Integrating strategic environmental assessment and material flow accounting: a novel approach for moving towards sustainable urban futures

Purpose

The population living in urban areas of the world continues to grow rapidly. It is, thus, a great priority for the planning practice to embed sustainability concept in their urban development endeavors. Currently, development and expansion of urban systems stress the need to control consumption of resources, especially non-renewable ones. There is also a need to reduce related environmental impacts, while stimulating a sustainable pathway for the population and urban growth.

Methods

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is useful for policy design to build an integrated method for supporting the development of a sustainable society. It undertakes territorial assessments and describes urban flows and impacts related to them by using a variety of tools, including material flow accounting (MFA). This study employs MFA, as it fits well within the scope of SEA and supports the growing environmental attention in the urban metabolism approach. Although helpful, MFA has not been systematically applied in the urban development context; for this reason, this paper proposes the integration of SEA and MFA.

Results and discussion

Integration of SEA and MFA generates a new framework for sustainable development planning. The framework is structured in phases oriented to the continual improvement based on the Deming cycle (i.e., plan, do, check, act), a key management approach mainly used in businesses for improving the effectiveness of an organization. It can also be implemented at the urban system level. In order to maintain normative compliance, each process (urban planning, strategic environmental assessment with urban metabolism approach, participatory processes) is standardized in line with a common and mandatory approach. While the processes are integrated among them, highlighting the reciprocal contact points, the results are combined in a holistic perspective. The framework, hence, transforms the voluntary MFA tool into a mandatory process.

Conclusions

The proposed SEA-MFA framework has the potential to unify and standardize the processes of categorizing and quantifying data in order to improve the understanding of urban metabolic principles and scale effects. It also supports management and policy development and meets the requirements of different stakeholders. The framework, thus, generated a novel approach for sustainable urban development planning by providing solutions for specific policy problems and ensuring urban ecological balance and sustainable urban futures.

     

城市化背景下景观格局对天津市生态系统服务供需匹配的影响

揭示城市化驱动下景观格局指数变化与生态系统服务供需匹配的交互关系,对于优化景观生态规划以及促进城市生态系统的可持续发展具有重要作用。以天津市为例,运用GIS空间分析、双变量空间自相关与随机森林回归等方法,评估了碳储量、生境质量与空气净化服务供需匹配度的空间分布特征,分析了景观格局指数沿城市化梯度的变化趋势,进而探讨了景观格局指数与生态系统服务供需匹配度的交互关系。结果表明:(1)天津市碳储量、生境质量与空气净化服务的供给和需求呈现出明显的空间错位关系,城市化综合发展水平对典型生态系统服务的供需匹配度具有显著负面影响;(2)景观水平上的景观格局指数沿城乡梯度呈现非线形的变化趋势,最大斑块指数、Shannon多样性指数以及斑块密度等多个指数在城市化综合发展水平20%-30%左右出现明显拐点;类型水平上的建设用地最大斑块指数与斑块内聚力指数等呈现增长态势,而林地与耕地的最大斑块指数等持续降低;(3)景观格局指数对生态系统服务供需匹配度的解释力度在类型水平上的贡献整体大于景观水平。研究结果可为天津市景观生态规划的管理与决策提供有益参考,有助于城市生态系统服务供需关系的协调与平衡。     

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。     

城市河流的景观生态学研究:概念框架

城市河流作为城市景观中一种重要的生态廊道,其功能的正常实现与否关系到整个城市的可持续发展。通过分析当前城市河流的研究概况,发现应用景观生态学原理对城市河流展开多尺度、多学科的综合研究是实现“自然-人类-水体”可持续发展的必然趋势。从景观生态学的角度出发,结合城市河流的特点,提出了更为综合的、景观水平上的城市河流研究的概念框架。特别针对景观生态学研究的核心问题,对城市河流的研究尺度、格局分析、干扰程度等重要方面进行了详细论述,以期在景观水平上构建城市河流的可持续发展预案。     

