Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Urban Metabolism and Open Data: Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Resource Efficiency

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Open Cities | Open Data

Abstract

Cities are responsible for approximately three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Urban metabolism is a research field that studies resource use and pollution emissions of cities, which is reliant on an important process of data collection and analysis. Accessing reliable and recent data is one of the main challenges for urban metabolism studies as it can affect their accuracy and comparability to other cities. The emergence of Open Data at an urban level is an exceptional opportunity for the field. Nevertheless, Open Data also present a number of challenges before they are fully and more easily integrated in current studies. This chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges of using Open Data in urban metabolism studies and consequently to urban environmental policymaking.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://urbandata.unhabitat.org/

  2. 2.

    https://opendataamerica.com

  3. 3.

    http://www.c40.org/research/open_data/5

  4. 4.

    http://open.dataforcities.org/

  5. 5.

    https://data.cityofchicago.org/Environment-Sustainable-Development/Energy-Usage-2010/8yq3-m6wp

  6. 6.

    http://opendatainception.io

  7. 7.

    http://www.europeandataportal.eu

  8. 8.

    A first attempt to provide guideline on Open Data is the WESC data standard of the CSIRO (http://wescml.org/)

Abbreviations

AURIN:

Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network

BCR:

Brussels Capital Region

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

IOA:

Input Output Analysis

LCA:

Life Cycle Analysis

LGA:

Local government areas

MFA:

Material Flow Analysis

WESC:

Water and Energy Supply and Consumption

References

  • Agglomération de Bruxelles. (1976). Radioscopie de Bruxelles. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agglomération de Bruxelles (AB). (1978). Radioscopie de Bruxelles. Evolution 1976–1978. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agglomération de Bruxelles (AB). (1983). Radioscopie de Bruxelles. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agglomération de Bruxelles (AB). (1986). Radioscopie de Bruxelles. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athanassiadis, A., Crawford, R. H., & Bouillard, P. (2015a). Exploring the relationship between Melbourne’s water metabolism and urban characteristics. Paper presented at the State of Australian Cities 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athanassiadis, A., Crawford, R. H., & Bouillard, P. (2015b). Overcoming the “black box” approach of urban metabolism. Paper presented at the Living and Learning: Research for a Better Built Environment, 49th International Conference of the Architectural Science Association, Melbourne, Australia. http://anzasca.net/2015-conference-papers/

