Estimates of Lost Material Stock of Buildings and Roads Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

This article describes research conducted for the Japanese government in the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. In this study, material stock analysis (MSA) is used to examine the losses of building and infrastructure materials after this disaster. Estimates of the magnitude of material stock that has lost its social function as a result of a disaster can indicate the quantities required for reconstruction, help garner a better understanding of the volumes of waste flows generated by that disaster, and also help in the course of policy deliberations in the recovery of disaster‐stricken areas. Calculations of the lost building and road materials in the five prefectures most affected were undertaken. Analysis in this study is based on the use of geographical information systems (GIS) databases and statistics; it aims to (1) describe in spatial terms what construction materials were lost, (2) estimate the amount of infrastructure material needed to rehabilitate disaster areas, and (3) indicate the amount of lost material stock that should be taken into consideration during government policy deliberations. Our analysis concludes that the material stock losses of buildings and road infrastructure are 31.8  and 2.1 million tonnes, respectively. This research approach and the use of spatial MSA can be useful for urban planners and may also convey more appropriate information about disposal based on the work of municipalities in disaster‐afflicted areas.     

The Growth of Urban Building Stock: Unintended Lock‐in and Embedded Environmental Effects

Building stocks constitute enduring components of urban infrastructure systems, but little research exists on their residence time or changing environmental impacts. Using Los Angeles County, California, as a case study, a framework is developed for assessing the changes of building stocks in cities (i.e., a generalizable framework for estimating the construction and deconstruction rates), the residence time of buildings and their materials, and the associated embedded environmental impacts. In Los Angeles, previous land‐use decisions prove not easily reversible, and past building stock investments may continue to constrain the energy performance of buildings. The average age of the building stock has increased steadily since 1920 and more rapidly after the post–World War II construction surge in the 1950s. Buildings will likely endure for 60 years or longer, making this infrastructure a quasi‐permanent investment. The long residence time, combined with the physical limitations on outward growth, suggest that the Los Angeles building stock is unlikely to have substantial spatial expansion in the future. The construction of buildings requires a continuous investment in material, monetary, and energetic resources, resulting in environmental impacts. The long residence time of structures implies a commitment to use and maintain the infrastructure, potentially creating barriers to an urban area's ability to improve energy efficiency. The immotility of buildings, coupled with future environmental goals, indicates that urban areas will be best positioned by instituting strategies that ensure reductions in life cycle (construction, use, and demolition) environmental impacts.     

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.     

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.     

Tracking Construction Material over Space and Time: Prospective and Geo‐referenced Modeling of Building Stocks and Construction Material Flows

Construction material plays an increasingly important role in the environmental impacts of buildings. In order to investigate impacts of materials on a building level, we present a bottom‐up building stock model that uses three‐dimensional and geo‐referenced building data to determine volumetric information of material stocks in Swiss residential buildings. We used a probabilistic modeling approach to calculate future material flows for the individual buildings. We investigated six scenarios with different assumptions concerning per‐capita floor area, building stock turnover, and construction material. The Swiss building stock will undergo important structural changes by 2035. While this will lead to a reduced number in new constructions, material flows will increase. Total material inflow decreases by almost half while outflows double. In 2055, the total amount of material in‐ and outflows are almost equal, which represents an important opportunity to close construction material cycles. Total environmental impacts due to production and disposal of construction material remain relatively stable over time. The cumulated impact is slightly reduced for the wood‐based scenario. The scenario with more insulation material leads to slightly higher material‐related emissions. An increase in per‐capita floor area or material turnover will lead to a considerable increase in impacts. The new modeling approach overcomes the limitations of previous bottom‐up building models and allows for investigating building material flows and stocks in space and time. This supports the development of tailored strategies to reduce the material footprint and environmental impacts of buildings and settlements.     

Evaluation of Modeling Approaches to Determine End‐of‐Life Flows Associated with Buildings: A Viennese Case Study on Wood and Contaminants

Dynamic material flow analysis enables the forecasting of secondary raw material potential for waste volumes in future periods, by assessing past, present, and future stocks and flows of materials in the anthroposphere. Analyses of waste streams of buildings stocks are uncertain with respect to data and model structure. Wood construction in Viennese buildings serve as a case study to compare different modeling approaches for determining end‐of‐life (EoL) wood and corresponding contaminant flows (lead, chlorine, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). A delayed input and a leaching stock modeling approach are used to determine wood stocks and flows from 1950 until 2100. Cross‐checking with independent estimates and sensitivity analyses are used to evaluate the results’ plausibility. In the situation of the given data in the present case study, the delay approach is a better choice for historical observations of EoL wood and for analyses at a substance level. It has some major drawbacks for future predictions at the goods level, though, as the durability of a large number of historical buildings with considerably higher wood content is not reflected in the model. The wood content parameter differs strongly for the building periods and has therefore the highest influence on the results. Based on this knowledge, general recommendations can be derived for analyses on waste flows of buildings at a goods and substance level.     

基于建筑容量的城市建设用地碳汇量核算方法

城市建设中的矿物质材料开发利用活动不仅导致大量碳排放,也产生了碳吸收.以往建筑矿物质材料的碳吸收过程一直没有得到重视和科学量化.本研究采用遥感影像阴影高度反演技术,提取地块的建筑容量,识别建筑类型,以此为依据确定矿物材料用量及碳含量参数,采用热重分析法测定碳化率,基于以上步骤构建城市建筑碳汇量的核算方法,并选取沈阳市蒲河新来测试这一核算方法,同时进行不确定性分析.结果表明: 1996—2016年,沈阳市蒲河新城各类型建筑产生的碳汇总量依次为:居住建筑>公共服务建筑>其他类建筑>商业金融建筑>工业建筑;各类建筑用地的碳汇容积率依次为:商业金融建筑>居住建筑>公共服务建筑>其他类建筑>工业建筑.本研究构建的基于建筑容量提取的城市尺度的建筑碳汇量核算方法,可以快速准确地估算不同类型城市建设用地无机材料产生的碳汇量.在城市自然碳汇有限条件下,利用建筑碳汇增加城市碳汇量,能够为我国城市低碳发展提供新的思路.     

The weight of islands: Leveraging Grenada's material stocks to adapt to climate change

The building stock consumes large amounts of resources for maintenance and expansion which is only exacerbated by disaster events where large‐scale reconstruction must occur quickly. Recent research has shown the potential for application of material stock (MS) accounts for informing disaster risk planning. In this research, we present a methodological approach to analyze the vulnerability of the material stock in buildings to extreme weather events and sea‐level rise (SLR) due to climate change. The main island of Grenada, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the Caribbean region, was used as a case study. A bottom‐up approach based on a geographic information system (GIS) is used to calculate the total MS of aggregate, timber, concrete, and steel in buildings. The total MS in buildings in 2014 was calculated to be 11.9 million tonnes (Mt), which is equivalent to 112 tonnes per capita. Material gross addition to stock (GAS) between 1993 to 2009 was 6.8 Mt and the average value over the time period was 4.0 tonnes per capita per year. In the year following Hurricane Ivan (2004), the per capita GAS for timber increased by 172%, while for other metals, GAS spiked by 103% (compared to average growth rates of 11% and 8%, respectively, between 1993 and 2009). We also ran a future “Ivan‐II” scenario and estimated a hypothetical loss of between 135 and 216 kilotonnes (kt) of timber from the building stock. The potential impact of SLR is also assessed, with an estimated 1.6 Mt of building material stock exposed under a 2‐m scenario. We argue that spatial material stock accounts have an important application in planning for resilience and provide indication of the link between natural disaster recovery and resource use patterns.     

