African Urbanization: Assimilating Urban Metabolism into Sustainability Discourse and Practice

Shaping sustainable, equitable African cities requires strengthened investigations into the cities’ current resource flows, infrastructure systems, and future resource requirements. The field of urban metabolism (UM) offers multiple forms of analysis with which to map, analyse, and visualize urban resource profiles. Challenges in assessing UM in African cities include data scarcity at the city level, difficulty in tracking informal flows, lack of standardized methods, and the open nature of cities. However, such analyses are needed at the local level, given that city practitioners cannot rely purely on urban planning traditions of the global North or the typically broad studies about urban Africa, for supporting strategies toward sustainable urban development. This article aims to draw together the concepts of sustainable development and UM and explore their application in the African context. Further, the article estimated resource profiles for 120 African cities, including consumption of biomass, fossil fuels, electricity, construction materials, and water, as well as emissions of carbon dioxide. These resource profiles serve as a baseline from which to begin assessing the current and future resource intensity of these cities. It also provides insights into the cities’ relative resource impact, future consumption trends, and potential options for sustainability interventions.     

Nature in the city,city in the nature: case studies of the restoration of urban nature in Tokyo,Japan and Toronto,Canada

Increasing demands for the restoration of nature in cities have led planners to seek an effective form, configuration and maintenance scheme for parks and open spaces in urban areas. This paper aims to introduce two contrasting examples of ways that planners have met the challenge of restoring nature in the city. It takes Tokyo Bay Bird Sanctuary Park (TBBSP), Tokyo, Japan, and Tommy Thompson Park (TTP), Toronto, Canada, as case studies. TBBSP is located on reclaimed land facing Tokyo Bay, and is surrounded by heavily industrialized areas. The absence of green corridors which connect TBBSP to surrounding green patches have turned TBBSP into an isolated oasis for migrating birds. TTP in Toronto is also located on reclaimed land facing Lake Ontario. However, TTP has become to be an indispensable green patch of the open space network of Toronto because it is located at the node of green corridors. The principles of landscape ecology may dictate that TTP, integrated in the green network of the area, is in far better condition than isolated TBBSP. However both case studies are based on the same early post-war parks and open space planning concept, which aimed to clearly separate urban greens from surrounding urban fabrics. To restore nature in cities it is important to understand that alternative models of parks and open space planning can exist. We therefore refer to the authentic urban pattern found in Japanese cities, which historically have not intended to clearly separate each land use types but have sustained a mix of open spaces and urban fabrics. In the context of the global concern to realize ecological cities, restoring a city by integrating greens in the urban fabric should be understood as a way of achieving a city in nature.     

城市绿地可达性与公平性评价

城市绿地是城市重要的绿色基础设施,是实现城市可持续发展的重要空间保障,具有重要的生态、社会文化功能.20世纪80年代以来,我国一直以城市人均(公共、公园)绿地面积、绿地率、绿化覆盖率等面积比率指标作为核心指标来指导城市绿地建设,缺乏具体引导城市绿地空间分布的指标,较少关注城市绿地服务功能的公平性问题.借助于GIS技术,构建了城市绿地社会功能评价的简明框架,尝试将表征城市绿地空间分布的可达性和公平性指标引入城市绿地的功能评价中,以体现城市建设"以人为本"、"社会公平"的理念,并以上海和青岛为实证,对新构建的系列指标进行了分析与检验.研究结果表明:(1)可达性和公平性系列指标导入城市绿地的功能评价中是可行的,能够有效的表征和测度城市绿地空间布局的合理性程度;(2)可达性和公平性指标使用时需要界定研究区范围、研究尺度,特别是数据精度,以利于研究区的纵向比较和城市间的横向比较.研究结果将丰富我国城市绿地评价的核心指标体系,亦可为城市规划者和建设者合理规划与布局城市绿地提供重要的依据和参考.     

