Abstract
In this article, we initially present and discuss the existing concepts covering sustainable and healthy cities, and urban metabolism infrastructure. The urban metabolism infrastructure distributes a wide range of key resources to citizens through various modes of transportation. Although the technical infrastructure and people in cities tend to be perceived as separate systems, they need to be acknowledged as co-dependent. Thus, co-creating urban metabolism and its infrastructure should be an integral part of developing a healthy city. We use mobility and transportation examples from the Cities-4-People project as a case to discuss the role of citizens and local stakeholders in co-creating solutions to improve their cities’ mobility through the urban metabolism and sustainability lens. Furthermore, we discuss the project process outcomes, leading to a set of guidelines towards achieving healthier cities.
Highlights
Cities are ecosystems based on a socio-technical system, which includes physical systems with infrastructure and buildings and a human system of people, movement and activity (Hillier 2009)
We suggest that the creation of healthy cities requires a well-functioning technical urban metabolism and urban infrastructure, which is the result of human activity and design
We suggest that urban metabolism definitions need to be expanded to encompass the flow of people to its original conceptualisation, being defined as the flow of people, goods and energy for production, consumption and waste management
Summary
Cities are ecosystems based on a socio-technical system, which includes physical systems with infrastructure and buildings and a human system of people, movement and activity (Hillier 2009). One suggestion for achieving this goal through transformation of urban infrastructure could be changing the modes of transportation and thereby increase liveability for the citizens by changing their means and supply of mobility from private car usage to walking, biking and public transportation (Thomson and Newman 2018a, 2018b) This is the exact premise of the Cities-4-People project, where five urban areas have engaged a range of stakeholders, more precisely industry, academia, governance and citizens forming the quadruple helix (Curley and Salmelin 2008), to challenge top-down approaches to transport and mobility by creating a dynamic and inclusive bottom-up process approach.
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