Nowadays, urban planning supposes a key issue to promote sustainable cities＇ development. In the last decades, the urban growth of developed countries has caused several environmental, social and economic problems, s...Nowadays, urban planning supposes a key issue to promote sustainable cities＇ development. In the last decades, the urban growth of developed countries has caused several environmental, social and economic problems, such as the inefficient use of resources and infrastructures. Notwithstanding, detailed analysis of population＇s necessities allows decreasing these drawbacks. These enhancements can foster a more feasible development through technical sustainability criteria. Therefore, the urban metabolism study becomes an essential tool to plan a suitable management for material and energy flows. Industrial Ecology （IE） theory looks for the sustainable integration of human activities on their natural environment. It seeks mimic natural systems performance and their processes. Industrial Metabolism （IM） studies those processes which turns material and energy into products and wastes. The IE final goals aim to promote improvements in process efficiency, decreasing consumption and waste generation through flows recirculation and exchange networks of material and energy. This contribution proposes a new conceptual framework which integrates urban and industrial metabolisms as an opportunity to achieve more efficient and sustainable development. The review of national and international experiences shows the improvements achieved through metabolisms＇ combination based on the exchanges of residual energy and water streams.展开更多
文摘Nowadays, urban planning supposes a key issue to promote sustainable cities＇ development. In the last decades, the urban growth of developed countries has caused several environmental, social and economic problems, such as the inefficient use of resources and infrastructures. Notwithstanding, detailed analysis of population＇s necessities allows decreasing these drawbacks. These enhancements can foster a more feasible development through technical sustainability criteria. Therefore, the urban metabolism study becomes an essential tool to plan a suitable management for material and energy flows. Industrial Ecology （IE） theory looks for the sustainable integration of human activities on their natural environment. It seeks mimic natural systems performance and their processes. Industrial Metabolism （IM） studies those processes which turns material and energy into products and wastes. The IE final goals aim to promote improvements in process efficiency, decreasing consumption and waste generation through flows recirculation and exchange networks of material and energy. This contribution proposes a new conceptual framework which integrates urban and industrial metabolisms as an opportunity to achieve more efficient and sustainable development. The review of national and international experiences shows the improvements achieved through metabolisms＇ combination based on the exchanges of residual energy and water streams.