城市住宅建筑系统流量-存量动态模拟——以北京市为例

地面建筑物的累积与更新是城市化过程的结果与显性特征之一。城市建筑系统在不同层面上与外部环境系统进行着物质能量交换,对这种交互产生的资源压力与环境胁迫的关注,使其成为城市代谢研究领域中的热点问题。系统分析与模拟城市建筑物流量-存量的动态变化过程及其资源环境响应,对于揭示城市建筑系统代谢机理,提高城市总体规划精准性、强化资源系统韧性管理、提升废弃物处置效率等宏观战略具有重要意义。以北京市为例,基于Stella建模平台,构建了城市居民住宅建筑系统流量-存量的动态模拟模型,定量模拟了不同管理情景下钢材需求量与建筑拆除垃圾产生量的变化区间。结果表明:(1)基准情景下,北京住宅建筑新建流量前期增速较快,2005年达到峰值3024.1万m~2,而拆除流量约于2057年达到峰值,拆除面积为2073.14万m~2;城市住宅建筑存量最高值出现在2075年左右,面积为7.51亿m~2;(2)与基准情景相比,如果人均住宅建筑面积提高到45 m~2,从现在到模拟期结束(2019—2100)将增加钢铁需求量3251.65万t;而如果延长住宅建筑寿命至设计值,同期可减少钢铁需求量3022.9万t;(3)基准情景、大面积情景以及长寿命情景下,北京市城镇住宅建筑拆除垃圾峰值产生量分别为0.29亿t、0.39亿t、0.20亿t,政府管理部门应采取有针对性的应对措施,提前做出综合利用和处理处置方案。     

Urban development and sustainability challenges chronicled by a century of construction material flows and stocks in Tiexi,China

Construction materials are considerable forces of global environmental impacts, but their dynamics vis‐à‐vis urban development are poorly documented, in part because their long lifespans require elusive and sometimes nonexistent decade‐long high‐resolution data. This study analyzes the construction material flow and stock trends that shaped and were shaped by the development, decline, and renewal of the Tiexi district of Shenyang, a microcosm of China's urban transformations since the early 20th century. Chronicling building‐by‐building the material flows and stock accumulations involved in the buildup of this area, we shed light on the physical resource context of its socioeconomic history. We find that 42 million tonnes of construction materials were needed to develop the Tiexi district from 1910 to 2018, and 18 million tonnes of material outflows were generated by end‐of‐life building demolition. However, over 55% of inflows and 93% of outflows occurred since 2002 during a complete redevelopment of the district. Only small portions of end‐of‐life materials could have been reused or recycled because of temporal and typological mismatches of supply and demand and technical limitations. Our analysis reveals a dramatic decrease in median building lifetimes to as low as 6 years in the early 21st century. These findings contribute to the discussion of long‐term environmental efficiency and sustainability of societal development through construction and reflect on the challenges of urban renewal processes not only in China but also in other developing and developed countries that lost (or may lose) their traditional economic base and restructure their urban forms. This article met the requirements for a Silver/Silver JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .     

Geospatial Characterization of Material Stock in the Residential Sector of a Latin‐American City

Building stock constitutes a huge repository of construction materials in a city and a potential source for replacing primary resources in the future. This article describes the application of a methodological approach for analyzing the material stock (MS) in buildings and its spatial distribution at a city‐wide scale. A young Latin‐American city, the city of Chiclayo in Peru, was analyzed by combining geographical information systems (GIS) data, census information, and data collected from different sources. Application of the methodology yielded specific indicators for the physical size of buildings (i.e., gross floor area and number of stories) and their material composition. The overall MS in buildings, in 2007, was estimated at 24.4 million tonnes (Mt), or 47 tonnes per capita. This mass is primarily composed of mineral materials (97.7%), mainly concrete (14.1 Mt), while organic materials (e.g., 0.15 Mt of wood) and metals (e.g., 0.40 Mt of steel) constitute the remaining share (2.3%). Moreover, historical census data and projections were used to evaluate the changes in the MS from 1981 to 2017; showing a 360% increase of the MS in the last 36 years. This study provides essential supporting information for urban planners, helping to provide a better understanding of the availability of resources in the city and its future potential supply for recycling as well as to develop strategies for the management of construction and demolition waste.     

Maintenance and Expansion: Modeling Material Stocks and Flows for Residential Buildings and Transportation Networks in the EU25

Material stocks are an important part of the social metabolism. Owing to long service lifetimes of stocks, they not only shape resource flows during construction, but also during use, maintenance, and at the end of their useful lifetime. This makes them an important topic for sustainable development. In this work, a model of stocks and flows for nonmetallic minerals in residential buildings, roads, and railways in the EU25, from 2004 to 2009 is presented. The changing material composition of the stock is modeled using a typology of 72 residential buildings, four road and two railway types, throughout the EU25. This allows for estimating the amounts of materials in in‐use stocks of residential buildings and transportation networks, as well as input and output flows. We compare the magnitude of material demands for expansion versus those for maintenance of existing stock. Then, recycling potentials are quantitatively explored by comparing the magnitude of estimated input, waste, and recycling flows from 2004 to 2009 and in a business‐as‐usual scenario for 2020. Thereby, we assess the potential impacts of the European Waste Framework Directive, which strives for a significant increase in recycling. We find that in the EU25, consisting of highly industrialized countries, a large share of material inputs are directed at maintaining existing stocks. Proper management of existing transportation networks and residential buildings is therefore crucial for the future size of flows of nonmetallic minerals.     

Toward a low-carbon and circular building sector: Building strategies and urbanization pathways for the Netherlands

Buildings are an important part of society's environmental impacts, both in the construction and in the use phase. As the energy performance of buildings improve, construction materials become more important as a cause of environmental impact. Less attention has been given to those materials. We explore, as an alternative for conventional buildings, the use of biobased materials and circular building practices. In addition to building design, we analyze the effect of urbanization. We assess the potential to close material cycles together with the material related impact, between 2018 and 2050 in the Netherlands. Our results show a limited potential to close material cycles until 2050, as a result of slow stock turnover and growth of the building stock. At present, end-of-life recycling rates are low, further limiting circularity. Primary material demand can be lowered when shifting toward biobased or circular construction. This shift also reduces material related carbon emissions. Large-scale implementation of biobased construction, however, drastically increases land area required for wood production. Material demand differs strongly spatially and depends on the degree of urbanization. Urbanization results in higher building replacement rates, but constructed dwellings are generally small compared to scenarios with more rural developments. The approach presented in this work can be used to analyze strategies aimed at closing material cycles in the building sector and lowering buildings' embodied environmental impact, at different spatial scales.     

Modeling copper demand in China up to 2050: A business‐as‐usual scenario based on dynamic stock and flow analysis

In this paper, we develop a dynamic stock model and scenario analysis involving a bottom‐up approach to analyze copper demand in China from 2005 to 2050 based on government and related sectoral policies. The results show that in the short‐term, China's copper industry cannot achieve a completely circular economy without additional measures. Aggregate and per capita copper demand are both set to increase substantially, especially in infrastructure, transportation, and buildings. Between 2016 and 2050, total copper demand will increase almost threefold. Copper use in buildings will stabilize before 2050, but the copper stock in infrastructure and transportation will not yet have reached saturation in 2050. The continuous growth of copper stock implies that secondary copper will be able to cover just over 50% of demand in 2050, at best, even with an assumed recycling rate of 90%. Finally, future copper demand depends largely on the lifetime of applications. There is therefore an urgent need to prolong the service life of end‐use products to reduce the amount of materials used, especially in large‐scale applications in buildings and infrastructure.     

