Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management:

Sergio Ulgiati, Zhifeng YANG, Marco CASAZZA, Gengyuan LIU

Description

Urbanization is the one of the most evident forms of anthropization. With most of the world population living in cities, the need of thinking about a more sustainable urban lifestyle has become an imperative. This is why present and future generations of scholars, urban managers and policy makers should be prepared to work together to support the reduction of impacts generated by urban activities, while pursuing the goal of an equitable and sustainable well-being within the planetary boundaries. In this respect, the use of different methods and tools can support the implementation of roadmaps and policies. Besides that, different communication languages can be used to enhance the development of a shared reflective vision about the future of cities among citizens, as major actors of the urban life and its transformation.

This book provides an accessible overview of some key methods to deal holistically with the analysis of urban resources flows to readers with an interest in the academic or professional reference of the different approaches for studying urban metabolism. It presents some of the most important tools along with relevant case studies to illustrate their potential application. Experts in the field and holding the belief that visions and hopes trigger decisions and behaviors beyond the knowledge, the authors introduce readers to the use of different art-based methods to engage with citizens towards a common outlook on the future of our cities. The book also offers an enhanced reading experience by featuring a soundtrack composed by one of the authors and available through the QR code at the beginning of each chapter.

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Architecture
• Sciences de la nature
• Sciences de l'environnement
• Environnement
• Urbanisme
• Sciences appliquées
• Environment
• Urbanization
• Techniques

Informations

• Publié par: EDP Sciences
• Date de parution: 25 février 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782759825202
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 19 Mo

Extrait

Current Natural Sciences

Gengyuan LIU, Marco CASAZZA, Zhifeng YANG and Sergio ULGIATI

E C O L O G Y

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management Vision, tools, practices and beyond

E C O L O G Y

ISBN : 978-2-7598-2519-6

9 782759 825196

Current Natural Sciences

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management Vision, tools, practices and beyond

Gengyuan LIU, Marco CASAZZA, Zhifeng YANG and Sergio ULGIATI

Urbanization is the one of the most evident forms of anthropization. With most of the world population living in cities, the need of thinking about a more sustainable urban lifestyle has become an imperative. This is why present and future generations of scholars, urban managers and policy makers should be prepared to work together to support the reduction of impacts generated by urban activities, while pursuing the goal of an equitable and sustainable wellbeing within the planetary boundaries. In this respect, the use of different methods and tools can support the implementation of roadmaps and policies. Besides that, different communication languages can be used to enhance the development of a shared reflective vision about the future of cities among citizens, as major actors of the urban life and its transformation.

This book provides an accessible overview of some key methods to deal holistically with the analysis of urban resources flows to readers with an interest in the academic or professional reference of the different approaches for studying urban metabolism. It presents some of the most important tools along with relevant case studies to illustrate their potential application. Experts in the field and holding the belief that visions and hopes trigger decisions and behaviors beyond the knowledge, the authors introduce readers to the use of different artbased methods to engage with citizens towards a common outlook on the future of our cities. The book also offers an enhanced reading experience by featuring a soundtrack, composed by one of the authors and available through the QR code at the beginning of each chapter.

www.edpsciences.org

Current Natural Sciences

Gengyuan LIU, Marco CASAZZA, Zhifeng YANG and Sergio ULGIATI

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management

Vision, tools, practices and beyond

This book is funded by the Fund for Innovative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51721093) and the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFC0502800).

This book was originally published by Science Press, © Science Press, 2020.

Printed in France

EDP Sciences – ISBN(print): 978-2-7598-2519-6 – ISBN(ebook): 978-2-7598-2520-2

All rights relative to translation, adaptation and reproduction by any means whatsoever are reserved, worldwide. In accordance with the terms of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 41 of the French Act dated March 11, 1957, “copies or reproductions reserved strictly for private use and not intended for collective use” and, on the other hand, analyses and short quotations for example or illustrative purposes, are allowed. Otherwise, “any representation or reproduction – whether in full or in part – without the consent of the author or of his successors or assigns, is unlawful” (Article 40, paragraph 1). Any representation or reproduction, by any means whatsoever, will therefore be deemed an infringement of copyright punishable under Articles 425 and following of the French Penal Code.

