An emergy analysis for urban environmental sustainability assessment, the Island of Montreal, Canada

Sustainability of cities and the environmental implications of high resource utilization by the domestic sector are growing concerns related to urban regions. Well-informed urban planning decision-making is an essential tool to help in the task and, for that, an important point to consider is the influence of parameters like residential density and housing typology on the intensity of resource utilization. Emergy synthesis, a life-cycle energy analysis methodological approach that considers the interaction of natural and human-made flows, was used to evaluate the environmental support for dwelling operational stage in five typical present-day housing units on the island of Montreal. As expected, resource utilization, measured as total emergy used, was positively correlated to housing unit size both with respect to number of occupants and dwelling size. Results suggest that variables affecting notably the intensity of resource utilization are per household income and per dweller habitable space and, while a higher income increased per capita emergy in all cases, increasing space availability per resident did not result in a decrease of empower density after 50 m 2 /person. Future work should consider lower and higher densities and analyses at the scale of blocks, neighborhoods and urban planning zones.

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“…For case studies of emergy synthesis in the built environment, the following papers may also be consulted [23][24][25][26][27][28]33,51]. …”

Section: Emergy Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergy Evaluation of Dwelling Operation in Five Housing Units of Montreal Island, Canada

et al. 2017

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“…Ascione and collaborators studied Rome in 2002, including imported labour and certain specific sectors such as tourism and government support [24,25]. Vega-Azamar and colleagues assessed the environmental sustainability in Montreal in 2005 and compared it to that of other selected cities [26]. Zhang and collaborators examined Beijing from 1990-2004; they found that Beijing relies heavily on resources purchased from abroad (similarly to what was observed for Macao, Rome and Montreal) and that this dependence increased during the studied period [27].…”

Section: Emergy Evaluation In Urban Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empower per household may be an indicator of quality of living in residential areas [29] and, similarly, per capita emergy may also be an indirect indicator of standard of living [26]. For this reason, it was explored if per household income, an economic measure of well-being, could be related to per capita emergy consumption and to empower per household, expecting that higher household incomes corresponded to higher Ucap and EH (see Figures 3 and 4).…”

Section: Per Capita and Per Household Emergy Utilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

et al. 2015

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High resource utilization in the residential sector, and the associated environmental impacts, are central issues in the growth of urban regions. Land-use urban planning is a primary instrument for the proper development of cities; an important point is the consideration of the urban form's influence on resource utilization intensity. Emergy synthesis, an energy-based methodological approach that allows the quantification and integration of both natural and human-generated flows interacting in urban environments, was used to assess sustainability of the residential land use of seven boroughs on the Island of Montreal. Natural resources, food, water, acquired goods and services, electricity and fuels were the main flows considered in the analysis. Results suggest that income, household size and distance to downtown are the variables affecting resource utilization intensity more noticeably and that allocation of green area coverage is an important parameter for OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 2455 controlling land use intensity. With the procedure used for calculating resource use intensity in the seven boroughs, it is possible to generate a tool to support urban planning decisionmaking for assessing sustainable development scenarios. Future research should consider urban green space potential for accommodating local waste treatment systems, acting as a greenhouse gas emissions sink and promoting human health.

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“…Although not mainstream in the UM literature, this approach is now increasingly common (e.g. (93)(94)(95)). …”

Section: Main Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concepts and Methodologies for Measuring the Sustainability of Cities

Roche

Lechtenböhmer

Fischedick

et al. 2014

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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In recent decades, better data and methods have become available for understanding the complex functioning of cities and their impacts on sustainability. This review synthesizes the recent developments in concepts and methods being used to measure the impacts of cities on environmental sustainability. It differentiates between a dominant trend in research literature that concentrates on the accounting and allocation of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use to cities and a reemergence of studies that focus on the direct and indirect material and resource flows in cities. The methodological approaches reviewed may consider cities as either producers or consumers, and all recognize that urban environmental impacts can be local, regional, or global. As well as giving an overview of the methodological debates, we examine the implications of the different approaches for policy and the challenges these approaches face in their application in the field.

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An emergy analysis for urban environmental sustainability assessment, the Island of Montreal, Canada

Cited by 68 publications

References 49 publications

Emergy Evaluation of Dwelling Operation in Five Housing Units of Montreal Island, Canada

Emergy Evaluation of Dwelling Operation in Five Housing Units of Montreal Island, Canada

Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

Concepts and Methodologies for Measuring the Sustainability of Cities

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