Quality Evaluation of Steel,Aluminum, and Road Material Recycled from End‐of‐Life Urban Buildings in Japan in Terms of Total Material Requirement

In this study we introduce the concept of total material requirement (TMR) to quantify the quality of materials from end‐of‐life buildings. The TMRs for the recycling of materials (urban ore TMR [UO‐TMR]) from four types of Japanese buildings ( Japanese traditional wooden structure [ JTWS], wooden frame with walls structure [ WFS ], reinforced‐concrete structure [RCS], and steel‐based structure [SS]) have been estimated and the trade‐off between the increase in function of recycled materials such as steel made from scrap and the additional inputs of energy and materials required to create the increase in function were evaluated. Steel made from scrap, aluminum made from scrap, and road material are assumed to be recycled from steel products, aluminum products, and aggregate and cement concrete in the buildings, respectively. Case study analyses were carried out to determine the effect of recycling only aboveground materials compared to recycling both aboveground and subsurface materials. Also, the effect of varying the recycling rate of wooden demolition debris is determined. The UO‐TMRs of steel made from scrap range from 4.7 kilograms per kilogram (kg/kg) to 18.2 kg/kg. Urban tailings (unrecycled components) account for the greatest proportion of the UO‐TMR of steel made from scrap, and the next largest contributor is the recycling process. In the case of aluminum made from scrap, the UO‐TMRs range from 22 to 196 kg/kg, with the contribution of urban tailings generally dominant, and the second largest contributor being on‐site demolition and shredding. The UO‐TMRs of recycled road material range from 1.04 to 1.16 kg/kg and are similar for different recycling cases and types of buildings.     

Estimating the Material Stock of Roads: The Vietnamese Case Study

This study is a pioneering effort to quantify the materials stocked in the road network of a developing country, Vietnam, and analyze its relationships to the country's recent economic development. National road networks function as capital and infrastructure investments that are necessary catalysts for countries’ development, while requiring the extraction of vast amounts of construction materials for expansion and maintenance causing environmental impacts. However, there has so far been little research on the subject, especially in developing countries. We compile material stock and flow accounts for Vietnam's roads from 2003 to 2013 on the national and provincial levels, finding that approximately 40% of the domestic consumption of construction materials is for expanding and maintaining the road network, and the materials stocked in the road network doubled from 1,321 million metric tons in 2003 to 2,660 million metric tons in 2012. Material stock growth rates closely resembled those of gross domestic product (GDP) in this period, suggesting a codependency of physical infrastructure development and economic development. On the provincial level, our results show local disparities in the stock and its capacity to support the transportation of passengers and freight, especially considering the surging growth of vehicles in urban centers. By showcasing the challenges of conducting a material flow and stock analysis in a developing country, this study not only sheds light on Vietnam's transportation material stock and its policy implications, but also serves as a case study for further work in similar countries.     

A Probabilistic Dynamic Material Flow Analysis Model for Chinese Urban Housing Stock

The stock‐driven dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) model is one of the prevalent tools to investigate the evolution and related material metabolism of the building stock. There exists substantial uncertainty inherent to input parameters of the stock‐driven dynamic building stock MFA model, which has not been comprehensively evaluated yet. In this study, a probabilistic, stock‐driven dynamic MFA model is established and China's urban housing stock is selected as the empirical case. This probabilistic dynamic MFA model has the ability to depict the future evolution pathway of China's housing stock and capture uncertainties in its material stock, inflow, and outflow. By means of probabilistic methods, a detailed and transparent estimation of China's housing stock and its material metabolism behavior is presented. Under a scenario with a saturation level of the population, urbanization, and living space, the median value of the urban housing stock area, newly completed area, and demolished area would peak at around 49, 2.2, and 2.2 billion square meters, respectively. The corresponding material stock and flows are 79, 3.5, and 3.3 billion tonnes, respectively. Uncertainties regarding housing stock and its material stock and flows are non‐negligible. Relative uncertainties of the material stock and flows are above 50%. The uncertainty importance analysis demonstrates that the material intensity and the total population are major contributions to the uncertainty. Policy makers in the housing sector should consider the material efficiency as an essential policy to mitigate material flows of the urban building stock and to lower the risk of policy failures.     