Scorpionfish rapidly change colour in response to their background

Urban areas are increasing worldwide, which poses threats to animal wildlife. However, in certain cases cities can provide refuges for endangered animals. The European green toad (Bufotes viridis) is one of such examples, which is known from cities throughout their distribution. In contrast, considerable areas of their former (primary) habitats have been degraded. The primary habitats of this species include steppes and wild river floodplains, both characterized by dynamic changes and the presence of open areas. We used available green toad observation data (2007–2020) to model the effects of land-use types on occurrence probability in the city of Vienna. Forest and densely populated areas were highly significantly negatively associated with green toad presence, while transformation/construction site areas showed a strong positive effect. Such occurrence pattern might be characteristic for early succession species, which depend on stochastic environmental disturbances (e.g., droughts and floods) in their primary habitats. We argue that urban landscape planning should appreciate the potential ecological value of open land in cities which is either in a transition phase or a permanent ‘wasteland’. Ecological managing of such landscape could vastly increase urban biodiversity.

     

基于空间演变多元分析的市域生态空间优化研究——以宁波市为例

市域生态空间是城乡发展的绿色基底和生态基础,其协同联系"山水林田湖草"各生态系统,是动植物和自然生态多种过程的空间载体,同时也是人类进行社会经济活动的场所,与城乡经济社会发展息息相关,良好的市域生态空间体系,是实现市域层面生态系统稳定,协调城市发展和自然保护的重要载体,同时也是实现城市健康良性发展的重要保障。现有的市域生态空间规划重视不够,其静态的、定性为主的规划方法严重滞后,存在一系列不足与缺陷:1)重城区,轻市域;2)重主观定性,轻客观定量;3)重被动落实,轻主动响应;4)重静态蓝图,轻动态模拟。其空间规划成果远不能达到预期,无法应对城市化对市域生态环境和资源所带来的影响和威胁。以宁波市域空间为对象,以市域生态空间演变为出发点,从生态空间的安全格局、结构特征和用地类型转移3个方面,通过对2000年、2010年和2018年3个时期的市域空间演变的定量化分析,揭示市域生态空间演变的特征与规律。并以此为基础探索新型市域生态空间重构的方法和内容,提出空间优化的策略:针对安全格局层面生态适宜性衰退、结构层面连通度下降、地类层面绿色空间减少的问题等,通过确定生态核心,构建绿色空间廊道,筛选关键...     

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.     

城市地域生态调控的空间途径——以深圳市为例

城市地域的可持续发展必须以生态环境的可持续发展为前提和保障。景观生态学主要研究地表各种景观空间格局与生态过程及其相互作用,其原理和规律为在实践中通过优化景观格局,提高生态系统稳定性提供了理论框架。以深圳市为例,尝试综合运用生态敏感性与适宜性分析和景观格局整体优化的方法,通过对生态系统的格局分析与问题诊断,构建合理、稳定的生态系统结构,保障生态系统服务功能的正常发挥。案例研究将深圳市域的整体生态结构分为自然生态空间、城镇发展空间和生态廊道3部分。城镇发展空间具有文化支持的生态功能,自然生态空间具有环境服务和生物生产的生态功能;生态廊道主要起到加强生态联系,提高生态系统稳定性,并防止城市发展空间无序蔓延的功能。城镇景观斑块镶嵌于自然生态景观基质中,并通过多种类型的生态廊道相连,形成区域生态系统的良性循环。案例研究表明,景观生态规划方法的综合应用,可以将景观生态学原理和规律比较合理的运用于实践。     

Metaheuristics for the bi-objective orienteering problem

In this paper, heuristic solution techniques for the multi-objective orienteering problem are developed. The motivation stems from the problem of planning individual tourist routes in a city. Each point of interest in a city provides different benefits for different categories (e.g., culture, shopping). Each tourist has different preferences for the different categories when selecting and visiting the points of interests (e.g., museums, churches). Hence, a multi-objective decision situation arises. To determine all the Pareto optimal solutions, two metaheuristic search techniques are developed and applied. We use the Pareto ant colony optimization algorithm and extend the design of the variable neighborhood search method to the multi-objective case. Both methods are hybridized with path relinking procedures. The performances of the two algorithms are tested on several benchmark instances as well as on real world instances from different Austrian regions and the cities of Vienna and Padua. The computational results show that both implemented methods are well performing algorithms to solve the multi-objective orienteering problem.     

辽宁中部城市群建筑碳足迹

随着我国城市化进程的不断深入,建筑消费大量的材料和能源,如何计算建筑碳足迹具有重要意义.本文应用碳足迹的方法,结合地理信息系统和高分遥感手段对辽宁中部城市群进行碳足迹评估.结果表明: 辽宁中部城市群的建筑相关碳足迹系数为269.16 kg·m^-2.基于遥感影像提取建筑面积的方法能够有效提取建筑面积总量和空间分布,提取精度达到89%,对累积碳足迹计算和空间分布评估起到重要作用.辽宁中部7个城市建筑面积和累积碳足迹由高到低依次为沈阳、鞍山、抚顺、辽阳、营口、铁岭和本溪;2011—2013年,年均碳足迹增长由高到低依次为沈阳、本溪、抚顺、鞍山、铁岭、营口和辽阳.准确计算建筑碳足迹总量并分析其空间分布,对于碳减排和空间格局优化或规划具有重要意义.     

基于空间优先级的快速城市化地区绿色基础设施网络构建——以南京市浦口区为例

绿色基础设施是一个由自然区域和其他开放空间相互联系的网络。在城市空间极为有限的情况下,如何有效构建城市绿色基础设施网络并识别那些具关键性景观生态功能的网络要素显得极为重要。为了给城市绿色基础设施网络的建设和管理提供新的建模与分析理念,以快速城市化的南京市浦口区为例,采用MSPA方法并结合景观连通性指数,遴选出了对维持景观连通性贡献最大的生境斑块作为绿色基础设施网络的网络中心,进而采用最小路径方法构建了研究区潜在的绿色基础设施网络,并尝试利用空间句法分析,基于结构优化视角对绿色基础设施网络进行优先级的识别,从而使绿色基础设施网络的构建更科学。研究结果可为快速城市化地区绿色基础设施网络的构建提供一种研究思路与方法,对绿色基础设施网络要素的优先级评价也具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Urban Metabolism of Paris and Its Region

The article presents the results of a research project aimed at (1) examining the feasibility of material flow analysis (MFA) on a regional and urban scale in France, (2) selecting the most appropriate method, (3) identifying the available data, and (4) calculating the material balance for a specific case. Using the Eurostat method, the study was conducted for the year 2003 and for three regional levels: Paris, Paris and its suburbs, and the entire region. Applying the method on a local scale required two local indicators to be defined in order to take into account the impact of exported wastes on MFA: LEPO, local and exported flows to nature, and DMC_corr, a modified domestic material consumption (DMC) that excludes exported wastes (and imported ones if necessary). As the region extracts, produces, and transforms less material than the country as a whole, its direct material input (DMI) is lower than the national DMI. In all the areas, LEPO exceeds 50% of DMI; in contrast, recycling is very low. The multiscale approach reveals that urban metabolism is strongly impacted by density and the distribution of activities: the dense city center (Paris) exports all of its wastes to the other parts of the region and concentrates food consumption, whereas the agricultural and urban sprawl area consumes high levels of construction materials and fuel. This supports the use of MFA on an urban and regional scale as a basis for material flow management and dematerialization strategies and clearly reveals the important interactions between urban and regional planning and development, and material flows.     

