizen preferences and needs (Sun and Hall). People, vegetation and the local environment are landscape features that interact across a region and affect each other. Understanding the interactions between people and nature in cities can lead to improved management to reduce energy use, increase local production of food and fuels, improve water and air quality, and consequently human health and well-being within cities. | Urban metabolism in Syracuse, NY – introduction | David J. Nowak | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Urban
|
| Surveying the Environmental Footprint of Urban Food Consumption Assessments of urban metabolism (UM) are well situated to identify the scale, components, and direction of urban and energy flows in cities and have been instrumental in benchmarking and monitoring the key levers of urban environmental pressure, such as transport, space conditioning, and electricity. Hitherto, urban food consumption has garnered scant attention both in UM accounting (typically lumped with 'biomass') and on the urban policy agenda, despite its relevance to local and global environmental pressures. With future growth expected in urban population and wealth, an accounting of the environmental footprint from urban food demand ('foodprint') is necessary. This article reviews 43 UM assessments including 100 cities, and a total of 132 foodprints in terms of mass, carbon footprint, and ecological footprint and situates it relative to other significant environmental drivers (transport, energy, and so on) The foodprint was typically the third largest source of mass flows (average is 0.8 tonnes per capita per annum) and carbon footprint (average is 2.1 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents per capita per annum) in the reviewed cities, whereas it was generally the largest driver of urban ecological footprints (average is 1.2 global hectares per capita per annum), with large deviations based on wealth, culture, and urban form. Meat and dairy are the primary drivers of both global warming and ecological footprint impacts, with little relationship between their consumption and city wealth. The foodprint is primarily linear in form, producing significant organic exhaust from the urban system that has a strong, positive correlation to wealth. Though much of the foodprint is embodied within imported foodstuffs, cities can still implement design and policy interventions, such as improved nutrient recycling and food waste avoidance, to redress the foodprint. | Surveying the Environmental Footprint of Urban Food Consumption | Goldstein, Benjamin and Birkved, Morten and Fernández, John and Hauschild, Michael | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Comparison
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Food
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Review Paper
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
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| Cape Town's Metabolism: Insights from a Material Flow Analysis This work aims to contribute to the number of urban metabolism case studies using a standardized methodology. An economy-wide material flow analysis (EW-MFA) was conducted on the Metropolitan Municipality of Cape Town (South Africa) for the year 2013, using the Eurostat framework. The study provides insights into the city's metabolism through various indicators including direct material input (DMI), domestic material consumption (DMC), and direct material output (DMO), among others. In order to report on the uncertainty of the data, a set of data quality indicators originating from the life cycle assessment literature was used.The results show that domestic extraction involves significant quantities of non-metallic minerals, and that imports consist primarily of biomass and fossil fuels. The role of the city as a regional hub is also made clear from this study and illustrated by large quantities of food and other materials flowing through the city on their way to or from international markets. The results are compared with indicators from other cities and with previous metabolism work done on Cape Town.To fully grasp the impacts of the city's metabolism, more work needs to be done. It will be necessary to understand the upstream impact of local consumption, and consumption patterns should be differentiated on a more nuanced level (taking into account large differences between household income levels as well as separating the metabolism of industry and commerce from residential consumption). | Cape Town's Metabolism: Insights from a Material Flow Analysis | Hoekman, Paul and von Blottnitz, Harro | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Case Study
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Examining the historical and present energy metabolism of a Rust Belt City: Syracuse, NY 1840--2005 Early cities depended on local, solar-based energy resources for their metabolism. Over time, cities have become increasingly dependent on fossil fuels, both directly and indirectly, as they facilitate exploitation of solar resources from much farther away. Alternatives to fossil fuels, typically generated locally, often provide lower surplus energy to society. As cities consider the transition back to solar-based energy resources, it becomes necessary to understand the capability of the solar-based economy to provide e.g. energy (including food) from nearby lands. To do so, we compared the energy metabolism (respiration) of a typical rust-belt city, Syracuse, NY, with the net primary production in the surrounding county (production) over its development (1840-2005). We calculated the ratio of respiration to production (R:P) and examined how this ratio changed during the periods of industrialization, shifts in major fuel types, and deindustrialization. We found that from 1840 to 1950 respiration became increasingly centralized in the urban core; since then it has become more diffused. Urban respiration exceeded production in the county by 9:1 in 1930, and it remains just under 2:1 today. Respiration reached an absolute (67 PJ) and a per capita (339 GJ) maximum in 1970, then fell by 40 % and 20 % respectively, due to deindustrialization and population losses. Conversely, production increased 480 % from its lows in 1930 because of reforestation and improved agricultural yields. What this means is that to achieve a higher P:R ratio requires either increased production of food and fuels in areas surrounding the city, or decreased per capita energy consumption. | Examining the historical and present energy metabolism of a Rust ... | Balogh, Stephen and Hall, Charles AS and Gamils, Drew V and Popov, Alexander M and Rose, Ryan T | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Syracuse
Time series
Urban
|
| Multi-criteria analysis and interactive selection of urban solid waste management proposals, Santa Eufemia, Córdoba, Argentina The objective of this article is to show an interactive multi-criteria method for evaluating proposals for management of urban solid waste in Santa Eufemia, Córdoba, Argentina. Five alternatives:PGRSU1_tendential; PGRSU2_SinHo; PGRSU3_Ecomanagement; PGRSU4_Ecomanagementwith mixed destinations; PGRSU_5 were designed and evaluated seven criteria: Investments ($);Municipal Economic Cost ($/year); GHG emissions (tons CO2 eq yr-1); Qualitative: Fragmentation of Landscape and Visual; Affections risk to the Population Health; Social involvement; Institutional Political effort. The PROMETHEE method was used to choose the proposal, and preferences were surveyed in workshops with government and local actors. The results show conflicts between proposals. PGRSU_1 is the best alternative investment and the worst is PGRSU_5 ($ 2,135,000versus $ 5,585,000). PGRSU_3 has the lowest economic cost city ($ 2,687,699). Institutional political effort is PGRSU_1 the best and worst is PGRSU_3; reverse situation for the criterion social involvement. As for GHG emissions is the best alternative PGRSU_3 and worse the PGRSU_4 (2,792 versus 6,329 tons CO2 eq yr-1). Decision makers consider important the seven criteria, giving higher preference to social involvement and criterion (μ = 9.4 and = 0.88) lower at the municipal economic cost (μ = 6.3 and = 3.00). The selected alternative is PGRSU3_Ecomanagement. El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar un método multicriterio interactivo para evaluarpropuestas de gestión de residuos sólidos urbanos en Santa Eufemia, Córdoba, Argentina. Cincoalternativas: PGRSU1_Tendencial; PGRSU2_SinHo; PGRSU3_Ecogestión; PGRSU4_Ecogestióncon destinos mixtos; PGRSU_5, fueron diseñadasy valoradas con siete criterios: Inversiones ($);Costo Económico Municipal; Emisiones GEI (Tn CO2 eq año-1); cualitativos: Fragmentación delPaisaje y Visuales; Riesgo por Afecciones a la Salud de la Población; Involucramiento Social;Esfuerzo Político Institucional. Se utilizó el método PROMETHEE para elegir la propuesta, y laspreferencias fueron relevadas en talleres con el gobierno y los actores locales. Los resultadosmuestran conflictos entre propuestas. PGRSU_1 es la mejor alternativa en inversiones y la peor esPGRSU_5 ($ 2.135.000 versus $ 5.585.000). PGRSU_3 tiene el menor costo económico municipal($2.687.699). En esfuerzo político institucional la mejor es PGRSU_1 y peor es PGRSU_3;situación inversa para el criterio involucramiento social. En cuanto a Emisiones de GEI la mejoralternativa es PGRSU_3 y peor es la PGRSU_4 (2.792 versus 6.329 Tn CO2 eq año-1). Los decisoresconsideran importante los siete criterios, asignando mayor preferencias al criterio involucramientosocial (μ=9,4 y =0.88) y menor a costo económico municipal (μ=6,3 y =3,00). La alternativaseleccionada es PGRSU3_Ecogestión. | Multi-criteria analysis and interactive selection of urban solid waste management ... | Emiliano J. Cahe and , Jorge D. De Prada | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Urban
|
| Quantitative Analysis of Factors Contributing to Urban Heat Island Effect in Cities of Latin-American Pacific Coast Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) is one of the most evident anthropogenic interventions on climate. During the last 20 years, a lot of research on monitoring and simulation of UHI was done by different institution across the world. However, there are some aspects not very clarified, for example, the decoupling and quantification of the different factors influencing UHI, depending on the location. In this paper, the Urban Weather Generator tool (UWG) is used to test the influence of some factors (density, vertical growth, loss of green, electricity and cars) on the resulting summer time UHI intensity in cities of the Pacific Latin-American coast. | Quantitative Analysis of Factors Contributing to Urban Heat Island Effect ... | Palme, M., Carrasco, C., Lobato, A. | Journal Article | academic | 2016 |
Urban
|
| Understanding Urban Metabolism: A Tool for Urban Planning About the Book Understanding Urban Metabolism addresses the gap between the bio-physical sciences and urban planning and illustrates the advantages of accounting for urban metabolism issues in urban design decisions. Urban metabolism considers a city as a system, and distinguishes between energy and material flows as its components. Based on research from the BRIDGE project, this book deals with how the urban surface exchanges and transforms energy, water, carbon and pollutants in cities. This book also introduces a new method for evaluating how planning alternatives can modify the physical flows of urban metabolism components and how environmental and socioeconomic components interact. The inclusion of sustainability principles into urban planning provides an opportunity to place the new knowledge provided by bio-physical sciences at the centre of the planning process, but there is a strong need to bridge knowledge and practice, as well as for a better dissemination of research results and exchange of best practice. This book meets that need and provides the reader with the necessary tools to integrate an understanding of urban metabolism into urban planning practice. Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction 1. Urban Metabolism 2. Decision Support Tools for Urban Planning 3. The BRIDGE Approach Part 2: Measurements and Modelling of Physical Flows 4. Physical Fluxes in the Urban Environment 5. Environmental Measurements in BRIDGE Case Studies 6. Use of Earth Observation to support Urban Modelling Parameterization in BRIDGE 7. Meso-scale Meteorological Models in the Urban Context 8. Urban Air Quality Models 9. Urban Energy Budget Models 10. Urban Water Balance and Hydrology Models 11. Urban Carbon Budget Modelling Part 3: The Socioeconomic Components 12. The Use of Communities of Practice to Involve Stakeholders in the DSS Design 13. Collection of Socioeconomic Data and Indicators for Urban Integrated Modelling 14. Combining Environmental and Socioeconomic Data Part 4: The BRIDGE DSS 15. The BRIDGE Impact Assessment Framework 16. The BRIDGE DSS 17. Decision Making under Certainty: Use of Foresight for Assessing Planning Alternatives 18. Guidelines for Urban Sustainable Development Part 5: Conclusions 19. Conclusions | Understanding Urban Metabolism: A Tool for Urban Planning | Chrysoulakis, N. and Castro, E. A. and Moors, E. J. | Book | academic | 2015 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Urban
|
| Changing urban phosphorus metabolism: Evidence from Longyan City, China Rapid worldwide urbanization calls for a better understanding of phosphorus (P) metabolism and the interaction of the physical, ecological and social drivers of P cycling in urban systems. We quantified the P metabolism in Longyan, a city with a major agricultural economy, and analyzed its long-term trends over the rapid urbanization period of 1985–2010. Both input P (from 4811t P to 14,296t P) and output P (from 4565t P to 13,509t P) increased significantly. The agricultural subsystem contributed most to the P metabolism, accounting for 85% of total P input. The share of P input lost to the environment, i.e. discharge to water, accumulation in the soil and landfill, increased from 66% to 72%, while food production efficiency decreased from 48% to 29%. Per capita P input showed linear relationships with the Human Development Index (HDI), S-curve relationship with the urbanization rate, and logistic curve relationship with per capita disposable income. A more meat-based diet shift both in Longyan and surrounding cities greatly affected Longyan's food production structure. Our results demonstrate that P metabolic quantity, configuration, and efficiency in production systems can change drastically in response to changes in consumer and producer behavior as well as in socioeconomic structure. A larger regional scale should be considered in urban P management, when trying to mitigate the increase in P use. The results also imply that sustainable urban P management will require a system-wide, cross-sector and cross-boundary approach. | Changing urban phosphorus metabolism: Evidence from Longyan City, China | Shenghui Cui and Su Xu and Wei Huang and Xuemei Bai and Yunfeng Huang and Guilin Li | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Phosphorus
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
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| A Cities Approach to Sustainability This paper provides a response to the question of how we might achieve greater sustainability, and from that sustainable development. An engineering approach, or applied science (physical and social), integrated within a multi-stakeholder partnership, is proposed. A road map to a partial, or 'shadow agreement' is proposed, that would hopefully serve as the start of a global process leading to comprehensive sustainable development. An argument is made why cities are the most likely actors to design and bring about such an agreement. An agreement among the world's larger cities (those urban areas with 5 million or more residents by 2050) is possible, and is likely a necessary, but not sufficient condition to achieve sustainable development. Each city is viewed as a unique system as well as collectively within a 'system-of-systems,' and more broadly within local and global ecosystems and economies. Global boundaries and objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals are down-scaled and applied at a metro-city level.Population projections are provided for the world's larger cities (in 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100). Along with the hierarchy of sustainable cities and urban metabolism, two new tools are developed: (i) a cities approach to physical and socio-economic boundaries, and: (ii) sustainability costs curves. These two tools underpin the shadow agreement and are powerful planning and engineering tools in their own right. Case study application of the tools is provided for Dakar, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Toronto. | A Cities Approach to Sustainability | Daniel Hoornweg | Thesis | theses | 2015 |
Brazil
Canada
Case Study
China
Dakar
India
Method
Mumbai
Sao Paulo
Senegal
Shanghai
Toronto
Urban
|
| Intensive measurements of PM above the city of Naples (Southern Italy) A super-site for the measurement of atmospheric pollutants from urban sources has been established in Naples (Campania, Southern Italy), where the complex layout of the coast and surrounding mountains favours the development of combined sea breeze upslope winds and the evolution of return flows with several layers of pollutants and subsidence. With a population of circa 4 million (around 1 million within the city), the metropolitan area of Naples has one of the highest densities in Europe, with consequent impacts in terms of emissions associated with diesel/gasoline exhaust, industrial emissions, agricultural burning and waste disposal problem. At the super-site, an eddy covariance tower has been installed on the rooftop of the Meteorological Observatory of Largo San Marcellino, situated in the historical city centre: a fast response ultrasonic anemometer (Gill WindMaster) has been mounted on a 10-m mast, alongside three insulated inlet lines through which the air is sampled for gaseous pollutants and particulate matter. The height of the terrace is on average 35 m above the irregular street level, resulting in an overall measuring height of 45 m. Size segregated aerosol are measured by gravimetric method at low frequency (hourly to daily) through a SWAM 5A Dual Channel (PM10 and PM2.5, FAI Instruments). A faster optical particle counter (4 Hz, FAI Instruments) allows the estimate of particle numbers of 22 classes of particles diameter, from 0.28 to 10?m; it also provides continuous concentration of fine and coarse fractions through an internal algorhythm, tuned with the gravimetric measurements. The fast analyser outputs are synchronised with the sonic anemometer through a common acquisition at 10 Hz using a CR3000 datalogger (Campbell Scientific). A full weather station is also available as ancillary measurements at the site including two webcams to record exceptional events to aid interpretation of the results. The fluxes are representative of varying footprint areas, covering the historical centre of Naples, the harbour, and some main traffic arteries of the city. Preliminary results show that in the period between 8 December 2014 and 8 January 2015, daily PM10 and PM2.5 levels kept below 59 ?g/m3 and 48 ?g/m3 respectively, with the maximum reached on Christmas day, during stable conditions characterised by a high pressure, lack of rain and weak winds. The eddy covariance system proved able to detect fluxes of particle numbers above the city: during the same month, the measured PM fluxes revealed a strong emission peak on New Year's Eve, in correspondence of the traditional fireworks display, coupled with a strong, short concentration pulse (lasting about one hour), that dispersed quickly due to the windy conditions. The year-long planned measurements will allow establishing relationships between the fluxes of PM and the other pollutant species measured, to investigate the controls of the exchange, and provide relative emission factors for the urban sources according to seasonality. | Intensive measurements of PM above the city of Naples (Southern ... | D. Famulari , I. Russo, R. Vuolo , D. Piscitelli, P. DiTommasi, A. Esposito, M. Tosca, G. Agrillo, D. Gasbarra, L. Schindler, B. Gioli , E. Magliulo, A. Zaldei , A. Mazzarella, R. Viola , N. Scafetta, G. Tirimberio, E. Chianese, A. Riccio, P. Toscano | Report | reports | 2015 |
Case Study
Emissions
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Emergy Synthesis for Three Main Industries in Wuyishan City, China Emergy synthesis is an objective method for evaluating the resource consumption by industrial development and the resulting environmental impacts. In this study, we apply emergy synthesis to account for the energy and material flows of three main industries in China's Wuyishan City, i.e. the tourism, tea, and bamboo industries. We calculate seven indices: renewable input ratio, emergy self-support ratio, emergy investment ratio, emergy density, emergy money ratio, emergy yield ratio, and environmental loading ratio. The results show that the continuous development of tourism industry is mainly resulted from the increase in its purchased resources, the tea industry’s development has been relatively stable, and the bamboo industry depends greatly on non-renewable resources but has considerable development potential. The results suggest that tourism is the most environment-friendly one. Based on our analysis, we propose two sustainable development strategies: the promotion of intercropping in tea and bamboo plantations and the development of an advanced value-added bamboo production chain. | Emergy Synthesis for Three Main Industries in Wuyishan City, China | Yang, Z. F.; Li, S. S.; Zhang, Y.; Huang, G. H. | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Material Flow Analysis for a Circular Economy Development: A Material Stock Quantification Method of Urban Civil Infrastructures with a Case Study of PVC in an Amsterdam Neighbourhood Massive material flows that are mostly originating from the lithosphere are entering the cities, adding to and shaping the stock of the built environment. Due to concerns with material resource scarcity and the finiteness of virgin materials, resources will have to be measured and tracked. As a result of insufficient data on (average) civil infrastructure material usage and a lack of appropriate means for its determination, a four step methodology, termed Citymass, was created to fill this gap. By analysing the urban tissue, the quantity of different civil infrastructure typologies (buildings, water networks etc.) and their material composition and amounts can be assessed (with technical drawings, if necessary). Thereby, it enables the quantification and localisation of built environment stocks with a bottom-up model. The methodology was applied for a first validation or more so an illustration of its application to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stock as a building material in Merkelbach, an Amsterdam neighbourhood of 0.013 km². It showed that the assessable stock consisted of underground water pipes and data cable protection pipes and totalled in 3,618 kg PVC, or 0.28 kg/m². In order to address the resource scarcity issue, it was further examined if the PVC outflows could be predicted, applied in the three circular economy loops and eventually connected with the inflows in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA). It was concluded that PVC outflows can be predicted with a calculation method based on the (material) lifetime of the object or with an estimation from the share of PVC of C&D waste. Based on best practices and the principles of the circular economy (CE) it was found that even though the material can be reused and recycled within the AMA, PVC products in their current state do not have a place in the circular economy. By analysing the stock and predicting the outflows, the material flow analysis (MFA) is complemented and provided with a smart way of data generation. This method is facilitated over time as more case studies and validations aid in building up a database for average material usages per typologies. Moreover, it creates a bridge between MFA and CE where the latter provides a sense of purpose and direction to the analysis, which in turn generates transformational knowledge for a transition to a restorative future. | Material Flow Analysis for a Circular Economy Development: A Material ... | Carolin Bellstedt | Thesis | theses | 2015 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Citymass (Civil Infrastructure Typology Material Stock Analysis)
PVC
Single point in time
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Metabolism of Brussels-Capital Region: identification of flows, economic actors and activities on the territory and tracks of reflection for resource optimisation This book on the metabolism of the Brussels-Capital Region presents, on the basis of foreign experience, a report on material and energy flows at the level of the Brussels-Capital Region for the year 2011 as well as concrete improvements on certain value chains in a circular economy perspective. It also opens perspectives for the development of the regional program in circular economy initiated by the Brussels government in terms of operational, regulatory, economic and socio-economic plans. In more practical terms, the content includes: · a bibliographic analysis which makes it possible to situate the construction of Brussels' circular economy policy in relation to other neighboring and non-neighboring territories; · A regional metabolic assessment offering a new way of approaching materials, energy and water on the territory, linking the incoming, stored and outgoing flows of the territory. The assessment also constitutes a tool base for monitoring the effectiveness of resource use in the territory; · An assessment and the definition of actions for the improvement of flows selected by Brussels Envionnement and their value chains for new projects or studies to be driven by Brussels actors; · The rendering of the participatory dynamic that has allowed to start a reflection and definition of intentions regarding the development of the circular economy on a Brussels scale. The present study thus constitutes a new starting point in the work of optimizing flows of materials, water and energy in the Brussels regional territory in a circular economy perspective based on a theoretical basis related to concrete applications. who want to be as realistic as they are practical. Cet ouvrage sur le métabolisme de la Région Bruxelles-Capitale présente, sur base d’expériences étrangères, un bilan de flux de matières et d’énergie à l’échelle de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale pour l’année 2011 ainsi que des pistes d’amélioration concrètes sur certaines chaînes de valeur dans une perspective d’économie circulaire. Il ouvre également des perspectives de développement du programme régional en économie circulaire initiée par le gouvernement bruxellois sur les plans opérationnels, réglementaires, économiques que socio-économiques. En termes plus pratiques, le contenu reprend: · une analyse bibliographique qui permet de situer la construction de la politique d’économie circulaire de Bruxelles en regard d’autres territoires voisins et non-voisins; · un bilan métabolique régional offrant une nouvelle manière d’aborder les matières, l’énergie et l’eau sur le territoire, car mettant en lien les flux entrants, stockés et sortants du territoire. Le bilan constitue aussi une base d’outil pour le suivi de l’efficacité d’utilisation des ressources sur le territoire; · une évaluation et la définition d’actions pour l’amélioration de flux sélectionnés par Bruxelles Envionnement et leurs chaînes de valeurs pour de nouveaux projet ou études à impulser par les acteurs bruxellois; · le rendu de la dynamique participative qui a permis de démarrer une réflexion et définition d’intentions quant au développement de l’économie circulaire à l’échelle de Bruxelles . La présente étude constitue donc un nouveau point de départ dans le travail d’optimisation des flux de matières, eau et énergie sur le territoire régional bruxellois dans une perspective d’économie circulaire en s’appuyant sur une base théorique en lien avec des applications concrètes qui se veulent aussi réalistes que pratiques. | Metabolism of Brussels-Capital Region: identification of flows, economic actors and ... | Bruxelles Environnement and BATir and EcoRes and ICEDD | Report | reports | 2015 |
Case Study
Circular Economy
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Review Paper
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Urban household solid waste generation and collection in Beijing, China The household solid waste generated in Beijing is increasing quickly due to rapid population growth and lifestyle changes. However, there are no rigorous data on the generation and collection of recyclable household solid waste. The Beijing city government needs this information to establish policies and make plans for waste management. To address this need for information, we undertook the first comprehensive study of recyclable household solid waste for Beijing. We surveyed 500 families across sixteen districts in Beijing. We also analyzed the quantities, spatial distribution and categories of collected waste handled by permanent recycling centers and curbside recyclers for 340 of the 9797 city-defined residential areas of Beijing. From our results, we estimate that the total quantity of recyclable household solid waste was 1.805 million tons in 2013, and 72% of that was collected. The main generation categories were waste paper (24.4%), waste glass bottles (23.7%) and waste furniture (14.3%). In addition, we estimate there were 5.7 thousand permanent recycling centers and 22.8 thousand curbside recyclers in Beijing. The recycling rate of solid waste generated by urban households in Beijing was not low but varied significantly among different types of solid waste. The collecting capability of permanent recycling centers was inadequate. Urban residents had low awareness of some categories of solid waste recycling. The statistical system for waste management needed to be improved. Based on the problems mentioned above, the implications for solid waste management were discussed. We suggest accelerating the construction of permanent recycling centers and innovating the recycling modes. Meanwhile, it is also necessary to strengthen education on solid waste recycling and improve the recycling information statistics. | Urban household solid waste generation and collection in Beijing, China | Tingting Liu, Yufeng Wu, Xi Tian, Yu Gong | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Urban
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| Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart City SRS For half a century, system scientists have relied on urban metabolism (UM) as a pragmatic framework to support the needed transition toward sustainable urban development. It has been suggested that information and communication technology (ICT) and, more specifically, smart cities can be leveraged in this transition. Given the recent advances in smart cities, smart urban metabolism (SUM) is considered a technology-enabled evolution of the UM framework, overcoming some of its current limitations. Most significantly, the SUM framework works at high temporal (up to real-time) and spatial (down to household/individual) resolutions. This article presents the first implementation of SUM in the Smart City Stockholm Royal Seaport R&D project; it further analyzes barriers and discusses the potential long-term implications of the findings. Four key performance indicators (KPIs) are generated in real time based on the integration of heterogeneous, real-time data sources. These are kilowatt-hours per square meter, carbon dioxide equivalents per capita, kilowatt-hours of primary energy per capita, and share of renewables percentage. These KPIs are fed back on three levels (household, building, and district) on four interfaces, developed for different audiences. The most challenging barrier identified was accessing and integrating siloed data from the different data owners (utilities, building owners, and so forth). It is hard to overcome unless a significant value is perceived. A number of long-term opportunities were described in the SUM context; among those, it is envisioned that SUM could enable a new understanding of the causalities that govern urbanism and allow citizens and city officials to receive feedback on the system consequences of their choices. | Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart ... | Shahrokni, Hossein and Årman, Louise and Lazarevic, David and Nilsson, Anders and Brandt, Nils | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Stockholm
Sweden
Urban
|
| Towards Urban Resource Flow Estimates in Data Scarce Environments: The Case of African Cities Data sourcing challenges in African nations have led many African urban infrastructure developments to be implemented with minimal scientific backing to support their success. In some cases this may directly impact a city ' s ability to reach service delivery, economic growth and human development goals , let alone the city's ability to protect ecosystem services upon which it relies. As an attempt to fill this gap, this paper describes an exploratory process used to determine city - level demographic, economic and resource flow data for African nations. The approach makes use of scaling and clustering techniques to form acceptable and utilizable representations of selected African cities. Variables that may serve as the strongest predictors for resource consumption i n- tensity in African nations and cities were explored, in particular, the aspects of the Koppen Cl i- mate Zones, estimates of average urban income and GDP, and the influence of urban primacy. It is expected that the approach examined will provide a step towards estimating and understanding African cities and their resource profiles. | Towards Urban Resource Flow Estimates in Data Scarce Environments: The ... | Currie, Paul and Lay-Sleeper, Ethan and Fernandez, John E and Kim, Jenny and Musango, Josephine Kaviti | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Data Quality
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Urban
|
| Theodor Weyl: A Pioneer of Urban Metabolism Studies A discussion between researchers in the field of industrial ecology led to the question of whether Wolman's work on the urban metabolism (UM) of cities in 1965 was the first to quantify material flows of urban societies. This forum communication retrieves an apparently lost, but remarkable, work in the development of material flow analysis (MFA). That work is known as the 'Essay on the metabolism of Berlin,' published in 1894 by the renowned German chemist and medical doctor, Theodor Weyl. To investigate the nutrition situation among the population in the city of Berlin, Weyl investigated the nutrient flows discharged from the city and compared these values to the nutrient consumption through food intake. The title, approach, and wording make his work a forerunner of UM studies today. This forum contribution aims to introduce Weyl's work to an interdisciplinary international readership. Therefore, we (1) give a brief overview of Weyl's professional life, (2) summarize his study based on the German article, and (3) conclude with a discussion of the relevance of his study for the tool, MFA, and the concept of UM today. A major difference between his work and contemporary studies on UM is the motivation of the author. Weyl's aim was not to highlight the problems associated with excessive human consumption of resources and pollution of the environment, but to investigate the nutrition situation of a society with a significant degree of malnutrition. The existence of the latter, particularly in developing countries, makes Weyl's study still relevant. | Theodor Weyl: A Pioneer of Urban Metabolism Studies | Lederer, Jakob and Kral, Ulrich | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Urban
|
| Toward Social Material Flow Analysis: On the Usefulness of Boundary Objects in Urban Mining Research Material flow analysis (MFA) has been an effective tool to identify the scale of physical activity, the allocation of materials across economic sectors for different purposes, and to identify inefficiencies in production systems or in urban contexts. However, MFA relies on ignoring the social drivers of those flows to be able to perform its calculations. In many cases therefore, it remains detached from the processes (e.g., urban) that underpin them. This becomes a problem when the purpose of research is to inform the design of detailed recycling schemes, for which micro-level practice knowledge on how material flows are mediated by human agency is needed. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how a particular social science approach, namely, infrastructure studies (IS), can be combined with MFA to enhance the latter's potential as a decision support tool. To achieve a successful combination between IS and MFA, the object of inquiry must be carefully defined to function as a ‘boundary object,' which allows academic approaches to work together without the need for consensus. This approach is illustrated with a case study example in urban mining research that assesses the hibernating stock of subsurface urban infrastructure in Norrköping, Sweden. It provides an example of how a well-calibrated MFA and a complementary social science approach can provide hands-on advice for private as well as public actors in a local and place-specific context. The article aims to advance the integration of social science and the study of the physical economy to contribute to the emerging field of social industrial ecology. | Toward Social Material Flow Analysis: On the Usefulness of Boundary ... | Wallsten, Björn | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Aluminum
Case Study
Copper
Infrastructure studies (IS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Single point in time
Steel
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The strategy good food: "towards a sustainable food system in the Brussels Capital Region" The issue of nutrition and the sustainability of food is growing into a major challenge at global and local level. This also applies to the Brussels-Capital Region with its tight territory, its 1,175,000 inhabitants and 330,000 commuters that need to be fed, and that under good conditions: healthy, high-quality and affordable food with a limited impact on the environment in general and the environment. climate and natural resources in particular. The Good Food strategy "towards a sustainable food system" in the Brussels-Capital Region has the ambition to put the food issue at the center of the Brussels urban dynamics. This is an important issue for society and an economic, social and environmental challenge, while preserving our common heritage: enjoyment and good food. Some experiments show us the way. What we need today is real nutritional policy dynamics to address this issue more effectively. De kwestie van voeding en de duurzaamheid van voeding is bezig uit te groeien tot een grote uitdaging op mondiaal en lokaal niveau. Dat geldt ook voor het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest met zijn krappe grondgebied, zijn 1.175.000 inwoners en 330.000 pendelaars die gevoed moeten worden, en dat onder goede omstandigheden: gezonde, hoogkwalitatieve en betaalbare voeding met een beperkte impact op het milieu in het algemeen en het klimaat en de natuurlijke rijkdommen in het bijzonder. De Good Food-strategie "naar een duurzaam voedingssysteem" in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest heeft als ambitie de voedingskwestie centraal te stellen in de Brusselse stadsdynamiek. Het gaat om een belangrijke kwestie voor de samenleving en een economische, sociale en milieu-uitdaging, waarbij ons gemeenschappelijke erfgoed behouden moet blijven: genieten en lekker eten. Enkele experimenten wijzen ons de weg. Wat we vandaag nodig hebben, is een echte voedingsbeleidsdynamiek om deze kwestie sterker te kunnen aanpakken. | The strategy good food: "towards a sustainable food system in ... | Céline Fremault | Report | reports | 2015 |
Food
Report
Urban
|
| Urban Economies Resource Productivity and Decoupling: Metabolism Trends of 1996--2011 in Sweden, Stockholm, and Gothenburg Resource productivity and evidence of economic decoupling were investigated on the basis of the time series in 1996-2011 of material flow analysis for Sweden, Stockholm, and Gothenburg. In the three cases, absolute reductions in CO2 emissions by about 20% were observed, energy consumption per capita decreased, while gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew. The energy consumption of the residential and public sectors decreased drastically, while the transport energy consumption is still growing steadily. Decoupling of the economy as a whole (i.e., including materials) is not yet happening at any scale. The domestic material consumption (DMC) continues to increase, in parallel with the GDP. The rate of increase for DMC is slower than that for GDP in both Stockholm and Sweden as a whole (i.e., relative decoupling). The metabolism of the cities does not replicate the national metabolism, and the two cities each have their own distinct metabolism profiles. As a consequence, policy implications for each of the case studies were suggested. In general, because of the necessarily different roles of the two cities in the national economy, generic resource productivity benchmarks, such as CO2 per capita, should be avoided in favor of sectorial benchmarks, such as industry, transport, or residential CO2 per capita. In addition, the share of the city impacts caused by the provision of a service for the rest of the country, such as a port, could be allocated to the national economy. | Urban Economies Resource Productivity and Decoupling: Metabolism Trends of 1996--2011 ... | Kalmykova, Yuliya and Rosado, Leonardo and Patrício, João | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Decoupling
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Gothenburg
National
Stockholm
Sweden
Time series
Urban
|
| Fluxes of urban pollution from the city of Naples (IT) A super-site for the measurement of atmospheric pollutants from urban sources has been established in Naples where the complex layout of the coasts and surrounding mountains favours the development of combined sea breeze upslope winds and the evolution of return flows with several layers of pollutants and subsidence. The metropolitan area of Naples has one of the highest population densities in Europe with an important impact in terms of emissions associated with diesel/gasoline exhaust, industrial emissions, agricultural burning and waste disposal problem. In the super-site, located at the meteorological observatory of San Marcellino, an eddy covariance tower has been installed recently on the rooftop of the building: a fast response ultrasonic anemometer (Gill WindMaster) has been mounted on a 10-m mast, alongside three insulated inlet lines through which the air is sampled for reactive, non reactive gases and particulate. The height of the terrace is on average 35 m above the irregular street level, resulting in an overall measuring height of 45 m. Mixing ratios of CO2, CH4 and H2O are measured by an infrared spectrometer (10 Hz, Los Gatos Research); O3 mixing ratios are measured by a fast analyser (10Hz, FOS Sextant) for the calculation of fluxes, and referred to concentrations measured by a slower analyser (2B-Technologies, 205). NO and NOx are continuously quantified (1 Hz) using a NOx analyzer Eco Physics model (CLD 88p) associated with a photolytic converter (PLC 860). Size segregated aerosol are measured by gravimetric method at an hourly/daily frequency through a SWAM 5A Dual Channel (PM10 and PM2.5, FAI Instruments). A faster optical particle counter (4 Hz, FAI Instruments) allows the estimate of fluxes - as well as concentrations - of 22 classes of particles diameter. All analysers outputs are synchronised with the sonic anemometer through a common acquisition at 10 Hz using a CR3000 datalogger (Campbell Scientific). A full weather station is also available as ancillary measurements at the site including two webcams to record exceptional events to aid interpretation of the results. The fluxes are representative of varying footprint source areas, covering the historical centre of Naples, the harbour, and some main traffic arteries of the city. Preliminary results show that, during a stable event in the month of November, the mean urban levels of CO2 are between 420-520 ppm; the mean levels of CH4 span between 1.85-2.48 ppm, and the O3 levels are extremely variable, between 2 and 62 ppb. These follow NOx abundance, with values ranging between 0.5 and 84 ppb for NO, and 5 and 29 ppb for NO2, with an average NO2/NO ratio around 30%. Daily PM10 levels vary between 18 and 55 ?g/m3, and PM2.5 between 12 and 47 ?g/m3. The largest concentrations were measured from air coming from the harbour, coinciding with the presence of cruise ships. The year-long planned measurements will allow to establish relationships between the fluxes of greenhouse gases and the other pollutant species measured, to investigate the controls of the emission and provide relative emission factors for the urban sources. | Fluxes of urban pollution from the city of Naples (IT) | D. Famulari, I. Russo, R. Vuolo, G. Tirimberio, P. Di Tommasi, A. Esposito, G. Agrillo, M. Tosca, B. Gioli, E. Magliulo, A. Mazzarella, R. Viola, A. Riccio, A. Zaldei, P. Toscano | Presentation | multimedia | 2015 |
Naples
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism and Quality of Life in Informal Areas The 21st century is known as the century of urbanization. Numerous debates are currently taking place to define cities and what they should aspire to be. A number of terms have appeared in this arena,such as sustainable city, eco-city and green city to name a few. However, the main question remains how to measure the performance of a city in regards to these aims. In addition, it is vital to note that major urbanization activities take part in cities of the developing world, where informalization is synonym to urbanization, thus necessitating a profound study of informal areas and their potential role in achieving sustainable cities. This paper studies how a city performs in terms of consuming and producing resources and how they flow through its various systems, described as urban metabolism. The paper particularly discusses how informal areas perform regarding their metabolism, focusing on water flow through these areas as a priority identified by the residents. Imbaba district, one of the largest informal areas in Cairo, is investigated as a case study to determine the actual quality of life of local residents and their ecological footprint and to provide practical insights. The whole process depends on a multidisciplinary participatory research where the citizens and local community based organization are the focal point. In addition, the process depends on open source data and data sharing as a way to empower local communities to identify their needs and issues and hence their appropriate interventions. This is conducted through questionnaires and interviews to identify what the current conditions and processes in informal areas provide for the residents. The paper concludes with identifying points of leakages in the resources flows and the possible interventions to improve the quality of life in the area while maintaining an efficient use of local resources and minimizing the impact of urbanization of the ecological footprint of cities. This will assist cities to become more resilient in the face of water scarcity, and provide a more vibrant life for its residents. | Urban Metabolism and Quality of Life in Informal Areas | Attia, Sahar; Khalil, Heba Allah E. | Conference Paper | None | 2015 |
Cairo
Case Study
Egypt
Informal
Urban
Water
|
| Urban-Scale Material Flow Analysis in a South African Context: A Cape Town Feasibility Study Urban-scale Material Flow Analyses (MFAs) in the global south provide unique challenges compared to national MFAs and to urban MFAs in the north. In order to determine the feasibility of undertaking an urban-scale MFA in the global south, this dissertation sets out to undertake an MFA on Cape Town, and thoroughly analyze the data collection process, document the challenges, and interpret data quantity and quality. Data were found for nearly all flows defined in the Eurostat methodology, but only for the most recent of three consecutive years under study. Data quality is challenged by high variance in reliability of sources, difficulty in obtaining documents, additional work required to process the data, lack of data on informal or illegal flows, and the scattered distribution of sources. Data collection took 345 hours during a period of 22 and involved interaction with a total of 325 contacts and 86 documents. The principal activities were related to contacting and interacting with people. Most time was spent on e-mailing and meeting people, and significant time was furthermore spent on transportation to and from meetings. Not all time was spent effectively and efficiently. Chasing unreliable data and unproductive cross-checking were the principal culprits. Despite the challenges, the quantity and quality of data are of a sufficient level to provide interesting insights into the urban metabolism for Cape Town, and undertaking this kind of urban-scale MFA is thus deemed feasible. Once a time-consuming, initial MFA has identified valuable and reliable sources, periodic repetition should be relatively uncomplicated. Through government involvement or industry cooperation, data collection and data sharing with a few key stakeholders can make regular urban MFA reporting a feasible reality. This work shows who those key stakeholders are and how researchers and government can undertake and improve future urban MFA studies - not only on Cape Town but also on other regions and cities in South Africa. | Urban-Scale Material Flow Analysis in a South African Context: A ... | Paul Hoekman | Thesis | theses | 2015 |
Cape Town
EUROSTAT (must be removed)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
South Africa
Urban
|
| Melbourne’s foodbowl: Now and at seven million Melbourne is located at the centre of a highly productive agricultural area – it is a city surrounded by its own foodbowl. This report from the Foodprint Melbourne project explores the capacity of Melbourne’s foodbowl to feed Greater Melbourne now and with a projected population of 7 million in 2050. It is the first project of its kind in Australia to model the capacity of a city foodbowl and the impact of urban sprawl on production in the foodbowl. The key findings of this research include: • Melbourne’s foodbowl includes multiple relatively small areas of food production scattered around the city fringe • Melbourne’s foodbowl produces a wide variety of fresh foods, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables, but also eggs and chicken meat, and some beef, lamb, pork and dairy • Melbourne’s foodbowl produces around 47% of the vegetables grown in Victoria and around 8% of fruit • Highly perishable foods, such as leafy greens and berries, are typically grown in the inner foodbowl, close to the city. The outer foodbowl produces a more diverse range of foods that includes fewer perishable foods, such as fruit and vegetables, but more livestock products and some oilseeds • Melbourne’s population is predicted to grow to at least 7 million by 2050, and Melbourne will require 60% more food to meet the population’s needs • By 2050, around 16% of the farmland in Melbourne’s foodbowl could be lost if current urban density trends continue, including up to 77% of farmland in the inner foodbowl • Melbourne’s foodbowl currently produces enough food to meet around 41% of the food needs of Greater Melbourne’s population, but by 2050 urban sprawl could reduce the capacity of the city’s foodbowl, so that it can only produce enough food to meet 18% of the city’s food needs • Melbourne’s foodbowl currently produces enough vegetables to meet 82% of Greater Melbourne’s needs, but by 2050, urban sprawl could reduce the capacity of the foodbowl to meet Greater Melbourne’s vegetable needs to around 21% • If Melbourne is able to accommodate the predicted population increase in a way that contains urban sprawl and retains the city’s capacity for peri-urban food production, Melbourne’s foodbowl could contribute to a more resilient city food supply in the face of increasing climate pressures on food production | Melbourne’s foodbowl: Now and at seven million | Sheridan, J., Larsen, K. and Carey, R. | Report | reports | 2015 |