长江中游大城市不透水面增长模式及其驱动因素

以1995、2003、2010、2015年4期遥感影像数据为基础,对武汉、长沙、南昌为例的长江中游城市20年不透水面增长及驱动因素进行研究。结果表明,三城市不透水面增长显著,接近预警水平,格局呈突围扩张的基本态势;现阶段武汉不透水面主要为城郊面源"零星"增长模式贡献较大;长沙、南昌则主要来源于新城"线式"延伸及其内部"面式"填充模式;道路投资、区划政策、城市规划控制、固定资产投资、房产投资、人口增长、透水技术等是影响三城市不透水增长的主要因素,但各因素影响敏感度在三城市中又有差异;三城市可从强化城乡规划的管理措施、控制过热的房地投资经济政策措施、平衡区域人口格局的社会政策措施以及推广透水材料和技术的科技措施等方面来缓解不透水率的增长。     

The metabolism of U.S. cities 2.0

In the fifty years since Abel Wolman first published an estimate of U.S. urban metabolism, the field of urban metabolism has begun to thrive, with cities outside the United States being much of the focus. As cities attempt to meet local and international sustainability goals, it is time to revisit the metabolism of cities within the United States. Using existing empirical databases for material flows (the Freight Analysis Framework) and a published database on urban water flux, we provide a revised estimate of urban metabolism for the typical U.S. city. We estimate median values of metabolism for a city of one million people, considering water resources, food, fuel, and construction materials. Food consumption and waste production increased substantially to 3,800 metric tons per day and 4,900 metric tons per day, respectively. To facilitate a second generation of urban metabolism, we extend traditional analyses to include the embedded energy required to facilitate material consumption with important implications in determining sustainable urban metabolism. We estimate that a city of one million people requires nearly 4,000 gigajoules of primary energy per day to facilitate its metabolism. Our results show high heterogeneity of urban metabolism across the United States. As a result of the study, we conclude that there is a distinct need to promote policies at the regional or city scale that collect data for urban metabolism studies. Urban metabolism is an important educational and decision‐making tool that, with an increase in data availability, can provide important information for cities and their sustainability goals.     

转型中工业城市的公园绿地社会公平性研究——以东莞市东城街道为例

作为城市重要的生态空间,公园绿地为城市提供环境基础及景观保障,其资源的合理分配是社会公平的重要体现。提出公园绿地社会公平性新的内涵,即无论个体所处的人居环境条件如何,其获得的城市公园绿地质量应该平等。工业城市向服务型、创新型城市的转变是中国城镇发展的典型趋势,研究其公园绿地的社会公平性为城市更新改造与公共资源分配提供重要的科学依据。以东莞市东城街道为例,构建社会-经济-自然复合人居指标体系与公园质量评价体系,基于可达性模型与Pearson相关性系数对公平性进行测度。结果表明：由于区域更新强度及顺序不同,研究区的绿地布局存在不公平现象,居民享受的公园质量与小区的自然、经济要素具有一定的关联。转型中的工业城市高质量公园聚集于风景资源优越的高端居住区,其他公园质量普遍不佳。工业园区以及旧城区为公园服务盲区的主要聚集地。     

Associations between Green Space and Health in English Cities: An Ecological,Cross-Sectional Study

Green space has been identified as a modifiable feature of the urban environment and associations with physiological and psychological health have been reported at the local level. This study aims to assess whether these associations between health and green space are transferable to a larger scale, with English cities as the unit of analysis. We used an ecological, cross-sectional study design. We classified satellite-based land cover data to quantify green space coverage for the 50 largest cities in England. We assessed associations between city green space coverage with risk of death from all causes, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and suicide between 2002 and 2009 using Poisson regression with random effect. After adjustment for age, income deprivation and air pollution, we found that at the city level the risk of death from all causes and a priori selected causes, for men and women, did not significantly differ between the greenest and least green cities. These findings suggest that the local health effects of urban green space observed at the neighbourhood level in some studies do not transfer to the city level. Further work is needed to establish how urban residents interact with local green space, in order to ascertain the most relevant measures of green space.     

