Proposal of a Research Program on
Urban Metabolism and Sustainable Cities
Overall Coordination: Samuel Niza
Scientific Coordination: Paulo Ferrão
March 2013
IN+, Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research
Instituto Superior Técnico
Av. Rovisco Pais,
1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Phone: +351 218 417 893
http:// in3.dem.ist.utl.pt
Research Program Proposal
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
1.
Summary ..................................................................................... 3
2.
Research framework ........................................................................ 3
3.
Publications .................................................................................. 6
4.
Research team ............................................................................... 4
5.
Advisory Board .............................................................................. 4
6.
Partners and related programs ............................................................. 5
7.
On-going projects ............................................................................ 5
8.
Events ........................................................................................ 9
9.
Main sponsors ............................................................................... 9
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Research Program Proposal
1. Summary
The program aims at strengthening knowledge about cities metabolism
drivers, to support sustainable management of urban-driven flows and
defining policies for urban sustainable management. For this purpose, it is
intended to create a multidisciplinary model of the urban area, including
impacts of energy and materials use, energy generation within the city, urban
spaces outdoors’ quality and issues of materials sustainability, namely life
cycle assessment and pollution.
Additionally it will contribute on providing appropriate tools and methods for
managing over space and time scales, integrate biophysical and social
components, adapt and deal effectively with uncertainty, visualize and
identify planning problems and work to identify trade-offs and synergies in
undertaking interventions.
2. Research framework
Urban sustainability calls for the development of methods and tools adapted
to the urban scale, computing produced and available data to characterize
urban environments and performances and producing recommendations for
better urban planning.
The following research areas structure the program:
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Research Program Proposal
Methods
Urban Flows
Assessment
Decision –
making
support
Data
computation
Urban
Metabolism and
Sustainable
Cities
Critical factors
for urban
sustainability
Urban planning
and policies for
sustainability
Urban Flows assessment
Properly managing (optimizing and reducing) urban flows demands knowing
the quantities involved. Despite broad acknowledgement of the concentration
of global energy and material resource consumption in urban centers, very
little is known of the actual resource consumption of contemporary cities,
mainly because significant challenges remain in accounting for the resource
burden imposed by cities.
Therefore, a critical task involves identifying and mapping the main flows of
energy, water, materials and products in cities. Research will be performed in
order to create a database format for translating, storing and crossing
information from existing databases compiled by different urban agents
(companies, utilities, municipal services and others).
Potential productive linkages between physical accounting tools usually used
in the assessment of particular products, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA),
assessment of economic relations between sectors (Input-Output Tables) and
those tools used for spatially defined resource consumption, as Material Flow
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Research Program Proposal
Accounting (MFA) should be evaluated. Tools integration should provide the
basis for an analytical tool specifically oriented toward the assessment of
urban metabolism.
Critical factors for urban sustainability
The urban subsystem is dynamic, so the status of the demand actors and the
associated resource flows are constantly changing. This might be linked to the
dynamics of land use, population growth or technological innovations. Some of
these changes are intrinsic to the urban system under observation and other
may be brought through (external) regional, national and international
influences.
We may also distinguish between continuous (e.g. internal socio-economic)
and discrete (deliberate intervention) influences and consider their rate of
change (land use changes slowly whereas changes in tenancy or in
employment status may happen relatively quickly).
These changes inevitably influence urban sustainability. Therefore, critical
factors should be identified and studied in order to provide guidelines towards
sustainable development.
Case study designs and demonstration projects will be used to understand the
correlation between resource consumption and several socioeconomic,
geographical, climate and governance parameters. This will lead to the
articulation of criteria for the planning of communities that better serve a
resource efficient urban fabric.
Supporting urban planning and policies for sustainability
While the growth of many older cities consists of a densification of urban
cores and metropolitan zones, certain younger urban centers continue to
expand their perimeters by extending transportation, water, waste, and
power infrastructure while annexing adjacent rural and agricultural land. The
nature of various types of urban growth and change and the consequences for
municipal consumption requires studying cities and propose policies towards a
more sustainable planning of cities.
Together with the development and refinement of accounting methods, it is
important to develop a spatially comprehensive and temporally broad physical
accounting of resource consumption of a variety of urban centers. Material
flows dynamic stock modeling should be used to analyze the industrial
metabolism dynamics, namely the complex interaction between resource use
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Research Program Proposal
and waste production and recovery, in order to contribute for the definition
of more integrated and sustainable resource management policies.
