A framework for the urban eco-metabolism model - Linking metabolic processes to spatial patterns

Abstract

a b s t r a c tRapid urbanization disordered the urban metabolism, pressed the contradiction between resources supply and demand, and caused urban environment deterioration. Urban metabolism provides important insights into the characterization of material and energy flows and the relationships between anthropogenic urban activities and natural processes. However, linking socio-economic and ecologic models, and tracking the time-dependent distribution and configuration of material and energy flows across the entire city are imperatively needed in urban metabolism model development. In this study, the points, lines and areas concepts were introduced to connect the urban landscape patterns and ecometabolic processes. A framework developed to simplify the urban landscape as areas, and use points and lines to depict the eco-metabolic processes in space. In application, a model framework of urban water metabolism was used as an example to analyze the natural hydrological processes and social water metabolism in an urban ecosystem. Water balance of a community was calculated by the model. The total input and output of the community's water metabolism was 50189. /d wastewater out. The runoff coefficient of the impervious area, pervious area and the community was 0.87, 0.30 and 0.55, respectively. The model has provided a tool for urban planners to improve landscape patterns and infrastructure layouts within urban ecosystem to build sustainable cities.

The Circular Metabolic Urban Landscape

“…Evaluations are at the core of interdisciplinary researches and applications, as The Metabolic Impact Assessment for urban planning (Pinho et al, 2013) proposes a synthesis of evaluation methods and considers the land together with the metabolic resources in the SUME project (Davoudi & Sturzaker, 2017). Similarly, landscape design (Marin & De Meulder, 2018b;Oliveira & Vaz, 2020), wastescapes regeneration (Amenta & van Timmeren, 2018) and built environment as resources for improving UM set a nexus between UM, planning and design (Davoudi & Sturzaker, 2017;Liu et al, 2017). The use of UM models for design is cogitated (Roggema & Alshboul, 2014), also jointly with the regenerative design approach by Thomson and Newman (2018).…”

Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

“…This study did link multiple indicators in a SD way; however, there was no consideration of CHANS. The cases of Lookingbill, et al [69], Lin, et al [70] and Liu, et al [56] also applied systems thinking but did not extend the method to forecast results. In general, these modelling types have different strengths when it comes to assessing ES and some more than others.…”

“…Spatio-temporal details are a major part of the complexity of urban systems, and the methods for integration of these details in UM approaches remain an open research question [32,56]. Urban activities, and therefore the metabolic flows, occur in heterogeneous spatial patterns [105,106].…”

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Landscape Ecological Risk and Driving Factors: A Case Study in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

“…The risk assessment of landscape ecology is often based on remote sensing data and can be divided into two assessment methods based on risk sources and sinks and landscape patterns. Compared with the former, the latter, in part, breaks away from the inherent "risk source identification-receptor analysis-exposure and hazard assessment" mode of traditional ecosystem assessment and directly evaluates the risk of landscape ecology based on spatial patterns [12]. In particular, a quantitative method of landscape ecological risk has been proposed based on "loss and probability multiplication."…”