Bird Richness and Abundance in Response to Urban Form in a Latin American City: Valdivia,Chile as a Case Study

There is mounting evidence that urban areas influence biodiversity. Generalizations however require that multiple urban areas on multiple continents be examined. Here we evaluated the role of urban areas on avian diversity for a South American city, allowing us to examine the effects of urban features common worldwide, using the city of Valdivia, Chile as case study. We assessed the number of birds and their relative abundance in 152 grid cells of equal size (250 m²) distributed across the city. We estimated nine independent variables: land cover diversity (DC), building density (BD), impervious surface (IS),municipal green space (MG),non-municipal green space (NG), domestic garden space (DG), distance to the periphery (DP), social welfare index (SW), and vegetation diversity (RV). Impervious surface represent 41.8% of the study area, while municipal green, non-municipal green and domestic garden represent 11.6%, 23.6% and 16% of the non- man made surface. Exotic vegetation species represent 74.6% of the total species identified across the city. We found 32 bird species, all native with the exception of House Sparrow and Rock Pigeon. The most common species were House Sparrow and Chilean Swallow. Total bird richness responds negatively to IS and MG, while native bird richness responds positively to NG and negatively to BD, IS DG and, RV. Total abundance increase in areas with higher values of DC and BD, and decrease in areas of higher values of IS, SW and VR. Native bird abundance responds positively to NG and negatively to BD, IS MG, DG and RV. Our results suggest that not all the general patterns described in previous studies, conducted mainly in the USA, Europe, and Australia, can be applied to Latin American cities, having important implications for urban planning. Conservation efforts should focus on non-municipal areas, which harbor higher bird diversity, while municipal green areas need to be improved to include elements that can enhance habitat quality for birds and other species. These findings are relevant for urban planning in where both types of green space need to be considered, especially non-municipal green areas, which includes wetlands, today critically threatened by urban development.     

Evaluation Approaches for Advancing Urban Water Goals

Urban areas (especially cities) are challenged in meeting their direct water needs from local sources. They also exert strain on global water resources through their indirect (virtual) water use. Agencies concerned with urban water management have visions and goals for managing direct water use, but indirect use is only inferred in more global visions for sustainable consumption. There is limited quantification of “urban water performance” at the macro urban scale (whole of city) to monitor progress toward these goals. It is constrained by a lack of clarity about the evaluation approaches that best serve them. We ask, How can the evaluation approaches described in literature advance urban water management goals? We reviewed the utility of eight evaluation approaches, including urban water system modeling, urban metabolism (territorial and mass balance), consumption (life cycle assessment, water footprinting, and input‐output analysis), and complex systems (ecological network analysis and systems dynamics) approaches. We found that urban metabolism based on water mass balance is a core method for generating information to inform current goals for direct urban water use, with potential for being “coupled” with the other approaches. Consumption approaches inform the management of indirect water use. We describe this in a framework for urban water evaluation to give greater clarity to this field and flag the further research that would be needed to progress this. It includes the recommendation to differentiate the evaluation of direct and indirect urban water, but to also interpret them together.     

基于生态水文调节服务的石家庄雨涝灾害供需匹配分析与街区规划干预

在雨涝灾害威胁日益凸显的背景下,基于生态系统水文调节服务供需匹配分析的规划防涝优先干预区识别,为高效降低城市雨涝风险、利用规划措施防涝提供了新的研究思路与科学支撑。运用数据叠置、水文模拟及公式计算法,将城市原生雨涝供给能力与雨涝需求水平统一至同一评估体系中。结合降雨量、下垫面类型,运用径流曲线模型对街区地表径流调节率进行计算,生成供给能力评估结果;以GIS水文模拟结果计算得出的危险性、暴露性和脆弱性指数生成需求水平评估结果。根据石家庄中心四区3a一遇、50a一遇情景供需匹配结果,划定城市街区尺度的规划干预等级,并分类提出相应规划策略。研究结果表明:石家庄市中心四区低供给高需求街区在3a一遇降雨情景下以点状聚集分布;50a一遇降雨情景下,在京广铁路线沿线呈现纵向聚集形态。同时,在两种降雨情景下,规划干预高等级街区均集中出现于桥西区苑东街道、彭后街道、东华街道,长安区长丰街道、建北街道,裕华区裕翔街道、建华南街道。根据规划干预等级、供需相对关系及供需失衡原因,分别提出3a一遇、50a一遇降雨情景下的九类规划干预策略,为城市雨涝灾害的规划应对提供优化思路。     

