Integrating lifecycle assessment and urban metabolism at city level: Comparison between Spanish cities

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.     

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.     

Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

基于灰水足迹的中国城市水资源可持续利用综合评价

随着城市化的快速发展,中国城市水资源面临着水资源短缺与水环境恶化等挑战,因此加强城市水资源可持续利用对于中国可持续发展具有重要意义。基于灰水足迹核算对2016年中国地级市水资源可持续利用情况进行综合评价。研究结果表明：（1）中国城市灰水足迹水平差异大,平均值为23.40×10⁸ m³,主要集中在20.00×10⁸ m³以下。中国城市农业源灰水足迹比例占比主要在70%以上,工业源比例占比主要在20%以下,而生活源比例占比在40%以下;（2）全国灰水经济生产率在12.45-857.31元/m³范围内,地区差异明显。33%城市灰水足迹荷载系数均大于1,全国地级市灰水足迹荷载系数平均值为1.16,城市水资源利用已对水环境产生污染压力,用水不可持续;（3）城市水资源开发率与灰水足迹荷载系数呈一定程度的正相关关系,说明了城市发展对水资源利用的"量"和"质"的压力作用具有一定的协同关系;（4）水资源可持续利用程度呈现大型城市 > 特大型城市 > 超大型城市 > 中小型城市,城市发展一定程度上有助于水资源的可持续利用,但发展规模过大可能会造成用水高产而护水低效的现象。因地制宜的实行水资源循环经济发展模式以及适时纳入灰水足迹核算与管理体系,是当前城市化大背景下实现水资源可持续利用的重要途径。     

中国不同规模城市可持续发展综合评价

城市是一类社会-经济-自然复合生态系统,城市的可持续发展指标体系和评价方法是衡量城市经济、社会、环境状况及可持续发展能力的重要手段。采用全排列多边形综合图示法,以中国277个地级及地级以上城市为研究对象,建立了不同规模城市的可持续发展指标体系,包括经济发展、社会进步、生态环境3类24项指标,对其2000—2010年的可持续发展能力进行了综合评价。研究结果表明:从不同城市规模类型间横向对比分析来看,随着城市规模的增大,经济发展、社会进步和可持续发展综合指数相应提高,生态环境指数却随之下降。从不同规模城市类型内的时间序列分析对比来看,2000—2010年不同规模城市的经济发展、社会进步、生态环境指数各个方面均有显著提高,可持续发展综合指数也伴随着提升。并且,巨大特大型城市在生态环境保护方面提高幅度最大;大型城市在社会进步方面提高幅度最大;中小型城市在经济发展和可持续发展综合能力方面提高幅度最大。但截止到2010年,不同规模城市的可持续发展综合指数均为Ⅲ级,可持续发展能力仅处于一般水平。探究了中国不同规模的城市可持续发展过程中面临的诸多问题,然后提出相应的对策建议,为今后的新型城市化建设提供参考。     

基于能值分析的福州与厦门城市生态系统比较研究

能值分析方法(Emergy Analysis)为综合评价城市复合生态系统提供了新的手段和方法。以福州和厦门为研究对象,对其城市各种生态流进行计算和归类,建立了相应的城市复合生态系统与可持续发展能值指标,并对两城市复合生态系统中自然、经济、社会三大子系统进行了综合评价与对比分析。结果表明:厦门在经济发展水平和社会人均福利方面优于福州,在生态安全和可持续发展能力方面落后于福州。从能值角度出发,福州应加快城市基础设施建设,加强城郊地区能值反馈,科学引导人口转移;厦门应积极发展绿色产业,降低生产能耗物耗,提高废弃物循环利用率;两城市应加强区际资源互补和消除技术壁垒,促成两城市互补、互利、可持续发展。     

城市空间形态紧凑度模型构建方法研究

我国城市空间形态的急剧变化给经济、社会、城市建设等带来诸多问题,使相对脆弱的城市生态环境承受巨大的压力,对城市可持续发展构成了一定的影响。深入了解城市景观的格局演变过程和机理,并构建适宜的城市空间形态定量化评价模型对于推进我国城市可持续发展、合理利用和保护区域生态环境具有重要的现实意义,也是我国城市发展的紧迫需求。在Thinh等提出的城市紧凑度算法的基础上,构建了一种城市空间形态定量化评价指标,即标准化紧凑度指数(normalized compactness index, NCI)。NCI将圆形区域作为标准度量单位,实现测算结果的标准化,在一定程度上避免了城市面积因素对评价结果所带来的影响,因而便于城市之间或同一城市不同时段间的城市空间形态紧凑程度的比较分析,为城市空间形态紧凑程度的定量评价提供了一种新的技术方法。     