Australian Stocks and Flows Framework (ASFF)
Case Study
Food
Future Scenario
Scenario analysis
Urban
|
| Mass, energy, and emergy analysis of the metabolism of Macao Urban metabolism analysis has become an important tool for the study of urban ecosystems. The metabolism of a city can be seen as the processes by which the city transforms the materials and energy it requires to sustain its socioeconomic activity. In the present study, we analyzed the anabolic and catabolic flows that occur during Macao's urbanization processes. Macao is a tourist city with a dense population, but is short on natural resources; thus, most of its life-support services depend on resource imports from outside its system. We used mass, energy, and emergy analysis to quantify the metabolic processes that occurred in Macao in 2013. Macao's anabolic and catabolic density both increased to high levels due to a tremendous influx of visitors in 2013. By employing systems ecology based on mass, energy, and emergy metrics, we were able to quantitatively describe the city's resource metabolism. We found that by relying on a large amount of inflows to support anabolism compared with catabolic flows, Macao was able to absorb large amounts of negative-entropy materials, and that these flows of resources supported both its survival and its booming development. We also found tremendously high heat dissipation, and that after accounting for catabolism, the city retained less than 10% of the total input for anabolism. | Mass, energy, and emergy analysis of the metabolism of Macao | Kampeng Lei and Lu Liu and Dan Hu and Inchio Lou | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
China
Construction Materials
Electricity
Emergy Analysis
Food
Macao
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| An application of system dynamics for evaluating planning alternatives to guide a green industrial transformation in a resource-based city A number of resource-based cities have suffered from unsustainable industrial pathways and aggravated environmental devastation. For such types of cities, especially in developing countries, it is imperative to launch a green industrial transformation that calls for considering more alternatives that involve environmental concerns in the planning process. This study aims to develop a system dynamics model for evaluating different planning alternatives concerning three prominent factors: industrial scale, structure, and efficiency; the findings are expected to assist decision-makers with a wider perspective in retrofitting the industrial system. Linfen, a typical Chinese resource-based city, is taken as a case. The results showed that compared with structure adjustment and technical progress, scale control should be taken as the foremost transformation measure for some cities with more excessive industrial capacities or in even worse environmental situations. For Linfen, the production capacities of its four main industries, i.e., coking, iron making, steel making and coal-power generation, need to be cut down, respectively, by 18.0%, 8.6%, 12.7% and 64.2% compared to the local industrial department's preferred options. Because of its capability to depict sophisticated interactions of environmental issues and industrial factors under diversified circumstances, alternative evaluation with the SD model is of great potential for delivering more integrated knowledge to decision-makers in industrial planning towards green transformation. | An application of system dynamics for evaluating planning alternatives to ... | Kuai, Peng; Li, Wei; Cheng, Runhe; Cheng, Gang | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Energy
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
SO2
Scenario analysis
System dynamics modelling (SDM)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Urban metabolism based on emergy and slack based model: A case study of Beijing, China The key to studying urban sustainable development depends on quantifying stores, efficiencies of urban metabolisms and capturing urban metabolisms’ mechanisms. This paper builds up the metabolic emergy account and quantifies some important concepts of emergy stores. Emphasis is placed on the urban metabolic model based on the slack based model (SBM) method to measure urban metabolic efficiencies. Urban metabolic mechanisms are discussed by using the regression method. By integrating these models, this paper analyzes the urban metabolic development in Beijing from 2001 to 2010. We conclude that the metabolic emergy stores of Beijing increased significantly from 2001 to 2010, with the emergy imported accounting for most of the increase. The metabolic efficiencies in Beijing have improved since the 2008 Olympic Games. The population, economic growth, industrial structures, and environmental governance positively affect the overall urban metabolism, while the land expansion, urbanization and environmentally technical levels hinder the improving of urban metabolic efficiencies. The SBM metabolic method and the regression model based on the emergy analysis provide insights into the urban metabolic efficiencies and the mechanism. They can promote to integrate such concepts into their sustainability analyses and policy decisions. | Urban metabolism based on emergy and slack based model: A ... | Song, Tao; Cai, Jianming; Xu, Hui; Deng, Yu; Niu, Fangqu; Yang, Zhenshan; Du, Shanshan | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism of Recycling and Reusing Food Waste: A Case Study in Taipei City The purpose of this study is to adopt the urban metabolism method to compare bio-waste scenarios of reuse and landfills. The study focuses on food waste (FW) generated from Taipei City to determine what outcomes will result if bio-waste is transformed into energy or material resources. The results show that under the scenario of bio-waste reuse, metabolic efficiency in Taipei increases, e.g., the same amount of resources can be used to produce more products. However, the urban impact also increases due to the bio-waste conversion process. Applying the life cycle assessment method of quantifying the environmental burden for bio-waste conversion technology selection enhances the urban metabolism efficiency of resources in Taipei and reduces the urban impact on the environment. The most environmentally friendly FW conversion technology is composting after pre-treatment of high-temperature cooking. The next most environmentally friendly method is direct composting treatment. This is followed by anaerobic co-digestion with sewage sludge, and the worst option is transforming FW into bio-ethanol. | Urban Metabolism of Recycling and Reusing Food Waste: A Case ... | Tseng, Wei-Lun and Chiueh, Pei-Te | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Food Waste
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Energy and material flows of megacities Understanding the drivers of energy and material flows of cities is important for addressing global environmental challenges. Accessing, sharing, and managing energy and material resources is particularly critical for megacities, which face enormous social stresses because of their sheer size and complexity. Here we quantify the energy and material flows through the world's 27 megacities with populations greater than 10 million people as of 2010. Collectively the resource flows through megacities are largely consistent with scaling laws established in the emerging science of cities. Correlations are established for electricity consumption, heating and industrial fuel use, ground transportation energy use, water consumption, waste generation, and steel production in terms of heating-degree-days, urban form, economic activity, and population growth. The results help identify megacities exhibiting high and low levels of consumption and those making efficient use of resources. The correlation between per capita electricity use and urbanized area per capita is shown to be a consequence of gross building floor area per capita, which is found to increase for lower-density cities. Many of the megacities are growing rapidly in population but are growing even faster in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and energy use. In the decade from 2001-2011, electricity use and ground transportation fuel use in megacities grew at approximately half the rate of GDP growth. | Energy and material flows of megacities | Kennedy, Christopher A. and Stewart, Iain and Facchini, Angelo and Cersosimo, Igor and Mele, Renata and Chen, Bin and Uda, Mariko and Kansal, Arun and Chiu, Anthony and Kim, Kwi-gon and Dubeux, Carolina and Lebre La Rovere, Emilio and Cunha, Bruno and Pin | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Bangkok
Beijing
Buenos Aires
Delhi
Dhaka
Electricity
Energy Balance
Fossil Fuels
Guangzhou
Istanbul
Jakarta
Karachi
Kolkata
Lagos
London
Los Angeles
Manila
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Mexico City
Moscow
New York
Osaka
Paris
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
Seoul
Shanghai
Shenzhen
Single point in time
Steel
Tehran
Tokyo
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
|
| Mercury emissions by Beijing׳s fossil energy consumption: Based on environmentally extended input-output analysis Fossil energy burning is one of the most important sources of atmospheric mercury emissions, which poses great threats to both environment and human health. Urban regions are dominant energy consumers; however, the information on the resultant mercury emissions in urban regions has been lacking. Therefore, in light of environmentally extended input-output analysis, this study used Beijing as a case to investigate embodied (direct plus indirect) mercury emissions induced by fossil energy consumption in urban regions. The results show that embodied mercury emissions caused by Beijing׳s fossil energy consumption amounted to 5.86 tonnes, which is over 1.5 times the direct emissions, indicating that the conventional direct emission accounting method will lead to significant emission leakage. Coal combustion takes the major responsibility for energy-related mercury emissions. As a net importer of embodied mercury emissions, Beijing avoided a considerable amount of mercury emissions. Sectors like construction which play key role in embodied mercury emissions are also identified in this study. To comprehensively reduce mercury emissions from energy consumption the Beijing government should devote efforts to develop clean coal technology and high efficiency mercury removal devices, shift investment from infrastructure construction to tertiary industries and optimize green consumption among the residents, especially the urban residents. The method and findings may be useful for compilation of overall urban mercury emissions inventory as well as have important policy implications for global cities to control mercury emissions. | Mercury emissions by Beijing׳s fossil energy consumption: Based on environmentally ... | J.S. Li and G.Q. Chen and T. Hayat and A. Alsaedi | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Emissions
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Mercury
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Analysis of High-Resolution Utility Data for Understanding Energy Use in Urban Systems: The Case of Los Angeles, California Urban metabolism provides a framework to understand resource flows into cities and waste flows out. Its potential has been hampered by the lack of good disaggregated data. This article presents energy-use findings for the residential sector for the city of Los Angeles based on census-block-level aggregation of address-level electricity use obtained from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. City or county billing data by customer class over time can enable empirical tracking of energy conservation and efficiency programs by different customer classes, and matched to census information and county tax assessor data about building vintage, size, and type can provide information important for rate setting, for example, or energy conservation and efficiency program investments. We report on median electricity demand and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions and expenditures at three geographical aggregations: city council district (15 in total); neighborhood (114 in total); and census block group (2,538 in total). We find that the ratio of median annual demand between highest- and lowest-tier users is 26 at the census-block group level, but only 2.2 at the city council district level, demonstrating that spatial aggregation significantly masks the degree of variation that may be observed. We also show how such data can enable the description of energy to develop energy disclosure thresholds that reflect a city's morphology. In contrast to New York City's 50,000-square-foot reporting threshold, to capture half of Los Angeles' electricity consumption, the threshold for reporting would have to be 5,000 square feet. | Analysis of High-Resolution Utility Data for Understanding Energy Use in ... | Pincetl, Stephanie and Graham, Robert and Murphy, Sinnott and Sivaraman, Deepak | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Data Quality
Electricity
Energy Accounting
Infra-urban
Los Angeles
Multi-scale
Research and Analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
United States
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism: Measuring the city's contribution to sustainable development Urban metabolism refers to the assessment of the amount of resources produced and consumed by urban ecosystems. It has become an important tool to understand how the development of one city causes impacts to the local and regional environment and to support a more sustainable urban design and planning. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to measure the changes in material and energy use occurred in the city of Curitiba (Brazil) between the years of 2000 and 2010. Results reveal better living conditions and socioeconomic improvements derived from higher resource throughput but without complete disregard to environmental issues. Food intake, water consumption and air emissions remained at similar levels; energy use, construction materials and recycled waste were increased. The paper helps illustrate why it seems more adequate to assess the contribution a city makes to sustainable development than to evaluate if one single city is sustainable or not. | Urban metabolism: Measuring the city's contribution to sustainable development | Leonardo S. Conke and Tainá L. Ferreira | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Construction
Emissions
Energy
Energy Accounting
Food
Food, Energy, Water (FEW)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
|
| Uncertainty in Material Flow Analysis Indicators at Different Spatial Levels Material flow analysis (MFA) is a tool for research and decision support in environmental policy and management. In order to promote the use of MFA at different spatial scales, a quantification of the uncertainty in nationwide, regional, and urban MFA methodologies is provided. In particular, the impact of the input data quality on the main MFA indicators is analyzed and the sources and extent of uncertainties for different spatial scales are listed. The types, origin, and extent of the errors are described in detail and several imputation methods are explained and evaluated. By introducing a novel approach to account measurement errors in data sets with 'very few details on the measurement errors,' this article aims at contributing to the development of a standardized method to account for the uncertainty in MFA studies. This study uses the time series of MFA data for 1996-2011 at three spatial scales—nationwide (Sweden), regional (the Stockholm Region), and metropolitan (Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo)—to determine how propagation of measurement errors affects the MFA results. The following MFA indicators were studied: direct material input; domestic processed output; and domestic material consumption. Generally, availability decreased as the spatial scale was lowered, whereas data errors increased. In the specific case of Sweden, the data on freight transport by rail and on waste produced by economic activities at the regional and metropolitan level should be improved. | Uncertainty in Material Flow Analysis Indicators at Different Spatial Levels | Patrício, João and Kalmykova, Yuliya and Rosado, Leonardo and Lisovskaja, Vera | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Indicators - general
Method
Multi-scale
National
Single point in time
Sub-national
Time series
UM review paper import
Uncertainty
Urban
Urban Metabolism Analyst Model (UMan)
Zotero import
|
| Evolution of the energy intensity of the Brussels Region In recent years, an improvement in energy intensity could be observed for the various sectors. Depending on the variables considered, this improvement was more or less important. The explanatory factors may differ for the different sectors, but the balance sheet is currently encouraging. Once the climate effect has been neutralized, the evolution of consumption can also be attributed to other cyclical evolutions, including those associated with prices on the energy markets. On the other hand, the evolution of consumption is also influenced by basic trends, such as: • the evolution of the population, its standard of living and its consumption habits, and the evolution of the housing stock; • the evolution of economic activity (production, building stock, ...) and the associated employment; • the evolution of the size and quality of the equipment of families and businesses (vehicle fleet, electrical and electronic devices, ...); • the effect of forced (for example through regulations) energy-saving behaviors or voluntary (through becoming more aware of the residents or managers of the buildings) energy-saving measures. In de voorbije jaren kon een verbetering van de energie-intensiteit worden waargenomen voor de verschillende sectoren. Naargelang de beschouwde variabelen was deze verbetering meer of minder belangrijk. De verklarende factoren verschillen wellicht voor de verschillende sectoren maar de balansis op dit moment eerder bemoedigend. Zodra het klimaateffect is geneutraliseerd, is de evolutie van het verbruik ook toe te schrijven aan andere conjuncturele evoluties, waaronder degene die samenhangen met de prijzen op de energiemarkten. De evolutie van het verbruik wordt anderzijds ook beïnvloed door basistrends, zoals: • de evolutie van de bevolking, haar levensstandaard en haar verbruiksgewoonten, en de evolutie van het woningenpark; • de evolutie van de economische activiteit (productie, gebouwenpark, ...) en de hiermee gepaard gaande werkgelegenheid; • de evolutie van de omvang en kwaliteit van de uitrusting van de gezinnen en de ondernemingen (voertuigenpark, elektrische en elektronische toestellen, ...); • het effect van opgedrongen (bijvoorbeeld door verordeningen) energiebesparende gedragingen of vrijwillige (door het bewuster worden van de bewoners of beheerders van de gebouwen) energiebesparende maatregelen. | Evolution of the energy intensity of the Brussels Region | Vanderpoorten, Annick; Verbeke, Véronique | Report | reports | 2015 |
Energy (sector)
Urban
|
| Energy balance of the Brussels Capital Region (Year 2013) There is no abstract available. | Energy balance of the Brussels Capital Region (Year 2013) | Vanderpoorten, A., Verbeke, V. | Report | reports | 2015 |
Energy (sector)
Energy Balance
Urban
|
| A political-industrial ecology of water supply infrastructure for Los Angeles This paper develops a political-industrial ecology approach to explore the urban water metabolism of Los Angeles, which sprawls for thousands of miles across the American West. Conventional approaches to quantify urban carbon footprints rely on global, national, or regional averages and focus narrowly on improving the efficiency of flows of resources moving into and out of the city. These approaches tend to 'black box' the methodologies that guide the carbon emissions calculus and the social, political, ecological, and economic processes that perpetually reshape nature-society metabolisms. To more fully delineate the water supply metabolism of Los Angeles, this paper combines theory and method from urban political ecology and industrial ecology. Specifically, we infuse spatiality into the traditional life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach by coupling it with GIS. By illustrating how decisions about system boundaries, emissions factors, and other building blocks fundamentally shape the end result, this intervention at once destabilizes and advances the LCA enterprise. Then, using interviews and historical analysis, we provide a critical analysis of how LA's various water supply infrastructures came to be and illustrate how a sustainable transition based on a narrow carbon calculus is problematized by historical circumstances and strategic (and often conflicting) new paradigms to secure water resources. The political-industrial ecology approach offers valuable insights into the spatiality of material metabolisms and the socio-political processes (re)shaping the relations between nature and society. | A political-industrial ecology of water supply infrastructure for Los Angeles | Cousins, Joshua J. and Newell, Joshua P. | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Political-Industrial Ecology (PIE)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| The Baltimore School of Urban Ecology: Space, Scale and Time for the Study of Cities The first “urban century” in history has arrived: a majority of the world's population now resides in cities and their surrounding suburbs. Urban expansion marches on, and the planning and design of future cities requires attention to such diverse issues as human migration, public health, economic restructuring, water supply, climate and sea-level change, and much more. This book draws on two decades of pioneering social and ecological studies in Baltimore to propose a new way to think about cities and their social, political, and ecological complexity that will apply in many different parts of the world. The aim is to give fresh perspectives on how to study, build, and manage cities in innovative and sustainable ways. | The Baltimore School of Urban Ecology: Space, Scale and Time ... | Grove, J.M. and Cadenasso, M. and Pickett, S.T.A. and Burch, W.R., Jr. and Machlis, G.E. | Book | academic | 2015 |
Urban
Urban Ecology
|
| Urban energy consumption: Different insights from energy flow analysis, input-output analysis and ecological network analysis Energy consumption has always been a central issue for sustainable urban assessment and planning. Different forms of energy analysis can provide various insights for energy policy making. This paper brought together three approaches for energy consumption accounting, i.e., energy flow analysis (EFA), input-output analysis (IOA) and ecological network analysis (ENA), and compared their different perspectives and the policy implications for urban energy use. Beijing was used to exemplify the different energy analysis processes, and the 42 economic sectors of the city were aggregated into seven components. It was determined that \{EFA\} quantifies both the primary and final energy consumption of the urban components by tracking the different types of fuel used by the urban economy. \{IOA\} accounts for the embodied energy consumption (direct and indirect) used to produce goods and services in the city, whereas the control analysis of \{ENA\} quantifies the specific embodied energy that is regulated by the activities within the city's boundary. The network control analysis can also be applied to determining which economic sectors drive the energy consumption and to what extent these sectors are dependent on each other for energy. So-called 'controlled energy' is a new concept that adds to the analysis of urban energy consumption, indicating the adjustable energy consumed by sectors. The integration of insights from all three accounting perspectives further our understanding of sustainable energy use in cities. | Urban energy consumption: Different insights from energy flow analysis, input-output ... | Shaoqing Chen and Bin Chen | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Energy Flow Analysis (EFA)
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Urban
|
| The ferrous find: Counting iron and steel stocks in China's economy A detailed understanding of material stocks in use is essential for anticipating future scrap availability, identifying critical drivers for material use, and developing strategies for resource efficiency. Here, we present a bottom-up assessment of iron and steel stocks in use in urban and rural China for the years 2000 and 2010, including >250 subcategories of products and components, and grouping them into five main end-use categories (i.e., buildings, infrastructure, domestic appliances, machinery, and transport equipment). The uncertainty range of the steel content per type of stock, a determinant of the accuracy and usefulness of the stock accounting, is probed by multiple means, including sample analysis. Important findings are that (1) iron and steel stocks in China have climbed to 2.4 tonnes/capita (t/cap) in 2010, up from 0.9 t/cap in 2000. The use of reinforced concrete in construction of the urban built environment was the major driver for stock growth; (2) a rural-urban difference was uncovered, with rural iron and steel stocks of approximately 1.1 t/cap and the urban iron and steel stocks of approximately 3.7 t/cap in 2010. Both are, nevertheless, far below the level of 10 to 16 t/cap observed in highly industrialized and urbanized countries. For this reason, further stock increase is foreseeable as urbanization and industrialization proceeds and quality of life improves; (3) nearly half of the steel stocks were embedded in concrete structures, and 23% were located in the countryside. Only a fraction of these stocks are currently recovered at end of life | The ferrous find: Counting iron and steel stocks in China's ... | Wang, Tao, and Müller, Daniel B., and Hashimoto, Senji | Journal Article | academic | 2015 |
China
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Metals
Rural
Single point in time
Uncertainty
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism of Six Asian Cities A streamlined urban metabolism approach based on material flow analyses was applied to six Asian cities—Bangalore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Seoul and Shanghai. This approach provides a better understanding of how the use of natural resources correlates with urban economic activities, and has the potential to make a major contribution to the design of sustainable urban systems and infrastructure. The urban metabolism framework maps the activities of cities from their consumption of materials, the different activities associated with those processes, and the wastes produced. Information generated provides a diagnostic tool for identifying high waste generating or inefficient activities and identifying potential points of policy intervention. The streamlined approach surmounts the lack of city level data, which is often cited as the most significant limitation preventing material flow analysis at the city level. Extension of the methodology to cover more cities can contribute toward creating benchmarks for city typologies. | Urban Metabolism of Six Asian Cities | Paulo Ferrao and João Fumega and Nuno Gomes and Samuel Niza and André Pina and Luis Santos | Report | reports | 2014 |
Abbreviated MFA
Bangalore
Bangkok
Case Study
China
Comparison
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Ho Chi Minh City
India
Manila
Metropolitan
Philippines
Research and Analysis
Seoul
Shanghai
Single point in time
South Korea
Thailand
Urban
Vietnam
|
| Spatial allocation of material flow analysis in residential developments: a case study of Kildare County, Ireland Studies of urban metabolism provide important insights for environmental management of cities, but are not widely used in planning practice due to a mismatch of data scale and coverage. This paper introduces the Spatial Allocation of Material Flow Analysis (SAMFA) model as a potential decision support tool aimed as a contribution to overcome some of these difficulties and describes its pilot use at the county level in the Republic of Ireland. The results suggest that SAMFA is capable of identifying hotspots of higher material and energy use to support targeted planning initiatives, while its ability to visualise different policy scenarios supports more effective multi-stakeholder engagement. The paper evaluates this pilot use and sets out how this model can act as an analytical platform for the industrial ecology-spatial planning nexus. | Spatial allocation of material flow analysis in residential developments: a ... | Roy, Manoj and Curry, Robin and Ellis, Geraint | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Developing a multi-layered indicator set for urban metabolism studies in megacities We introduce a new ‘multi-layered' indicator set for urban metabolism (UM) studies in megacities. The indicator set is designed for gathering information on the definition (spatial boundaries, constituent cities, population, economy), biophysical characteristics (climate, population density, building floor area), and metabolic flows (water, waste, materials, and all types of energy) of megacities. In addition, it addresses the role of utilities in the provision of services and regulatory actions that, along with public governance, may influence (and/or control) the urban metabolism. In the article, we give background context to the growth and development of megacities, their overarching socio-economic issues, and the definition of their boundaries. Two methodologies to define megacity boundaries are compared, showing that the definition of ‘megacity' is not trivial and that further investigation is needed to establish a baseline for comparison of urban metabolism data. Use of the standardized indicator set will ease inter-city comparisons of urban metabolism, whilst enhancing knowledge of megacities and their transformation into sustainable systems. | Developing a multi-layered indicator set for urban metabolism studies in ... | Kennedy, Chris and Stewart, Iain D. and Ibrahim, Nadine and Facchini, Angelo and Mele, Renata | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Indicators - general
Method
Urban
|
| Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions: An Urban Metabolism Approach to Los Angeles This synthesis article presents an overview of an urban metabolism (UM) approach using mixed methods and multiple sources of data for Los Angeles, California. We examine electric energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, and calculate embedded infrastructure life cycle effects, water use and solid waste streams in an attempt to better understand the urban flows and sinks in the Los Angeles region (city and county). This quantification is being conducted to help policy‐makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs, pinpoint best locations for distributed solar generation, and support the development of policies for greater environmental sustainability. It provides a framework to which many more UM flows can be added to create greater understanding of the study area's resource dependencies. Going forward, together with policy analysis, UM can help untangle the complex intertwined resource dependencies that cities must address as they attempt to increase their environmental sustainability. | Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions: An Urban Metabolism Approach to Los ... | Pincetl, S., Chester, M., Circella, G., Fraser, A., Mini, C., Murphy, S., Reyna, J., Sivaraman, D. | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Energy
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Greenhouse Gas Accounting
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
|
| Metabolism of megacities: A review and synthesis of the literature In the past half-century, megacities of more than 10 million people have become a global phenomenon. The need for urban metabolism studies in these giant cities is critical because they consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources. However, the full extent to which the urban metabolism has been documented in megacities is largely unknown. In this paper, we take stock of the metabolism literature in megacities and search for geographical and historical themes therein. We procured more than 100 English-language studies on the energy, material, waste, and water flows in the world's biggest cities, and through review and synthesis of this work, we extracted three generalizations. First, the metabolism of megacities has been investigated for changes across temporal scales (diurnal, monthly, annual), which testifies to the dynamic nature of urban energy and material flows. Second, the metabolism of megacities is equally well documented for changes across spatial scales (local, regional, global), revealing disparities in resource flows and quality of life within and among megacities. Third, literature on the metabolism of megacities in low/middle income regions is characteristically recent, with much of the research produced in the past 10 years and focused primarily on municipal solid waste. The role of the informal sector to help reduce solid waste flows is an important subtheme of that literature. This review will enhance understanding and awareness of the urban metabolism — especially in low/middle income regions—and help to facilitate research into sustainable urban development in megacities. Keywords: urban metabolism, megacity, energy, utilities | Metabolism of megacities: A review and synthesis of the literature | Iain Stewart; Chris Kennedy; Angelo Facchini | Report | reports | 2014 |
Research and Analysis
Review Paper
Urban
|
| Incorporating Bio-Physical Sciences into a Decision Support Tool for Sustainable Urban Planning Deciding upon optimum planning actions in terms of sustainable urban planning involves the consideration of multiple environmental and socio-economic criteria. The transformation of natural landscapes to urban areas affects energy and material fluxes. An important aspect of the urban environment is the urban metabolism, and changes in such metabolism need to be considered for sustainable planning decisions. A spatial Decision Support System (DSS) prototyped within the European FP7-funded project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism), enables accounting for the urban metabolism of planning actions, by exploiting the current knowledge and technology of biophysical sciences. The main aim of the BRIDGE project was to bridge the knowledge and communication gap between urban planners and environmental scientists and to illustrate the advantages of considering detailed environmental information in urban planning processes. The developed DSS prototype integrates biophysical observations and simulation techniques with socio-economic aspects in five European cities, selected as case studies for the pilot application of the tool. This paper describes the design and implementation of the BRIDGE DSS prototype, illustrates some examples of use, and highlights the need for further research and development in the field. | Incorporating Bio-Physical Sciences into a Decision Support Tool for Sustainable ... | Mitraka, Z. and Diamantakis, E. and Chrysoulakis, N. and Castro, E. A. and San Jose, R. and Gonzalez, A. and Blecic, I | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Policy
Urban
|
| Exploring urban mines: Pipe length and material stocks in urban water and wastewater networks Networks for water and wastewater transport represent large capital assets and material stocks within cities. A better understanding of how their material content changes with population and size of the city may help to design networks with lower resource demand and lower construction and maintenance costs. We estimated the total length and mass for the wastewater networks of 25 cities in five different countries using a fractal network model that only requires the cities' size and population as input data. We found that most of the network mass is concentrated in the main trunk lines. The model results showed efficiency of scale: For a catchment area of constant size, both network length and mass per capita would decline if population grew. However, if the population of a city grew while the population density remained constant or decreased (urban sprawl), the per-capita network mass would increase. | Exploring urban mines: Pipe length and material stocks in urban ... | Pauliuk, Stefan, and Govindarajan, Venkatesh, and Bratterbø, Helge, and Müller, Daniel B. | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
City
Geneva
Global
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Oslo
Policy
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
Urban
Wastewater
Water
|
| Stadtentwicklung im Nexus von Ressourcenschonung und Klimaschutz In: Sulzer, Jürg: Stadt stärken - Die Robustheit des Städtischen STADT STÄRKEN fragt aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive nach der Robustheit des Städtischen und sucht nach Möglichkeiten, Städte nachhaltig zu stärken. Angesichts zunehmender Unsicherheiten und raschen gesellschaftlichen Wandels ist auf ein kreatives Zusammenspiel von Einzelaspekten und der Gesamtheit der Stadt zu achten. Statt bekannte Wege zu beschreiten, ist in Alternativen zu denken und zu handeln. Im Band 17 der Reihe Stadtentwicklung und Denkmalpflege werden die Stärken der Stadt ausgeleuchtet, um die besonderen Wohn- und Lebensqualitäten in den Städten neu zu sehen. Der Schlüssel zur Stärkung der europäischen Städte liegt in der Förderung ihrer Urbanität und Dichte. Sparsamer Umgang mit Ressourcen und Reurbanisierung sind Zukunftsaufgaben, welche eine sorgfältige Stadtbaugestaltung voraussetzen. Internationale Experten erörtern in diesem Band neue Ideen zur Nutzungsvielfalt auf engstem Raum und diskutieren, wie Governance gestärkt und produktive Unsicherheiten erzeugt werden können, die zu neuen Allianzen führen. Sie skizzieren Lösungsansätze zur Stadt baugestaltung, zur Qualität städtischen Lebens und zu städtischen Energien, um die Stadt zu fördern und ihre Schönheit auch in Zukunft zu wahren. (the above text, via Google Translate) The robustness of the Municipal CITY STRENGTHS asks from different perspectives according to the robustness of the City and is looking for ways to strengthen sustainable cities. Given increasing uncertainty and rapid social change has to be on a creative interplay of individual aspects and the whole of the city. Instead known paths to tread, is to think in alternatives and to act. In Volume 17 of the series Urban Development and Preservation, the strengths of the city are illuminated to see the special housing and living qualities in cities new. The key to strengthening of European cities is to promote their urbanity and density. Conservation of resources and re-urbanization are the future tasks which require careful urban planning design. International experts discuss in this book new ideas for the use of diversity in a confined space and discuss how governance strengthened and productive uncertainties can be produced, leading to new alliances. Sketch approaches to city building design, the quality of urban life and urban energies to promote the city and to preserve its beauty in the future. | Stadtentwicklung im Nexus von Ressourcenschonung und Klimaschutz | Müller, Daniel B., and et.al | Book Section | academic | 2014 |
City
Policy
Urban
Urban Ecology
|
| The boundaries of urban metabolism: Towards a political–industrial ecology This paper considers the limits and potential of ‘urban metabolism’ to conceptualize city processes. Three ‘ecologies’ of urban metabolism have emerged. Each privileges a particular dimension of urban space, shaped by epistemology, politics, and model-making. Marxist ecologies theorize urban metabolism as hybridized socio-natures that (re)produce uneven outcomes; industrial ecology, as stocks and flows of materials and energy; and urban ecology, as complex socio-ecological systems. We demarcate these scholarly islands through bibliometric analysis and literature review, and draw on cross-domain mapping theory to unveil how the metaphor has become stagnant in each. To reinvigorate this research, the paper proposes the development of political–industrial ecology, using urban metabolism as a boundary metaphor. | The boundaries of urban metabolism: Towards a political–industrial ecology | Newell, Joshua P and Cousins, Joshua J | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Review Paper
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism - Sustainable development of Rotterdam How do the flows of goods, people, waste, biota, energy, food, freshwater, sand and air function in Rotterdam? What influence do these flows have on the quality of life in the city, and how do they relate to spatial developments? Can an insight into the metabolism of Rotterdam help us develop into a sustainable region? And what opportunities are there for a circular economy? This publication details the results of the IABR–PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM. The analyses, the strategies developed and the specific design proposals detailed, provide answers to the questions posed above. The results obtained offer not only the municipality but also other parties in the city specific pointers for continuing to work on the metabolism of Rotterdam. | Urban Metabolism - Sustainable development of Rotterdam | Gemeente Rotterdam and IABR and FABRIC and JCFO and TNO | Book | academic | 2014 |
Food and agriculture
Rotterdam
Urban
|
| Concepts and methodologies for measuring the sustainability of cities In recent decades, better data and methods have become available for understanding the complex functioning of cities and their impacts on sustainability. This review synthesizes the recent developments in concepts and methods being used to measure the impacts of cities on environmental sustainability. It differentiates between a dominant trend in research literature that concentrates on the accounting and allocation of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use to cities and a reemergence of studies that focus on the direct and indirect material and resource flows in cities. The methodological approaches reviewed may consider cities as either producers or consumers, and all recognize that urban environmental impacts can be local, regional, or global. As well as giving an overview of the methodological debates, we examine the implications of the different approaches for policy and the challenges these approaches face in their application in the field. | Concepts and methodologies for measuring the sustainability of cities | Yetano Roche, María and Lechtenböhmer, Stefan and Fischedick, Manfred and Gröne, Marie-Christine and Xia, Chun and Dienst, Carmen | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Urban Metabolism: A Tool for the Sustainability of Cities The population dynamics and urban patterns gleaned from medium and big cities in Latin America are determining critical operations that brake economic growth, undermine development, damage the environment, affect human health and reduce goods and services supply from environmental ecosystems. They are pressure scenarios that involve the risk of exceeding permissible homeostatic limits and adaptability; and therefore, exacerbate their vulnerability when climate change decreases the survival probability of human systems. For this reason, in order to achieve the sustainability and competitiveness of cities, the study of Urban Metabolism becomes a technical, political and economic endeavor that facilitates our understanding of their materials and energy supply networks, seeking the efficiency and effectiveness of transformation processes, as well as reducing the environmental impact of their waste, enabling policy makers to anticipate unwanted events based on present signals. La dinámica poblacional y formas de vida urbana de las medianas y grandes ciudades de Latinoamérica están determinando operaciones críticas que frenan el crecimiento económico, socavan el desarrollo, deterioran el ambiente, afectan la salud de sus residentes y reducen la oferta de bienes y servicios ambientales de los ecosistemas de soporte. Son escenarios de presión con los que se corre el riesgo de exceder los límites permisibles de su homeostasis y adaptabilidad; y por consiguiente, de exacerbar su vulnerabilidad en momentos en que la variabilidad y el cambio climático disminuyen las probabilidades de supervivencia de los sistemas humanos. Por tal motivo, y en aras de coadyuvar con la sustentabilidad y competitividad de la ciudad, el estudio del Metabolismo Urbano se constituye en un esfuerzo técnico, político y económico que facilita el entendimiento de sus redes de abastecimiento de materiales y energía, que busca la eficiencia y eficacia de sus procesos de transformación, así como la minimización del daño ambiental de sus desechos, permitiendo a los gestores de política anticiparse a eventos no deseados con base en las señales del presente. | Urban Metabolism: A Tool for the Sustainability of Cities | Díaz Álvarez, Cristian Julián | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Urban
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| Mineral commodities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa This report describes the mineral commodities in the Western Cape Province focussing on those which are currently economic or potentially economic. A comprehensive database was compiled involving a total of 2461 mineral points representing 37 commodities. Twenty six of these are economic or potentially economic. Some 18 commodities are currently exploited and are dominated by construction materials, namely stone aggregate, brick clay, building sand and gravel, which in 2013, accounted for 155 or 73 per cent of the 211 working mines in the Western Cape. Stone aggregate is exploited from Table Mountain Group sandstone, granite of the Cape Granite Suite and metamorphosed shale (hornfels) of the Malmesbury Group. Resources are enormous. Brick clay is derived from residual clay of the Malmesbury, Gifberg, Kaaimans and Bokkeveld Groups and the Kirkwood Formation over most of the province except the Karoo, where alluvium is exploited on a small scale. Building sand from windblown dunes, hillwash and alluvial sediments is present over most of the province except the northeastern part, which is underlain by Karoo Supergroup sedimentary rocks and dolerite. Active mining is concentrated in the Greater Cape Town area, but the resources are limited with possible alternatives being sourced from crushed sandstone of the Table Mountain Group or from windblown and alluvial sands in southern Namaqualand. Gravel is derived from a variety of rocks and sediments and from ferricrete throughout the province. Limestone and dolomite are important commodites with the former exploited for cement, metallurgical flux, chemicals, water purification, agricultural lime and building lime and the latter for metallurgical flux, agricultural lime and refractories. They occur in the western and southern parts of the province in the Gifberg, Vanrhynsdorp, Malmesbury and Kango Groups with limestone also present in the Prospect Hill, Langebaan, Velddrif, Wankoe and De Hoopvlei Formations. There were 19 working mines in 2013 and the resources are enormous. Alluvial and marine placer diamonds are present in the northwestern part of the province, but only the marine placers in the foreshore northwest of Donkin’s Bay are viable with 9 working operations in 2013. Heavy minerals containing the economic minerals zircon, ilmenite and rutile, occur in beach and aeolian placers along the west coast north of Dwarskersbos. Only two viable deposits have been discovered, the unworked Geelwal Karoo deposit and Namakwa Sands northwest of Lutzville, which has been mined since 1994. Dimension stone in the form of granite is exploited from granite of the Paarl Pluton and from granite of the Namaqualand Metamorphic Province in the northwestern part of the province. There were two working mines in 2013 and resources are large. Silica sand, which is used for glass manufacture and foundry sand, is present in the Philippi, Atlantis and Hopefield areas. It is exploited from single sites in Philippi and Atlantis and resources are large with 315 million tons of silica sand being calculated for Philippi. Bentonite, which is used for soil sealant, drilling mud and wine and fruit-juice decolourants, occurs in lacustrine mudstone of the Kirkwood Formation in five rift-related basins between Robertson and Plettenberg Bay. There were five working mines in 2013 and the resources are large. Plastic clays of Tertiary age, which comprise transported sedimentary clays rich in kaolinite, form several small deposits in the Greater Cape Town area and near Albertinia. They are exploited for use as a plasticiser and strengthener in the brickmaking industry with four mines operational in 2013. There are probably sufficient resources for about 50 years. Gypsum occurs in the northwestern part of the province and in the Whitehill Formation in the Karoo region. In the former region, the grade is high and it was exploited for plaster, cement retarder and soil conditioner with only one mine working at present near Vanrhynsdorp. Resources of about 9 million tons have been calculated. | Mineral commodities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa | Cole, DI and Ngcofe, L and Halenyane, K | Report | reports | 2014 |
Cape Town
Urban
