Abstract
Urban metabolism is a multi-disciplinary approach to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate resource flows in urban systems, which aims to provide important insights into the dynamics of cities to make them more ecologically responsible. It has been also introduced into the urban design domain, however most of the attempts concern only tracking of energy and/or material flows to reduce environmental impacts by redesigning closed loops in a specific area. The hypothesis of this paper is that the concept of urban metabolism, and its indicators, could play an important role in advancing the science and practice related to sustainability in urban design and development. At the moment, however we lack indicators to support evaluation of urban design related decisions from the perspective of urban metabolism. The aim of this paper is to explore the application of urban metabolism indicators in urban design based on their characteristics. It reviews development periods of the concept and analytical models of urban metabolism, in order to identify crucial urban metabolism indicators for urban design. Next, these urban metabolism indicators are classified regarding type of analytical model, accounting method, indicator type, and indicator level. Finally, several suggestions are offered on how to integrate urban metabolism indicators into urban design. In addition, directions for future research on the topic are discussed.
Highlights
The industrial revolution has taken the modern world into an era of massive resource exploitation that has never been experienced before
Many researchers have focused on urban metabolism indicators for the topics of material flow analysis, emergy synthesis, industrial ecology, and life cycle assessment
This paper described the evolution and analytical models of urban metabolism study as well as the combination of urban metabolism indicators with urban
Summary
The industrial revolution has taken the modern world into an era of massive resource exploitation that has never been experienced before. In order to reconcile modern society’s resource demands with our finite resources, it is necessary to quantify resource usage and to evaluate its ecological, economic and social consequences. Even so, continuing urbanisation may potentially lead to rapid resource depletion, energy consumption, and environmental pollution. This imposes on urban designers a further need to include evaluation methods regarding urban metabolism and its effect on sustainable urban development. After the concept of urban metabolism was first introduced, many scholars have developed different interpretations and extensions of the concept. A range of studies has explored using urban metabolism as an approach to improve urban sustainability. Newman (1999) noted that it is essential to reduce resource usage and waste emissions to achieve sustainability goals for a city.
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