Smart Urban Metabolism: Towards a Real-Time Understanding of the Energy and Material Flows of a City and Its Citizens

Shahrokni, Hossein; Lazarevic, David; Brandt, Nils

doi:10.1080/10630732.2014.954899

Cited by 73 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Although, in particular, consumption of food, goods, and services make up some of the largest metabolic flows in Sweden (Nilsson and Brandt ), this was left out of the scope owing to the difficulty (as opposed to impossibility) to obtain real‐time data on it. Even so, the article that introduced the SUM framework (Shahrokni et al ) proposed all the appropriate data sources that need to be integrated, in order to describe the entire metabolism in real time, and that proposal is used as a long‐term roadmap for the future phases of Smart City SRS.…”

Section: Smart Urban Metabolism: Calculation Enginementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The benefits of the current UM framework can be summarized as follows (Princetl and Bunje ): It explicitly identifies system boundaries, enables a hiearchical research approach, accounts for system inputs and outputs, can be decomposed to study specific urban sectors, requires an analysis of policy and technology outcomes with regard to sustainability goals, is an adaptive approach to solutions and their consequences, and integrates social sciences with biophysical sciences/technology. Limitations of the current UM methods include: Lack of data at the city scale High data and resource requirements Lack of follow‐up and evaluation of the evolution of a city's UM Difficulties in identifying cause‐and‐effect relationships of the metabolic flows (Shahrokni et al ) …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…r Lack of data at the city scale r High data and resource requirements r Lack of follow-up and evaluation of the evolution of a city's UM r Difficulties in identifying cause-and-effect relationships of the metabolic flows r (Shahrokni et al 2014a) For this article, the last two limitations merit some expansion. UM studies are sometimes used for climate action planning (Kennedy and Sgouridis 2011;Johansson et al Forthcoming).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart City SRS

Shahrokni¹,

Årman

Lazarevic

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

Self Cite

109

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Summary For half a century, system scientists have relied on urban metabolism (UM) as a pragmatic framework to support the needed transition toward sustainable urban development. It has been suggested that information and communication technology (ICT) and, more specifically, smart cities can be leveraged in this transition. Given the recent advances in smart cities, smart urban metabolism (SUM) is considered a technology‐enabled evolution of the UM framework, overcoming some of its current limitations. Most significantly, the SUM framework works at high temporal (up to real‐time) and spatial (down to household/individual) resolutions. This article presents the first implementation of SUM in the Smart City Stockholm Royal Seaport R&D project; it further analyzes barriers and discusses the potential long‐term implications of the findings. Four key performance indicators (KPIs) are generated in real time based on the integration of heterogeneous, real‐time data sources. These are kilowatt‐hours per square meter, carbon dioxide equivalents per capita, kilowatt‐hours of primary energy per capita, and share of renewables percentage. These KPIs are fed back on three levels (household, building, and district) on four interfaces, developed for different audiences. The most challenging barrier identified was accessing and integrating siloed data from the different data owners (utilities, building owners, and so forth). It is hard to overcome unless a significant value is perceived. A number of long‐term opportunities were described in the SUM context; among those, it is envisioned that SUM could enable a new understanding of the causalities that govern urbanism and allow citizens and city officials to receive feedback on the system consequences of their choices.

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Section: Smart Urban Metabolism: Calculation Enginementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart City SRS

Shahrokni¹,

Årman

Lazarevic

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

Self Cite

109

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show abstract

“…Newman's extended metabolism model proposes a thorough study of the dynamics of settlements in terms of transport, economic and cultural priorities [45,62]. Further to this, Shahrokni, et al [63] called for integration of 'smart urban metabolism', which offers higher resolution as citizens and city officials can get feedback on their choices.…”

Section: Metabolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economically Incentivising Smart Urban Regeneration. Case Study of Port Louis, Mauritius

