Challenges in Urban Metabolism: Sustainability and Well-Being in Cities

Ulgiati, Sérgio; Zucaro, Amalia

doi:10.3389/frsc.2019.00001

Cited by 49 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…To improve policies and actions affecting urban sustainability, it is crucial to monitor the resource inflows and outflows, by employing system diagrams that increase our understanding of how they relate to population, resource availability, and environmental carrying capacity (Ulgiati and Zucaro, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Linking urban metabolism to policy strategies is necessary in order to measure and change urban sustainability performances, by developing the interdisciplinary practice of urban metabolism assessment. Therefore, it is fundamental to discuss and to more deeply understand the complexity of future urban development and management, going much beyond the linear and monodimensional approach of just measuring a city's population, energy consumption, or gross domestic product (Ulgiati and Zucaro, 2019). This addresses sustainability issues based on multiple trade-offs but disregards the complex non-linear character of urban systems, emerging from the network of feedbacks of urban elements (Jackson, 2000;Meadows, 2008;Sterman, 2012).…”

Section: Systems Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Systemic Features of Urban Systems. A Look at Material Flows and Cultural Dimensions to Address Post-Growth Resilience and Sustainability

Cristiano

Zucaro

Liu

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Cities

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Urbanization is widely recognized as a relentless trend at the global level. Nevertheless, a comprehensive assessment of urban systems able to address the future growth and decline of cities is still lacking. Urban systems today rely on abundant resources, flowing in from other regions, and their future availability and accessibility should be taken into consideration to ensure urban well-being and resilience in likely post-growth scenarios. A logical framework to address the challenge of urban planning and management to promote long-term urban system sustainability is proposed. Systems thinking and diagramming are applied, while comprehensively tracking the key material flows upon which cities depend back to their sources. First, the nexus among resources and urban activities is identified, and then its circularity is framed within a wider discourse on urban sustainability and resilience. Discussion is carried out within a twofold perspective of both existing and newly built environments, while related economies are analyzed in order to find possible game-changing scenarios.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Systems Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Systemic Features of Urban Systems. A Look at Material Flows and Cultural Dimensions to Address Post-Growth Resilience and Sustainability

Cristiano

Zucaro

Liu

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Cities

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“…While more than half of the increase in the urban population in primate harboring countries is caused by in situ population increase, migration from rural areas into cities also is a contributing factor (Hecht et al, 2015). While cities cover <2% of the earth's surface, they use about 78% of the energy produced, including large quantities of nonfood and food products, much of which is wasted, adding to environmental pressures locally and globally (Ulgiati & Zacaro, 2019). Urbanization produces land-cover changes (Grimm et al, 2008) that drive habitat loss, air and water pollution, and the extinction of local animal and plant populations (Hahs et al, 2009).…”

Section: Population In Rural and Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future trends in socio-economic, demographic and governance factors affecting global primate conservation

Estrada

Garber

Chaudhary

2020

PeerJ

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Currently, ~65% of extant primate species (ca 512 species) distributed in 91 countries in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, South Asia and Southeast Asia are threatened with extinction and 75% have declining populations as a result of deforestation and habitat loss resulting from increasing global market demands, and land conversion for industrial agriculture, cattle production and natural resource extraction. Other pressures that negatively impact primates are unsustainable bushmeat hunting, the illegal trade of primates as pets and as body parts, expanding road networks in previously isolated areas, zoonotic disease transmission and climate change. Here we examine current and future trends in several socio-economic factors directly or indirectly affecting primates to further our understanding of the interdependent relationship between human well-being, sustainable development, and primate population persistence. We found that between 2001 and 2018 ca 191 Mha of tropical forest (30% canopy cover) were lost as a result of human activities in the five primate range regions. Forty-six percent of this loss was in the Neotropics (Mexico, Central and South America), 30% in Southeast Asia, 21% in mainland Africa, 2% in Madagascar and 1% in South Asia. Countries with the greatest losses (ca 57% of total tree cover loss) were Brazil, Indonesia, DRC, China, and Malaysia. Together these countries harbor almost 50% of all extant primate species. In 2018, the world human population was estimated at ca 8bn people, ca 60% of which were found in primate range countries. Projections to 2050 and to 2100 indicate continued rapid growth of the human populations in these five primate range regions, with Africa surpassing all the other regions and totaling ca 4bn people by the year 2100. Socioeconomic indicators show that, compared to developed nations, most primate range countries are characterized by high levels of poverty and income inequality, low human development, low food security, high levels of corruption and weak governance. Models of Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (SSPs) projected to 2050 and 2100 showed that whereas practices of increasing inequality (SSP4) or unconstrained growth in economic output and energy use (SSP5) are projected to have dire consequences for human well-being and primate survivorship, practices of sustainability-focused growth and equality (SSP1) are expected to have a positive effect on maintaining biodiversity, protecting environments, and improving the human condition. These results stress that improving the well-being, health, and security of the current and future human populations in primate range countries are of paramount importance if we are to move forward with effective policies to protect the world’s primate species and promote biodiversity conservation.

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“…The analysis of the city dynamics then proceeds by setting up a system of non-linear relations, determined by the operational feedback network. Further recent works reporting systemic analyses applied to city sustainability are from Viglia et al (2016), Agostinho et al (2018), Marvuglia et al (2018), Lee and Braham (2019), Braham et al (2019) and Ulgiati and Zucaro (2019), who also link emergy analysis to a circular economy, which is one of the hot topics in the context of urban planning. In particular, Ulgiati and Zucaro explicitly use the notion of urban metabolism (Céspedes Restrepo and Morales-Pinzón, 2018), and for all internal city processes they use a biology-based narrative for the exchange of matter and energy between the living organisms and the environment.…”

Section: The Systemic Smart Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The meaning of the term "Smart City" is poorly defined, as it is related to the contextual mindset of the respective communities of scholars. Several reviews about SC definitions and features may be found in the literature, offering a wide range of perspectives (see for example: Komninos, 2011;O'Grady and O'Hare, 2012;Berardi, 2013;Turcu, 2013;Russo et al, 2014;Albino et al, 2015;Bibri, 2018;Deakin and Reid, 2018;Wu et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Joss et al, 2019;Ulgiati and Zucaro, 2019). The element that seems to be shared by all of the various approaches to city smartness is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to basic infrastructural services (Washburn et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Smart Narrative of a Smart City

Gonella

2019

Front. Sustain. Cities

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The current narrative about Smart Cities is flawed on two levels. First, it describes cities whose promise of smartness is highly biased. Second, it neglects to account for the systemic nature of the urban metabolism, as well as the role of the support region of the city (in terms of its resource provision). In this contribution, I propose a short review of the mainstream Smart City narrative elements as presented by influential and authoritative sources, pointing out their detachment from the reality and from the sustainability of cities described by systemic thinking.

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Challenges in Urban Metabolism: Sustainability and Well-Being in Cities

Cited by 49 publications

References 14 publications

On the Systemic Features of Urban Systems. A Look at Material Flows and Cultural Dimensions to Address Post-Growth Resilience and Sustainability

On the Systemic Features of Urban Systems. A Look at Material Flows and Cultural Dimensions to Address Post-Growth Resilience and Sustainability

Current and future trends in socio-economic, demographic and governance factors affecting global primate conservation

The Smart Narrative of a Smart City

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