基于卷积运算的城市公园绿地聚集度评价

为使公园绿地聚集度计算能够充分反映其辐射效应,提出基于卷积运算的局部网格单元和整个城市公园绿地聚集度评价方法。基于高分辨率遥感影像获取山东省37个主要园林城市公园绿地分布图,利用GIS技术,采用500 m网格将城区网格化;建立3×3绿地聚集度卷积模板,基于卷积运算计算城市网格单元公园绿地聚集度;选择评价因子,依据37个城区公园绿地网格单元聚集度分布现状确定其分级值,建立整个城市公园绿地聚集度评价模型,并对东营市和泰安市进行实例评价。研究结果显示:基于卷积运算的网格单元公园绿地聚集度计算方法能够有效量化相邻网格单元绿地的辐射效应,计算由网格内部及相邻区域绿地共同作用产生的绿地聚集度,其取值范围为0—4;整个城市公园绿地聚集度分为1级(极弱)、2级(弱)、3级(中等)、4级(强)、5级(极强)共5个等级,评价结果与研究区37个城市绿地现状相对应。实例评价结果显示,东营市网格单元公园绿地聚集度主要分布在0—0.2之间,整个城市公园绿地聚集度为2级;泰安市网格单元公园绿地聚集度以0为主,整个城市公园绿地聚集度为5级。     

近二十年来上海不同城市空间尺度绿地的生态效益

基于CITYgreen模型,通过对1987、2000、2004和2008年4a的TM影像分析,从上海城市空间大尺度(上海市外环内整体)、中尺度(上海市外环内各行政区)和小尺度(上海市外环内各镇及街道)计算绿地年固碳和空气污染物去除两项生态效益,其中大尺度绿地的生态效益为:1987年为16722.58万元,2000年为8546.36万元,2004年为8161.48万元,2008年为968.47万元。继而利用基础统计学以及ArcGIS地统计分析扩展模块对生态效益进行分析,得出结论:(1)大尺度上分析,1987年至2008年,由于受到城市建设用地拓展的影响,城市绿地生态效益总体上呈下降趋势;(2)中尺度上分析,不同行政区绿地生态效益的浮动范围与变化趋势均不相同,中心城区外围的浦东区、宝山区、普陀区等一直处于较高水平且变动幅度较大,而中心城区一直处于较低状态;(3)小尺度上分析,基于克里格插值的曲面拟合分析表明中心城区部分区域出现回升。旨在通过模型拟合分析,完善上海市绿地生态效益研究,并为特大型城市绿地规划建设提供科学依据。     

“世博”背景下上海经济与环境的耦合演化

综合运用社会经济统计与环境监测数据,揭示了"世博"背景下,上海城市内部经济发展和环境保护关系的耦合演化特征。结果发现,2002-2010年各区县经济差异明显扩大。在总体差异中,主要表现为主城区内部和郊区内部差异,主城区和郊区间的差异较小;2006年后,主城区内部差异贡献进一步增加,郊区内部差异贡献开始下降,但各区环境质量有明显改善。2006年和2010年经济环境耦合关系都满足环境库兹涅兹曲线规律,但2010年拐点处的经济水平与环境质量都明显优于2006年,各区县分布格局差异较大。研究揭示了经济结构调整与全球化、多层次城市规划体系以及世博会影响是区域经济差异及环境库兹涅茨曲线演化的主要驱动因素。建议快速发展的城市应该加速产业转型升级、发挥产业布局与城市规划作用、抓住举办城市重大活动机遇,优化经济环境耦合关系,实现城市的可持续发展。     

