Urban Metabolism Analysis Research Articles

Urban Metabolism and Waste Flows in Small Municipalities: Methodological Advances in Material Flow Analysis

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate Urban Metabolism (UM) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) approaches to characterize waste flows in small Brazilian municipalities. Additionally, it aims to develop a method that contributes to the environmental management of municipal waste. Theoretical Framework: This study utilizes the models and concepts from UM and MFA approaches. Method: The EUROSTAT guide, proposed by the Statistical Office of the European Union for national-scale MFA, was adopted as the methodological reference and adapted to the Brazilian municipal context. The method's development involved progressive refinement cycles, including secondary data collection, improvement, and evaluation. The method was tested in a case study in the municipality of Feliz, RS. Results and Discussion: The results indicate that the developed method provides a comprehensive understanding of the municipality's waste flows, including their magnitude, origins, and destinations. The UM and MFA approaches offer an integrated perspective of waste flows with other material flows in the municipality, facilitating the visualization of circular economy possibilities. Research Implications: The research offers insights into the application of the results for environmental waste management in small Brazilian municipalities, providing more informative diagnostics than those required by the National Solid Waste Policy. Originality: This study contributes to the literature by proposing specific methodologies for analyzing waste flows in the municipal context. Additionally, it introduces innovations compared to previous applications of MFA in Brazil.

Applying material and energy flow analysis to assess urban metabolism in the context of the circular economy

AbstractWith the circular economy (CE) gaining more traction worldwide, local authorities are engaging in efforts to develop circular strategies at the urban level. Developing and monitoring such strategies require detailed quantitative information on material and energy flows, which can be obtained through an urban metabolism (UM) analysis. This study demonstrates a bottom‐up approach to analyze UM at the sectoral level based on material and energy flow analysis (MEFA), aiming to examine its utility within the context of the CE. The analysis is performed for Umeå urban area (Sweden) with a 5‐year timeframe (2017–2021). The application of MEFA provides a detailed quantitative description of material and energy flows per sector, indicating the critical sectors in terms of resource consumption and waste generation and the most significant flows. More specifically, it reveals that the construction sector and households are key sectors within Umeå’s UM and that construction materials, food products, fossil fuels, and drinking water are significant metabolic flows. Furthermore, the application of MEFA with a multi‐year timeframe uncovers trends in consumption rates of materials and generation rates of waste and emissions, revealing, for example, the correlation of material consumption and waste generation with the level of construction activity. Overall, by illustrating the potential of MEFA to provide a detailed quantitative analysis of material and energy flows, this study emphasizes its utility in supporting the design and monitoring of circular strategies at the urban level. At the same time, it highlights limitations of the method and suggests areas for future research.

Urban Metabolism and Digital Twin Technologies for a Sustainable Built Environment: Towards a Framework for a Campus Application

Abstract With rapid urbanization necessitating innovative strategies for urban adaptation, combining technological advancements and holistic methodologies, this research explored the synergy between urban metabolism and digital twin technologies to foster sustainable urban development. A pilot model representing a university building, including the surrounding streetscape, was constructed using the Unreal Engine. By using available CAD design drawings and GIS technologies, the physical spaces were modelled. The physical and analytical environments were integrated into the digital twin; material flow analysis was also conducted. The developed framework aims to offer a detailed visualization of building behaviour, facilitating comparisons with urban metabolism analysis. This approach holds promise for sustainable urban design by integrating diverse data streams through digital twin technologies. The potential impact of this research extends to the tracking, mapping, and analysis of crucial resource flows, such as materials, water, energy, and waste, fostering circular economy strategies within the built environment. Understanding urban metabolism facilitates the identification of resource-efficient opportunities, promoting resource recovery and reuse to reduce the environmental impact of urban cores. Embracing digital twin technologies and urban metabolism analysis offers cities streamlined data collection processes, supporting standardization and sustainable urban practices. This study marks a critical step towards integrating diverse data streams into urban metabolism analysis, aligning with circularity objectives in the built environment. By adopting this framework, cities can better understand new production and consumption patterns that prioritize the responsible use of natural resources, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient future.