城市森林景观格局与过程研究进展

大规模的城市化进程,改变了城市以及周边区域的景观格局,显著影响着城市森林生态系统的结构、过程与功能.景观尺度上的城市森林景观格局与生态过程研究已经成为当前城市森林学的研究热点.在阐明城市森林及其景观格局与过程概念的基础上,综述了国内外城市森林景观格局与过程的研究内容、研究方法的进展情况,指出了以下几个方面有望成为今后城市森林景观研究的发展方向:景观尺度上的城市森林系统能流、物质循环等生态学过程研究;城市森林景观格局演变的社会驱动力研究;基于生态服务功能的城市森林规划研究;半都市化地区的森林景观格局与过程研究;基于空间显式景观模型的城市森林景观格局与过程模块开发.     

中小尺度生态用地规划方法

生态用地指以发挥自然生态功能为主,具有重要生态系统服务功能或生态环境脆弱、生态敏感性较高的土地。它是土地利用与生态建设的直接联系,关系区域生态系统的稳定性和安全性。生态用地的研究有利于建立合理的土地利用系统,完善区域生态安全格局,促进经济社会发展与生态环境相协调。在不同尺度下,生态用地的内涵、性质、主导功能以及规划方法都有所不同,结合我国土地利用规划及城市规划的层次划分,选取市域和中心城区为研究范围,其中市域为中尺度代表范围,中心城区为小尺度代表范围,分别分析了两种尺度下生态用地的内涵及区别,提出了相应的规划方法及侧重点。定量规划方面,中心城区生态用地主要结合国家相关法规、规定、政策等确定;而市域生态用地采取借鉴法、土地利用结构数量优化方法以及情景分析三种方法综合确定。空间规划方面,城区生态用地采取分类规划方法,分别对点线面三类生态用地进行提取,主要步骤为辨识重要生态源,构建面状生态用地;结合水体和交通缓冲区,构建线状生态用地;提取关键节点,构建点状生态用地;生态用地分类。市域生态用地则采取综合规划方法,主要步骤为提取特殊生态用地、基于生态用地结构功能和生态敏感性等的生态建设重要性评价、生态用地空间提取及分类。     

高密度中心城区暴雨防灾规划体系及策略研究

系统总结了城市暴雨灾害的特征和诱因,建立了高密度中心城区暴雨防灾规划体系,根据中心城区特征提出了基于生态安全理念的土地效能优化、基于绿道理论的绿地空间规划、基于低影响理论的暴雨调节系统、结合地下空间开发的暴雨管网建设等常态暴雨防灾策略,探索了基于灾时应急思维的暴雨防灾策略以及法律规范、技术条件、财政投入等暴雨防灾支撑策略,力图有效指导中心城区的生态安全和可持续发展。     

Omnidirectional connectivity of urban open spaces provides context for local government redevelopment plans

Governance of large cities requires local planning and administration, and most cities contain nested levels of government. There are challenges for coordinating urban planning and development among these local governments, which lead to the need to assess regional or city-wide contexts that can be used by smaller administrative units. Urban metabolism treats a city as a system within which the movement of resources can be estimated. In this study, we employed an urban metabolism approach to estimate the permeability of open space within an entire megacity, Seoul, the capital of South Korea. We provide district-level relative permeability scores for the 25 district governments to use in assessments and incentivize cooperation to improve the city’s overall open space connectivity. We analyzed the relative level of open space of 69 classes using Seoul’s land use map, and used Omniscape, a modeling tool that charts the level of suitability and resistance of every grid cell to every other grid cell using a moving window. This is an omnidirectional continuous approach that does not require open space “cores” or least-cost “paths”. We modeled two scenarios, one where open water is a barrier and contributes little to open space, and the other where open water is considered an attractive element to open space. We used the modeled outputs to define five levels of permeability and then compared the relative permeability scores for the 25 districts. Five districts had over 30% of their area in the lowest level, and eight of the 10 largest impermeable areas spanned across districts under water suitable scenario. The comparable metrics permit intra-district assessments to improve open space access, but also expect creative approaches to overcome issues including limited availability for open spaces.

