Literature Complete

Course literature
Day 1
1.1 Davoudi, S. Dilley, L and Crawford, J. 2014, "Energy consumption behavior: rational or
habitual? " DiSP, forthcoming.
1.2 Alberti, M. 1999, "Modeling the urban ecosystem: a conceptual framework", Environment
and Planning B, vol. 26, pp. 605-630.
1.3 Kennedy, C., Cuddihy, J. & EngelYan, J. 2007, "The changing metabolism of
cities", Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 43-59.
1.4 Kennedy, C., Pincetl, S. & Bunje, P. 2011, "The study of urban metabolism and its
applications to urban planning and design", Environmental pollution, vol. 159, no. 8, pp.
1965-1973.
1.5 Ozaki, R. & Shaw, I. 2014, "Entangled Practices: Governance, Sustainable Technologies,
and Energy Consumption", Sociology, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 590-605.
1.6 Wachsmuth, D. 2012, "Three Ecologies: Urban Metabolism and the SocietyNature
Opposition", The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 506-523.
1.7 (downloadable) FP7 Project: Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Europe (SUME)
http://www.sume.at/project_downloads [Working paper 1.1.] Downloadable online (after
brief registration)
Day 2
2.1 De Boer, J., Zuidema, C. 2013, "Towards an integrated energy landscape", AESOP-ACSP
joint congress, Dublin.
2.2 Loorbach, D. 2010, "Transition management for sustainable development: a prescriptive,
complexitybased governance framework", Governance, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 161-183.
2.3 Newman, P.W. 1999, "Sustainability and cities: extending the metabolism
model", Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 219-226.
2.4 Pincetl, S., Bunje, P. & Holmes, T. 2012, "An expanded urban metabolism method:
Toward a systems approach for assessing urban energy processes and causes", Landscape
and Urban Planning, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 193-202.
2.5 Barles, S. 2010, "Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism
studies to sustainable urban development issues", Journal of Environmental Planning and
Management, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 439-455.
Day 3
3.1 Beck, M.B. & Cummings, R.G. 1996, "Wastewater infrastructure: challenges for the
sustainable city in the new millennium", Habitat International, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 405420.
3.2 Gandy, M. 2004, "Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the modern
city", City, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 363-379.
3.3 Marks, J.S. & Zadoroznyj, M. 2005, "Managing sustainable urban water reuse: structural
context and cultures of trust", Society and Natural Resources, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 557-572.
3.4 Zaman, A.U. & Lehmann, S. 2013, "The zero waste index: a performance measurement
tool for waste management systems in a zero waste city", Journal of Cleaner
Production, vol. 50, pp. 123-132.
3.5 Barles, S. 2009, "Urban metabolism of Paris and its region", Journal of Industrial
Ecology, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 898-913.
Day 4
4.1 Bettencourt, L.M., Lobo, J., Helbing, D., Kuhnert, C. & West, G.B. 2007, "Growth,
innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities", Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 104, no. 17, pp. 7301-7306.
4.2 Grubler, Arnulf, Xuemai Bai, Thomas Buettner, Shobhakar Dhakal, David J. Fisk,
Thoshiaki Ichinose, James Keirstead, Gerd Sammer, David Satterthwaite, Niels B. Schulz,
Nilay Shah, Julia Steinberger and Helga Weisz: Chapter 18: Urban Energy Systems. In
Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. L. Gomez-Echeverri, T.B.
Johansson, N. Nakicenovic, A. Patwardhan, (eds.), IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria and

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA (2012):
[selected parts].
4.3 Weisz, H. & Steinberger, J.K. 2010, "Reducing energy and material flows in
cities", Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 185-192.
4.4 Timmeren, A. "Environmental Technology & Design; the Concept of the Urban
Metabolism" TU Delft ABE/U/ETD (unpublished)
4.5 Holden, E. & Norland, I.T. 2005, "Three challenges for the compact city as a sustainable
urban form: household consumption of energy and transport in eight residential areas in the
greater Oslo region", Urban Studies, vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 2145-2166.
4.6 Lenzen, M. & Peters, G.M. 2010, "How city dwellers affect their resource
hinterland", Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 73-90.
Day 5
5.1 Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M. & Marvin, S. 2011, "Cities and the low
carbon transition", Europ.Finan.Rev, , pp. 24-27.
5.2 Watson, V. 2009, "The planned city sweeps the poor away: Urban planning and 21st
century urbanisation", Progress in Planning, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 151-193.
5.3 Swilling, M. 2010, "Sustainability, poverty and municipal services: the case of Cape
Town, South Africa", Sustainable Development, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 194-201.
5.4 van Bueren, E. & ten Heuvelhof, E. 2005, "Improving governance arrangements in
support of sustainable cities", Environment and planning B: Planning and Design, vol.
32, no. 1, pp. 47-66.
5.5 Bulkeley, H., Watson, M. & Hudson, R. 2007, "Modes of governing municipal
waste", Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, no. 11, pp. 2733.
5.6 (suggested reading) selected chapters from book Slimme Steden by Maarten Hajer and
Ton Dassen.
Energy Consumption Behaviour: Rational or Habitual?

Simin Davoudi, Luke Dilly, Jenny Crawford
Abstract: Reducing energy demand is not simply about developing energy efficiency
measures and technologies, but also changing behaviour and everyday practices. Although
the over-emphasis on individual behaviour as the main driver of transition to low-carbon
societies may be contested on the grounds that it distracts attention from the wider structural,
economic and political factors, it is widely acknowledged that pro-environmental behaviours
play an important part in such a transition. This paper aims to address these questions by
drawing on three dominant perspectives on environmental behaviour and its drivers: the
rational economic, the psychological and the sociological perspectives. The aim is to provide
a conceptual understanding of behaviour, illustrated with example from energy consumption.
Keywords: Urban Energy Consumption; Consumption Behaviour; Rational Economic
Perspective; Psychological Perspective; Sociological Perspective
1 Introduction
In the United Kingdom (UK) households are responsible for around half of the national
carbon emissions through energy consumption in the home and personal transport (DECC,
2013). While residential energy consumption has been falling per household this is more
than offset by growing population and household formation (Committee on Climate Change,
2013). It is argued that reductions in household energy use could be much greater if
improved domestic technologies and products were to be more rapidly adopted and used
more effectively. Individual energy behaviour is perceived as a significant barrier to
achieving a major step change in energy efficiency. This barrier exists in spite of growing
environmental awareness and the financial and environmental benefits of energy efficiency
measures (Christie, et al., 2011; Crosbie & Baker, 2010; Gram-Hanssen et. al., 2007). In
addition, when such measures are adopted their benefits may be negated by poor use (Gill, et.
al., 2010) or changes in other household characteristics such as increase in the number of
appliances in the home (Vale & Vale, 2010), preferred temperature (Lomas, 2010) or the
floor area of the house (Summerfield, et. al., 2010). This offsetting of increased efficiency by
increased consumption is known as the rebound, or take back effect. The terms suggest
that household energy efficiency measures can encourage more profligate use of energy
because energy users feel they do not have to be as miserly with energy usage (Jenkins,
2010; Greening et al., 2000). For example, it has been shown that instalment of efficient
washing machines correlates with an increase in the amount of washing done (Sorrel et al.,
2009). This has led to a growing argument that reducing energy demand is not simply about
developing energy efficiency measures and technologies, but also changing behaviour and
everyday practices. Indeed, there is a commonly held assumption that changes in individual
behaviour can achieve a step change in global energy use, as indicated in the following
statement from the Stern Review:
In the case of climate change, individual preferences play a particularly important role.
Dangerous climate change cannot be avoided through high level international agreements; it
will take behavioural change by individuals and communities, particularly in relation to their
housing, transport and food consumption decisions (Stern, 2007:395)
Similar assumptions are made by the UK government (DECC / Defra, 2009) which consider
behavioural change to be central in pulling society towards the development of alternatives
to carbon intensive forms of living (Parag & Darby, 2009: 3985).
Although the over-emphasis on individual behaviour as the main driver of transition to lowcarbon societies may be contested on the grounds that it distracts attention from the wider
structural, economic and political factors, it is widely acknowledged that pro-environmental
behaviours play an important part in such a transition (Defra, 2008). The question, however,
remains: what constitutes such behaviour? Why do people behave in the way they do? What
motivates them to change their behaviour? What are the key factors in behaviour formation
and change?
One response to these questions has been to bundle everything in what may be called
Attitudes-Behaviours-Context (ABC) models (Stern 2010) in which a multitude of factors
are considered as contextual factors including:
interpersonal influences (); community expectations; advertising; government
regulations; other legal and institutional factors (); monetary incentives and costs; the
physical difficulty of specific actions; capabilities and constraints provided by technology
and the built environment (); the availability of public policies to support behaviour ();
and various features of the broad social, economic and political context () (Stern 2000:
417)
However, as Shove (2010: 1275) argues, the more factors are added to ABC models the
more muddled the picture becomes. At the same time, the more complex the models
become the less their empirical applicability (Jackson, 2005).
This paper aims to shed some light on this complex picture by presenting a clearer grouping
of the factors that drive behaviour. We draw on the broader literature on decision making
which cuts across several disciplines to frame specific discussion about environmental
behaviour with a focus on energy consumption. A large part of the decision making literature
is normative and prescribes how decisions ought to be made. The focus of this paper,
however, is on how decisions are actually made by individuals. It aims to provide a
conceptual understanding of behaviour. We believe that such an insight is crucial for policies
aimed at encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. The following sections focus on three
broad perspectives on behaviour and review the discussions on values and norms which play
a critical role in the environmental behaviour literature. The concluding section highlights a
major shift in understanding energy consumption behaviour in terms of the interplay of
individual and social drivers.
2 Three perspectives on environmental behaviour

There are three dominant perspectives for understanding environmental behaviour and its
drivers. We call them the rational economic, the psychological and the sociological
perspectives (Tetlock, 1991). Below, we elaborate on these in turn.
2.1 The rational economic perspective

The rational economic perspective suggests that people are utility maximisers and their
decisions are based on rationally ordered preferences, which in turn are based on the level of
utility attached to, and probability of securing, each choice. In doing so, they follow a
number of logical steps: define the problem, identify the decision criteria, weight each
criterion, assess risk, generate options, rate options on each criterion, compute the optimum
option, and monitor and evaluate (Bazerman, 2001: 3-4). This model suggests that peoples
choices are based on rationally calculating the costs and benefits of a particular course of
action and taking the one which maximises their net benefit. Access to information is crucial
for making optimal decisions with highest benefit and lowest cost. This implies that people
will reduce their energy use, invest in energy efficient measures, or retrofit their houses, if
they possess the requisite information and if their self-interested benefits outweigh costs
(Wilson & Dowlatabadi, 2007; Jackson, 2005). According to the model, a key role of
intervention is therefore to provide information. This has led to a myriad of policy initiatives
based on giving feedback to households on their use of energy and providing them with
new, actionable information on consumption that could be clearly understood Darby (2008:
450). The idea is that having the information about energy use of different appliances and
different patterns of use, people will be motivated to reduce their consumption (Hargreaves
et al., 2010; Thaler & Sunstein, 2009; Gronhoj & Thogerson, 2011; Gyberg & Palm 2009).
Another role of policy intervention, according to this model, is to ensure that the market
allows people to make optimal choices by correcting price signals through internalisation of
social and environmental externalities. This is the basis of a growing number of
environmental taxes and levies (such as carbon tax) that are aimed at incorporating
environmental costs into economic cost-benefit calculations.
Critics point to key complicating factors such as: the influence of variable future discount
rates and the non-linear way in which the value of costs and benefits changes over time; the
significance of framing and how preference is depended on a reference point (Lindenberg &
Steg, 2007), and the importance of various forms of heuristic, habit and emotion (Wilson &
Dowlatabadi, 2007; Jackson, 2005). These latter will be discussed in more details below.
Empirical studies have also demonstrated that people do not always behave as utility
maximisers. For example, Christie, et al. (2011) highlight that adoption of energy-efficiency
technologies are assessed by potential users not only in terms of utility maximisation but
also, and more significantly, in terms of risks to, among other things, perceptions of social
belonging and other aspects of personal identity and safety.
At the same time, the rational model suggests that besides cost-benefit calculation, the
probability of achieving the preferred outcome also plays a part in decision-making.
Perceived behavioural control (PBC), as advocated by Ajzen (1991), describes the
individuals perception of the ease or difficulty with which they can adopt behaviour
(Turaga et al., 2010: 216). Self-efficacy is defined as the perception of how well one can
execute a course of action required to deal with prospective situations (Jackson, 2005: 49).
The implicit assumption within notions of PBC and self-efficacy is that if a behaviour is
perceived as being impossible within a particular context it will not be adopted despite the
motivation being present (Darnton, 2008: 19). It is, however, suggested that encouragement
and emotional arousal can increase feelings of self-efficacy (Darnton, 2008: 20). Again,
information plays a key part because it is argued that feelings of self-efficacy can be
strengthened through positive feedback (Grohoj & Thogersen, 2011) on, for example, the
level of reduction in energy use. However, if the feedback is negative (no reduction), it may
act as a deterrent for those with low perceptions of self-efficacy. Wilson & Dowlatabadi
(2007) argue that it is crucial for interventions to enhance individuals perceptions of selfefficacy through feedback mechanisms as well as education and training.
The rational economic model was dominant in the spatial planning field in the 1960s and
1970s in Europe and America. Since then, it has been subject to criticism by planning
theorists who argue that it fails to match the seemingly disjointed and incremental processes
of decision making by individuals and institutions (including planning systems) alike.
However, despite a great deal of research indicating the limitations of the rational model, its
assumptions have crept into the debate about attitude and its assumed determining role in
environmental behaviour. Peoples behaviour is understood to be preceded by their attitude
towards that behaviour. This attitude is in turn informed by a rational evaluation of the
characteristics of that behaviour (Jackson, 2005). For example, the attitude towards
purchasing and installing a low energy light bulb might be based upon an evaluation of its
environmental impact, money saving potential, its aesthetic qualities, the quality of the light
and so on (Crosbie & Baker, 2010). Such assumptions imply that if we modify attitudes, we
can modify behaviour and this can be done primarily through education, information
provision and awareness raising (Stern, 2000; Hargreaves, 2008).
2.2 The psychological perspective

The psychological perspective does not consider people as irrational, but it argues that their
rationality is bounded by certain limiting cognitive characteristics and patterns. It draws on
an evolutionary perspective, in which the human species has developed to respond to
complex, changing environments by developing mental shortcuts or heuristics (Gigerenzer et
al., 1999; Calne, 1999).These rules of thumb are simplifying mechanisms that allow us to
make quick decisions whenever full analysis is either not possible or not wise due to the
urgency of action (such as escaping from imminent danger) (Nicholson, 2000). While these
mechanisms have proved useful and practical, they lead to a number of biases which run
counter to some of the fundamental assumptions of the rational model. Some key biases are
outlined below, following Kahneman and Tversky (1979).
Firstly, we tend to treat choices differently depending on the manner in which they are
described or framed, not what they actually are. If they are framed in terms of losses, we
attach more risk to them than if they are framed in terms of gains. This cognitive illusion
means that people are more risk averse in relation to potential losses than for potential gains;
they are indeed loss averse. This has important implications for environmental policy in
terms of, for example, choosing between policies that are based on peoples willingness to
pay (buying price) and those focusing on willingness to accept (selling price). The latter is
shown by Kahneman and Tversky (1979) to be up to 20 times the former. Layard (2005)
provides an intriguing example, suggesting that most people would expect to be paid much
more to mow their neighbours lawn than they would be prepared to pay to have their own
lawn mowed by their neighbours. This implies that we tend to pay only a little to have
something, and demand a lot to give it up (Dawnay and Shah, 2005: 17). Framing, therefore,
is significant in economic cost-benefit analyses. More importantly, such analyses are not
sufficient in assessing the potential for a given policy being accepted and taken up by people.
For example, Christie et al. (2011) found that householders who were resistant to the
installation of solar panels remained so even when they had to make no initial expense and
were assured that their subsequent payments would not exceed the financial savings that the
equipment generated. Clearly, factors other than financial concerns have influenced their
decisions, such as the trust in the reliability of panels or the level of disruptions involved.
Secondly, in assessing information we pay more attention to information that is easily
available and to memories that are easily retrievable because they have personal relevance or
are emotionally vivid. For example, we may put more weight on our own experience of a
malfunctioning energy efficient device than on the published statistics about the probabilities
of such defaults. We also tend to cherry pick evidence to support our chosen options (a selfserving bias) or the decisions that have already been made (a confirmation bias) (De Bondt,
1998).
Thirdly, in making judgements about which options to choose we use our intuition to filter
the huge amount of information received, so that we can make decisions in the face of
uncertainties and ambiguities. While this helps with the problem of so called analysis
paralysis, it can also lead to over-confident estimates or unwillingness to acknowledge new
information. In situations of repeated decision making (such as picking the right
temperature for washing laundry) we tend to identify emotionally and cognitively with
familiar options that have been tried and tested rather than rationally weigh alternative
options. That may explain why a great majority of households wash at 40 degrees Centigrade
despite the availability of several other temperature options and improved washing
detergents that wash equally well at 30C.
Finally, in evaluating the decisions that have been made, two further biases may occur. The
first one is a tendency to attribute any good outcomes to our own actions, and any bad
outcomes to factors outside our control, often in the attempt to maintain self-esteem. The
second bias relates to the illusion that we have control over the risks of our actions. This then
leads us to discount information that suggests otherwise (Fenton-OCreevy et al., 2003).
In summary, the psychological perspective shows how peoples rationality is bounded by

their cognitive characteristics. However, while for some this perspective implies that
peoples judgments are always coloured by their biases and destined to systematic mismatch
(Nisbett and Ross, 1980), for others, they are signs of strength indicating that people can use
their tacit knowledge to arrive at timely decisions. In practice, people move between the two
extremes, from simple heuristics to complex cognitive strategies, depending on the
significance of the decision that they have to make (Fiske and Taylor, 1991). The
psychological perspective stresses the habitual, ritual and conventional bases of human
behaviour. It suggests that people are not always calculating rational beings; that, they may
not know their costs and benefits; and that they may not act in their own self-interest.
Habit plays a vital role in peoples lives (Darnton et al, 2011). Contrary to the rational choice
models, peoples behaviour is often habitual based on short cuts and routines rather than
rational deliberation. Only when these routines are disrupted, do conscious deliberations
come to play a part. It is in this context that feedback mechanisms, mentioned above, may
work. By re-materialising energy which is abstract and by making what is hidden in
peoples mundane routines visible (Burgess & Nye, 2008; Thaler & Sunstein, 2009:82),
entrenched habit can be disrupted and a space opened which may allow for new habit
formation. In other words, feedback may bring energy use back into peoples economic and
environmental consciousness.
A distinction, however, can be made between indirect and direct feedback. Indirect feedback
occurs sometime after consumption has taken place (such as on households energy bill),
while direct feedback happens immediately at the time of consumption (such as energy
monitors or smart meters). Direct feedback has been shown to be more effective at saving
energy than indirect feedback. It has led to improved energy literacy and interest in
purchasing energy efficient appliances or renewable energy technologies (Gronhoj &
Thogerson, 2011; Hargreaves, Nye & Burgess, 2010). This underpins the UK governments
plan for every household to have a smart meter and energy monitor by 2020 in order to
electronically display instant and detailed information about energy use. Research has shown
that such devices can produce savings of around 5-15% (Gronhoj & Thogerson, 2011) by
motivating a range of actions such as: turning off appliances, using energy more thoughtfully,
replacing inefficient appliances, and so on (Darby, 2010). However, research has also shown
that the positive effects of energy monitors often decrease overtime (Hargreaves et al. 2010;
van Dam et al., 2010). Furthermore, rather than enhancing peoples sense of self-efficacy,
their use may lead to a sense of disempowerment as energy monitors can, on occasion, make
the challenge of energy saving seem larger and even more insurmountable (Hargreaves et
al., 2010: 6119). This has led to calls for more careful examination of their positive and
potentially counter-productive effects (Pierce et. al. 2010).
2.3 The sociological perspective