Analysis of urban metabolism in an informal settlement using the MuSIASEM method in Lima

By 2050, 68% of the global population will reside in cities, driving rapid urban growth and intensifying demand for scarce ecological resources within the Water-Food-Energy nexus. Social metabolism quantifies energy and material transformations with a social focus, building upon urban metabolism. Its application in resource-scarce informal settlements (ISs) has the potential to enhance their sustainability significantly. As community dynamics evolve, acknowledging society as a dynamic variable within this framework becomes increasingly relevant. Our study employs the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) framework, focusing on key variables: human activity, land use, money, energy, water, waste, and food. Based on surveys, interviews, GIS datasets, and statistical information, the study investigates the Ciudad de Gosen IS in Lima, Peru. The results show that, in the socio-economic dimension, 43% of the time employed is directed to the unpaid work sector. Notably, 71% of women and 29% of men spend a mean of 44 h/week/person caring for children or elderly. In the paid work sector, there are gender asymmetries; men have a salary 54% higher than women. In the ecological dimension, more than 78% of the homes have access to basic services, unlike other informal settlements in Latin America and Africa.

Analysis of urban carbon metabolism from the land use perspective: a case study of Nanchang, China

Analysis of urban carbon metabolism from the land use perspective: a case study of Nanchang, China

Urban metabolic flow in China’s megacities doubled by material stock accumulation since the 21st century

Buildings, infrastructure, and durable goods play a critical role in urbanization, akin to bones and muscles that structure the human body. These stocks contribute to the exploitation of over half of the world’s resources and offer potential “urban mining” sources. However, the process of resource transformation regarding urban material stock growth and material flow alteration remains unclear. The metaphor of urban metabolism provides a new perspective to dissect this process, but current studies often spotlight only specific fragments, such as certain end-use types or materials. This study bridges this gap by establishing a comprehensive level-to-level analysis of urban “bone-muscle” metabolism in China’s megacities. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of urban metabolism in China’s megacities, tracking the lifecycle of material stock across over a hundred distinct end-use types and 12 categories of materials. Results indicate that annual metabolic flow in these cities has doubled since the early 21st century, reaching 264–737 Mt in 2018, with manufacturing, construction, and transportation as primary drivers. As accumulation intensifies, the material stock’s growth rate diminishes logarithmically, hinting at increased efficiency and a move towards a steady state. Concurrently, scrap flow is on the rise. Driven by population growth, per capita scrap is projected to reach 2.0–4.7 t/cap by 2035, and material stock is expected to rise 1.4–2 fold. Proactive population planning and coordinated development strategies can mitigate the risks associated with this growth and maintain urban system stability.

Multi-sectoral analysis of smarter urban nitrogen metabolism: A case study of Suzhou, China

The urban socioeconomic metabolism of multiple flows of resources is highly complex. Our concern is that of moderating the environmental burden and intensity of this metabolism and elevating its “circularity” through technological interventions in the composition of urban infrastructure. The paper addresses present and possible future patterns of the nitrogen (N) metabolism of Suzhou, China, using a Multi-sectoral Systems Analysis (MSA) model of the water, energy, food, forestry, and waste management sectors of the city's infrastructure and economy. Two of the Triple Bottom Lines are employed in the assessment: those of the economic feasibility and the environmental benignity of the technological interventions. Environmental benignity is gauged by three Metabolic Performance Metrics (MPMs). 15 scenarios of these interventions are assessed, each being a different combination of introducing four particular promising technologies. The MPMs allow ranking of the scenarios according to, first, the ratio of incoming resource flows into the city and outgoing socio-economically beneficial products and, second, the rates at which “wastes” of no value are released to the atmosphere (as air pollutants), hydrosphere (water pollutants), and the lithosphere (solid wastes). The economic feasibility of the options can similarly be ranked according to the monetary values of resources (such as clean water or energy) that are saved by lowered urban consumption or that are recovered (such as biofuels or fertilizer) for beneficial re-circulation and re-use. All four candidate technological innovations are associated with the water and waste management sectors of urban infrastructure. We show that the trio of urine-separating technology, cultivation of algal biomass in wastewater treatment, and pyrolysis of animal manure can achieve an expected net annual economic benefit of 1.4B Yuan, together with the potential to recover some 31 Gg N yr−1. Notably, our computational assessment accounts for uncertainty, using Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity testing. In particular, we examine how uncertainty may significantly undermine the conclusions we may draw about the promise of any given technological innovation vis à vis another alternative.