生态足迹理论在生态市建设规划中的应用——以海口市为例

生态市建设规划是促进区域可持续发展的有效措施,而生态足迹理论作为定量测度发展的可持续状态的一类生物物理方法对于定量描述区域发展现状、判断发展中的基本问题具有重要的借鉴作用。生态足迹分析应用到生态市建设规划中可以（1）分析可持续发展进程,明确城市可持续发展状态;（2）明确城市一定人口的消费对环境产生的后果以及与可持续发展相关的重要资源问题;（3）为合理开展生态市建设规划、减少生态足迹提供决策信息。本研究根据海口生态市建设规划实践剖析了生态足迹理论在明确上述3个方面中的应用。结果表明：海口市2002年生态足迹为生态承载力的5．6倍,处于不可持续状态。出现赤字的土地类型依次为耕地、水域、化石燃料用地和草地,其中耕地赤字为各项需求之首。海口市2002年万元GDP的生态足迹为0．93hm^2,表现为资源利用效率较低,但海口市生态占用率较小,生态环境压力相对较小。根据海口市生态环境现状,减少生态足迹、提高可持续发展能力的规划途径主要为：通过保护土地资源和提高科技发展水平改善耕地和草地赤字的现状;通过构建城市生态交通和构建生态建筑与节能体系来缓解化石燃料用地的压力;通过发展循环经济和转变消费模式来提高资源利用效率;通过控制人口增长来提高人均生态承载力。     

生态约束下闽三角城市群城镇发展特征与转型路径

我国城市群快速发育与增长的同时也伴随着巨大的生态代价。基于生态约束视角提出城市群可持续发展的"供需-效率-结构"三维测度模型,以闽三角城市群为实证,综合运用生态足迹、生态承载力与信息熵模型,从资源供需关系、发展生态效率与生态本底结构三个方面评价其2018年区域城镇可持续发展空间分异规律,并进一步探究其影响因素与转型发展路径。研究发现：（1）闽三角区域城镇发展空间分异明显,具体表现为南北差异与海陆差异,空间集聚效应正在形成。（2）城镇可持续发展潜力与能源消耗和经济发展水平呈显著负相关,而人口、城镇化、经济、能源消耗等影响因素对资源供需关系、发展生态效率与生态本底结构三个子系统的影响机制存在差异。（3）鉴于影响机制差异,采用系统聚类法将闽三角城镇划分为赤字型、失衡型、粗放型与可持续型四类,针对不同类型城镇的主要发展制约因素提出相应的转型发展路径。研究希望为城市群可持续发展研究提供新的思路,为闽三角区域城镇转型发展提供参考与借鉴。     

A new physical accounting model for material flows in urban systems with application to the Stockholm Royal Seaport District

Sustainable urbanization requires streamlining of resource management in urban systems which in turn requires understanding of urban metabolism (UM). Even though various methods have been applied for UM analysis, to date there is no standardized method for comprehensive accounting of material flows in urban systems. Moreover, the accounting of material flows is rarely implemented with a bottom‐up approach that can provide a thorough analysis of UM. This article presents the Urban Accounting Model (UAM) which aims to allow comprehensive accounting of urban material flows based on a bottom‐up approach. The model comprises two interlinked sub‐models. The first was developed by integrating a new physical input output table (PIOT) framework for urban systems into a three‐dimensional structure. The second comprises a set of physical accounts for systematic accounting of material flows of each economic sector in the system in order to support the compilation of the PIOTs. The functions of the UAM were explored through its application to two urban neighborhoods in the Stockholm Royal Seaport district. The application highlighted that the UAM can describe the physical interactions between the urban system and the environment or other socioeconomic systems, and capture the intersectoral flows within the system. Moreover, its accounts provide information that allow an in‐depth analysis of the metabolism of specific sectors. Overall, the UAM can function as a useful tool for UM analysis as it systematizes data collection and at the same time depicts the physical reality of the urban system.     

Modeling and dynamic assessment of urban economy–resource–environment system with a coupled system dynamics – geographic information system model

At present, environmental issues associated with rapid economic development are becoming critical concerns that arouse government's and people's particular attention. A large amount of influencing factors and especially their complicated interactions have always thrown confused insights into assessing the dynamic evolvement and sustainable development of urban economy–resource–environment (ERE) system and programming the developing strategies. A combination of system dynamics (SD) and geographic information system (GIS) is expected to explicitly understand the synergic interaction and feedback among a variety of influencing factors in time and space, since SD model can extend the spatial analysis functions of GIS to realize both dynamic simulation and trend prediction of an ERE system development. According to connotation and framework of sustainable development, this study proposes a dynamic combination method of SD–GIS to model and evaluate the urban development in Chongqing city of China suffering from depletion of resource and degradation of environment. To compare different policy inclinations with regard to potential ERE effects, typical scenarios (current, resource, technology and environment scenarios) are designed by adjusting the parameters in the model and changing the specification of some variables. Integrated assessment results indicate that the current ERE system of Chongqing is not sustainable; environment scenario is more effective to sustainable development of urban ERE system in a long run. Under the considerations of development features and regional differences, as well as regular discipline on urbanization, a coordinated combination of environmental, resource and technology scenarios is anticipated to realize sustainable development of urban ERE system.     

京津冀城市群能源供需与城市化的关系模式

城镇化发展加剧了城市对能源的消耗,进而加剧了能源供需不平衡,这种不平衡已经成为限制城镇化发展的重要因素。目前,城市群作为我国城镇化发展的重要形式,充分发挥城市群的协同效应以减缓能源供需矛盾,对实现区域可持续发展具有重要意义。研究以京津冀城市群为例,从地级市尺度系统地核算了2001—2015年能源供应和需求量,并采用ward聚类方法划分3种不同类型的能源供求特征,并分析了每种类型的能源供需特征差异。同时,以能源供需比值表示供需差异并进行了比较。在此基础上,采用多指标综合分析方法进一步探讨了能源供需与城市化的关系模式。结果表明:(1)京津冀城市群不同城市能源的供求特征及变化存在明显的时空差异。一方面,从能源供给特征来看,年平均能源生产量较高的城市(天津市)能源产量由上升转变为平缓变化趋势,而低产城市(石家庄市)呈不稳定的变化趋势,两类城市平均能源产量相差2497.66万t标准煤;另一方面,从能源需求特征来看,北京、天津市等能源高耗城市能源消费近年来趋于下降趋势,而低耗型城市(沧州市)近年来呈波动变化,二者平均差值为4752.49万t标准煤;(2)基于能源供需比值,京津冀城市群所有城市均表现为能源供不应求,且不同城市能源供需缺口差异明显。其中,天津市能源供给能力最强,但其生产量却不及自身消费量的65%,而供给能力相对最弱的城市保定市,其能源需求几乎完全依赖外部能源供给;(3)城市能源供需与城市化水平之间关系不完全一致。研究对能源供需模式与城市化模式不一致的城市,划分了先进型和滞后型两种关系模式。对于先进型的城市,主要有北京市、沧州市和廊坊市,它们的城市化水平相对较高,分析认为其能源开发利用相对集约;而属于滞后型的城市,包括唐山市、邯郸市和邢台市,其城市化水平偏低,分析认为这类城市能源开发利用效率低、发展方式相对粗放,是城市群能源效率提升的重点。本研究旨在为今后的城市群能源规划提供科学依据,建议北京市等能源相对集约型城市带动唐山市等发展方式粗放、落后的城市,以提高京津冀城市群整体的能源效率。     

Reunderstanding Cairo through urban metabolism: Formal versus informal districts resource flow performance in fast urbanizing cities