  • Athanassiadis, A., Bouillard, P., Crawford, R. H., & Khan, A. Z. (2017a). Towards a dynamic approach to urban metabolism: Tracing the temporal evolution of Brussels’ urban metabolism from 1970 to 2010. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(2), 307–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Athanassiadis, A., Fernandez, G., Meirelles, J., Meinherz, F., Hoekman, P., & Cari, Y. B. (2017b). Exploring the energy use drivers of 10 cities at microscale level. Energy Procedia, 122, 709–714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.07.374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, X., Dawson, R. J., Ürge-Vorsatz, D., Delgado, G. C., Barau, A. S., Dhakal, S., … Roberts, D. (2018). Six research priorities for cities and climate change. Nature, 555(7694), 23–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, X., Surveyer, A., Elmqvist, T., Gatzweiler, F. W., Güneralp, B., Parnell, S., … Webb, R. (2016). Defining and advancing a systems approach for sustainable cities. Current opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 23(Suppl. C), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2016.11.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beloin-Saint-Pierre, D., Rugani, B., Lasvaux, S., Mailhac, A., Popovici, E., Sibiude, G., … Schiopu, N. (2017). A review of urban metabolism studies to identify key methodological choices for future harmonization and implementation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 163, S223–S240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broto, V. C., Allen, A., & Rapoport, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary perspectives on urban metabolism. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 16(6), 851–861.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Facchini, A., Kennedy, C., Stewart, I., & Mele, R. (2017). The energy metabolism of megacities. Applied Energy, 186, Part 2, 86–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.09.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fédération des Industries du Gaz (FIGAZ). (1980). Rapport d’activités. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fédération Professionnelle du secteur Electrique (FPE). (1972). Rapport d’activités. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fédération Professionnelle du secteur Electrique (FPE). (2000). Rapport d’activités. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, B., Birkved, M., Quitzau, M. B., & Hauschild, M. (2013). Quantification of urban metabolism through coupling with the life cycle assessment framework: Concept development and case study. Environmental Research Letters, 8(3), 035024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendriks, C., Obernosterer, R., Müller, D., Kytzia, S., Baccini, P., & Brunner, P. H. (2000). Material flow analysis: A tool to support environmental policy decision making. Case-studies on the city of Vienna and the Swiss lowlands. Local Environment, 5(3), 311–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoekman, P., & von Blottnitz, H. (2017). Cape Town’s metabolism: Insights from a material flow analysis. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(5), 1237–1249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institut Bruxellois pour la Gestion de l’Environnement (IBGE). (2012). Bilan énergétique de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale 2010. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, C. (2012). A mathematical description of urban metabolism. In Sustainability science (pp. 275–291). New York, NY: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, C., & Hoornweg, D. (2012). Mainstreaming urban metabolism. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 16(6), 780–782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, C., Stewart, I. D., Ibrahim, N., Facchini, A., & Mele, R. (2014). Developing a multi-layered indicator set for urban metabolism studies in megacities. Ecological Indicators, 47, 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.07.039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, C. A., Stewart, I., Facchini, A., Cersosimo, I., Mele, R., Chen, B., … Sahin, A. D. (2015). Energy and material flows of megacities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(19), 5985–5990. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504315112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loiseau, E., Junqua, G., Roux, P., & Bellon-Maurel, V. (2012). Environmental assessment of a territory: An overview of existing tools and methods. Journal of Environmental Management, 112, 213–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Musango, J. K., Currie, P., & Robinson, B. (2017). Urban metabolism for resource efficient cities: From theory to implementation. Paris: UN Environment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell, J. P., & Cousins, J. J. (2015). The boundaries of urban metabolism: Towards a political–industrial ecology. Progress in Human Geography, 39(6), 702–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pincetl, S., Graham, R., Murphy, S., & Sivaraman, D. (2015). Analysis of high-resolution utility data for understanding energy use in urban systems. The case of Los Angeles, California. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 20(1), 166–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pincetl, S., & Newell, J. P. (2017). Why data for a political-industrial ecology of cities? Geoforum, 85(Suppl. C), 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.03.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seto, K. C., Dhakal, S., Bigio, A., Blanco, H., Delgado, G. C., Dewar, D., … Ramaswami, A. (2014). Chapter 12—Human settlements, infrastructure and spatial planning. In Climate change 2014: Mitigation of climate change. IPCC Working Group III contribution to AR5. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • SIBELGA. (2011). Rapport d’activités 2011. Brussels: SIBELGA.

    Google Scholar 

  • SIBELGA. (2014). [Personal Communication on Energy data].

    Google Scholar 

  • Voskamp, I. M., Stremke, S., Spiller, M., Perrotti, D., van der Hoek, J. P., & Rijnaarts, H. H. (2017). Enhanced performance of the Eurostat method for comprehensive assessment of urban metabolism: A material flow analysis of Amsterdam. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(4), 887–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolman, A. (1965). The metabolism of cities. Scientific American, 213(3), 178–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Y. (2013). Urban metabolism: A review of research methodologies. Environmental Pollution, 178, 463–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments that helped improve the quality of this Chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Building, Architecture and Town Planning (BATir), Circular Economy and Urban Metabolism, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Aristide Athanassiadis

Authors
  1. Aristide Athanassiadis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aristide Athanassiadis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Urban Development and Design Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Scott Hawken

  2. City Planning, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Hoon Han

  3. Urban Science, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Christopher Pettit

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Athanassiadis, A. (2020). Urban Metabolism and Open Data: Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Resource Efficiency. In: Hawken, S., Han, H., Pettit, C. (eds) Open Cities | Open Data. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6605-5_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6605-5_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6604-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6605-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation