Materials Accounting as a Tool for Decision Making in Environmental Policy - Mac TEmPo Case Study Report - Urban Metabolism, The City of Vienna
... They aim at understanding the metabolism of urban areas, including the interrelation between a city and its hinterland, and to establish a diagnosis prior to industrial ecology policies. Data on the characteristics of stock are used to estimate, analyse and compare certain flows as for Barles (2009Barles ( , 2014 and the composition of the stock is also studied by Obernosterer et al. (1998) andFaist Emmenegger andFrischknecht (2003). A fifth subject, which is cross-cutting to the above is the analysis of the interaction between flows and stock, especially of factors determining stock accumulation or removal. ...
... Twenty-four studies are conducted at the national level, three of them dealing with more than one country (Daxbeck et al., 2009;Fishman et al., 2014;Wiedenhofer et al., 2015Wiedenhofer et al., 2015. Five studies focus on a regional scale (Muller et al., 2004;Barles, 2009Barles, , 2014Tanikawa et al., 2015;Fishman et al., 2015) and eight on an urban scale: cities or wider urban areas (Obernosterer et al., 1998;Faist Emmenegger, and Frischknecht, 2003;Deilmann, 2009;Barles, 2009Barles, , 2014Hu et al., 2010a;Rouvreau et al., 2012;Serrand et al., 2013). ...
... -Static bottom-up flow analysis: eight studies (Obernosterer et al., 1998;Kolher and Hassler, 2002;Faist Emmenegger and Frischknecht, 2003;Hashimoto et al., 2007Hashimoto et al., , 2009Kohler and Yang, 2007;Yang and Kohler, 2008;Wiedenhofer et al., 2015) -Static top-down flow analysis: ten studies (Kolher and Hassler, 2002;Faist Emmenegger and Frischknecht 2003;Hashimoto et al., 2007Hashimoto et al., , 2009Kohler and Yang, 2007;Yang and Kohler, 2008;Barles, 2009Barles, , 2014Rouvreau et al., 2012;Wiedenhofer et al., 2015); -Bottom-up stock analysis: twelve studies (Obernosterer et al., 1998;Faist Emmenegger and Frischknecht, 2003;Hashimoto et al., 2007Hashimoto et al., , 2009 Kohler, 2008;Deilmann, 2009;Rouvreau et al., 2012;Fishman et al., 2015;Tanikawa et al., 2015;Wiedenhofer et al., 2015); -Dynamic retrospective or prospective flow analysis using a flowdriven model (input flows): eight studies (Hashimoto et al., 2007Schiller, 2007;Kapur et al., 2008;Daxbeck et al., 2009;Deilmann, 2009;Serrand et al., 2013;Wiedenhofer et al., 2015) -Dynamic retrospective or prospective flow analysis using a stockdriven model: twelve articles (Kolher and Hassler, 2002;Muller et al., 2004;Muller, 2006;Bergsdal et al., 2007Bergsdal et al., , 2007Sartori et al., 2008;Yang and Kohler, 2008;Hu et al., 2010a,b;Huang et al., 2013;Sandberg et al., 2014a,b); -Top-down retrospective or prospective stock analysis using a flow-driven model: four publications (Lichtensteiger and Baccini, 2008;Fishman et al., 2014Fishman et al., , 2015Tanikawa et al., 2015). ...
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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.
... Or les travaux de recherche montrent que même si les taux de valorisation des déchets de chantiers augmentent, les ressources secondaires ne pourront que partiellement se substituer aux ressources primaires. A Vienne, si la totalité des déchets de chantiers était traitée dans un centre de recyclage, la consommation de ressources primaires ne serait réduite que de 7 % (Obernosterer et al. 1998). A Orléans le recyclage de 70 % des déchets minéraux ne permettrait de couvrir que le quart de la consommation de granulats de 2005 à 2030 (Serrand et al. 2013). ...
Ce chapitre porte sur l’application du concept d’économie circulaire à la construction. Cette dernière est entendue dans le sens de filière économique et comprend selon Vincent (1985) cinq principaux segments : matériaux de construction, distribution-négoce, bâtiment et travaux publics, concepteurs-maîtres d’oeuvre, maîtres d’ouvrage.
À ces cinq segments, il nous semble pertinent d’ajouter les gestionnaires de déchets issus des chantiers.