Ecological network analysis of the carbon metabolism system in mountainous cities based on the land-carbon nexus: a case study of the main urban area of Chongqing, China.

The analysis of urban carbon metabolism will help to mitigate global warming and achieve China's "Dual Carbon" targets. Taking the main urban area of Chongqing (MUAC) as an example, this study accounted for the carbon release and carbon absorption in MUAC, constructed an urban carbon flow model based on the land-carbon nexus, and evaluated the urban carbon metabolic system from 2000 to 2020 by using the ecological network analysis method. The results show that MUAC is dominated by a "carbon source" effect, and the net carbon flow is always negative. The negative carbon flow mainly comes from the conversion of cultivated land to construction land, and the positive carbon flow mainly comes from the conversion of construction land to cultivated land and woodland. The ecological relationship of carbon metabolism in MUAC is dominated by exploitation and control relationships, which mainly exist in the ecological relationship between construction land and cultivated land, and the spatial distribution is concentrated in the central and western areas of MUAC. Our research results can provide a reference for Chongqing's green and low-carbon sustainable development as a means toward the realization of the "Dual Carbon" targets and provide a reference for other similar mountainous cities in western China.

网络视角下城市物质代谢过程解析——以京津冀13城市为例

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 网络视角下城市物质代谢过程解析——以京津冀13城市为例 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202204221104 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家重点研发计划项目（2016YFC0503005）；国家自然科学基金项目（41871213） Analysis of urban material metabolism from the perspective of network: A case study of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:城市作为物质吞吐量的集中区，往往存在一定的资源消耗和环境问题。京津冀是中国北方经济规模最大的地区，负载着巨大的资源环境压力。以京津冀地区为例，在计算城市物质输入与输出的基础上，运用生态网络分析方法对代谢系统内部的具体路径和节点关系进行深入探究，并分析其变化。结果表明，京津冀地区97%的流量都集中于各城市内部，各城市之间的优势互补有待加强。2017年京津冀13城市代谢总流量增长为2000年的3.3倍，其中承德、秦皇岛和唐山增长最为迅速，而衡水是唯一一个流量下降的城市。各城市的关键路径中有71.8%呈现流量上升态势，加工制造业为涉及关键路径最多的部门，其中加工制造业-环境为大多数所有城市共有的关键路径。掠夺/控制是京津冀13城市的主导关系类型；2000-2017年间13城市总体的生态关系良性转变少于劣性转变，致使共生关系数量下降，需要从交通运输业、采掘业和加工制造业等重点部门上寻求突破。关键路径及生态关系等代谢网络特征及其变化的识别，有效打破了城市代谢的"黑箱"，为缓解不同城市物质利用所带来的资源环境问题提供可靠理论依据。 Abstract:As a concentrated area of material throughput, cities are often faced with some problems of resource and environment. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has the largest economic scale in northern China, so it is bound to be burdened with huge pressure on resources and environment. From the perspective of metabolism and based on the calculation of urban material input and output, this study selected the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example, used the ecological network analysis method to deeply explore the specific path and node relationships within the metabolic system, and analyzed the changes from time. The results showed that 97% of the flow amount was within the cities, indicating the need for cities to strengthen their complementarity. The total metabolic flow of 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region increased by 3.3 times that of 2000 in 2017, with Chengde, Qinhuangdao and Tangshan growing the most rapidly, while Hengshui was the only city with a decrease. Among the key paths of each city, 71.8% showed an upward trend of flow, and a high degree of sectoral concentration. Manufacturing became one sector most involved in the key paths, and manufacturing-environment was the key path type that existed in most cities. The exploitation and control were the dominant relationship type in the 13 cities. From 2000 to 2017, the positive change of ecological relationship was less than the negative change, which may require breakthroughs in key sectors such as transportation, mining and manufacturing. The identification of metabolic characteristics and their changes, such as key path and ecological relationship, effectively opened the "black box" of urban metabolism, and reliable theoretical basis for alleviating the resource and environment problems caused by urban material utilization. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Assessment of the ecological footprint associated with consumer goods and waste management activities of south mediterranean cities: Case of Algiers and Tipaza

