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Environments
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Sustainable Urban Metabolism
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Sustainable Urban Metabolism

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 November 2022) | Viewed by 21285

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferrão

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: urban metabolism; sustainable energy systems; industrial ecology; urban digital twins; sustainable cities; waste management
Prof. Dr. Leonardo Rosado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Building Group, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Interests: urban metabolism; waste management; circular economy

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

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. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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

  • Urban metabolism
  • Sustainable urban development
  • Urban sustainability
  • Climate change
 

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 5074 KiB  
Article
A New Framework for Circular Refurbishment of Buildings to Operationalize Circular Economy Policies
by Joana Fernandes and Paulo Ferrão
Environments 2023, 10(3), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10030051 - 12 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4701
Abstract
The current policies aimed at promoting the decarbonization of existing buildings under the principles of the circular economy are in need of practical measures tailored to local conditions to increase their effectiveness. The lack of standard practices for assessing buildings’ refurbishment strategies toward [...] Read more.
The current policies aimed at promoting the decarbonization of existing buildings under the principles of the circular economy are in need of practical measures tailored to local conditions to increase their effectiveness. The lack of standard practices for assessing buildings’ refurbishment strategies toward energy efficiency and CE principles reflects this reality. To tackle this issue, a new framework for refurbishing circular buildings, is proposed in this paper, based on circular procurement and incorporating a lifecycle perspective. This framework articulates a dialogue between local authorities and private stakeholders through a set of steps that encompass building mapping, selective disassembly, (re)design, and (re)build practices, providing opportunities to implement policy-based incentives. The application of the framework within the Portuguese context demonstrates the potential to identify critical moments within the refurbishment process that can materialize in a new set of CE policy actions to be implemented at the building level. These policies are aligned with local construction permitting procedures and take advantage of the resources and incentives offered by the local administration, such as tax incentives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Metabolism)
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17 pages, 3759 KiB  
Article
Investigating Vegetation Types Based on the Spatial Variation in Air Pollutant Concentrations Associated with Different Forms of Urban Forestry
by Ashley N. J. Douglas, Peter J. Irga and Fraser R. Torpy
Environments 2023, 10(2), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10020032 - 16 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3566
Abstract
Globally, rapid urbanisation is one of the major drivers for land-use changes, many of which have a marked impact on urban air quality. Urban forestry has been increasingly proposed as a means of reducing airborne pollutants; however, limited studies have comparatively assessed land-use [...] Read more.
Globally, rapid urbanisation is one of the major drivers for land-use changes, many of which have a marked impact on urban air quality. Urban forestry has been increasingly proposed as a means of reducing airborne pollutants; however, limited studies have comparatively assessed land-use types, including urban forestry, for their relationship with air pollution on a city scale. We, thus, investigated the spatial relationships between three air pollutant concentrations, NO2, SO2, and PM10, and different land uses and land covers across a major city, by constructing a yearly average model combining these variables. Additionally, relationships between different vegetation types and air pollutant concentrations were investigated to determine whether different types of vegetation are associated with different air pollutants. Parklands, water bodies, and more specifically, broadleaf evergreen forest and mangrove vegetation were associated with lower pollutant concentrations. These findings support urban forestry’s capabilities to mitigate air pollution across a city-wide scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Metabolism)
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15 pages, 3910 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Plant Type, Substrate and Irrigation Regime on Living Wall Performance in a Semi-Arid Climate
by Rosmina A. Bustami, Simon Beecham and James Hopeward
Environments 2023, 10(2), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10020026 - 1 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3291
Abstract
Living walls are fast becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern living and are widely implemented in commercial buildings in both internal and external environments. However, there are several challenges associated with maintaining healthy plant growth on these water sensitive urban design systems. This [...] Read more.
Living walls are fast becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern living and are widely implemented in commercial buildings in both internal and external environments. However, there are several challenges associated with maintaining healthy plant growth on these water sensitive urban design systems. This experimental study of an instrumented prototype-scale living wall has found that there is a close relationship between the plants, substrates and adopted irrigation regimes. In this study, plant selection was found to be more critical than either substrate or irrigation regime selection. This research also found that both the location of the plants on the wall and irrigation volume significantly affected the plants’ ultimate total dry weight. In particular, plants were found to grow taller on the upper section of the living wall compared to the middle and lower sections. It is recommended that particular attention should be given to plant location and the amount of irrigation water supplied at different positions on the living wall. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Metabolism)
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16 pages, 2826 KiB  
Article
Urban Metabolism Characterization from the National to the Regional Scale: A Case Study of Lisbon
by Sónia Cunha and Paulo Ferrão
Environments 2023, 10(2), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10020014 - 17 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3446
Abstract
Cities are complex systems with a key role in economic development and in improving the environmental sustainability of nations. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of urban systems is fundamental to designing relevant policies and initiatives. Urban metabolism characterization may provide a holistic framework for [...] Read more.
Cities are complex systems with a key role in economic development and in improving the environmental sustainability of nations. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of urban systems is fundamental to designing relevant policies and initiatives. Urban metabolism characterization may provide a holistic framework for analyzing urban systems in the context of the broader national metabolism. This paper provides a methodology to characterize the metabolism of an urban area, such as the Lisbon metropolitan area, taking as a source of data the socioeconomic metabolism of the country. The national metabolism is established by computing physical input-output tables. The downscaling to the urban level is accomplished with a variety of sector-specific parameters, from which an urban mass balance is established for a set of economic activities. The results obtained for the case study of Portugal and the city of Lisbon suggest that the share of services and the type of manufacturing industries in the economic structure of Lisbon, together with the higher resource productivity in the most representative economic sectors, are key aspects of the metabolism that contribute to Lisbon having higher overall resource productivity. The representation of the metabolism flows revealed key differences between the supply chains of Lisbon and the national flows, as well as a strong dependence of the Lisbon economy on material flows from other regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Metabolism)
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Review

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22 pages, 1534 KiB  
Review
Urban Metabolism-Based Approaches for Promoting Circular Economy in Buildings Refurbishment
by Joana Fernandes and Paulo Ferrão
Environments 2023, 10(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10010013 - 16 Jan 2023
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5023
Abstract
The systemic transformation towards climate neutral cities depends on a dramatic reduction in the use of natural resources, whose use are directly or indirectly associated with greenhouse gas emissions. This means improving Urban Metabolism (UM) and one of the most promising pathways is [...] Read more.
The systemic transformation towards climate neutral cities depends on a dramatic reduction in the use of natural resources, whose use are directly or indirectly associated with greenhouse gas emissions. This means improving Urban Metabolism (UM) and one of the most promising pathways is to promote Circular Economy (CE) practices in the existing building stock, as this approach could reduce global CO2e emissions from building materials by 38% in 2050. However, although resource efficiency is at core of CE, there are still only a few established connections between CE and UM. This paper aims to fill this gap by adopting a three-tier approach based on the dimensions and the spatial implementation of CE (building, neighbourhood and UM scales), with the aim of discussing strategies for CE implementation. Although this not a one-size-fits-all process and cities must adapt these strategies to their local contexts, the strategic actions offered by this paper will facilitate the future development of a dedicated framework for buildings refurbishment using the principles of CE and the definition of multisectoral policy-based actions, in line with the decarbonization goals for cities, which will contribute to improving UM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Metabolism)
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