The focus of this research area will be the coupling of emerging methods for
assessing and tracking the resource consumption of cities with strategies for
implementing design and planning recommendations for communities.
Research will examine the potential for applying to the design and planning of
more resource efficient cities a variety of strategies that have emerged from
the field of Industrial Ecology. Through current work in tracking the material
and energy flows devoted to urban centers, this study will identify networks
for symbiotic resource exchanges and productive reconfigurations of primary
elements of urban form and infrastructure for sustainable city planning.
3. Publications
Niza, S., Rosado, L., Ferrão, P. (2009), Methodological Advances in Urban MFA based on Lisbon
Case Study [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00130.x/abstract]
Behrens, A., Giljum, S., Kovanda, J., Niza, S. (2007), The material basis of the global economy:
Worldwide patterns of natural resource extraction and their implications for sustainable
resource use policies.
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800907001681]
Niza, S., Ferrão, P. (2006), A transitional economy’s metabolism: The case of Portugal.
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344905001229]
Costa, I., Massard, G., Agarwal, A. (2010), Waste management policies for industrial symbiosis
development: case studies in European countries
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652609004132]
Costa, I., Ferrão, P. (2010), A case study of industrial symbiosis development using a middleout approach [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652610001071]
Costa, I. and P. Ferrão (2010). Crossroads between resource recovery and industrial symbiosis
networks: evidences from case studies – UNCRD Regional Development Dialogue, 31 (2)
Autumn 2010
Patricio, J., Costa, I., Niza, S. (2013), Urban material cycle closing – Assessment of industrial
waste management in Lisbon Region (Submited)
Rosado, L., Niza, S., Ferrão, P. (2012), UMAn – Opening the black box in urban metabolism: a
robust method for urban material flow accounting. (Submitted)
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Research Program Proposal
Marteleira, R., Pinto, G., Niza, S., (2012), Regional Water Flows – Assessing opportunities for
sustainable management (Submitted)
Working Paper
Niza, S., Ribeiro, P. and P. Ferrão 2012. From “waste push” to “waste pull” strategies:
contributions to the Portuguese Waste Management Plan. Lisboa: IN+/IST.
[estará alojado no nosso site, mas não tem link ainda]
4. Research team
Research Director: Samuel Niza, Associate Researcher.
[http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/resteam/]
Scientific Coordinator: Paulo Ferrão, Full Professor
[http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/resteam/]
Other rmain esercahers:
André Pina, PostDoc Researcher [não tem link ainda]
Rita Marteleira, MSc. [não tem link ainda]
Alexandre Amado, MSc.[ não tem link ainda]
5. Advisory Board
Helge Brattebø, Professor NTNU [http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/helge.brattebo ]
John Fernandez, Professor MIT [http://architecture.mit.edu/faculty/john-fernandez]
Paulo Paixão, Partner PwC Portugal
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Research Program Proposal
6. Partners and related programs
NTNU - Department of Energy and Process Engineering (Helge Brattebø)
[http://www.ntnu.edu/ept]
Université Paris 1 - Institut de géographie, UMR Géographie-cités [Sabine Barles]
[http://www.parisgeo.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique1&lang=fr]
MIT – Department of Architecture (John Fernandez)
[http://architecture.mit.edu/]
ISCTE-IUL, DINÂMIA’CET, Centre for Socioeconomic Change and Territorial Studies (Teresa
Marat-Mendes)
[http://dinamiacet.iscte-iul.pt/]
FCT/UC - Centre for Informatics and Systems (Francisco da Câmara Pereira)
[https://www.cisuc.uc.pt/?id_m=111]
FEUP - Unidade de Gestão e Engenharia Industrial (Teresa Galvão)
[http://sigarra.up.pt/feup/pt/uni_geral.unidade_view?pv_unidade=135]
7. On-going projects
"MEMO - Evolution of the Lisbon metropolitan area metabolism. Lessons
towards a Sustainable Urban Future"
Reference: PTDC/EMS-ENE/2197/2012
IST 2013/2015
Project Coordinator: Samuel Niza
Principal Contractor: IST/UTL
Participating Institutions: ISCTE - IUL
Funding: FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
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Research Program Proposal
Objective: Develop a comparative analysis of the metabolic behaviour of the
Lisbon Metropolitan Area in different historical periods (from pre-industrial
period to the present) and therefore assess the behaviour of urban form
(generically) to the metabolic system in use in its own historical period under
review. Additionally it is intended to identify elements of urban form in
particular historical moments that were determinant to transform material
and water flows in the city. The city urban structure will be assessed based on
methodologies provided by (i) urban Material Flow Accounting research, ii)
substance flow accounting and (iii) assessment of the morphological evolution
of the urban form. Such assessment of the evolution of urban metabolism
aims to evaluate drivers and successful responses to transform the current
metabolism promoting a more sustainable urban environment.