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| Analysis of Egyptian Cities towards Sustainable Urban Metabolism With the rapidly growing population and rapidly depleting resources, environmental alteration and urbanization are now being explored as a catalyst for achieving sustainable development. Egypt as one of the highly urbanized developing countries in the African region is trapped with inefficient use of resources especially in urban centers. In the face of these environmental concerns and high density population; cities are increasingly getting overwhelmed by social, economical, ecological, and urban challenges that need to be considered within the dilemma of sustainable urban development and urban growth in developing countries. Moreover, the increased urbanization of urban centers combined with intense energy demands of developing economies with resource consumption; has driven recognition that the study of urban metabolism is central to achieve sustainable development. Cities now consume resources and produce wastes in amounts that are incommensurate with the populations they contain. So, quantifying the environmental impacts of cities is essential if urbanization of the world‟s growing population is to occur sustainably. Also, an integrated understanding of the urban system of new cities and its sustainability synergies is a must in the unprecedented era of urbanization. The concept of urban metabolism and how it is related to urban sustainability isn‟t new in the field of sustainable urban development. However, based on the current research literature published under this umbrella, there is an application gap of urban metabolism analysis in the Middle East region. In this sense, this paper aims at introducing urban metabolism assessment based on material flow analysis (MFA) to provide a more solid understanding of how new Egyptian cities currently work. For the realization of the different strategies and options for sustainable cities in Egypt, a huge amount of material and non-material resources and management should be utilized. Therefore, the development scenarios have to be comprehensively and carefully studied with regards to the criteria for sustainable urban development. Accordingly, the paper will investigate the urban metabolism assessment through material flow accounting to two metropolitan cities in Egypt to estimate current material and energy intensities in relation to densities and how it can affect the future development of these cities towards sustainable urbanization. With this analysis the paper will provide a potential ground for decision making process for highly dense urban centers and introduce current urban consumption patterns for cities in developing regions. Conference: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies, v2. | Analysis of Egyptian Cities towards Sustainable Urban Metabolism | Nourhan Magdy | Conference Paper | None | 2014 |
Biomass (must be merged with other Biomass)
Cairo
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Construction Materials
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
EUROSTAT (must be removed)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Egypt
Electricity
Emissions (must be merged with Emissions)
Fossil Fuels
Giza
Indicators - general
Minerals
Research and Analysis
Urban
Waste
Water
|
| Resource use in the Chinese building sector: foundations for analyzing urban transition. Around the world, people are moving to cities in order to become wealthy, especially in developing countries undergoing socio-economic transition. This will dramatically change the way that society consumes resources, in terms of both materials and energy. We will need to better understand how resource use changes as development happens in order to focus efforts to reduce that resource use. China is undergoing this transition as it enters the global stage, and with global implications for resource use. The building sector in China is especially resource-intensive, fundamentally driven by the country's urbanization, and plays a prominent role in the Chinese economy, making it a good candidate for the study of how systems adopt sustainable practices. I approach this problem in two ways. The first is quantitative, using k-means statistical clustering on longitudinal resource use data from Chinese statistical yearbooks, in order to identify and compare transitions across provinces in China. In comparing the evolution of the building sector across provinces, my analysis suggests that development pathways are more distinct than discrete development stages. I identify two development pathway 'types' in China. The first is an urban path taken by Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin -- the three most heavily urbanized provinces. All other provinces follow a general business-as-usual path, though I also identify sub-pathways to further differentiate between the other 27 provinces. These development typologies are one means of quantitatively operationalizing the abstract notion of transition. Identifying such pathways may highlight opportunities for learning between provinces within the same path, and one could apply similar methods to other scales of analysis (e.g. urban or national). My second approach is qualitative, driven by interviews conducted primarily in Beijing with various stakeholders in the Chinese building sector. In this analysis, I discuss the particularities of the actors and processes involved in Chinese real estate development, identify opportunities for and barriers to reduced life-cycle energy use in buildings, and describe three distinctive and ongoing sustainability experiments with the potential for significant resource use reductions. This research emphasizes the need for integrated approaches to both research and practice in approaching sustainability transitions, and provides a set of complementary frameworks for their analysis. | Resource use in the Chinese building sector: foundations for analyzing ... | Accuardi, Z.A.C. | Thesis | theses | 2014 |
Beijing
China
Construction Materials
Shanghai
Tianjin
Urban
|
| Using industrial and commercial waste heat for residential heat supply: A case study from Hamburg, Germany Residential heat accounts for a large share of final energy consumption in European countries. Hence it offers a large CO2 savings potential: either through reducing heat demand by energy-efficiency retrofitting of buildings or by substituting CO2 intensive heating fuels. Industrial and commercial waste heat could be one such substitute. Using it for residential heating purposes could postpone or even avoid the costly energy-efficiency refurbishing of the building stock. Urban areas differ in their potential for using waste heat in residential space and water heating, depending not only on supply and demand of heat in the aggregate, but also on the makeup of the building stock, waste heat temperature levels and their spatial distribution. Case studies of real-world neighborhoods will help us understand these relationships. The work presented here offers such a case study for Lokstedt, a rather typical neighborhood in the North German city of Hamburg. Residential heat demand in Lokstedt was estimated based on building age, floor space and volume. The potential of industrial and commercial waste heat supply was estimated with data collection from companies in the neighborhood, combined with waste heat characteristics for different sectors taken from literature. We estimated a heat demand of 12.8 GWh/a for the area and a waste heat potential of 0.47–0.93 GWh/a. The available waste heat could, in theory cover about 5% of residential heat demand, accounting for the heat demand that could be saved within 8 years of refurbishing the building stock at the current rate. | Using industrial and commercial waste heat for residential heat supply: ... | Brückner, Sarah; Schäfer, Hans; Peter, Inge; Lävemann, Eberhard | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Energy (sector)
Urban
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| Freight transport in Brussels and its impact on road traffic? Car traffic is one of the biggest problems faced by sustainable development in the Brussels Region. While the debate regarding the use of cars in the city is important, noise pollution caused by goods vehicles is mentioned much less often. They are responsible for 25% of CO2 emissions, 33% of PM2.5 emissions and up to 32% of PM10 emissions caused by road transport in the capital. Given that a significant increase in freight transport is predicted, it is necessary to examine this lesser known aspect of mobility in Brussels. The aim of this article is therefore to establish a diagnosis of freight transport in Brussels. The different available sources are brought together in order to better understand the sector’s dynamics. Some of the solutions implemented in the Region to improve the sustainability of delivery operations are also presented. La circulation automobile est l’un des points les plus problématiques du développement durable de la Région bruxelloise. Bien que le débat autour de l’utilisation de la voiture en ville soit important, on évoque bien moins les nuisances générées par les véhicules de marchandises. Pourtant, ceux-ci sont responsables de 25 % des émissions de CO2, de 33 % des émissions de particules PM2.5 et jusqu’à 32 % des émissions de PM10 émis par les véhicules automobiles circulant dans la capitale. Étant donné que les prévisions annoncent une forte croissance des flux de marchandises, il est nécessaire d’examiner cet aspect moins connu de la mobilité bruxelloise. L’objectif de cet article est donc d’abord d’établir un diagnostic du transport de marchandises à Bruxelles. Les différentes sources disponibles sont ainsi recoupées afin de mieux comprendre les dynamiques du secteur. Ensuite quelques solutions entreprises dans la Région pour améliorer la durabilité des opérations de livraisons sont présentées. | Freight transport in Brussels and its impact on road traffic? | Philippe Lebeau, Cathy Macharis | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Transportation
Urban
|
| Impact of Wastewater Release on the Faecal Contamination of a Small Urban River: The Zenne River in Brussels (Belgium) In this study, we investigated the microbiological quality of the small urban Zenne River which flows through the city of Brussels (Belgium). The abundances of faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci) revealed high levels of faecal contamination of the Zenne River, especially in Brussels area and downstream from this area where FIB were in the range of what is usually observed in secondary treated wastewaters. The origin of this faecal contamination is mainly attributed to the effluents of the two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located along the river in Brussels. Comparison of the present situation with the 1990s situation (before the implementation of Brussels WWTPs) showed a sharp improvement of the river microbiological quality. This improvement should however be regarded with care as it was also observed that, during rain events, combined sewer overflows (CSO) outfalls were responsible of a strong increase of faecal contamination in the river downstream from Brussels, and such CSO occur frequently in Brussels. Altogether, these results document the variations of the microbiological quality of a sewage-polluted urban river in relation with long-term changes (implementation of WWTP) and the short-term disturbances (CSO). | Impact of Wastewater Release on the Faecal Contamination of a ... | Nouho Koffi Ouattara, Tamara Garcia-Armisen, Adriana Anzil, Natacha Brion & Pierre Servais | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Urban
Wastewater
Water
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| A Material Flow Accounting Case Study of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area using the Urban Metabolism Analyst Model This article describes a new methodological framework to account for urban material flows and stocks, using material flow accounting (MFA) as the underlying method. The proposed model, urban metabolism analyst (UMAn), bridges seven major gaps in previous urban metabolism studies: lack of a unified methodology; lack of material flows data at the urban level; limited categorizations of material types; limited results about material flows as they are related to economic activities; limited understanding of the origin and destination of flows; lack of understanding about the dynamics of added stock; and lack of knowledge about the magnitude of the flow of materials that are imported and then, to a great extent, exported.To explore and validate the UMAn model, a case study of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area was used. An annual time series of material flows from 2003 to 2009 is disaggregated by the model into 28 material types, 55 economic activity categories, and 18 municipalities. Additionally, an annual projection of the obsolescence of materials for 2010–2050 was performed. The results of the case study validate the proposed methodology, which broadens the contribution of existing urban MFA studies and presents pioneering information in the field of urban metabolism. In particular, the model associates material flows with economic activities and their spatial location within the urban area. | A Material Flow Accounting Case Study of the Lisbon Metropolitan ... | Leonardo Rosado, Samuel Niza, Paulo Ferrão | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Biomass
Case Study
Chemicals and fertilizers
Fossil Fuels
Future Scenario
Metals
Minerals
Sub-national
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Urban Metabolism Analyst Model (UMan)
Various Materials
Zotero import
Zotero2
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| A system dynamics modeling for urban air pollution: A case study of Tehran, Iran Development of strategies to control urban air pollution is a complex process involving a wide range of sciences. In this study a system dynamics model is proposed in order to estimate the behavior of parameters affecting air pollution in Tehran. The proposed model includes two subsystems: (1) urban transportation, (2) air polluting industries. In this paper, several policies are proposed to mitigate air pollution. The proposed model is simulated under several scenarios using historical data of transportation and industrial sectors in Tehran. Policies are categorized as: (1) road construction, (2) technology improvement in fuel and automotive industries, (3) traffic control plans, (4) development of public transportation infrastructures. The results show effectiveness of the proposed policies. In this case, technology improvement in fuel and automotive industries and development of public transportation infrastructures are more effective policies in order to reduce air pollution. | A system dynamics modeling for urban air pollution: A case ... | Vafa-Arani, Hamed; Jahani, Salman; Dashti, Hossein; Heydari, Jafar; Moazen, Saeed | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Emissions
System dynamics modelling (SDM)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Environmentally extended input–output analysis on a city scale – application to Aveiro (Portugal) This study evaluates direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with the consumption of goods and services by the households living in the municipality of Aveiro (Portugal) using environmentally extended input output (IO) analysis. The environmental impacts addressed are greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fossil fuel consumption. A methodology adapted to the specificities of the data available is proposed. This methodology relies on the Portuguese economic IO table, on GHG emission and fossil fuel consumption intensities, and on national household expenditure data downscaled to the urban level. This methodology could also be applied to other municipalities or cities for which data on local household expenditures are missing. This study also identifies the sectors with the largest impacts in order to prioritise strategies for reducing the impacts to move the municipality towards more sustainable consumption. The estimated total GHG emissions in 2005 amounted to 26 kg CO2-eq./cap/day and the total fossil fuel consumption was 7.3 koe/cap/day. The sectors that contributed most for both indicators are “land transport and transport by pipelines”, “food, beverages and tobacco”, “construction” and “production, collection and distribution of electricity”. Therefore, improvement measures are proposed for these sectors in order to more effectively decrease the environmental impacts related with GHG emissions and fossil energy consumption of the municipality. | Environmentally extended input–output analysis on a city scale – application ... | Dias, Ana Cláudia; Lemos, Diogo; Gabarrell, Xavier; Arroja, Luís | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Fossil Fuels
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Urban material flow analysis: An approach for Bogotá, Colombia The urbanisation process has exceeded the traditional pace of human settlement and is moving towards the formation of large urban regions in response to an increasing demand for services and environmental goods, combined with increasing production of waste and emissions. Therefore, it is fundamental to determine resource flows into cities, especially in developing countries, as well as the transformations that occur and the outputs that are produced, such as products, services and wastes. In this study, we apply urban material flow analysis, which determines the flows of inputs (water, energy, food and others) and outputs (wastewater, air pollution, wastes and others) to the city of Bogotá, Colombia to determine the relationship between demand for resources and the environmental impact of outputs. Quantitative and qualitative data for Bogotá are used to assess and compare the material and energy flow trends for this city. The results indicate that in this city, inputs and outputs are directly and linearly related. Consumption of energy and construction materials has increased, whereas food and water consumption have remained steady. Levels of recycling and sewage treatment are low, and emissions such as particulate matter have decreased. The findings from this study can be used to formulate and apply policies and strategies to improve the sustainability of resources, decrease the reliance on physical resources, increase the efficiency of resource and energy use in urban areas, and enhance sustainable production and consumption in cities. | Urban material flow analysis: An approach for Bogotá, Colombia | Alfonso Piña, William H. and Pardo Martínez, Clara Inés | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Bogotá
Case Study
Construction Materials
Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW)
Emissions
Energy
Energy Balance
Food
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Wastewater
Water
Zotero import
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| Evaluating spatiotemporal differences and sustainability of Xiamen urban metabolism using emergy synthesis The need to create sustainable cities has led to increasing concern on achieving healthy spatial metabolic interactions and system sustainability. Based on emergy synthesis and an urban spatial conceptual framework, we employ a set of seven emergy-based indicators to evaluate the sustainability of spatiotemporal metabolism for Xiamen, southeast China, using 1987–2007 land use and socio-economic statistic data. The results show a general improvement in socio-economic performance (emergy intensity, GDP emergy ratio, and emergy turnover ratio), but a steady deterioration in environmental performance (emergy self-support ratio, emergy density, and waste density) during the period 1987–2007. An increasing environmental and socio-economic metabolic gap exists between the built-up urban sprawl region (USR) and urban footprint regions (UFRs) due to resource privation and environmental space occupation, potentially undermining system sustainability. Compared to other Chinese cities and provinces, Xiamen still exhibited relatively weaker sustainability in 2002 due to increasing pressure on ecosystem health. Environment-oriented, society-oriented and cross-boundary-oriented metabolic strategies should be incorporated into future city development to foster urban system sustainability. None | Evaluating spatiotemporal differences and sustainability of Xiamen urban metabolism using ... | Yang, Dewei; Kao, William Tze Ming; Zhang, Guoqin; Zhang, Nanyang | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Analysis of the energy metabolism of urban socioeconomic sectors and the associated carbon footprints: Model development and a case study for Beijing Cities consume 80% of the world׳s energy; therefore, analyzing urban energy metabolism and the resulting carbon footprint provides basic data for formulating target carbon emission reductions. While energy metabolism includes both direct and indirect consumptions among sectors, few researchers have studied indirect consumption due to a lack of data. In this study, we used input–output analysis to calculate the energy flows among directly linked sectors. Building on this, we used ecological network analysis to develop a model of urban energy flows and also account for energy consumption embodied by the flows among indirectly linked sectors (represented numerically as paths with a length of 2 or more). To illustrate the model, monetary input–output tables for Beijing from 2000 to 2010 were analyzed to determine the embodied energy consumption and associated carbon footprints of these sectors. This analysis reveals the environmental pressure based on the source (energy consumption) and sink (carbon footprint) values. Indirect consumption was Beijing׳s primary form, and the carbon footprint therefore resulted mainly from indirect consumption (both accounting for ca. 60% of the total, though with considerable variation among sectors). To reduce emissions, the utilization efficiency of indirect consumption must improve. | Analysis of the energy metabolism of urban socioeconomic sectors and ... | Zhang, Yan; Zheng, Hongmei; Fath, Brian D. | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Energy
Energy Accounting
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban ecological footprint analysis: a comparative study between Shenyang in China and Kawasaki in Japan With the rapid urbanization, many cities are facing various environmental issues, resulting in local ecological degradation. It is critical to conduct a scientific assessment so that appropriate solutions can be found by considering the local realities. Many evaluation methods, such as emergy analysis, material flow analysis, data envelopment analysis and ecological footprint analysis, have been proposed. Among them, ecological footprint analysis has been applied as a useful policy and planning tool for evaluating urban sustainability. The aim of this paper is to evaluate two industrial cities by using ecological footprint method in Shenyang, China and Kawasaki, Japan. The two cities have been “friendship cities” for over 30 years and have similar industrial structures. In order to present a holistic evolution picture on their ecological footprints, we collected all the relevant data for the period of 1997–2009. The results show that Shenyang's ecological footprints experienced a significant increase, while such figures in Kawasaki were quite stable, but per capita figures in Shenyang were much less than those in Kawasaki, indicating that a gap between the two cities still exist. In order to further improve its sustainable development, Shenyang should closely collaborate with Kawasaki, learning Kawasaki's eco-town experiences and other environmental management experiences. In addition, Shenyang should also learn from other leading cities and try to optimize its industrial and energy structure and improve their citizens' environmental awareness so that it can move toward a more sustainable development direction. | Urban ecological footprint analysis: a comparative study between Shenyang in ... | Geng, Yong; Zhang, Liming; Chen, Xudong; Xue, Bing; Fujita, Tsuyoshi; Dong, Huijuan | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Comparison
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| The urban metabolism of the city of Uppsala (Sweden) Urban systems can be considered like living organisms supplied by mate- rial and energy flows used to maintain structures an functions, and the production of goods and services. In this paper, we integrate economic cost analysis with a method of biophysical accounting (namely Emergy Synthesis) to assess the main inputs and output flows characterizing the urban metabolism of the city of Uppsala (Sweden). Natural and human- driven resource flows supporting the metabolism of the city were evalu- ated and compared by using an ecological-economics perspective. Final- ly, economic and emergy-based indicators were calculated and discussed. Results highlighted a lack of self-sufficiency characterizing most of mod- ern cities especially in terms of food andenergy supplied from larger environmental systems. Considering the existing problems of environ- mental sustainability of most cities and the current trend towards urbani- zation, the proposed multi-criteria assessment to the study of urban me- tabolism, further improved by a deeper investigation of social variables, can represent an important component of sustainability research and poli-Cy. | The urban metabolism of the city of Uppsala (Sweden) | Russo, T; Buonocore, E; Franzese, PP | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Electricity
Emergy Analysis
Food
Fossil Fuels
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
Wood
|
| The Copper Balance of Cities Material management faces a dual challenge: on the one hand satisfying large and increasing demands for goods and on the other hand accommodating wastes and emissions in sinks. Hence, the characterization of material flows and stocks is relevant for both improving resource efficiency and environmental protection. This article focuses on the urban scale, a dimension rarely investigated in past metal flow studies. We compare the copper (Cu) metabolism of two cities in different economic states, namely, Vienna (Europe) and Taipei (Asia). Substance flow analysis is used to calculate urban Cu balances in a comprehensive and transparent form. The main difference between Cu in the two cities appears to be the stock: Vienna seems close to saturation with 180 kilograms per capita (kg/cap) and a growth rate of 2% per year. In contrast, the Taipei stock of 30 kg/cap grows rapidly by 26% per year. Even though most Cu is recycled in both cities, bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration represents an unused Cu potential accounting for 1% to 5% of annual demand. Nonpoint emissions are predominant; up to 50% of the loadings into the sewer system are from nonpoint sources. The results of this research are instrumental for the design of the Cu metabolism in each city. The outcomes serve as a base for identification and recovery of recyclables as well as for directing nonrecyclables to appropriate sinks, avoiding sensitive environmental pathways. The methodology applied is well suited for city benchmarking if sufficient data are available. | The Copper Balance of Cities | Kral, Ulrich and Lin, Chih-Yi and Kellner, Katharina and Ma, Hwong-wen and Brunner, Paul H. | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Comparison
Copper
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Ecological network analysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-output tables: Model development and case study for Beijing If cities are considered as 'superorganisms', then disorders of their metabolic processes cause something analogous to an 'urban disease'. It is therefore helpful to identify the causes of such disorders by analyzing the inner mechanisms that control urban metabolic processes. Combining input-output analysis with ecological network analysis lets researchers study the functional relationships and hierarchy of the urban metabolic processes, thereby providing direct support for the analysis of urban disease. In this paper, using Beijing as an example, we develop a model of an urban metabolic system that accounts for the intensity of the embodied ecological elements using monetary input-output tables from 1997, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2007, and use this data to compile the corresponding physical input-output tables. This approach described the various flows of ecological elements through urban metabolic processes and let us build an ecological network model with 32 components. Then, using two methods from ecological network analysis (flow analysis and utility analysis), we quantitatively analyzed the physical input-output relationships among urban components, determined the ecological hierarchy of the components of the metabolic system, and determined the distribution of advantage-dominated and disadvantage-dominated relationships, thereby providing scientific support to guide restructuring of the urban metabolic system in an effort to prevent or cure urban 'diseases'. | Ecological network analysis of an urban metabolic system based on ... | Zhang, Yan and Zheng, Hongmei and Fath, Brian D. and Liu, Hong and Yang, Zhifeng and Liu, Gengyuan and Su, Meirong | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban Household Water Demand in Beijing by 2020: An Agent-Based Model Beijing is faced with severe water scarcity due to rapid socio-economic development and population expansion, and a guideline for water regulation has been released to control the volume of national water use. To cope with water shortage and meet regulation goal, it has great significance to study the variations of water demand. In this paper, an agent-based model named HWDP is developed for the prediction of urban household water demand in Beijing. The model involves stochastic behaviors and feedbacks caused by two agent roles which are government agent and household agent. The government agent adopts economic and propagandist means to make household agent optimize its water consumption. Additionally, the consumption is also affected by the basic water demand deduced from extended linear expenditure system. The results indicate that the total water demand of urban households in Beijing will increase to 317.5 million cubic meters by 2020, while the water price keeps growing at a low level. However, it would drop to 294.9 million cubic meters with high growth of water price and low increment in per capita disposable income. Finally, some policy recommendations on water regulation are made. | Urban Household Water Demand in Beijing by 2020: An Agent-Based ... | Yuan, Xiao-Chen; Wei, Yi-Ming; Pan, Su-Yan; Jin, Ju-Liang | Journal Article | academic | 2014 |
Agent-based modelling (ABM)
Case Study
Household
Scenario analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Urban metabolism assessment tools for resource efficient urban infrastructure Report prepared by UNEP as part of the 2013 Comprehensive Review of the Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities In cooperation with researchers at the Sustainability Institute and University of Westminster Blake Robinson, Josephine Musango, Mark Swilling, Simon Joss and Sasha Mentz Lagrange | Urban metabolism assessment tools for resource efficient urban infrastructure | Robinson, Blake and Musango, Josephine and Swilling, Mark and Joss, Simon and Mentz Lagrange, Sasha | Report | reports | 2013 |
Ecological Footprint Analysis (must be removed)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Indicators - general
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Physical input-output tables (PIOT) / Input-Output Assessment (IOA)
Review Paper
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Combining Material Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and Multiattribute Utility Theory: Assessment of End‐of‐Life Scenarios for Polyethylene Terephthalate in Tunja, Colombia Three assessment methods, material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle analysis (LCA), and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT) are systematically combined for supporting the choice of best end‐of‐life scenarios for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste in a municipality of a developing country. MFA analyzes the material and energy balance of a firm, a region, or a nation, identifying the most relevant processes; LCA evaluates multiple environmental impacts of a product or a service from cradle to grave; and MAUT allows for inclusion of other aspects along with the ecological ones in the assessment. We first systematically coupled MFA and LCA by defining “the service offered by the total PET used during one year in the region” as the functional unit. Inventory and impacts were calculated by multiplying MFA flows with LCA impacts per kilogram. We used MAUT to include social and economic aspects in the assessment. To integrate the subjective point of view of stakeholders in the MAUT, we normalized the environmental, social, and economic variables with respect to the magnitude of overall impacts or benefits in the country. The results show large benefits for recycling scenarios from all points of view and also provide information about waste treatment optimization. The combination of the three assessment methods offers a powerful integrative assessment of impacts and benefits. Further research should focus on data collection methods to easily determine relevant material flows. LCA impact factors specific to Colombia should be developed, as well as more reliable social indicators. | Combining Material Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and Multiattribute Utility ... | David Rochat, Claudia R. Binder, Jaime Diaz, Olivier Jolliet | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Multiattribute Utility Theory (MAUT)
Plastics
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Using System Dynamics for Sustainable Water Resources Management in Singapore To strive to full self-sufficiency in water, Singapore has invested heavily in desalination, wastewater reclamation (branded as NEWater), water catchment management and other similar projects. Among the many alternatives to augment Singapore's water supply, decision-makers need to know which one is the most sustainable plan to pursue. This research project aims to demonstrate the usefulness of System Dynamics (SD) as a decision support tool to help achieve sustainable water management in Singapore. We have developed a system dynamics model called SingaporeWater and analyzed the long-term impacts of various investment plans. We discovered that investing in underground water storage or surface water catchments alone is not sufficient to help achieve self-sufficiency in water. If Singapore starts to invest in desalination or NEWater only after there is inadequacy of water, then it will result in about five years of water shortage followed by another five years of water abundance. The results highlight the need to build water infrastructures well in advance in order to meet Singapore's future water demand. | Using System Dynamics for Sustainable Water Resources Management in Singapore | Xi, Xi; Poh, Kim Leng | Conference Paper | None | 2013 |
Future Scenario
National
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| An integrated material metabolism model for stocks of Urban road system in Beijing, China Rapid urbanization has greatly altered the urban metabolism of material and energy. As a significant part of the infrastructure, urban roads are being rapidly developed worldwide. Quantitative analysis of metabolic processes on urban road systems, especially the scale, composition and spatial distribution of their stocks, could help to assess the resource appropriation and potential environmental impacts, as well as improve urban metabolism models. In this paper, an integrated model, which covered all types of roads, intersection structures and ancillary facilities, was built for calculating the material stocks of urban road systems. Based on a bottom-up method, the total stocks were disassembled into a number of stock parts rather than obtained by input-output data, which provided an approach promoting data availability and inner structure understanding. The combination with GIS enabled the model to tackle the complex structures of road networks and avoid double counting. In the case study of Beijing, the following results are shown: 1) The total stocks for the entire road system reached 159 million tons, of which nearly 80% was stored in roads, and 20% in ancillary facilities. 2) Macadam was the largest stock (111million tons), while stone mastic asphalt, polyurethane plastics, and atactic polypropylene accounted for smaller components of the overall system. 3) The stock per unit area of pedestrian overcrossing was higher than that of the other stock units in the entire system, and its steel stocks reached 0.49t/m(2), which was 10 times as high as that in interchanges. 4) The high stock areas were mainly distributed in ring-shaped and radial expressways, as well as in major interchanges. 5) Expressways and arterials were excessively emphasized, while minor roads were relatively ignored. However, the variation of cross-sectional thickness in branches and neighborhood roads will have a significant impact on the scale of material stocks in the entire road system. | An integrated material metabolism model for stocks of Urban road ... | Zhen Guo, Dan Hu, Fuhua Zhang, Guolong Huang, Qiang Xiao | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
|
| Consumption based footprint of a city Since a few years, there is a growing interest for consumption based indicators reflecting the environmental impacts generated by citizen final demand. Considering the complexity and the variety of environmental and intermediate flows in an urban territory, constructing life cycle inventory with classical bottom up approaches for data collection is not a pragmatic option for LCA practitioners. This study focuses on a consistent combination of local emission and activity data with Environmentally Extended Input Output Analysis (EEIOA), into a hybrid EEIO-LCA to assess the environmental impacts generated by the final demand of a city. A hybrid EEIO-LCA has been carried out to capture the footprint generated by a French city. To integrate the city specificities, regional input-output table is estimated from French input output table, using location quotients derived from local employment data. The obtained Leontief matrix is coupled with national environmental extensions and foreign trade data. This approach provides a comprehensive supplement to local sparse environmental data, mainly available for energy use and road transport. The priority was given to local available data and special care was taken to avoid double counting. This inventory is then aggregated into a combined footprint approach (carbon, water, biodiversity and resources) to reflect the environmental impacts generated by citizen’s consumption. As expected for a high density population territory, where consumed goods and services are broadly imported, indirect impacts represent a major contribution to the footprint of the city. The results suggest environmental footprint is highly sensitive to consumer choices and expenses allocations. The approach provides a promising solution to couple top down information with local available data, in order to get a full picture of the environmental pressures generated by a large city. Regionalizing economic tables enable to capture the specificities of local domestic businesses. A natural continuation would be to regionalize final demand with local expenses allocation features. The approach could be used as a screening assessment tool for decision makers, to target potential hotspots of improvement, in a sustainable perspective. The study also illustrates some lack of data availability to comprehensively account for the city impacts and could guide data collection, both from a local and a national level. | Consumption based footprint of a city | Sébastien Worbe, Aurélie Gallice, Anne Flesch, Fanny Tarrisse-Vicard, Séverine Mehier | Conference Paper | None | 2013 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Urban
Water
hybrid
|
| An urban metabolism and ecological footprint assessment of Metro Vancouver As the world urbanizes, the role of cities in determining sustainability outcomes grows in importance. Cities are the dominant form of human habitat, and most of the world's resources are either directly or indirectly consumed in cities. Sustainable city analysis and management requires understanding the demands a city places on a wider geographical area and its ecological resource base. We present a detailed, integrated urban metabolism of residential consumption and ecological footprint analysis of the Vancouver metropolitan region for the year 2006. Our overall goal is to demonstrate the application of a bottom-up ecological footprint analysis using an urban metabolism framework at a metropolitan, regional scale. Our specific objectives are: a) to quantify energy and material consumption using locally generated data and b) to relate these data to global ecological carrying capacity. Although water is the largest material flow through Metro Vancouver (424,860,000 m3), it has the smallest ecological footprint (23,100 gha). Food (2,636,850 tonnes) contributes the largest component to the ecological footprint (4,514,400 gha) which includes crop and grazing land as well as carbon sinks required to sequester emissions from food production and distribution. Transportation fuels (3,339,000 m3) associated with motor vehicle operation and passenger air travel comprises the second largest material flow through the region and the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions (7,577,000 tonnes). Transportation also accounts for the second largest component of the EF (2,323,200 gha). Buildings account for the largest electricity flow (17,515,150 MWh) and constitute the third largest component of the EF (1,779,240 gha). Consumables (2,400,000 tonnes) comprise the fourth largest component of the EF (1,414,440 gha). Metro Vancouver's total Ecological Footprint in 2006 was 10,071,670 gha, an area approximately 36 times larger than the region itself. The EFA reveals that cropland and carbon sinks (forested land required to sequester carbon dioxide emissions) account for 90% of Metro Vancouver's overall demand for biocapacity. The per capita ecological footprint is 4.76 gha, nearly three times the per capita global supply of biocapacity. Note that this value excludes national government services that operate outside the region and could account for up to an additional 2 gha/ca. | An urban metabolism and ecological footprint assessment of Metro Vancouver | Jennie Moore, Meidad Kissinger, William E. Rees | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Energy
Food
Food and agriculture
Fossil Fuels
Single point in time
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
Water (sector)
|
| Data Mining for Material Flow Analysis: Application in the Territorial Breakdown of French Regions One of the major issues for assessment of the long-term sustainability of urban areas is related to the concept of \imported sustainability". In order to produce such an assessment for a given territory, one must rst identify and quantify the types of materials used, and the impacts associated to these uses. Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is directly related to how the material circulates and how it is transformed within a territory. In most cases this analysis is performed at national and regional levels, where the statistical data is available. The challenge is to establish such an analysis at smaller scales, e.g. in the case of France, at the department or city level. Currently, few studies are done at these scales and when they exist, they are based on the extrapolation of data at the country or the region levels. In this thesis, the possibility of applying data analysis at the regional level by generating a mathematical model that can t well the data at regional scale and estimate well the departmental one is explored. The downscaling procedure relies on the assumption that the obtained model at level 'n' (for example region) will be also true at level 'n+1' (for example department), such that it could properly estimate the unknown data based on a set of chosen drivers. The tests show that it is very important to choose the proper drivers and the class of model. | Data Mining for Material Flow Analysis: Application in the Territorial ... | Brinduşa Smaranda | Thesis | theses | 2013 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
France
Method
Single point in time
Urban
|
| City-Level Decoupling: Urban resource flows and the governance of infrastructure transitions Building upon previous work of the International Resource Panel on Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, this report examines the potential for decoupling at the city level. While the majority of the world's population now live in cities and cities are where most resource consumption takes place, both the pressures and potentials to find ways to reconcile economic growth, wellbeing and the sustainable use of natural resources will therefore be greatest in cities. Analysing the role of cities as spatial nodes where the major resource flows connect as goods, services and wastes, the report ‘s focus is how infrastructure directs material flows and therefore resource use, productivity and efficiency in an urban context. It makes the case for examining cities from a material flow perspective, while also placing the city within the broader system of flows that make it possible for it to function. The report also highlights the way that the design, construction and operation of energy, waste, water, sanitation and transport infrastructures create a socio-technical environment that shapes the 'way of life' of citizens and how they procure, use and dispose of the resources they require. Its approach is innovative in that it frames infrastructure networks as socio-technical systems, examining pressures for change within cities that go beyond technical considerations. The importance of intermediaries as the dominant agents for change is emphasized, as well as the fact that social processes and dynamics need to be understood and integrated into any assessment of urban infrastructure interventions and the reconfiguration of resource flows. A set of 30 case studies provide examples of innovative approaches to sustainable infrastructure change across a broad range of urban contexts that could inspire leaders of other cities to embrace similar creative solutions. Of course, innovations in and of themselves do not suffice if they are not integrated into larger strategic visions for the city, and as each city is unique, interventions need to be tailored to the set of challenges and opportunities present in each case. | City-Level Decoupling: Urban resource flows and the governance of infrastructure ... | UNEP | Report | reports | 2013 |
Decoupling
Urban
|
| Quantification of urban metabolism through coupling with the life cycle assessment framework: concept development and case study Cities now consume resources and produce waste in amounts that are incommensurate with the populations they contain. Quantifying and benchmarking the environmental impacts of cities is essential if urbanization of the world's growing population is to occur sustainably. Urban metabolism (UM) is a promising assessment form in that it provides the annual sum material and energy inputs, and the resultant emissions of the emergent infrastructural needs of a city's sociotechnical subsystems. By fusing UM and life cycle assessment (UM-LCA) this study advances the ability to quantify environmental impacts of cities by modeling pressures embedded in the flows upstream (entering) and downstream (leaving) of the actual urban systems studied, and by introducing an advanced suite of indicators. Applied to five global cities, the developed UM-LCA model provided enhanced quantification of mass and energy flows through cities over earlier UM methods. The hybrid model approach also enabled the dominant sources of a city's different environmental footprints to be identified, making UM-LCA a novel and potentially powerful tool for policy makers in developing and monitoring urban development policies. Combining outputs with socioeconomic data hinted at how these forces influenced the footprints of the case cities, with wealthier ones more associated with personal consumption related impacts and poorer ones more affected by local burdens from archaic infrastructure. | Quantification of urban metabolism through coupling with the life cycle ... | Goldstein, Benjamin Paul and Birkved, Morten and Quitzau, Maj-Britt and Hauschild, Michael | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Energy
Food
Fossil Fuels
Glass
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Metals
Method
Paper
Plastics
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Sustainable design of sanitation system based on material and value flow analysis for urban slum in Indonesia Material flow analysis (MFA) and value flow analysis (VFA) were applied to the sanitation system in an urban slum in Indonesia. Based on the results of the MFA and VFA, garbage and excreta disposal costs were evaluated to be 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively, of per capita income. Such value flows seem reasonable in light of the recognized affordability to pay (ATP) standard. However, current excreta disposal methods create negative impacts on downstream populations. Because such disadvantages do not go back to disposers, but passed to downstream, the current value flow structure does not motivate individual toilet users to install treatment facility. Based on current material and value flow structures, a resource recycling sanitation system scenario was examined. Based on VFA, an affordable initial cost for such a system was calculated; this was found to be comparable in price to a cheaper composting toilet that is currently available in the market. | Sustainable design of sanitation system based on material and value ... | Ushijima, Ken; Irie, Mitsuteru; Sintawardani, Neni; Triastuti, Jovita; Hamidah, Umi; Ishikawa, Tadaharu; Funamizu, Naoyuki | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Scenario analysis
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Wastewater
Water
|
| Sustainability evaluation of e-waste treatment based on emergy analysis and the LCA method: A case study of a trial project in Macau Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) has become one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, and many countries have established e-waste treatment enterprises to solve their e-waste problems. Because of the potential environmental pollution from e-waste, evaluating the overall sustainability of e-waste enterprises is critical to both nations and cities, although a great challenge academically. In this study, a combined approach of emergy analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) was undertaken, to quantitatively investigate the effectiveness of an e-waste treatment trial project in Macau. In the emergy analysis, we also introduced two new indices (emergy recovery and technical efficiency) in order to evaluate the technical level of e-waste treatment in Macau. The research results show that the trial project has low competitive ability, due to high input emergy and low economic benefits. The emergy environmental efficiency analysis and LCA analysis together indicated that the trial project will indeed produce a low impact on the local environment, and because of the recovery of some resources in the e-waste treatment process, can even generate some environmental benefits. The analysis on the emergy recovery efficiency and technical efficiency shows that trial project has a relatively higher emergy recovery rate (52.78%) and technical level (72.36%) than the e-waste treatment enterprises in mainland China. However, based on both the emergy sustainability index (ESI) and the emergy–LCA sustainability index, it was found that the e-waste treatment trial project is not sustainable over the long term, due to low economic efficiency. Compared to ESI, the emergy–LCA sustainability index is more intuitive and easier to understand. Relevant results and data from this study could provide decision support to enterprise managers and government sectors, so that they could implement appropriate policies on e-waste treatment, to promote sustainable development and improved e-waste processing technologies. | Sustainability evaluation of e-waste treatment based on emergy analysis and ... | Qingbin Song and Zhishi Wang and Jinhui Li | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Emergy-LCA