Le chapitre sera composé de quatre parties. Les enjeux environnementaux liés à la construction seront tout d’abord brièvement présentés dans la section 10.2. Puis seize éléments de définition de l’application du concept d’économie circulaire à la
construction identifiés dans la littérature seront étudiés dans la section 10.3. Dans la section 10.4, un bref panorama des politiques, projets de recherche et développement et projets de construction et d’aménagement sera dressé. Enfin, nous identifierons dans la section 10.5 quatre principales limites à ces définitions, politiques et projets.
... However, research shows that even if the recycling rates of construction and demolition waste increase, secondary resources can only partially replace primary resources. In Vienna, if all construction and demolition waste was treated in a recycling centre, the consumption of primary resources would only be reduced by 7 % (Obernosterer et al. 1998). In Orléans (France), recycling 70 % of mineral waste would only cover a quarter of aggregates consumption from 2005 to 2030 (Serrand et al. 2013). ...
This chapter focuses on the application of the concept of a circular economy to
construction. The latter is understood in the sense of an economic sector and,
according to Vincent (1985), comprises five main segments: building materials,
distribution-trading, construction and public works, designers and project managers,
and contracting authorities. To these five segments, we think it is appropriate to add
construction and demolition waste managers.
This chapter consists of four sections. The environmental issues related to
construction are first briefly presented. Then, sixteen elements of definition of a
circular economy applied to construction that were found in the literature are
studied. In the third section, a brief overview of policies, research and development
projects and construction and urban development projects are provided. Finally, four
main limitations to these definitions, policies and projects are discussed.
... Although previous emergy research on urban system and cities emphasized the energetic flows converging from natural and agricultural areas to the urban center (Huang, 1998a;Huang et al., 2001;Huang and Chen, 2005;Lee et al., 2013), but those prior studies have lacked a consideration of the relationships between an urban system and its associated distant areas. Although some empirical research has been conducted to analyze the relationship between a city and its hinterlands through material flow analysis (e.g., Krausmann, 2013;Lee et al., 2016;Lenzen and Peters, 2009;Obernosterer et al., 1998), no study has integrated material flow analysis with energetic analysis to examine the social-ecological connection between a city and its remote hinterlands from a biophysical perspective. In this paper, we applied the concept of ULT and incorporated emergy synthesis to establish the relationship between Taipei's peri-urbanization and the distant areas in Taiwan. ...
Urbanization not only causes environmental changes in metropolitan regions but also influences the ecological and socioeconomic changes of distant land areas due to increasing demands on resource use and waste emissions. Previous studies on the assessment of urban systems have focused on the city or metropolitan areas under study. There is a need to incorporate urban land teleconnections to investigate the relationship between a city and distant land areas during the process of urbanization. This paper analyzes the teleconnection of the energy and material flows associated with Taipei's peri-urbanization and remote areas in Taiwan. The cross-scale emergy synthesis of Taipei and Taiwan was examined first to investigate the relationships of the material and energy flows between Taipei and Taiwan. The exploitation of non-renewable resources in Taiwan during the 1990s was driven mainly by the construction and development taking place in Taipei. Furthermore, compared with Taiwan, the Taipei area relies heavily on external resources. The results of the emergy evaluation of materials flows in Taipei indicated that 85% of the construction materials used were imported from other remote areas during the past 30 years. The use of construction materials in Taipei had a higher intensity in the city center during 1982-1992 and in the peri-urban area during 2002−2014. The results of the emergy synthesis indicated that urban land teleconnections exist between peri-urban areas of Taipei and other distant areas in Taiwan.
... MFA links processes and activities (i.e. construction, transportation, consumption of energy, and waste disposal) systematically [21] . The main objective of the method is to analyze, evaluate, and control material flows for a given system. ...
... Studies that often focus on similar questions are for instance studies of nutrient budgets based on recipients or catchment area (e.g. Karlsson 1989; Stålnacke 1996; Arheimer et al 1997; Naturvårdsverket 1997a; Obernosterer et al 1998; Somloyódy et al 1999; Laakonen and Lehtonen 1999; Savage 2003), as well as agricultural system analysis (Andersson 1986; Naturvårdsverket 1997b; Hoffman 1999) that both have a long tradition. Quantitative analyses of human consumption and its impact on the environment have also been considered in for instance Life Cycle Analysis and Energy Flow Studies, which analyze certain products or compile the use of a resource for a certain amount of food (e.g. ...
... MFA is useful in accounting for both total material and substances of interest based on accounts in physical units (usually in terms of tons). [13,14] Traditional MFA concerned the resource use and material cycles of a system's production process. MFA has been extended to both the assessment of environmental impact and to the sustainability of socioeconomic systems [3,15] and becomes a basic tool in UM study, identifying changes in the urban environment resulting from intensive economic activities. ...
Cities' performance is key to a more sustainable society. The complexity of urban sustainability seeks for strong methodologies in assessing production and consumption activities of cities. In view of a bioinspired metaphor " metabolism " , a city can be seen as an organism that intakes, digests, and releases materials and simultaneously exchanges energy with the external environment. Urban metabolism (UM) has become a methodological framework in which the analyses of all the energy and material flows associated with the production and consumption activities in cities are encapsulated. A range of approaches of measuring the intensity and structure of UM are evaluated for their applications and insights for urban sustainability. Urban metabolic data and case studies are also overviewed. Last, but not the least, future prospects regarding research development of UM are discussed for their potential application in urban energy and infrastructure planning.
... More specifically, MFA examines the materials flowing into a given system (private household, company, region, city, etc.), the stocks and flows within this system, and the resulting outputs from the system to other systems. Unlike many other environmental management tools, MFA focuses on loadings rather than concentrations and is also useful for examining the relationship between a region or city and its surrounding hinterland (Obernosterer et al. 1998). Nevertheless, as Binder (2007) points out in her review of regional MFA, there is no methodological framework for this type of study, nor are there suitable data. ...
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.
... In Figure 8, the anthropogenic metabolism of Vienna is presented as a year 1 ) of materials into the city are larger than outputs, resulting in continuous growth of the already large stock, which doubles in 50 to 100 years. Basically, the modern anthropogenic metabolism can be characterized as a linear throughput reactor, with less than 1% of materials being involved in regional cycles typical example (Obernosterer et al., 1998). The material stocks in private households, the public and private sectors, and the infrastructure double in about 50 to 100 years. ...
... Future CFC emissions from present stocks, for example, are estimated, even assuming a worldwide successful implementation of the Montreal protocol, to roughly equal the accumulated past emissions (Kleijn and Van der Voet, 1998). For heavy metals it was concluded in various studies that the emissions have been reduced over the last decades, but at the same time an increased stock building in society takes place, and thus a subsequent increase of emissions can be expected (Bergbäck and Lohm, 1997;Guinée et al., 1998;Obernosterer et al., 1998). It appears, therefore, that in order to control emissions in the long run, a stock management is required in many cases. ...
Future flows of emissions and waste from society to the environment can be estimated either as a percentage of the future stock or as a delayed input. The first approach is based on a static model where concentration is the driving force and is generally preferable for ease of calculation. The second approach is based on a dynamic model, where ageing is the driving force and knowledge of the life span is needed. We present the conditions under which the calculations based on a static model will produce acceptable approximations for a dynamic system.
... A handful of metabolism-focused urban studies have previously been conducted in various urban regions worldwide e.g., Brussels, 43 Hong Kong, 10,44 Toronto, 32 and Paris. 45 One of the most comprehensive investigations into carbon metabolism was conducted in the city of Vienna by Daxbeck et al. 46 and Obernosterer et al., 47 the results of which were also published by Hendriks et al. 48 Over 20% of Austria's total population reside in Vienna (1.5 million inhabitants), a city which covers just 0.5% of the country's total area, making it the most densely populated urban area in Austria (3710 capita/km 2 ). ...
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.
... and applied to many case studies in different fields: Metal flows in the anthroposphere: Zeltner et al. (1999), Sörme (2003), Hedbrant (2003), Bader et al. (2006b); Substance-, energy-, and financial-flows induced by the implementation of energy systems on a large scale: Real (1998), Hug et al. (2003), Bader et al. (2003), Bader et al. (2006a); flows related to buildings and infrastructure: Müller et al. (2004), Johnstone (2001); and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus: Neset et al. (2006), Obernosterer et al. (1998), Nilsson (1997), Van der Voet (1996). The model formulates mathematically the current state of the phenomenological knowledge about the system. ...
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.
Este trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de compreender a influência do conceito de Metabolismo Urbano (MU) nas estratégias utilizadas para a gestão de resíduos sólidos em duas cidades da Região Metropolitana de uma capital do nordeste brasileiro. A metodologia utilizada foi de cunho qualitativo, por meio da análise de conteúdo de 4 entrevistas individuais realizadas em profundidade. Na análise dos resultados, verificou-se que a influência do conceito de MU nas estratégias utilizadas para a gestão de resíduos sólidos nas cidades estudadas é mínima ou ausente, visto que, os gestores públicos envolvidos estão alheios, ou pouco sabem a respeito do conceito em estudo, demonstrando, portanto, uma visão reducionista da gestão de resíduos sólidos. Assim, limitam suas práticas ao serviço de coleta e disposição final de resíduos sólidos.
This research introduces an approach to analyze the nexus of water, energy and rice production system at the watershed scale. The nexus relationship equations, developed to suit the local scale facilitating analysis in the rice production sector, were integrated with a Material Flow Analysis tool to expand the visualization capability. Moreover, the nexus flow was linked with the selected resource security, eco-efficiency and economic indicators, taking into account the spatial and temporal effect of water availability. The study covers the nexus resource flows not only in the rice production sector but also all other sectors in the whole watershed to assess local resource security. The tool covers wider implications, trade-offs and synergy impacts that were not much covered in previous studies. The tool was applied to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies of the impacts from proposed scenarios of alternative agricultural practices and land-use change options. The scenarios applying land-use change, and changing non-suitable and low-suitable rice cultivation areas to sugarcane and cassava, can reduce water use significantly resulting in reducing the nexus energy while the impact on economics, food security and direct energy use is small.
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 be380 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, lead, copper, aluminum, and so on) constitute a very small share, of which wood (4.1 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.
Die pauschale Reduktion des Rohstoffeinsatzes um einen Faktor vier (von Weizsäcker; Lovins; Lovins, 1997) bzw. zehn (Schmidt-Bleek, 1993) wird als Ziel für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung vorgeschlagen. Bei der Umsetzung dieses »Leitbildes« in die Praxis wird jedoch eine Differenzierung der einzelnen vom Menschen verursachten Materialflüsse (Güter- und Stoffflüsse) notwendig sein. Beispielsweise wird sich für Güter wie Trinkwasser oder Biomasse bzw. für Stoffe wie CO2 oder Dioxine ein jeweils anderer Faktor ergeben. Der folgende Artikel diskutiert Ansätze einer Differenzierung am Beispiel des Stoffhaushaltes verschiedener Städte. Die folgenden Beispiele haben vordergründig nicht viel gemeinsam, vielmehr zeigen sie unterschiedlichste Gesichtspunkte zum Thema Ressourcenmanagement. In den Schlußfolgerungen werden diese Aspekte zusammengefaßt, um deren Bedeutung in der Diskussion um eine Reduktion des Materialeinsatzes zu zeigen.
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.
This paper discusses the use of Material Flow Analysis (MFA) as a tool to support policy decision making in the field of resource and environmental management. In terms of policy, MFA can be used for early recognition, priority setting, to analyse and improve the effectiveness of measures and to design efficient material management strategies in view of sustainability. MFA has a high potential to be implemented as a guiding tool at the regional level, for example as part of a regional environmental management and audit system or as a part of the Local Agenda 21 process. Material management based on MFA is complementary to traditional environmental and resource management strategies, which have tended to focus heavily on specific environmental compartments, and measure the concentration of substances in various media. MFA, in contrast, provides an overview of the total system by linking the anthroposphere (that part of the biosphere in which humans' activities take place) with the environment. This system approach shifts the focus away from the back-end so-called 'filter strategies' to more pro-active front-end measures. MFA examines short- and long-term loadings rather than concentrations and highlights current and potential material accumulations, called material stocks. These stocks represent either potential environmental problems (e.g. large stocks of hazardous materials) or a potential source of future resources (e.g. urban mining). In this way, MFA can assist precautionary policy making by highlighting future environmental or resource issue problems without relying on signals of environmental stress. The objective of materials management is: firstly, to analyse material flows and stocks; secondly, to evaluate these results; and thirdly, to control material flows in view of certain goals such as sustainable development. MFA is an excellent tool for the first objective and is well suited to generate a base for the other two objectives. MFA results can be compared against environmental standards or can be interpreted using assessment or indicator methodologies (such as environmental impact assessment or ecological footprints). Selected results from two studies, carried out for the city of Vienna (substance management) and the Swiss lowlands (timber management), illustrate the use of MFA as a tool for early recognition (resource depletion and environmental quality), for priority setting and for effective policy making.
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%.
The inflow and stock (amount in use) of heavy metals (cadmium(Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn)) in goods in 1995 have been quantifiedin the anthroposphere of Stockholm, Sweden. Statistics on national, regional and local level were used. Contacts were established with representatives from production and constructionin the industrial sector and with authorities. The results show that the stock of Cd is 0,2 kg per capita. For the other heavymetals the corresponding result per capita is: Cr 8, Cu 170, Hg 0,01, Ni 4, Pb 73 and Zn 40 kg. The inflow varies between2–8%of the stock indicating the importance of the stock. The lowestlevels are for Cu and Pb. Heavy metal levels in solid waste are high, between 15–45% of the amount in the inflow (Hg excluded), the lowest values were for Cu and Pb. Thus, recyclingis incomplete. Long life expectancy goods form the majority of the stock but there is a tendency that short life expectancy goods increase their importance in the inflow. Concealedgoods are also more frequent in inflow than in the stock.
The metal metabolism of an urban region, the City ofVienna, was investigated to discuss urban metal management strategies in view of environmental protection and resource conservation. About 90% of the metal stock is located in Vienna''s buildings and infrastructure, whilst only 10% is in the landfills. The city stock represents a potential source for diffusive emissions. However, the control of the current environmental policy concentrates mainly on landfill emissions. Diffusive emissions resulting from the losses over the use of metal containing goods in the city are widely dispersed and cannot be easily controlled due to numerous non-point sources. First investigations indicate that for certain applications, the diffusive stock emissions are as significant as other sources. At present, Vienna''s known diffusive and point source lead emissions into air and water are about 40 to 50 times higher than comparable past loadings from geogenic Vienna. Furthermore, a life cycle approach from acid car batteries indicates that sustainable lead management should consider flows and stocks in the hinterland of the city too. The city metal stock also represents a potential resource. Leaded water pipes built-in in Vienna''s city stock have the potential to produce 1.6 million traditional car batteries. In future such city mining strategies can partly replace ore mining.
This paper is aimed at developing a systematic and generally applicable methodology for material flow analysis in drainage systems and watersheds. In particular, this research has focused on developing a mathematical framework and application for the management of nitrogenous species (primarily ammonium ions). Nitrogen compounds are among the most important species contributing to ecological cycles. Indeed, the environmental and biological aspects of water systems and their surrounding systems are highly impacted by nitrogen compounds as they contribute to the quality, nutrition, and toxicity of these systems. A material flow model was developed to deal primarily with the water phase while including pertinent information on the solid and air phases as they interface with the water medium. Both spatial and discrete temporal dimensions were included to account for nitrogen flow and transformation. The model includes the various environmental phenomena that influence the fate and transport of targeted species (e.g., volatilization, precipitation, sedimentation, uptake by biota, adsorption, chemical and biochemical reactions, etc.). Furthermore, the model includes material flow analysis operators (or transfer functions) that characterize the system inputs and outputs as they relate to the surroundings. The aforementioned material flow analysis tools were combined in a computer-aided modeling platform to provide a complete material flow analysis and yield useful insights on the transport and fate of targeted species. The simulation results shed light on the system performance. Actual data for an Egyptian drainage system (Bahr El-Baqar) along with the outfall to Lake Manzala were used to illustrate the usefulness and applicability of the developed model. Comparison with the measured data confirmed the validity and fidelity of the model.
Large urban systems can be considered as the final point of convergence of resources, environmental services and human activities from rural settlements to villages to towns to small and big cities. The emergy synthesis method is applied in order to capture the complexity of urban systems from the point of view of the larger scale, the geobiosphere, where resources come from. Emergy is the total available energy of one kind (usually solar) directly or indirectly used up to drive a system or a process. It can be considered as a measure of a system's demand for environmental support. The population of Rome is 4.43% of total Italian population, with an emergy use of about 4% of total emergy supporting the Italian economy. Emergy use per capita is 5.50E+16 seJ/year, compared to an average value for Italy of 3.60E+16 seJ/year. An empower density of 1.09E+14 seJ/m2/year was calculated for Rome, much higher than for average Italy, 6.86E+12 seJ/m2/year. Finally, the emergy/GDP, an indirect measure of economic performance of the system, is 2.43E+12 seJ/€ for Rome compared to 1.64E+12 seJ/€ for Italy, suggesting that in an urban system (generally characterized by a larger fraction of tertiary activities) the required environmental support for the generation of economic results is much higher than for the whole economic system. Finally, comparison of above performance indicators with similar studies published by other authors (Taipei, San Juan and Macao) points out that Rome has the highest annual emergy per capita (suggesting higher potential standard of living).