Urban expansion can be seen as the most pervasive human impact on the environment where its high resource use contributes negatively to climate change and resource scarcity crises. Many experts call for decoupling resource use, economic development, and related urban development especially within cities of the Global South. This paper focuses on investigating resource efficiency through the lens of urban metabolism. It investigates current resource flows, through material flow analysis, from source to sink, in two diverse districts in Cairo: a formal district and an informal one, regarding materials (waste) and mobility. Consequently, the paper discusses locally responsive interventions that address local priorities as opposing to citywide one‐size fits all solution. The paper relies on parcel audits, which are embedded in an Urban Metabolism Information System developed by the Ecocity Builders and their partners, through a joint project with Cairo University. The methodology couples crowd‐sourced data, parcel audits, and experts’ knowledge to better understand resource flows based on a bottom‐up approach, given the unavailability of governmental data on the local level. The paper further correlates the perceived quality of life with the actual resource flows. It utilizes fieldwork investigations to argue against the local misconceptions regarding the inefficiency of informal areas/systems versus the higher efficiency of planned areas/systems. The paper concludes by proposing integrated solutions that respond to local needs and resources. It highlights the challenges and lessons of this tailored bottom‐up approach and its applicability in other cities worldwide.     

基于二元水循环效率提升的城市湿地修复策略

城市湿地对人地系统的水循环调节起着关键作用。随着城市的发展,水资源短缺问题日益突出,探讨湿地在缓解城市水资源危机中的作用具有重要意义。基于“自然-社会”二元水循环理论,综合分析了我国城市用水量在全国总用水量占比急剧增加的现状,以及城市水循环效率低下的重点问题;基于城市水循环途径的取水、输水、用水、排水和回水五个阶段,系统提出湿地的保护恢复有助于改善城市水资源利用状况,增强城市湿地空间优化配置和水资源可持续利用的协同效应;充分考虑城市生态空间整体优化及湿地布局,全面阐释在城市国土空间规划指导下,通过增加城市水循环中社会水回归容量和缩短社会水回归距离,提升城市水循环效率,充分发挥湿地生态工程对城市水循环优化的调控作用;最后,兼顾城市中长期规划发展的协调性、适应性,探讨了湿地保护修复以提升水循环效率的策略,包括多功能水源地建设、缩短汇水距离、多级净水、营建小微湿地以及构建自循环理念的再生系统等具体措施,为城市湿地资源空间规划的整体布局提供重要依据,对促进城市水资源可持续利用和建设人与自然和谐共生的韧性城市具有重要意义。     

海绵城市研究进展综述:从水文过程到生态恢复

在我国快速城市化进程中,不合理的规划建设加剧了城市洪涝、城市缺水、生态功能降低等诸多问题,受国外低影响开发理念启发,国内学者提出了与城市水文过程紧密结合的解决之道——"海绵城市"。在梳理海绵城市概念、内涵和发展现状的基础上,讨论了海绵城市建设与城市水文过程之间的作用关系,指出海绵城市研究涵盖水环境、水资源、水安全和水生态等众多领域且不断融合拓展。归纳了海绵城市的发展趋势,强调应更加遵循因地制宜原则,积极响应多尺度气候变化,科学认知城市水文过程并完善城市生态系统构建。提出了海绵城市建设优化框架,在理论上从单纯地关注水文过程转变到全方位倡导生态水文修复,在技术方法上重点融合生态水文途径改善城市水文空间体系,将生态恢复作为重要建设方式来提升城市应对灾害的弹性。     

面向低碳城市建设的建筑运行能耗驱动机理研究进展

城市快速扩张的同时,不断增大的建筑存量、建筑运行能耗及相应的碳排放成为制约城市可持续发展的重要因素。为实现节能降耗,有必要对建筑能耗碳排放的驱动机理进行深入探究。已有研究从不同角度对建筑运行能耗碳排放的影响要素和驱动机理进行了分析论证,但仍缺乏系统综述从而难以为建筑节能降耗提供全面指导。本文基于“社会-经济-自然”复合生态系统理论,对驱动建筑能耗碳排放的复合机理进行综合论述;在此基础上,从社会经济、建筑体特征、区域气候/微气候等视角,整合并剖析了不同单源要素的建筑能耗碳排放驱动机理;最后,总结了当前城市建筑能耗驱动机理研究领域存在的不足,并对未来发展进行了展望。本文对建筑能耗碳排放驱动机理的系统梳理和总结,对相关研究具有重要的参考价值,对低碳城市建设亦具有重要的科技支撑作用。