Despite the management strategies implemented, urban waste management in Algeria is a massive concern, especially entities in charge focus primarily on eliminating waste, neglecting material and energy use which might have a substantial environmental impact. This study uses combined urban metabolism analysis and EF assessment model to estimate the surface required to absorb greenhouse gas (GHG) generated, intending to demonstrate the reliability of Ecological Footprint (EF) as an environmental indicator in managing activities related to product manufacturing and waste management. Therefore, the research considers two neighboring coastal cities Algiers and Tipaza, contrasting demographically and economically. The results obtained from urban metabolism demonstrate that material produced from raw inputs is associated with higher GHG emissions. Similarly, emissions generated from waste management activities are dominated by transportation at more than 40% in both cities. Thus, proportional to the amount of GHGs emitted, EF in terms of energy is higher in the disposed material representing 90% consumer goods' EF compared to the Diverted material. These emissions require a total amount of 578 190.05 gha and 92 950.7gha in Algiers and Tipaza respectively. As for waste management, transportation requires the most significant EF values exceeding 5 thousand gha to sequester carbon in Algiers. Eventually, the investigations reveal disparities in data collection and structure in both cities and shortcomings in waste management. Thus, this empirical study highlights EF's reliability for understanding the tangible impact of economic growth on the environment that supports the development of cities.

Phosphorus Governance within Planetary Boundaries: The Potential of Strategic Local Resource Planning in The Hague and Delfland, The Netherlands

In recent years, a growing body of research has explored the urban dimension of the critical resource phosphorus with a focus on urban metabolism analysis, recovery technologies and governance frameworks. However, there has been no tangible and holistic attempt at choosing between available measures and instruments for their implementation in the urban realm. With the growing and increasingly urban world population, cities have become more and more important as actors in phosphorus governance by fueling global phosphorus flows, e.g., via the consumption of food, agricultural products, and phosphorus recycling. Globally, a future-proof phosphorus metabolism may be contributed to by strategic local phosphorus planning. This article systematically explores the purposive potential of local phosphorus planning using a case study of The Hague, The Netherlands. Looking across multiple administrative and spatial dimensions, the study combines quantitative analysis of phosphorus flows with qualitative investigation of their drivers, the actors involved, current regulations and local scope for action. The research reveals the feasibility of meaningfully impacting phosphorus flows through urban action. The potential for strategic local resource planning is demonstrated in a grid of policy options and in the assessment of their socio-economic and environmental benefits. Additionally, the study draws up a list of key recommendations to transfer to other urban settings. It encourages further research aimed at closing data gaps for local phosphorus inventories, collaborative approaches in strategic resource planning, scope for action in other cities or jurisdictions, as well as improved quantification of the outreach of policy effects.

Dynamic interaction of urban development and rural–urban migration: an application of integrated urban metabolism analysis tool (IUMAT) for sustainable city planning

PurposeThis study aims to gauge the effect of rural–urban migration and its challenges on the urban development of Bengaluru. This study examines the driving forces behind urbanization and its impact on social, economic and environment areas. The research helps to establish the sustainable city planning, after evaluation of specific challenges of zones, and this mitigation will optimize government investment and reduce cost.Design/methodology/approachBengaluru is used as a study area to examine the interaction of migration and urban development. The study covers the period between 2011 and 2019. Panel data analysis is applied to measure the effect of urban development indicators on urban migration. The authors applied the integrated urban metabolism analysis tool to quantify the urban development indicators and identified the most critical areas for migrants. Later, authors proposed mitigation measures based on alternate scenario approach.FindingsThe authors found that there is a mixed effect of urban migration on urban development across various zones in Bengaluru. Besides, the authors suggest how planned collaboration should play a significant role in urban planning and optimize city planning judiciously. Effective mitigation measures should be developed based on zone-specific core issues, and practical trainings, research, public awareness campaigns and skill up-gradation of migrants would enhance the socio-economic and environmental conditions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study will support the ongoing and upcoming initiatives launched by the Government of India i.e. Awas Yojna, Atmanirbhar Bharat and Swach Bharat.Practical implicationsThe structured city planning suggested in the study will help to save wastage of resources and cost and time of developers and policymakers. This will also help to upgrade the status of migrants and enhance the ambience of city around social, economic and environment fronts.Originality/valueThe first of its kind of innovative model mapped in the study area establishes a link between strategic city planning under rural–urban migration and urban development.