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Sustainable Urban Metabolism Table of Contents Part I: Urban Metabolism: Defining a Field 1. Industrial Ecology: A Metaphor for Sustainable Development 2. Urban Metabolism: Resource Consumption of Cities 3. Intellectual Foundations and Key Insights Part II: Industrial Ecology: A Framework 4. Industrial Ecology: A Framework of Tools and Practices 5. Industrial Ecology as a Framework for a Sustainable Urban Metabolism Part III: Sustainable Urban Systems 6. Green Urban Policies and Development 7. Urban Typologies: Prospects and Indicators 8. Complexities and Dynamics of Urban Systems 9. Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Urban Metabolism Part IV: Mapping and Assessing Urban Metabolism 10. Urban Metabolism in Practice: Case Studies from Developed Countries 11. The Challenge of Urban Metabolism in a Developing Context | Sustainable Urban Metabolism | Ferrão, Paulo and Fernández, John E. | Book | academic | 2013 |
Ecological Footprint Analysis (must be removed)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Physical input-output tables (PIOT) / Input-Output Assessment (IOA)
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
|
| An emergy analysis for urban environmental sustainability assessment, the Island of Montreal, Canada Today, the sustainability of cities is a critical consideration in the development of modern societies. One important dimension of this concept is the influence of occupation intensity on resource consumption and its associated waste generation. Emergy analysis constitutes an appropriate methodology for evaluating the sustainability of cities, given that it integrates the different types of flows interacting in urban regions in a common basis of comparison, the solar emergy joule (seJ). In this study, emergy analysis was used to evaluate the environmental sustainability of the Island of Montreal, Canada, in 2005 and to compare its situation with that of other nine urban centers. Results indicate that the total emergy used in 2005 stood at 1.153×1023seJ, with renewable resources representing 3.2%, and a waste-to-emergy ratio of 0.09. In comparing the cities, it was observed that the empower density, an emergy measure for the intensity of activities, fell markedly when each inhabitant had about 300m2 or more of available land. Results for the Island of Montreal point to the need to improve the city's environmental performance. Particularly, the high empower density indicates that projects involving the re-development of recovered areas provide a significant opportunity for attaining this objective. | An emergy analysis for urban environmental sustainability assessment, the Island ... | Vega-Azamar, Ricardo Enrique; Glaus, Mathias; Hausler, Robert; Oropeza-García, Norma Angélica; Romero-López, Rabindranarth | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Island
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The physical structure of urban economies — Comparative assessment [Report] The metabolism of a city is dependent on anthropogenic and natural physical inputs of energy and materials, processes for transforming those inputs for urban activities, additions to the stocks contained within its spatial boundaries, and the waste and emissions handling . The main purpose of this work consists on further developing methods that allow identifying the material consumption of activity sectors within a city . The method presented in this article allow s the use of internationally available data (e.g. OECD Input Output matrices) , which enables analysing a large range of urban areas . The method is applied to metropolitan economies in Europe (Lisbon and Paris) and Asia (Seoul - Incheon and Shanghai), and the variability of the physical structure of these economies is assessed . The urban areas are compared in terms of total and type of material input, destination of material inputs within the economy and analysis of the manufacturing sectors. | The physical structure of urban economies — Comparative assessment [Report] | Samuel Niza and André Pina and Daniela Ferreira and Luis Santos and Paulo Ferrão | Report | reports | 2013 |
Case Study
China
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
France
Lisbon
Method
Paris
Portugal
Seoul
Shanghai
Single point in time
South Korea
Urban
|
| Carbon footprints of cities and other human settlements in the UK A growing body of literature discusses the CO2 emissions of cities. Still, little is known about emission patterns across density gradients from remote rural places to highly urbanized areas, the drivers behind those emission patterns and the global emissions triggered by consumption in human settlements—referred to here as the carbon footprint. In this letter we use a hybrid method for estimating the carbon footprints of cities and other human settlements in the UK explicitly linking global supply chains to local consumption activities and associated lifestyles. This analysis comprises all areas in the UK, whether rural or urban. We compare our consumption-based results with extended territorial CO2 emission estimates and analyse the driving forces that determine the carbon footprint of human settlements in the UK. Our results show that 90% of the human settlements in the UK are net importers of CO2 emissions. Consumption-based CO2 emissions are much more homogeneous than extended territorial emissions. Both the highest and lowest carbon footprints can be found in urban areas, but the carbon footprint is consistently higher relative to extended territorial CO2 emissions in urban as opposed to rural settlement types. The impact of high or low density living remains limited; instead, carbon footprints can be comparatively high or low across density gradients depending on the location-specific socio-demographic, infrastructural and geographic characteristics of the area under consideration. We show that the carbon footprint of cities and other human settlements in the UK is mainly determined by socio-economic rather than geographic and infrastructural drivers at the spatial aggregation of our analysis. It increases with growing income, education and car ownership as well as decreasing household size. Income is not more important than most other socio-economic determinants of the carbon footprint. Possibly, the relationship between lifestyles and infrastructure only impacts carbon footprints significantly at higher spatial granularity. | Carbon footprints of cities and other human settlements in the ... | Minx, Jan; Baiocchi, Giovanni; Wiedmann, Thomas; Barrett, John; Creutzig, Felix; Feng, Kuishuang; Förster, Michael; Pichler, Peter-Paul; Weisz, Helga; Hubacek, Klaus | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Rural
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| An input-output approach to evaluate the water footprint and virtual water trade of Beijing, China Water is scarce in Beijing, China, and rapid economic and societal development, as well as the dense population, causes severe pressure on local water resources. This paper involves the 'water footprint', defined as the volume of water needed to produce the goods and services consumed, which quantifies the environmental impact of consumption. By combining an input-output model with intersectoral water flows, this paper describes a modified input-output model to calculate the direct, indirect and gross water footprint intensity and the gross water footprint of different sectors in Beijing in 2002 and 2007. The results show declines in the agricultural and industrial water footprints for these years. The grey water footprint, which reflects environmental pollution caused by human production and consumption, was also calculated and suggests that the shortage of water resources, rather than water pollution, is the main problem in Beijing. Evaluation of the virtual water trade, along with water savings in the various sectors, verified that Beijing is a net virtual water importer. Furthermore, the water footprint shows that Beijing is advanced in water use efficiency compared to other provinces in China. Finally, adjustments in the industrial structure, along with virtual water importing, should be prioritized as water-saving strategies for Beijing. | An input-output approach to evaluate the water footprint and virtual ... | Ziyuan Wang and Kai Huang and Shunshun Yang and Yajuan Yu | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Single point in time
Urban
Water
Water Footprint (WF)
|
| Sustainable urban metabolism as a link between bio-physical sciences and urban planning: The BRIDGE project Urban metabolism considers a city as a system with flows of energy and material between it and the environment. Recent advances in bio-physical sciences provide methods and models to estimate local scale energy, water, carbon and pollutant fluxes. However, good communication is required to provide this new knowledge and its implications to endusers (such as urban planners, architects and engineers). The FP7 project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) aimed to address this gap by illustrating the advantages of considering these issues in urban planning. The BRIDGE Decision Support System (DSS) aids the evaluation of the sustainability of urban planning interventions. The Multi Criteria Analysis approach adopted provides a method to cope with the complexity of urban metabolism. In consultation with targeted end-users, objectives were defined in relation to the interactions between the environmental elements (fluxes of energy, water, carbon and pollutants) and socioeconomic components (investment costs, housing, employment, etc.) of urban sustainability. The tool was tested in five case study cities: Helsinki, Athens, London, Florence and Gliwice; and sub-models were evaluated using flux data selected. This overview of the BRIDGE project covers the methods and tools used to measure and model the physical flows, the selected set of sustainability indicators, the methodological framework for evaluating urban planning alternatives and the resulting DSS prototype. | Sustainable urban metabolism as a link between bio-physical sciences and ... | Chrysoulakis, Nektarios and Lopes, Myriam and San José, Roberto and Betham Grimmond , Christine Susan and Jones , Mike B. and Magliulo , Vincenzo and Klostermann , Judith E.M. and Synnefa , Afroditi and Mitraka , Zina and Castro, Eduardo A. and González , Ainhoa and Vogt , Roland and Vesala , Timo and Spano , Donatella and Pigeon , Gregoire and Freer-Smith , Peter and Staszewski , Tomasz and Hodges , Nick and Mills , Gerald and Cartalis, Constantinos | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Athens
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Finland
Gliwice
Greece
Helsinki
Italy
London
Method
Poland
Single point in time
United Kingdom
Urban
|
| Right to food, right to the city: Household urban agriculture, and socionatural metabolism in Managua, Nicaragua The ‘right to the city’ has been understood as the right of urban inhabitants to produce urban spaces, and has generally drawn on Henri Lefevbre’s work on the social production of urban space. This paper examines the socioenvironmental aspects of the right to produce urban space. The aim of the paper is to draw on and contribute to the literatures on urban political ecology and the right to the city by exploring the concept of the right to urban metabolism through an analysis of everyday food production and consumption in homes in an informal settlement in Managua. The article argues that the ecologies of informal household urban agriculture (primarily the cultivation of fruit trees) are a key way that marginalised urban inhabitants in Managua appropriate and produce urban space, and consequently, demand their rights to urban metabolism. Through the production of home ecologies based on physiological necessities and cultural food practices, households simultaneously challenge their exclusion from urban spatial practices and address the increasing insecurity of access to food in Managua. http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/ - 18 <a href="http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/">Amoxicillin 500mg Capsules</a> sbz.xxoa.metabolismofcities.org.hdu.ts http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/ | Right to food, right to the city: Household urban agriculture, ... | Laura J. Shillington | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Environmental justice
Food and agriculture
Political ecology
Urban
|
| Does Size Matter? Scaling of CO2 Emissions and U.S. Urban Areas Urban areas consume more than 66% of the world’s energy and generate more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the world’s population expected to reach 10 billion by 2100, nearly 90% of whom will live in urban areas, a critical question for planetary sustainability is how the size of cities affects energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Are larger cities more energy and emissions efficient than smaller ones? Do larger cities exhibit gains from economies of scale with regard to emissions? Here we examine the relationship between city size and CO2 emissions for U.S. metropolitan areas using a production accounting allocation of emissions. We find that for the time period of 1999–2008, CO2 emissions scale proportionally with urban population size. Contrary to theoretical expectations, larger cities are not more emissions efficient than smaller ones. http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/ - Amoxicillin Without Prescription <a href="http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/">Amoxicillin Purchase</a> tyh.ussn.metabolismofcities.org.zzc.xt http://mewkid.net/order-amoxicillin/ | Does Size Matter? Scaling of CO2 Emissions and U.S. Urban ... | Michail Fragkias, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, Karen C. Seto | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Urban
|
| State of the Environment Report 2012 Table of contents: FOREWORD CONTENTS INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND BIODIVERSITY INVASIVE SPECIES ACCESS TO NATURAL GREEN SPACE WATER USE FRESHWATER QUALITY COASTAL WATER QUALITY WASTEWATER AIR QUALITY ENERGY USE AND CARBON SOLID WASTE SUMMARY CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS APPENDICES REFERENCES | State of the Environment Report 2012 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2013 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism and the Energy Stored in Cities Using the city of Toronto as a case study, this article examines impacts of energy stocks and flexible demand in the urban metabolism on the resilience of the city, including discussion of directions for further study of the resiliency of the urban metabolism. An important element developed is the nominal residence time of the energy stocks. This value defines how long an energy stock lasts under typical patterns of energy use. The findings suggest that the residence times of many sources of energy overcome vulnerability when energy supply shocks last on the order of hours or a few days, but that the measure is limited to assessing only certain types of commonly used energy sources in aggregate terms. Discussion is included on the uncertainty of this measure and on the metabolic and resiliency implications of new technologies intended to reduce energy use and improve sustainability of cities and the use of the urban metabolism as a means of comparison. The methodology employed highlights how waste energy could be used to increase the resiliency of the city's water supply, but also how the study of the urban metabolism would benefit from a more disaggregate form in the study of sustainable and resilient cities. | Urban Metabolism and the Energy Stored in Cities | David N. Bristow, Christopher A. Kennedy | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Energy
Energy (sector)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Resilience assessment
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| A Decision-Support System for Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Europe Urban metabolism components define the energy and material exchanges within a city and, therefore, can provide valuable information on the environmental quality of urban areas. Assessing the potential impact of urban planning alternatives on urban metabolism components (such as energy, water, carbon and pollutants fluxes) can provide a quantitative estimation of their sustainability performance. Urban metabolism impact assessment can, therefore, contribute to the identification of sustainable urban structures with regards, for example, to building types, materials and layout, as well as to location and capacity of transportation and infrastructural developments. In this way, it enables the formulation of planning and policy recommendations to promote efficient use of resources and enhance environmental quality in urban areas. The European FP7 project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) has developed a decision-support system (DSS) that systematically integrates urban metabolism components into impact assessment processes with the aim of accurately quantifying the potential effects of proposed planning interventions. The DSS enables integration of multiple spatial and non-spatial datasets (e.g. physical flows of energy and material with variables of social and economic change) in a systematic manner to obtain spatially defined assessment results and to thus inform planners and decision-makers. This multi-criteria approach also enables incorporation of stakeholders' perceptions in order to prioritise decisive assessment criteria. This paper describes the methodological framework used to develop the DSS and critically examines the results of its practical application in five European cities. | A Decision-Support System for Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Europe | Ainhoa González and Alison Donnelly and Mike Jones and Nektarios Chrysoulakis and Myriam Lopes | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Europe
Policy
Urban
|
| Nitrogen Flow Analysis in Bangkok City, Thailand: Area Zoning and Questionnaire Investigation Approach This research is a study of Bangkok's sanitation system based on quantitative analysis of water and wastewater flow focusing on domestic sector. Nitrogen was quantified and assessed its distribution by Material Flow Analysis MFA. Field surveys and questionnaires for 300 households were conducted within three zones of Bangkok city inner city, urban fringe, and suburban. Nitrogen flow analysis revealed that the main pathways of nitrogen for greywater and blackwater were to sewerage system and onsite sanitation system OSS, respectively. With treatment facilities, wastewater from households was distributed into four facilities: OSS 44.51% N; decentralized wastewater treatment plants WWTPs 0.18% N; centralized WWTPs 4.80% N and septage treatment plants (STPs) 0.64% N. Simultaneously, nitrogen discharge to environment could reduce through OSS, decentralized WWTPs, centralized WWTPs and STPs from 26,011 to 4,540 ton N/year or at 82.55% reduction. In aspect of without treatment facilities, the remaining of wastewater was distributed to environment at 45.49% total wastewater from household. At the urban fringe zone, large wastewater flowed to environment without treatment 27.41% total wastewater from household. Meanwhile, septage was represented an important nutrient source. Non-treated septage distributed large amount of nitrogen 32.17% N with its small amount of flow into environment 1.92% total wastewater from household. Combinations of four treatment facilities including the OSS, decentralized WWTPs, centralized WWTPs and STPs were proposed as scenarios to reduce the existing discharge of 28,379.2 ton N/year to the environment. With the existing treatment facilities and practical scenario for each zone, nitrogen discharge could be reduce to 7,559.7 ton N/year 73.36% reduction with the strategies of centralized WWTPs for the inner city zone, the combination of decentralized and existing centralized WWTPs for the urban fringe zone, OSS for the suburban zone, and septage collection to STPs for all zones. | Nitrogen Flow Analysis in Bangkok City, Thailand: Area Zoning and ... | Buathong, Thapanee; Boontanon, Suwanna Kitpati; Boontanon, Narin; Surinkul, Nawatch; Harada, Hidenori; Fujii, Shigeo | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Nitrogen
UM review paper import
Urban
Wastewater
Water
|
| Urban metabolism: A review of research methodologies Urban metabolism analysis has become an important tool for the study of urban ecosystems. The problems of large metabolic throughput, low metabolic efficiency, and disordered metabolic processes are a major cause of unhealthy urban systems. In this paper, I summarize the international research on urban metabolism, and describe the progress that has been made in terms of research methodologies. I also review the methods used in accounting for and evaluating material and energy flows in urban metabolic processes, simulation of these flows using a network model, and practical applications of these methods. Based on this review of the literature, I propose directions for future research, and particularly the need to study the urban carbon metabolism because of the modern context of global climate change. Moreover, I recommend more research on the optimal regulation of urban metabolic systems. | Urban metabolism: A review of research methodologies | Yan Zhang | Journal Article | academic | 2013 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Method
Review Paper
Urban
Zotero import
|
| A City and Its Hinterland: Vienna's Energy Metabolism 1800-2006 Cities are centres of resource consumption and urban resource use has a considerable influence on both the economy and the environment in the resource-providing hinterland. This chapter looks at cities from a socio-ecological perspective and investigates the evolution of the energy metabolism of the city of Vienna since the beginning of industrialisation. Based on time series data on the size and structure of energy consumption in Vienna in the period from 1800 to 2006, it analyses the energy transition and how it relates to urban growth. It shows that during the last 200 years, a multiplication of energy use and a shift from renewable biomass towards coal and finally oil and natural gas as the dominating energy source have been observed. This energy transition was not a continuous process, but different phases in the energy transition can be distinguished. Also the spatial relations between the city and its resource-supplying hinterland changed. But growth in urban resource use was not simply causing an equal growth of the spatial imprint of urban consumption. Our results show that the size and spatial location of the resource-supplying hinterland is the combined result of various dynamic processes, including transport technology and agricultural productivity. The paper shows how energy and transport revolution abolished barriers of growth inherent to the old energy regime. Book: Long Term Socio-Ecological Research, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-1177-8 | A City and Its Hinterland: Vienna's Energy Metabolism 1800-2006 | Fridolin Krausmann | Book Section | academic | 2012 |
Austria
Case Study
Energy/Emergy
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Vienna
|
| Climate Change and Urban Metabolism of Latin American Megacities Today‘s climate and environmental pr oblems represent an increasing challenge for cities, especially for those that are experiencing a rapid urban expansion and population growth. It is proposed that current climate and environmental conditions are better understood from a metabolic assessmen t of inflows and outflows of energy and material. This type of evaluation has been carried out for different cities and for diverse metabolic aspects, but it has been mostly absent in Latin America. This article starts with a general presentation of the cu rrent state and challenges for Latin American cities. It then introduces the main aspects of urban metabolism analysis and offers an initial comprehensive comparative estimate of inflows and outflows of Latin American megacities: Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Ri o de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Some of the main characteristics of climate change plans are then discussed and a brief comparative analysis between mitigation actions and existing metabolic dynamics is presented. The paper concludes with some consideration s and suggestions for the urban future and the plausible forthcoming challenges and opportunities. La problemática climática y medioambiental se perfila cada vez más como un reto para las ciudades, especialmente para aquellas donde está dándose un rápido proceso de urbanización y crecimiento poblacional. El análisis de su estado de situación es mejor entendido a partir de estudios metabólicos de la entrada y salida de flujos de materiales y de energía. Este tipo de evaluaciones se han realizado para diversas ciudades y para distintos aspectos, pero en América Latina están prácticamente ausentes. Este trabajo abre con una presentación general sobre el estado de situación de las ciudades latinoamericanas y con una introducción a las evaluaciones metabólicas para ofrecer una primera aproximación integral comparativa de los flujos de entrada y salida de las megaurbes latinoamericanas, esto es, de la Ciudad de México, Sao Paulo, Río de Janeiro y Buenos Aires. Se presentan las principales características de los planes de acción frente al cambio climático para cerrar con un breve análisis comparativo entre las acciones de mitigación y las dinámicas metabólicas existentes. Se concluye con una reflexión y sugerencias en torno al futuro urbano, los retos venideros y las oportunidades posibles. | Climate Change and Urban Metabolism of Latin American Megacities | Delgado, Gian Carlo and Campos Chávez, Cristina and Rentería Juárez, Patricia | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Argentina
Brazil
Buenos Aires
Comparison
Mexico
Mexico City
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Comparison of energy flow accounting, energy flow metabolism ratio analysis and ecological footprinting as tools for measuring urban sustainability: A case-study of an Irish city-region This paper seeks to apply a number of biophysical sustainability metrics to an Irish city-region in order to evaluate the effect of methodological pluralism when measuring urban sustainability and to determine the outcome of using more than one method when measuring the sustainability of the same system boundary at a city-region level. It is concluded that a ‘toolkit’ approach can be useful in highlighting commonalities and differences between different metrics as well as capturing some of the deficiencies inherent in using a single biophysical metric. In addition, this paper develops an approach to measuring energy metabolism by outlining and applying the ‘energy flow metabolism ratio analysis’ methodology, which is used to measure the ratio of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a function of energy material inputs. | Comparison of energy flow accounting, energy flow metabolism ratio analysis ... | Browne, David and O'Regan, Bernadette and Moles, Richard | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Comparison
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Energy Balance
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Multi-scale
Sub-national
Time series
Urban
|
| Assessment of Environmental Impacts of an Aging and Stagnating Water Supply Pipeline Network Aging urban infrastructure is a common phenomenon in industrialized countries. The urban water supply pipeline network in the city of Oslo is an example. Even as it faces increasing operational, maintenance, and management challenges, it needs to better its environmental performance by reducing, for instance, the associated greenhouse gas emissions. In this article the authors examine the environmental life cycle performance of Oslo's water supply pipelines by analyzing annual resource consumption and emissions as well as life cycle assessment (LCA) impact potentials over a period of 16 years, taking into account the production/manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and retirement of pipelines. It is seen that the water supply pipeline network of Oslo has already reached a state of saturation on a per capita basis, that is, it is not expanding any more relative to the population it serves, and the stock is now rapidly aging. This article is part of a total urban water cycle system analysis for Oslo, and analyzes more specifically the environmental impacts from the material flows in the water distribution network, examining six environmental impact categories using the SimaPro (version 7.1.8) software, Ecoinvent database, and the CML 2001 (version 2.04) methodology. The long‐term management of stocks calls for a strong focus on cost optimization, energy efficiency, and environmental friendliness. Global warming and abiotic depletion emerge as the major impact categories from the water pipeline system, and the largest contribution is from the production and installation phases and the medium‐size pipelines in the network. | Assessment of Environmental Impacts of an Aging and Stagnating Water ... | G. Venkatesh and Helge Brattebø | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Emissions
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Urban
Various Materials
Water (sector)
|
| Carbon Footprinting of Cities and Implications for Analysis of Urban Material and Energy Flows As we struggle to get our collective arms around the concept of urban sustainability, various ways of understanding material and energy flows associated with cities have emerged in the literature. Of course, this is not new. Historians have noted that, one hundred years ago New York City was dealing with streets covered with horse manure and coal ash. In Europe, concerns about supplying materials to cities were discussed in the early 1900s, and continued (after a hiatus) into the late twentieth century from a new perspective of environmental impact, leading to the development of methods for economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA) and their application to cities (Barles 2010). This method, used in many current studies of urban metabolism, allows for tracking of material inputs, changes in stock, export of goods, and release of waste and pollution; indirect material requirements to support these flows can also be computed. While the MFA methodology also draws on energy analysis and is considered to be readily adaptable to include energy, in practice there is wide variation in the inclusion of embodied energy components. | Carbon Footprinting of Cities and Implications for Analysis of Urban ... | Anu Ramaswami, Abel Chavez, and Marian Chertow | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Ecological Footprint Analysis (must be removed)
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| Three ecologies: Urban metabolism and the Society-Nature opposition This article is an intellectual history of two enduring binaries—society-nature and city-countryside—and their co-identification, told through evolving uses of the concept of 'urban metabolism.' After recounting the emergence of the modern society-nature opposition in the separation of town and country under early industrial capitalism, I interpret 'three ecologies'—successive periods of urban metabolism research spanning three disciplines within the social sciences. The first is the human ecology of the Chicago School, which treated the city as an ecosystem in analogy to external, natural ecosystems. The second is industrial ecology: materials-flow analyses of cities that conceptualize external nature as the source of urban metabolism's raw materials and the destination for its social wastes. The third is urban political ecology, a reconceptualization of the city as a product of diverse socio-natural flows. By analyzing these three traditions in succession, I demonstrate both the efficacy and the limits to Catton and Dunlap's distinction between a 'human exemptionalist paradigm' and a 'new ecological paradigm' in sociology. | Three ecologies: Urban metabolism and the Society-Nature opposition | Wachsmuth, David | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Method
Political ecology
Urban
|
| Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems in relation to pork, beef and milk supply to Paris A bottom-up approach is constructed to determine N losses from livestock farming sys- tems and to relate these losses to the supply of fresh milk, pig and beef to Paris. First, the three products are expressed in terms of their nitrogen content; then, their fodder equivalent is determined by modelling feed formulas for swine, beef and dairy cows to meet their energy and protein requirements. Fodder deficits in livestock farms are determined by comparing the nutrient requirements of the livestock with the fodder pro- duction on the livestock farms. This allowed determining the geography of the livestock systems according to the imports of fodder to the livestock farms from external crop farms. Then we assessed the “farm-gate” N budgets in all crop and livestock farms of the entire livestock systems using data on total N fertilization, atmospheric deposition and manure management practices to finally derive N losses in relation to fodder cul- tivation and to manure management. Measured in N, the supply of milk, beef and pig to Paris sum 1.85 kg N/cap and the corresponding N losses from the farming systems total 8.9 kg N/cap. N losses per unit of product differ among the three livestock systems according to where and how the fodder is grown and to what densities the livestock is reared. | Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems ... | Chatzimpiros, P and Barles, S | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Dairy products
Food
Food and agriculture
Nitrogen
Single point in time
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
|
| Network environ perspective for urban metabolism and carbon emissions: a case study of Vienna, Austria Cities are considered major contributors to global warming, where carbon emissions are highly embedded in the overall urban metabolism. To examine urban metabolic processes and emission trajectories we developed a carbon flux model based on Network Environ Analysis (NEA). The mutual interactions and control situation within the urban ecosystem of Vienna were examined, and the system-level properties of the city's carbon metabolism were assessed. Regulatory strategies to minimize carbon emissions were identified through the tracking of the possible pathways that affect these emission trajectories. Our findings suggest that indirect flows have a strong bearing on the mutual and control relationships between urban sectors. The metabolism of a city is considered self-mutualistic and sustainable only when the local and distal environments are embraced. Energy production and construction were found to be two factors with a major impact on carbon emissions, and whose regulation is only effective via ad-hoc pathways. In comparison with the original life-cycle tracking, the application of NEA was better at revealing details from a mechanistic aspect, which is crucial for informed sustainable urban management. | Network environ perspective for urban metabolism and carbon emissions: a ... | Chen, Shaoqing and Chen, Bin | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Austria
Case Study
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Vienna
Zotero2
|
| Efficiency Through Proximity: Changes in Phosphorus Cycling at the Urban–Agricultural Interface of a Rapidly Urbanizing Desert Region In tightly coupled socioecological systems, such as cities, the interactions between socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of an area strongly influence ecosystem function. Very often the effects of socioeconomic activities on ecosystem function are unintended, but can impact the sustainability of a city and can have irreversible effects. The food system in its entirety, from production to treatment of human waste, is one of the most important contributors to the way phosphorus (P) cycles through cities. In this article we examined the changes in P dynamics at the urban–agricultural interface of the Phoenix, Arizona, USA, metropolitan area between 1978 and 2008. We found that the contribution of cotton to harvested P decreased while the contribution of alfalfa, which is used as feed for local dairy cows, increased over the study period. This change in cropping pattern was accompanied by growth in the dairy industry and increased internal recycling of P due to dairy cow manure application to alfalfa fields and the local recycling of biosolids and treated wastewater. The proximity of urban populations with dairies and feed production and low runoff in this arid climate have facilitated this serendipitous recycling. Currently P is not strongly regulated or intentionally managed in this system, but farmers' behaviors, shaped largely by market forces and policies related to water recycling, unintentionally affect P cycling. This underscores the need to move from unintentional to deliberate and holistic management of P dynamics through collaborations between practitioners and researchers in order to enhance urban sustainability. | Efficiency Through Proximity: Changes in Phosphorus Cycling at the Urban–Agricultural ... | Metson, Geneviève; Aggarwal, Rimjhim; Childers, Daniel L. | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Food
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Phosphorus
Sub-national
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Urban Metabolism The concept of urban metabolism, referring to the exchange processes that produce the urban environment, has inspired new ways of thinking about how cities can be made sustainable and has also raised criticisms about the specific social and economic arrangements in which some forms of flow are prioritized or marginalized within the city. This article explores how the concept of urban metabolism travels across disciplines, using a comparative analysis of different approaches to urban metabolism within industrial ecology, urban ecology, ecological economics, political economy and political ecology. The analysis reveals six main themes emerging within interdisciplinary boundaries in relation to urban metabolism, and how this concept enables new understandings of (1) the city as an ecosystem, (2) material and energy flows within the city, (3) economic–material relations within the city, (4) economic drivers of rural–urban relationships, (5) the reproduction of urban inequality, and (6) attempts at resignifying the city through new visions of socioecological relationships. The article suggests potential areas for cross-disciplinary synergies around the concept of urban metabolism and opens up avenues for industrial ecology to engage with the politics and the governance of urban development by examining the city and its metabolism. | Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Urban Metabolism | Castán Broto, V and Allen, AE and Rapoport, E | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Research and Analysis
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Analysis on the Characteristic of Energy Flow in Urban Ecological Economic System—A Case of Xiamen City Energy is the material basis for urban economic development, which has an increasingly prominent constraint role to the urban ecological economic system (UEES). The research related to the theories and methods for sustainable use of energy in the UEES has been paid more attention. However, the current research about energy structure evolution in the system and the quantitative understanding of energy flow is not enough in depth. In this paper, the energy structure and the mechanism of energy flows in the UEES were systematically analyzed based on the theories of systematic and ecological economics, with taking Xiamen City in China as an example. Such studies are of important theoretical and practical significance for improving the structure and function of the UEES and achieving the ecological development of the system. | Analysis on the Characteristic of Energy Flow in Urban Ecological ... | Zhao, W. | Conference Paper | None | 2012 |
Case Study
Energy Flow Analysis (EFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| From Eradication To Intervention: Urban Informal Ecosystem Scope: The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for sustainable urban development within the African context. Framing the problem: Understanding urban development within the African context requires foremost that we understand the driving forces that continue to create patterns of inequality in the way people in the urban context are afforded opportunity and access to resources. This problem is framed by exploring the impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on urban development and how this has reduced the ability for governments to achieve infrastructure networks that address the needs all urban dwellers equally. In the South African context, this has resulted in a new wave of protests, typically referred to as service delivery protests. These protests called for more than just the delivery of physical infrastructure such as houses, water and sanitation. In many instances these are calls for accountability and participatory governance from people who are fighting against corruption. However, there remains an underlying frustration for poor urban communities related inequality urban resources, exemplified by the slow delivery of housing. Grappling with the housing backlog numbers this research seeks to describe the ‘housing delusion', pointing to the amount of time and rate of delivery required to address the current and escalating backlog. Sustainable development and issues associated with our current Cartesian paradigm are considered within a systems framework and the need to consider the interconnectedness of all things. The issues of unsustainable development are further expanded, by framing concepts of urban ecology and broken cycles related to infrastructure and the poor within the urban context. The problem of social and economic exclusion experienced by a high number of unemployed urban residents who face jobless futures with little prospect of moving out of poverty and informality is described, making important links to infrastructure delivery, particularly housing, and job creation. Describing notions of embedded power within urban development is used to help contextualise the uneven access to resources and infrastructure in the African city, making links back to globalisation and pressure on governments to provide economic infrastructure. | From Eradication To Intervention: Urban Informal Ecosystem | Royden-Turner, Shannon | Thesis | theses | 2012 |
Cape Town
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Informal
Single point in time
South Africa
Urban
|
| Estimating material and energy intensities of urban areas The objective of this thesis is to develop methods to estimate, analyze and visualize the resource intensity of urban areas. Understanding the resource consumption of the built environment is particularly relevant in cities that are rapidly growing, as the urban forms that emerge have long-term consequences for both the quality of life of the inhabitants, and their future material and energy demands. This work was completed by assembling datasets of cities from around the world, identifying geometric patterns in the built environment, relating these geometric patterns to material and energy intensities, and illustrating these intensities in a visually intuitive way. This thesis describes a standardized analytical approach to assess the physical characteristics of the built environment, enabling comparisons to be made between cities. This approach provides a preliminary assessment of resource intensities that may be useful for decision-makers to compare differences among a variety of urban forms. Finally, a new web-map visualization tool has been developed that enables users to gain an understanding of the resource intensity of 40 cities in the USA. This tool allows the user to explore the resource intensity of urban areas using a web-browser, and to dynamically generate reports that can compare areas within a city, or entire cities, to each other. | Estimating material and energy intensities of urban areas | Quinn, D.J. | Thesis | theses | 2012 |
Method
United States
Urban
|
| Effects of planning and policy decisions on residential land use in Singapore A study of current land use in Singapore shows that through effective long-term space planning, the island city-state has maintained an adequate stock of developable residential land to meet its most ambitious maximum population projections. Two indicators of residential land use efficiency are defined: Residential Land Use Footprint, [Lambda]r, measures the per-capita residential land requirement; Mean Residential Redevelopment Time, [Tau]r, defines the weighted average time for the government to redevelop a typical plot of residential land. A dynamic stock-and- ow model is described to calculate the historical residential land use footprint and mean residential redevelopment time between 1990 and 2011. Finding that the primary driver of residential land use footprint is the change in household occupant density, a System Dynamics model is developed to simulate the historical housing price, supply response, and occupant density. Using a stock management structure to modulate housing supply and commodity dynamics structures to determine housing prices, the calibrated model is used to forecast the behavior trends of several housing policy and population growth scenarios. | Effects of planning and policy decisions on residential land use ... | Davis, N.R. | Thesis | theses | 2012 |
Singapore
Singapore: City
Time series
Urban
|
| Comparing urban solid waste recycling from the viewpoint of urban metabolism based on physical input–output model: A case of Suzhou in China Investigating impacts of urban solid waste recycling on urban metabolism contributes to sustainable urban solid waste management and urban sustainability. Using a physical input–output model and scenario analysis, urban metabolism of Suzhou in 2015 is predicted and impacts of four categories of solid waste recycling on urban metabolism are illustrated: scrap tire recycling, food waste recycling, fly ash recycling and sludge recycling. Sludge recycling has positive effects on reducing all material flows. Thus, sludge recycling for biogas is regarded as an accepted method. Moreover, technical levels of scrap tire recycling and food waste recycling should be improved to produce positive effects on reducing more material flows. Fly ash recycling for cement production has negative effects on reducing all material flows except solid wastes. Thus, other fly ash utilization methods should be exploited. In addition, the utilization and treatment of secondary wastes from food waste recycling and sludge recycling should be concerned. | Comparing urban solid waste recycling from the viewpoint of urban ... | Liang, Sai; Zhang, Tianzhu | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT)
Scenario analysis
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Zotero2
|
| Comment on article 'Is there a metabolism of an urban ecosystem?' by Golubiewski No abstract available. | Comment on article 'Is there a metabolism of an urban ... | Kennedy, Christopher | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Commentary / Editorial
Urban
|
| Is there a metabolism of an urban ecosystem? An ecological critique The energy and material flows of a city are often described as urban metabolism (UM), which is put forward as a way to link a city’s ecology and economy. UM draws parallels to the biology of individual organisms, yet the analogy is misapplied. In striving to be interdisciplinary, UM makes this organismic comparison rather than identifying the city as an ecosystem, thereby ignoring developments in ecological theory. Using inappropriate rhetoric misdirects researchers, which influences scientific investigation—from problem statements to interpretations. UM is valuable in quantifying the city’s use of natural resources but does not achieve a comprehensive, integrated analysis of the urban ecosystem. To realize an interdisciplinary, perhaps transdisciplinary, understanding of urban ecology, researchers need to emphasize the essential tenets of material flows analysis, view the city as an ecosystem, and use language that properly reflects current knowledge, theory, and conceptual frameworks in the foundational disciplines. | Is there a metabolism of an urban ecosystem? An ecological ... | Golubiewski, Nancy | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Method
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| An expanded urban metabolism method: Toward a systems approach for assessing urban energy processes and causes The integrated study of energy and urban systems has recently become a critical component of sustainability research and policy. Increasing urbanization of human societies combined with intense energy demands of modern economies have driven a recognition that sustainable practices require a systems approach to both the study and application of sustainability principles. Urban metabolism has emerged as a leading methodology for quantifying energy consumption and use patterns in urban environments. Though typically applied as a method of accounting for total energy and materials inputs and outputs into cities, its interdisciplinary history and methods allow urban metabolism to be expanded in ways that will allow more comprehensive and integrated assessment of the patterns and processes of urban energy systems. In this article, we review the concept of urban metabolism—including its two typical approaches: mass balance and “emergy” methods—and offer a means to expand urban metabolism into a platform that incorporates socioeconomic analysis, policy analysis, and additional quantitative methodologies (such as life cycle assessment). This expanded urban metabolism framework is more comprehensive analytically and builds upon the documented capacity of traditional urban metabolism to account for total energy and materials flows of cities to provide an integrated platform for analysis of both energy patterns and the causal processes that govern energy in contemporary cities. | An expanded urban metabolism method: Toward a systems approach for ... | Pincetl, Stephanie and Bunje, Paul and Holmes, Tisha | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Method
Urban
|
| Using Life Cycle Assessment to Evaluate Green and Grey Combined Sewer Overflow Control Strategies Decentralized approaches to managing urban stormwater are gaining increased attention within the contexts of urban sustainability, climate change adaptation, and as a means of reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs). This study applied a life cycle assessment (LCA) to comparing the environmental efficiency of three means of equivalently reducing CSOs to the Bronx River (Bronx, NY, USA). Strategy 1 featured decentralized green infrastructure technologies, while “grey” strategies 2 and 3 detained, and detained and treated, respectively, excess flows at the end of pipe. We estimated greenhouse gas emissions (in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents [t CO2-eq]) over the construction, operation, and maintenance phases, including energy consumed at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), carbon sequestered, and shading provided by vegetation (in the case of the green approach) over a 50-year analysis period. The study area comprised the entire drainage area contributing to New York State permitted CSO discharge points associated with the Hunts Point WWTP. The analysis was performed using a hybrid of process and economic input-output (EIO) LCA methods. The decentralized green strategy outperformed the two grey strategies in terms of this set of environmental metrics. The net emissions of the green strategy over 50 years was 19,000 t CO2-eq, whereas the grey strategies emitted 85,000 t CO2-eq (detention) and 400,000 t CO2-eq (detention and treatment). These results were significantly influenced by the emissions associated with the operation and maintenance activities required for strategies 2 and 3, and the carbon sequestered and shading provided by the vegetation in strategy 1, and suggest that watershed managers who seek to reduce CSOs and reduce carbon footprints would opt for the green approach. | Using Life Cycle Assessment to Evaluate Green and Grey Combined ... | Sousa, Maria R. C. De; Montalto, Franco A.; Spatari, Sabrina | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Economic Input-Output Life-Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA)
