Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

Thomas Elliot, Javier Babí Almenar, Samuel Niza, Vânia Proença and Benedetto Rugani
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Thomas Elliot: RDI Unit on Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity; Environmental Research & Innovation (ERIN) department; Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST); 41 Rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
Javier Babí Almenar: RDI Unit on Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity; Environmental Research & Innovation (ERIN) department; Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST); 41 Rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
Samuel Niza: IN+, Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research—Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Vânia Proença: MARETEC, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Benedetto Rugani: RDI Unit on Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity; Environmental Research & Innovation (ERIN) department; Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST); 41 Rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: Urbanisation poses new and complex sustainability challenges. Socio-economic activities drive material and energy flows in cities that influence the health of ecosystems inside and outside the urban system. Recent studies suggest that these flows, under the urban metabolism (UM) metaphor, can be extended to encompass the assessment of urban ecosystem services (UES). Advancing UM approaches to assess UES may be a valuable solution to these arising sustainability challenges, which can support urban planning decisions. This paper critically reviews UM literature related to the UES concept and identifies approaches that may allow or improve the assessment of UES within UM frameworks. We selected from the UM literature 42 studies that encompass UES aspects, and analysed them on the following key investigation themes: temporal information, spatial information, system boundary aspects and cross-scale indicators. The analysis showed that UES are rarely acknowledged in UM literature, and that existing UM approaches have limited capacity to capture the complexity of spatio-temporal and multi-scale information underpinning UES, which has hampered the implementation of operational decision support systems so far. We use these results to identify and illustrate pathways towards a UM-UES modelling approach. Our review suggests that cause–effect dynamics should be integrated with the UM framework, based on spatially-specific social, economic and ecological data. System dynamics can inform on the causal relationships underpinning UES in cities and, therefore, can help moving towards a knowledge base tool to support urban planners in addressing urban challenges.

Keywords: urban metabolism; socio-ecological impacts; spatio-temporal dynamics; multiscale; sustainability; ecosystem services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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