The Metabolism of Cities

Wolman, Abel

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0965-178

Cited by 990 publications

(489 citation statements)

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“…In 1965, Abel Wolman introduced the concept of urban metabolism and described the metabolism of a hypothetical city of one million inhabitants (Wolman, 1965). In 1975 and1976, the Human Ecology Group at ANU and colleagues from CSIRO carried out an analysis of aspects of both biometabolism and technometabolism of Hong Kong, focusing on energy, carbon dioxide, water, and phosphorus (Newcombe et al, 1978).…”

Section: Technometabolic Outputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biohistorical Paradigm: The Early Days of Human Ecology at The Australian National University

Boyden¹

2016

HER

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Section: Technometabolic Outputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biohistorical Paradigm: The Early Days of Human Ecology at The Australian National University

Boyden¹

2016

HER

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“…As an evaluation approach it has been used to quantify a 79 range of resource flows into, out of, and through urban areas, most commonly energy, materials, 80 greenhouse gases, nutrients, etc. (Daniels and Moore 2001, Kennedy et al 2007, Wolman 1965. 81 We focus on the less-explored water-related resource flows, employing the mass-balance 82 technique to account for direct urban water flows, as well as water-related energy.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Newman 1999, Pincetl et al 2012, Wolman 1965, with an inferred intent of emulating the higher 78 resource efficiencies of natural systems. As an evaluation approach it has been used to quantify a 79 range of resource flows into, out of, and through urban areas, most commonly energy, materials, 80 greenhouse gases, nutrients, etc.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance

2016

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Please cite this article as: Farooqui, T.A., Renouf, M.A., Kenway, S.J., A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance, Water Research (2016Research ( ), doi: 10.1016Research ( /j.watres.2016 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Urban areas will need to pursue new water servicing options to ensure local supply security. 18Decisions about how best to employ them are not straightforward due to multiple considerations 19 and the potential for problem shifting among them. We hypothesise that urban water metabolism 20 evaluation based a water mass balance can contribute to this, and explore the utility of this 21 perspective and the new insights it provides about water servicing options. Using a water mass 22 M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTbalance evaluation framework, which considers direct urban water flows (both 'natural' 23 hydrological and 'anthropogenic' flows), as well as water-related energy, we evaluated how use 24 of alternative water sources (stormwater / rainwater harvesting, wastewater / greywater recycling) 25 at different scales influences the 'local water metabolism' of a case study urban development. 26New indicators were devised to represent the water-related 'resource efficiency' and 27 'hydrological performance' of the urban area. The new insights gained were the extent to which 28 alternative water supplies influence the water efficiency and hydrological performance of the 29 urban area, and the potential energy trade-offs. The novel contribution is the development of new 30 indicators of urban water resource performance that bring together considerations of both the 31 'anthropogenic' and 'natural' water cycles, and the interactions between them. These are used for 32 the first time to test alternative water servicing scenarios, and to provide a new perspective to 33 complement broader sustainability assessments of urban water. 34

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“…At a time when sustainability principles need promoting in city visions, inclusion of urban metabolism is critical. Originally proposed by Wolman (1965) urban metabolism may be defined as the inflow and outflow transactions required to sustain city functions, or the production, consumption and disposal of resources (Huang and Hsu, 2003). In this way the biophysical demand to sustain urban society is evaluated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for groundwater in future city visions

et al. 2017

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A B S T R A C TCity planners, urban innovators and researchers are increasingly working on 'future city' initiatives to investigate the physical, social and political aspects of harmonized urban living. Despite this, sustainability principles and the importance of urban groundwater are lacking in future city visions. Using London as a case study, the importance of groundwater for cities is highlighted and a range of future city interventions may impact on groundwater are reviewed. Using data from water resource plans and city planning strategies, changes in the groundwater balance which may occur as a result of city interventions are calculated for two future city scenarios: a 'strategic' future informed by organisational policy and an 'aspirational' future guided by sustainability principles. For London, under a strategic future, preferential investment in industry-scale technologies such as wastewater treatment and groundwater storage would occur. Acknowledgement that behaviour change offers the potential for a faster rate of transformation than innovation technologies is ignored. The capacity of community-led action and smart-home technologies to deliver sustainable water use under an aspirational future is evident, with a measurable impact on urban groundwater. These methods may be used to inform city interventions that consider the social context in addition to environmental constraints and business drivers.

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The Metabolism of Cities

Cited by 990 publications

References 0 publications

The Biohistorical Paradigm: The Early Days of Human Ecology at The Australian National University

The Biohistorical Paradigm: The Early Days of Human Ecology at The Australian National University

A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance

Accounting for groundwater in future city visions

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