What is common between the rational and the psychological perspectives is that both portray
people as information-processors albeit often with highly biased (and limited) processing
capacity and bounded rationality (Simon, 1957). Both focus on individual behaviour rather
than social and cultural processes that play crucial roles in habit formation, in providing
categories within which we think, and in framing what is legitimate or normal.
In line with the psychological perspective outlined above, the sociological perspective also
considers peoples rationality as bounded, not just by their cognitive capacity to process
information, but also by the social context in which they operate. From this perspective,
people are seen as being driven to control not just their environment (as is the case in
psychological approaches), but also to respond to social pressures. Three types of social
pressures are particularly influential in decision-making. The first is coercive and involves
social sanctions if people do not act in socially legitimate ways. Legislation, regulations and
rules are among this type of pressure. Non-conformity leads to punishments. A large part of
pro-environmental behaviour emanates from the enforceable rules and regulations.
The second type of social pressure is mimetic and involves imitating what others do
(Routledge, 1993). In order to reduce complexity and save time, we may either choose or be
compelled to copy others without necessarily considering the potential contextual
differences. We tend to do what our neighbours do especially if we trust their judgment.
Research has shown that households are motivated to take energy-saving action only after
others have been seen to do so (GfK NOP Social Research 2012).
The third type of social pressure is normative, based on the values we hold and the
acceptability of behaviours. It involves what we think we should do to not only avoid social
censure but also maximise social reward. A great deal of the literature on environmental
behaviour considers values and norms as central to the understanding of behaviour and the
design of effective policies and programmes aimed at behavioural change (see for example:
Stern, 2000; Barr, 2003; Gilg et al. , 2005; Turaga et al., 2010). It is, therefore, justified to
dedicate a section to these and elaborate them further.
3 Values and norms

Values are considered to be higher level social constructs than attitudes or beliefs (Jackson,
2005). Some commentators have suggested that individuals hold general values that can be
placed on continua ranging from egoistic to altruistic, from conservative to open to
change, and from bio-centric (nature has intrinsic value) to anthropocentric (nature has
instrumental value) (Barr, 2003: 229). In relation to environmental behaviour, Stern (2000)
proposes a value-belief-norm model in which the above values are linked to beliefs about
human relationship to nature (also see Davoudi, 2012). It is argued that, altruistic and biocentric value orientations are positively correlated to an ecological worldview which
considers nature as being in a delicate balance that can be offset by unchecked human
actions and growth. This ecological worldview, in turn, leads to a sense of moral obligation
to engage in pro-environmental behaviour and to perform such behaviour. In contrast,
egoistic values correlate negatively to the activation of a sense of responsibility towards the
environment (Stern, 2000).
As Hargreaves (2008) argues, Sterns model implies that values are socially, rather than
individually, constructed. Despite this, attempts to change values continue to rely on
information provision and moral suasion/education aimed at individual consumption
(Wilson & Dowlatabadi, 2007: 185; see also Stern, 2000:419) rather than steering the
normative basis of society towards more altruistic and reflexive environmentalism (Jackson
2009). It is also important to note that while other studies support the link between altruistic
and bio-centric values and environmental behaviours, they nevertheless emphasise that
values are not easily manipulated (Gilg et al., 2005: 499) and that, there are other factors
that determine pro-environmental behaviour.
In Ajzens (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour a subjective norm is the perception of
what (important) others think about a particular behaviour (Jackson, 2005: 46-47). If we
perceive that others would see our behaviour in a positive light, we are more likely to
perform that behaviour (Harland et al., 1999). Subjective norms are therefore social norms
and as such they refer to what is perceived to be normal or legitimate in a given social
context. Social norms can be powerful drivers for pro-environmental behaviours (Evans,
2007). This means that people are likely to engage in energy reduction behaviours if they are
a member of a group in which such behaviour is normal (Dono et al., 2010; McKenzie-Mohr,
2000). If switching off lights is normal in our workplace, we are more likely to do so. An
individuals ability to observe social norms is important to how they are perceived and
accepted by their peer group especially in relation to what is interpreted as socially
(un)acceptable (smoking is a clear example).
It is in this context that normative feedback (i.e. comparing one households energy use with
that of other households) as opposed to informative feedback (i.e. providing households with
information about their own energy use) is suggested to be more effective because it can
activate a social norm and hence a change of behaviour (Fischer, 2008; De Young, 2000).
However, empirical findings on this claim are mixed: some argue that normative feedback
stimulates energy saving (Darby, 2010), others suggest that the effect is often under-detected
(Nolan, et. al., 2008) and a third group find that none of the studies utilising normative
feedback could demonstrate an effect on consumption (Fischer, 2008: 99). While, more
research is needed in the exact effects of normative feedback, it is widely acknowledged that
social norms refer to what is conceived of as appropriate forms of behaviour in a given
circumstance or a given social group (Jackson, 2005:60). Adjusting ones behaviour to the
norm can therefore have a positive or negative impact on their energy consumption. So, as
Fischer (2008) suggests, low energy households could actually increase their energy
consumption if comparative feedback suggests that their consumption is below the norm.
So, social norms can act both ways depending on the nature of the norm (pro, anti or neutral
towards the environment) and the extent to which it is embedded in the social consciousness.
Lorenzoni et al. (2007) argue that a significant barrier to adopting pro-environmental
behaviour in the UK is the perception that low-consumption green living is both abnormal
and undesirable.
Overall, it is important to note that a focus on values and norms in policy-making recognises
that energy behaviour is an inherently political as well as a technical issue and requires the
development of energy-sensitive politics as well as policy integration.
4 Conclusion
Reducing households energy consumption is a significant part of strategies for transition to
low carbon societies. Such reduction can take place through technological advances such as
energy efficient building materials and appliances and physical interventions such as
retrofitting of the built environment. However, problems of rebound effect, low levels of
take up and acceptability have directed attention to behavioural issues. Changing behaviour
has increasingly become the buzzword of public policy. However, as mentioned in the
introduction to this paper, progression towards more sustainable forms of energy demand
and supply requires more than a shift in the attitudes and intentions of individuals (Walker
& Cass, 2007: 467). Attempts to steer society towards sustainable energy systems should go
beyond a focus on influencing individual behaviour. It requires a radical re-working and realignment of technologies, routines, forms of knowhow, markets and expectations (Shove,
2012:1278) as well as institutional practices and systems of provision.
Peoples consumption of energy is based on a set of social practices which are influenced by
both their lifestyle choices and by the institutions and structures of society, including those
which determine the dynamics of energy systems. For policy to be effective, it needs to be
developed with a sound understanding of the complexity of these relationships.
The need for systemic change does not mean an abandonment of attempts to promote proenvironmental behaviour. What we have demonstrated in this paper is the existence of at
least three different conceptualisations of behaviour with each being rooted in different
disciplinary traditions and presenting different views of individuals and the drivers of
behavioural change. In practice, what constitute our behaviour is far from the neat dividing
lines presented above. As Jackson (2005) puts it, peoples behaviour is a function of their
attitude and intentions, their habitual responses and the situational constraints and conditions
under which they operate. Their intentions are then influenced by social, normative, and
affective factors as well as rational deliberations.
Effective policies have to take into account the importance of the social context of behaviour,
while also renegotiating habits and encouraging new habit formation. An important element
of changing habit is to unlock existing behaviour or, in other words, raise the behaviour
from the level of practical (everyday routine) to discursive (intentional, goal-oriented)
consciousness (Jackson, 2005). This can be done more effectively with a focus on
communities rather than individuals (Brulle, 2010; Bunt and Harries, 2010, Heiskanen et al
2010). Through both place-based and group-based communities, reducing energy

consumption could become the new social norm, shaping both individual and systemic
behaviour. Many of the current pro-environmental behaviour change approaches do
recognize the importance of information, norms and attitudes and take a collective approach
at the level of community. And yet, there appears to be a lack of stress on the facilitative
structural conditions and institutional practices within which these community initiatives are
situated. The evidence in this paper suggests that a shift in energy behaviours requires a
multi-level and cross-sectoral approach which addresses material, institutional, social and
subjective determinants of behaviour simultaneously.
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11
Environment and Planning II Planning and Design IW), volume 26, pages 603 630
Modeling the urban ecosystem: a conceptual framework
M Aibcrtt
Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington, Box 355740, Seattle,
WA 98195, USA; e-mail: maibcrttou.wasliington.edu
Received 14 October 1998; in revised form 22 March 1999
Abstract. In this paper I build on current research in urban and ecological simulation modeling to
develop n conceptual framework for modeling the urban ecosystem. Although important progress has
been made in various areas of urban modeling, operational urban models are still primitive in terms of
their ability to represent ecological processes. On the other hand, environmental models designed to
assess the ecological impact of an urban region are limited in their ability to represent human
systems, I present here a strategy to integrate these two lines of research into an urban ecological
model (UEM). This model addresses the human dimension of the Pugct Sound regional integrated
simulation model (PRISM)a multidisciplinary initiative at the University of Washington aimed at
developing a dynamic and integrated understanding of the environmental and human systems in the
Pugct Sound. UEM simulates the environmental pressures associated with human activities under
alternative demographic, economic, policy, and environmental scenarios. The specific objectives of
UEM are to: quantify the major sources of human-induced environmental stresses (such as land-cover
changes and nutrient discharges); determine the spatial and temporal variability of human stressors in
relation to changes in the biophysical structure; relate the biophysical impacts of these stressors to the
variability and spatial heterogeneity in land uses, human activities, and management practices; and
predict the changes in stressors in relation to changes in human factors.
1 Introduction
Planning agencies worldwide are increasingly challenged by the need to assess the
environmental implications of alternative urban growth patternsand policies to
control themin a comprehensive manner. Urban growth leads to rapid conversion
of land and puts increasing pressure on local and global ecosystems. It causes changes
in water and energy fluxes. Natural habitats are reduced and fragmented, exotic
organisms arc introduced, and nutrient cycles are severely modified. Although impacts
of urban development often seem local, they cause environmental changes at larger
scales. Assessments of urban growth that are timely and accurate, and developed in a
transparent manner, are crucial to achieve sound decisions. However, operational
urban models designed to analyze or predict the development of urban areas are still
primitive in their ability to represent ecological processes and urban ecosystem
dynamics. Though important progress has been made in various areas of urban
modeling (Wegener, 1994; 1995), only a few scholars have attempted to integrate the
environmental dimension. The majority of these models are designed to answer a set of
fundamental but limited planning questions relevant to housing (Anas, 1995; Anas and
Arnott, 1991; Kain and Apgar, 1985), land use (Landis, 1992; 1995; Prastacos, 1986;
Waddell, 1998), transportation (Boyce, 1986; Kim, 1989) and in some cases the interactions among them (de la Barra, 1989; Echenique et al, 1990; Mackett, 1990; Putman,
1983; 1991; Wegener, 1983).
On the other hand, the environmental models designed to assess the ecological
impact of an urban region are limited in their ability to represent human systems. These
models represent people as static scenarios of land uses and economic activities and
predict human-induced disturbances from aggregated measures of economic development and urban growth. Only with the increasing attention paid to the role of human
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M Alberti
activities in global environmental change has the need emerged to represent more
explicitly human systems in environmental models. Whereas integrated assessment
modeling can be traced back to the late 1960s (Forrester, 1969; Meadows et al, 1972),
the first generation of operational integrated models has emerged only in the mid-1980s.
During the last decade, integrated assessment modeling has been proposed as a new
approach to link biophysical and socioeconomic systems in assessing climate change
(Dowlatabadi, 1995). At present more than thirty integrated assessment models (IAMs)
have been developed (Alcamo, 1994; Dowlatabadi, 1995; Rotmans et al, 1995). The focus
of current IAMs is global; however, a new generation of spatially explicit regional
integrated models is now emerging (Maxwell and Costanza, 1995). These models
have started to treat human decisions explicitly but are still too limited in the representation of human behavior and the heterogeneity of urban land uses (Alberti, 1998).
Recent progress in the study of complex systems (Schneider and Kay, 1994) and the
evolution of computer modeling capabilities (Brail, 1990) have made possible a more
explicit treatment of the link between human and ecological systems. The development
of GIS has provided the capability to integrate spatial processes. However, the greatest
challenge for integrating urban and environmental modeling will be in interfacing the
various disciplines involved. Urban subsystems have been studied for several decades
but progress in urban-ecological modeling has been limited because of the difficulty
in integrating the natural and social sciences. A recent National Science Foundation
workshop on urban processes pointed out that ecologists, social scientists, and urban
planners will need to work together to make their data, models, and findings compatible
with one another and to identify systematically where fruitful clusters of multidisciplinary research problems can be developed (Brown, 1997). Such an approach can offer
a new perspective on modeling urban systems.
In this paper I build on research in urban and ecological simulation modeling to
develop an integrated urban-ecological modeling framework. This framework is part of
a current effort to develop an urban-ecological model (UEM) at the University of
Washington as part of the Puget Sound regional integrated simulation model (PRISM).
UEM simulates the environmental impacts associated with human activities under alternative demographic, economic, policy, and environmental scenarios. Its objectives are to:
(1) Quantify the major sources of human-induced environmental stresses (such as landcover changes and nutrient discharges);
(2) Determine the spatial and temporal variability of human stressors in relation to
changes in the biophysical structure;
(3) Relate the biophysical impacts of these stressors to the variability and spatial heterogeneity in land uses, human activities, and management practices; and
(4) Predict the changes in stressors in relation to changes in human factors.
The development of an integrated urban-ecological framework has both scientific
and policy relevance. It provides a basis for developing integrated knowledge of the
processes and mechanisms that govern urban ecosystem dynamics. It also creates the
basis for modeling urban systems and provides planners with a powerful tool to
simulate the ecological impacts of urban development patterns.
2 The urban ecosystem
Early efforts to understand the interactions between urban development and environmental change led to the conceptual model of cities as urban ecosystems (Boyden et al,
1981; Douglas, 1983; Duvigneaud, 1974; Odum, 1963; 1997; Stearns and Montag, 1974).
Ecologists have described the city as a heterotrophic ecosystem highly dependent on
large inputs of energy and materials and a vast capacity to absorb emissions and waste
(Boyden et al, 1981; Duvigneaud, 1974; Odum, 1963). Wolman (1965) applied an 'urban
607
Modeling the urhan ecosystem
metabolism1 approach to quantify the Hows of energy and materials into and out of a
hypothetical American city. Systems ccologists provided formal equations to describe
the energy balance and the cycling of materials (Douglas, 1983; Oclum, 1983). Although
these efforts have never been translated into operational simulation models, they have
laid out the basis for urban-ecological research. Urban scholars were rightly skeptical
about the attempts to integrate biological and socioeconomic concepts into system
dynamics models. None of these models represented explicitly the processes by which
humans affect or are affected by the urban environment. At best, human behavior was
reduced to a few differential equations. These models simplified the interactions of
natural and social systems so much that they could provide little useful insight for
planners and decisionmakers. Since then, however, urban and ecological research has
made important progress with respect to understanding how urban ecosystems operate
and how they differ from natural ecosystems.
Urban-ecological interactions are complex. Urban ecosystems consist of several
interlinked subsystems -social, economic, institutional, and environmental each
representing a complex system of its own and affecting all the others at various
structural and functional levels. Urban development is a major determinant of ecosystem structure and influences significantly the functioning of natural ecosystems
through (a) the conversion of land and transformation of the landscape; (b) the use
of natural resources; and (c) the release of emissions and waste. The earth's ecosystems
also provide (d) important services to the human population in urban areas. Thus
(e) environmental changes occurring at the local, regional, and global scale such as
the contamination of watersheds, loss of biodiversity, and changes in climate -affect
human health and well-being. Humans respond to environmental change through
(f) management strategies (figure I).
Global ecosystem
Figure 1. Human - natural systems interactions.

2.1 Human systems
Human drivers are dominant in urban ecosystem dynamics. Major human driving
forces are demographics, socioeconomic organization, political structure, and technology. Human behaviorsthe underlying rationales for the actions that give rise to these
forcesdirectly influence the use of land and the demand for and supply of resources
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M Alberti
(Turner, 1989). In urban areas these forces combine to affect the spatial distribution of
activities and ultimately the spatial heterogeneity of natural processes and disturbances. It is increasingly clear to both social (Openshaw, 1995) and natural (Pickett
et al, 1994) scientists that it is absurd to model the urban ecosystem without explicitly
representing humans in them. Would ecologists exclude other species from models of
natural ecosystems? However, as Pickett et al (1997) point out, simply adding humans
to ecosystems without representing the way they function is not an adequate alternative. Today, social and natural scientists have the tools to explore the richness of
interactions between the social and ecological functions of the human species.
Representing human actors and their institutions in models of urban ecosystems
will be an important step towards representing more realistically the human dimension
of environmental change. Many of the human impacts on the physical environment are
mediated through social, economic, and political institutions that control and order
human activities (Kates et al, 1990). Also, humans consciously act to mitigate these
impacts and build the institutional settings to promote such actions. They adapt by
learning both individually and collectively. How can these dimensions be represented?
Lynch (1981, page 115) suggested that "a learning ecology might be more appropriate
for human settlement since some of its actors, at least, are conscious, and capable of
modifying themselves and thus changing the rules of the game", for example by
restructuring materials and switching the path of energy flows. Humans, like other
species, respond to environmental change but in a more complex way.
2.2 Natural systems
Environmental forcessuch as climate, topography, hydrology, land cover, and humaninduced changes in environmental qualityare important drivers of urban systems.
Moreover, natural hazardssuch as hurricanes, floods, and landslidescan cause
significant perturbations in social systems. Most models of human systems, however,
simply ignore these forces. In urban models, biophysical processes are at best included as
exogenous variables and treated as constants. This is a severe limitation because human
decisions are directly related to environmental conditions and changes. Surprisingly,
urban modelers cannot remove the behavior of the job market or degradation of housing
stocks from their models but can represent the dynamics of urban systems without
considering the degradation of the environment and depletion of natural resources.
As we cannot simply add humans to ecological models, representing biophysical
processes in urban models will require going beyond simply adding environmental
variables to existing urban models. A number of models currently extend their modules
to include changes in environmental variables such as air quality and noise (Wegener,
1995). However, these models may misrepresent complex ecological responses. Before we
can model these responses, we need to recognize explicitly the properties of ecosystem
organization and behavior that govern them. According to Holling (1978, pages 25-26)
four properties of ecological systems determine how they respond to change. First, parts
in ecological systems are connected to each other in a selective way that has implications
for what should be measured. Second, events are not uniform over space, which has
implications for how intense impacts will be and where they will occur. Third, sharp
shifts in behavior are natural for many ecosystems. Fourth, variability, not constancy,
is a feature of ecological systems that contributes to their self-correcting capacity.
2.3 Integrated modeling
In modeling the interactions between human and natural systems, we need to consider
that many factors work simultaneously at various levels. Simply linking these models in
an 'additive' fashion may not adequately represent system behavior because interactions
occur at levels that are not represented (Pickett et al, 1994). On the basis of hierarchy
Modeling the urban ecosystem
609
theory* Pickett et nl (1994) argue that the consideration of interactions only at the
upper level may provide statistical relationship but cannot help explain or predict
important feedback for future conditions. This is particularly true in urban ecosystems
because urban development controls the ecosystem structure in complex ways. Landuse decisions affect species composition directly through the introduction of species
and indirectly through the modification of natural disturbance agents. Production and
consumption choices determine the level of resource extraction and generation of
emissions and waste. Decisions about investing in infrastructures or adopting control
policies may mitigate or exacerbate these effects. Because ecological productivity
controls the regional economy, interactions between local decisions and ecological
processes at the local scale can result in large-scale environmental change.
We also need to challenge the implicit assumption of most models that decisions
arc made by one single decisionmaker at one point in time. Urban development is the
outcome of dynamic interactions among the choices of many actors, including households, businesses, developers, and governments (WaddcII, 1998). These actors make
decisions that determine and alter the patterns of human activities and ultimately
affect environmental change. Their decisions arc interdependent; for example, housing
location is affected by employment activity and affects retail activity and infrastructure,
which in turn affect housing development.
Human and natural systems, including their equilibrium conditions, change over
time. One major problem in describing their relationships is that they operate at very
different temporal and spatial scales. The lag times between human decisions and their
environmental effects further complicate any attempt to understand these interactions.
Moreover, the environmental effects of human actions may also be distanced over
space (Moiling, 1986). Simulating the behavior of urban-ecological systems requires
not only an explicit consideration of the temporal and spatial dynamics of these
systems, but also achieving consistency across the different temporal and spatial scales
at which various processes operate.
Another source of difficulty in spelling out these interactions is their cumulative
and synergistic impacts. In general, environmental impacts become important when
their sources are grouped closely enough in space or time to exceed the ability of the
natural system to remove or dissipate the disturbances (Clark, 1986). Human stresses in
cities may cross thresholds beyond which they may irrevocably damage important
ecological functions. In most ecological systems, processes operate in a stepwise rather
than a smoothly progressive fashion over time (Holling, 1986). Sharp shifts in behavior
are natural This property of ecosystems requires the consideration of resilience: the
amount of disturbance a system can absorb without changing its structure or behavior.
In modeling urban-ecological systems we also need to consider feedback mechanisms between the natural and human systems. These are control elements that can
amplify or regulate a given output. At the global level, an example of negative feedback
in the biosphere described by ecologists is the homeostatic integration of biotic and
physical processes that keeps the amount of CO2 in the air relatively constant. Feedback loopsboth positive and negativebetween human and environmental systems
are not completely understood. We know that human decisions leading to the burning
of fossil fuels and land-use change affect the carbon cycle, and that in turn the
associated climate changes will affect human choices, but the nature of these interactions remains controversial. In particular, the feedback of environmental change on
human decisions is difficult to represent because environmental change affects all
people independently of who has caused the environmental impact in the first place,
whereas the impact of each individual decisionmaker on the environment depends on
the choices of others (Ostrom, 1991).
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Modeling urban-ecological systems will require special attention to uncertainty.