喀斯特山地城市内山体绿地对城市热岛的减温效应——以安顺市西秀区为例

山体绿地是喀斯特山地城市内典型的城市绿地景观类型,其对于改善城市生态环境、提升喀斯特山地城市生态服务功能具有重要作用。以黔中典型喀斯特山地城市安顺市为研究对象,运用2011年和2016年两期热红外遥感影像和城市景观结构空间数据,在反演分析城市热岛效应及其强度时空分布特征的基础上,运用冷热点分析剖析了山体绿地与城市热岛效应冷点分布区的关系,揭示山体绿地对城市热岛的减温效应。结果表明:基于Landsat热红外遥感数据反演地表温度结果显示,2011—2016年,安顺市西秀区平均反演地表温度升高约4℃;主城区一带热岛效应呈现加剧趋势,但总体热岛面积呈下降趋势,绿岛区多分布于水体和山体绿地中,且山体绿地对热岛效应减缓作用逐年增大;热/冷聚集面积呈现上升趋势,约40%~50%的冷聚集区由山体绿地贡献,热聚集区主要由建筑用地和其他用地构成;500 m格网尺度下,山体绿地面积与地表温度呈显著负相关,表现为山体绿地面积占格网比例每增加10%,地表温度将降低0.17~0.27℃。研究结果可为喀斯特山地城市山体绿地管理、城市绿地空间规划和城市热环境缓解提供科学依据。     

城市生态韧性时空变化及情景模拟研究——以杭州市为例

从韧性的特征角度研究城市生态韧性水平的变化机制,探究城市防范化解生态风险能力的时空差异,以此明确城市分区生态治理的重要任务,是实现韧性城市生态风险防控的有利途径。从抵抗力、适应力和恢复力3个方面构建了城市生态韧性评估模型,并以杭州为例,评估了其1995—2015年城市生态韧性时空变化格局,再者利用空间自相关模型对2015年杭州生态韧性分区管理模式进行了探究。最后,基于FLUS模型模拟了2035年基准和创新创业导向的两种情景下的城市土地利用空间格局,并评估了不同城市发展情景下的生态韧性水平空间分布情况。基于以上研究得到以下结论:(1)1995—2005年,生态韧性低值区域向东北和东南方向扩张,而生态韧性高值水平区域明显减少。2005—2015年,杭州西北部和西部原本存在的中等韧性水平区域也转为低等水平。(2)2015年,城市东北区域呈现低韧性水平-高排污企业密度的集聚分布,说明该区域环境生态风险防范化解能力比较低,需要加大环境监测和生态治理的资金投入,严防重大环境污染事件的发生。(3)创新创业导向的"创新天堂"城市发展情景比基准情景下2035年杭州整体生态韧性水平更高,主要影响因素在于前...     

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.     

Indicators for quantitative evaluation of the social services function of urban greenbelt systems: A case study of shenzhen,China

Existing ecological service assessments of urban green space have concentrated on natural environment, while research on the social services function remains underexplored. Taking Shenzhen as an example, this study starts with integrating the function of green space system with human needs. An indicator assessment technique that combines spatialization, rasterization and detailed of land ecological assessment was established with regard to the benefits of landscape aesthetics, function of disaster prevention and mitigation, and accessibility of park greenbelts. The results show that Shenzhen has very high recreational and cultural value, as the areas above medium level account for 66% of the city’s land area, and the recreational and cultural services are worth approximately 40.8million Yuan. Forest parks and comprehensive parks are important places to carry out social service function, particularly the disaster prevention and mitigation function, and the green spaces for disaster prevention and mitigation can be found in most of the disaster-prone areas. The accessibility of service shows a certain level of centrality, since the highest grade is concentrated in the central Bao’an, central Longgang, and the central part of the city. Based on the GIS overlay analysis, this study recognizes the distribution of essential patches, and constructs the structure of essential patches in urban green greenbelt systems by a combination of point, line, and surface elements. It shows the services of the Shenzhen greenbelt system have high potential for social integration, and this study also discusses the policy implication for macro decision-making. The assessment results objectively reflect multiple social services of the green space system in this region and provide a reference for the management, planning and construction of urban ecology in similar cities.     