The material, energy and environmental flows supporting the growth and welfare of the city of Rome, during a recent forty-year period (from 1962 to 2002) were investigated in order to understand the resource basis of its present welfare and lifestyle. The study focused on the local scale of the urban system (resources actually used within the system's boundary) as well as on the larger regional and national scales where resources come from. Assessing the resource use change over time allowed to understand what are the main drivers of lifestyle changes of the local population. In particular, while the direct, local-scale use of the main material and energy resources exhibits a quadratic growth over time, the total (direct+indirect) consumption on the scale of the global economy is always 3-4 times higher, is so highlighting how much of a city's growth depends on economic and production activities that develop outside of its boundaries. Water use shows an even more alarming trend, in that the indirect consumption grows much faster, suggesting a shift from the use of a less water-intensive mix of products to a different mix that requires much more water in its industrial production. Such trend calls for increased awareness of the water footprint of goods used as well as increased efficiency in water management by both industries and households. The evolution of resource use and standard of living also affects the release of airborne emissions, an issue that is becoming crucial due to concerns for climate change and urban air pollution. The extent of such additional environmental burden is also explored in the present paper.
Mediante l’uso combinato di quattro differenti strumenti di analisi, tra di essi complementari, utilizzati nell’ambito della SUMMA (una procedura di calcolo precedentemente introdotta e qui aggiornata), il presente studio mette in evidenza da diversi punti di vista l’impatto che il sistema urbano di Roma genera sulla scala locale e sulla scala globale. Considerando i flussi di risorse in ingresso e le emissioni in uscita come interazioni tra il sistema indagato e l’ambiente esterno, sono state quantificate l’entità e l’andamento con cui il sistema è in grado di aumentare le alterazioni, durante un arco di tempo pluridecennale. Inoltre lo studio dell’approvvigionamento delle risorse nel tempo, ha permesso di constatare che il sistema aumenta in maniera crescente la sua complessità (Odum, E., 1983). Infatti nonostante esso non sia caratterizzato da una crescita demografica, l’appropriazione delle risorse nel tempo avviene ad una velocità crescente (in molti casi le funzioni rappresentative del reperimento delle risorse seguono un andamento di tipo parabolico), mostrando che le risorse sono veicolate verso un crescente aumento della complessità del sistema. Ciò risulta confermato anche dall’uso di un indice di complessità da noi costituito, il quale mostrerebbe un aumento nel tempo, di tipo cubico, della complessità del sistema. Through the combined use of four different analytical tools, complementing to each other, used in the SUMMA (a procedure for calculating previously introduced and here updated), this study highlights from different points of view the impact urban system of Rome generates on the local scale and global scale. Considering the input resource flows and the output emissions as interactions between considered system and outside environment, they were quantified magnitude and trend with which the system is able to increase deteriorations during a period of some decades. In addition, the study of resources gaining over time has allowed to see system increases in growing way its complexity (Odum, E., 1983). Although it is not characterized by a population growth, the appropriation of resources over time occurs at a increasing velocity (in many cases the functions representative of resources gaining follow a parabolic trend), showing resources are transmitted to a growing increasing of the system’s complexity. This is also confirmed by the use of an index of complexity we formed, which would show an increasing over time, of cubic type, of the system’s complexity.
Results from this study of stability/sustainability conditions of an urban system show that an average citizen of Rome, in one year, uses directly or indirectly as much as 45 tons of abiotic material (minerals, raw fuel, topsoil). Out of such an abiotic flow, about 6.5 tons of fuel per person are required, while the Italian nationwide average is 3.6 tons per year. In addition, 816 tons of water are indirectly used or diverted from their natural pattern in support of individual food, electricity and commodity demand. Despite the scarce 0.05 Ha of productive land available per capita, each citizen in Rome virtually "uses" 4.51 Ha of productive land. Each Roman releases in one year 20 tons CO(2), 50 kg CO, 36 kg NO(x) and 24 kg SO(2), and generates about 450 kg of solid waste, thus contributing in several ways to environmental pollution. Finally, to generate 100 euro of local GDP requires 29 kg of raw oil, an amount that is only paid about 10 euro in the international market.
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