Uncertainty can arise from limited understanding of a given phenomenon, systematic
and random error, and subjective judgment. Change in natural systems can occur in
abrupt and discontinuous ways, and responses can be characterized by thresholds and
multiple domains of stability. The knowledge of the environmental systems is always
incomplete and surprise is inevitable (Holling, 1995). The explicit characterization and
analysis of uncertainty should be a central focus of modeling integration.
3 The environmental dimension in urban models
Although extensive urban research has focused on the dynamics of urban systems, it
has been described only partially through numerical models. Most operational urban
models focus on a few subsystems such as housing, employment, land use, and transportation, with a limited set of elements influencing their dynamics. These models
predict the spatial distribution of activities based on simple spatial interaction mechanisms and economic axioms. No operational urban models have attempted to
describe the interactions between urban and environmental processes in a systematic
way. Recently a few modelers have started to address a number of direct impacts of
human activities, such as air pollution and noise, on the environment. However, as the
idealized urban model proposed by Wegener (1994) depicts quite well, only unidirectional links between urban systems and the environment have been conceived in urban
modeling. Today a vast literature synthesizes the theoretical and methodological foundation of urban simulation models (Batty and Hutchinson, 1983; Harris, 1996; Mackett,
1985; 1990; Putman, 1983; 1995; Wegener, 1994; 1995; Wilson et al, 1977; 1981). In this
section I draw on this literature to explore how environmental variables are considered
and how environmental processes are represented.
Operational urban models can be classified according to the approach they use to
predict the generation and spatial allocation of activities or according to the solution
proposed to a variety of model design questions (see table 1, over). It is difficult to
classify the vast literature on urban modeling because of the great variability in emphasis that authors place on theory, techniques, and applications. Moreover, the various
approaches are interrelated in complex ways. Six major classes of operational models
discussed in the literature are relevant here: those relying on gravity, the economic
market, optimization, input - output, microsimulation, and cellular automata.
3.1 Gravity, maximum entropy, and discrete-choice models
The dominant approach in urban modeling can be traced to Lowry's (1964) model,
a simple iterative procedure in which nine equations are used to simulate the spatial
distribution of population, employment, service, and land use. The model is based
on the simple hypothesis that residences gravitate toward employment locations.
Two schools of research have provided a statistical basis for the gravity model, guided
by Wilson (1967, the entropy-maximizing principle) and McFadden (1973, utility
maximization). The results obtained by the two methods were later shown to be
equivalent (Anas, 1983). The models most often used by planning agencies in the
USAthe disaggregated residential allocation model (DRAM) and the employment
allocation model (EMPAL)are derivatives of Lowry's model using maximum entropy
formulation. Developed by Putman (1979), and incrementally improved since the early
1970s, DRAM and EMPAL are currently in use in fourteen US metropolitan areas
(Putman, 1996). The integrated transportation land-use package (ITLUP), also developed by Putman (1983), provides a feedback mechanism to integrate DRAM, EMPAL,
and various components of the urban transportation planning system (UTPS) models
implemented in most metropolitan areas. Although these models substantially improve
61!
upon the initial Lovvry model, they are based on the same simple assumption. No
environmental variables are used in determining the spatial distribution of residence.
The allocation of residential and employment activities must of course meet physical
constraints and planning restrictions within the available zones. However, other than
these constraints no other environmental considerations are included in the equation.
3.2 Economic market-based models
A second urban modeling approach is based on the work of Wingo (1961) and Alonso
(1964), who introduce the notion of land-rent and land-market clearing. Wingo was the
first to describe the urban spatial structure in the framework of equilibrium theory.
Given the location of employment centers, a particular transportation technology, and
a set of households, his model determines the spatial distribution, value, and extent of
residential land requirements under the assumption that landowners and households
both maximize their return. Wingo uses demand, whereas Alonso uses bid-rent functions to distribute the land to its users. The aim of both models is to describe the
effects of the residential land market on location. Under this approach, households are
assumed to maximize their utility and select an optimum residential location by
trading off housing prices and transportation costs. The trade-offs are represented in
a demand or bid-rent functional form which describes how much each household is
willing to pay to live at each location. Anas (1983) introduced discrete-choice behavior
into models with economically specified behavior and market clearing. Two models
that use this approach arc UrbanSim developed by Waddcll (1998), and CUF2 developed by Landis and Zhang (1998a; 1998b). Both models arc based on random utility
theory and make use of logit models to implement key components. However, they
differ in a substantial way. UrbanSim models the key decisionmakershouseholds,
businesses, and developersand simulates their choices that impact urban development. It also simulates the land market as the interaction of demand and supply with
prices of land and buildings adjusting to clear the market. UrbanSim simulates urban
development as a dynamic process as opposed to a cross-sectional or equilibrium
approach. CUF2 models land-use transition probabilities based on a set of site and
community characteristics such as population and employment growth, accessibility,
and original use in the site and surrounding sites.
As indicated in table 1, most current operational models are based on an economic
market-based approach and rely on random utility or discrete-choice theory. In these
models, environmental variables are not part of the equation, except for environmental
constraints. The value of the ecological servicessuch as clean air, clean water, and
flood controlthat ecosystems provide to households are not reflected in market prices.
This is a severe limitation, because changes in environmental quality and other ecological services provided by ecosystems will affect the market behavior of the households
(Maler et al, 1994).
3.3 Mathematical programming-based models
A third approach to describing urban activity allocation is based on optimization
theory. By using mathematical programming, these models design spatial interaction
problems in order to optimize an objective function that includes transportation
and activity establishment costs. Herbert and Stevens (1960) used linear programming
to simulate the market mechanisms that affect location. Wheaton (1974) developed
an optimization model by using nonlinear programming. More recently Boyce et al
(1993) and Boyce and Southworth (1979) have explored the options for integrating
spatial interactions of residential, employment, and travel choices within a single
optimized modeling framework. The projective optimization land-use system (POLIS)
developed by Prastacos (1986) is one of the few optimization land-use models used in
M Alberti
612
Table 1. Urban models.

Model
Subsystems
Theory or approach
Population or sectors
Clarke
Land use and/or cover
Complex systems
Cellular automata
Monte Carlo simulation
Aggregated
CUF2
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Random utility
Multinomial logit
Aggregated
IRPUD
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Random utility
Network equilibrium
Land-use equilibrium
Monte Carlo microsimulation
Partially disaggregated
ITLUP
Population
Employment
Land use
Travel
Population
Employment
Transport
Travel
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Travel
Random utility
Maximization
Network equilibrium
Random utility
General equilibrium
Input-output
Aggregated
Random utility
Maximization
Monte Carlo microsimulation
Disaggregated
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Transport
Travel
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Travel
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Transport
Travel
Population
Employment
Housing
Land use
Random utility
Maximization
Market clearing
Input-output
Aggregated
Random utility
Optimization
Aggregated
Random utility
Network equilibrium
Land-use equilibrium
Input-output
Aggregated
Random utility
Partial equilibrium
Multinomial logit
Kim
MASTER
MEPLAN
POLIS
TRANUS
UrbanSim
613
Model
Time
Space
Environmental
(actors
Source
Clarke
Dynamic
Dynamic
Cirid cell
Clurkc etui, 1997
CUF2.
Static
Static
I00x 100 m
grid cell
Land cover
Topography
Hydrography
Percent slope
IRPUD
Quasidynamic
Static
Zone
Zone space constraints

CO2 emissions by
transport
Wegener, 1995
ITLUP
Static
Static
Zone

Mobile source emissions
Putman, 1983; 199!
Kim
Static
Static
Zone
Kim, 1989
MASTER
Quasidynamic
Static
Zone
Mackctt, 1990
MEPLAN
Static
Static
Zone
Echcnique et al,
1990
POLIS
Static
Static
Zone
Prastacos, 1986
TRANUS
Static
Static
Zone
de la Barra, 1989
UrbanSim
Quasidynamic
Static
Parcels
Topography
Stream buffers
Wetlands
100 years floodplain area
Waddell, 1998
Landis and Zhang,

1998a; 1998b
614
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planning practice. This model, which has been implemented in the San Francisco Bay
area, seeks to maximize both the location surplus and the spatial agglomeration
benefits of basic employment sectors. As in previous models, only land availability is
included as a determinant of employment allocation to zones.
3.4 Input-output models
Another important contribution from economic theory to urban modeling is the
spatially disaggregated intersectoral input-output ( I - O ) approach, developed initially
by Leontief (1967). The approach provides a framework for disaggregating economic
activities by sector and integrating them into urban spatial interaction models. This
transforms the basic structure of an I - O table, allowing the modeler to estimate the
direct and indirect impacts of exogenous change in the economy on a spatially disaggregated scale. Operational urban models that use such an approach include
MEPLAN, TRANUS, and the models developed by Kim (1989). MEPLAN includes
three modules: LUS, the land-use model; FRED, which converts production and
consumption into flows of goods and services; and TAS, a transportation model which
allocates the transport of goods and passengers to travel modes and routes. The landuse component of MEPLAN is based on a spatial disaggregation of production and
consumption factors that include goods, services, and labor. Total consumption is
estimated by using a modified I - O framework subsequently converted into trips.
MEPLAN, TRANUS, and Kim's models use I - O tables to generate interregional flows
of goods. MEPLAN uses the results of the I - O framework to evaluate environmental
impacts. I - O models have been extended to include environmental variables and incorporate pollution multipliers, but no urban model has attempted to implement this
approach for describing economic-ecological interactions. The regional applications of
such an approach have encountered various difficulties related to the specification of the
ecological interprocess matrix and the assumption of fixed coefficients. A major limitation is that inputs and outputs are measured in values as opposed to physical flows.
3.5 Micro simulation
One major limitation in the way most urban models represent the behavior of households and businesses stems from the fact that they are aggregated and static. Individuals
behave in ways that are influenced by their characteristics and the opportunities from
which they choose. Without the explicit representation of these individuals it is impossible to predict the trade-offs they make between jobs, residential locations, or travel
modes. A distinct approach to model the behavior of individuals is microanalytic
simulation that explicitly represents individuals and their progress through a series of
processes (Mackett, 1990). Microsimulation is a modeling technique that is particularly
suitable for systems where decisions are made at the individual unit level and where the
interactions within the system are complex. In such systems, the outcomes produced
by altering the system can vary widely for different groups and are often difficult to
predict. In microsimulation the relationships between the various outcomes of decision
processes and the characteristics of the decisionmaker can be defined by a set of rules
or by a Monte Carlo process. Furthermore, the actions of a population can be simulated through time and incorporate the dynamics of demographic change. An example
is the microanalytical simulation of transport, employment, and residence (MASTER)
model developed by Mackett (1990). The model simulates the choices of a given
population through a set of processes. The outcome of each process is a function
of the characteristics of the household or business, the set of available choices, and
a set of constraints. This approach is applied less extensively in Wegener's (1982)
Dortmund model. Although these models do not explicitly use microsimulation for
modeling environmental impacts, it is clear that the greater disaggregation of the
cm
actors and behaviors has enormous advantages for modeling consumer behavior and
environmental impacts,
3.6 Cellular automata
The use of cellular automata (CA) has been proposed to model spatially explicit
dynamic processes not currently represented in urban models (Hatty and Xie, 1994;
Couclclis, 1985; White et al, 1997; Wu, 1998). Existing operational models arc spatially
aggregated and, even when they use or produce spatially disaggregated data, they rely
on simple spatial geometric processing. A number of modelers have stressed the need
to represent more realistically the spatial behavior of urban actors (White and Engelen,
1997). CA consist of cells arranged in a regular grid that change state according to
specific transition rules. These rules define the new state of the ceils as a function of
their original state and local neighborhood, Clarke et al (1997) have developed a CA
urban growth model as part of the Human-Induced Land Transformations Project
initiated by the US Geological Survey. The model aims to examine the urban transition
in the San Francisco Bay area from a historical perspective and to predict regional
patterns of urbanization in the next 100 years (Clarke ct al, 1997). These predictions are
then used as a basis to assess the ecological and climatic impacts of urban change.
There are four types of growth: spontaneous, diffusive, organic, and road-influenced.
Five factors regulate the rate and nature of growth: a diffusion factor which determines
the dispcrsiveness; a breed coefficient which specifics the likelihood of a settlement to
begin its growth cycle; a spread coefficient which regulates growth of existing settlements; a slope resistance factor which influences the likelihood of growth on steeper
slopes; and a road gravity factor which attracts new settlements close to roads.
4 The human dimension in environmental models
Environmental models have been developed for several decades to simulate atmospheric, land, and ecosystem dynamic processes, and to help assess the effects of various
natural and human-induced disturbances. However, the use of these models in environmental management has become widespread only in the last three decades (J0rgensen
et al, 1995). Since the early 1970s major environmental problems such as eutrophication
and the fate of toxic substances have attracted the attention of environmental modelers,
and very complex models were developed. More recently, the prospect of major changes
in the global environment has presented the scientific community with the challenge of
modeling the interactions between human and ecological systems in an integrated way.
Over these decades a rich literature on'environmental models has developed, but this
is well outside the scope of this paper. In this review I focus on the treatment of the
human dimension in these models (table 2, over).
4.1 Climate and atmospheric models
Atmospheric models can be classified according to the scale of the atmospheric processes they represent. At the global scale, sophisticated coupled atmospheric-ocean
general circulation models (AOGCM) predict climate conditions by considering simultaneously the atmosphere and the ocean (Washington and Meehl, 1996). Using a set of
climate parameters (that is, solar constant) and boundary conditions (that is, land cover,
topography, and atmospheric composition), these models determine the rate of change
in climatic variables such as the temperature, precipitation, surface pressure, and soil
moisture associated with alternative scenarios of CO2 concentrations. These models are
currently being used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) to
assess the impact of alternative greenhouse-gases emission scenarios up to the year 2100.
Regional models have been developed primarily to tackle the issue of acid rain.
Aggregated emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds, estimated on the basis of
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Table 2. Environmental models.

Model
Class
Media or subsystems
Scale
NCAR
Ocean-climate
general circulation
model
Climate - ocean
Global
CMAQ
Atmospheric model
Meteorological emission,
Chemistry transport
Local or regional
UAM
Atmospheric model
Photochemical processes
Local or regional
OBM
Biogeochemical model
Terrestrial biosphere
Global
HRBM
Terrestrial biosphere
Regional
DHSVM
Distributed hydrology
soil vegetation model
Hydrology
Regional
JABOWA/
FORET
Population-community
dynamic model
Trees
Local
CENTURY
Nutrient cycles
Local
GEM
Process-oriented
ecological model
Ecosystems
Local
PLM
Process-oriented
landscape model
Terrestrial landscape
Regional
IMAGE2
Process-oriented
integrated simulation
model
Energy - industry
Terrestrial
Environment
Atmosphere - ocean
Global, 13 regions
ICAM-2
Optimization - simulation
model
Climate
Economy
Policy
Global, 7 regions
RAINS
Optimization - simulation
model
Emissions
Atmospheric transport
Soil acidification
Continental, Europe
TARGETS
Integrated simulation
model
Population or health
Energy or economics
Biophysics, land, soils,
or water
Global, 6 regions
617
Human factors
Source
Model
Time
Space
NCAR
Dynamic
Minutes
100 years
CO? concentration
Dynamic
scenarios
4.5" x 7.5
(latitude x longitude )
9 layers
CMAQ
Dynamic
8-hour to
72-hour period
Dynamic
Variable 3-D grid
Emissions of
atmospheric
pollutants
Novak et al, 1995
UAM
Dynamic
8-hour to
72-hour period
Dynamic
Variable 3-D grid
Emissions of
photochemical
pollutants
Morris and Meyers,