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Reshaping Urban Infrastructure This article reviews the scope of the discipline of industrial ecology and, in the context of an urgent requirement for substantial and rapid change in the face of global sustainability challenges, argues that the discipline could embrace a more proactive, interventionist stance in the form of renewable eco-industrial development. Existing eco-industrialism is presented as flawed, with many cases premised on the use of nonrenewable resources. Renewable eco-industrial development, while still nascent, has the potential both to resolve some sustainability challenges and to offer a new area of endeavor for industrial ecology, albeit one with its own unique difficulties, such as conflict with food production. Renewable ecoindustrial development is further argued to bring industrial ecology into a more socially critical stance as it concerns the future allocation of scarce resources. | Reshaping Urban Infrastructure | Hodson, Mike and Marvin, Simon and Robinson, Blake and Swilling, Mark | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Method
Urban
|
| Implementing Trans-Boundary Infrastructure-Based Greenhouse Gas Accounting for Delhi, India Community‐wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting is confounded by the relatively small spatial size of cities compared to nations—due to which, energy use in essential infrastructures serving cities, such as commuter and airline transport, energy supply, water supply, wastewater infrastructures, and others, often occurs outside the boundaries of the cities using them. The trans‐boundary infrastructure supply chain footprint (TBIF) GHG emissions accounting method, tested in eight U.S. cities, incorporates supply chain aspects of these trans‐boundary infrastructures serving cities, and is akin to an expanded geographic GHG emissions inventory. This article shows the results from applying the TBIF method in the rapidly developing city of Delhi, India.The objectives of this research are to (1) describe the data availability for implementing the TBIF method within a rapidly industrializing country, using the case of Delhi, India; (2) identify methodological differences in implementation of the TBIF method between Indian versus U.S. cities; and (3) compare broad energy use metrics between Delhi and U.S. cities, demonstrated by Denver, Colorado, USA, whose energy use characteristics and TBIF GHG emissions have previously been shown to be similar to U.S. per capita averages.This article concludes that most data required to implement the TBIF method in Delhi are readily available, and the methodology could be translated from U.S. to Indian cities. Delhi's 2009 community‐wide GHG emissions totaled 40.3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (t CO2‐eq), which are normalized to yield 2.3 t CO2‐eq per capita; nationally, India reports its average per capita GHG emissions at 1.5 t CO2‐eq. In‐boundary GHG emissions contributed to 68% of Delhi's total, where end use (including electricity) energy in residential buildings, commercial and industrial usage, and fuel used in surface transportation contributed 24%, 19%, and 21%, respectively. The remaining 4% of the in‐boundary GHG emissions were from waste disposal, water and wastewater treatment, and cattle. Trans‐boundary infrastructures were estimated to equal 32% of Delhi's TBIF GHG emissions, with 5% attributed to fuel processing, 3% to air travel, 10% to cement, and 14% to food production outside the city. | Implementing Trans-Boundary Infrastructure-Based Greenhouse Gas Accounting for Delhi, India | Abel Chavez, Anu Ramaswami, Dwarakanath Nath, Ravi Guru, and Emani Kumar | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Single point in time
Trans-Boundary Infrastructure Supply Chain Footprint (TBIF)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Pathways and Management of Phosphorus in Urban Areas Due to the finite nature of mineral phosphorus reserves, effective management of anthropogenic phosphorus flows is currently under investigation by the international research community. This article emphasizes the importance of urban phosphorus flows, which are often marginalized due to the greater magnitude of agricultural phosphorus flows. A study on phosphorus flows in Gothenburg, Sweden, points out the potential role of solid waste in nutrient management, as the amounts of phosphorus in solid waste and in wastewater were found to be equal. Importation of food commodities accounts for 50% of the total inflow of phosphorus, and food waste is a major contributor of phosphorus to solid waste. The results suggest that solid waste incineration residues represent a large underestimated sink of phosphorus. Focusing on wastewater as the sole source of recovered phosphorus is not sufficient. The Swedish national goal on phosphorus recycling, which is limited to sewage sludge, targets only a part of the total phosphorus flow that can potentially be recovered. In contrast to previous studies, agricultural flows in Gothenburg were marginal compared to flows related to the urban waste management infrastructure. We emphasize the need for debate on preferable routes for disposal of waste with a high phosphorus content. Both recovery potential and usefulness of the recovered product for agricultural purposes have to be considered. Impacts of five waste management strategies on phosphorus flows were evaluated: incineration of all the waste, comprehensive food waste separation, installation of kitchen grinders, urine diversion, and separation of blackwater and food waste. | Pathways and Management of Phosphorus in Urban Areas | Yuliya Kalmykova | Journal Article | academic | 2012 |
Case Study
Food Waste
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Paper
Phosphorus
Single point in time
Urban
Wastewater
Water
|
| Mainstreaming Urban Metabolism: Advances And Challenges In City Participation Urban metabolism is widely defined as the sum total of the technical and socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting in resource consumption, growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste. With the growing importance of tackling the global and local resource impacts of cities, collection of urban metabolism data should become a mainstream activity for all medium to large cities. The Urban Development and Local Government Unit of the World Bank has conducted abbreviated urban metabolism studies for 7 client cities (Amman, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Metro Manila, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo) using data from national and local statistical agencies and departments. These studies are presented in this paper, the data gathering challenges outlined, and recommendations made as to how local governments can institutionalize the collection of metabolism information and use it to inform local sustainability programs, and projects. Conference: Sixth Urban Research and Knowledge Symposium 2012 | Mainstreaming Urban Metabolism: Advances And Challenges In City Participation | Hoornweg, Daniel A. and Campillo, Gisela and Saldivar-Sali, Artessa N. and Linders, Dennis and Sugar, Lorraine | Conference Paper | None | 2012 |
Abbreviated MFA
Amman
Argentina
Beijing
Brazil
Buenos Aires
Cape Town
Case Study
China
Jordan
Manila
Philippines
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
Single point in time
South Africa
Urban
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| Dynamic modeling of Singapore's urban resource flows: Historical trends and sustainable scenario development The process of urbanization is one that is inextricably linked with the consumption of material, energy, and water resources. Urban metabolism provides a framework for characterizing the magnitudes of these urban resource requirements by considering the extended analogy of the biological metabolic process. In this study we propose a System Dynamics approach for linking the stocks and flows of urban metabolism with the socioeconomic activities of cities. We also present initial results from its application to the island city-state of Singapore. In the long term, we intend this technique of dynamic urban metabolism to be both descriptive and predictive, the former to better understand different historical modes of urban resource consumption, and the latter to inform strategies for resource efficient urban development in an increasingly resource-scarce world. Conference: Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology | Dynamic modeling of Singapore's urban resource flows: Historical trends and ... | Abou-Abdo, T. and Davis, N.R. and Krones, J.S. and Welling, K.N. and Fernández, J.E. | Conference Paper | None | 2011 |
Case Study
Singapore
Singapore: City
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
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| Modeling the water consumption of Singapore using system dynamics Water resources are essential to life, and in urban areas, the high demand density and finite local resources often engender conditions of relative water scarcity. To overcome this scarcity, governments intensify infrastructure and project demand into the future. Growth in the economy, population, and affluence of cities increase water demand, and water demand for many cities will increase into the future, requiring additional investments in water infrastructure. More sustainable policies for water will require capping socioeconomic water demand and reducing the associated demand for non-renewable energy and material resources. The thesis consists of the formulation of a System Dynamics model to replicate historic trends in water consumption for the growing city of Singapore. The goal of the model is to provide a platform for assessing socioeconomic demand trends relative to current water resources and water management policies and for examining how changes in climate and infrastructure costs might impact water availability over time. The model was calibrated to historical behavior and scenarios examined the vulnerability of supply to changing demand, climate, and cost. The outcome is a qualitative dynamic assessment of the circumstances under which Singapore's current policies allow them to meet their goals. Singapore was chosen as the case study to demonstrate the methodology, but in the future, the model will be applied to other cities to develop a typology of cities relative to water resources. | Modeling the water consumption of Singapore using system dynamics | Welling, Karen Noiva | Thesis | theses | 2011 |
Singapore
Singapore: City
Urban
Water
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| The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design Following formative work in the 1970s, disappearance in the 1980s, and reemergence in the 1990s, a chronological review shows that the past decade has witnessed increasing interest in the study of urban metabolism. The review finds that there are two related, non-conflicting, schools of urban metabolism: one following Odum describes metabolism in terms of energy equivalents; while the second more broadly expresses a city’s flows of water, materials and nutrients in terms of mass fluxes. Four example applications of urban metabolism studies are discussed: urban sustainability indicators; inputs to urban greenhouse gas emissions calculation; mathematical models of urban metabolism for policy analysis; and as a basis for sustainable urban design. Future directions include fuller integration of social, health and economic indicators into the urban metabolism framework, while tackling the great sustainability challenge of reconstructing cities. | The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban ... | Kennedy, C and Pincetl, S and Bunje, P | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Review Paper
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Estimating GHG emissions of marine ports—the case of Barcelona In recent years, GHG inventories of cities have expanded to include extra-boundary activities that form part of the city's urban metabolism and economy. This paper centers on estimating the emissions due to seaports, in such a way that they can be included as part of the city's inventory or be used by the port itself to monitor their policy and technology improvements for mitigating climate change. We propose the indicators GHG emissions per ton of cargo handled or per passenger and emissions per value of cargo handled as practical measures for policy making and emission prevention measures to be monitored over time. Adapting existing methodologies to the Port of Barcelona, we calculated a total of 331,390 tons of GHG emissions (CO2 equivalents) for the year of 2008, half of which were attributed to vessel movement (sea-based emissions) and the other half to port, land related activities (land-based emissions). The highest polluters were auto carriers with 6kg of GHG emissions per ton of cargo handled. Knowing the highest emitters, the port can take action to improve the ship's activities within the port limits, such as maneuvering and hotelling. With these results, the port and the city can also find ways to reduce the land-based emissions. | Estimating GHG emissions of marine ports—the case of Barcelona | Villalba, Gara; Gemechu, Eskinder Demisse | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Greenhouse Gas Accounting
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Climate change adaptation in a developing country context: The case of urban water supply in Cape Town Climate change is expected to affect water supply if extreme climatic events and unpredictable rainfall patterns become more prevalent. Bulk infrastructure tends to determine urban communities' vulnerability to water supply and this infrastructure tends to be managed by the government. This suggests that water supply adaptation will require government capacity and commitment—often lacking in the developing country context. This article focuses on the processes impeding and facilitating adaptation to climate change within the urban water sector in the City of Cape Town, South Africa. The case study explores water management at the city scale, highlighting how actors currently respond to water stress and the challenges they face in integrating climate change information into water management. The case study results suggest that the best ways to facilitate adaptation are to focus on areas where development needs and responses to climate change impacts are connected, and focus support on adaptation processes rather than outcomes. This approach is likely to ensure that climate change responses are not seen as competing with non-climate development priorities, but as part of the solution to them. This is likely to create incentives for the global South to respond to climate change. | Climate change adaptation in a developing country context: The case ... | Gina Ziervogel, Moliehi Shale, Minlei Du | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Urban
Water (sector)
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| Analyses of water footprint of Beijing in an interregional input-output framework Beijing is under severe water resource pressure due to the rapid economic development and growing population. This study quantitatively evaluates the water footprint of Beijing in an interregional input-output framework with a focus on blue water resources and uses. The inter-connections of water resources between Beijing and other provinces are analyzed with a sectoral specification. The results show that the total water footprint of Beijing is 4498.4 106 m3/year, of which 51% is from the external water footprint acquired through virtual water import. Agriculture has the highest water footprint of 1524.5 106 m3/year with 56% coming from external sources. The main virtual water provider for Beijing is Hebei, another water scarce region, from which Beijing receives virtual water of 373.3 106 m3/year with 40% from agriculture. The results of this study suggest that the interregional trade coordination, especially for the main sectors with high water use intensity, is important for enhancing the efficiency of regional and national water resource utilization. | Analyses of water footprint of Beijing in an interregional input-output ... | Zhuoying Zhang and Hong Yang and Minjun Shi | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Sub-national
Urban
Water
Water (sector)
Water Footprint (WF)
|
| Data Acquisition for Applying Physical Input-Output Tables in Chinese Cities The physical input‐output table (PIOT) is a useful tool for analyzing the environmental sustainability of cities. Taking Chinese statistical sources as an example in this study, we discuss data acquisition methods for applying the PIOT to cities. We propose several methods and present a case study of Suzhou City to illustrate the proposed methods. These methods can provide foundations for constructing the PIOT of cities in other countries. | Data Acquisition for Applying Physical Input-Output Tables in Chinese Cities | Sai Liang and Tianzhu Zhang | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Method
Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT)
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Cape Town State of Energy 2011: Energy Futures Report Table of contents Executive summary 1. Context: The South African and Western Cape energy picture 1.1 The South African energy picture 1.1.1 Oil and liquid-fuel supply 1.1.2 Electricity supply 1.1.3 Electricity supply shortages 1.1.4 Climate change concerns 1.1.5 National energy laws and policies 1.2 2. 3. The Western Cape energy picture The Cape Town energy picture 2.1 Methodology 2.2 Overview of Cape Town’s energy supply and demand Energy breakdown by sector 3.1 Residential 3.2 Commercial 3.3 Industrial 3.4 Transport 3.4.1 Passenger transport 3.4.2 Freight transport 3.5 4. Local government/authority Cape Town’s optimum energy future 4.1 Scenarios 4.1.1 A ‘business as usual’ scenario 4.1.2 Cape Town’s optimum energy future overview 4.2 Optimum energy interventions 4.2.1 Electricity efficiency interventions 4.2.2 Transport efficiency interventions 4.2.3 Renewable energy supply interventions 4.3 2 Effects of carbon tax and peak oil 5. City of Cape Town policy and regulatory framework 6. Recent Cape Town statistics 7. References 8 List of abbreviations used | Cape Town State of Energy 2011: Energy Futures Report | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2011 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Urban Water Mass Balance Analysis Planning for “water‐sensitive” cities has become a priority for sustainable urban development in Australia. There has been little quantification of the term, however. Furthermore, the water balance of most cities is not well known. Following prolonged drought, there has also been a growing need to make Australian cities more water self‐reliant: to source water from within. This article formalizes a systematic mass‐balance framework to quantify all anthropogenic and natural flows into and out of the urban environment. Quantitative performance indicators are derived, including (1) degree of system centralization; (2) overall balance; potential of (3) rainfall, (4) stormwater, and (5) wastewater to offset current demand; and (6) water cycle rate. Using the method, we evaluate Sydney, Melbourne, South East Queensland and Perth using reported and modeled data. The approach makes visible large flows of water that have previously been unaccounted and ignored. It also highlights significant intercity variation. In 2004–2005, the cities varied 54% to 100% in their supply centralization, 257% to 397% in the ratio of rainfall and water use, 47% to 104% in their potential stormwater recycling potential, and 26% to 86% in wastewater recycling potential. The approach provides a practical, water‐focused application of the urban metabolism framework. It demonstrates how the principles of mass balance can help foster robust water accounting, monitoring, and management. More important, it contributes to the design and quantitative assessment of water‐sensitive cities of the future. | Urban Water Mass Balance Analysis | Steven Kenway, Alan Gregory, Joseph McMahon | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Method
Sub-national
Time series
Urban
Wastewater
Water
Water mass balance analysis
|
| The Material Consumption of Singapore’s Economy: An Industrial Ecology Approach In a world deeply concerned about future accessibility of physical resources, especially materials, water and energy, the young field of industrial ecology brings resolute attention to tracking the flows of these resources through systems at different scales. Material flow analysis is an industrial ecology tool used to examine system metabolism by tracking the input, output, conversion and accumulation of materials, water, energy or selected substances, helping to inform decisions about resource availability, waste management and pollution reduction at local, regional or global levels. With the exception of several nature reserves, the island city-state of Singapore is highly urbanized, and has been dependent upon industrial and manufacturing activities for its national standing and economic growth. As such, mapping Singapore’s ‘urban metabolism’ through a material flow analysis (MFA) approach, with a particular focus on materials catalogued by international trade databases, is useful for understanding the island’s level of sustainable resources use within the context of the global economy and ecosystem. This study compares relevant data describing Singapore’s material flows for the years 2000, 2004 and 2008. Domestic material consumption on the island is found to be highly variable across the three study years. This primarily reflects Singapore’s levels of construction activity, including considerable additions of actual land area to the island. The flux in the quantity of sand imports to Singapore illustrates the volatility that one category of goods can introduce to the material record of an otherwise stable economy. For countries that are becoming increasingly dependent on imported products, the implication is that a growing share of the impact is taking place in other countries. Global economic trends are also determined to have an effect on Singapore’s additions to stock vs. its exports, as its gross domestic product is highly reliant on trade activity. | The Material Consumption of Singapore’s Economy: An Industrial Ecology Approach | Chertow, Marian; Choi, Esther S; Lee, Keith | Book Section | academic | 2011 |
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
National
Time series
Urban
|
| Emergy analysis of the urban metabolism of Beijing Cities can be modeled as if they were superorganisms with a range of metabolic processes. Research on this urban metabolism can contribute to solving urban environmental problems by revealing details of the metabolic throughput of the system. A key issue is how to find a common basis for measuring the environmental and economic values. By providing a single unified unit, emergy theory integrates the natural and socioeconomic systems and thoroughly evaluates a system's metabolism. We analyzed Beijing's urban metabolic system using emergy synthesis to evaluate its environmental resources, economy, and environmental and economic relations with the regions outside the city during 14 years of development. We compared Beijing's emergy indices with those of five other Chinese cities and of China as a whole to assess Beijing's relative development status. These indices are the emergy self-support ratio (metabolic dependence), the environmental load ratio (metabolic loading), empower density (metabolic pressure), emergy used per person (metabolic intensity per capita), and the monetary equivalent of emergy (emdollars; metabolic intensity). Based on our emergy analysis, Beijing's socioeconomic system is not self-sufficient, and depends greatly on external environmental resources. Its GDP is supported by a high percentage of emergy purchased from outside the city. During the study period, Beijing's urban system showed an increasing dependence on external resources for its economic development. Beijing's loading and pressure on the ecological environment is continuously increasing, accompanied by continuously increasing human emergy consumption. In the future, it will become increasingly necessary to improve Beijing's metabolic efficiency. None | Emergy analysis of the urban metabolism of Beijing | Zhang, Yan; Yang, Zhifeng; Liu, Gengyuan; Yu, Xiangyi | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Urban Metabolism in China Achieving Dematerialization and Decarbonization in Suzhou Urban metabolism is a critical component of urban sustainability. On the basis of the driving force−pressure−state−response (DPSR) model and using material flow analysis, this article proposes a framework for sustainable urban management and policy assessment. A case study city in China, Suzhou, illustrates this framework. The results show that resource consumption (excluding water), water consumption, and waste generation (excluding carbon dioxide) in Suzhou after implementation of proposed policies will be 14% lower than 2005 levels, 4.5% higher, and 28.9% higher, respectively, in 2015. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Suzhou will increase by 71.0% in 2015 over 2005 levels, whereas carbon intensity (CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product) will decrease by 44.9%. Future pollution control in Suzhou should pay more attention to pollution from vehicles. In addition, goals for relative dematerialization of energy and decarbonization in Suzhou will be achieved before absolute ones are. In the short term, the urban metabolism of Suzhou in 2015 may meet corresponding urban objectives. In the longer term, however, reducing the city's resource demand and waste generation will pose challenges for the sustainability of Suzhou. | Urban Metabolism in China Achieving Dematerialization and Decarbonization in Suzhou | Sai Liang and Tianzhu Zhang | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
|
| Development of a comprehensive city assessment tool: CASBEE-City Conducting city assessments and disclosing those results to the public is important for supporting citizens' understanding of the actual condition of their city. Such assessment and disclosure could introduce a market mechanism that can be expected to provide city governments with strong incentives to improve their city conditions and also recognizes that local policy and strategy can be the most appropriate way to address specific urban and environmental problems. The latest Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) tool, referred to as CASBEE-City, is presented. Designed specifically for city assessment, it supports local governments and other stakeholders in identifying the environmental, social and economic characteristics of their city and in quantifying the effectiveness of their city-wide policies. CASBEE-City is based on the concept of environmental efficiency and it provides a combined evaluation of a city embracing two aspects: the environmental load imposed by the city on the wider environment outside its boundary, and the quality of life (environmental, social, economic) inside the city. A city with low environmental load and high quality receives a high Built Environment Efficiency (BEE) value and is regarded as a sustainable city within the CASBEE framework. | Development of a comprehensive city assessment tool: CASBEE-City | Shuzo Murakami and Shun Kawakubo and Yasushi Asami and Toshiharu Ikaga and Nobuhaya Yamaguchi and Shinichi Kaburagi | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Japan
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| Analysis of the indicators between urban metabolism and land use change in Guangzhou The study on the interaction between land use change and urban metabolism, which is the core of Global Change Programme, has currently come into lively discussion in the field of ecological research. On the whole ecologic-economic-social system of Guangzhou, this paper analyzes the emergy-based urban metabolism in the past 17 years with reference to the resource flows from 1990 to 2006 and investigates this interaction of the metabolism and land-change of Guangzhou. It finds out the truth that various types of land-use changes had remarkable influence on the material and energy flows during the metabolic course, especially the fast rise of the construction land. The more construction land the city increases, the more total solar emergy it consumes, which makes a decline in the emergy sustainable indices. The per unit area energy consumption also increases in the process of urban expansion with a large amount of depletion of minerals, fuels and building resources. Because of the growing environmental load, the emergy yield ratio is decreasing year by year. At the same time, the emergy efficiency of farmland has been enhanced while there has been a decrease in the amount of farmland and a downward trend of emergy density since 1990. The results can provide an important basis and new ideas for the land planning and management of Guangzhou. | Analysis of the indicators between urban metabolism and land use ... | WU Yu-qin, YAN Mao-chao; WU Yu-qin, YAN Mao-chao | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The concept of urban metabolism: exploration of the concept urban metabolism in relation to sustainable urban development This study aims to determine the usefulness of the concept of Urban Metabolism for sustainable urban development. In this concept, the total of urban flows (like building materials, food and waste) together with the processes which transform those flows are metaphorically viewed as the metabolism of a city. The thesis starts with a search for a clear description of the concept. Existing literature is analysed and ordered in which two main conceptions of the concept are distinguished: Urban Metabolism according to a biological point of view versus an ecological point of view. The second part of the thesis deals with the value of Urban Metabolism for reaching sustainable urban development. Urban Metabolism relates mainly to flows of materials and energy. A roadmap is developed how to apply the concept for reaching a sustainable exchange of materials and energy between the urban system and the environment. It appears that Urban Metabolism provides a framework within one can systematically search for such a sustainable exchange. However, to be more useful it is necessary that Urban Metabolism research shifts from describing the urban system to applications which aim to understand and control the metabolic processes and flows. In the last part of the thesis special attention is paid to the value of Urban Metabolism in reaching sustainable development through optimizing the spatial structure of a city. There is a clear connection between the urban metabolism and the spatial structure: some of the largest urban flows (building energy, building materials, transportation energy) are influenced by the urban structure. However, at this moment the possibilities to integrate spatial components into the concept of Urban Metabolism are limited. | The concept of urban metabolism: exploration of the concept urban ... | Jelier, W.P.C. | Thesis | theses | 2011 |
Urban
|
| Water "RIE of the draft measures program EMP" REPORT ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE DRAFT PROGRAM OF MEASURES ACCOMPANYING THE WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN OF THE BRUSSELS-CAPITAL REGION This report puts into context the measures taken by the Brussels Capital Region with regard to the quality and quantity of its surface water and groundwater, in relation to the European framework. It deals with the quantitative, hydrographic and qualitative aspects as well as the water-related service costs: production and consumption, collection and purification of wastewater. Ce rapport met en contexte les mesures prises par la région de Bruxelles Capitale vis - à - vis de la qualité et la quantité de ses eaux de surface et de ses eaux souterraines, en relation avec le cadre européen. Il aborde les aspects quantitatifs hydrographiques, qualitatifs ainsi que les couts de service liés à l'eau: production et consommation, collecte et épuration des eaux usées. | Water "RIE of the draft measures program EMP" REPORT ON ... | Bruxelles Environnement, sous-division Eau et sous-division Labo, Santé et Indicateurs (Département Etat de l’environnement et Indicateurs**) en collaboration avec la SBGE, le Port de Bruxelles, VIVAQUA et HYDROBRU Antoine Michaël, Berrewaerts Marie-Christine ,Binon Martin, Bocquet Renaud, Cuartero Diaz Gaëtan, Davesne Sandrine, Villers Juliette de, Dutrieux Sandrine, Gosselin Benoît, Liétar Arlette, Françoise Onclincx Françoise et Verbeke Véronique | Report | reports | 2011 |
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| Report on economically-viable mineral resources in the City of Cape Town's administrative area This report is a result of a request by Arne Purves , City of Cape Town, for digital data on the economic and potentially economic mineral resource fields in the City of Cape Town’s administrative area. This data was captured and pla ced on ARC-GIS. A total of eleven mineral commodities were identified, namely stone aggregate – granite, stone aggregate – Malmesbury slate, stone aggregate – Table Mountain sandstone, brick clay, plastic clay, building sand, silica sand, gravel (ferricrete), limestone, kaolin and ph osphate. Their distribution was compiled as separate layers on ARC-GIS. This report describes e ach mineral commodity systematically in terms of the location, extent, economic viability a nd alternative sources outside the Cape Town area. The GIS data standards are given in Appendix 1. Environmental Resource Management Department, City of Cape Town | Report on economically-viable mineral resources in the City of Cape ... | Cole, DI | Report | reports | 2011 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Transport of goods to and from the center of Brussels: using the port to improve sustainability City distribution plays a key role in supporting urban lifestyles, helping to serve and retain industrial and trading activities, and contributing to the competitiveness of regional industry. Despite these positive effects, it also generates negative (economic, environmental and social) impacts on cities worldwide. Relatively little attention has been paid to these issues by researchers and policymakers until recently. The analyses found in City Distribution and Urban Freight Transport aim to improve knowledge in this important area by recognizing and evaluating the problems, with a focus on urban freight transport systems. | Transport of goods to and from the center of Brussels: ... | van Lier, Tom; Macharis, Cathy | Book Section | academic | 2011 |
Transportation
Urban
|
| Methodological paper - Indicator: Total and sectoral water consumption This document explains the indicators used by Bruxelles Environnement concerning total water consumption and water consumption by economic sector. Ce document explique les indicateurs utilisés par Bruxelles environnement concernant la consommation d'eau totale et par secteur économique. | Methodological paper - Indicator: Total and sectoral water consumption | Bruxelles Environnement | Document | reports | 2011 |
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| Material flow accounting in an Irish city-region 1992-2002 This paper aims to measure raw material inputs and waste flows in an Irish city-region in order to analyse (i) whether there was absolute dematerialisation in the particular case study over the period 1992-2002 and (ii) whether material consumption and waste generation were decoupled from economic growth and increases in disposable income over the same period. It was found that the selected material flow indicators showed no evidence of absolute dematerialisation over the given study period, although more recent evidence at the national level suggests that a decline in construction activity and extraction of non-metallic minerals has resulted in an absolute reduction in material consumption and it is likely that this will be mirrored at the system boundary level. It was found that Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) per capita and Direct Material Input (DMI) per capita increased at a faster rate than Domestic Processed Output (DPO) per capita and Direct Material Output (DMO) per capita between 1992 and 2002, which indicates relative decoupling of consumption from waste generation. In addition, it was found that there was relative decoupling of consumption and waste generation from disposable income growth over the study period. Finally, it was found that average DMC and DMI figures for the selected case study were lower than the national averages but broadly similar to results for other city-regions in the European Union (EU). On a methodological note, it was concluded that material flow accounting (MFA) for city-regions in Ireland is constrained due to a lack of disaggregated data for material flows, with the exception of local waste data, and it is recommended that bottom-up analysis should be used to complement disaggregated top-down data. | Material flow accounting in an Irish city-region 1992-2002 | Browne, David; O'Reagan, Bernadette; Moles, Richard | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Decoupling
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Zotero import
|
| The Development and Practice in City Level of Material Flow Analysis (MFA) in China On the basis of reviewing and summarizing the experience of MFA in china and abroad, the research framework of regional MFA are proposed, meanwhile the method was applied in city level, and analyzing the material flows in Tianjin city from 1998 to 2007. The results indicated that the total material consumption of Tianjin was 97.25 million tons in 2007. The amount of imported materials accounted for 46 percent of direct material input, and 40 percent of it was coal; it indicated that Tianjin largely depended on external resource. Moreover, the environmental capacity of Tianjin was at the saturated state, with water seriously polluted. The material productivity was being improved, but the efficiency of resources utilization was in a lower level. Finally, accordingly measures and suggestions were proposed to resolve the existing problems. | The Development and Practice in City Level of Material Flow ... | Wei, Liu; Wenxin, Tian; Chaofan, Chen; Liang, Liu; Yun, Liu | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
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| Cities and greenhouse gas emissions: moving forward Cities are blamed for the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So too are more affluent, highly urbanized countries. If all production- and consumption-based emissions that result from lifestyle and purchasing habits are included, urban residents and their associated affluence likely account for more than 80 per cent of the world's GHG emissions. Attribution of GHG emissions should be refined. Apportioning responsibility can be misguided, as recent literature demonstrates that residents of denser city centres can emit half the GHG emissions of their suburban neighbours. It also fails to capture the enormous disparities within and across cities as emissions are lowest for poor cities and particularly low for the urban poor.This paper presents a detailed analysis of per capita GHG emissions for several large cities and a review of per capita emissions for 100 cities for which peer-reviewed studies are available. This highlights how average per capita GHG emissions for cities vary from more than 15 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) (Sydney, Calgary, Stuttgart and several major US cities) to less than half a tonne (various cities in Nepal, India and Bangladesh). The paper discusses where GHG emissions arise and where mitigation efforts may be most effective. It illustrates the need to obtain comparable estimates at city level and the importance of defining the scope of the analysis. Emissions for Toronto are presented at a neighbourhood level, city core level and metropolitan area level, and these are compared with provincial and national per capita totals. This shows that GHG emissions can vary noticeably for the same resident of a city or country depending on whether these are production- or consumption-based values. The methodologies and results presented form important inputs for policy development across urban sectors. The paper highlights the benefits and drawbacks of apportioning GHG emissions (and solid waste generation) per person. A strong correlation between high rates of GHG emissions and solid waste generation is presented. Policies that address both in concert may be more effective as they are both largely by-products of lifestyles. | Cities and greenhouse gas emissions: moving forward | Hoornweg, Daniel and Sugar, Lorraine and Trejos Gomez, Claudia Lorena | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Amman
Athens
Austin
Bangkok
Bangladesh
Barcelona
Beijing
Bhutan
Brussels
Buenos Aires
Calgary
Cape Town
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Colombo
Comparison
Czech Republic
Delhi
Denver
Dhaka
Frankfurt
Geneva
Glasgow
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Hamburg
Jordan
Kathmandu
Ljubljana
London
Los Angeles
Madrid
Mexico City
Naples
New York
Oslo
Paris
Portland
Porto
Prague
Rio de Janeiro
Rotterdam
Sao Paulo
Seattle
Seoul
Shanghai
Singapore
Singapore: City
Single point in time
Stockholm
Stuttgart
Sydney
Tianjin
Tokyo
Toronto
Urban
Vancouver
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| Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumptions in the Residential Sector of the City of San Juan The interest to know the evolution of energy consumption in the residential sector of the city of San Juan, Argentina supports the present work. Data corresponding to the year 1999 of six suburban neighborhoods are used and the tools developed for analysis are then perfected, in order to compare them with those of the year 2006, allowing the future coupling of other years. The information was processed in relational databases and spreadsheets, associating consumption with climatic parameters and geographical location. The statistical technique applied in the comparative study is the Normal Logarithmic Model. The results determine that the electricity consumption increased significantly in the total of the sample during all seasons, while that of gas decreased even in winter in three of the neighborhoods, and the increases presented by the other three are much lower than those of the electrical consumption El interés por conocer la evolución de consumos energéticos en el sector residencial de la ciudad de San Juan, Argentina sustenta el presente trabajo. Se utilizan datos correspondientes al año 1999 de seis barrios suburbanos y se perfeccionan las herramientas elaboradas entonces para su análisis, con el fin de compararlos con los del año 2006, permitiendo el futuro acoplamiento de otros años. La información se procesó en bases de datos relacionales y en planillas de cálculo, asociando consumos a parámetros climáticos y a su ubicación geográfica. La técnica estadística aplicada en el estudio comparado es el Modelo Logarítmico Normal. Los resultados determinan que el consumo eléctrico se incrementó significativamente en el total de la muestra durante todas las estaciones, mientras que el de gas disminuyó incluso en invierno en tres de los barrios, y los aumentos presentados por los otros tres son muy inferiores a los del consumo eléctrico. | Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumptions in the Residential Sector of ... | I. Blasco Lucas, M. Facchini, R. Avelín, R. Rosés, L. Hoesé | Journal Article | academic | 2011 |
Energy (sector)
Urban
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| State of the Environment Report 2009 Table of contents: Foreword - Executive Mayor Dan Plato Introduction - City Manager Achmat Ebrahim Background Air quality Carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint Biodiversity Invasive alien species Access to nature Wastewater Freshwater quality Coastal water quality Water use Solid waste Summary of results Conclusion Appendix A: Goals of the City Of Cape Town Environmental Agenda 2009 - 2014 Appendix B: Integrated Development Plan (IDP): Corporate Scorecard 2010/11 Appendix C: Goals and targets of the UN Millennium Declaration Appendix E: Green Cities Declaration and Urban Environmental Accords References Acknowledgements | State of the Environment Report 2009 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2010 |
Cape Town
Urban
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| Material flow accounting of an Indian village We are presenting material flow accounting and related indicators for an Indian adivasis village in 1983 (Sarowar, Dangs, Gujarat). It gives a point of comparison with modern nation-wide material flow accounting. The aim is to test the feasibility of indicators of dematerialization of the economy in poor economies. We measured the annual material flows within the Sarowar village (670 inhabitants) in 1982-1983. The method was a combination of surveys, real time measurements, indirect measurements and laboratory dry matter measurements. The results were translated into recent concepts of material flow accounting (MFA), and compared with nation-wide studies. The total material requirement (TMR) of Sarowar (excluding air and water), USA, Japan, Germany and The Netherlands is respectively about 5, 84, 46, 86 and 84 tons per capita per year. The input (all biotic materials are expressed in tons dry matter) totalised 15.8 t DM cap−1 y−1 in Sarowar, which consists mainly of air (11 t cap−1 y−1) and biotic primary materials (4.1 t DM cap−1 y−1). The latest was composed of 29% of pastures, 25% of branches for field burning, 35% of fuel wood, 6% fodder, 1% of construction wood and 4% of grains. The outputs (15.8 t cap−1 y−1) were dominated by CO2 (15.1 t cap−1 y−1). In contrast, the output of The Netherlands (66.8 t cap−1 y−1) is dominated by export with air emissions (19 t cap−1 y−1), export (16 t cap−1 y−1) and embedded export (29 t cap−1 y−1). The apparent eco-efficiency (kg per US dollar, excluding air and water, including hidden flows) is 70, 3, 3, 3 and 3 kg $−1 respectively for Sarowar, Japan, USA, Germany and The Netherlands. The corrected eco-efficiency using Purchasing Power Parity is less contrasted with respectively 18, 3, 3, 4 and 3 kg $−1. Traditional human ecosystem measurements can serve as a basic comparison point, and as a test for dematerialization indicators. The limit of the indicator of eco-efficiency resides in the different degrees of monetization of the economies. In less monetized economies, this indicator is highly biased by the underlying non-market material flows. We discuss the use of ratios of non-substitutable factors in dematerialization assessment and we suggest the use of multi-criteria analysis instead. | Material flow accounting of an Indian village | Bruno Kestemont and Marc Kerkhove | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Rural
Urban
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| Twelve metropolitan carbon footprints: A preliminary comparative global assessment A dearth of available data on carbon emissions and comparative analysis between metropolitan areas make it difficult to confirm or refute best practices and policies. To help provide benchmarks and expand our understanding of urban centers and climate change, this article offers a preliminary comparison of the carbon footprints of 12 metropolitan areas. It does this by examining emissions related to vehicles, energy used in buildings, industry, agriculture, and waste. The carbon emissions from these sources—discussed here as the metro area's partial carbon footprint—provide a foundation for identifying the pricing, land use, help metropolitan areas throughout the world respond to climate change. The article begins by exploring a sample of the existing literature on urban morphology and climate change and explaining the methodology used to calculate each area's carbon footprint. The article then depicts the specific carbon footprints for Beijing, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, New Delhi, New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo and compares these to respective national averages. It concludes by offering suggestions for how city planners and policymakers can reduce the carbon footprint of these and possibly other large urban areas. | Twelve metropolitan carbon footprints: A preliminary comparative global assessment | Sovacool, Benjamin K.; Brown, Marilyn A. | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Carbon
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Comparison
UM review paper import
Urban
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| A global typology of cities : classification tree analysis of urban resource consumption A study was carried out to develop a typology of urban metabolic (or resource consumption) profiles for 155 globally representative cities. Classification tree analysis was used to develop a model for determining how certain predictor (or independent) variables are related to levels of resource consumption. These predictor variables are: climate, city GDP, population, and population density. Classification trees and their corresponding decision rules were produced for the following major categories of material and energy resources: Total Energy, Electricity, Fossil fuels, Industrial Minerals & Ores, Construction Minerals, Biomass, Water, and Total Domestic Material Consumption. A tree was also generated for carbon dioxide emissions. Data at the city level was insufficient to include municipal solid waste generation in the analysis. Beyond just providing insight into the effects of the predictor variables on the consumption of different types of resources, the classification trees can also be used to predict consumption levels for cities that were not used in the model training data set. Urban metabolic profiles were also developed for each of the 155 cities, resulting in 15 metabolic types containing cities with identical or almost identical levels of consumption for all of the 8 resources and identical levels of carbon dioxide emissions. The important drivers of the differences in profile for each type include the dominant industries in the cities, as well as the presence of abundant natural resources in the countries in which the cities are the main economic centers. | A global typology of cities : classification tree analysis of ... | Saldivar-Sali, Artessa Niccola D | Thesis | theses | 2010 |
Case Study
Classification tree analysis
Comparison
Method
UM review paper import
Urban
