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Sustainability
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Applications of Urban Metabolism and the Progress towards Sustainable Cities
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Applications of Urban Metabolism and the Progress towards Sustainable Cities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 10139

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yuliya Kalmykova

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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
Interests: sustainability; resource modeling; low-carbon development pathways; community economic development; cities; urban metabolism; circular economy; industrial symbiosis
Prof. Dr. John Fernández

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Guest Editor
MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Interests: material flow, cities, sustainability, urban metabolism, eco-metabolic processes, industrial ecology
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abel Chávez

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Guest Editor
School of Environment & Sustainability, Western Colorado University, Gunnison, CO 81231, USA
Interests: community metabolism; climate action planning; data and resource modeling; climate policy pathways; community transitions; community infrastructure
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shaoqing Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Interests: urban metabolism; environmental sustainability; climate change; global cities; industrial ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A rich body of knowledge on the flows and intensities of urban resources has been developed in the last decade, elevating the understanding of the approaches, applications, and progress towards a future of sustainable cities using urban metabolism as a methodological foundation. The objective of this special issue is to advance our understanding of the potential of the field of urban metabolism for creating sustainable cities. Submissions on theory, methods, tools, case-studies and reviews are invited. For example, applications of urban metabolism to sustainability transitions, low-carbon pathways, circular economy, decoupling material flows from urban economic development, sustainable consumption, progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or coupling mitigation and adaptation planning in cities are welcomed. Consideration for the corresponding stakeholders such as businesses, government agencies and general public, and available levers (e.g. supply chain management, policy and lifestyle change) are encouraged. Moreover, this special issue welcomes contributions in urban metabolism-based tools, approaches to city typologies, development of performance indicators, sustainable city policy development and implementation, and urban metabolism analysis under conditions of data scarcity. Finally, authors are invited to submit case studies of sustainable metabolic systems design, development of benchmarks and monitoring schemes.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yuliya Kalmykova
Prof. Dr. John Fernández
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abel Chávez
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shaoqing Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • transitions
  • urban planning
  • sustainable urban development
  • sustainable urban metabolism
  • decoupling, decarbonization
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • sustainable resource use
  • urban sustainability
  • industrial ecology
  • circular economy

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 1825 KiB  
Article
Methods for Downscaling National Material Consumption Data to the Regional and Municipal Levels
by Alexandra Lavers Westin, Leonardo Rosado, Yuliya Kalmykova and João Patrício
Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8336; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208336 - 10 Oct 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2346
Abstract
Decision makers are looking to reach consumption-based environmental impact targets like Sustainable Development Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. These goals require multifaceted action at municipal, regional, and national levels; however, there are limitations to calculating consumption at the regional and municipal levels. [...] Read more.
Decision makers are looking to reach consumption-based environmental impact targets like Sustainable Development Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. These goals require multifaceted action at municipal, regional, and national levels; however, there are limitations to calculating consumption at the regional and municipal levels. Consumption is dependent on the socioeconomic metabolism of the area, with its unique composition of industries, consumers, and public facilities, which may affect the most appropriate measures to meet goals effectively. In this study, we evaluated several methods to extrapolate municipality- and region-specific consumption from national-level data so that consumption estimates can be used to aid decision makers or make further analyses like environmental impact evaluation. We compared four approaches and validated our findings using reported consumption values as well as results from another model in use. We found that using per capita values for consumption is satisfactory for counties, but consumption in municipalities and metropolitan areas with populations smaller than 500,000 inhabitants was better described by one of the suggested methods on average. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Urban Metabolism and the Progress towards Sustainable Cities)
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16 pages, 1154 KiB  
Article
Informing Sustainable Consumption in Urban Districts: A Method for Transforming Household Expenditures into Physical Quantities
by Alice Whetstone, Yuliya Kalmykova, Leonardo Rosado and Alexandra Lavers Westin
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 802; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030802 - 21 Jan 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2905
Abstract
Interventions targeted at district-level are a potentially effective way to reduce consumption-based urban impacts; however, a systematic method for accounting these impacts at district scale has not yet been developed. This article outlines a method for transforming household expenditure data into consumption quantified [...] Read more.
Interventions targeted at district-level are a potentially effective way to reduce consumption-based urban impacts; however, a systematic method for accounting these impacts at district scale has not yet been developed. This article outlines a method for transforming household expenditure data into consumption quantified on a physical basis. Data sources are combined to calculate monetary value per unit mass for different products consumed by households. Socio-economic household archetypes are selected, and typical consumption for these archetypes is calculated by combining expenditure data from a household budget survey with the calculated monetary values per unit mass. The resulting physical quantities of different products consumed are envisaged as an essential part of performing district scale material flow analysis and urban metabolism studies, also as an input for assessing consumption-based environmental impacts and for designing sustainable consumption policies. The method was applied to characterise consumption in urban districts. The obtained results were used to assess of districts’ consumption-based impacts with life cycle assessment (LCA) and to inform design of sharing economy. The method was found to be an effective way to evaluate the demand for products in different districts; this in turn could inform objective measures to aid more sustainable urban consumption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Urban Metabolism and the Progress towards Sustainable Cities)
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25 pages, 1919 KiB  
Article
Material Flows and Stocks in the Urban Building Sector: A Case Study from Vienna for the Years 1990–2015
by Jakob Lederer, Andreas Gassner, Florian Keringer, Ursula Mollay, Christoph Schremmer and Johann Fellner
Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010300 - 30 Dec 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3887
Abstract
Population growth in cities leads to high raw material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In temperate climates were heating of buildings is among the major contributors to greenhouse gases, thermal insulation of buildings became a standard in recent years. Both population growth and [...] Read more.
Population growth in cities leads to high raw material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In temperate climates were heating of buildings is among the major contributors to greenhouse gases, thermal insulation of buildings became a standard in recent years. Both population growth and greenhouse gas mitigation may thus have some influence on the quantity and composition of building material stock in cities. By using the case study of Vienna, this influence is evaluated by calculating the stock of major building materials (concrete, bricks, mortar, and plaster, steel, wood, glass, mineral wool, and polystyrene) between the years 1990 and 2015. The results show a growth of the material stock from 274 kt in the year 1990 to 345 kt in the year 2015, resulting in a total increase of 26%. During the same period, the population grew by 22%. On a material level, the increase of thermal insulation materials like polystyrene and mineral wool by factors of 6.5 and 2.5 respectively were much higher than for other materials, indicating energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigation in the building construction sector. The displacement of brickwork by concrete as the most important construction material, however, is rather a response to population growth as concrete buildings can be raised faster. A question for the future is to which extent this change from brickwork to high carbon-intensive concrete countervails the achievements in greenhouse gas reduction by thermal insulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Urban Metabolism and the Progress towards Sustainable Cities)
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