1990
OBM
Dynamic
1 year
Dynamic
2.5 x 2.5
Land use
CO2 concentration
scenarios
Esser, 1991
HRBM
Dynamic
6 days
Dynamic
0.5 x 0.5
Land use
CO2 concentration
scenarios
Esser et al, 1994
DHSVM
Dynamic
Hours
Dynamic
30- 100 m
Land cover
Wigmosta et al,
1994
JABOWA/
FORET
Dynamic
Dynamic
Up to 500 years 10 x 10 m grid
1 year
Land cover
Botkin, 1984
CENTURY
Dynamic
1 month
Thousands
of years
Dynamic
1 x 1 m grid cell
Land cover
CO2 concentration
Par ton et al, 1987
GEM
Dynamic
12 hours
Dynamic
1 km cell
Land cover
Fitz ct al, 1999
PLM
Dynamic
1 week
Dynamic
200 m grid
1 km grid
Land cover
Costanza et al,
1995
IMAGE2
Dynamic
Dynamic
1 day to 5 years Variable from
0.5 x 0.5 grid
to region
CO2 emissions
Land use
Alcamo, 1994
ICAM-2
Dynamic
5 years
Static
Latitude bands
Explicit treatment
of uncertainties
Dowlatabadi and
Ball, 1994
RAINS
Dynamic
1 year
Static
150 km x 150 km
in deposition
submodel and
0.5 x 1.0 impact
submodel
Energy use
Sulfur emissions
Alcamo et al, 1990
TARGETS
Dynamic
1 year
Static
Regions
Energy use
Water use
Emissions
Land cover
Rotmans et al,
1994
Washington and
Mcchl. 1996
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emissions factors of point, area, and mobile sources, serve as inputs for long-range
transport models which predict the emissions and regional distribution of acid compounds. Two regional air-quality models developed by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) are the regional oxidant model (ROM) (Young et al, 1989) and the
regional acid-deposition model (RADM) (Chang et al, 1990).
Emission factors for criteria pollutants are also used as inputs for urban atmospheric models. The EPA's urban airshed model (UAM) is a three-dimensional photochemical grid model designed to simulate the relevant physical and chemical processes
affecting the production and transport of tropospheric ozone (Morris and Meyers,
1990). The basis for the UAM is a mass balance equation in which all of the relevant
emissions, transport, diffusion, chemical reactions, and removal processes are expressed
in mathematical terms (Morris and Meyers, 1990). A more recent model developed by
EPA is the community multiscale air-quality (CMAQ) model. CMAQ is a third generation air-quality model that treats multiple pollutants simultaneously up to continental
scales and incorporates feedbacks between chemical and meteorological components.
The CMAQ modeling system contains three modeling components: a meteorological
model, emission models for human-made and natural emissions, and a chemistrytransport model. The target-grid resolutions and domain sizes for CMAQ range
spatially and temporally over several orders of magnitude. In these models human
decisions are represented by emission factors developed by the EPA (Novak et al, 1995).
4.2 Biogeochemical models
A number of global models aim to simulate the impacts of human activities on
biogeochemical cyclesthe continuous cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur through
the biosphere which sustains life. Two examples are the Osnabriick biosphere model
(OBM) and the high-resolution biosphere model (HRBM) developed in Germany
(Esser, 1991; Esser et al, 1994). These spatially explicit models simulate the dynamics
of the carbon cycle through the terrestrial biosphere in response to climate and CO2
forcing. OBM uses a grid cell of 2.5 x 2.5 (latitude x longitude) and an annual time
step. HRBM has a greater spatial resolution (0.5 x 0.5) and a finer (6 days) time step.
They compute the storage and transfer of carbon from each cell by using a series of
rate constants and coefficients. In these models human impacts are generated through
scenarios of land-use change and CO2 concentrations. However, these models do not
represent more complex interactions between human behavior and biogeochemical
cycles. For example, land-use decisions affect the carbon cycle not only directly but
also through its impact on transportation patterns and related CO2 emissions in the
atmosphere.
4.3 Hydrological models
Human-induced changes in water and sediment fluxes have been modeled through runoff models. Human activities can cause four major impacts on the hydrological cycle:
floods, droughts, changes in surface and groundwater regimes, and water pollution
(Rogers, 1994). Primarily, changes in land uses and channelization cause these impacts.
The water balance model developed by Vorosmarty and Moore (1991) is an example of
a regional model used to predict changes in the water cycle. It uses spatially explicit
biophysical data including precipitation, temperature, vegetation, soils, and elevation to
predict run-off, evapotranspiration, river discharge, and floodplain inundation at a grid
resolution of 0.5 x0.5. Another example is the distributed hydrology soil vegetation
model (DHSVM), a spatially distributed hydrologic model developed by Wigmosta et al
(1994) for use in complex terrain. The DHVSM represents dynamically the spatial
distribution of land-surface processes (that is, soil moisture, snow cover, evapotranspiration, and run-off) at high resolution (typically 30-100 m). While their aim is to
619
assess the hydrologic effects of land-use decisions, the human dimension in these models
is represented by static scenarios of climate and land-use changes.
4.4 Ecosystem models
Ecosystem dynamics can be simulated through three classes of models: plant physiology, population community, and ecosystem (Melillo, 1994). Plant physiology models
are used to predict plant growth and water balance and are particularly useful in the
analysis of plant responses to climate change and CO?,. Population community models
simulate the dynamics of tree growth on small forest patches as influenced by limiting
factors, space, and stand structure. Ecosystem models are process-based models that
take into account carbon and nutrient fluxes. These models, such as CENTURY
and GEM, simulate changes in ecosystem structure and function over a period from
decades to centuries. CENTURY computes the How of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus,
and sulfur through four compartments: soil organic matter, water, grassland, and forest
(Parton, 1996). GEM simulates ecosystem dynamics for a variety of habitats by incorporating ecological processes that determine water levels, plant production, and nutrient
cycling associated with natural and human-induced disturbances. Inputs in these models
are static scenarios of nutrient loads and climate change.
4.5 Karth systems models
Important progress in linking biophysical models has been made through the development of earth systems models (Meyer and Turner II, 1994). In 1990 the US Global
Change Research Program (USGCRP) set itself the goal of linking general circulation
models, land-surface paramctrization models, and ecosystem dynamics models to predict
energy and water fluxes between land and the atmosphere (US Global Change Research
Program Act, 1990). However, coupling atmospheric, terrestrial, and ecosystem dynamics
is not a straightforward task owing to the different spatial and temporal resolutions
between land-surface and ecosystem processes. Models can be integrated through a
nested approach that allows users to calculate parameter values across models of
various resolutions. With the help of advances in computer processing these models
are rapidly increasing in sophistication. However, earth systems models are still too
limited in representing the complex interactions between the earth's subsystems and
human systems. Human actions in these models arc represented by static scenarios of
highly aggregated land uses and pollution loads into the atmosphere, water, and land.
4.6 Integrated assessment models
In response to the need to incorporate a more realistic representation of human
and ecological processes in existing models, natural and social scientists have built
integrated assessment models (IAMs). IAMs incorporate two tasks. They allow users
(1) to integrate various knowledge domains to predict environmental changes associated
with the behavior of complex socioeconomic and environmental systems, and (2) to
assess the likelihood, importance, and implications of predicted environmental changes
to inform policymaking. IAMs have gained interest primarily as a new approach to
link biophysical and socioeconomic systems in assessing global environmental change
(Dowlatabadi, 1995; Parson and Fisher-Vanden, 1995; Rotmans et al, 1995; Weyant et al,
1996). Since 1994 the USGCRP has made IA modeling its central priority.
The integrated model to assess the greenhouse effect (IMAGE 2) developed by the
Dutch National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM) is
designed to simulate the dynamics of the global society-biosphere-climate system
(Alcamo, 1994). IMAGE 2 is the first I AM to represent environmental phenomena
at a fine spatial scale. It performs many calculations on a global grid (0.5 x 0.5). The
time horizon extends to the year 2100 and the time steps of different submodels vary
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between one day and five years. The model consists of three fully linked subsets of
models: the energy-industry system; the terrestrial environment system; and the
atmosphere - ocean system.
The energy - industry models compute the emissions of greenhouse gases in thirteen
world regions as a function of energy consumption and industrial production. End-use
energy consumption is computed from various economic driving forces. It includes four
submodels: energy economy, energy emissions, industrial production, and industrial
emissions. The terrestrial environment models simulate the changes in global land
cover on a grid scale based on climatic and economic factors. The roles of land cover
and other human factors are then taken into account to compute the flux of CO2 and
other greenhouse gases from the biosphere to the atmosphere. This subsystem includes
five submodels: agricultural demand, terrestrial vegetation, land cover, terrestrial carbon, and land-use emissions. The atmosphere - ocean models compute the buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the resulting zonal-average temperature and
precipitation patterns. Four submodels are included: atmospheric composition, zonal
atmospheric climate, oceanic climate, and oceanic biosphere and chemistry.
IMAGE 2 makes a major scientific contribution by representing many important
feedback mechanisms and linkages between models in the subsystems, and between
subsystems. IMAGE 2 links explicitly and geographically the changes in land cover
with the flux of CO2 and other greenhouse gases between the biosphere and atmosphere, and, conversely, takes into account the effects of climate in the changing
productivity of the terrestrial and oceanic biosphere. It also dynamically couples
natural and human-induced emissions with chemical and physical processes in the
atmosphere and ocean and then feeds climate change back to the biosphere.
Another example of IAM is ICAM-2, an optimization model developed at Carnegie
Mellon University to assess the effectiveness of climate change policies (Dowlatabadi
and Ball, 1994). Although most IAMs focus on climate changes, more recent efforts in
integrated modeling have attempted to address a broader set of policy questions.
TARGETS (tool to assess regional and global environmental and health targets for
sustainability) is an example of a model designed to inform the policy debate on a
broader set of global change issues related to economic development and sustainability.
TARGETS is currently being developed by RIVM as part of its research program on
global dynamics and sustainable development (Rotmans et al, 1994). This model aims
to assess simultaneously several human stresses on various global and regional issues
such as climate change, tropospheric ozone, deforestation, and the dispersion of chemicals. None of the current integrated modeling efforts, however, has addressed urban
ecosystems.
5 A conceptual framework for modeling the urban ecosystem
In this section I present a framework to integrate urban and ecological modeling. This
framework is part of a strategy that Alan Borning, Paul Waddell, and I have developed
at the University of Washington to build an urban ecological model as part of PRISM,
which is a multidisciplinary initiative aimed at developing a dynamic and integrated
understanding of the environmental and human systems in the Puget Sound. Our aim is
to integrate the various components of the Puget Sound into a metamodel. The urbanecological model addresses the societal dynamics of environmental change.
5.1 Model objectives
One major aim of the PRISM human dimension is to describe how human actions
generate environmental stresses and to predict the impacts of changes in human actions
on the biophysical system. Human decisions in PRISM will be treated explicitly through
621
the development of UEM which will represent the principal actors and behaviors
affecting environmental change. This model will predict the environmental stresses
associated with urban development and related changes in land-use and human activities under alternative demographic, economic, environmental, and policy scenarios.
We start with the assumption that urban development is the outcome of the interactions between the choices of households, businesses, developers, and governments.
These actors make decisions that alter the patterns of land-use and human activities.
UEM will be designed to model these processes in a dynamic and spatially explicit
framework that links these decisions to changes in the biophysical structure of the
Pugct Sound. This is a first step, we believe, toward coupling human and biophysical
processes in the urban ecosystem.
5.2 Conceptual framework
The urban ecosystem will be represented by a number of human and biophysical
variables. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) are schematic diagrams of the major subsystems
Urluiri processes ami
environmental stressors
Drivers
Natural systems
I-Iumnn systems
Demographics
Economics " H
Policy
Actors
Markets
Resources
Institutions
Production
and
[consumption |
-H
Technology
Environment
Land development
and use
feedback
Upper level
Climate
ocean and
atmosphere
Biogcochemical
cycles
Hydrology
Terrestrial
biosphere
Lower level
Environmental change
(a)
Human systems
Actors
Drivers
Demographics
Economics *
Policy
Households
Businesses
Developers
Governments
r
Technology _^| Population

Jobs
Environment
Land
Buildin gs
Infrasti ructure
Natural resources
Resources
Markets
Job market
Land market
\ Housing
market
\
Governmental
and nonprofit
organizations
NGOs
Institutions
Urban processes and

environmental stressors
Production and
Use of resources
consumption.
Water *
- Energy.
Employment
Materials
Products
Services
Travel
Land conversion
Lifestyles
, Impervious surface
Grassland \\
"* Forest
"^
Land use
Wetlands*. 4
Land value
Infrastructure
Emissions and waste
Land
Atmospheric
development
> Wastewater
and use
Solid waste
Environmental change
(b)
Figure 2. U r b a n ecological frameworks.
o'
>T3
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M Alberti
considered in the model and their interactions. Human systems are represented by four
components: actors, resources, markets, and institutions. Major resource-stock variables
are population, economic activities (jobs), land, buildings (residential and nonresidential), infrastructure (transportation, energy, water supply, wastewater), and natural
resources (water, forests, and ecosystems). The actorshouseholds, businesses, developers, and governmentsmake decisions about production and consumption activities and
their location, leading to changes in land use. These decisions affect, directly and
indirectly, the biophysical system through land conversion, the use of resources, and the
generation of emissions and waste. Businesses make choices about production, location,
and management practices. Households make choices about employment, location,
housing type, travel mode, and other lifestyle factors leading to consumption. Developers make decisions about investing in development and redevelopment. Governments
make decisions about investing in infrastructures and services and adopting policies
and regulations. Decisions are made at the individual and community levels through
the economic and social institutions. The actors interact in three submarkets: the
job market, the land market, and the housing market. These actors also interact in
nonmarket institutions including governmental and other nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations. Decisions are influenced by demographic, socioeconomic, political, and technological factors represented in the model by exogenous scenarios, and
are affected by environmental conditions and changes predicted by the biophysical
modules. The types of activity and the context in which the activity takes place both
determine the level of pressure and the patterns of disturbances.
The output of the urban ecosystem model will serve as the input to several biophysical models such as the climate and atmospheric model, the hydrology model, and
the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem models. The urban-ecological framework is
designed to take into account the interactions between the ecological impacts and
urban processes at various levels of the hierarchy of processes. These include feedback
from the ecological changes on the choices of households and business locations,
market prices, availability of land and resources, and regulation. Feedback is also
included at the levels of the processes of production and consumption, and land
development.
5.3 Model structure
Using the framework described above we plan to develop an object-oriented model
that links urban and ecological processes. We build on UrbanSim, an existing urban
simulation model developed by Waddell (1998), to predict three types of humaninduced environmental stressors: land conversion, use of resources, and emissions.
Figure 3 represents the urban-ecological dynamics that the integrated model will
address (Waddell and Alberti, 1998). Our initial focus will be on modeling changes
in land use and land cover. Instead of linking the urban and ecological components
sequentially, we propose to integrate them at a functional level. Our current strategy is
to extend the object properties and methods now implemented in the UrbanSim model.
UrbanSim predicts the location behaviors of households, businesses, and developers,
and consequent changes in land uses and physical development. These are among the
required inputs to predict the changes in land cover and ecological impacts. We propose
to add the production and consumption behaviors of households and businesses, and
link them through a spatially explicit representation of land and infrastructure to
ecological processes.
The UrbanSim data structure is currently being revised from the current aggregate
approach to one based on microsimulation and from a zone description of space to
a high-resolution grid structure (Waddell and Alberti, 1998). We use a combination of
623
(Households J
Location
Travel
Production
(\msumptUm
(Developers j
New construction
Redevelopment
(liusittcHHCN j
(< iowrmncitta)
Location
Travel
Production
('onsumption
Infrastructure
Hegulntions
Urban processes
Feedback
Land tt.se
Land value
Development
Environmental
stressors
Impervious surface
Grassland
Forest
Wetlands
Water
Energy
Materials
Point sources
Not point sourct
}
( Biophysical processes and impacts j
Figure 3. UEM structure. Note that processes in italics are new components not presently modeled
in UrbanSim (source: Waddell and Alberti, 1998).
the aggregated economic I - O methodology and a microsimukition approach to model
the production and consumption behavior of individual businesses and their location.
A microsimulation approach is also being implemented to model households' choices
of jobs, location, and lifestyles. A highly disaggregated representation of households
(that is, individuals) and businesses (that is, the standard industruil classification) will
allow us to represent explicitly detailed production, consumption, and location behaviors of various actors and to link these behaviors to ecological impacts.
The urban ecosystem model simulates three types of human-induced environmental
stressors: land conversion, use of resources, and emissions. Changes in land use-cover
will be modeled based on a set of land use - cover determinants, including original use,
accessibility, environmental conditions, cost of conversion, and policy constraints.
Land conversion will be predicted based on the changes in housing and commercial
buildings, household and business characteristics occupying these buildings, and the
biophysical characteristics of the land parcels. The resource models will be represented
by various modules, each predicting the use of water, energy, and materials, which will
be linked to the UEM on the basis of consumption and infrastructure capacity. The
emission modules are mass-balance models that will simulate pollution loads into the
atmosphere, water, and soil, and relative contributions from the various media.
624
M Alberti
5.4 Spatial and temporal dynamics

Efforts to represent more realistically the spatial and temporal dynamic behavior of
urban ecosystems are particularly relevant if urban and ecological processes need to be
integrated. An explicit treatment of space will be realized in two steps. First, we will
develop and implement a grid of variable resolution to georeference all spatially
located objects in the model. This gives us the flexibility to vary spatial resolutions
for different processes and to test spatial scale effects on model predictions. The second
step will involve the explicit treatment of spatial processes across the area. The grid
provides a foundation for linking urban spatial processes to processes that occur in the
natural environment.
We will also improve the treatment of time. Most urban models assume a static crosssectional approach. The current UrbanSim model uses annual time steps to simulate
household choices, real-estate development and redevelopment, and market-clearing
and price-adjustment processes within the market (Waddell, 1998). Travel accessibility
is updated by a travel model simulation run every ten years, or when significant
changes in the transportation system have occurred. Improvements can be achieved
by implementing different time steps for different behaviors represented in the model,
such as location choices and real-estate development.
5.5 Feedback mechanisms

The modest framework accounts for the interactions between the ecological impacts
and urban processes. Ecological changes will feed back on the location choices both of
households and businesses, and on the availability of land and resources. For example,
the amount and distribution of vegetation-cover canopy in urban areas and its health
have both social and ecological functions. Among the most obvious social functions
are the attractiveness of the area and its consequent economic value. Important ecological functions include removal of air pollutants, mitigation of microclimate, and
consequent savings in building energy, and reduction of storm water run-off. All these
factors improve urban environmental quality and provide ecological services to urban
residents. These benefits are not currently reflected in land values but eventually will
affect long-term urban development. We will define a set of environmental quality
indices (for example air quality, water quality, etc) and risk indices (for example floods,
landslides, etc) that influence location choices and profitability of development.
6 Implications for future research
In this paper I have argued that integration between urban and environmental models
needs to be achieved at a functional level to answer critical planning questions. The
question is how to represent human processes explicitly in ecological models, and
ecological processes explicitly in human models. Although there is no universally valid
protocol for designing an integrated UEM, a few considerations emerge from recent
experience in the two lines of modeling research. Based on the discussion offered in
this paper I indicate a set of attributes that need to be considered to integrate urbanecological modeling. Above all it is critical that the modeling effort is transparent to
users (Smith, 1998). It is important to emphasize that a model is not an end in itself,
but rather a tool that will provide its developers and users with a new perspective on
the problem being analyzed.
Problem definition. One major concern of Lee's (1973) famous "Requiem for largescale models" was that modeling efforts had failed to reproduce realistically the problems that planning agencies face and thus to provide useful tools for decisionmaking.
The first critical step in defining rules for modeling is to be clear about the questions
that need to be answered (Wilson, 1974). The current impasse in coupling ecological
625
and human systems models would suggest that even more important is the way we
formulate such questions. The integration of urban and ecological models, I have
said, cannot be achieved simply by inserting humans into ecosystems or biophysical
elements into human systems because the interactions occur at various levels. This
implies that the traditional questions, such as how humans affect natural systems and
how natural systems affect humans, need to be reformulated to reflect an integrated
approach. For example, we will ask how natural and human-generated landscape
patterns and energy Hows affect natural disturbance regimes and how land-use choices
and practices are controlled by human-induced environmental change.
Multiple actors. Urban decisionmakers are a broad and very diversified group of
people who make a series of relevant decisions over time. In order to model urbanecological interactions we must represent explicitly the location, production, and consumption behavior of these multiple actors. This requires a highly disaggregated
representation of households and businesses. Disaggregation of economic sectors could
be achieved by using a revised version of the I -O model methodology. Microsimulation
could help address the difficult trade-offs that households and businesses make between location, production, and consumption preferences (Wegener and Spiekermann,
1996). Morgan and Dowlatabadi (1996) suggest that new methods must be developed
to incorporate separate multiattributc utility functions by different social actors in
integrated models.
Time. Time needs to be treated explicitly if relevant temporal dynamics of urban
and environmental change are to be represented. Time can be represented as a discrete
or continuous variable. Though treating time continuously is certainly a daunting task,
introducing time steps or using multiple time steps for different processes modeled
can provide an important improvement over current models. Today, most operational
urban models are based on a cross-sectional, aggregate, equilibrium approach.
Improvement over these models could be achieved by representing time explicitly as
a discrete variable. A more ambitious continuous approach to the treatment of time
will need to be explored.
Space. We need to represent more realistically the spatial behavior of urban processes, both human and ecological. Existing operational urban models are spatially
aggregated and, even when they use or produce spatially disaggregated data, they rely
on simple spatial geometric processing. Several scholars have developed various functionalities in modeling spatial processes that can be implemented in UEMs. Additional
research is required to explore the potential for using CA to model spatially explicit
urban dynamic processes efficiently. A more flexible conception of space could help
reconcile the spatial resolution needed to model different urban processes. This will
require implementing a data structure that will accommodate process resolution
ranging from cells to various land units as well as various levels of aggregation across
several hierarchical scales.
Scale. The appropriate scales for modeling depend not only on the problem being
tackled, but also on considerations of consistency across spatial and temporal aggregations (Lonergan and Prudham, 1994). Modeling urban ecosystem dynamics requires
crossing spatial and hierarchical scales. According to hierarchy theory, landscape processes and constraints change across scales (O'Neill et al, 1986). Because landscapes are
spatially heterogeneous areas, the outcome of changes in driving forces can be relevant
only at certain scales. Yet our current understanding of spatial scale links is still
limited. Two scale issues must be addressed in modeling land-use and land-cover
change (Turner II et al, 1995). First, each scale has its specific units and variables.
Second, the relationships between variables and units change with scale. To tackle these
issues, a hierarchical approach needs to be developed.
626
M Alberti
Feedback. Representing feedback mechanisms in U E M s could improve substantially

the ability to predict human behaviors and their ecological impacts. This could be
achieved by developing a set of environmental quality indices derived from the biophysical models. We could evaluate n o t only the relative magnitude of human and
natural systems controls in urbanized regions, but also how this will vary in relation
to alternative urban structure and management strategies. The explicit representation
of feedback loops is also crucial in analyzing the interaction between multiple resource
uses and in assessing their overall ecological impact.
Uncertainty. The behavior of ecological and human systems is highly unpredictable
owing to their inherent complexity. Modeling these systems is subject to uncertainty.
The treatment of uncertainty goes beyond the scope of this paper. It is clear that the
use of advanced techniques, such as the Latin hypercube sampling techniques to m a p
the relevance of uncertainty in input data and model parameters needs to be explored.
The integrated knowledge of the processes and mechanisms that govern urban
ecosystem dynamics is crucial to advance both ecological and social research and to
inform planners and policymakers. It is also crucial to planning education to provide a
new framework and more sophisticated tools for the next generation of urban planners
and practitioners.
Acknowledgements. This paper has benefited enormously from discussions with Paul Waddell
and Alan Borning (University of Washington), co-principal investigators of the PRISM human
dimension project. The description of the model structure is based on a strategy that we have
developed together as part of the PRISM project.
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author
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
The Changing Metabolism

of Cities
Christopher Kennedy, John Cuddihy, and Joshua Engel-Yan
Keywords
global cities
industrial ecology
materials flow analysis (MFA)
sustainable cities
urban environment
urban metabolism
e-supplement available on the JIE