The Changing Metabolism of Cities

Data from urban metabolism studies from eight metropolitan regions across five continents, conducted in various years since 1965, are assembled in consistent units and compared. Together with studies of water, materials, energy, and nutrient flows from additional cities, the comparison provides insights into the changing metabolism of cities. Most cities studied exhibit increasing per capita metabolism with respect to water, wastewater, energy, and materials, although one city showed increasing efficiency for energy and water over the 1990s. Changes in solid waste streams and air pollutant emissions are mixed.
The review also identifies metabolic processes that threaten the sustainability of cities. These include altered ground water levels, exhaustion of local materials, accumulation of toxic materials, summer heat islands, and irregular accumulation of nutrients. Beyond concerns over the sheer magnitudes of resource flows into cities, an understanding of these accumulation or storage processes in the urban metabolism is critical. Growth , which is inherently part of metabolism, causes changes in water stored in urban aquifers, materials in the building stock, heat stored in the urban canopy layer, and potentially useful nutrients in urban waste dumps.
Practical reasons exist for understanding urban metabolism. The vitality of cities depends on spatial relationships with surrounding hinterlands and global resource webs. Increasing metabolism implies greater loss of farmland, forests, and species diversity; plus more traffic and more pollution. Urban policy makers should consider to what extent their nearest resources are close to exhaustion and, if necessary, appropriate strategies to slow exploitation. It is apparent from this review that metabolism data have been established for only a few cities worldwide, and interpretation issues exist due to lack of common conventions. Further urban metabolism studies are required.     

Applications of biotope mapping for spatial environmental planning and policy: case studies in urban ecosystems in Korea

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current status and method of biotope mapping for practical use for landscape planning and environmental policy in urban ecosystem in Korea. We examine current ecological mapping of Seoul, Seongnam, Daegu, and Yongin. Ecological mapping is examined closely in terms of investigation methodology, investigation subject, classification of urban landscape, and the present condition of application. Biotope mapping in Seoul and Seongnam were carried out by the city governments concerned with the pre-set budgets earmarked for mapping. In order to promote the utilization of biotope maps for city planning in Korea, the following actions should be considered. First, the survey method should be standardized by introducing a uniform standard with respect to the scope of survey, the quality of primary data used, the survey method, and the level of the survey. Second, it is necessary to identify a basic category of biotope for each area by consolidating the outcome of the previous surveys. Third, it is highly desirable to minimize the differences between the evaluation criteria and the assessment factors. Fourth, it is ideal to apply the results of the biotope evaluation to city planning in an indirect manner through reflecting the results first in the landscape plans. In order to facilitate this alternative utilization, it is necessary to strengthen the control provisions contained in the ordinances of the city concerned or to enact a set of new provisions in the ordinances so that biotope mapping could be used more widely as a criterion for the spatial environmental impact assessment.     

Urban green space availability in European cities

Urban green space (UGS) availability has become an increasingly important aspect of planning and research because of the importance of green spaces for the wellbeing of urban residents. Municipalities across the European Union (EU) use different indicators in this area. Some cities provide per-capita threshold values for urban green space (UGS); some have recommendations regarding the minimum distance to green space while others have no recommendations at all. In this study, we assess green space availability in 299 EU cities according to land use and a population data grid. The results show a diverse picture across the EU. Southern European cities show below-average availability values, which may be explained by their low forest and tree cover and reflect the history of cities in Southern Europe. Comparatively, the above-average availability values in Northern European cities are a result of not only their biophysical conditions and the presence of rich forestland in general but also of Northern European attitudes toward urban living that naturally value having forests close to home.This assessment is complemented by a detailed case study analysis of two European cities ⿿ Berlin, Germany and ſódź, Poland. Results showed that this approach's explanatory power depends on the data used, scale of interest, resolution of data and estimated threshold value. By comparing results using different datasets and threshold values, we discuss opportunities and limitations for developing indicators of green space availability. We conclude that UGS availability is an important indicator to navigate urban complexity to improve human health and wellbeing but is only one component of the intricate social-ecological interactions within cities.