The printed edition is not for sale in Chinese mainland. Customers in Chinese mainland please order the print book from Science Press. ISBN of the China edition: Science Press ISBN: 978-7-03-066166-1

 Science Press, EDP Sciences, 2021 ©

Preface

1SFGBDF

i

The world is facing an urgent need for economic, social and environmental transformation, requiring huge efforts for pursuing a sustainable future. In 2015, all 193 United Nations (UN) member States adopted the Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a comprehensive framework comprising many potentially diverging policy goals and aspiring for transformative change in the economic, social, and environmental challenges. These challenges are strongly interlinked, in fact, SDGs are expected to be mutually supportive and need buy-in from all nations. This means that governance processes across multiple sectors, stakeholders and countries are critical and long-term social and economic improvement will need closer attention to be paid to the environment. Meanwhile, great efforts must be made to reduce or change human use of geophysical resources (such as energy, materials or land) to prevent severe ecological degradation and mitigate climate change effects. Climate action is explicitly addressed by SDG13, and is expected to impact almost all aspects of sustainable development, so it is necessary to understand how action to address climate change could reinforce or undermine the other SDGs, and vice versa. A quantitative and comprehensive research is therefore mandatory to link the social, economic and environmental fields, aiming at guiding and monitoring the progress to sustainable levels. At the core of sustainable development science is therefore the need to understand the interactions between Society and Nature, how these interactions change over time and how they will be likely affected in the next future. Metabolic research is an effective system approach for analysing the physical exchange process (material and energy flow) between human society and its natural environment as well as the material and energy flow within human society, and their impacts to the natural environment. SDGs framework introduced a set of detailed monitoring indicators related to metabolism, such as domestic material consumption (DMC), material footprint (MF), resource efficiency, and so on, while scholars from different backgrounds have developed various research strands of socio-metabolic approaches. SMR is based on the assumption that social systems and ecosystems are complex systems that can replicate themselves, affect each other, and develop together over time. System components at different scales tend to act and influence each other by nesting within another. Moreover, scale matters in a wide variety of aspects of driving forces, impacts, and responses to sustainable development challenges, because it is directly related to how and where governance decisions are made. This requires new approaches to multi-scale actions, as far as cross-scale innovative co-management structures can promote sustainable development. As a matter of fact, local decision-making is

ii

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management

influenced by regional policies, which in turn affects global politics and economy, rising from local to larger scales, and the decisions in turn affect sustainable development: what happens to sustainability at one scale affects sustainability at other scales. As an increasing number of people and human activities are concentrated in cities, with more than 55.3% of the world population living in urban areas, thus cities bring significant and increasing economic contribution to their economies. More and more researches are focused on the urban-scale operation and functioning. However, the environmental issues of cities extend outside the urban boundaries, not only involving multiple dimensions, but also scales of impacts ranging from local, regional to global. This requires larger scales of analyses, taking into account the interaction of urban to national to even global scale. Urban metabolism has been used as a metaphor in multiple fields, indicating that traditional methods may not have fully epistemological tools to face the new challenges, including sustainable development ones. Research has now recognised the importance of scale. So far, metabolic research has been applied to multi-scale research from individual/family, neighbourhood and urban spatial scales to regional and even global scales, as well as from individual sectors to socio-economy. Several questions raised:cbeing metabolic research applied to complex systems at different scales, what are the main differences among the research methods at different scales?dFrom the perspective of historical development of metabolic theory, what are the focuses at different stages, and which ones should draw more attention in the future? This book contributes to the understanding of the differences of metabolic research applied at different scales. Based on the literature, it outlines the origin and development of metabolic theories and studies at different scales, as well as their analytical methods of metabolism research, and finally puts forward the significance of scale-up framework in metabolic research. We recognize that this book can offer something of a “voyage of discovery” for teachers and students with the background of system ecology, environmental sciences and ecological economics, and also for urban planners, and policy makers.

Contents

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iii

.............................................................. Chapter 0Urban metabolism for the urban century1 ...................................................................................................................... 0.1Motivation 3 ................................................................................................... 0.2The research questions 5 .............................................................................................................. 0.3Aim of the book 8

Part A: Vision and Theory

.......................................... Chapter 1City: A socio-ecological view of human communities11 .................................................................................................................. 1.1Introduction 13 ........................................................................ 1.214Urban sustainable development debate ................................................... 1.315Urban metabolism and principle of entropy increase ..................... Chapter 2 Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of urban sustainability19 .................................................................................................................. 2.1Introduction 21 ......................................................................................................................... 2.2Method 22 .............................................................. 2.325Urban TEK and environmental sustainability ...................................................................... 2.429Urban TEK and economic sustainability ............................................................................ 2.5Urban TEK and social sustainability 30 .................................................................................................................... 2.6Discussion 33 .................................................................................................................... 2.7Conclusion 38 ................................................. Chapter 3Urban metabolism theory and analysis methods41 .................................................................................................................. 3.1Introduction 43 ............................................................... 3.2Origin and development of metabolic theory 43 ............................................................................. 3.3Metabolic studies at different scales 49 ......................................................................... 3.453Main methods of metabolism research ..................................................... 3.5Implication of metabolism study on different scale 60 ............................................. Chapter 4 Environmental accounting and urban metabolism65 .................................................................................................................. 4.1Introduction 67 .................. 4.269Present knowledge for urban environmental accounting and management .................. 4.373Present challenges for urban environmental accounting and management .................................................................................................................... 4.4Discussion 74

iv

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management

................... Chapter 5Ecosystem services accounting framework and urban metabolism77 .................................................................................................................. 5.1Introduction 79 .......................................................................................................... 5.281Literature review ..................................................... 5.3The framework for non-monetary ESV accounting 84 .................................................................................................................... 5.4Discussion 93 .................................................................................................................... 5.5Conclusion 99 ................................................ Chapter 6A physical view of urban metabolism dynamics101 ................................................................................................................ 6.1Introduction 103 .......................................................................................... 6.2Allometric laws and cities 103 ............................................................................................ 6.3111Global energy constrains ................................................................................................................ 6.4Conclusions 125 ............................................... Chapter 7Urban metabolism and urban ecological culture127 ................................................................................................................ 7.1Introduction 129 ............................................................. 7.2129Analogy between cell and ecological culture ................................................................................... 7.3Cellular structure and function 130 .................................................................. 7.4Concept model of reconstruction of UEC 131 .................................................................................................................. 7.5Conclusion 136 ...................................... Chapter 8 Circular economy and urban ecological management137 ................................................................................................................ 8.1Introduction 139 ............................ 8.2147The evolution of circular economy practices in China and Europe ................................................................................................... 8.3Concluding remarks 159

Part B: Tools and Approaches

....................................................................... Chapter 9Urban metabolic process analysis165 ................................................................................................................ 9.1Introduction 167 .............................................................................................................. 9.2Methodology 168 ........................................ 9.3173Ecological economic account of Beijing urban ecosystem .................................................................................................................. 9.4Discussion 187 .................................................................................................................. 9.5Conclusion 191 ................................................... Chapter 10Urban metabolic flux and structure analysis193 .............................................................................................................. 10.1Introduction 195 ........................................................................................ 10.2Methodology and data use 197 ...................................................................................................................... 10.3Results 199 ....................................................................................... 10.4212Conclusion and discussion ................................................... Chapter 11Urban metabolic network structure analysis215 .............................................................................................................. 11.1Introduction 217 ............................................................................................................ 11.2Methodology 218

Contents

v

......................................................................................... 11.3226Extended exergy analysis .......................................................................... 11.4Ecological network analysis results 233 ................................................................................................................ 11.5Discussion 237 ................................................................................................................ 11.6Conclusion 239 ........................... Chapter 12Environmental impact analysis in urban metabolic system241 .............................................................................................................. 12.1Introduction 243 ......................................... 12.2Characteristics of the environment and economy in Beijing 245 ............................................................................................................ 12.3Methodology 245 .............................................................................................. 12.4254Results and discussion ................................................................................................................ 12.5Conclusion 263 ................................................................... Chapter 13 Urban metabolic dynamic analysis265 .............................................................................................................. 13.1Introduction 267 ........................................................................................................... 13.2268State of the art ............................................................................................... 13.3Material and methods 269 ............................................................... 13.4276Model calibration and parameter selection ...................................................................................................................... 13.5Results 280 ....................................................................................... 13.6Discussion and conclusion 285 Chapter 14Urban metabolism health evaluation and spatial development pattern ............................................................................................................... analysis289 .............................................................................................................. 14.1Introduction 291 .............................................................................................. 14.2Materials and methods 292 ...................................................................................................................... 14.3Results 298 ................................................................................................................ 14.4Discussion 302 ................................................................................................................ 14.5Conclusion 304 .............................. Chapter 15 Urban agglomeration metabolism sustainability analysis307 .............................................................................................................. 15.1Introduction 309 .................................................................................................................... 15.2Methods 313 ...................................................................................................................... 15.3Results 324 ................................................................................................................ 15.4Discussion 333 ................................................................................................................ 15.5Conclusion 336 ................................ Chapter 16Thermodynamic geography of urban metabolic process339 .............................................................................................................. 16.1Introduction 341 ............................................................................................... 16.2345Material and methods .............................................................................................. 16.3Results and discussion 356 ................................................................................................................ 16.4Conclusion 366 Chapter 17Urban food-energy-water nexus analysis to support urban circular economy ............................................................................................................... strategy369 .............................................................................................................. 17.1Introduction 371 ...................................................................................................... 17.2373Literature review

vi

17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6

Urban Metabolism and Ecological Management

..................................................................................................................... Method 376 ...................................................................................................................... Results 386 ................................................................................................................ Discussion 391 ................................................................................................................ Conclusion 402

Part C˖Case studies

.......................... Chapter 18Urban municipal solid waste metabolism and management407 .............................................................................................................. 18.1Introduction 409 ............................................................................................................ 18.2Methodology 411 ...................................................................................................................... 18.3Results 417 ................................................................................................................ 18.4Discussion 424 ................................................................................................................ 18.5Conclusion 427 ......................................... Chapter 19Hospital solid waste metabolism and management429 .............................................................................................................. 19.1Introduction 431 .................................................................................... 19.2Field test and data collection 441 ...................................................................................................................... 19.3Results 460 ................................................................................................................ 19.4Discussion 464 ............................................................................ 19.5Conclusion and recommendations 468 .................... Chapter 20Metabolism efficiency analysis of urban transportation system471 .............................................................................................................. 20.1Introduction 473 ...................................................................................................... 20.2Literature review 474 .................................................................................................................... 20.3Methods 476 ................................................................................................................. 20.4479Case study ...................................................................................................................... 20.5Results 483 ................................................................................................................ 20.6Discussion 495 ................................................................................................................ 20.7Conclusion 496 Chapter 21Metabolic efficiency analysis of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment .............................................................................................................. (WEEE)499 .............................................................................................................. 21.1Introduction 501 ........................................................................................ 21.2519Methodology and analysis .............................................................................................. 21.3537Results and discussion ................................................................................................................ 21.4Conclusion 558 ................... Chapter 22Urban wastewater metabolism and sewage sludge management563 .............................................................................................................. 22.1Introduction 565 ......................................................................... 22.2Current situation in Italy and China 575 .................................................................................. 22.3585Method: life cycle assessment ................................................................ 22.4591Nocera superior and Gaobeidian WWTPs