Web site
Address correspondence to:

Prof. Christopher Kennedy
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Toronto
35 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A4, Canada
<christopher.kennedy@utoronto.ca>
<www.civil.engineering.utoronto.ca>
2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Yale University
Summary
Data from urban metabolism studies from eight metropolitan regions across five continents, conducted in various years
since 1965, are assembled in consistent units and compared.
Together with studies of water, materials, energy, and nutrient
flows from additional cities, the comparison provides insights
into the changing metabolism of cities. Most cities studied exhibit increasing per capita metabolism with respect to water,
wastewater, energy, and materials, although one city showed
increasing efficiency for energy and water over the 1990s.
Changes in solid waste streams and air pollutant emissions are
mixed.
The review also identifies metabolic processes that
threaten the sustainability of cities. These include altered
ground water levels, exhaustion of local materials, accumulation of toxic materials, summer heat islands, and irregular accumulation of nutrients. Beyond concerns over the sheer magnitudes of resource flows into cities, an understanding of these
accumulation or storage processes in the urban metabolism is
critical. Growth, which is inherently part of metabolism, causes
changes in water stored in urban aquifers, materials in the
building stock, heat stored in the urban canopy layer, and potentially useful nutrients in urban waste dumps.
Practical reasons exist for understanding urban metabolism.
The vitality of cities depends on spatial relationships with
surrounding hinterlands and global resource webs. Increasing metabolism implies greater loss of farmland, forests, and
species diversity; plus more traffic and more pollution. Urban
policy makers should consider to what extent their nearest resources are close to exhaustion and, if necessary, appropriate
strategies to slow exploitation. It is apparent from this review
that metabolism data have been established for only a few
cities worldwide, and interpretation issues exist due to lack of
common conventions. Further urban metabolism studies are
required.
Volume 11, Number 2
www.mitpressjournals.org/jie
Journal of Industrial Ecology
43
R E S E A R C H A N D A N A LY S I S
Introduction
Cities grow in complex ways due to their
sheer size, social structures, economic systems,
and geopolitical settings, and the evolution of
technology (Hall 1998). Responding to waves of
new technology, cities have grown outward from
small dense cores, first as linear transit cities and
then as sprawling automobile cities. Changes in
industry have also been important; obsolete factories have often closed down, leaving behind
contaminated soil and groundwater. Risks associated with rebuilding on such brownfield sites
have encouraged developers to pursue greenfield
sites on the edges of cities. Ever-growing urban
populations also fuel the expansion of cities. Yet
even cities showing no change or decreasing populations, such as some older industrial cities, are
still growing outward.
Forty years ago, in the wake of rapid urban
expansion, Abel Wolman published a pioneering article on the metabolism of cities. Wolman
(1965) developed the urban metabolism concept
in response to deteriorating air and water quality
in American citiesissues still recognized today
as threatening sustainable urban development.
Wolman analyzed the metabolism of a hypothetical American city, quantifying the overall fluxes
of energy, water, materials, and wastes into and
out of an urban region of 1 million people.
The metabolism of an ecosystem has been defined by ecologists as the production (via photosynthesis) and consumption (by respiration) of
organic matter; it is typically expressed in terms
of energy (Odum 1971). Although a few studies
have focused on quantifying the embodied energy
in cities (Zucchetto 1975; Huang 1998), other
urban metabolism studies have more broadly included fluxes of nutrients and materials and the
urban hydrologic cycle (Baccini and Brunner
1991). In this broader context, urban metabolism
might be defined as the sum total of the technical and
socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting
in growth, production of energy, and elimination of
waste.
Since Wolmans work, a handful of urban
metabolism studies have been conducted in urban
regions around the globe. By reviewing these
studies, this article describes how the urban
metabolism of cities is changing. It also demon44
strates how understanding of accumulation processes in the urban metabolism is essential to the
sustainable development of cities.
Sustainable development can be understood
as development without increases in the throughput of materials and energy beyond the biospheres capacity for regeneration and waste assimilation (Goodland and Daly 1996). Given this
definition, a sustainable city implies an urban region for which the inflows of materials and energy and the disposal of wastes do not exceed the
capacity of its hinterlands. As discussed in this
article, this definition presents difficulties in the
context of cities dependent on global markets;
nevertheless, it provides a relative bar against
which progress may be measured. In quantifying material and energy fluxes, urban metabolism
studies are valuable for assessing the direction of
a citys development.
The objectives of this article are twofold.
The first objective is to review previously published metabolism studies to elucidate what we
know about how urban metabolism is changing.
A previous review article on energy and material flows to cities has been presented by Decker
and colleagues (2000), but it made only minor
reference to the metabolism concept; it did not
include reference to many of the studies considered here; and it did not specifically ask how
urban metabolism is changing. The number of
metabolism studies is not sufficient to apply any
form of statistical analysis, and therefore, some
might argue, to identify any generalizable trends.
Nevertheless, the balance of evidence generally
points to increasing urban metabolism.
The second objective is to identify critical processes in the urban metabolism that threaten the
sustainable development of cities. It has been argued that high levels of urban resource consumption and waste production are not issues about
sustaining cities per se, but reflect concerns over
the role of cities in global sustainable development (Satterthwaite 1997). Although partially
agreeing, we aim to show that there are also processes within the urban metabolism that threaten
urban sustainability itself. In particular we highlight storage processeswater in urban aquifers,
heat stored in urban canopy layers, toxic materials in the building stock, and nutrients within
urban waste dumpsall of which require careful
long-term management. Understanding the

changes to such storage terms in some cities may
be as important as reducing the sheer magnitudes
of inputs and outputs.
The cities studied are metropolitan regions,
that is, similar to standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) in the United States, which
often encompass several politically defined cities,
that is, cities under the jurisdiction of a local municipal government. These metropolitan regions
can generally be regarded as commutersheds, although the basis for definition may differ between
countries.
The metabolism of cities will be analyzed in
terms of four fundamental flows or cyclesthose
of water, materials, energy, and nutrients. Differences in the cycles may be expected between
cities due to age, stage of development (i.e., available technologies), and cultural factors. Other
differences, particularly in energy flows, may be
associated with climate or with urban population
density (table 1). Each of the two objectives will
be addressed sequentially within a discussion of
the four cycles.
Previous Metabolism Studies

Insights into the changing metabolism of
cities can be gained from a few studies from
around the world, conducted over several
decades. These studies are typically of greater
metropolitan areas, including rural or agricultural
fringes around urban centers. One of the earliest and most comprehensive studies was that of
Brussels, Belgium by the ecologists Duvigneaud
and Denaeyer-De Smet (1977), which included
quantification of urban biomass and even organic
discharges from cats and dogs (figure 1)! In studying the city of Hong Kong, Newcombe and colleagues (1978) were able to determine inflows
and outflows of construction materials and finished goods. An update of the Hong Kong study
by Warren-Rhodes and Koenig (2001) showed
that per capita food, water, and materials consumption had increased by 20%, 40%, and 149%,
respectivelyfrom 1971 to 1997. Upward trends
in per capita resource inputs and waste outputs
were also reported in a study of Sydney, Australia
(Newman 1999). Studying a North American
city, Sahely and colleagues (2003) found that al-
though most inputs to Torontos metabolism were

constant or increasing, some per capita outputs,
notably residential solid waste, had decreased
between 1987 and 1999. Metabolism studies of
other cities include those for Tokyo (Hanya and
Ambe 1976), Vienna (Hendriks et al. 2000),
Greater London (Chartered Institute of Wastes
Management 2002), Cape Town (Gasson 2002),
and part of the Swiss Lowlands (Baccini 1997).
Some studies have quantified urban metabolism
less comprehensively than others. Bohle (1994)
considers the urban metabolism perspective on
urban food systems in developing countries. A
few studies of nutrient flows in urban systems have
been undertaken (Nilson 1995; Bjorklund et al.
1999, Baker et al. 2001), whereas others have
specifically investigated metals or plastics in the
urban metabolism. Collectively these metabolism
studies provide a quantitative appraisal of the different ways that cities are changing worldwide.
Related to the urban metabolism concept is
the application of the ecological footprint technique to cities (Wackernagel and Rees 1995).
The ecological footprint of a city is the amount
of biologically productive area required to provide
its natural resources and to assimilate its wastes.
Published studies include those for Vancouver
(Wackernagel and Rees 1995), Santiago de
Chile (Wackernagel 1998), Cardiff (Collins
et al. 2006), and cities of the Baltic region of
Europe (Folke et al. 1997). The equivalent areas
of ecosystems for sustaining cities are typically
one or two orders of magnitude greater than the
areas of the cities themselves.
Water
In terms of sheer mass, water is by far
the largest component of urban metabolism.
Wolmans calculations for the 1960s for a onemillion-person U.S. city estimated the input of
water at 625,000 tonnes1 per day compared to
just 9,500 tonnes of fuel and 2,000 tonnes of food.
Most of this inflow is discharged as wastewater,
with the remainder being lost by activities such
as the watering of lawns. Data from the cities
in table 1 show that wastewater represents between 75% and 100% of the mass of water inflow
(figure 2a). The six studies since 1990 typically
have higher per capita water inputs than the four
Kennedy, Cuddihy, and Engel-Yan, The Changing Metabolism of Cities
45
46
Duvigneaud and
Denaeyer-De Smet 1977
Hanya and Ambe 1976
Newcombe and colleagues 1978

Warren-Rhodes and Koenig 2001
Newman 1999
Sahely and colleagues 2003
Hendriks and colleagues 2000
Chartered Institute of
Wastes Management 2002
White 2003
Gasson 2002
Brussels
Hong Kong
Toronto
Vienna
London
7.4
3.0
2000
2000
3.940
7.0
2.79
3.657
4.038
5.071
1.5
11.513
1.075
1.0
2000
1971
1997
1970
1990
1987
1999
1990s
1970
1970s
1965
Year
3,900
6,730
2,920
3,710
2,000
58,000
6,632
6,640
Urbanized
density (cap/km2 )
0 W
34 S
18 E
28.0
88
20.8
16.7
14
18.5
19.9
170
105
22.3
24.3
17
16.4
76
50 N
4 E
35 N
139 E
22 N
114 E
33 S
151 E
43 N
79 W
48 N
16 E
51 N
Summer
Altitude (m)
13.5
4.9
1.8
1.8
13
17.0
6.9
4.2
Winter
Av. temperature ( C)
Location
(geographic coordinates)
Note: cap = capita. One square kilometer (km2 , SI) = 100 hectares (ha) 0.386 square miles 247 acres. One meter (m, SI) 3.28 feet (ft). (Celsius temperature [ C] 9/5) + 32 =
Fahrenheit temperature [ F].
Cape Town
Sydney
Tokyo
Wolman 1965
Reference
U.S. typical
City
Population
(million)
Table 1 Characteristics of cities (metropolitan areas) where urban metabolism studies have been conducted
Figure 1 The urban metabolism of Brussels, Belgium in the early 1970s. Source: Duvigneaud and
Denaeyer-De Smet 1977.
from the early 1970s, although Tokyo in 1970 and

London and Cape Town in 2000 are significant
exceptions. In the case of Toronto, per capita
water use slightly declined over the 1990s, due
largely to a reduction in industrial consumption.
Nevertheless, none of the cities has quite reached
the level of water use of the average U.S. city
reported by Wolman.
The impacts of water on the sustainability of
cities have further dimensions, beyond the crucial need for inhabitants to have a safe, reliable
water supply. For those that rely on ground water, the long-term relationship between cities and
their ground water environments is illustrative.
As cities evolve from small settlements they typically go through several stages of development
in which the relationship with an underlying
aquifer changes (Foster et al. 1998). In the early
settlement stage, water supply is obtained from
shallow urban wells and boreholes, and wastewater and drainage waters are discharged to the
ground or to a watercourse (figure 3a). As the
settlement grows into a small city the underly-
ing water table falls with increased extraction,

so deeper wells are drilled. Overexploitation of
ground water often occurs. Moreover, as a result
of urban activities, often including continued discharge of wastewater to the ground, the shallow
ground water in the city center becomes polluted.
Subsidence may begin to occur, depending on
soil characteristics. The paving of land surfaces
and the growth of drainage systems also begin to
have a discernible impact on the ground water
system (figure 3b). As the city expands further
and matures, a turnaround can sometimes occur.
With widespread contamination of the aquifer
below the city, or a movement of heavy, waterextracting industry away from city centers, pumping of the urban aquifer ceases. The city now relies on periurban well fields or expensive water
imports from distant sources. With the cessation
of pumping, the water table below the city begins
to rise. Because of changes in the surface recharge,
the water table may rise above that under virgin
conditions, potentially causing flooding or damage to infrastructure (figure 3c). In this evolving
47
250
t/cap/yr
200
150
Water Supply
100
Wastewater
50
Cape Town (2000)
London (2000)
Toronto (1999)
Hong Kong (1997)
Vienna (1990s)
Sydney (1990)
Toronto (1987)
Hong Kong (1971)
Tokyo (1970)
Sydney (1970)
Brussels (1970s)
av. US. city (1965)
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Residential
Cape Town (2000)
London (2000)
Toronto (1999)
Hong Kong (1997)
Vienna (1990s)
Sydney (1990)
Toronto (1987)
Hong Kong (1971)
Tokyo (1970)
Sydney (1970)
Brussels (1970s)
Total
av. US. city (1965)
t/cap/yr
(a)
(b)
Figure 2 Metabolism parameters from selected cities. (a) Fresh water inputs and wastewater releases.
(b) Solid waste disposal. (c) Energy inputs. (d) Contaminant emissions. Missing bars indicate data unavailable.
Date refers to the date of measurement; t refers to tonnes. For sources see table 1. The data behind this
figure are available in an electronic supplement (e-supplement) on the JIE Web site. One tonne (t) =
103 kilograms (kg, SI) 1.102 short tons. One gigajoule (GJ) = 109 joules (J, SI) 2.39 105 kilocalories
(kcal) 9.48 105 British Thermal Units (BTU). SO2 = sulfur dioxide; NOx = nitrogen oxides; VOC =
volatile organic compounds.
process cities can go from exploiting ground water

resources to potentially being flooded by them.
Problems of overexploiting ground water
have occurred in many cities. One example is
Beijing, China, where the water table dropped by
45 m between 1950 and 1990 (Chang 1998). In
48
coastal cities, overpumping has caused salt water

intrusion, threatening ground water supplies; examples include Gothenburg, Perth, Manila, and
Jakarta (Volker and Henry 1988). Decades of
lowering of water tables in Mexico City have
caused land subsidence of 7.5 m in the center of
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Primary
Cape Town (2000)
London (2000)
Toronto (1999)
Hong Kong (1997)
Sydney (1990)
Toronto (1987)
Hong Kong (1971)
Tokyo (1970)
Sydney (1970)
Brussels (1970s)
Direct
av. U.S. city (1965)
GJ/cap/yr
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
SO2
NOx
VOC
Cape Town (2000)
Toronto (1995)
Hong Kong (1997)
London (1995)
Sydney (1990)
Hong Kong (1971)
Sydney (1970)
Brussels (1970s)
Particulates
av. US. city (1965)
t/cap/yr
(c)
(d)
Figure 2
Continued
the city, altering surface drainage and damaging

infrastructure (Ortega-Guerrero et al. 1993).
Concerns over the potential impact of rising
water tables applies to at least one of the study
cities. Because industrial withdrawals decreased
in London during the 1960s, the water table in an
underlying chalk aquifer has been rising at a rate
of 1 to 2.5 m per year under central London (Cox
1994; Castro and Swyngendow 2000). Moreover,
leakage from Londons water distribution systems,
estimated to make up 28% of the total water
supply, may be adding to this rise in the water
table. Where the water table will reach equilibrium is an open question, especially given the
change in surface features and local climate over

the past decades.
Rising water tables have also been recorded for
several cities in the Middle East: Riyadh, Jeddah,
Damman, Kuwait, Al-Ajman, Beirut, Cairo, and
Karachi (Abu-Rizaiza 1999). In many cases the
cause is subterranean discharge of wastewater
flows, where there is no surface water outlet. Such
rising of ground water levels threatens urban infrastructure, including basements, foundations,
tunnels, and other subsurface pipes and cables.
Resulting cracks in columns, beams, and walls
were reported in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In many
respects the physical integrity of cities depends
49
Water Table
(a) Early settlement
Water Table
(b) Town grows into a city
Imports of Water from Distant

Surface or Ground Water Sources
Water Supply from
Peri-urban Wellfields
Water Supply from

Peri-urban Wellfields
(c) Mature city
Figure 3 Evolution of water supply and wastewater disposal for a typical city underlain by a shallow
aquifer. The arrows indicate water flows; the line with dots indicates the water table. Source: Adapted from
Figure 1.2 of Foster et al. 1998.
on achieving equilibrium in the ground water

component of the urban metabolism.
Materials
Material inputs to cities are generally less
well quantified than water inputs, despite their
significance to urban infrastructure. Detailed
analyses, however, have been conducted for
Hong Kong and Vienna. Material flow analyses
have also been conducted for Hamburg and a few
50
other European cities (Hammer et al. 2003). In