Urban metabolism: measuring the Kaunas city sustainable development

Urban metabolism seeks to assess the amount of resources produced, consumer and disposed of in the city. Material and energy flow analysis becomes an important tool to understand the city’s environment and propose the more sustainable urban design and planning to improve residents’ health, ensure sustainable production and consumption. The purpose of this study is to measure the changes in Kaunas city material and energy use in period from 2010 to 2018. Kaunas city urban metabolism analysis is based on energy production and outflows data analysis with the city’s waste management analysis from an urban metabolism perspective. To understand the city social and economic transformation, it is also including social and economic aspects analysis. Research results have revealed better living conditions and a growing economy increase energy production and demand, construction materials, and waste flows along with rising environmental issues. Air pollution analysis has shown that SO2, CO2, NO2 and O3 emissions in the city remain stable. The paper helps to understand the importance of assessing city’s environmental impact and highlights the necessity of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation.

Environmental profile of the municipality of Madrid through the methodologies of Urban Metabolism and Life Cycle Analysis

Cities are important consumers of resources and producers of waste derived from the lifestyle and daily needs of their citizens, which is why they are considered the main actors responsible for the environmental impacts related to anthropogenic activities. The quantification of these impacts is fundamental for the definition of sustainable cities. In this work, a material flow accounting study combined with the Life Cycle Assessment approach is conducted for the municipality of Madrid, the most populated city of Spain. The findings of this study allow performing a sustainability diagnosis of a large city such as Madrid, identifying energy needs, food consumption and manufactures as environmental hotspots. In addressing the comprehensive analysis of available data, important constraints arise, such as access to data. To this end, not only the development of precise estimation tools to quantify these flows, but also greater transparency of data sources, are fundamental elements in the study of the sustainability indicators proposed in this paper. Therefore, the success of any proposed sustainability strategy depends on the involvement of policy-makers and citizens in the objectives and measures set, as well as on the access to information and training on sustainability as fundamental action line driven by local government.

Machine learning approaches for predicting household transportation energy use

This paper presents four modeling techniques for predicting household transportation energy consumption by exploring decision trees, random forest, and neural networks in addition to elastic net regularization analyses. The main objective of this study is to evaluate how effectively these advanced statistical models can be applicable to a Transportation Module (TM) operating within the Integrated Urban Metabolism Analysis Tool (IUMAT), a system-based computational platform for urban sustainability evaluation. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) travel demand model is used to estimate household transportation energy use based on household trip demand generation, travel mode, fuel type, distance and duration. The Household Travel Survey (HTS) and Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ) drawn from the DVRPC database are used for model training. Our results indicate that machine learning algorithms, thanks to their ability to accommodate non-linearity, have significantly higher accuracy in predicting household transportation demand. We show that the Neural Network (NN) model out-performs the decision tree model, predicting transportation energy demand resulting in lower Mean Squared Error and a higher R2. Using a Random Forest analysis for individual variable impact testing, we also demonstrate that the number of households' motorized trips and the travel distance are the most significant predictors of household transportation energy consumption.

Metabolism of Urban Location: Travel Time and the Morphology of Cities

This paper examines the metabolism of urban location, which is offered as a contribution to the expansion of urban metabolism analysis beyond the largely biophysical methods of mass-energy-balance and emergy accounting. But how does the real estate logic of location enter the stock and flow calculations of urban metabolism, and how can it help us better understand the physiology of a more sustainable city? A new, locational quantity, EL, is defined as the additional emergy value obtained by a tract of urban land due to interconnection with the other land parcels in the city. It is based on their level of development and proximity measured in terms of travel time. The article uses the greater Philadelphia region as a case study to examine the metabolic value of location, and its role in the transition to a renewable economy.

