Sustainable Urban Metabolism
A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 November 2022) | Viewed by 20022
Special Issue Editors
Interests: urban metabolism; sustainable energy systems; industrial ecology; urban digital twins; sustainable cities; waste management
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The urgence of mitigating climate change at a global scale is a huge challenge, and the time for the necessary societal transformation is short, as recognized by the EU Report of the Mission Board for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (2020), which highlights that cities cover about 3% of the land on Earth, yet they produce about 72% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the climate emergency must be tackled by cities—and by citizens.
Sustainability is therefore dependent on the way we collectively organize ourselves in growing urban centers. This depends on the ways in which we conduct our analysis of urban systems, design and socially construct them—particularly their multiple and complex interactions, as discussed by Ferrão and Fernandez (2013). These authors highlight that cities are currently mainly linear reactors: their metabolism consists of consuming goods from elsewhere, stocking them in different forms (e.g., buildings), and producing wastes which are mainly discarded, typically involving limited reuse or recycling.
Indeed, as material use is a vital part of human well-being and development, it is also associated to serious environmental impacts. This is cause for concern, as there has been little evidence of decoupling between wellbeing and material use. Therefore, a detailed understanding of material use and its implications for socioeconomic metabolism at an urban level is required, which is to say that we need to improve our understanding of urban metabolism in cities with different development stages.
This Special Issue looks into the dynamics of material use and economic growth by quantifying the socioeconomic flows associated with the structural changes that affect cities in different geographies, to shed light on the role that urban metabolism may play in informing measures to mitigate climate change.
Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferrão
Prof. Dr. Leonardo Rosado
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Urban metabolism
- Sustainable urban development
- Urban sustainability
- Climate change
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