Abstract

Well-functioning 'liveable' cities should be sustainable and their consumption of natural resources and production of waste must fit within the capacities of the local, regional and global ecosystems. It is increasingly becoming suggested that an Urban Metabolism (UM), approach could help city decision-makers (e.g. planners) take account of numerous critical influencing factors related to the inward outward flow(s) of natural resources (e.g. food, water and energy) and accumulation of waste. The paper identifies the precursory step for any UM study (Mass Flow Analysis - MFA) and applies it to a case study (Birmingham, UK) in order to show how it could contribute to the measurement, assessment and understanding of liveability, defined as 80% reduction in carbon (from 1990 levels); resource secure (an ethos of One planet living); with maintained or enhanced wellbeing. By provided focus upon an individual resource stream (i.e. water) at multiple scales (city to individual) it is shown that MFA can be used as a starting point to develop realistic and radical engineering solutions. However further work is required for it to be truly reflective of broader aspects of urban liveability.

Highlights

  • Well-functioning ‘liveable’ cities, both and in the future, are dependent upon numerous critical influencing factors, including: the inward movement of natural resources in sufficient quantities to meet demand; and, effective mechanisms for disposal of waste

  • Based upon its growing contribution to sustainable urban development issues [5,6], this paper explores the feasibility of creating a framework, based on techniques developed in, and borrowed from, the field of urban metabolism field

  • The research work presented here is drawn from ‘Liveable Cities’ http://liveablecities.org.uk/, a 5 year (2012-2017), UK Research Council (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - EPSRC)-funded programme which aims to transform the engineering of cities to deliver global and societal wellbeing within the context of low carbon living and resource security

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Summary

Introduction

Well-functioning ‘liveable’ cities, both and in the future, are dependent upon numerous critical influencing factors, including: the inward movement of natural resources (for example, food, water and energy) in sufficient quantities to meet demand; and, effective mechanisms for disposal of waste. The research work presented here is drawn from ‘Liveable Cities’ http://liveablecities.org.uk/, a 5 year (2012-2017), UK Research Council (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - EPSRC)-funded programme which aims to transform the engineering of cities to deliver global and societal wellbeing within the context of low carbon living and resource security. In so doing it seeks to develop realistic and radical engineering solutions that demonstrate the concept of an alternative future’ that meet the following criteria: 1. (1) Identify and classify existing urban metabolism studies (focussing on UK) (Section 2.1); (2) Identify the precursory methodology for UM studies (Section 2.2); (3) Apply precursory methodology to a city (Birmingham, UK) at multiple scales (Section 3); (4) Discuss methodology based on outcomes (Section 4)

Step 1
Methodology
Step 2
Methodological Principles of MFA
STEP 3
73 GWh Gas 58 Gwh
Single end-use
Discussion
Is MFA alone sufficient to produce change?
Conclusions
22 Acknowledgements
Findings
Conflict of Interest
Full Text
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