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| Greenhouse Gas Emission Footprints and Energy Use Benchmarks for Eight U.S. Cities A hybrid life cycle-based trans-boundary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint is elucidated at the city-scale and evaluated for 8 US cities. The method incorporates end-uses of energy within city boundaries, plus cross-boundary demand for airline/freight transport and embodied energy of four key urban materials [food, water, energy (fuels), and shelter (cement)], essential for life in all cities. These cross-boundary activities contributed 47% on average more than the in-boundary GHG contributions traditionally reported for cities, indicating significant truncation at city boundaries of GHG emissions associated with urban activities. Incorporating cross-boundary contributions created convergence in per capita GHG emissions from the city-scale (average 23.7 mt-CO2e/capita) to the national-scale (24.5 mt-CO2e/capita), suggesting that six key cross-boundary activities may suffice to yield a holistic GHG emission footprint for cities, with important policy ramifications. Average GHG contributions from various human activity sectors include buildings/facilities energy use (47.1%), regional surface transport (20.8%), food production (14.7%), transport fuel production (6.4%), airline transport (4.8%), long-distance freight trucking (2.8%), cement production (2.2%), and water/wastewater/waste processing (1.3%). Energy-, travel-, and key materials-consumption efficiency metrics are elucidated in these sectors; these consumption metrics are observed to be largely similar across the eight U.S. cities and consistent with national/regional averages. | Greenhouse Gas Emission Footprints and Energy Use Benchmarks for Eight ... | Hillman, Tim; Ramaswami, Anu | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Carbon Footprint (CF)
Case Study
Energy
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
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| Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism studies to sustainable urban development issues Urban areas, in particular cities, are significant consumers of materials and energy, either directly on their land areas or indirectly through the materials, goods and services they import or export; there are upstream and downstream consequences of the removal of resources and the discharge of waste materials (to the atmosphere, water and soils), with multiple impacts on the biosphere. The processes involved need to be better characterised to reduce these environmental pressures. This is a sustainable development issue and it is a major goal of a field ecology which has been described as urban, industrial or sometimes territorial. This paper reviews the specific origins and findings of studies on urban metabolism. It describes the analysis tools used, including material and substance flows, energy balances, ecological, water and, more generally, environmental footprints. Finally, recent findings and areas for future research in the dematerialisation of urban societies are summarised. | Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism studies ... | Barles, Sabine | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Urban
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| Flows and fates of nickel--cadmium batteries in the City of Cape Town The use and disposal of nickel-cadmium secondary cells (the basic components of NiCd batteries) in Cape Town, South Africa, has been investigated with the objective of quantifying the associated flows of cadmium. Small sealed cells were found to make the dominant contribution to overall cadmium flows, with cordless power tools and separately imported cells accounting for most of these. Essentially all of these cells either have or will enter the general waste streams of the city. Large industrial cells made a smaller but significant contribution to overall flows, but none were known to have entered the general waste stream. These went primarily to hazardous waste disposal outside the city or recycling abroad, with some going into storage. The results suggested that the city's landfill stocks of cadmium are considerable, and that these could continue to grow in the future. | Flows and fates of nickel--cadmium batteries in the City of ... | Mason-Jones, Kyle and von Blottnitz, Harro | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Cape Town
Case Study
Metals
South Africa
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
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| Action Research in Waste Management: Application to Construction and Demolition Waste in the Stockholm Region The action research methodology and several of its methods have previously been highlighted and described by the authors as a fitting and rigorous framework approach for complex waste management systems. This was in response to criticism of the ex ante selection of traditional empiric systems analysis tools to provide decision support and ‘sustainable improvement’ in such complex systems which often involve strong human and political factors. Several of the action research methods described have recently been utilized in a case study around mineral (aggregate) construction and demolition waste in the Stockholm region. These methods were integrated through a series of workshops and work areas undergone together with project members from several private and public sectors. Leaving the problem fuzzy (loosely defined) in the beginning; utilizing convergent interviewing, rich pictures and focus groups allowed the researchers and partner stakeholders to identify not one but several problem areas within the system of focus. Indicator creation and a dialectic processes were then used to identify qualitative and quantitative aspects of salience around these problem areas. These resulting indicators were strengthened through a process of verification. Each indicator was then analyzed by what was deemed to be appropriate and transparent means. It is argued that this approach may create better communication, transparency, and understanding by the stakeholders. These factors in turn allowing stronger stakeholder ownership of the process and assisting in more informed decisions and help to provide stability for desired change. However the process was not without its drawbacks such as intense communication and time requirements. | Action Research in Waste Management: Application to Construction and Demolition ... | Graham Aid, Nils Brandt | Conference Paper | None | 2010 |
Urban
Waste (sector)
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| Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism studies to sustainable urban development issues Urban areas, in particular cities, are significant consumers of materials and energy, either directly on their land areas or indirectly through the materials, goods and services they import or export; there are upstream and downstream consequences of the removal of resources and the discharge of waste materials (to the atmosphere, water and soils), with multiple impacts on the biosphere. The processes involved need to be better characterised to reduce these environmental pressures. This is a sustainable development issue and it is a major goal of a field ecology which has been described as urban, industrial or sometimes territorial. This paper reviews the specific origins and findings of studies on urban metabolism. It describes the analysis tools used, including material and substance flows, energy balances, ecological, water and, more generally, environmental footprints. Finally, recent findings and areas for future research in the dematerialisation of urban societies are summarised. | Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism studies ... | Sabine Barles | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Ecological Footprint Analysis (must be removed)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
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| Ecological network analysis of an urban water metabolic system: Model development, and a case study for Beijing Using ecological network analysis, we analyzed the network structure and ecological relationships in an urban water metabolic system. We developed an ecological network model for the system, and used Beijing as an example of analysis based on the model. We used network throughflow analysis to determine the flows among components, and measured both indirect and direct flows. Using a network utility matrix, we determined the relationships and degrees of mutualism among six compartments – 1) local environment, 2) rainwater collection, 3) industry, 4) agriculture, 5) domestic sector, and 6) wastewater recycling – which represent producer, consumer, and reducer trophic levels. The capacity of producers to provide water for Beijing decreased from 2003 to 2007, and consumer demand for water decreased due to decreasing industrial and agricultural demand; the recycling capacity of reducers also improved, decreasing the discharge pressure on the environment. The ecological relationships associated with the local environment or the wastewater recycling sector changed little from 2003 to 2007. From 2003 to 2005, the main changes in the ecological relationships among components of Beijing's water metabolic system mostly occurred between the local environment, the industrial and agricultural sectors, and the domestic sector, but by 2006 and 2007, the major change was between the local environment, the agricultural sector, and the industrial sector. The other ecological relationships did not change during the study period. Although Beijing's mutualism indices remained generally stable, the ecological relationships among compartments changed greatly. Our analysis revealed ways to further optimize this system and the relationships among compartments, thereby optimizing future urban water resources development. | Ecological network analysis of an urban water metabolic system: Model ... | Zhang, Yan; Yang, Zhifeng; Fath, Brian D. | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Throughflow Analysis
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
Zotero2
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| Input, stocks and output flows of urban residential building system in Beijing city, China from 1949 to 2008 Urban residential buildings are formed, maintained and reformed by different external material and energy flows, and their behaviors of input, accumulation and output are characterized by their architectural factors and modes of use that usually determine the consumption of material and energy of a building at its overall life cycle. In this research, we took Beijing city, a rapid developing city as a case study, and examined material flows of urban residential building system based on a survey of typical residential buildings in the urban areas of Beijing city. The quantitative analysis were made to describe the input, transformation/accumulation, and output of building materials from the year 1949 to 2008, and a comparative analysis was done to identify the differences of material uses among the buildings with different architectural structures as masonry-concrete, and steel-concrete. During the period from 1949 to 2008, there were six main materials of cement, sand, gravel, steel, bricks and timber used in urban residential building system in Beijing. The total amount of material imported into the system was 5.1×108t, among which the accumulated amount was 4.7×108t, an accumulation rate of 92.5%, and the total of building wastes reached 3.9×107t. Among the buildings with two architectural structures, the total amount of material use for buildings with steel-concrete structure was larger than masonry-concrete. It was found that the buildings with steel-concrete structure experienced a rapid increase since the year 1979 in Beijing. As a result of rapid urban development, the large-scale reformation and demolishment of urban old buildings also led to a rapid growth of the amount of building wastes. And the building wastes generated in the process of reformation and demolition began to exceed that produced in the process of new buildings construction. The amount of building wastes generated from 2004 to 2008 accounted for 52.2% of the total that generated from 1949 to 2008. From this research, the rapid development of Beijing's residential building system in the past 60 years became a big ecological pressure for urban sustainable building development. It is important to change the traditional model of urban construction, and develop some sustainable or ecologically friendly construction technologies to enhance the capacity of recycling and reuse of residential building wastes for realizing a sustainable urban building construction and management in Beijing. | Input, stocks and output flows of urban residential building system ... | Hu, Dan; You, Fang; Zhao, Yanhua; Yuan, Ye; Liu, Tianxing; Cao, Aixin; Wang, Zhen; Zhang, Junlian | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Case Study
Concrete
Dwellings
Gravel
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Sand
Steel
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Wood
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Investigation into a sustainable implant in the Erasmusveld neighborhood, The Hague The City Development Authority of Den Haag’s ambition is for Erasmusveld to be the most sustainable neighborhood in the Netherlands. The site, 51 hectares in the southwest of Den Haag, has a strong green character and is currently occupied by allotment gardens and sports fields. From 2012-2020, 750 homes and a small number of offices will be constructed with a variety of urban typologies. Conventional 20th century infrastructures (electricity, heat supply, sanitation, solid waste management, transportation) do not meet the planners’ ambitions of 100% local and renewable energy and climate neutrality. A decentralized infrastructure network, formulated by the Sustainable Implant concept, was investigated to empower Erasmusveld socially, environmentally, and economically. The resultant Sustainable Implant is a community center, infrastructure service hub, and processing device to transform the neighborhood’s built environment into an ecosystem that recirculates energy and nutrients from “waste” and captures primary resources (sun, wind, rain). Constructive analysis by literature review, case studies, and expert interviews led to eight physical components for the system: The neighborhood ecosystem is formed by integrating the inputs and by-products of the components, which are spatially optimized under one roof. A compact and flexible infrastructure “ribbon” between the buildings and the Sustainable Implant encapsulates the heat network, vacuum sewer, electricity and telecom wires; thus re-imagining infrastructure as a tangible landscape to reinforce stewardship and connectivity. Economically, the infrastructure network is owned, operated and maintained by a local utility service company (termed the Erasmusveld Energy BV ), which would reduce inhabitants’ utility costs by 10-20% through efficiencies gained by integration and would create administration and caretaking jobs. Inhabitants have the right to be shareholders in the company and vote on how accumulated funds are reinvested. Compared to a conventional neighborhood by four indicative cycles (carbon, phosphorus, water and energy), the Sustainable Implant improves urban metabolism. Notably, the infrastructure of renewable electricity, heat network and resource recovery from organic material leads to a carbon-negative balance, making Erasmusveld the first carbon-negative neighborhood in the Netherlands. The Sustainable Implant also fulfills twenty-one established criteria, including Optimizing collection and transport, equal or more comfort, equal or more ease of use, and similar costs. | Investigation into a sustainable implant in the Erasmusveld neighborhood, The ... | Nels Nelson | Thesis | theses | 2010 |
The Hague
Urban
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| Methodology for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions from global cities This paper describes the methodology and data used to determine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to ten cities or city-regions: Los Angeles County, Denver City and County, Greater Toronto, New York City, Greater London, Geneva Canton, Greater Prague, Barcelona, Cape Town and Bangkok. Equations for determining emissions are developed for contributions from: electricity; heating and industrial fuels; ground transportation fuels; air and marine fuels; industrial processes; and waste. Gasoline consumption is estimated using three approaches: from local fuel sales; by scaling from regional fuel sales; and from counts of vehicle kilometres travelled. A simplified version of an intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) method for estimating the GHG emissions from landfill waste is applied. Three measures of overall emissions are suggested: (i) actual emissions within the boundary of the city; (ii) single process emissions (from a life-cycle perspective) associated with the city's metabolism; and (iii) life-cycle emissions associated with the city's metabolism. The results and analysis of the study will be published in a second paper. | Methodology for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions from global cities | Kennedy, Christopher and Steinberger, Julia and Gasson, Barrie and Hansen, Yvonne and Hillman, Timothy and Havranek, Miroslav and Pataki, Diane and Phdungsilp, Aumnad and Ramaswami, Anu and Villalba, Gara | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Emissions
Energy
Greenhouse Gas Accounting
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Method
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Extended exergy-based urban ecosystem network analysis: a case study of Beijing, China Sustainable development of urban areas has been a hot topic of ecosystem management research for years. Based on the account of the extended exergy utilization in the society of Beijing, which is considered as the composition of extraction (Ex), conversion (Co), agriculture (Ag), industry (In), transportation (Tr), tertiary (Te) and households (Do) sectors, an urban metabolism network models are constructed to gain insights into the metabolic processes that orient to sustainable urban development. The results showed that a great deal of energy and resources have to be consumed to maintain the structure and function of a city. The social system in Beijing is a highly competitive network, and there are 8 competitive relations and only two mutualistic ones. The Do- and Ag-sector are the major controlling factors of the system. Do- and In-sector have the larger environmental burden. The conclusions indicate that the exergy-based network analysis can be refined to become an integrative tool for evaluation, policymaking and regulation for ecosystem management concerning structure and efficiency at urban levels. | Extended exergy-based urban ecosystem network analysis: a case study of ... | Liu, Gengyuan; Yang, Zhifeng; Chen, Bin | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Ecological network analysis of an urban energy metabolic system: Model development, and a case study of four Chinese cities Urban metabolism research faces difficulties defining ecological trophic levels and analyzing relationships among the metabolic system's energy components. Here, we propose a new way to perform such research. By integrating throughflow analysis with ecological network utility analysis, we used network flows to analyze the metabolic system's network structure and the ecological relationships within the system. We developed an ecological network model for the system, and used four Chinese cities as examples of how this approach provides insights into the flows within the system at both high and low levels of detail. Using the weight distribution in the network flow matrix, we determined the structure of the urban energy metabolic system and the trophic levels; using the sign distribution in the network utility matrix, we determined the relationships between each pair of the system's compartments and their degrees of mutualism. The model uses compartments based on 17 sectors (energy exploitation; coal-fired power; heat supply; washed coal; coking; oil refinery; gas generation; coal products; agricultural; industrial; construction; communication, storage, and postal service; wholesale, retail, accommodation, and catering; household; other consuming; recovery; and energy stocks). Analyzing the structure and functioning of the urban energy metabolic system revealed ways to optimize its structure by adjusting the relationships among compartments, thereby demonstrating how ecological network analysis can be used in future urban system research. english | Ecological network analysis of an urban energy metabolic system: Model ... | Zhang, Y., Yang, Z., Fath, B. D., & Li, S. | Journal Article | academic | 2010 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
Energy
Throughflow Analysis
Urban
|
| Hybrid Emergy-LCA (HEML) based metabolic evaluation of urban residential areas: The case of Beijing, China In this paper, metabolic evaluation has been employed for better understanding the trends in urban environmental changes. Due to the urban activities cause impacts not only on local level but also a broader scale, Hybrid Emergy-LCA (HEML), a combining approach of Emergy Analysis (EMA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is structured to quantitatively investigate the mechanism. For the similarity across many emerging cities in China, a large-scale sub-urban residential area named Tian Tongyuan (TTY) in Beijing was chosen for testing the HEML. Objective indicators of live quality and negative impacts are both considered. Analysis indicates that the household Emergy input of TTY is 1.76E+16sej/yr, while the prominent environmental impact is induced by Photochemical Oxidant Creation Potentials (POCP), 4.58E+05gethaneeq./yr. The sustainable performance constructed by its live quality and environmental impacts of TTY is found as 98.80% as that of Beijing average. Mitigation polices on the building sector should be proposed because of its dominating impacts among various consuming ends of energy and materials. None | Hybrid Emergy-LCA (HEML) based metabolic evaluation of urban residential areas: ... | Li, Dong; Wang, Rusong | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Emergy-LCA
Infra-urban
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Global mapping of Al, Cu, Fe, and Zn in-use stocks and in-ground resources Human activity has become a significant geomorphic force in modern times, resulting in unprecedented movements of material around Earth. An essential constituent of this material movement, the major industrial metals aluminium, copper, iron, and zinc in the human-built environment are mapped globally at 1-km nominal resolution for the year 2000 and compared with the locations of present-day in-ground resources. While the maps of in-ground resources generated essentially combine available databases, the mapping methodology of in-use stocks relies on the linear regression between gross domestic product and both in-use stock estimates and the Nighttime Lights of the World dataset. As the first global maps of in-use metal stocks, they reveal that a full 25% of the world's Fe, Al, Cu, and Zn in-use deposits are concentrated in three bands: (i) the Eastern seaboard from Washington, D.C. to Boston in the United States, (ii) England, Benelux into Germany and Northern Italy, and (iii) South Korea and Japan. This pattern is consistent across all metals investigated. In contrast, the global maps of primary metal resources reveal these deposits are more evenly distributed between the developed and developing worlds, with the distribution pattern differing depending on the metal. This analysis highlights the magnitude at which inground metal resources have been translocated to in-use stocks, largely from highly concentrated but globally dispersed in-ground deposits to more diffuse in-use stocks located primarily in developed urban regions. | Global mapping of Al, Cu, Fe, and Zn in-use stocks ... | J.N. Rauch | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Global
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Multi-scale
National
Rural
Single point in time
Sub-national
Urban
|
| Urbanization and Socioeconomic Metabolism in Taipei The analysis of socioeconomic metabolism has largely been dominated by quantification of material flows on a mass basis. This neglects the energetic dimensions of the urban metabolism and makes analysis that integrates material and energy flows difficult. The present research applies Odum's emergy concept to integrate energy and material flows for the study of the socioeconomic metabolism of the Taipei area. We also take into consideration the urban sprawl in the Taipei area to study its relationship to the change of socioeconomic metabolism. We interpret SPOT satellite images from 1992 and 2002 to provide a deeper understanding of the whole urban system; results show that Taipei's urban areas increased in size during the past decades. Emergy‐based indicators show decreasing empower densities (total emergy use per area) of undeveloped and agricultural areas, whereas the empower density of urban areas has increased, which signals a convergence of resource flows toward urban areas. Such an increase of empower density is mainly due to fossil fuel use and translates into increased environmental loading and decreased sustainability. An analysis of the relationship between urbanization and socioeconomic metabolism indicates that changes in land use affect the characteristics of socioeconomic metabolism in Taipei. The effects of urban sprawl on Taipei's urban sustainability are also discussed. | Urbanization and Socioeconomic Metabolism in Taipei | Shu-Li Huang and Chia-Wen Chen | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Emergy Analysis
Food
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Analysis of water consumption using a regional input-output model: Model development and application to Zhangye City, Northwestern China Based on a regional input-output model, we developed a method to identify the relationships between production activities and the related water consumption, as well as the relationships established between different sectors concerning water resources (i.e. indirect consumption). This method is applied to Zhangye City, an arid area of northwestern China that is characterized by water shortages. Our results confirm that although Zhangye suffers from a serious water shortage, the city's economic structure is based on sectors that consume large quantities of water. On the one hand, food production and forestry consume large quantities of water, reflecting the large scale of these water-intensive forms of land use. On the other hand, the industrial and service sectors use a smaller amount of water directly in production, but to produce the intermediate inputs that they incorporate into their production processes, a high consumption of water is often necessary. At present, there is no evidence that the city alleviates its water scarcity by importing virtual water in the form of economic inputs produced in other regions, suggesting that planners should include both direct and indirect water consumption in their resource allocation planning. | Analysis of water consumption using a regional input-output model: Model ... | Y. Wang and H.L. Xiao and M.F. Lu | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Single point in time
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Assessment of total urban metabolism and metabolic inefficiency in an Irish city-region This paper aims to measure product and waste flows in an Irish city-region using the principles of metabolism and mass balance. An empirical indicator to measure resource efficiency, using a ratio of waste disposal as a function of product consumption, was developed and it was found that total materials metabolic inefficiency fell by 31% from 0.13 in 1996 to 0.09 in 2002. The paper concludes by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of this indicator and its potential application in the field of sustainable consumption and resource efficiency as well as making suggestions to improve and strengthen the indicator. | Assessment of total urban metabolism and metabolic inefficiency in an ... | Browne, David; O’Regan, Bernadette; Moles, Richard | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
|
| Greenhouse gas emissions from global cities The world's population is now over 50% urban, and cities make an important contribution to national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many cities are developing strategies to reduce their emissions. Here we ask how and why emissions differ between cities. Our study of ten global cities shows how a balance of geophysical factors (climate, access to resources, and gateway status) and technical factors (power generation, urban design, and waste processing) determine the GHGs attributable to cities. Within the overall trends, however, there are differences between cities with more or less public transit; while personal income also impacts heating and industrial fuel use. By including upstream emissions from fuels, GHG emissions attributable to cities exceed those from direct end use by up to 25%. Our findings should help foster intercity learning on reducing GHG emissions. | Greenhouse gas emissions from global cities | Kennedy, Christopher and Steinberger, Julia and Gasson, Barrie and Hansen, Yvonne and Hillman, Timothy and Havranek, Miroslav and Pataki, Diane and Phdungsilp, Aumnad and Ramaswami, Anu and Mendez, Gara Villalba | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Bangkok
Barcelona
Canada
Cape Town
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Czech Republic
Denver
Geneva
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
London
Los Angeles
New York
Prague
Single point in time
South Africa
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
Toronto
United Kingdom
United States
Urban
|
| Collaborative Problem Solving Using an Industrial Ecology Approach Over the course of ten years, a consortium of stakeholders (the Harbor Consortium) used a collaborative approach to identify viable pollution prevention (P2) strategies for specific contaminants, namely mercury, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well as suspended solids entering the New York/New Jersey Harbor. The project, titled “The New York/New Jersey Harbor Watershed Pollution Prevention and Industrial Ecology Project,” in a very conscious and overt way engaged stakeholders in the process of developing P2 recommendations for the Harbor. The industrial ecology (IE) tools applied by the Harbor Consortium include substance flow analysis (SFA), material flow analysis (MFA), and, to a limited extent, life cycle analysis (LCA) and fate and transport analysis (F&T), to quantify and characterize how the contaminants flow through the regional economy and the Harbor Watershed once released to the environment. The application of these scientific tools to five contaminants at such a large geographical scale, within the context of a broad and inclusive stakeholder process, and with the goal of identifying and implementing pollution prevention strategies, led to a wide range of surprising outcomes and lessons learned. Undertaking this IE research with the key institutions and stakeholders at the table resulted in the identification and the implementation of many P2 opportunities. | Collaborative Problem Solving Using an Industrial Ecology Approach | Susan E. Boehme, Marta A. Panero, Gabriela R. Muñoz, Charles W. Powers, Sandra N. Valle | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Contaminants
Fate and Transport Analysis (F&T)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
|
| Urban ecosystem health assessment based on emergy and set pair analysis—A comparative study of typical Chinese cities Regarding various energy and materials flowing in the urban ecosystem and the merit of emergy as an embodied energetic equivalent for integrated ecological economic evaluation, an evaluation framework of emergy-based urban ecosystem health indicators (UEHIem) was established in view of five aspects including vigor, structure, resilience, ecosystem service function maintenance and environmental impact to depict the urban ecosystem health states. Further, set pair analysis (SPA) was employed to assess the urban ecosystem health level based on the UEHIem, by which the approximate degree of real index set to the optimal one was defined and evaluated to describe the relative health state of the concerned urban ecosystems. Choosing twenty typical Chinese cities in 2005 as cases, we evaluated and compared their urban ecosystem health levels based on UEHIem and SPA. The results showed that health levels of Xiamen, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Shanghai are pretty well, while those of Wuhan, Harbin, Yinchuan, Beijing and Urumchi are relatively weak. Moreover, the relative health levels were analyzed by SPA to discern the influences of the mentioned five aspects on the UEHIem. It is concluded that emergy synthesis combined with SPA can serve as an effective relative-measure to compare different ecosystem health levels of urban ecosystems. | Urban ecosystem health assessment based on emergy and set pair ... | Su, M. R.; Yang, Z. F.; Chen, B.; Ulgiati, S. | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The Analysis and Simulation of the Materials Inflow and Outflow of Macao | The Analysis and Simulation of the Materials Inflow and Outflow ... | Kampeng, Lei and Shaoqi, Zhou and Lianggang, Lu and Kiu, Chan Shek | Conference Paper | None | 2009 |
Case Study
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Urban Metabolism of Paris and Its Region The article presents the results of a research project aimed at (1) examining the feasibility of material flow analysis (MFA) on a regional and urban scale in France, (2) selecting the most appropriate method, (3) identifying the available data, and (4) calculating the material balance for a specific case. Using the Eurostat method, the study was conducted for the year 2003 and for three regional levels: Paris, Paris and its suburbs, and the entire region. Applying the method on a local scale required two local indicators to be defined in order to take into account the impact of exported wastes on MFA: LEPO, local and exported flows to nature, and DMCcorr, a modified domestic material consumption (DMC) that excludes exported wastes (and imported ones if necessary).As the region extracts, produces, and transforms less material than the country as a whole, its direct material input (DMI) is lower than the national DMI. In all the areas, LEPO exceeds 50% of DMI; in contrast, recycling is very low. The multiscale approach reveals that urban metabolism is strongly impacted by density and the distribution of activities: the dense city center (Paris) exports all of its wastes to the other parts of the region and concentrates food consumption, whereas the agricultural and urban sprawl area consumes high levels of construction materials and fuel. This supports the use of MFA on an urban and regional scale as a basis for material flow management and dematerialization strategies and clearly reveals the important interactions between urban and regional planning and development, and material flows. | Urban Metabolism of Paris and Its Region | Sabine Barles | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Evaluation of urban metabolism based on emergy synthesis: A case study for Beijing (China) Cities (“urban superorganisms”) exhibit metabolic processes. Disturbance of these processes results from the high throughput of the socioeconomic system as a result of the flow of resources between it and its surroundings. Based on systematic ecology and emergy synthesis, we developed an emergy-based indicator system for evaluating urban metabolic factors (flux, structures, intensity, efficiency, and density), and evaluated the status of Beijing's environment and economic development by diagramming, accounting for, and analyzing the material, energy, and monetary flows within Beijing's metabolic system using biophysically based ecological accounting. We also compared the results with those of four other Chinese cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, and Baotou) and China as a whole to assess Beijing's development status. From 1990 to 2004, Beijing's metabolic flux, metabolic intensity, and metabolic density increased significantly. The city's metabolic processes depend excessively on nonrenewable resources, but the pressure on resources from outside of the city decreased continuously. The metabolic efficiency increased by around 12% annually throughout the study period. Beijing had a highest metabolic fluxes and density compared with the four other cities; its metabolic efficiency was lower, and its metabolic intensity was higher. Evaluating these metabolic indicators revealed weaknesses in the urban metabolic system, thereby helping planners to identify measures capable of sustaining these urban metabolic processes. | Evaluation of urban metabolism based on emergy synthesis: A case ... | Zhang, Yan and Yang, Zhifeng and Yu, Xiangyi | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Emergy Analysis
Food
Time series
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism: Methodological Advances in Urban Material Flow Accounting Based on the Lisbon Case Study Urban metabolism studies have been established for only a few cities worldwide, and difficulties obtaining adequate statistical data are universal. Constraints and peculiarities call for innovative methods to quantify the materials entering and leaving city boundaries. Such methods include the extrapolation of data at the country or the region level based, namely, on sales, population, commuters, workers, and waste produced. The work described in this article offers a new methodology developed specifically for quantifying urban material flows, making possible the regular compilation of data pertinent to the characterization of a city's metabolism. This methodology was tested in a case study that characterized the urban metabolism of the city of Lisbon by quantifying Lisbon's material balance for 2004. With this aim, four variables were characterized and linked to material flows associated with the city: absolute consumption of materials/products per category, throughput of materials in the urban system per material category, material intensity of economic activities, and waste flows per treatment technology. Results show that annual material consumption in Lisbon totals 11.223 million tonnes (20 tonnes per capita), and material outputs sum 2.149 million tonnes. Nonrenewable resources represent almost 80% of the total material consumption, and renewables consumption (biomass) constitutes only 18% of the total consumption. The remaining portion is made up of nonspecified materials. A seemingly excessive consumption amount of nonrenewable materials compared to renewables may be the result of a large investment in building construction and a significant shift toward private car traveling, to the detriment of public transportation. | Urban metabolism: Methodological Advances in Urban Material Flow Accounting Based ... | Niza, Samuel and Rosado, Leonardo and Ferrão, Paulo | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Urban stock over time: spatial material stock analysis using 4d-GIS A huge amount of construction material is required in urban areas for developing and maintaining buildings and infrastructure. Ageing stocks, which were built during a period of rapid growth in Japan (1955-1973), will cause a new waste flow in the near future. In order to assess urban metabolism with regard to building and infrastructure, it is necessary to understand change in its material accumulation both ‘spatially' and ‘temporally'. In this analysis, material accumulation over time is elucidated using four-dimensional Geographical Information Systems (4d-GIS) data at an urban scale. An approximately 8 km2 urban area of Salford in Manchester, UK, and 11 km2 of Wakayama City centre, Japan, were selected as case study sites. In this analysis, the material stock of buildings, roadways and railways was estimated locally over time, using a 4d-GIS database: (1) to find the spatial distribution of construction materials over time, (2) to estimate the demolition curve of buildings based on characteristics of an area, and (3) to clarify material accumulation with vertical location, such as above and below ground, from the viewpoint of recyclability. By estimation of the demolition curve, the life span of buildings in an urban area was found to be shorter than the national average respectively at both sites: 81 years in the urban area of Salford compared with 128 years for the UK; and 28 years in Wakayama City centre compared with the Japanese national average of 40 years. In 2004, 47% of total construction material was stocked in underground infrastructure in Wakayama City centre. | Urban stock over time: spatial material stock analysis using 4d-GIS | Tanikawa, Hiroki; Hashimoto, Seiji | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Time series
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| Combined MFA-LCA for Analysis of Wastewater Pipeline Networks Oslo's wastewater pipeline network has an aging stock of concrete, steel, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipelines, which calls for a good portion of expenditures to be directed toward maintenance and investments in rehabilitation. The stock, as it is in 2008, is a direct consequence of the influx of pipelines of different sizes, lengths, and materials of construction into the system over the years. A material flow analysis (MFA) facilitates an analysis of the environmental impacts associated with the manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and retirement of the pipelines. The forecast of the future flows of materials—which, again, is highly interlinked with the historic flows—provides insight into the likely future environmental impacts. This will enable decision makers keen on alleviating such impacts to think along the lines of eco‐friendlier processes and technologies or simply different ways of doing business. Needless to say, the operation and maintenance phase accounts for the major bulk of emissions and calls for energy‐efficient approaches to this phase of the life cycle, even as manufacturers strive to make their processes energy‐efficient and attempt to include captive renewable energy in their total energy consumption. This article focuses on the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the wastewater pipeline network in the city of Oslo. | Combined MFA-LCA for Analysis of Wastewater Pipeline Networks | G. Venkatesh, Johanne Hammervold, and Helge Brattebø | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Concrete
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Hybrid MFA-LCA
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
PVC
Steel
Time series
Urban
Various Materials
Wastewater
|
| The food-print of Paris: long-term reconstruction of the nitrogen flows imported into the city from its rural hinterland Between the tenth and twentieth century the population of Paris city increased from a few thousand to near 10 million inhabitants. In response to the growing urban demand during this period, the agrarian systems of the surrounding rural areas tremendously increased their potential for commercial export of agricultural products, made possible by a surplus of agricultural production over local consumption by humans and livestock in these areas. Expressed in terms of nitrogen, the potential for export increased from about 60 kg N/km²/year of rural territory in the Middle Ages, to more than 5,000 kg N/km²/year from modern agriculture. As a result of the balance between urban population growth and rural productivity, the rural area required to supply Paris (i.e. its food-print) did not change substantially for several centuries, remaining at the size of the Seine watershed surrounding the city (around 60,000 km²). The theoretical estimate of the size of the supplying hinterland at the end of the eighteenth century is confirmed by the figures deduced from the analysis of the historical city toll data (octroi). During the second half of the twentieth century, the ‘food-print' of Paris reduced in size, owing to an unprecedented increase in the potential for commercial export associated with modern agricultural systems based on chemical N fertilization. We argue that analysing the capacity of territories to satisfy the demand for nitrogen-containing food products of local or distant urban population and markets might provide new and useful insights when assessing world food resource allocation in the context of increasing population and urbanization. | The food-print of Paris: long-term reconstruction of the nitrogen flows ... | Billen, Giles, and Barles, Sabine, and Garnier, Josette, and Rouillard, Josephine, and Benoit, Paul | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Food
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Nitrogen
Sub-national
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Hybrid input-output analysis of wastewater treatment and environmental impacts: A case study for the Tokyo Metropolis This paper proposes a new hybrid input-output model designed to analyze both the generation and treatment of wastewater. This model, named wastewater treatment input-output model (WWIO), can be regarded as an extension of the waste input-output model (WIO). As an application, I compiled the Tokyo Metropolitan WWIO table for 2000, which comprises 482 economic sectors, 11 wastewater treatment sectors, 12 types of wastewater-related waste and 6 types of environmental load. The model was applied to different scenarios to compare alternative wastewater treatment systems. The results indicate that replacing the simple treatment with the high-class treatment improves the quality of treated water while increasing CO2-equivalent emissions. Meanwhile, when the dewatered sludge is incinerated instead of landfilling, both CO2-equivalent emissions and landfill volume decrease. | Hybrid input-output analysis of wastewater treatment and environmental impacts: A ... | Chen Lin | Journal Article | academic | 2009 |
Case Study
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Scenario analysis
Single point in time
Urban
Wastewater
|
| Caluculation of the in-use stock of materials in urban with nocturnal light image Material in-use stock, which represents a future potential of material recovery and waste, is an important factor in analysis of resources recycling. In-use stock is usually estimated using some statistics. In developing countries, however, such statistical data is not usually available to estimate in-use stock of materials. Therefore an alternative method is required in these countries. In this paper, a novel approach was shown to estimate a distribution of material, e.g. copper, etc. stock in the world, using above ground light images taken from space. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) / Operational Linescan System (OLS) nocturnal images are converted into the cloud-free visible light distribution image on all over the earth. The visible light is used exclusively in residential, commercial, industrial, public facilities and roadways. In previous studies, the relation between the strength of nocturnal light and human activity (e.g. population, GDP, energy utilization) has been studied. If we assumed that wherever the light exists the conducting material, such as copper should be used, the in-stock of materials can be estimated from the net of the light. In this study, the cloud-free DMSP composites of 1 km spatial resolution data generated by National Geophysical Data Center in U.S.A were applied on mapping a distribution of material stock. The net of light in an area were calculated from the image data, as an Illuminated Urban Area (IUA) dome volume. As a result, IUA dome volume shows strong correlation with copper stock. DMSP images may prove to be a useful tool to know in-use stock distributions in regions. This method is more suitable for the analysis concerning to developing countries where statistics may not be available. Published in: 2009 Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event, Shanghai, China | Caluculation of the in-use stock of materials in urban with ... | Matsuno, Yasunari; Takahashi, Kazue Ichino; Adachi, Yoshihiro; Nakamura, Jiro; Elvidge, Chris | Conference Paper | None | 2009 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
|
| Exploration of Urban Stocks The transition of the built environment is a key issue of sustainable development. The paper describes a methodology based on material flow analysis (MFA) to explore material stocks in urban systems in order to make these materials available for urban mining. Switzerland is taken as an example. For the management on a national or regional scale exploration steps on lower scales are crucial. MFA is combined with architectural know how and approaches inspired by geosciences (urban geology). Buildings and infrastructure are the main processes, since they are the main carriers of material stocks within the urban system. For the exploration of urban stocks in buildings, the combination of material contents which are related to specific construction systems and layouts of rooms with their frequency of occurrence is introduced as 'ark-house method'. The focus on the genesis of the built environment gives the basis for future development options by scenario techniques. | Exploration of Urban Stocks | Lichtensteiger, Thomas; Baccini, Peter | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Case Study
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| General Aspects of Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) Features of stable ecological structures are explored and compared with the characteristics of urban structures. Having a high efficiency in recycling material flows, while exploiting a renewable energy resource (sunlight), such ecosystems represent a good example of natural solution towards self-sustainability. Part of their dynamics could be taken as a reference for the environmental sustainability of anthropic systems. By identifying the standpoint from which the anthropic system differentiates from the natural one, this analysis allows the introduction of a set of ecological metaphors useful to interpret urban environmental inefficiencies and used to suggest possible pathways to cope with such issues. After having introduced a number of urban issues that have the most relevant influence on the sustainability of cities, a refined and enhanced metabolic model (named new urban metabolic model), that takes explicitly into account the role of institutional activities and the possible closure of urban cycles, is deepened to produce a tool for the description and the analysis of environmental dynamics and performances in cities. In: Clini C., Musu I., Gullino M.L. (eds) Sustainable Development and Environmental Management. Springer, Dordrecht | General Aspects of Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) | Alessandro Costa | Book Section | academic | 2008 |
Urban
|