An integrated analysis of input and output flows in an urban carbon metabolism using a spatially explicit network model

Abstract An integrated analysis of urban carbon metabolism from both input and output perspectives can present new insights to support carbon mitigation. In this study, we combined a previously developed spatially explicit network model with an analysis of carbon sequestration and emission by different land use or cover types, and illustrate its use by examining carbon flows in Beijing, China, from 1990 to 2015. The goals were to characterize the temporal changes of the integrated (total direct + indirect) flow structure by applying ecological network analysis and to identify the structure of the urban metabolism by analyzing temporal and spatial changes of the integrated flows. The results showed that the similarity between input and output trophic structures and their spatial pattern indicate increasingly carbon-balanced urbanization by Beijing. The balanced input and output flows for the transportation and industrial land and cultivated land played key roles in forming a central area of aggregated carbon flows between the city's peripheral plains, which also resulted in similar trophic structures for inputs and outputs. Understanding the evolution of the integrated flows during urban development provides a more solid empirical basis for regulating land-use change, improving land consolidation, and reducing carbon flows.

Hierarchical structure analysis of urban carbon metabolism: A case study of Beijing, China

Abstract An integral analysis of urban carbon metabolism can support efforts to build a more sustainable city: the spatial gradients provide insights into how to guide future land use and cover change, while ecological network hierarchy provide insights into the self-mutualistic interactions of the city’s carbon metabolic structure. In this study, we combined a spatially explicit network with carbon budget of energy consumption and land use and cover change in Beijing, China. From 1990 to 2010, energy related carbon emissions accounted for roughly 90% of the city’s total. The network’s integrated flux decreased at an average rate of 7.5%. The output flux primarily decreased when moving outward from the center through the periphery of southeastern plains and towards the northwestern mountains. In contrast, the input flux increased moving from the periphery to both the center and mountains. The ecological hierarchy was irregular based on both the driving and pull weights for the components of the model, with excessively small producer and decomposer layers and excessively large consumer layers. The changing structure of Beijing’s carbon metabolism over time indicated a tendency to a better organized city. Understanding the evolution of these hierarchies during urban development provides a more solid empirical basis for improving use of the urban space and reducing carbon emission.

Emergy analysis of urban domestic water metabolism: A case study in Beijing (China)

This work elaborated an analysis of urban water metabolic system. The system’s flows and processes were modeled and accounted on the basis of the ecosystem cumulative energy availability, also known as emergy. In detail, both the urban domestic water supplying process metabolism model and accounting framework were defined. Then, the whole process of the supplying of domestic water was analyzed, considering Beijing (China) as a case study. In particular, the existing water sources were included: surface water, underground water, water of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project; potential desalinated water from Tianjin. The results showed that, for the supply of 1 m3 of tap water, the total emergy input from the above-mentioned four sources are 3.22E+12, 3.34E+12, 4.55E+12, and 12.55E+12 sej. These values reflect the different energy costs of the existing supply systems, that are related to water transportation, treatment and distribution, Moreover, the emergy cost of desalinated water is about 4 times higher than the one of surface water. Conversely, the value of South-to-North Water Transfer Project is not much higher than that of surface water. Finally, the higher costs are related to the water treatment phase. Consequently, some policy recommendations and future research directions are identified for improving the sustainability for Beijing domestic water supply.

A general data model for socioeconomic metabolism and its implementation in an industrial ecology data commons prototype

AbstractUntil this day, data in industrial ecology (IE) have been commonly seen as existing within the domain of particular methods or models, such as input–output, life cycle assessment, urban metabolism, or material flow analysis data. This artificial division of data into methods contradicts the common phenomena described by those data: the objects and processes in the industrial system, or socioeconomic metabolism (SEM). A consequence of this scattered organization of related data across methods is that IE researchers and consultants spend too much time searching for and reformatting data from diverse and incoherent sources, time that could be invested into quality control and analysis of model results instead. This article outlines a solution to two major barriers to data exchange within IE: (a) the lack of a generic structure for IE data and (b) the lack of a bespoke platform to exchange IE datasets. We present a general data model for SEM that can be used to structure all data that can be located in the industrial system, including process descriptions, product descriptions, stocks, flows, and coefficients of all kind. We describe a relational database built on the general data model and a user interface to it, both of which are open source and can be implemented by individual researchers, groups, institutions, or the entire community. In the latter case, one could speak of an IE data commons (IEDC), and we unveil an IEDC prototype containing a diverse set of datasets from the literature.