1997, Hong Kongs daily material inputs included
363 tonnes of glass; 3,390 tonnes of plastics;
9,822 tonnes of cement; 2,095 tonnes of wood;
7,240 tonnes of iron and steel; and 2,768 tonnes
of paper. Relative to 1971, inputs of plastics had
risen by 400%; iron and steel increased by close
to 300%; cement and paper inputs were both up
by 275%; and wood inputs had more than doubled. In comparison, the population only rose by
78%. The historical trend in the construction
material input to Vienna is also upward. In most

decades prior to the 1970s, the per capita use of
construction materials was 0.1 m3 /yr (the 1930s
being a significant exception at 1.4 m3 /cap/yr).2
The volumes of input in the 1970s, 1980s, and
1990s, however, were 2.4, 3.3, and 4.3 m3 /cap/yr,
respectively (Brunner and Rechberger 2004).
Upward per capita trends, for the period 1992
and 2001, were also estimated for direct material
input and domestic material consumption for the
City of Hamburg (Hammer et al. 2003).. This evidence suggests that cities are becoming increasingly material-intensive.
Measures of solid waste outputs are available
for most of the cities in table 1, although these
data need careful interpretation. Where cities
have introduced significant recycling schemes,
the disposal of residential household waste may
be declining in per capita terms. For example,
in Toronto, per capita residential waste declined
by 27% between 1987 and 1999. If other waste
streams such as the commercial and industrial
are included, however, the overall trend may
well be upward; three of the cities studied in the
1990s have total waste outputs greater than 1.5
t/cap/yr, whereas all cities studied in the 1970s,
except Tokyo, had outputs below 1 t/cap/yr (figure 2b). Some caution has to be taken in interpreting material outputs. Construction waste
is often the largest solid waste component (e.g.,
57% for Tokyo), but because much of it is considered inert and can be recycled or used as fill,
it may not appear in calculations of total waste
outputs.
In Vienna, where some of the most extensive
material flow studies have been conducted, the
production of holes from mining of aggregates
by far exceeds the citys output of waste materials. Construction materials, of course, go into
the building stock and typically remain within
the urban fabric for many decades. In Vienna
the stock of materials in the buildings and infrastructure is estimated to be 350 t/cap. This
stock is clearly growing: the input of construction
materials and consumer products is on the order
of 12 to 18 t/cap/yr, whereas solid waste is only
3 t/cap/yr. Taking a slightly different perspective,
it is evident that the production of holes due
to the excavation of construction materials by far
exceeds the rate at which they are backfilled. The
cumulative hole in the vicinity of Vienna due to

excavation of materials since 1880 is estimated
to be over 200 million m3 , and growing rapidly
(Brunner and Rechberger 2004).
A dimension of material flows that impacts
the sustainability of a city is the distance over
which materials are transported. As cities grow
and transportation infrastructure develops, raw
materials seemingly travel increasingly long distances into cities. During the first half of the
twentieth century, mineral aggregates used by
the construction industry in Toronto came from
quarries within a few kilometers of the city. By
1970, the aggregates were traveling an average of
160 km from various counties around the Toronto
region (figure 4), the former sources having been
exhausted or consumed within the urban area.
Douglas and colleagues (2002) describe similar
effects during the growth of Manchester, England, since the industrial revolution. In some respects the city is like a plant stretching its roots
out further and further until its resource needs
are meta concept that parallels the ecological
footprint. One aspect of this growth is that cities
require greater expenditure of transportation energy as materials travel from increasing distances.
Energy
The quantification of urban energy fluxes as
a component of urban metabolism has varied
in depth and breadth between studies. One of
the most comprehensive was that of Brussels, for
which both natural and anthropogenic energy
sources were quantified. Most other studies have
focused directly on anthropogenic sources, neglecting net all-wave radiation and heat transfer
due to evapotranspiration, local advection, soil
conduction, and mass water transfer. The importance of urban heat islands, discussed below, however, indicates the significance of incorporating
anthropogenic sources into the natural surface
energy balance of cities.
Comparisons of the anthropogenic energy inputs for the cities of table 1 need to distinguish between the direct energy consumed and
the primary energy consumption, which includes
energy losses in the production of electricity
(figure 2c). With its cold winters, and fairly warm
summers, Toronto has the highest per capita
51
Figure 4 The distribution of mineral aggregate sources for Metropolitan Toronto in 1972. Metropolitan
Toronto, in the center of the figure, is the destination of all flow shown. Source: Ontario Ministry of Natural
Resources.
energy use of the cities. London and Sydney use

significantly more energy per capita than Hong
Kong, potentially due to its warm winters and
higher urban density. A further interesting contrast is that between London in 2000 and Brussels
in the early 1970s. Both cities lie at approximately the same latitude and have similar climates and almost identical population densities,
yet per capita consumption in modern-day London is an order of magnitude higher. Upward
trends in energy consumption since the 1970s
are also evident for Sydney and Hong Kong.
A minor reduction has been experienced in
Toronto since 1987, perhaps due to changing industrial demands and increasing efficiency. With
the exception of Toronto, none of the other cities
have reached the energy consumption levels of
Wolmans average U.S. city.
The relationship between transportation energy demand and urban form has been widely
studied, but with various conclusions. Trans52
portation accounts for a significant proportion

of urban anthropogenic energy. Among the most
significant and highly debated findings are those
of Newman and Kenworthy (1991), which illustrate per capita transportation energy consumption decreasing as population density increases
(figure 5). All of the cities from table 1 except
Cape Town were included in the study, which
used data from the 1980s. Hong Kong is the
prime example of a dense city with low transportation energy; the European trio Brussels, London, and Vienna are less energy-intensive than
the newer cities of Sydney and Toronto. Although the premise that urban form influences
transportation energy has been criticized, most
notably by Gordon and Richardson (1989), studies have demonstrated that although population
density may not in itself contribute to explaining
transportation demand, distance from the central business district and other employment centers does (Miller and Ibrahim 1998). As such,
Figure 5 Variation in annual transportation energy consumption and population density among several
global cities during the 1980s. 000 MJ = one thousand megajoules = one gigajoule (GJ) = 109 joules
(J, SI) 2.39 105 kilocalories (kcal) 9.48 105 British Thermal Units (BTU). One hectare (ha) =
0.01 square kilometers (km2 , SI) 0.00386 square miles 2.47 acres. Source: Newman and Kenworthy
1991. Reprinted with permission.
the hypothesis linking transportation demand,

energy consumption, and urban spatial structure
is valid. The higher per capita energy consumption reflected in the urban metabolism of North
American cities may thus be explained at least in
part by their expansive urban form.
A further aspect of the urban energy balance influencing sustainability is the urban heat
island. Most mid- and high-latitude cities exhibit high urban air temperatures relative to
their rural surroundings, particularly during the
evening (Taha 1997). On a calm clear night after a sunny windless day, elevated temperatures
at the canopy layer can be as much as 10 C different in large cities. This urban heat island has
been identified as a consistent phenomenon by
urban climatologists (Landsberg 1981; Oke et al.
1991; Oke 1995). Much of the heat island effect is due to the built form distorting the natural
energy balancerooftops and paved surfaces absorb heat and reduce evaporation, whereas street
canyons and other microscale effects can act as
heat traps. An interesting issue, however, is the
relative importance of anthropogenic energy in-
puts in elevating temperatures. All of the energy that is pumped into cities will eventually
turn into heat. Estimated anthropogenic contributions range from 16 W/m2 for St. Louis to
159 W/m2 for Manhattan (Taha 1997).3 Santamouris (2001) summarizes a collection of studies,
some of which present contradictory findings, or
at least highlight the importance of city-specific
features.
Increases in temperature directly impact summer cooling loads, thus introducing a potentially
cyclic effect on energy demand. For U.S. cities
with populations greater than 100,000, peak electricity loads increase by about 1% for every
degree Celsius increase in temperature (Santamouris 2001). For high ambient temperatures,
utility loads in Los Angeles have demonstrated a
net rate of increase of 167 megawatts (MW)4 per
C. In Toronto, a 1 C increase on summer days

corresponds to roughly a 1.6% increase in peak
electricity demand. Hot summer days are critical
in Toronto in that they cause the highest electricity demand throughout the year. Such demands
are often met through increased coal-generated
53
power, elevating emissions of greenhouse gases

and other air pollutants. Thus to the extent that
anthropogenic energy contributes to the summertime heat island, there is a small positive feedback
loop raising both temperature and contaminant
emissions.
As air contaminants are largely associated
with energy production or utilization, it is perhaps
appropriate to analyze them with the energy cycle. Unlike air quality, which can be directly measured, contaminant emissions can be difficult to
quantify due to their wide range of sources within
an urban region. With the exception of some unpublished values for London in 1995, per capita
sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) and nitrogen oxides (NOx )
emissions in the group of cities (appearing in
figure 2d) are all lower than for Wolmans U.S.
city. The data from Hong Kong and Sydney
show that although SO2 emissions are decreasing,
NOx has increased since the 1970s. Emissions
of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are fairly
similar for Toronto in 1997, Sydney in 1990,
Brussels in the early 1970s, and the average U.S.
city in 1965; the highest values seen were those
for Sydney in 1970, whereas Hong Kong has had
consistently low emissions of VOCs. Particulate
emissions reported in the past two decades are
significantly lower than the 0.05 t/cap for the average 1965 U.S. city.
As urban air quality is a concern, it may be
more appropriate to express emission intensities
in kg per unit area, rather than kg per capita, as in
figure 2d. (The data behind figure 2 are included
in an e-supplement for interested readers.5) Note
that cities can also be subject to external sources
of air pollution.
Greenhouse gases are a further form of air pollutant of concern for global sustainability. Carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions from the group of
cities correspond quite closely with energy inputs. Emissions from Toronto are estimated to
be around 14 t/cap/yr, followed by Sydney at
close to 9 t/cap/yr. Yet there is still quite a
high level of uncertainty in urban greenhouse gas
emissions; for example, CO2 emissions reported
for London in the late 1990s range from 5.5 to
8.5 t/cap/yr. Overall, the emissions of contaminants remain quite closely tied to anthropogenic
energy emissions; but this link could weaken as
cities learn to exploit renewable energy sources,
54
for example, using photovoltaics, solar water

heating, or energy recovery from wastewater.
Nutrients
Understanding the flow of nutrients through
the urban system is vital to successful nutrient management strategies and urban sustainability. Consequences of improper management include eutrophication of water bodies, release of
heavy metals onto agricultural lands, acid rain,
and groundwater pollution (Nilson 1995; Baker
et al. 2001). The Hong Kong metabolism study
(Warren-Rhodes and Koenig 2001) included an
analysis of key nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus. A nitrogen balance for the Central Arizona
Phoenix (CAP) ecosystem (Baker et al. 2001), a
phosphorus budget for the Swedish municipality
of Gavle (Nilson 1995), and a study of Bangkok
(Faerge et al. 2001) also provide insight into the
flow of nutrients through urban systems.
The studies reveal the extent to which natural
nutrient flows are altered in human-dominated
ecosystems. In the CAP and Gavle regions, approximately 90% of nitrogen and phosphorus inputs are human-mediated. Whereas the majority of phosphorus fluxes are related to human
food production, import, and consumption (agricultural production and food import), nitrogen
fluxes in urban systems are becoming increasingly linked to combustion processes (Bjorklund
et al. 1999, Baker et al. 2001). In the CAP region
(which includes agricultural land and desert in
addition to urban Phoenix), fixation from NOx
emissions from combustion is the single largest
nitrogen input, greater than nitrogen inputs from
commercial fertilizers applied to both crops and
landscapes! In Hong Kong, 42% of the nitrogen
output is NOx from combustion, which is equivalent to nitrogen outputs from wastewater. Thus,
reductions in nitrogen inputs and outputs might
be most readily achieved by reducing NOx emissions (Baker et al. 2001).
In addition to managing nutrient inputs and
outputs of the urban system, nutrient storage
must also be considered. Nutrients may remain
in the urban system through accumulation in soil
or groundwater by inadvertent losses or direct
disposal or through nutrient recycling, such as
the use of food waste for agricultural fertilizer.
Accumulation often results in negative environmental consequences, such as groundwater pollution. All study areas exhibit high levels of nutrient storage. Approximately 60% of all nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to Hong Kong, 60%
of phosphorus inputs to the Gavle municipality,
20% of nitrogen inputs to the CAP region, and
51% of phosphorus (but only 3% of nitrogen) in
Bangkok do not leave the system. Although a
small amount of these nutrients are recycled, the
majority are accumulated in municipal and industrial waste sites, agricultural soils, and groundwater pools (Nilson 1995; Baker et al. 2001; WarrenRhodes and Koenig 2001).
The relatively low levels of nutrient recycling
practiced in these study areas highlight the lack
of synergy that exists between urban centers and
their hinterlands. Girardet (1992) suggests that
for cities to be sustainable from a nutrient perspective, they must practice fertility exchange, in
which the nutrients in urban sewage are returned
to local farmland. This relationship between the
city and its hinterlands requires adequate sewage
treatment and an appropriate means of sewage
transportation, as well as a good supply of local
agriculture. The process of urbanrural nutrient
recycling was prevalent in the United States during the nineteenth century, until the development of the modern fertilizer industry (Wines
1985). Similar processes existed more recently in
China, where 14 of the countrys 15 largest cities
were largely self-sufficient in food, supplying a
majority of their food requirements from agricultural suburbs, which were kept fertile using
treated human waste (Girardet 1992); such practices have since changed. In contrast, Hong Kong
produces only 5% of its food needs locally, and
human food wastes, which used to be recycled as
bone meal fertilizers, are now disposed of in landfills (Warren-Rhodes and Koenig 2001). Given
that the Hong Kong model is more representative of most modern cities than the former Chinese case, what can be done to improve urban
sustainability from a nutrient perspective?
It is not clear that the fertility exchange between a city and its hinterlands described by
Girardet (1992) is an appropriate goal for the
modern city. Traditionally, there was a symbiotic relationship between cities and their surrounding rural areas, but this relationship has
been significantly weakened by modern changes

in transportation technology and access to global
markets. As cities grow and sewage treatment
becomes more centralized, the costs of transporting sewage sludge to local agricultural lands become more prohibitive. Moreover, pharmaceuticals and other toxics present in wastewater may
make sludge recycling hazardous to health without expensive treatment. These challenges may
make other sewage resource recovery alternatives, such as energy and water reclamation, more
attractive for implementation.
The extent to which a city should be dependent on its hinterlands to maintain a sustainable
food supply is a difficult question. Many cities
obtain their food from continental or global networks of suppliers. For example, 81% of Londons
6.9 million tonnes of annual food is imported
from outside the United Kingdom (Chartered
Institute of Wastes Management 2002). Clearly,
cities have grown away from dependence on the
surrounding landscape. The relationship of mutual dependence between the city and its hinterlands described by von Thunens (1966 [originally published 1826]) isolated state no longer
holds. Peet (1969) shows how the average distance of British agricultural imports increased
from 1,820 miles (from London) in 18311835
to 5,880 miles by 19091913; he argues that a
continental-scale von Thunen-type agricultural
system has operated since the nineteenth century. Being part of a continental food network
may have economic advantagesand the network as a whole may be more resilient than a single city. But the sustainability of entire continental food webs is itself in question. In the United
States for example, agriculture is heavily reliant
on fossil fuels; 7.3 units of energy are consumed
to produce one unit of food energy; depletion
of topsoil exceeds regeneration; and groundwater
withdrawals exceed recharge in major agricultural
regions (Heller and Keolian 2003). Further research is needed to determine whether more locally grown food production, either within urban
areas or periurban surroundings, offers a more sustainable agricultural system.
Even though cities have grown away from dependence on the surrounding landscape, they
cannot function in isolation from their natural environment. The most effective nutrient
55
management strategies are those that are specifically tailored to individual ecosystems (Baker
et al. 2001). The creation of such strategies requires an understanding of nutrient input, accumulation, and output, which can be acquired
from detailed nutrient balances within an urban
metabolism study.
Conclusions
With data from metabolism studies in eight
cities, spread over five continents and several
decades, observation of strong trends would not
be expected from this review. Moreover, there
are concerns over the commensurability of data
from different cities, especially for waste streams.
Nevertheless, with three different cities having been analyzed at different times, and other
supporting evidence, some sense of how the
metabolism of cities is changing can be gleaned.
Many of the data suggest that the metabolism of
cities is increasing: water and wastewater flows
were typically greater for studies in the 1990s
than those in the early 1970s; Hamburg, Hong
Kong, and Vienna have become more materialsintensive; and energy inputs to Hong Kong and
Sydney have increased. However, some signs
point to increasing efficiency, for example, per
capita energy and water inputs leveling off in
Toronto over the 1990s. Other changes are
mixed; for example, cities that have implemented
large-scale recycling have seen reductions in residential waste disposal in absolute terms, but
other waste streamssuch as commercial and
industrialmay well be on the increase. Similarly, emissions of SO2 and particulates may have
decreased in several cities, whereas other air pollutants such as NOx have increased. Changes
in urban metabolism are quite varied between
cities.
Future studies might attempt to identify different classes of urban metabolism. These are
perhaps apparent from the transportation energy
data, where old European, dense Asian, and New
World cities are distinctive. Climate likely has
an impact on the type of metabolism; cities with
interior continental climates would be expected
to expend more energy on winter heating and
summer cooling. The cost of energy may also influence consumption. The age of a city, or its
56
stage of development, could be a further factor in

the type of urban metabolism.
Beyond concerns over the sheer magnitudes
of resource flows into cities, there are more subtle
imbalances and feedbacks that threaten sustainable urban development. Access to large quantities of fresh water is clearly vital to sustaining a city, but the difference between the input
from and output to surface waters may be as important as the sheer volume of supply. Where a
city imports large volumes of water, but releases
water into underlying aquifers, whether through
leaking water pipes, septic tanks, or other means,
changing water tables may threaten the integrity
of urban infrastructure. Whether it is water in
an urban aquifer, construction materials used as
fill, heat stored in rooftops and pavements, or nutrients accumulated in soils or waste sites, these
accumulation processes should be understood so
that resources can be used appropriately. Further
examination of how resources are used and stored
within a city may yield some surprises. For example, Brunner and Rechberger (2001) suggest
that Modern cities are material hot spots containing more hazardous materials than most hazardous landfills. . . . Moreover, growth, which is
inherently part of a citys metabolism, implies a
change in storage. Thus, in addition to quantifying inputs and outputs, future studies should aim
to characterize the storage processes in the urban
metabolism.
Beyond scientific interest in the nature of city
growth, there are practical reasons for studying
urban metabolism. The implications of increasing
metabolism, at least with current predominant
technologies, are greater loss of farmland, forests,
and species diversity, plus more traffic and more
pollution. In short, cities will have even larger
ecological footprints.
The vitality of cities depends on spatial relationships with surrounding hinterlands and
global resource webs. As cities have grown and
transportation technologies have changed, resources have traveled greater distances to reach
cities. For heavier materials, which are more expensive to transport, the exhaustion of the nearest, most accessible resources may at some point
become a constraint on the growth of cities.
For many goods, including food, modern cities
no longer rely on their hinterlands; rather, they
participate in continental and global trading networks. Thus, full evaluation of urban sustainability requires a broad scope of analysis.
Urban policy makers should be encouraged to
understand the urban metabolism of their cities.
It is practical for them to know if they are using
water, energy, materials, and nutrients efficiently,
and how this efficiency compares to that of other
cities. They must consider to what extent their
nearest resources are close to exhaustion and,
if necessary, appropriate strategies to slow exploitation. It is apparent from this review that
metabolism data have been established for only
a few cities worldwide and there are interpretation issues due to lack of common conventions;
there is much more work to be done. Resource
accounting and management are typically undertaken at national levels, but such practices may
arguably be too broad and miss understanding of
the urban driving processes.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada.
Notes
1. One tonne (t) = 103 kilograms (kg, SI) 1.102
short tons.
2. One cubic meter (m3 , SI) 1.31 cubic yards (yd3 ).
3. One watt (W, SI) 3.412 British Thermal Units
(BTU)/hour 1.341 103 horsepower (HP).
One square meter (m2 , SI) 1.20 square yards
(yd2 ).
4. One megawatt (MW) = 106 watts (W, SI) = 1
megajoule/second (MJ/s) 56.91 103 British
Thermal Units (BTU)/minute.
5. Available at the JIE Web site.
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About the Authors

Christopher Kennedy is an associate professor and
John Cuddihy and Joshua Engel-Yan are former graduate students in the Department of Civil Engineering
at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada.
59
Environmental Pollution 159 (2011) 1965e1973
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Environmental Pollution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol
Review
The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design
C. Kennedy a, *, S. Pincetl b, P. Bunje b
a
b
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Institute of the Environment, UCLA, CA, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 12 October 2010
Accepted 15 October 2010
Following formative work in the 1970s, disappearance in the 1980s, and reemergence in the 1990s,
a chronological review shows that the past decade has witnessed increasing interest in the study of
urban metabolism. The review nds that there are two related, non-conicting, schools of urban
metabolism: one following Odum describes metabolism in terms of energy equivalents; while the second
more broadly expresses a citys ows of water, materials and nutrients in terms of mass uxes. Four
example applications of urban metabolism studies are discussed: urban sustainability indicators; inputs
to urban greenhouse gas emissions calculation; mathematical models of urban metabolism for policy
analysis; and as a basis for sustainable urban design. Future directions include fuller integration of social,
health and economic indicators into the urban metabolism framework, while tackling the great
sustainability challenge of reconstructing cities.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Cities
Energy
Materials
Waste
Urban planning
Urban design
Greenhouse gas emissions
Sustainability indicators
1. Introduction
The concept of the urban metabolism, conceived by Wolman
(1965), is fundamental to developing sustainable cities and
communities. Urban metabolism may be dened as the sum total of
the technical and socio-economic processes that occur in cities,
resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste
(Kennedy et al., 2007). In practice, the study of an urban metabolism involves big picture quantication of the inputs, outputs and
storage of energy, water, nutrients, materials and wastes for an
urban region. While research on urban metabolism has waxed and
waned over the past 45 years, in the last decade it has accelerated.
Moreover, as this review will show, practical applications of urban
metabolism are emerging.
The notion of urban metabolism is loosely based on an analogy
with the metabolism of organisms, although in other respects
parallels can also be made between cities and ecosystems. Cities are
similar to organisms in that they consume resources from their
surroundings and excrete wastes. Cities transform raw materials,
fuel, and water into the built environment, human biomass and waste
(Decker et al., 2000). Of course, cities are more complex than single
organisms e and are themselves home to multitude of organisms e
humans, animals and vegetation. Thus, the notion that cities are
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: christopher.kennedy@utoronto.ca (C. Kennedy).
0269-7491/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.10.022
like ecosystems is also appropriate. Indeed, the model of a natural

ecosystem is in some respects the objective for developing
sustainable cities. Natural ecosystems are generally energy selfsufcient, or are subsidized by sustainable inputs, and often
approximately conserve mass, through recycling by detrivores.
Were cities to have such traits, they would be far more sustainable.
Contemporary cities, however, have large linear metabolism with
high through ows of energy and materials.
The rst purpose of this paper is to review the development of
the urban metabolism concept largely through academic research
literature. The chronological review shows that after a few formative studies in the 1970s, interest in urban metabolism almost
disappeared in the 1980s. Then after slowly reemerging in the
1990s, study of urban metabolism has grown in the past 10 years,
with over 30 papers produced. The review also describes how two
related, non-conicting, schools of study have developed. One,
primarily based on the work of Odum, aims to describe urban
metabolism in terms of energy equivalents. The other takes
a broader approach, expressing a citys ows of water, materials
and nutrients in terms of mass uxes.
The second purpose of this paper is to ask: What use are urban
metabolism studies for urban planning and design? Most studies of
urban metabolism have primarily been accounting exercises. These
are useful in that they provide indicators of urban sustainability,
and the measures of energy consumption, material ows and
wastes from the urban metabolism are also necessary to quantify
greenhouse gas emissions for cities. Beyond accounting exercises,
1966
C. Kennedy et al. / Environmental Pollution 159 (2011) 1965e1973
moreover, the review of applications shows how study of urban

metabolism is also being used as a basis for sustainable urban
design, and how a few mathematical models of urban metabolism
have been used for policy analysis.
2. Development of the urban metabolism concept

Since the rst study of an urban metabolism by Wolman in 1965,
about 15e20 comprehensive studies of urban metabolism have
been undertaken, in addition to numerous related studies (Table 1).
This section describes the evolution of methodological approaches
for studying urban metabolism. The primary focus is on quantitative studies, as opposed to works that invoke urban metabolism in
a political science context (e.g., Heynen et al., 2005), or in a qualitative historical context (e.g., Tarr, 2002).
In his seminal study, Wolman (1965) used national data on
water, food and fuel use, along with production rates of sewage,
waste and air pollutants to determine per capita inow and outow
rates for a hypothetical American city of one million people (White,
2002). His approach to determining material ows, even with the
omission of important inputs such as electricity, infrastructure
materials, and other durable goods, helped focus attention on
system-wide impacts of the consumption of goods and the generation of wastes within the urban environment (Decker et al., 2000).
The rst metabolism studies of real cities were conducted in the
1970s. Interestingly the rst three studies of Tokyo (Hanya and
Ambe, 1976), Brussels (Duvigneaud and Denayeyer-De Smet,
Table 1
Chronological review of urban metabolism studies.
Author (year)
City or region of study
Notes/contribution
Wolman (1965)
Hypothetical US city of
1 million people
Miami
1850s Paris
Toyko
Brussels
Seminal study
Includes natural energy balance
Hong Kong
Particularly comprehensive metabolism study
Zucchetto (1975)
Stanhill (1977); Odum (1983)
Hanya and Ambe (1976).
Duvigneaud and
Denayeyer-De Smet (1977)
Newcombe et al. (1978);
Boyden et al. (1981)
Girardet (1992)
Bohle (1994)
European Environment
Agency (1995)
Nilson (1995)
Baccini (1997).
Huang (1998).
Newman (1999);
Newman et al. (1996)
Stimson et al. (1999)
Hermanowicz and Asano (1999)
Hendriks et al. (2000).
Warren-Rhodes and Koenig (2001).
Baker et al. (2001)
Srme et al. (2001)
Svidn and Jonsson (2001)
Obernosterer and Brunner (2001)
Frge et al. (2001)
Chartered Institute of
Wastes Management (2002)
Gasson (2002)
Barrett et al. (2002)
Obernosterer (2002)
Sahely et al. (2003).
Emmenegger et al. (2003)
Burstrom et al. (2003)
Gandy (2004)
Lennox and Turner (2004)
Hammer and Giljum (2006)
Kennedy et al. (2007)
Schulz (2007)
Barles (2007a)
Forkes (2007)
Zhang and Yang (2007)
Ngo and Pataki (2008)
Chrysoulakis (2008)
Schremmer and Stead (2009)
Barles (2009, 2007b)
Zhang et al. (2009)
Niza et al. (2009)
Deilmann (2009)
Baker et al. (2001)
Thriault and Laroche (2009)
Browne et al. (2009)
Prague (comprehensive
metabolism study)
Gvle, Sweden
Swiss Lowlands
Taipei
Sydney
Brisbane & Southeast Queensland
Vienna & Swiss Lowlands
Hong Kong
Phoenix & Central Arizona
Stockholm
Stockholm
Vienna
Bangkok
London
Cape Town
York, UK
Toronto
Geneva
Stockholm
Hamburg, Vienna and Leipzig

Singapore
Paris
Toronto
Shenzhen, China
Los Angeles
Paris
Beijing
Lisbon
Greater Moncton,
New Brunswick
Limerick, Ireland
Emergy approach
Emergy approach
Recognized link to sustainable development of cities

Critiqued metabolism perspective for studying food in
developing cities
Energy use data for Barcelona and seven other European
cities given in the report.
Phosphorus budget
Emergy approach
Adds liveability measures
Framework relating urban metabolism to quality of life.
Water
Nitrogen balance
Heavy metals
Mercury
Lead
Nitrogen & Phosphorus
Materials
Metals
Nitrogen & Phosphorus

Water
State of the Environment report
Materials
Review of changing metabolism
Materials
Historical study of nitrogen in food metabolism
Nitrogen in food metabolism
Develops eco-efciency measure
New project under EU 7th framework
New project under EU 7th framework
Analysis of central city, suburbs and region.
Emergy approach
Materials
Studies relationship between metabolism and city surface
Water
Water
Develops measure of metabolic efciency
1977) and Hong Kong (Newcombe et al., 1978) were conducted by

chemical engineers, ecologists and civil engineers respectively,
recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of the topic. Given Hong
Kongs status as a quasi-independent city state, the study by
Newcombe et al. was particularly rich, including description of
material inputs that were difcult to establish in later studies. The
Hong Kong study was conducted under a UNESCO Man and the
Biosphere project, which also included work on Barcelona and
Rome (Barles, 2010; data on energy ows through Barcelona from
Pares et al. (1985), are given by the European Environment Agency,
1995). The Brussels metabolism study was also unique in that it
went beyond quantication of anthropogenic energy inputs to
include a natural energy balance (Fig. 1).
Also during the 1970s, systems ecologists primarily under the
leadership of Odum were studying urban metabolism from
a slightly different perspective. The Odum school was primarily
concerned with describing metabolism in terms of solar energy
equivalents (or emergy with an m). Using Odums systems notation, Zucchetto (1975) produced a study of Miamis urban metabolism. Odum (1983) applied his approach to data presented by
Stanhill (1977) for 1850s Paris, producing in a sense the oldest
study of an urban metabolism. Although Odums approach to
studying urban metabolism has not become mainstream, it
continues today through the work of Huang, primarily for Taipei
(Huang, 1998; Huang and Hsu, 2003) and Zhang et al. (2009) for
Beijing.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, progress in the study of urban
metabolism was modest. There was an international symposium on
urban metabolism held in Kobe, Japan, September 6e11, 1993, but
few of the papers were published. One exception was the paper by
Bohle (1994) which considered the potential to use an urban
metabolism perspective to examine urban food systems in
1967
developing countries, and was critical of its application. Writers

such as Girardet (1992), however, began to see the key connection
between urban metabolism and the sustainable development of
cities.
During the 1990s, there was progress in the development of the
method of material ow analysis (MFA), which included application
to cities. Baccini and Brunners (1991) Metabolism of the Anthroposphere was followed by a substantial textbook Regionaler Stoffhaushalt on regional material ow analysis by Baccini and Bader
(1996). Differing from Odums focus on energy, MFA reports
stocks and ows of resources in terms of mass. As an example, in
the EUROSTAT guidelines for MFA, quantities of fossil fuels are
reported in units of kilotonnes or kilotonnes per year. The work of
Baccini and Brunner, however, building upon the earlier metabolism studies of the 1970s, more usually reports energy ow in terms
of joules, with a citys ows of water, material and nutrients
expressed as mass uxes. This is arguably the approach of the
mainstream school of urban metabolism.
From a deep sustainability perspective there is some merit to
Odums emergy approach, but the mainstream school of urban
metabolism uses more practical units. The approach of Odum and
co-workers is an attempt to apply a biophysical value theory that is
applicable to both ecological and economic systems (Huang, 1998).
It recognizes that there is variation in the quality of different forms
of energy, i.e., different forms of energy (fuels, electricity, solar)
accomplish different amounts of work. Hence solar energy equivalents are used as a universal metric. The mainstream school of
urban metabolism, however, essentially just uses the units that
local government ofcers would use, recognize and understand,
e.g., in water works departments, solid waste management, or
utilities, etc. Nevertheless, the two schools are not that far apart;
they quantify the same items, but just use different units.
Fig. 1. The urban metabolism of Brussels, Belgium in the early 1970s (Duvigneaud and Denayeyer-De Smet, 1977).
1968
The turn of the millennium saw rejuvenation in studies of urban

metabolism: Newman (1999) published a study of the metabolism
of Sydney; Baccini, Brunner and co-workers provided applications
of MFA to Vienna and part of the Swiss Lowlands (Hendriks et al.,
2000; Baccini, 1997); and Warren-Rhodes and Koenig (2001)
produced an update of the metabolism of Hong Kong. This latter
study was particularly powerful in demonstrating the need to
understand urban metabolism. It described the increasing environmental impacts that of Hong Kongs transition from
a manufacturing centre to a service-based economy with the addition of more than 3 million people between 1971 and 1997. Per
capita food, water and materials consumption increased by 20%, 40%
and 149%, respectively over 1971 values. Moreover, total air emissions, carbon dioxide outputs, municipal solid wastes and sewage
discharges rose by 30%, 250%, 245% and 153% respectively (WarrenRhodes and Koenig, 2001). These increases in the per capita
metabolism of Hong Kong may be linked to higher consumption
related the citys substantially increased wealth, although the
authors do not fully explore the reasons behind the changes.
Newmans work on the metabolism of Sydney was conducted as
part of a State of the Environment (SOE) report for Australia
(Newman, 1999; Newman et al., 1996). Of particular note, was
Newmans inclusion of liveability measures. He proposed an
extended metabolism model, which included indicators of health,
employment, income, education, housing, leisure and community
activities. Connections between urban metabolism and quality of
life have subsequently been made by other Australian researchers
(Stimson et al., 1999; Lennox and Turner, 2004).
Kennedy et al. (2007) conducted a review of urban metabolism
studies with a focus on understanding how metabolism was
changing. Incorporating analyses of Greater Toronto (Sahely et al.,
2003), Cape Town (Gasson, 2002), and Greater London (Chartered
Institute of Wastes Management, 2002) with earlier studies, the
review showed that the metabolism of cities is generally increasing.
Kennedy et al. also highlighted the importance of understanding
changes in stocks within the urban metabolism. Accumulation
processes such as water in urban aquifers, construction materials,
heat stored in rooftops and pavements, and nutrients deposited in
soils or waste sites, need to be appropriately managed.
Studies of nutrients in the urban metabolism are amongst narrower studies focused on individual substances. Two key nutrients:
nitrogen and phosphorus, were studied for Bangkok (Frge et al.,
2001) and Stockholm (Burstrom et al., 2003), as well as in the
Hong Kong metabolism studies. Nitrogen uxes in food metabolism
have been studied for Toronto (Forkes, 2007) and historically for
Paris (Barles, 2007a). A full nitrogen balance was also conducted for
the Central Arizona-Phoenix (CAP) ecosystem (Baker et al., 2001),
and a phosphorus budget for the Swedish municipality of Gvle
(Nilson, 1995). These studies have generally found that nutrients
are accumulating in cities.
Further work has invoked the urban metabolism when addressing
urban water issues. For example, see: Hermanowicz and Asano
(1999), Gandy (2004), Thriault and Larcohe (2009), Sahely and
Kennedy (2007) and Baker (2009).
Other studies have focused primarily on urban material stocks and
ows. These include studies of Lisbon (Niza et al., 2009), Singapore
(Schulz, 2007) and York, UK (Barrett et al., 2002). Hammer and Giljum
(2006) quantied material ows for Hamburg, Vienna and Leipzig.
Some researchers have studied specic metals in the urban metabolism, recognizing them to be both environmental burdens, but also
potentially future resources (Srme et al., 2001; Svidn and Jonsson,
2001; Obernosterer and Brunner, 2001; Obernosterer, 2002). Further
material ow studies for Shenzhen, China (Zhang and Yang, 2007)
and Limerick, Ireland (Browne et al., 2009) are notable for the
development of measures of efciency of the urban metabolism.
As Table 1 reveals, there has been an increasing amount of

research on urban metabolism in recent years. In addition to the
studies in the paragraphs above, quantication of urban metabolism has been conducted for Los Angeles (Ngo and Pataki, 2008),
Geneva (Emmenegger et al., 2003) and Paris (Barles, 2007b, 2009).
Broader work has linked urban metabolism to: ecosystem appropriation by cities (Folke et al., 1997); the accumulation of toxic
materials in the urban building stock (Brunner and Rechberger,
2001); historical growth in the transportation of materials
(Fischer-Kowalski et al., 2004); economies of scale for urban
infrastructure systems (Bettencourt et al., 2007); and differences in
greenhouse gas emissions from global cities (Kennedy et al.,
2009a). There is rich variety in the scope of research: Deilmann
(2009) studies spatial attributes of urban metabolism; Kaye et al.
(2006) review urban biogeochemical cycles in the urban metabolism; and Fung and Kennedy (2005) develop links with urban
macroconomic models. Further research papers may be expected
from two projects on urban metabolism recently funded under the
EU 7th framework: SUME (Schremmer and Stead, 2009) and
BRIDGE (Chrysoulakis, 2008).
3. Applications
From its conception by Wolman, urban metabolism was studied
for practical reasons; Wolman was particularly concerned with air
pollution and other wastes produced in US cities. So beyond the
study of urban metabolism to understand it, in a scientic sense,
there are practical applications. Here we review applications in
sustainability reporting, urban greenhouse gas accounting, mathematical modelling for policy analysis, and urban design. This list of
four is perhaps not exhaustive; urban metabolism studies are data
rich and may have other potential applications. These four serve as
examples that demonstrate practical applications of urban
metabolism for urban planners and designers.
3.1. Sustainability indicators
Study of the urban metabolism is an integral part of State of the
Environment (SOE) reporting and provides measures that are
indicative of a citys sustainability. The urban metabolism includes
pertinent information about energy efciency, material cycling,
waste management, and infrastructure in urban systems. The
parameters of the urban metabolism generally meet the criteria for
good sustainability indicators as outlined by Maclaren (1996); they
are: scientically valid (based on principles of conservation of
energy and mass), representative, responsive, relevant to urban
planners and dwellers, based on data that is comparable over time,
understandable and unambiguous. The main objectives of SOE
reporting are to analyze and describe environmental conditions
and trends of signicance and to serve as a precursor to the policymaking process (Maclaren, 1996).
3.2. Inputs to urban greenhouse gas accounting
With many cities and communities aiming to reduce their
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a particularly useful application
of urban metabolism metrics is their role in quantifying urban GHG
emissions. The actual emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and
other GHGs that are directly emitted from a city are legitimate
components of the urban metabolism in themselves. The GHG
emissions that are attributed to a city are, however, usually broader
in scope including some emissions that are produced outside of
urban boundaries, e.g., from electricity generation or disposal
of exported waste. Whether the GHG emission occurs inside or
outside of city boundaries, its calculation requires measures of
1969
Table 2
Components of urban metabolism that are required for the inventorying of GHG emissions for cities and local communities.
Components of urban metabolism
Preferred units
Total electricity consumption

Consumption of heating and industrial fuels by each fuel type
(e.g., natural gas, fuel oils, coal, LPG e includes fuels used in combined heat and power plants).
Total consumption of ground transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel, other) based on sales data.
Volume of jet fuel loaded onto planes at airports within the boundary of the city/urban region.
Volume of marine fuel loaded onto vessels at the citys port (if applicable).
Tonnage and composition of landll waste (% food, garden, paper, wood, textiles,
industrial, other/inert) from all sectors; and percentage of landll methane that is captured
Tonnage of solid waste incinerated (if applicable)
Masses of steel, cement, and other materials or chemicals produced in the city causing
non-energy related industrial process emissions.
GWh
TJ for each fuel type
energy consumption, material ows and wastes from the urban

metabolism.
According to the IPCC guidelines, GHG emissions for many
sectors are broadly calculated by multiplication of an activity level
by an emissions factor. For example, GHG emissions for a communities electricity supply are calculated by multiplying the level of
Million litres for each fuel type