| The flow of phosphorus in food production and consumption — Linköping, Sweden, 1870–2000 Phosphorus is an important substance for agricultural production of food. Being a limited resource, it is of great interest for regional, as well as global food security. At the same time it presents a pollution problem for the aquatic environment in Sweden since it contributes to eutrophication of surface waters and the Baltic Sea. This study analyses the flow of phosphorus based on consumption and production of food for an average inhabitant of a Swedish city, Linköping, from 1870 until 2000. The study shows the changes in flows within the system of production and consumption of food, as well as between the different processes in this system, such as agriculture, food processing, consumption and waste handling, and output flows to the environment. The main changes in this system over time are a) the increasing flow of phosphorus reaching the consumer and hence the waste handling system, b) the increase in the flow of products from animal production, which mainly causes the increase in (a), and most notably c) the increased input of chemical fertilizer. | The flow of phosphorus in food production and consumption — ... | Tina-Simone Schmid Neset, Hans-Peter Bader, Ruth Scheidegger, Ulrik Lohm | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Case Study
Food
Infra-urban
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Phosphorus
Time series
Urban
|
| A Demand-Centered, Hybrid Life-Cycle Methodology for City-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories Greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting for individual cities is confounded by spatial scale and boundary effects that impact the allocation of regional material and energy flows. This paper develops a demand-centered, hybrid life-cycle-based methodology for conducting city-scale GHG inventories that incorporates (1) spatial allocation of surface and airline travel across colocated cities in larger metropolitan regions, and, (2) life-cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the embodied energy of key urban materials—food, water, fuel, and concrete. The hybrid methodology enables cities to separately report the GHG impact associated with direct end-use of energy by cities (consistent with EPA and IPCC methods), as well as the impact of extra-boundary activities such as air travel and production of key urban materials (consistent with Scope 3 protocols recommended by the World Resources Institute). Application of this hybrid methodology to Denver, Colorado, yielded a more holistic GHG inventory that approaches a GHG footprint computation, with consistency of inclusions across spatial scale as well as convergence of city-scale per capita GHG emissions (∼25 mt CO2e/person/year) with state and national data. The method is shown to have significant policy impacts, and also demonstrates the utility of benchmarks in understanding energy use in various city sectors. | A Demand-Centered, Hybrid Life-Cycle Methodology for City-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories | Ramaswami, A., Hillman, T., Janson, B., Reiner, M., Thomas, G. | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Case Study
Concrete
Energy
Food
Fossil Fuels
Greenhouse Gas Accounting
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| State of the Environment Report 2008 Table of contents: Foreword – Executive Mayor Dan Plato Introduction – City Manager Achmat Ebrahim Background Indicators Air quality Carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint Biodiversity Invasive alien species Wastewater Freshwater quality Coastal water quality Water use Solid waste Urban sprawl Access to nature Summary of results Conclusion Appendix A: Full list of contributors and sources Appendix B: Goals of the City IDP 2007/8–2011/12 Appendix C: Goals of the Cape Town IMEP Appendix D: Goals and targets of the UN Millennium Declaration Appendix E: Green Cities Declaration End notes | State of the Environment Report 2008 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2008 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Modeling the resource consumption of housing in New Orleans using System Dynamics This work uses Systems Dynamics as a methodology to analyze the resource requirements of New Orleans as it recovers from Hurricane Katrina. It examines the behavior of the city as a system of stocks, flows and time delays at a macro-level. The models used to simulate this behavior are compared to historic data. The construction materials, energy and labor required to construct several different types of housing systems are examined and these data are combined with the macro-scale analysis of the city. Several alternative scenarios are proposed based on the interactions of feedback loops identified. | Modeling the resource consumption of housing in New Orleans using ... | Quinn, D.J. | Thesis | theses | 2008 |
New Orleans
Urban
|
| Emergy synthesis and simulation for Macao Macao is a tourist city with a dense population and has a shortage of natural resources. Almost all of the city's life-support systems thus depend on imports of external resources. During the past 20 years, Macao has experienced an economic boom accompanied by rapid social development, in which the gambling industry and related tourism services have become the main economic activity. This paper employs emergy flow analysis to investigate and characterize the evolution and development of Macao from 1983 to 2003. In addition, Macao has experienced six periods of land reclamation since 1866, supported by large-scale importation of sand and rocks from China. By simulating the emergy trends using the STELLA dynamic modeling software, we predicted the evolution of Macao's development and trends in the coming 20 years. In 2025, the city's economy is estimated to be 15 times its current size as a result of Macao's territorial expansion. The exported emergy will increase slowly and then stabilize, the population will reach 593185, and the area covered by Macao will expand to 38.91km2. | Emergy synthesis and simulation for Macao | Kampeng Lei and Zhishi Wang | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Future Scenario
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The Direct Material Inputs into Singapore's Development Because human population and socioeconomic activity are both increasingly concentrated in cities, an improved understanding of the environmental consequences of urbanization is needed. A 41-year annual time series of direct material flows was compiled for Singapore, representing a case of fast, export-driven industrialization. Results show that the spectacular economic growth of Singapore by a factor of 20 was associated with a similar expansion of domestic material consumption (DMC). DMC remained closely coupled to economic activity, increasing from below 4 tonnes per capita annually in 1962 to more than 50 tonnes annually in 2000. Despite economic structural changes and a growing service sector, no significant improvements in overall material productivity have been observed. | The Direct Material Inputs into Singapore's Development | Schulz, Niels B. | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Direct Material Consumption (DMC)
National
Time series
Urban
|
| Measuring the embodied energy in household goods: application to the Lisbon City There is a strong need to characterize urban areas, namely material and energy flows that represent potential ecosystem impacts with their scale ranging from local, to regional, to global. This approach, called the concept of Urban Metabolism, is based on energy and material flows model of the interrelations between the economy and the environment, where the economy functions like an environmental subsystem, depending on a permanent throughput of materials and energy. Input–output analysis has been applied to numerous economic and environmental issues, and are now compiled on a regular basis for most industrialised, and also many developing countries.In the present paper an IO table approach is made to account for the embodied energy in the household sector of Lisbon city. Although Input Output tables have highly aggregated data, which sustain several limitations to the proposed urban model, this model can be considered as a first step to compare indirect with direct energy consumption at the household level, and also to map urban areas and compare them. It clearly shows the relevance of the embodied energy in the household consumption, allowing the identification of groups of products that are responsible for the most embodied energy consumed.It also presents a flexible tool to account for various indicators, has it is shown with the CO2 emissions calculated in this paper. | Measuring the embodied energy in household goods: application to the ... | Rosado, Leonardo; Ferrão, P | Conference Paper | None | 2008 |
Case Study
Energy
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
|
| Metabolism of Neighborhoods Analysis of urban metabolism has been established as an appropriate approach for assessing the sustainability of cities. A desirable next step is to use the metabolism as a guide to designing more sustainable cities. This study provides an analysis of the metabolism of four representative Toronto neighborhoods. The annual energy consumption for buildings and transport is determined to be from 57 to 107 GJ/capita and from 0.5 to 9.2 GJ/capita, respectively. The annual consumption of food and water is found to be 1,100 and 92,300 kg/capita. The findings of the study have implications for the design of sustainable neighborhoods. This includes the construction of energy-efficient buildings, development of public transit, and encouragement of residents to replace inefficient water fixtures. More advanced methods might consist of growing the urban forest using nutrients from wastewater, and converting solar energy to building operational energy. | Metabolism of Neighborhoods | Codoban, Natalia and Kennedy, Christopher | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Canada
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Toronto
Urban
|
| The energy and mass balance of Los Angeles County We conducted an urban “metabolic” study of inputs and outputs of food, water, energy, and pollutants from Los Angeles County, USA. This region has been the subject of recent debate about the nature of population density and distribution as it relates to urban form and associated environmental impacts. We found that with the exception of food imports and wastewater outputs, inputs of resources and outputs of pollutants generally declined on a per capita basis from 1990 to 2000. Reductions likely reflected a combination of changes in public policy, improvements in technology and public infrastructure, and impacts of increases in population density. However, in comparison to other municipalities and urban regions, resource consumption per capita was still relatively high in some categories, particularly inputs of water and transportation energy. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions were lower in Los Angeles County than for the average of the USA as a whole but higher than previous analyses of urban areas internationally, largely due to comparatively high emissions from the transportation sector. Wastewater discharge accounted for less than 40% of water inputs excluding precipitation; however the partitioning of water outputs through other potential losses, specifically evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater recharge, remains highly uncertain. We suggest that more detailed information about water losses will greatly improve future mass and energy accounting for analyses of urban environmental sustainability in this semi-arid region. | The energy and mass balance of Los Angeles County | Ngo, N. S. and Pataki, D. E. | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
Case Study
Energy
Energy Balance
Food
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
|
| Resource Consumption of New Urban Construction in China The volume of China's recent additions to its urban-built environment is unprecedented. China now accounts for half of all new building area in the world. Increases in building stocks of all types have occurred during an extended period of accelerated growth of the national economy. This expansion promises to continue through 2030. As a result, the rapid conversion of land from low-density agricultural and light manufacturing to new urban zones of high density and material-intensive commercial and residential buildings has consumed enormous quantities of domestic and imported resources and has irreversibly altered the Chinese landscape. This article examines the consumption of material resources dedicated to Chinese building construction through a survey and analysis of the material intensity of three major building types. This provides a basis for outlining the emerging life-cycle issues of recent additions to the built environment and of continued construction. With this as the starting point, the field of industrial ecology can work toward formulating strategies for a circular economy that include a resource-efficient urban China. | Resource Consumption of New Urban Construction in China | Fernández, John E. | Journal Article | academic | 2008 |
China
Construction Materials
Research and Analysis
Urban
|
| Measuring the ecological performance of cities and territories: the metabolism of Paris and Ile-de-France Excerpt from introduction: The objective of this work is therefore to establish the Parisian and Parisian metabolism by first focusing on the flow of raw materials, based on the standardized method proposed by the European Commission's statistical services (EUROSTAT). Such an approach requires the location and collection of a large number of relatively sparse data, not always spatialized. The implementation of the analysis matrix is therefore one of the main tasks to be accomplished, the idea being to lay the foundations of a long-term analysis framework, of an easy update, allowing to follow in the time the evolution of the Parisian metabolism. One of the challenges is to define the spatial framework of this analysis, since, while the administrative boundaries of the City of Paris itself constitute a permanent framework since 1860, those of the Paris agglomeration as a whole are shifting and more difficult to to stare. Extrait de l'introduction: L’objectif de ce travail est donc d’établir le métabolisme parisien et francilien en mettant dans un premier temps l’accent sur les flux de matières brutes, sur la base de la méthode standardisée proposée par les services de statistique de la Commission Européenne (EUROSTAT). Une telle démarche nécessite la localisation et la collecte d’un nombre important de données relativement éparses, pas toujours spatialisées. La mise en place de la matrice d’analyse constitue donc l’une des principales tâches à accomplir, l’idée étant de poser les bases d’un cadre d’analyse pérenne, d’une mise à jour aisée, permettant de suivre dans le temps l’évolution du métabolisme parisien. L’un des enjeu est de définir le cadre spatial de cette analyse, puisque, si les limites administratives de la Ville de Paris proprement dite constituent un cadre pérenne depuis 1860, celles de l’agglomération parisienne dans son ensemble sont mouvantes et plus difficiles à fixer. | Measuring the ecological performance of cities and territories: the metabolism ... | Barles, Sabine | Report | reports | 2007 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Paris
Urban
|
| Reshaping Urban Metabolism | Reshaping Urban Metabolism | Paul BRUNNER | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Method
Urban
|
| Urban Harvest, and the Hidden Building Resources Within the URBAN Harvest approach, a strategy has been developed to investigate all possible harvest options within and from the urban environment. It can be seen as a positive contribution to a cities needs, complementary to reducing negative impacts. It should be studied how the urban organism –Orbanism- can organise itself to make maximum use of its own possibilities. It will require a high level or organisation, which in itself is available, but unexplored. It's necessary to change our traditional look at a city, where people only live and consume resources, to a city where people (or activities) produce resources, as by-product of consuming. The model is therefore entitled: Urban Harvesting. Harvesting all possible resources from within the urban environment. The Urban Harvest approach focuses on 6 main sources and flows from and out of a Urban environment: Urban Rivers, Urban Forest, Urban Energy, Urban Quarry, Urban Space and Urban Farm. Analysing potentials and maximum technical re-uses for quarry, space and energy, should lead to tools to manage building stock more effectively and reduce dependency on distant and non renewable sources. It will provide solutions for modern and non resource related solutions for sheltering. At CIB World Building Congress 2007 | Urban Harvest, and the Hidden Building Resources | Rovers, Ronald | Conference Paper | None | 2007 |
Urban
|
| Spatial characterisation of multi-level in-use copper and zinc stocks in Australia A methodology has been developed to characterise the in-use stocks of copper and zinc at a variety of spatial levels. The approach employs representative concentrations of copper and zinc in their main in-use reservoirs (which account for virtually all the metal put into service) together with geographic information system (GIS) data sets of the spatial locations and densities of these reservoirs. The authors have applied this methodology to Australia at four spatial levels: central city, urban region, states/territories, and country, to produce what is believed to be the first multi-level spatial characterisations of the in-use stocks of technological materials. The results are presented quantitatively and as a series of stock density maps for Inner Sydney, Sydney Metro, all Australian states/territories, and Australia itself. The total stocks in Australia are estimated at about 4.3 Tg Cu (4.3 thousand million kg) and 3.8 Tg Zn (3.8 thousand million kg), or about 240 kg Cu/capita and 205 kg Zn/capita. A statistical analysis of the data shows that the metal stock density at a given spatial level is largely determined by a small number of high-density components at the next lower level. The spatial analysis of the in-use stocks indicates that 50% of all copper and zinc stock resides in just 10% of Australia's local government areas. The largest stocks occur in large urban regions, which can contain copper and zinc densities more than a hundred times higher than rural areas. These regions are expected to be major Australian 'metal mines' in the future. | Spatial characterisation of multi-level in-use copper and zinc stocks in ... | D. van Beers and Thomas E. Graedel | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Multi-scale
National
Rural
Single point in time
Sub-national
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Material Flows in a Social Context: A Vietnamese Case Study Combining the Materials Flow Analysis and Action-in-Context Frameworks Materials flow analysis (MFA) is one of the central achievements of industrial ecology. One direction in which one can move MFA beyond mere accounting is by putting the material flows in their social context. This “socially extended MFA” may be carried out at various levels of aggregation. In this article, specific material flows will be linked to concrete actors and mechanisms that cause these flows—using the action‐in‐context (AiC) framework, which contains, inter alia, both proximate and indirect actors and factors. The case study site is of Tat hamlet in Vietnam, set in a landscape of paddy fields on valley floors surrounded by steep, previously forested slopes. Out of the aggregate MFA of Tat, the study focuses on material flows associated with basic needs and sustainability. The most important actors causing these material flows are farming households, politicians, traders, and agribusiness firms—of which local politicians turned out to be pivotal. The study shows the value of combining MFA with actor‐based social analysis. MFA achieves the balanced quantification of the physical system, thus helping to pinpoint key processes. Actor‐based analysis adds the causal understanding of what drives these key processes, leading to improved scenarios of the future and the effective identification of target groups and instruments for policy making. | Material Flows in a Social Context: A Vietnamese Case Study ... | Hobbes, M. Stalpers, S. I. P., Kooijman, J., Le, Thi ThuThanh., Trinh, Khanh Chi., and Phan, Thi Anh Dao | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Case Study
Rural
Socially extended MFA
Urban
|
| Service Sector Metabolism: Accounting for Energy Impacts of the Montjuic Urban Park in Barcelona This article evaluates, from an industrial ecology (IE) perspective, the energy performance of the services inside an urban system and determines their global environmental impact. Additionally, this study determines which are the most energy demanding services and the efficiency of their energy use per visitor and per surface area unit. The urban system under study is the Montjuïc urban park in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, which can be considered a services system. In this case study we distinguished the different patterns of consumption among the service fields and, by studying each field individually, found the most efficient facilities and identified the most critical services based on energy use per visitor or per square meter. These findings are based on the use of energy flow accounting (EFA), life-cycle assessment (LCA), and the energy footprint to analyze the Park's technical energy consumption. Electricity consumption represents nearly 70% of the total energy consumed by the services at Montjuïc Park. The forest surface area required to absorb the CO2-equivalent emissions produced by the life cycle of the energy consumed at Montjuïc Park represents 12.2 times the Park's surface area. We conclude this article by proposing the incorporation of the methods of IE within the study of parks containing multiple services to improve energy management, and as a result, to raise the global environmental performance of the service sector. None | Service Sector Metabolism: Accounting for Energy Impacts of the Montjuic ... | Oliver‐Solà, Jordi; Núñez, Montserrat; Gabarrell, Xavier; Boada, Martí; Rieradevall, Joan | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Case Study
Energy Balance
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Nitrogen balance for the urban food metabolism of Toronto, Canada A nitrogen balance for the urban flow of food and pre- and post-consumption food wastes was developed to determine the impact of municipal waste management policies and programs on the recovery and recycling of imported nitrogen. A simple input, storage and output balance was used, with particular focus on the fate of waste outputs. The balance was done for the City of Toronto, Canada for 3 years in the 15-year period from 1990 to 2004. The balance revealed that at most, only 4.7% (in 2001) of food waste nitrogen in the urban system was recovered and/or recycled, despite several municipal waste diversion programs. The major losses of nitrogen occurred in the management of sewage wastes and potentially through in the landfill disposal of commercial food. The current focus of municipal waste management programs on the diversion of organic wastes from landfill rather than overall nutrient recovery, and the increasingly stringent regulation of land application of treated sewage wastes, has resulted a small decrease (from 3.35% in 1990 to 2.3% in 2004) in the percentage recovery and recycling of nitrogen in the flow of food and food wastes. Given the potential for the prevention of environmental problems caused by excessive nitrogen accumulation or mismanagement, and the opportunity for recycling food waste nitrogen to close the ecological nutrient cycle and reverse nutrient mining, the simple balance method provided a rapid assessment tool based on easily obtainable data to highlight the sources of major loss at which to target future municipal waste management strategies. | Nitrogen balance for the urban food metabolism of Toronto, Canada | Forkes, Jennifer | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Case Study
Food
Food Waste
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Nitrogen
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The Changing Metabolism of Cities Data from urban metabolism studies from eight metropolitan regions across five continents, conducted in various years since 1965, are assembled in consistent units and compared. Together with studies of water, materials, energy, and nutrient flows from additional cities, the comparison provides insights into the changing metabolism of cities. Most cities studied exhibit increasing per capita metabolism with respect to water, wastewater, energy, and materials, although one city showed increasing efficiency for energy and water over the 1990s. Changes in solid waste streams and air pollutant emissions are mixed. The review also identifies metabolic processes that threaten the sustainability of cities. These include altered ground water levels, exhaustion of local materials, accumulation of toxic materials, summer heat islands, and irregular accumulation of nutrients. Beyond concerns over the sheer magnitudes of resource flows into cities, an understanding of these accumulation or storage processes in the urban metabolism is critical. Growth, which is inherently part of metabolism, causes changes in water stored in urban aquifers, materials in the building stock, heat stored in the urban canopy layer, and potentially useful nutrients in urban waste dumps. Practical reasons exist for understanding urban metabolism. The vitality of cities depends on spatial relationships with surrounding hinterlands and global resource webs. Increasing metabolism implies greater loss of farmland, forests, and species diversity; plus more traffic and more pollution. Urban policy makers should consider to what extent their nearest resources are close to exhaustion and, if necessary, appropriate strategies to slow exploitation. It is apparent from this review that metabolism data have been established for only a few cities worldwide, and interpretation issues exist due to lack of common conventions. Further urban metabolism studies are required. | The Changing Metabolism of Cities | Christopher Kennedy, John Cuddihy, and Joshua Engel-Yan | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Case Study
Comparison
Emissions
Energy
Energy Balance
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Nutrients
Review Paper
UM review paper import
Urban
Various Materials
Water
Zotero2
|
| A material flow analysis of wood and paper in Cape Town: is there potential to redirect flows in formal and informal sectors to foster use as a renewable resource? The City of Cape Town has recently drafted an energy strategy and an integrated waste management plan. The creative implementation of these strategies requires knowledge of potential sources of energy and flows of waste. Inventories of requisite data are sparse. Wood and paper are interesting cases in point, as they are significant contributors to waste and potential energy carriers. A better knowledge of all related flows is obtained by means of a Material Flow Analysis (MFA). Data have been gathered for the fuel wood sector, the manufacturing, construction and demolition sector, the pulp and paper market, the municipal solid waste sector and the wastewater sector. Analysis shows that ∼70% of the renewable energy target of the City (10% of energy demand to be covered by renewables by 2020) could be met via the redirection of woody material flows within the Cape Metropolitan Area and the utilisation of innovative transformation technology. | A material flow analysis of wood and paper in Cape ... | Nissing, Christian and von Blottnitz, Harro | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Cape Town
Case Study
Single point in time
South Africa
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Urban
Wood
|
| Metal capital sustaining a North American city: Iron and copper in New Haven, CT A detailed inventory shows that an average resident of the City of New Haven depends on a per capita capital stock of 9200 kg/c of iron and 144 kg/c of copper in the city infrastructure, buildings, transportation systems, and equipment. Of the iron stock 28% is in items such as rail cars and ships in ocean trade not permanently within the city, and 22% is devoted to receiving and delivering oil fuel to the city and its surrounding communities. Copper is principally used in the distribution of electric power and in water piping within buildings. The city's 9200 kg/c of iron stock-in-use is less than the 13,000 kg/c national average due to New Haven's lack of heavy industry and relatively small number of large buildings. The 144 kg/c of copper stock-in-use is only 58% of the overall value for the United States, but is comparable to that in cities such as Stockholm, Sweden. Attainment of a level of iron and copper services with contemporary technology in less developed countries to the level enjoyed in New Haven would require consumption of the presently identified world copper resources. | Metal capital sustaining a North American city: Iron and copper ... | Konstantine Drakonakis, Katherine Rostkowski, Jason Rauch, T.E. Graedel, R.B. Gordon | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
City
Conservation of mass
Copper
Iron
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
New Haven
Research and Analysis
Single point in time
United States
Urban
|
| Urban metabolism and resource optimisation in the urban fabric: The BRIDGE methodology Like any living system, urban communities consume material and energy inputs, process them into usable forms, and eliminate the wastes from the process. This can be seen as "metabolism" of industry, commerce, municipal operations and households. Understanding the pattern of these energy and material flows through a community's economy provides a systemic reading of the present situation for goal and objective setting and development of indicators for sustainability. At present, planning policies often reflect the logic of the market. They would better reflect a vision of urban development, in which environmental and social considerations are fully embedded in spatial planning policies at all steps of the policy cycle from problem identification and policy design through to the implementation and expost evaluation stages. Therefore, the widespread inclusion of sustainability objectives in urban planning from regional to site level is necessary, providing the opportunity for the incorporation of bio-physical sciences knowledge into the planning process on a routine basis. To this end, the project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) aims at bridging the gap between bio-physical sciences and urban planners and at illustrating the advantages of accounting for environmental issues on a routine basis in design decisions. BRIDGE will provide the means to quantitative estimate the various components of the urban metabolism (observation of physical flows and modelling), the means for quantitative estimate their impacts (socio-economic and environmental impact assessments and indicators), as well as the means for resource optimisation in urban fabric (support the decision making in urban planning). BRIDGE focuses on the interrelation between energy and material flows and urban structure. The methodology and the conceptual design of the BRIDGE Decision Support System are presented in this study. | Urban metabolism and resource optimisation in the urban fabric: The ... | Chrysoulakis, Nektarios | Working paper | academic | 2007 |
Carbon
Energy
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Urban
Water
Zotero import
|
| Copper In-Use Stock and Copper Scrap in the State of Connecticut, USA During the summer of 2006, the standing in-use stocks and associated discards of copper, centered about the year 2000, were quantified for the State of Connecticut. The methodology, results, and discussion are published here in three parts: Part A. In-Use Stocks of Copper in the State of Connecticut Part B. Discard Flows from In-Use Stocks of Copper in the State of Connecticut Part C. Recycling Rate of Old Scrap Copper in the State of Connecticut Among the most important and interesting results are as follows: 1) A 'bottom-up' assessment of the in-use stocks of copper in the State of Connecticut, circa 2000, yields an overall result of approximately 540 Gg (thousand metric tons) of copper, or 157 kg for every person in the State. Buildings make up the largest category with 53% of the total, with residential buildings as the largest sub-category. 2) The discard flows of copper from in-use stocks were quantified by applying a lifetime analysis to the in-use stock estimates of copper in Connecticut. A total copper mass of 17 Gg/yr (thousand metric tons per year), or 5.1 kg/(capita*year),was discarded from inuse stocks at the beginning of the 21st century. Renovation and demolition debris make up the largest category with 36% of the total, followed by waste from electronic and electrical equipment (26%), transportation (23%), and infrastructure (14%). 3) The recovery rate, recycling efficiency, and recycling rate for copper from in-use stock discards were quantified for the State of Connecticut for the year 2000. With a recovery rate of 84%, and recycling efficiency of 75%, the overall recycling rate was found to be 63%. Neglecting sewage sludge, the lowest recycling rate occurred in endof- life vehicles and waste from electronic and electrical equipment (45%). A rough estimate combining this old scrap recycling rate with that of new scrap puts the overall recycling rate of copper in Connecticut at approximately 70%. | Copper In-Use Stock and Copper Scrap in the State of ... | J. Rauch, M. Eckelman, R. Gordon | Report | reports | 2007 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Rural
Single point in time
United States of America
Urban
|
| Copper and zinc recycling in Australia: potential quantities and policy options This paper presents relevant data for industry and governmental policy makers with the aim of increasing the recycling rate of end-of-life copper and zinc in Australia in a technically and economically feasible way. The methodology used to quantify and spatially distribute end-of-life flows of copper and zinc is based on existing and anticipated in-use stocks, their residence times, and their historical and anticipated future evolution. Australia currently (ca. 2000) generates about 72 Gg/year and 57 Gg/year of end-of-life copper and zinc, respectively. Some 70% of all discarded copper and 40% of all discarded zinc generated in Australia are currently being recycled. A detailed assessment shows that about 75% of all end-of-life material in Australia comes from the three states New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. In Australia, about 70e75% of waste copper and waste zinc is generated in urban areas. Residential applications account for about 40% (copper) and 60% (zinc) of the generated discards; commercial and industrial applications account for the remainder. By 2030, the discard flows are predicted to increase by about 105% and 155%, to 150 Gg Cu/year and 145 Gg Zn/year, providing substantially increased opportunities for recovery and re-use. Priority targets for the improvement of copper and zinc recycling in Australia are buildings under renovation, urban infrastructure, the transportation sector, and also consumer and business durables. Urban centres are particularly attractive locations for recycling facilities, especially in Perth and Adelaide. | Copper and zinc recycling in Australia: potential quantities and policy ... | D. van Beers, A. Kapur, T.E. Graedel | Journal Article | academic | 2007 |
Adelaide
Australia
Brisbane
City
Conservation of mass
Copper
Future Scenario
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Melbourne
Multi-scale
National
Perth
Research and Analysis
Rural
Single point in time
Sydney
Urban
Zinc
|
| Stock dynamics for forecasting material flows—Case study for housing in The Netherlands This article discusses the role of lifestyle in physical material accounting and introduces a new method for simultaneously determining national or regional resource demand and waste generation through estimations of the population and its lifestyle, which is manifested in the stocks of service providing goods, their composition and lifetimes. Improving our comprehension of the stocks in use is essential for environmental policy making because (1) they are becoming the most important resource providers, (2) they are important drivers for resource and energy consumption as well as waste and emission generation, and (3) their magnitudes and dynamics are the parts of the material cycles that is usually least understood. A generic dynamic material flow analysis model is presented and applied for the diffusion of concrete in the Dutch dwelling stock for the period of 1900–2100. Simulation results are illustrated for a standard scenario and a parameter variation. The results show that (1) construction and demolition flows follow a cyclical behaviour, (2) the cycles of construction and demolition flows are phase displaced in the first half of the 21st century, with decreasing construction and increasing demolition, and (3) growth of the dwelling stock is becoming increasingly more material intensive as a growing amount of material is used for replacements. The presented stock dynamics approach can principally be applied for any anthropogenic material stock; however, it is most useful for the examination of metabolic consequences of diffusion processes of durable and fixed capital stocks. | Stock dynamics for forecasting material flows—Case study for housing in ... | Müller, Daniel B. | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Case Study
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Time series
Urban
Zotero import
Zotero2
|
| The ecological sustainability of regional metabolisms: Material flow analyses of the regions of Hamburg, Vienna and Leipzig The paper describes the material consumption in the regions of Hamburg and Leipzig for the years 1992-2001 and for the region of Vienna for the years 1995-2003. With a so called material flow analysis (MFA) the total consumption of materials has been accounted for and put into relation to economic development. Indicators of material consumption serve as measure for ecological sustainability and the relation to economic development allows an analysis of the material intensity of the economy and its eco-efficiency. The region of Hamburg shows a slightly fluctuating material consumption per capita on a constant level with a slightly decreasing material intensity. The region of Vienna shows a light decrease in per capita consumption and material intensity. Both material consumption and intensity are higher in the surrounding areas of the cities than in the cities themselves. The region of Leipzig is an exception concerning the level of material flows as well as the strongly decreasing trends in material consumption and intensity. The paper discusses the methodological problems in accounting regional MFAs and formulates improvements for regional statistics that help to develop sustainability indicators on a regional level. Der Text beschreibt den Materialverbrauch der Regionen Hamburg und Leipzig für die Jahre 1992-2001 sowie für Wien für die Jahre 1995-2003. Mit Hilfe einer Materialflussanalyse wurde der gesamtgesellschaftliche Materialverbrauch in den drei Regionen erhoben und in Beziehung zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung gesetzt. Indikatoren für den Materialverbrauch dienen als Maß für ökologische Nachhaltigkeit. Die Darstellung der Beziehung zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung erlaubt Rückschlüsse auf die Materialintensität der Ökonomie und ihre Ökoeffizienz. Neben der Darstellung der Ergebnisse beschreibt der Text die methodischen Probleme bei der Erstellung regionaler Materialflussanalysen, diskutiert die Auswirkungen von Materialflüssen hinsichtlich der Flächennutzung und formuliert Herausforderungen für die Regionalstatistik als Grundlage für die Entwicklung regionaler Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren. | The ecological sustainability of regional metabolisms: Material flow analyses of ... | Mark Hammer, Stefan Giljum, Fred Luks, Matthias Winkler | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Case Study
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Sub-national
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Contrasting water footprints of cities in China and the United States We examined production and consumption patterns of freshwater, a critical ecosystem service, for selected cities in China and the United States. Ecosystem production of freshwater varies with precipitation and evapotranspiration rates, which are affected by climate, topography, vegetation cover, and soil characteristics. Urban demand for freshwater is spatially distributed due to the location of cities, the variation in the per-capita usage, and the variation in urban population size. To link the spatially heterogeneous patterns of cities and ecosystem service production rates we calculated heterogeneous ecological footprints (H-EF) of the land area required to provide urban freshwater needs. We asked, what determines urban freshwater footprint area in cities of the United States and China? Are the same factors operating in the same fashion in both countries? Our results show the strong interaction between population size and local resource production in determining footprint. These results suggest extending the I=PAT identity to include a term describing local ecosystem service productivity in the determination of human impact. By using the ecological footprint methodology in this manner, we can address questions concerning the relationship between social and ecological systems and identify urban-scale constraints to the sustainable withdrawal of a particular ecosystem service. | Contrasting water footprints of cities in China and the United ... | Jenerette, G. Darrel; Wu, Wanli; Goldsmith, Susan; Marussich, Wendy A.; John Roach, W. | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Case Study
Comparison
Ecological Footprint (EF)
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
Water Footprint (WF)
|
| Analysis of water demand and water pollutant discharge using a regional input-output table: An application to the City of Chongqing, upstream of the Three Gorges Dam in China China has faced serious water problems as a result of economic growth and some development projects and it is widely thought that integrated management, including socio-economic factors in each basin unit, is effective. Hence, the target of this paper is to evaluate the structures of water demand and water pollutant discharge with socio-economic activities in the City of Chongqing, the main city upstream of the Three Gorges Dam. First we have developed a methodology for estimating water demand and water pollutants (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) based on an inter-industry analysis model, and then applied it to the City of Chongqing. As a result, we conclude that industry is the largest source of water demand and water pollutants in the City of Chongqing and accounts for more than 50% of the total of each. Water demand from agriculture, forestry and livestock accounts for 35% of the total, and about 20% of water pollutants are discharged from agriculture, forestry and livestock. Furthermore, water pollutants from households constitute more than 20% of the total in the City of Chongqing though water demand and wastewater account for less than 15% of each total. In addition, it becomes clear that about 20% of the water demand and water pollutant discharge in the City of Chongqing is caused by other provinces and foreign countries, with most of the demand and discharge being industrial. | Analysis of water demand and water pollutant discharge using a ... | Tomohiro Okadera and Masataka Watanabe and Kaiqin Xu | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Carbon
Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA)
Multi-scale
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Single point in time
Sub-national
Urban
Water
|
| Food Consumption and Nutrient Flows: Nitrogen in Sweden Since the 1870s Changes in food consumption and related processes have a significant impact on the flow of nitrogen in the environment. This study identifies both flows within the system and emissions to the hydrosphere and atmosphere. A case study of an average inhabitant of the city of Linköping, Sweden, covers the years 1870, 1900, 1950, and 2000 and includes changes in food consumption and processing, agricultural production, and organic waste handling practices. Emissions to the hydrosphere from organic waste handling increased from 0.57 kilograms of nitrogen per capita per year (kg N/cap per year) to 3.1 kg N/cap per year, whereas the total flow of nitrogen to waste deposits grew from a negligible amount to 1.7 kg N/cap per year. The largest flow of nitrogen during the entire period came from fodder. The input of chemical fertilizer rose gradually to a high level of 15 kg N/cap per year in the year 2000. The total load per capita disposed of to the environment decreased during these 130 years by about 30%. | Food Consumption and Nutrient Flows: Nitrogen in Sweden Since the ... | Schmid Neset, Tina-Simone | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Case Study
Food
Nitrogen
Organic Waste (OW)
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Time series
Urban
|
| Environmental sustainability indicators in green areas management. Urban park Monte Calvario, Tandil, Argentina City's green areas, mainly urban parks, are environmental systems what have a double role, social and ecological, and where is also possible also, to assess environmental sustainability conditions. In this sense, we propose a indicators set to assess in integral way parque urbano Monte Calvario sustainability conditions in Tandil, Argentina. It was necessary firstly, to do a systemically characterization our study area. This task facilitated then, the central analyze variables identification. Theses variables were useful as a base line (indicators set) to assess and check park's sustaina-bility in the time. We hope theses goals made possible local decisions can be elaborated management strategies what keeping and maintaining in the time present o future sustainability conditions. Los espacios verdes de las ciudades y particularmente los parques urbanos representan sistemas ambientales que cumplen con un doble rol, social y ecológico, en donde es posible evaluar las condiciones de sustentabilidad ambiental urbana. En tal sentido, proponemos un conjunto de indicadores destinados a evaluar en forma integral las condiciones de sustentabilidad del parque urbano Monte Calvario de la ciudad de Tandil, Argentina. Para su elaboración fue necesario, en primer término, la caracterización sistémica del espacio bajo análisis. Esta tarea facilitó la posterior identificación de las variables centrales de análisis que sirvieron de línea de base para la formulación de los indicadores destinados a evaluar y monitorear la sustentabilidad del parque en el tiempo. Se espera que la concreción de estos objetivos posibilite la adopción de estrategias de gestión sustentables para los tomadores de decisión que mejoren o mantengan las condiciones de sustentabilidad del parque. | Environmental sustainability indicators in green areas management. Urban park Monte ... | García, Susana and Guerrero, Marcela | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Case Study
Indicators - general
Urban
|
| Model for the management of the urban use of water resources. Part I The first part of a model for the management of the water resource is presented. The model is set for a city and it includes the water extraction form the environment, the cleaning process and the distribution of the potable water, the use of the water, the collection and the treatment of the sewage and finally the restitution of the water to the environment. The water fluxes are analyzed and the energy is incorporated by the use of functions and adjustable parameters. A set of equations for modeling a detailed overview is obtained. The model will be validated by using a complete set of real data. Se presenta la primera parte de un modelo para la gestión del recurso agua. El estudio se centra en una ciudad y se incluye la extracción del agua desde el medio ambiente, el proceso de potabilización, la distribución, el uso del agua potable, el proceso de recolección, el tratamiento de los efluentes y la devolución del agua al medio ambiente. Se realiza un análisis detallado del balance de los flujos de agua, la relación con el flujo de energía se incorpora a través de funciones y de parámetros ajustables. Se ha obtenido un sistema de ecuaciones que abarca el panorama general con un grado razonable de detalle. El próximo paso es su validación con un conjunto de datos completo y cerrado en sí mismo. | Model for the management of the urban use of water ... | Josefina Mangussi | Journal Article | academic | 2006 |
Urban
Water (sector)
|
