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Urban metabolism framework showing inflows (I), outflows (O), internal flows (Q), storage (S) and production (P) of biomass (B), minerals (M), water (W), and energy (E)
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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
beco...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the Urban Metabolism Workshop organized by the Building Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 2010, researchers from the industrial ecology and urban ecology communities developed a framework (Figure 1) that captures all bio-physical stocks and flows within an urban metabolism. The framework is based on the Eurostat Economy- wide Material Flow Analysis methodology, but considers special characteristics of urban areas, e.g., that minimal material extraction and agricultural activity occur within the boundaries and, consequently, import and export can constitute a significant portion of the city's material flows. ...
Citations
... Considering European Green Deal Strategy, the New Circular Economy and Bioeconomy Strategy, and in addition the objectives recognized from all the SDGs, waste generation must be tackled in such way in order to avoid both cumulative internally and externally supported by the system (Zhang, 2013;Dinares, 2014;Bibri and Krogstie, 2017 The framework of metabolism, according to Kennedy et al. (2011) focuses on the resource efficiency for measuring energy and material flow (Pincetl et al., 2012) as well as on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in addition on monitoring materials and the use of energy to support policy decisions addressing vital issues, such as resource scarcity, air and water pollution and waste generation (Hoornweg et al., 2012;Conke and Ferreira, 2015). Additionally, Voukkali et al. (2021) assess the Urban Metabolism in coastal area for a period of 30 years, through number of Key Performed Indicators (KPIs) such as level of services (LOS). ...
The interconnection of urbanization trends and environmental pressures, are due to the rising demand for resource consumption, waste production and greenhouses gas emissions. Taking into consideration the massive reduction of natural resources, the deprivation of the life quality and the climate change, the scientific community indicates the necessity to emphasis and understand the relationship between cities and the environment as a dynamic concept. Consequently, cities are facing the challenge to implement alternative strategies towards more sustainable management of urban resources. This research aims to shed light on the concept of urban metabolism, the methods that are been used to gauge urban metabolism (i.e Emergy Analysis, Material Flow Analysis, Ecological Footprint etc.), as well as the assessment of the proposed methodologies through SWOT analysis and Analytical Hierocracy Process, considering multi-criteria analysis and how those reflect to Circular Economy and European Green Deal Strategy. The results showed that, the existing methodologies needs refreshment to cover the needs for the cities of tomorrow and a new hybrid approach which will include new set of Key Performed Indicators is essential. Furthermore, the results could serve as a beneficial reference point for policy makers, consultants, rural developers as the new hybrid approach can be used to measure and assess the level of metabolism in one area in order to prevent future expansion.
... The metaphor of the city as an organism has existed since at least the seventeenth century, following medical advances revealing the circulatory and respiratory systems (Sennett 1996). This leads to the urban functioning seen as the maintenance of metabolic flows of material and energy (Hoornweg et al. 2012). Urban metabolism studies have varied from general considerations, to analysis of specific nutrient cycles with the suggestion that throughput is increasing over time, and that certain substances seem to be accumulating in cities (Kennedy et al. 2011). ...
Paper presented to ‘Dislocating Urban Studies: Rethinking Theory, Shifting Practice’ Digital Workshop Series, Workshop 1: ‘A Non-Occidentalist West: Learning from Theories Outside the Canon’ 18th-19th February 2021.
... Urban metabolism approaches regard the city as analogous to a biological organism, necessitating the continual flow of matter and energy through the it to maintain operation and growth (Hoornweg et al. 2012). Developed by Wolman (1965), the field has seen a resurgence in recent decades following the emergence of urban sustainability as a fashionable research paradigm (Kennedy et al. 2011). ...
... Early urban sociologists such as Mumford (1937) and Schnore (1966) have also made similar comparisons, stressing the interdependence of internal processes and the phenomena of adaptation and growth. This leads to the urban functioning being cast in terms of that of a living organism which maintains itself through metabolic flows of material and energy (Hoornweg et al. 2012). The foundations of this conceptualisation were laid by Wolman (1965) who used it to model a hypothetical US city. ...
... Urban metabolism studies have varied from general considerations, to analysis of specific nutrient cycles, with the general suggestion that throughput is increasing over time, and that certain substances seem to be accumulating in cities (Kennedy et al. 2011). Whilst numerous urban metabolism studies exist for real cities, there remains no commonly established framework for carrying out data collection and analysis (Hoornweg et al. 2012). ...
Despite its ubiquity urban sustainability is a contested concept with no widely accepted definition of what it is, or what it should look like. This lack of consensus surrounding meaning presents barriers to coherent operationalisation to bring about positive change, leading to the dominance of undertheorised indicator based approaches. Such approaches present various issues including the marginalisation of less quantifiable aspects, and the erasure of holism and interaction between relevant phenomena. This thesis seeks to develop a deeper understanding of urban sustainability, and how it can be operationalised to explore coherent ways of improving upon it.
These issues are explored in three distinct research streams, centred around the descriptors of ‘define, measure, model’. Initially urban sustainability is decomposed into its two constituent terms which are reviewed in isolation, in reference to the ‘fractures’ within the bodies of literature. An integrative review utilising backward snowballing probes the origins of the three pillar paradigm of sustainability with reference to the early literature. A semi-systematic review then explores the disciplinary divide between urban studies and urban science drawing out common themes that emerge across the two.
This literature analysis is followed by an exploration, through physical analytical techniques, of thermodynamic entropy as a ‘physical basis’ for measuring unsustainability. Following this, a prototype urban integrated assessment model is developed through the adaptation of Meadows et al. (2005)’s World3 model. Here the paradigm of system dynamics is investigated as a useful frame for emphasising the interaction and feedback between relevant phenomena. Whilst starting from a post-positivist research frame attempting to ‘define, measure, and model’, an epistemological shift was made within this work to a more interpretivist approach using the language of ‘understanding’; this forms an underlying meta-narrative.
... Often the data used to measure cities is historical [37], collected by national or international bodies and some is collected by cities themselves [38]. Data may be missing or of poor quality [39] and need to be substituted by national data. An eloquent case has been made for the use of real-time data to measure smart cities [40], in effect making the measurement as smart as the smart city. ...
As the idea of a smart city has developed over the past few decades and become commonplace, so the urge to decide which cities are smarter or smartest, and the need to measure progress of cities towards increasing smartness have emerged. Measuring the functioning of cities is complex given that they consist of many intersecting systems. Many different measures have been proposed, tested, and in some cases, implemented. This array of measures results in confusion for researchers, policy makers and city management. This review of the academic and practitioner literature, as well as web sites, identified and examined fifty-three different measures for cities. The characteristics of these measures were analysed based on information available from desktop research. Four types and twelve sub-types of smart city measures were identified. From this analysis, a taxonomy of smart city measures is presented. The potential uses of each subtype within the taxonomy are discussed.
... Urban metabolism is a multi-disciplinary concept that examines material and energy flows in the cities shaped by various social, economic and environmental forces . According to Hoornweg et al. (2012), it represents a comprehensive framework that helps monitor the transformation occurring in cities, as well as their contributions to sustainable development. In urban energy metabolic processes, energy produced by the energy exploitation sector is considered the primary energy source; it consequently provides energy for both the transformation i.e. oil refining, power generation and co-generation and terminal consumption sectors which includes both industries and households (Kuznecova et al., 2014). ...
Fast growing economy of Sri Lanka with an annual GDP growth rate of 5% has significantly increased demand for energy. As energy supply must grow in a sustainable way to meet the demand, concern over the environmental impact of energy flows have been gaining attention during policy development and implementation. Therefore, there is a need of comprehensively evaluating energy metabolic system in Sri Lanka to identify resource dependencies of the country that must be addressed to increase the sustainability. A conceptual energy metabolic model was developed identifying economic, social and demographic variables affecting energy demand, transformation and supply and GHG emissions in Sri Lanka. Developed model was used to evaluate the current energy flows and forecast the behaviour of energy metabolism while assessing the sustainability of the energy system using number of sustainability indicators. Developed model indicates an average annual growth rate of 4.06% in energy demand, 4.17% in non-renewable energy supply and 3.36% in GHG emissions. Transport sector has the highest GHG emissions percentage of 73%. Sustainability evaluation of the energy metabolic system shows that Sri Lanka is becoming more efficient and less energy intensive over the years. However, increase in GHG emissions per capita and emission intensity has a negative impact on the environmental sustainability while increase renewable energy share in total energy supply can be considered positive. The findings of the research give new insights to the energy system of Sri Lanka which enable energy planners to implement policies to transition towards a more secure and sustainable energy system.
... In the comparison of the values, the authors find that per capita energy consumption scales with urban population density according to a power law with exponent -0.75: this means that the more densely populated is a city, the lower its per capita energy consumption will be. For a broader outlook of urban metabolic studies, see (Weisz and Steinberger, 2010;Kennedy, Pincetl and Bunje, 2011;Hoornweg, Campillo and Linders, 2012). ...
... Analogous problems are also found in big cities, which 'have neither yearly budget allocations, a single statistical coordination office with permanently assigned staff, nor systems for continuous data collection and management. Within the local government, gathering and processing data tends to be ad hoc and highly fragmented' (Hoornweg, Campillo, Linders, Sugar, & Saldivar, 2012). However, data availability tends to improve; this is attributed to the fact that there are more datasets today than in the past, although usually not at the municipal scale. ...
... In this study, the raw material consumption and waste emission of Hong Kong were comprehensively analyzed with multi-scale tools to figure out the relations between the metabolism of Hong Kong and its economic growth. Since 2010, the Urban Development and Local Government Unit of the World Bank started a study on metabolism of seven client cities around the globe, and the research results reflecting climate changes of these citie can be used to arouse people's attention to the urban resource consumption patterns [10] . In 1991, Peter Baccini and Paul Brunner proposed four major behavioral types in cities, namely nourishment and recovery, cleaning, living and working, and transportation and communication [11] . ...
... The framework was first applied to urban design studies by Franz Oswald and Peter Baccini, who used morphological and ecological tools in the long-term design process of the entire city's reconstruction, and proposed four leading principles (shapability, sustainability, reconstruction, and responsibility) and five indicators of urban environmental quality (identification, diversity, flexibility, self-sufficiency, and resource efficiency) as guidance [12] . In 2007, an MIT team led by Professor John E. Fernandez designed a "mesh 陈代谢则意味着提高城市居民的适应性、促进城市资源循环、减少自 然资源消耗，并降低城市活动对气候造成的影响 [7] 。迄今最大尺度的 城市新陈代谢研究于1971年在中国香港启动 [8] ，并于1997年进行了升 级 [9] 。这项研究对香港的原料消耗和废物排放进行了全面分析，并从多 个尺度探究了城市新陈代谢与当地经济增长之间的联系。世界银行城 市发展与地方政府部门自2010年起对全球7座城市的新陈代谢情况展开 了研究，并通过研究结果中反映的城市气候变化唤起人们对于城市资 源消耗模式的重视 [10] city" for the post-hurricane reconstruction of New Orleans based on urban metabolism ideas [13] . ...
... Improved definition of water consumption data, to daily or monthly frequency, would provide better insights into how the processes of rainfall, dam storage and consumption interact over time, and draw out which times of year face higher risk of water stress. Despite the slow reduction in water consumption since 2011, water demand rose in 2015 and is still expected to grow due to increasing population size, increasing affluence of the population, and increased demands for food and energy (Hoornweg et al. 2012). Using 2014 as a starting point, Cape Town (2016b) estimated that the water demand growth rate would range between 2% and 3.38%. ...
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.
... Other tools and methodologies have been developed to allow for easier, faster data gathering. The United Nations Environment Programme developed a Rapid Assessment Toolkit (Robinson et al. 2013) and the World Bank conducted abbreviated urban metabolism studies on seven cities (Hoornweg et al. 2012). These approaches aim to collect existing data that is more readily available on an urban level in order to limit the need for extensive, time-consuming data gathering efforts. ...
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).