     

水生态文明城市建设对城市水生态承载力的影响——以武汉市为例

城市水生态承载力能较好反映水资源-水环境-水生态-经济社会复合系统间多要素互馈关系,水生态文明城市建设对城市水生态系统具有多方面影响,对城市水生态承载力在水生态文明城市建设前后的变化进行定量研究具有重要意义。以城市"社会-经济-自然"复合生态理论为指导,充分考虑人类活动与城市水生态系统的响应关系,基于DPSIR框架构建城市水生态承载力评价指标体系,以水生态文明建设试点城市武汉市为例,综合运用熵权法、TOPSIS和障碍度诊断模型等方法,分析2008-2019年武汉市水生态承载力的变化趋势和影响因素。结果表明,水生态文明城市试点建设期间（2015-2017年）的水生态承载力平均水平（0.552）明显高于建设前（0.361）和建设后（0.438）,建设成果主要体现在压力和影响指标的改善以及响应指标的大幅度提升上。阻碍武汉市水生态承载力提升的主要指标为生态环境状况指数、建成区绿化覆盖率、农田灌溉亩均用水量、酸雨量和饮用水源地水质达标率。根据评价结果提出水城共生共荣发展模式、引导产业结构转型等提升武汉市水生态承载力的建议。     

城市生态学长期监测的几个关键问题

伴随城市人口快速聚集及人类活动加剧,城市生态环境质量及其对人类社会经济发展的支撑能力正在受到严重挑战,城市生态系统及其变化的研究越来越受到重视,国内外涌现出大量城市生态学长期监测工作,但相关监测方法的讨论还很少。在分析城市生态学长期监测类型和实践经验基础上,从城市面临的环境胁迫和建设管理需求出发,构建了城市生态学长期监测的"胁迫+需求-生态系统响应"总体思路框架;从科学上最基本和社会上最关心的城市生态系统要素、格局和过程着眼,提出城市生态学长期监测的7项内容(土地覆盖与利用、人居环境质量、生物多样性、生物质生产、水文过程、生物地球化学循环和物质代谢);并分析了城市生态学长期监测的4种方法(遥感监测、仪器监测、调查监测、公众科学监测),分析了城市生态学长期监测单元及其空间布局及监测频率。这将为我国城市生态学长期监测工作开展提供方法论基础和实践参考。     

从景感生态学视角分析城市立体绿化内涵与功能——以深圳市为例

城市用地日益紧张,城市建(构)筑物高度不断抬升,理应赋予城市空间载体更多的生态功能。景感生态学倡导在保持、改善和增加城市生态系统服务的同时提升居民满意度和可持续发展能力。城市立体绿化具有降温、降噪、滞尘、固碳等功能,是节能减排的有效举措。通过对深圳市立体绿化实地调查和景感生态学分析,剖析了立体绿化在促进居民的视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉及触觉等物理感知及心理认知功能方面的作用,以及增强城市生态系统服务的机理。研究表明,立体绿化是城市景感营造的有效手段,既能增强城市生态系统服务价值,也能提高城市空间利用率;在增加城市绿视率的同时,丰富了居民的物理感知及心理认知。最后,讨论了景感生态学理论与方法在立体绿化中的实际应用,以及景感营造技术在城市绿色建筑中的作用,以期让景感营造技术为提升立体绿化水平,进而为促进城市绿地系统规划提供支撑。     

A hierarchical facility layout planning approach for large and complex hospitals

The transportation processes for patients, personnel, and material in large and complex maximum-care hospitals with many departments can consume significant resources and thus induce substantial logistics costs. These costs are largely determined by the allocation of the different departments and wards in possibly multiple connected hospital buildings. We develop a hierarchical layout planning approach based on an analysis of organizational and operational data from the Hannover Medical School, a large and complex university hospital in Hannover, Germany. The purpose of this approach is to propose locations for departments and wards for a given system of buildings such that the consumption of resources due to those transportation processes is minimized. We apply the approach to this real-world organizational and operational dataset as well as to a fictitious hospital building and analyze the algorithmic behavior and resulting layout.