| Urban water provision in Maseru (Lesotho): A Geographical analysis Water is the most indispensable of all basic human needs. It is needed for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing and cleaning. It is also important for hygiene and public sanitation. Indeed, water-borne diseases contribute to the deaths of at least four million children in developing countries every year (United Nations, 1996). Untreated household sewage, industrial effluent, agricultural runoffs, and inappropriate land use patterns are some of the major threats to safe water sources. Despite these facts, the provision of water services in urban areas of developing countries remains one of the major challenges currently facing governments (Linn, 1983). This is particularly so because there is a delay in the provision of urban services, including water, while urban populations are growing at alarming rates (Rakodi, 1993). Lesotho is no exception in this regard. There are major changes occurring in the country that will have great impact on water resources, and these changes are of great importance in setting policy and determining management strategies (TAMS, 1996a). One of the major challenges that face the government of Lesotho is sustainably meeting the water demands of the ever-increasing population, particularly in the urban areas. In fact, the government of Lesotho has, as one of its Millennium Development Goals, decreasing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (Government of Lesotho, 2003; Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 2000). It is therefore important to examine what the government has undertaken in order to achieve this enormous task and to assess the successes and problems encountered. The critical elements in explaining access here are mainly adequate, safe and convenient or reasonable distance to the major source of water (African Development Bank, 2000; United Nations Development Programme, 1997). According to the Bureau of Statistics of Lesotho (2002), about 60% of the urban population in Lesotho had access to piped water on their premises in 2001, while about 24% accessed water through communal standpipes. Adding these two figures means that about 84% of the 2 urban population in Lesotho had access to piped water, whether through a communal or a private connection. These figures may look impressive, but considering the current rates of population growth and urbanisation that the country has been experiencing lately, this may not be enough. Lesotho’s population is currently growing at the rate of 2.6% per year, while the urbanisation rate ranges between 7 to 11% (Bureau of Statistics Lesotho, 2003). The report further notes that most of the growth is happening in Maseru, the capital city, which currently accommodates around 36% of the urban population in Lesotho. It must be noted that urban growth, particularly in Maseru, continues to increase, mainly as result of internal migration in which people move from the highland areas, which are mainly rural, to the lowland areas where major towns are located. Unemployment has been a major repellent that encourages this type of migration (Bureau of Statistics Lesotho, 2002). The consequential urban growth in Maseru has resulted in rapid urbanisation of areas that were traditionally rural, thereby further increasing the need for expansion in the provision of urban amenities in these areas. The above problem is made even more complex by the fact that the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA), which is the body responsible for supply and delivery of water to all urban areas in Lesotho, has been faced with a multitude of problems that has rendered it inefficient (TAMS, 1996a). The authority is currently serving only 50% of the population within its area of designation. Along with this, the authority has not been able to introduce a significant change in tariffs to enable financial viability since its formation in 1992. This has not only led to failure in maintaining assets, but also failure and inability in expanding services (TAMS, 1996b). On the other hand, an argument is often put forward by those who advocate free water, that water is abundant in Lesotho. Indeed, surface water resources are substantial in Lesotho and far exceed the present and future needs of the nation (Eales, Forster and Mhungo, 2000). One would therefore wonder why the Government of Lesotho has put water provision high on its priority list. In order to understand the nature of the resource, it is necessary to bear in mind some of the characteristics of water supply. Firstly, the seemingly abundant availability of water can be misleading as only a fraction of it is used. This is mainly due to high runoff and inaccessible mountain terrain. Major capital-intensive engineering that Lesotho cannot afford would be required to harness this water for use by people. Secondly, water is always unevenly distributed over space and time. This results in water being available in abundance where it is not needed and lacking in areas that need it most. It is therefore government’s responsibility to ensure even distribution of water, hence the need for expansion of water provision services in newly urbanising areas. It is also worth noting that problems of payment for water provision do not only rest with governments, but also involve the very people that governments are trying to serve. As has been demonstrated, payment for water services is necessary, because it determines the sustainability of the service, and the mere fact that Lesotho has plenty of surface water does not imply that payment for the resource should not apply. What is important is formulation of a payment strategy that takes into account the ability of the poor to pay. This strategy must enable provision of water at a cost that will enable recovery of the initial cost of providing it, thereby enabling sustainability, while at the same time making the resource accessible to the poor. It is often assumed that the poor cannot pay for urban services, particularly water. It must be accepted that, to some extent, the desperate poverty of the urban poor makes it difficult for them to display much willingness to pay for services (Giles, Brown and Davies, 1997). However, there is increasing evidence that, because of the same desperation, the poor are in fact willing to pay surprisingly large sums for water. This is also the case in Lesotho, and because of this often false assumption, the Government of Lesotho has been caught in the trap of trying to meet the water needs of the poor while at the same time aiming to achieve cost recovery, in the formulation of policies. However, neither of these aims has been achieved through these contradictory subsidisation policies (TAMS, 1996a). Instead it is because of these policies that WASA has experienced shortfalls in revenue, which has resulted in deterioration in the quality of service and in delays or failure to expand into other areas. Overall there is a lack of an appropriate water policy and management system to manage the growing demand for urban water supply in Maseru (TAMS, 1996a). If such a policy and management system is not introduced soon, it might become impossible to provide water on a sustainable basis to Lesotho’s urban population | Urban water provision in Maseru (Lesotho): A Geographical analysis | Lifuo Molapo | Thesis | theses | 2005 |
Urban
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| The Application of Material Flow Analysis for the Evaluation of the Recovery Potential of Secondary Metals in Australia The rate of metal use has risen rapidly in recent decades resulting in increasing amounts of landfilled mining wastes and produced metals being stockpiled as in-use products. These two reservoirs will become important for their metal content recovery over the next decades as a result of population growth, increasing per capita resource use, and anticipated metal price increases due to supply limitations. This paper discusses the potential and availability of secondary metals for recovery in Australia, illustrated by research results and case-study examples for copper and zinc. Barriers and enabling mechanisms for enhanced utilisation of secondary (non-virgin) resources are evaluated against the mining of virgin resources with the aim to present decision support guidelines to industry and government for resource policies and practices, and technology innovations. Presented at the 4th Australian LCA Conference; Sydney. | The Application of Material Flow Analysis for the Evaluation of ... | D. van Beers, R. van Berkel, T.E. Graedel | Conference Paper | None | 2005 |
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Multi-scale
National
Rural
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Theory of urban energetics and mechanisms of urban development The interrelationships between energy and civilization was proposed in the late 19th century [see Martinez-Alier, J., 1987. Ecological Economics. Blackwell, Oxford]. Geddes [Geddes, P., 1915. City in Evolution. Williams and Norgate Ltd., London] also proposed the concept of linking energy flow with urban development in the early 20th century. Many recent studies of the relationship between urban development and energy have been limited to the use of fossil fuels; energy theories have seldom been used to study the evolution of urban systems. The purpose of this paper is to help develop theories of urban energetics and contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of urban development. We use the concepts from systems ecology [Odum, H.T., 1983. Systems Ecology. Wiley, New York] and emergy theory [Odum, H.T., 1996. Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making. Wiley, New York] to relate the driving energies of urban systems to their structure, economy and organization. Hypotheses of urban energetics including changes in the diversity of emergy sources, changes in urban metabolism, energy hierarchy, and relation between emergy and money flows are proposed and tested based on past research results on Taiwan cities (Huang, S.-L., Odum, H.T., Chang, S.-L., 1996. Ecological energetic evolution of urban system, A Report to the Chiang Ching-Kuo International Scholar Exchange Foundation (RG008-D-’92). Graduate Institute of Urban Planning, National Chung-Hsing University, Taipei, Taiwan (in Chinese); Huang, S.-L., 1998a. Urban ecosystems, energetic hierarchies, and ecological economics of Taipei metropolis. J. Environ. Manage. 52, 39–51; Huang, S.-L., Lai, H.-Y., Lee, C.-L., 2001. Energy hierarchy and urban landscape system. Landscape Urban Plan. 53, 145–161]. Thereafter a system model of urban ecosystem is developed to investigate the relationships between energy flows and urban development. The preliminary findings of this research indicate that intensive and diversified emergy sources build up the structure and enhance metabolism in urban areas. Four mechanisms of urban energetics are also addressed as a result of simulations: energy convergence; urban-subsidized environmental flows; external-dependency system; maximum power system. | Theory of urban energetics and mechanisms of urban development | Huang, Shu-Li; Chen, Chia-Wen | Journal Article | academic | 2005 |
Case Study
Emergy Analysis
Energy
UM review paper import
Urban
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| Key drivers of the e-waste recycling system: Assessing and modelling e-waste processing in the informal sector in Delhi The management and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment WEEE was assessed in the city of Delhi, India. In order to do this, the personal computer was defined as the tracer for which a model was designed. The model depicts the entire life cycle of the tracer, from production through sale and consumption—including reuse and refurbishment—to the material recovery in the mainly informal recycling industry. The field work included interviews with the relevant stakeholders, transect walks and literature study, which was followed by a software-supported material flow analysis (MFA) of the whole life cycle chain of the tracer item. In addition to the MFA, several economic aspects of the recycling system were investigated. The study revealed that the life span of a personal computer has considerable influence upon the system, most notably in the following two aspects: (i) a prolonged life span creates value by means of refurbishing and upgrading activities, and (ii) it slows down the flow rate of the whole system. This is one of the simplest ways of preventing an uncontrolled increase in environmentally hazardous emissions by the recycling sector. The material recovery of the system is mainly driven by the precious metal content of personal computers. A first estimate showed that precious metal recovery contributes to over 80% of the personal computer materials' market value, despite the small quantity of them found in computers. | Key drivers of the e-waste recycling system: Assessing and modelling ... | Streicher-Porte, Martin and Widmer, Rolf and Jain, Amit and Bader, Hans-Peter and Scheidegger, Ruth and Kytzia, Susanne | Journal Article | academic | 2005 |
Case Study
Delhi
India
Informal
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
Time series
Urban
e-Waste
|
| Towards an Integrated Regional Materials Flow Accounting Model A key challenge in attaining regional sustainability is to reduce both the direct and the indirect environmental impacts associated with economic and household activity in the region. Knowing what these flows are and how they change over time is a prerequisite for this task.This article describes the early development of an integrated regional materials flow accounting framework. The framework is based on a hybrid (material and economic) multiregional input‐output model. Using readily available economic and materials data sets together with transport and logistics data, the framework attempts to provide estimates of household resource flows for any U.K. region at quite detailed levels of product and material disaggregation. It is also capable of disaggregating these flows according to specific socioeconomic criteria such as income level or occupation of the head of household. Allied to appropriate energy and life‐cycle assessment data sets, the model could, in addition, be used to map both direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with these flows.The benefits of such an approach are likely to be a considerable reduction of uncertainties in (1) our knowledge of the household metabolism, and hence our predictions of regional household waste generation; (2) our assessment of the impacts of contemplated changes in industrial process siting, and thereby on other aspects of local and regional planning; and (3) our understanding of the impacts of changes in the pattern of demand for different materials and products. It is concluded that the use of such an integrated assessment tool has much to contribute to the debate on regional sustainability. | Towards an Integrated Regional Materials Flow Accounting Model | Philip Sinclair, Eleni Papathanasopoulou, Warren Mellor, Tim Jackson | Journal Article | academic | 2005 |
Case Study
Construction Materials
Dairy products
Household
Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) Analysis
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Paper
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero import
|
| Pursuing More Sustainable Consumption by Analyzing Household Metabolism in European Countries and Cities Bringing about more sustainable consumption patterns is an important challenge for society and science. In this article the concept of household metabolism is applied to analyzing consumption patterns and to identifying possibilities for the development of sustainable household consumption patterns. Household metabolism is determined in terms of total energy requirements, including both direct and indirect energy requirements, using a hybrid method. This method enables us to evaluate various determinants of the environmental load of consumption consistently at several levels—the national level, the local level, and the household level.The average annual energy requirement of households varies considerably between the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden, as well as within these countries. The average expenditure level per household explains a large part of the observed variations. Differences between these countries are also related to the efficiency of the production sectors and to the energy supply system. The consumption categories of food, transport, and recreation show the largest contributions to the environmental load. A comparison of consumer groups with different household characteristics shows remarkable differences in the division of spending over the consumption categories.Thus, analyses of different types of households are important for providing a basis for options to induce decreases of the environmental load of household consumption. At the city level, options for change are provided by an analysis of the city infrastructure, which determines a large part of the direct energy use by households (for transport and heating). At the national level, energy efficiency in production and in electricity generation is an important trigger for decreasing household energy requirements. | Pursuing More Sustainable Consumption by Analyzing Household Metabolism in European ... | Moll, Henri C. | Journal Article | academic | 2005 |
National
Sub-national
Urban
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| What can we learn from local substance flow analyses? The review of cadmium flows in Swedish municipalities Local authorities are important actors in the transition towards sustainable development. They can play important roles for the promotion of industrial ecology systems oriented management of resources and pollutants on the local and regional level. In this context, the method of substance flow analysis (SFA) has been argued to be supportive to municipal environmental management, although, performing an SFA is often time consuming and demands a great deal of work. It may be a task hard to fulfil on a regular basis for many local authorities. A crucial issue is, then, to what extent it is possible to learn from other SFA studies? Aiming to contribute to this understanding, this paper analyses comparative results of SFA case studies of the cadmium metabolism in three structurally different municipalities in Sweden. The analyses illustrate that in addition to specific knowledge gained from a single case study, there is also general knowledge that may constitute important information for environmental decision-making in other local authorities. | What can we learn from local substance flow analyses? The ... | Lindqvist, Annica; von Malmborg, Fredrik | Journal Article | academic | 2004 |
Cadmium
Case Study
Single point in time
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
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| The Magnitude and Spatial Distribution of In-Use Zinc Stocks in Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town is a major urban area that possesses large reservoirs of in-use zinc. These reservoirs will gradually become available for re-use as the zinc-containing products become obsolete, should re-use prove technologically and economically feasible. Hence, we have identified and quantified the principal zinc uses in Cape Town and estimated their lifetime, using a model incorporating Geographic Information System (GIS) software. We estimated the in-use stock at approximately 57 Gg and predicted end-of-life flows for several decades into the future. By 2030, we anticipate an in-use zinc stock more than twice as high as currently present. Our GIS analysis demonstrated that although the per capita stock of in-use zinc is lowest for poor community areas, these areas have higher spatial densities of zinc than wealthy areas because of the very high housing and population densities. If all end-of-life zinc is reprocessed, rather than discarded as waste or transferred outside the region, it could supply up to 50% of Cape Town's zinc demand over the next three decades. | The Magnitude and Spatial Distribution of In-Use Zinc Stocks in ... | D. van Beers and T.E. Graedel | Journal Article | academic | 2004 |
Cape Town
Future Scenario
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
Single point in time
Urban
|
| Ecological Footprints and interdependencies of New Zealand regions Bicknell et al.'s [Ecological Economics 27 (1998) 149] input–output methodology is extended to investigate the Ecological Footprints and interdependencies of 16 regions in New Zealand. There is a particular focus on the Auckland region as a case study example of the application of the methodology. Auckland, New Zealand's primate city, was found to have the largest regional footprint of 2.32 million ha (20% of New Zealand's footprint). However, on a per capita basis it had the second lowest footprint of all regions at 2.00 ha per person. The footprint analysis was extended to demonstrate how Auckland was ecologically dependent on other regions, particularly the Waikato region. The footprints of other New Zealand regions are reported, along with international comparisons. The paper also reviews the theory and practice of Ecological Footprinting, as well as commenting on various methodological issues that have arisen in the calculation of Ecological Footprints. | Ecological Footprints and interdependencies of New Zealand regions | McDonald, Garry W.; Patterson, Murray G. | Journal Article | academic | 2004 |
Case Study
Comparison
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
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| Using exergy to analyze the sustainability of an urban area The extended exergy analysis method, taking into account the mean life time cycle of building, has been applied to evaluate the sustainability of an urban area. The impact of the emissions due to the life cycle of the buildings has been evaluated. Two thermodynamic indexes, ηI and ηII showing, respectively, the first and second law efficiency of buildings, have been proposed as thermodynamic indexes. The applied methodology provides a single thermodynamics environmental criterion for the selection of technological alternatives, strategies and designs that produce lower environmental impacts connected to higher exergy indexes ηII. None | Using exergy to analyze the sustainability of an urban area | Balocco, C; Papeschi, S; Grazzini, G; Basosi, R | Journal Article | academic | 2004 |
Case Study
Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA)
Single point in time
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Developing The Urban Metabolism Approach Into A New Urban Metabolic Model Considering the city as a peculiar kind of ecosystem, this paper explores the potential of a metabolic approach to urban development interpretation, proposing an enhanced metabolic urban model. This new metabolic model strongly focuses on the influence that institutional activities have on urban sustainability. Such activities – like planning and other decisional processes - are considered as an important feedback of urban dynamics. This last updating aims at connecting the conceptual modelling to urban governance. 1 Introduction: Urban settlements have recently become the most popular choice of life for human kind. More than 50% of the world population already lives in cities [6] and this figure rises to 80% if referred to the European continent [2]. In environmental terms,... (Book section of the book: "The Sustainable City III") | Developing The Urban Metabolism Approach Into A New Urban Metabolic ... | Costa, A and Marchettini, N and Facchini, A | Book Section | academic | 2004 |
Urban
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| Estimating the urban metabolism of Canadian cities: Greater Toronto Area case study An urban metabolism analysis is a means of quantifying the overall fluxes of energy, water, material, and wastes into and out of an urban region. Analysis of urban metabolism can provide important information about energy efficiency, material cycling, waste management, and infrastructure in urban systems. This paper presents the first urban metabolism of a Canadian urban region, and possibly the first for a North American city. It also makes a first attempt at comparing the urban metabolisms of a few cities worldwide. The most noticeable feature of the Greater Toronto Area metabolism is that inputs have generally increased at higher rates than outputs over the study years (1987 and 1999). The inputs of water and electricity have increased marginally less than the rate of population growth (25.6%), and estimated inputs for food and gasoline have increased by marginally greater percentages than the population. With the exception of CO2 emissions, the measured output parameters are growing slower than the population; residential solid wastes and wastewater loadings have actually decreased in absolute terms over the 12 year period from 1987 to 1999.Key words: urban metabolism, urban sustainability, Canadian cities, materials, food, water and energy consumption, waste outputs. | Estimating the urban metabolism of Canadian cities: Greater Toronto Area ... | Sahely, Halla R and Dudding, Shauna and Kennedy, Christopher A | Journal Article | academic | 2003 |
Case Study
Emissions
Energy
Energy Accounting
Food
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Time series
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
Water
Zotero import
|
| State of Energy Report 2003 This State of Energy Report provides the ‘energy picture’ for the Cape Town Metropolitan area. It gives the background and direction for the development of the Cape Town Energy Strategy, which is a component of the City of Cape Town’s Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy (IMEP). The energy picture is based on sometimes incomplete or old data and information, and as such also identifies these gaps and further areas of investigation. Energy plays a central role in the functioning of cities. South African cities are, however, very new to the current energy debate and have focused primarily on electricity distribution with little or no coordination across related energy issues. A local energy strategy will help to institutionalise sustainable energy approaches and practices at the local level, within a framework that has a clear vision and direction. It enables the co-ordination of ad-hoc energy projects and activities, and helps to integrate energy objectives into relevant CCT functions and programmes. It can lead to improved service delivery, save money, assist with employment creation, improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The development of the Energy Strategy comprises several steps. The first step (this report), gives a picture of the ‘state of energy’ in Cape Town. It highlights issues that arise from the energy picture and prioritises these issues. As a part of developing this State of Energy Report, a workshop was held with a group of energy experts and the draft document was circulated for comments, the results of which are incorporated herein. The second step is the development of a proposed Energy Vision and Goals document for discussion by key stakeholders. The final step is to compile the Energy Strategy based on discussions and inputs received. | State of Energy Report 2003 | City of Cape Town | Report | reports | 2003 |
Cape Town
Urban
|
| Materials Flow Analysis and Emergy Evaluation of Taipei's Urban Construction The metabolism of a city can be seen as the process of transforming all the materials and commodities for sustaining the city's economic activity. This paper attempts to incorporate resource and material flow analysis to investigate Taipei area's urban sustainability due to urban construction. The material flows (sand and gravel, cement, asphalt, and construction waste) during the past decade for constructing major urban engineering projects such as roads, bridge, MRT, flood prevention projects, storm drainage and sewerage pipes, and buildings are analyzed for Taipei metropolis. In order to evaluate the contributory value of material flows to the ecological economic system, emergy (spelled with an M; previously known as embodied energy) evaluation is incorporated in this research. A framework of indicators including categories of: (1) intensity of resource consumption; (2) inflow/outflow ratio; (3) urban livability; (4) efficiency of urban metabolism; and (5) emergy evaluation of urban metabolism is developed for measuring the effect of urban construction on Taipei's sustainability. The consumption of sand and gravel is approximately 90% of the total construction material used, and the generation of construction waste in Taipei exceeds 30×106 ton per annum. The emergy value of construction materials in Taipei is equivalent to 46% of total emergy use. Although the livability in Taipei has improved, the significant amount of construction waste remains an important environmental issue. The recycling and reuse of construction waste can not only create circular pattern of urban metabolism but is also vital to the sustainable development of Taipei. | Materials Flow Analysis and Emergy Evaluation of Taipei's Urban Construction | Huang, Shu-Li and Hsu, Wan-Ling | Journal Article | academic | 2003 |
Case Study
City
Construction Materials
Emergy Analysis
Indicators - general
Single point in time
Taipei
Taiwan
UM review paper import
Urban
Waste
|
| Material Flow Analysis of the City of Hamburg In this paper we present first results of a local MFA for the City of Hamburg. Material flows have been accounted for the years 1992-2001. Material input and consumption indicators for Hamburg increased during this last ten years. Material flows are almost overall dominated by imports and a big share of the imports is re-exported again showing the role of Hamburg as an international harbour. Material consumption per capita and per GDP is lower in Hamburg than in overall Germany. But different to Germany where material inputs and consumption stayed stable in per capita terms and declined in relation to GDP in Hamburg material inputs and consumption per capita and per GDP increased. | Material Flow Analysis of the City of Hamburg | Hammer, Mark and Giljum, Stefan and Hinterberger, Friedrich | Conference Paper | None | 2003 |
Case Study
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Germany
Hamburg
Urban
|
| Material Flow Analysis on the Regional Level: Questions, Problems, Solutions This paper aims at developing a method for applying the framework of material flow accounting and analysis (MFA) on the regional level. Starting from a discussion on the state-of-the-art in MFA on the national level, already published regional case studies are reviewed and details concerning the different methodological approaches discussed. The review reveals that existing studies differ considerably with regard to the size of the investigated regions, the methods applied and the data generated. Based on this review, a method for compiling regional MFA accounts is derived, which is compatible with the standard method for national MFA. Special focus is put on the description of possible estimation methods to overcome expected data gaps, in particular with regard to international and intranational trade flows. Finally, interlinkages between material flow accounting and land use accounting are discussed. | Material Flow Analysis on the Regional Level: Questions, Problems, Solutions | Hammer, Mark and Giljum, Stefan and Bargigli, Silvia and Hinterberger, Friedrich | Report | reports | 2003 |
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| The Magnitude and Spatial Distribution of In-use Copper Stocks in Cape Town, South Africa As a major urban centre, the city of Cape Town possesses a large reservoir of in-use copper. As the metal's uses become obsolete, the copper will gradually become available for re-use, should that prove technically feasible and economically desirable. To evaluate this resource, we identified the principal uses of the metal in the city and its surroundings, quantified them, and estimated their in-use lifetime. We used this information to estimate in-use stock at about 110 Gg (110 million kg) copper and to predict end-of-life flows for several decades into the future. A model, using geographic information system (GIS) software, was developed to assess contemporary stocks spatially and to predict future stocks according to selected uses. The largest stocks are in the area formerly administered by the Central Cape Town municipal council, that is expected also to be the principal copper reservoir in the future. Impoverished areas turned out to have higher spatial densities of copper than wealthy suburbs, because of their high-density housing. The total stock of in-use copper in Cape Town today appears to be less than 1% of South Africa's mineral reserves of the metal, but its recovery and re-use appears to be justified because of its relatively low associated environmental cost. We conclude that if all end-of-life copper is reprocessed, rather than discarded or transferred outside the region, it could supply up to 60% of Cape Town's copper demand over the next three decades. | The Magnitude and Spatial Distribution of In-use Copper Stocks in ... | Van Beers, D and Graedel, TE | Journal Article | academic | 2003 |
Case Study
Copper
Future Scenario
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Material Stock Analysis (MSA)
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| City Limits. A resource flow and ecological footprint analysis of Greater London A resource flow and ecological footprint analysis of Greater London, prepared by Best Foot Forward Ltd in 2002 found that London's EF was 42 times London's current capacity, or 293 times the size of London. This equated to 49 million global hectares, twice the size of the UK, and roughly the same size as Spain. | City Limits. A resource flow and ecological footprint analysis of ... | Best Foot Forward | Report | reports | 2002 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Sub-national
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Towards a sustainable use of water resources: a whole-ecosystem approach using network analysis The object of this paper is to investigate the sustainability of water use in human settlements. The water system of a small municipality in northern Italy is discussed as a case study. By measuring water exchanges between different sectors of activity within the municipal borders, and considering underground and surface waters as natural components of this system, a network of flows is built and successively investigated by network analysis, a tool that is comprised in the apparatus of ecosystem ecology. By calculating the reciprocal dependence of compartments, the amount of resource that is involved in cycling, the length of exchange pathways, and the organisation of flows, network analysis shows that the system does not use water in a sustainable manner and provides general criteria for improving sustainability. In this respect, options to improve sustainability are also discussed. The results of this study support the idea that the ecosystem approach can provide an interesting conceptual perspective in which sustainability issues can be framed, and that network analysis is a promising tool to handle these issues in practice. | Towards a sustainable use of water resources: a whole-ecosystem approach ... | Bodini, Antonio; Bondavalli, Cristina | Journal Article | academic | 2002 |
Case Study
Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)
UM review paper import
Urban
Water
Zotero2
|
| Industry, environment and health through 200 years in Manchester The Manchester urban area evolved rapidly in the early 19th century from a series of small towns to a major industrial conurbation with huge material flows and worldwide trade connections. A combination of the availability of nearby coalfields, canals, and free trade, which encouraged entrepreneurial enterprise, made Manchester into the ‘shock’ city of the industrial revolution. Rapid nucleated urban growth associated with industrialisation throughout the 19th century involved an exponential growth in materials transfers and in waste flows. The 20th century suburban dispersal of residential and industrial growth led to further increase in the impact of the urban metabolism, especially in terms of mass: distance of materials movement. The current post-industrial phase in Greater Manchester has to cope with the environmental and social legacies of its industrial past and with growing per capita materials consumption and increases in number of households despite a nearly static population of around 2.5 million. Changes in material flows, land usage and river morphology in Greater Manchester over the past 200 years have reflected changing technologies, industry, economics, social expectations and environmental legislation. Manchester had the first passenger railway, the first inter-basin domestic water transfer in the UK, the first urban smokeless zones and was part of a pioneering land reclamation partnership in the 1970s. Even so, the environmental legacy of industrial material flows constantly presents new challenges, from the cost of reclaiming contaminated brownfield sites to finding destinations for today's urban waste. | Industry, environment and health through 200 years in Manchester | Douglas, Ian; Hodgson, Rob; Lawson, Nigel | Journal Article | academic | 2002 |
Case Study
UM review paper import
Urban
|
| Material Flow Accounting of Greater London This dissertation quantifies the society's metabolism of Greater London in terms of material. Therefore a method for a region al material flow accounting (MFA) was developed and subsequently the accounting wa s carried out. The developed method agrees with the suggestions that are stated in th e Eurostat publication 'Economy-wide material flow accounts and derived indicators' (Europ ean Commission: Eurostat, 2001). Going into detail, various new approaches were develope d to generate a consis tent data file. The results of the accounting can be compared to nation-wide MFA that are done with the Eurostat method. After describing the theoretical basics of society's metabolism and material flow accounting, it was on the one hand im portant to describe the vari ous procedures to generate practicable datasets. On the other hand the results of the material flow accounting are discussed within the context of London as a Gl obal City that is in physical dimensions dependent on a national and world economy. The accounting is carried out for the most recent year for which data is available, the year 2000. It was not possible to cover a whole period of time, because of too much workload, the lack of exact datasets and limited time. Accounted are only the direct and the used flows. The latter are anyway of major impo rtance for the metabolism of a city since Domestic Extraction is almost not existent. Eq uivalent datasets for other regions in the United Kingdom are available so that the de veloped method could be useful for other regional case studies. The results show that London has, compared to national economies, high exports per capita, moderate imports per capita and very low Domestic Extraction. Waste is in large quantities exported and approxima tely 90 per cent of the used water is imported. Those facts show the dependence of a city on its environing other social systems and nature. Furthermore the Domestic Material Consump tion is in comparison to national economies very low and indicates that a global city like London has externalised the material intensive processes (but still relies on their products and outcomes). The material flows (excluding water and oxygen) are presen ted in the figure below. To create a complete picture of London's metabolism the calcul ation of the indirect flows and an energy flow accounting for the social system Greater London could be of interest since only a very small amount of sec ondary energy is generated within London. | Material Flow Accounting of Greater London | Bongardt, Benjamin | Thesis | theses | 2002 |
Economy-Wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA)
Single point in time
Urban
|
| The Metabolism of the Industrial City: The Case of Pittsburgh | The Metabolism of the Industrial City: The Case of Pittsburgh | Tarr, Joel A. | Journal Article | academic | 2002 |
Case Study
Coal
Emissions
Natural Gas
UM review paper import
Urban
Wastewater
Water
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| The building stones of Cape Town: a geological walking tour Pretoria, South Africa : Council for Geoscience | The building stones of Cape Town: a geological walking tour | Cole, D. I. | Book | academic | 2002 |
Cape Town
Urban
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| The ecological footprint of Cape Town: Unsustainable resource use and planning implications | The ecological footprint of Cape Town: Unsustainable resource use and ... | Gasson, Barry | Conference Paper | None | 2002 |
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
UM review paper import
Urban
Zotero2
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| A material flow analysis and ecological footprint of York This project sets out to determine the total material requirement of the City of York using a ‘Material Flow Analysis' and then to calculate the Ecological Footprint associated with the consumption of these materials. Taken together, these indicators can provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the various pathways that the City could take in order to move towards sustainability as well as enabling the more effective communication of ideas about sustainable lifestyles to the City's residents. 1. In November 2001, the Stockholm Environment Institute at York (SEI-Y), based at the University of York, initiated a study to measure the quantity of food and materials that the residents of York consume annually and to determine the resultant ‘ecological footprint' - a measure of the City of York's impact on the local and global environment. The study was funded by Norwich Union and was produced as a contribution to the Energy Saving Trust's ‘Planet York' campaign and the City of York's Local Agenda 21 - Better Quality of Life Strategy. 2. This project sets out to determine the total material requirement of the City of York using a ‘Material Flow Analysis' and then to calculate the Ecological Footprint associated with the consumption of these materials. Taken together, these indicators can provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the various pathways that the City could take in order to move towards sustainability as well as enabling the more effective communication of ideas about sustainable lifestyles to the City's residents. 3. The purpose of a material flow analysis (MFA) is to follow and quantify the flow of materials in a defined situation and over a set period of time. The end products of the MFA for York are detailed input-output tables showing the flow of all materials associated with non-industrial consumption that entered and left the city during the year 2000. These materials include the weight of fuel (the ‘energy carriers') required to produce the consumption items and bring them to York, to build York's infrastructure, to provide domestic heat and lighting, for personal transportation and so forth. Also accounted for are the ‘hidden flows' of materials that do not enter the economy for example, the removal of overburden during mining or waste trimmings from forestry. 4. While MFA provides valuable information concerning the total throughput of materials within York, the ecological footprint provides an understanding of the environmental pressures of these material flows. It considers the amount of productive land and water ecosystems in hectares (ha) that York requires to provide the goods and services that it consumes and to assimilate the wastes that it produces. Some of this land will be found within York itself while the rest will be in other countries and continents. The footprint includes the notional forest land area that would be required to sequester the carbon from carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions (and emissions of other major greenhouse gases (GHGs) converted into CO2 equivalents) due to fossil fuel combustion. The study focuses on energy use; food, food packaging and food miles; housing, non-food consumables, waste, transport, water supply and other infrastructure.... | A material flow analysis and ecological footprint of York | Barrett, John and Vallack, Harry and Jones, Andrew and Haq, Gary | Report | reports | 2002 |
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Case Study
Ecological Footprint (EF)
Energy
Energy Balance
Food
Fossil Fuels
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Single point in time
Urban
Waste
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| A comparison of the sustainability of public and private transportation systems: Study of the Greater Toronto Area A macroscopic assessment of the impacts of private and public transportation systems on the sustainability of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is undertaken from economic, environmental and social perspectives. The methodology draws upon the urban metabolism and sustainability indicators approaches to assessing urban sustainability, but compares modes in terms of passenger-kms. In assessing the economic sustainability of a city, transportation should be recognized as a product, a driver and a cost. In 1993, the traded costs of automobile use in the GTA were approximately balanced by the value of the automobile parts and assembly industry. But local transit costs 1/3 to 1/6 of the auto costs per person-km, in traded dollars, mainly because local labour is the primary cost.Public transportation is more sustainable from an environmental perspective. Automobile emissions are a major contributor to air pollution, which is a serious contemporary environmental health problem in Toronto. Public transportation modes are less energy intensive (including indirect energy consumption) and produce CO2 at an order of magnitude lower, although these benefits are partially undermined by under-utilization of transit capacity and the source of electricity generation.The social benefits of automobile use are likely more significant than costs in determining GTA residents' preferential mode choice. The speed and access of auto use provide important economic benefits, e.g. relating to employment and product choice. Nevertheless, offsetting the service attributes of private transportation are large social costs in terms of accidents. The costs of automobile insurance provide one tangible measure of such negative impacts.In order to improve the sustainability of the GTA, innovative approaches are required for improving the performance level of public transportation or substantially reducing the need for the service level provided by automobiles. Efforts such as greater integration of bicycles with public transit, or construction of light-rail systems in wide roadways, might be considered. But to be sustainable overall, a transportation system has to be flexible and adaptable and so must combine a mixture of modes. | A comparison of the sustainability of public and private transportation ... | Kennedy, Christopher A. | Journal Article | academic | 2002 |
Case Study
Energy Accounting
Greenhouse Gas Accounting
Sub-national
Transportation
UM review paper import
Urban
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| Nitrogen Balance for the Central Arizona–Phoenix (CAP) Ecosystem A detailed fixed nitrogen (N) mass balance was constructed for the Central Arizona–Phoenix (CAP) ecosystem. Input of fixed N input to the ecosystem was 98 Gg y−1. Of this, humans deliberately imported or mediated the fixation of 51 Gg N y−1; combustion processes added another 36 Gg y−1. Fixation by desert plants, wet deposition, and surface water input accounted for 11% of total N input. Total fixed N output was 78 Gg N y−1, a large component of which was gaseous N products of combustion and denitrification. Computed accumulation of N was 21 Gg y−1 (total input minus total output) or alternatively, 17 Gg y−1 (summing individual accumulation fluxes). Key uncertainties include dry deposition of atmospheric N and changes in soil storage. Inputs to the urban and agricultural components of the ecosystem were an order of magnitude higher than inputs to the desert. Human hydrologic modifications in this ecosystem promote the accumulation and volatilization of N while keeping riverine export low (3% of input). Interplay among the form and amount of N inputs, edaphic and climatic characteristics of the system, hydrologic modifications, and deliberate efforts to reduce N pollution controls the fate of N in human-dominated ecosystems. | Nitrogen Balance for the Central Arizona–Phoenix (CAP) Ecosystem | Baker, Lawrence A.; Hope, Diane; Xu, Ying; Edmonds, Jennifer; Lauver, Lisa | Journal Article | academic | 2001 |
Case Study
Nitrogen
Sub-national
Substance Flow Analysis (SFA)
UM review paper import
Urban
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| An ecological footprint of Liverpool The project explores the ecological footprint of Liverpool, providing an understanding into the ecological sustainability of the city. Liverpool was selected as the pilot study to examine whether the ecological footprint is an effective measurement of sustainability. The ecological footprint ofa designated population is the area of productive land and water ecosystems required to produce the resources that the population consumes and assimilate the wastes that the population produces, wherever on Earth the land and water is located. Firstly, an intensive data collection exercise was employed, with the help of Liverpool City Council, to understand the necessary components that make up the footprint calculation.Information was collected concerning transport (both freight and passenger), waste (commercial,domestic and industrial), materials (food, paper and timber),water (domestic and industrial), housing stock and built land, energy use (domestic, Service sector and industrial) and biodiversity protection. All the data helped to establish an ecological footprint of Liverpool.Liverpool has a total ecological footprint of 4.15-hectares/per capita, compared to the UK average of 4.9 hectares/per capita. This means that the average Liverpool resident requires approximately4 hectares of land to supply them with all their necessary resources, their transportation needs and the use and disposal of those resources. Of the world's population, 80.3% has an ecological footprint smaller than 4 hectares, and their total share of humanity's footprint is 38.3%. Their average footprint is 1.36 hectares. The other 19.7% of the population occupy 61.7% of humanity's footprint, which in itself is already at least 20% larger than the available capacity of the biosphere. To be considered sustainable, Liverpool would have to reduce its ecological footprint by 130%. Waste has the highest ecological impact (1.6 Ha./per cap), followed by the provision of bio-resources (1.1 Ha./per cap), then transport (0.7 Ha./per cap) (both passenger and freight), utilities(0.63 Ha./per cap), biodiversity protection (0.3 Ha./per cap) and finally buildings and land (0.1Ha./per cap). A sustainable ecological footprint, taking into account the protection of biodiversity, is 2-hectares/per capita. Sustainable scenarios, suggesting how Liverpool could achieve this within three key areas have been developed; these being energy, domestic waste and water.In the energy scenario three specific areas are highlighted for analysis - the City Council, home energy efficiency and commercial offices. In 1999, LCC consumed 72.4 GWh of electricity,which equated to 6,115 hectares. Several options are available to LCC, which would assist a reduction in energy consumption and its ecological footprint. Firstly, LCC could meet the UK government's targets for energy from renewable resources (5% by 2005 and 10% by 2010). Alternatively, it could set its own target of 20% renewable energy, which would reduce energy consumption by 35%. Furthermore, sufficient installation of Combined Heat and Power systems could reduce costs by 40% and result in energy consumption being reduced to less than 50GWhby 2010. However, by doing nothing, energy consumption will increase to 82 GWh by 2010.Liverpool has more than 50% of households, which can be considered as being in 'fuel poverty'. Should the full installation of energy efficiency measures be achieved then energy consumption could be reduced by up to 89% with a significant reduction of 53,813 hectares to the ecological footprint too. Energy consumption in the service sector tends to be ignored because it is assumed that it is a relatively small aspect of company business. However, ignorance could affect company competitiveness. The energy scenario for commercial offices is based on the DETR good office practice, which highlights the need to reduce energy consumption by 57%. Achieving this target by 2010 would result in a reduction of 71.19 GWh. Should the targets that are set in the energy scenarios be attained then the overall reduction of electricity consumption across the city would be approximately 70%. The waste scenario provides a detailed analysis of domestic waste in Liverpool if a 'business as usual approach' is adopted, and the potential reduction with either recycling or composting of materials such as paper, aluminium, steel, plastic and organics. The research illustrates that Liverpool will need to recycle 93% of domestic waste by 2021 just to counteract the projected increase in domestic waste in the city. Therefore, waste minimisation schemes are essential. The scenario indicates the reduction in the ecological footprint with the introduction of various de-materialisation programmes. The water scenario highlights the reduction in the ecological footprint with a reduction in leakage,as well as considering domestic water consumption. The scenario demonstrates the ecological footprint of key areas within United Utilities such as commercial vehicle use. A programme of toilet cistern replacement would not only conserve water (a saving of one third), it would also save energy (spent supplying the water), which would have a significant impact on the emission of CO2 and the ecological footprint Finally, the report examines further uses for the ecological footprint and highlights future research. The report suggests that the ecological footprint is the best available indicator for understanding regional sustainability and that this pilot study has demonstrated this. Therefore,any sustainability appraisal of a city or a region would benefit from the valuable insights that the ecological footprint offers. | An ecological footprint of Liverpool | Barett, John and Scott, Anthony | Report |