Building Inventory and Refurbishment Scenario Database Development for Switzerland

Material usage and the related embodied environmental impact have grown in significance in the built environment. Therefore, cities and governments need to develop strategies to reduce both the consumption of resources during usage phase as well as the embodied impact of the current building stock. This article proposes a new component‐based building inventory database as a basis to develop such strategies using building stock modeling. The developed database clusters the building stock according to building typology (single‐family houses, multifamily houses, and office buildings), age, and the main construction systems of the different building components. Based on the component makeup, it lists the necessary material input and waste output for different refurbishment options for each building component. The advantages of the proposed database structure are shown based on two applications for the developed database for Switzerland. The component‐based database allows optimization of refurbishment strategies not only from an energetic perspective, but also with respect to materials, both on the input (sourcing of materials) and the output (waste streams) level. The database structure makes it possible to continuously extend the data set by adding new refurbishment options or add data such as component‐specific lifetimes, costs, or labor intensities of the refurbishment options. In combination with an aligned economic model, this would give an even more holistic view, impact, and feasibility of different refurbishment scenarios both in environmental and economic terms.     

北京市住宅建筑生命周期碳足迹

从生命周期角度看,建筑碳足迹与能源和建材生产系统具有密切关系。随着技术的进步和节能政策的推进,中国能源的生产和使用,以及建材生产过程中的环境排放都随着时间在持续降低,这将间接地影响到建筑的环境表现。依据1990—2010年期间每5a的中国能源与建材生命周期清单数据,对北京市20年间住宅建筑系统开展生命周期评价和碳足迹核算,以揭示北京市住宅建筑系统的环境负荷变化特征。结果表明,北京市住宅建筑生命周期碳足迹随时间推移呈现降低趋势,主要来自能源系统和建材生产系统的碳减排贡献。不同结构建筑的碳足迹尽管有差异,但也呈现了相似的下降趋势。从生命周期阶段看,建筑碳足迹主要体现在建筑使用阶段和建材生产阶段。尽管建筑使用阶段的节能对于降低建筑生命周期碳足迹具有重要贡献,但节能在经济成本及环境成本方面而言是有限度的。在可持续的环境政策管理制定中,应从生命周期角度,统筹考虑协调各行业减碳的协调发展。论文同时也验证了在生命周期评价中考虑时间变量将有助于更好地利用生命周期评价结果支持环境可持续管理。结论对于城市规划的政策制定、量化环境表现是有益的。     

Diversity of Central European urban biota: effects of human‐made habitat types on plants and land snails

Aim Urbanization is associated with strong changes in biodiversity, but the diversity of plant and animal assemblages varies among urban habitats. We studied effects of urban habitats on the diversity of vascular plants and land snails in 32 large cities. Location Central Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands. Methods The species composition of all vascular plants that had not been planted by humans, and all land snails, was recorded in seven 1‐ha plots within each city. Each plot contained one urban habitat type representing a different disturbance regime: historical city square, boulevard, residential area with compact building pattern, residential area with open building pattern, park, early successional and mid‐successional site. For each plot, we obtained temperature and precipitation data. The effects of climate and habitat types on species composition were quantified using ordination methods with an adjusted variation partitioning algorithm. Differences in species composition among urban habitats were described using statistically determined diagnostic species, and differences in alpha, beta and gamma diversity were quantified. Results A total of 1196 plant and 87 snail species were recorded. Habitat type explained higher proportions of the total variation in both plant and snail species composition (11.2 and 8.2%, respectively) than did climate (4.6 and 6.3%). For both taxa, the main differences in species composition were observed between strongly urbanized sites in city centres and early successional and mid‐successional sites. For vascular plants, the number of species was lowest in city squares and boulevards, and highest at successional sites and in residential areas with compact building patterns. Beta diversity of vascular plants calculated for the same habitat types among cities was highest for squares and successional sites. The number of snail species was lowest in city squares and at early successional sites, and highest at mid‐successional sites. The highest beta diversity of snail assemblages among cities was observed within the city square and early successional habitat types, and the lowest within residential area habitat types. Main conclusions Urban habitats differ notably in the diversity of their vascular plant flora and land snail fauna. Understanding the habitat‐related biodiversity patterns in urbanized landscapes will allow projections of future impacts of urban land‐use changes on the biota.