Allam

Newman

2018

Smart Cities

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Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius, has been the preferred city for hosting the judicial, political and business activities of the country for the past two centuries. However, new policies have created nine new smart cities in greenfield locations within 10 km from Port Louis, so the capital city is facing economic decline as it is losing businesses, as well as administrative functions. This loss equates to an erosion in municipal revenue along with a reduced interest in contributing to the development of the city; all of which takes a toll on its urban economic landscape, as well as on the broader Mauritian economy. This paper builds from the findings of a focus group study to propose a smart urban regeneration model for the City of Port Louis, which could enable the old city to be restored and regenerated rather than redeveloped in modernist architecture, as has happened in the new smart cities model. A smart urban regeneration model is proposed backed by the pillars of smart infrastructure, culture, metabolism and governance. The proposed model is applied to the context of Port Louis to generate an urban regeneration scheme. The potential benefits in terms of financial outcomes, investment attraction and job creation are explored through a combined application of econometric forecasting models. The results support positive figures of both investment and job creation, and the findings of this study aim at informing and providing the governing bodies of Port Louis with a tangible solution for revamping the centuries-old capital city, as well as demonstrating to the world that smart cities can mean sensitive urban regeneration.Keywords: urban regeneration; economics; culture; port louis; smart cities; fiscal measures IntroductionNested in the North-West littoral side of the Island of Mauritius and bounded inland by a mountain range, Port Louis extends over an area of 46.7 km 2 . With a total population of 119,333 inhabitants as at December 2016, the capital city of Mauritius is the most densely populated geographical district of the island with 2954 P/km 2 [1]. Port Louis hosts the only trade port of the island and has been the main administrative centre from a judicial, political and business perspective for more than two centuries. However, within the last decade, there has been an emergence of Techno-parks and privately-owned smart cities across the island which opened a new competitive landscape for businesses and administrative functions [2]. There have been notable highlighted risks that the loss in business and administrative functions from both the state and privately-owned organisations will eventually lead to an erosion in municipal revenue [3]. Lesser financial input will trickle down to lesser budget availability not only for city development but also for its maintenance. This might lead to an increase in urban decay, as has been the case with Detroit in USA [4]. In fact, at the moment more than 95% of municipal revenue is used for administrative ends such as salaries for the employe...

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“…Shahrokni et al. () identified potential data sources for developing a smart urban metabolism such as using road vehicle Global Positioning System (GPS) traces to inform transportation flows and even credit card statements to inform the consumption of food, goods, and services. With these new sources of spatially explicit data, the methods of analysis will also have to be updated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using spatially explicit commodity flow and truck activity data to map urban material flows

Yeow

Cheah

2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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To analyze and promote resource efficiency in urban areas, it is important to characterize urban metabolism and particularly, material flows. Material flow analysis (MFA) offers a means to capture the dynamism of cities and their activities. Urban‐scale MFAs have been conducted in many cities, usually employing variants of the Eurostat methodology. However, current methodologies generally reduce the study area into a “black box,” masking details of the complex processes within the city's metabolism. Therefore, besides the aggregated stocks and flows of materials, the movement of materials—often embedded in goods or commodities—should also be highlighted. Understanding the movement and dispersion of goods and commodities can allow for more detailed analysis of material flows. We highlight the potential benefits of using high‐resolution urban commodity flows in the context of understanding material resource use and opportunities for conservation. Through the use of geographic information systems and visualizations, we analyze two spatially explicit datasets: (1) commodity flow data in the United States, and (2) Global Positioning System‐based commercial vehicle (truck) driver activity data in Singapore. In the age of “big data,” we bring advancements in freight data collection to the field of urban metabolism, uncovering the secondary sourcing of materials that would otherwise have been masked in typical MFA studies. This brings us closer to a consumption‐based, finer‐resolution approach to MFA, which more effectively captures human activities and its impact on urban environments.

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Smart Urban Metabolism: Towards a Real-Time Understanding of the Energy and Material Flows of a City and Its Citizens

Cited by 73 publications

References 34 publications

Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart City SRS

Implementing Smart Urban Metabolism in the Stockholm Royal Seaport: Smart City SRS

Economically Incentivising Smart Urban Regeneration. Case Study of Port Louis, Mauritius

Using spatially explicit commodity flow and truck activity data to map urban material flows

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