“Understanding urbanization patterns in Asia and Latin America to design
sustainable urban infrastructures” (ADB-IDB)
IST 2012/2013
Project Coordinator: Paulo Ferrão
Principal Contractor: IST/UTL
Participating Institutions: MIT
Funding: Asian Development Bank
Objective: Provide a rigorous examination and quantitative analysis of
urbanization patterns of several major Asian and South American cities for the
purpose of establishing clear correlations between urban morphological
elements, infrastructure planning and development and associated socioeconomic consequences. This examination will provide guidance toward a
determination of the most appropriate and effective investments in urban
infrastructure to optimize critical resource consumption efficiency while
satisfying key indicators of the well-being of urban citizen.
“Preparation of Sector Road Maps for Central and West Asia – Kazakhstan
and Uzbekstan” (ADB1)
Reference: A71320 - RSC-C12557: Urban Services Assessment in Kazakhstan
and Uzbekistan
IST 2011/2012
Principal contractor: FEUZ, Fundación Empresa Universidad Zaragoza, Spain
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Research Program Proposal
Participating Institutions: Universidade Zaragoza, Instituto Superior Técnico,
Georgia Tech
Funding: Asian Development Bank
Objective:
“IntegerSum - Integrated geo-referenced model for sustainable urban
metabolism”
Reference: PTDC/SEN-ENR/121747/2010
IST 2011/2014
Project Coordinator: Paulo Ferrão
Principal Contractor: IST/UTL
Funding: FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
Objective: Develop a spatially-resolved model of urban systems that
characterize the link between the metabolism, the socio-economic dynamics
and the infrastructural network for Energy, Water and Waste. By providing
detailed information about resource flows in a metropolitan area, this project
will be integrating different aspects of infrastructure and city planning that
are often considered separately. The area at stake in the project is the Lisbon
Metropolitan Area.
"MeSUr - Metrics framework for Urban Metabolism Sustainability"
Reference: PTDC/SEN-ENR/111710/2009
IST 2011/2014
Project Coordinator: Samuel Niza
Principal Contractor: IST/UTL
Participating Institutions: FEUP
Funding: FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
Objective: development of an innovative analytical framework to evaluate the
sustainability of urban systems. This will be done by developing an indicator
framework and establishing a benchmarking method to facilitate and induce
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Research Program Proposal
practices and policy options that contribute towards a sustainable urban
future.
"ResiSt - Supporting Urban RESilience through the management of urban
STock resources"
Reference: PTDC/SENENR/103044/2008
IST 2010/2013
Project Coordinator: Samuel Niza
Principal Contractor: IST/UTL
Participating Institutions: MIT
Funding: FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
Objective: Characterization of the critical and non-critical stock flows
together with the evaluation of the LMA potential for Industrial Symbiosis
network engagers (waste management operator framework and businesses)
will allow the effects on urban resilience to be simulated using some stocks as
source of critical resources to urban activities.
"iTEAM - integrated Transportation and Energy Activity-based model"
Reference: MIT-Pt/SES-SUES/0041/2008
IST 2009/2013
Principal Contractor: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de
Coimbra
Participating Institutions: Instituto Superior Técnico, Faculdade de Engenharia
da Universidade do Porto, MIT Funding: FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e a
Tecnologia
Objective: develop an integrated model of land use, transportation, and
energy for the evaluation of a range of “green policies” aiming at enhancing
sustainability and well-being. The model will include both
individual/household behaviour components and organization/firm behaviour
components and is based in the simulation of agents’ behaviour at a micro
level. The outputs of the model can be translated to aggregate energy and
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Research Program Proposal
resource consumptions which can be translated and related to aggregate
system dynamics approaches e.g. urban metabolism models.
8. Events
tbd
9. Main sponsors
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