Million litres
Million litres
t and %
t
t
consumption by the GHG intensity of the regional/state/provincial

or national electricity supply. Emissions factors for fuels used in
heating, transportation or industrial combustion are well established from national GHG inventory reporting; they are based on
the combustion properties of the fuel. While the calculations are
more complex for some sectors (e.g., waste), for urban GHG
Table 3
GHG emissions for cities and metropolitan regions (adapted from Kennedy et al., 2009b; note see Table 2 in source for differences in methodology).
Denition
Year
Population
Athens
Barcelona
Bologna
Brussels
Frankfurt
Geneva
Glasgow
Hamburg
Helsinki
London
Ljubljana
Madrid
Naples
Oslo
Paris
Porto
Prague
Rotterdam
Stockholm
Stuttgart
Torino
Veneto
Metropolitan region
City
Province
Capital region
Frankfurt/Rhein Main
Canton
Glasgow and the Clyde Valley
Metropolitan region
Capital region
Greater London
Osrednjeslovenska region
Comunidad de Madrid
Province
Metropolitan region
Ile de France
Metropolitan region
Greater Prague
City
Metropolitan region
Metropolitan region
Metropolitan region
Province
2005
2006
2005
2005
2005
2005
2004
2005
2005
2003
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
3,989,000
1,605,602
899,996
1,006,749
3,778,124
432,058
1,747,040
4,259,670
988,526
7,364,100
500,021
5,964,143
3,086,622
1,039,536
11,532,398
1,666,821
1,181,610
592,552
1,889,945
2,667,766
2,243,000
4,738,313
41.57
6.74
9.97
7.55
51.61
3.35
15.30
41.52
6.94
70.84
4.77
40.98
12.49
3.63
59.64
12.14
11.03
17.64
6.88
42.57
21.86
47.29
10.4
4.2
11.1
7.5
13.7
7.8
8.8
9.7
7.0
9.6
9.5
6.9
4.0
3.5
5.2
7.3
9.3
29.8
3.6
16.0
9.7
10.0
Austin
Calgary
Denver
Los Angeles
Minneapolis
New York
Portland
Seattle
Toronto
Washington
City
City
City and county
County
City
City
City
City
Greater Toronto Area
District of Columbia
2005
2003
2005
2000
2005
2005
2005
2005
2005
2000
672,011
922,315
579,744
9,519,338
387,711
8,170,000
682,835
575,732
5,555,912
571,723
10.48a
16.37a
11.08
124.04
7.03a
85.87
8.47a
7.82a
64.22
11.04a
15.6a
17.7a
19.4
13.0
18.3a
10.5
12.4a
13.7a
11.6
19.3a
Mexico City
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
City
City
City
2000
1998
2000
8,669,594
5,633,407
10,434,252
35.27a
12.11
14.22
4.1a
2.1
1.4
Bangkok
Beijing
Delhi
Kolkata
Shanghai
Seoul
Tianjin
Tokyo
City
Beijing Government administered area
Metropolitan area
National capital territory
Shanghai Government administered area
Seoul City
Tianjin Government administered area
Tokyo metropolitan government admin. area
2005
2006
2000
2000
2006
1998
2006
2006
5,658,953
15,810,000
15,700,000
13,200,000
18,150,000
10,321,496
10,750,000
12,677,921
60.44
159.00
20.65a
17.80a
211.98
42.03a
119.25
62.02
10.7
10.1
1.6a
1.1a
11.7
4.1a
11.1
4.9
Cape Town
City
2006
3,497,097
40.43
11.6
Excludes aviation and marine emissions.
Total emissions
million t CO2 e
Per capita
emissions t CO2 e
City or metropolitan region
1970
inventories, the urban metabolism parameters essentially provide

the required measures of activity levels (Table 2).
A comparison of the GHG emissions from ten global cities was
undertaken by Kennedy et al. (2009a, 2010), largely drawing upon
urban metabolism studies. Results from a wider study of GHG
emissions from forty cities are shown in Table 3 (Kennedy et al.,
2009b).
3.3. Dynamic mathematical models for policy analysis
While most researchers have primarily used the urban metabolism as the basis of an accounting framework, others have begun
to develop mathematical models of processes within the urban
metabolism. Such mathematical models have mainly been developed by the MFA community, usually to study specic substances e
metals or nutrients in the urban or regional metabolism. Example
model platforms include SIMBOX (Baccini and Bader, 1996) and
STAN (Cencic and Rechberger, 2008; Brunner and Rechberger,
2004). These models include representation of sub-processes,
stocks and ows within the metabolism, sometimes linked to
economic inputeoutput models.
While the models are useful for determining present material
stock and ows, they can also be used to simulate future changes to
the urban metabolism as a result of technological interventions or
policies. The models are particularly useful for identifying solutions
to environmental issues beyond end of pipe approaches.
3.4. Design tools
The potential to use the concept of urban metabolism in an
urban design context is a relatively new development. Perhaps the
rst serious attempt to move beyond analysis to design is described
in Netzstadt by Oswald and Baccini (2003). Fernandez and students
in MITs School of Architecture have used the perspective of urban
metabolism in considering redesign of New Orleans, while students
in Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto study the urban
metabolism in order to design infrastructure for sustainable cities.
In Netzstadt, Oswald and Baccini begin to demonstrate how
a combination of morphological and physiological tools can be used
in the long process of reconstructing the city. Their starting point is
recognition that the centereperiphery model of cities is outdated,
but the new urbanity is not sustainable. They proceed to provide
four principles for redesigning cities: shapability; sustainability;
reconstruction; and responsibility. Five criteria of urban quality:
identication; diversity; exibility; degree of self-sufciency; and
resource efciency, are then sought in a design approach that
includes analysis of urban metabolism. The four major urban
activities: to nourish and recover; to clean; to reside and work; and
to transport and communicate, as identied by Baccini and Brunner
(1991) are assessed in terms of four major components of urban
metabolism: water, food (biomass), construction materials, and
energy. Several examples partially demonstrate the integration of
morphological and physiological perspectives.
Urban metabolism has also been invoked in the much more
rapid reconstruction of New Orleans that followed after Hurricane
Katrina. John Fernandez and students at MIT, use material ow
analysis to help with producing more ecologically sensitive designs
for the city (Quinn, 2007).
Civil Engineering students at the University of Toronto also use
the urban metabolism as a tool to guide sustainable design (Fig. 2).
The students are faced with design challenges typically at the
neighborhood scale, which involve integration of various infrastructure using the concept of neighborhood metabolism (Codoban
and Kennedy, 2008; Engel Yan et al., 2005; Kennedy, 2007). The
students use best practices in green building design, sustainable
Fig. 2. Representation of a sustainable metabolism for the Toronto Port Lands,

designed by graduate students at the University of Toronto.
transportation and alternative energy systems in their work. By

tracing the ows of water, energy, nutrients and materials through
an urban system, it can be designed to close loops, thus reducing
the input of resources and output of wastes.
The urban metabolism analysis of one group shows just how
close it came to a fundamentally sustainable design (Fig. 3). Greywater was used for toilets, and outdoor use; sludge from waste
water was used on community gardens for food production. Energy
from the imported municipal waste not only powered the buildings, it also provided for the light rail system and returned some
excess electricity to the grid. Moreover, y-ash from the waste
gasication plant was recycled as building material. By partially
closing these loops, inputs of energy, water, materials, and nutrients were signicantly reduced.
The tracking of energy and material ows in urban design in
order to reduce environmental impacts is also conducted by practitioners. Arups Integrated Resource Modelling (IRM) tool which
was used for master planning of Dongtan and the Thames Gateway
is essentially an urban metabolism model. It is used to assess the
sustainability performance of different strategies for the built
environment.
4. Future directions
There is a growing body of knowledge on urban metabolism.
Over 50 papers have been referenced here, some of which are
relatively comprehensive studies of metabolism, others that
analyze particular components, such as energy, water, nutrients,
metals etc. These studies provide valuable insights into the functioning of specic cities at particular points in time, but there is still
more to learn. There are only few cross-sectional studies of multiple
cities and a lack of time series studies of urban metabolism.
As Barles (2010) observes much of the research on urban
metabolism is now being conducted within the industrial ecology
community, which has broadened from its initial focus on industrial metabolism to include social and urban metabolism. A workshop held by industrial ecologists at MIT in January 2010, identied
several research needs, including:
work on the relationship between urban metabolism and the
urban poor
efforts to collect and combine energy use data from world cities
1971
Fig. 3. The urban metabolism of the Toronto Port Lands shows reduction in inputs of energy, water, materials, and nutrients due to the partial closing of these loops (designed by
a second group of graduate students at the University of Toronto).
development of a standard classication system for stocks and

ows in the urban metabolism.
Another important future direction is fuller integration of social,
health and economic indicators into the urban metabolism framework. While others, such as Newman (1999), have previously
proposed that social indicators be included in the urban metabolism, such indicators have tended to be added on. Social, heath and
economic impacts are, however, inherently related to the urban
metabolism. For example, high consumption of gasoline and high
rates of obesity are both related to an auto dependent lifestyle.
Hence, a framework for sustainable city/community indicators,
developed for the Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER) of
the California Energy Commission, links social, health and economic
indicators to the urban metabolism in the form of a matrix.
The advantages of using an urban metabolism framework as
a unifying research theme are that it (Pincetl and Bunje, 2009):
1.
2.
3.
4.
explicitly identies of the systems boundaries;

accounts for inputs and outputs to the system;
allows for a hierarchical approach to research;
includes decomposable elements for targeted, sectoral
research;
5. necessitates analysis of policy and technology outcomes with
respect to sustainability goals;
6. is an adaptive approach to solutions and their consequences; and
7. integrates social science and biophysical science/technology.
While there is much interest in the science of urban metabolism, great efforts are still required to get it established in the
practice of urban planning and design. The need to do so has been

clearly articulated. For example, in contemplating what is required
to approach sustainability, Oswald and Baccini (2003) suggest that
it will require no less than the reconstruction of our cities. They
write:
Reconstruction . means launching an intelligent experiment in
a democratic society in order to ensure the survival of the
contemporary city. We cannot foresee the nal state of this process.
We are dening the quality goals of a new regionally customized
urban life
Customization means that every society consisting of several
million people must, for instance, develop concrete ideas on
where they will obtain water, food, material and energy over the
long term, without depleting regional or global resources; ideas
on how they will renew experiential knowledge, promote creative capabilities and create symbols, without poisoning their
relationship to their own origins or disrupting global
communication
Signicant progress has been made over the past decade by the
green/sustainable building industry in tracking energy and material
ows at the building scale. There is arguably a need for the planning
and design community e specically architects, engineers and
planners e to step up to higher level. Studies of resource ows for
neighborhood developments or entire cities needs to become
mainstream practice, rather than just a rare exercise for experimental Dongtan-like developments. This requires the design
community to become much more numerate in energy and material ows. The challenge ahead is to design the urban metabolism of
sustainable cities.
1972
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful for the support of the California Energy
Commission, PIER Program.
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Sociology
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Entangled Practices: Governance, Sustainable Technologies, and Energy

Consumption
Ritsuko Ozaki and Isabel Shaw
Sociology 2014 48: 590 originally published online 13 September 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0038038513500101
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Entangled Practices:
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Consumption
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DOI: 10.1177/0038038513500101
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Ritsuko Ozaki
Imperial College London, UK
Isabel Shaw
Imperial College London, UK
Abstract
In this article we provide a timely account of how sustainable technologies become entangled
with cultural practices and thus co-evolve, influencing energy consumption. In doing so,
we critique the approach current UK policy takes towards energy renewal and carbon
reduction. We investigate the effectiveness of the social housing sectors efforts to implement
environmental policy initiatives that use a technology-driven approach. By looking at how social
housing residents consume energy as part of domestic practices, we identify tensions between
strategies to influence energy consumption by a housing association, and the ways residents
incorporate sustainable technologies into everyday practices. Our findings reveal how sustainable
technologies become enrolled in established practices: residents creatively develop novel routine
strategies to accommodate new technologies to their daily routines. We contend that policy
efforts to engender behaviour change through a technology-driven approach have limitations.
This approach ignores how practices become entangled, affecting energy consumption.
Keywords
energy consumption, environmental sustainability, governance, practices, technologies
Introduction
In the UK nearly 30 per cent of energy consumption and carbon emissions are attributed to the residential sector.1 Current UK policy recommends the installment of
Corresponding author:
Ritsuko Ozaki, Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus,
London W7 2AZ, UK.
Email: r.ozaki@imperial.ac.uk
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Ozaki and Shaw
sustainable technologies (e.g. solar thermal panels), which are designed to help energy
and carbon reduction, into homes. Yet, the story does not end here. In order for the
sustainable technologies to deliver on their promise of energy renewal and carbon
reduction, the technologies require particular forms of use by residents, but the process
of user-technology interactions is not straightforward. Current policy asks that individuals simply change their behaviours in accordance with the characteristics and
requirements of the technologies. In doing so, policy makers place responsibility for
environmental outcomes on households by making environmental sustainability a matter of individual choice (Webb, 2012). We argue that such an approach is partial and
simplistic: it ignores (a) practices of routine domestic consumption, as well as (b) the
actions of actors involved in energy infrastructure provision and policy implementation (Barr et al., 2011; Shove, 2010; Spaargaren, 2011; Webb, 2012). Heading
Spaargarens (2011) call for research into the relations between consumption practices
and sustainable technologies, we take these two points as our focus of analysis to
investigate how energy is consumed as part of everyday domestic practices that engage
with sustainable technologies, and consider the effectiveness of efforts to implement
environmental policy initiatives that use a technology-driven approach. In doing so,
we examine tensions between performing and governing practice, focusing on how
practices are constituted, conducted and transformed.
In 2006, a UK government policy called the Code for Sustainable Homes was
launched as a building standard to tackle environmental sustainability issues such as
energy security, resource scarcity and the environmental impacts of activities that contribute to increased levels of carbon dioxide from domestic arenas (DCLG, 2006a).2 The
Codes target is to make all new-built homes zero carbon by 2016, with a 25 per cent
improvement in energy use before 2010 and a 44 per cent improvement by 2013, against
the 2006 Building Regulations (Part L). Pressure to comply with the Code is significant
in the social housing sector because housing schemes require Code certification as part
of the conditions set by the funding agency in order to qualify for grant subsidy.
Furthermore, local authorities often set a minimum Code level in planning conditions for
future builds. The installation of sustainable technologies is one recommendation made
by the Code. A zero-carbon home is defined as a home with zero net emissions of carbon
dioxide from all energy use (DCLG, 2006a). This definition encompasses all cooking
and electrical appliances, as well as all those energy uses that are currently part of building regulations, such as space heating and hot water (DCLG, 2006b). The home is thus a
prime site for policy interventions.
Actors seeking to operationalise policy initiatives to alter individual behaviour
deal with energy reduction as a matter of pro-environmental consumer choice
(Wilhite, 2008: 122). In doing so, they promote a technology-driven discourse by
focusing on the implementation of technologies (e.g. photovoltaic cells) within
domestic spaces, which aim to intervene in and encourage energy-saving behaviour.
In these approaches, firstly, the consumer is cast as an isolated rational individual
(Winch, 2006: 32; see also McMeekin and Southerton, 2012) whose practices are supposedly objective and neutral and thus open to intervention and governance (Webb,
2012: 113). Much criticism has been levied at this model. For example, technology is
frequently held by policy makers as the magic bullet to environmental problems,
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Sociology 48(3)
which fails to engage with the big questions of what our needs are and how they are
constructed and reproduced (Shove, 2004: 1053; see also Slater, 1997). Secondly,
these approaches sideline questions of collective responsibility for energy reduction,
which allows governments to treat the operations of markets and corporations per se
as above or outside the societal frame of reference (Webb, 2012: 111). By reducing society to the sum of rationally self-interested individual choices (2012: 113) a
range of actors affiliated to government efforts to affect energy consumption, as
diverse as energy providers and housing associations, are excluded from consideration. As Spaargaren (2011) argues, this is inherently problematic because the consumption of energy is invariably achieved through the social and material
infrastructures through which energy is provided.
In line with these arguments, we examine how a key actor responsible for implementing UK environmental policy a social housing association promotes normative
assumptions about use through the implementation of policy-recommended sustainable
technologies. We focus on how these assumptions are operationalised by housing association professionals to encourage pro-environmental practices by residents. To better
understand how these technologies affect residents domestic energy consumption, we
then investigate how residents adapt to the sustainable technologies and creatively manage their routines.
From our empirical analysis we identify tensions between strategies mobilised by the
housing association to influence technology use and energy consumption, and the incorporation of sustainable technologies as part of everyday practices by residents. Our findings reveal how sustainable technologies participate in the performance and transformation
of established practices, as residents creatively develop new routine strategies to incorporate those technologies and to juggle activities. The socio-cultural conditions of residents home lives with the use of sustainable and mundane technologies affect how
practices are performed and then become entangled. Energy is consumed in those complex entanglements of practice. We conclude that by ignoring these tensions and practices, current environmental initiatives that promote a technology-driven view to
influence energy consumption exclude fundamental considerations about routine practice and the pervasive effect of social and technological relationships on energy
consumption.
Technology Use and Social Practices

There exists a substantial body of work now widely referred to as the social practice
approach to energy consumption (see McMeekin and Southerton, 2012; Shove, 2003;
Southerton, 2006; Spaargaren, 2011) that brings back into the debate questions of how
routine practices develop and change, since it is through the conduct of practices that
energy consumption occurs (Wilhite, 2004). Addressing these questions, researchers advocate a shift from the analysis of technological efficiency to that of socio-technological
relations and practices, which encompass the practices of both users and producers,
inclusive of material infrastructures and technologies that shape how energy is consumed
(e.g. Guy, 2006; Shove, 2004, 2006; Southerton et al., 2004; Spaargaren, 2011; Wilhite,
2004, 2008). The emphasis here is therefore less on the provision of consumer choice,
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Ozaki and Shaw
than an understanding of how different actors practices and technologies co-develop to

shape energy consumption.
Current energy reduction strategies continue to frame consumption as a rational and
static matter of deciding to act in ways that induce environmental benefits (McMeekin
and Southerton, 2012: 346). For example, housing associations put into practice these
strategies by encouraging so-called correct technology use by households and adopt
methods such as the provision of information (e.g. instruction manuals) or incentives
such as price to affect behaviour - methods promoted by environmental policy (e.g.
Code for Sustainable Homes).
With the prevalence of such rational-choice approaches, a focus on how routine practices are influenced by different actors is imperative. Indeed, technologies are used differently to carry out daily practices, such as cooking. As Wilhite (2005: 1) argues, energy
is of little use in and of itself it must be converted before it becomes transformed
into something useful. With this understanding, much of current research shows how
mundane technologies play a pivotal role in shaping everyday practices through which
energy is consumed (Shove, 2003; Wilhite, 2008). To account for the growing popularity
of showering and its association with convenience and speed, Hand et al. (2005), for
example, identify different elements that constitute showering practice: infrastructural
(e.g. plumbing, electrification and hot water provision), appliance and technology (e.g.
power-showers), moral (e.g. notions of cleanliness and hygiene) and temporal (e.g.
organisation of time and daily schedules). There is, however, little research that looks at
the interrelations between practices and both sustainable and mundane technologies. The
prevailing research suggests that residents may develop local strategies to manage energy
supply and demand by adapting their practices to sustainable technologies, such as photovoltaic cells (Chappells and Shove, 2004: 139). Or, people might not use sustainable
technologies in ways intended by their producers, and hence not generate the sustainable
outcomes anticipated by environmental policy (Ozaki et al., 2013). To understand how
energy is routinely consumed we need to examine how practices are mutually configured
by both sustainable and mundane technologies, whilst carrying out activities and conducting relationships.
Heading this call, we focus on the socio-technological relationships that arise between
residents and sustainable and mundane technologies in doing practical activities (Schatzki,
2001: 3). In this perspective, the effects of technologies emerge from a combination of
persons and materials (Barry, 2001: 11). According to Reckwitz (2002: 24950):
a practice a way of cooking, of consuming, of working of taking care of oneself or of
others etc. forms so to speak a block whose existence necessarily depends on the existence
and specific interconnectedness of these elements [e.g. practices such as cooking and
showering], and which cannot be reduced to any one of these single elements.
This notion of practices being interrelated, and thus inseparable from one another, is
echoed in Shove and Walkers (2010: 476) observation that patterns and practices of
daily life interrelate, erode and reinforce each other. Despite such theorisations, empirical accounts of the interrelations between practices are significantly lacking. Addressing
this, we focus on the performance of practices with regards to the sphere of culture
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Sociology 48(3)
(Pickering, 1995: 4) in which they are both situated and constituted by. Pickering
describes the sphere of culture as comprising skills, social relations, technologies and
concepts/knowledge; where practice is conceptualised as the work of cultural extension
(1995: 3). We attend to the conditions and means surrounding how practices become
interrelated, considering how sustainable and mundane technologies participate in this
process of shaping activities, and vice versa. In doing so, we do not consider technologies in isolation, but as active in practical activities (Barry, 2001: 11). With people, technologies and practices are mutually constitutive (see Barry, 2001; Pickering, 1995;
Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 2001) in shaping activities and energy consumption. This
raises pertinent questions about how residents adapt to sustainable technologies, which
can disrupt and alter established routines. How do residents interactions with sustainable
technologies match up to normative notions of correct use promoted by policy and
housing association professionals? What consequences does this have for how practices
become interrelated and energy is consumed?
Methodology
We have collaborated with a large social housing provider in South East England; the
case study site is located in South East London and consists of 80 terraced houses. It is
part of a large urban regeneration site; those living on the housing scheme have moved
from an estate that was made up of tower blocks built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Residents were not billed individually for the consumption of water, gas and electricity,
but paid a fixed amount each month that was included as part of their rent. In contrast,
their new homes are terraced houses with solar water heating and heat recovery ventilation systems. Residents are billed individually according to the amount of water, gas and
electricity they use. The mechanical ventilation for heat recovery system exchanges stale
air for fresh air and recovers heat in the process; and the solar water heating system uses
heat from the sun to warm domestic hot water. The aim of these technologies is to reduce
energy consumption from heating water and space, which accounts for half of all thermal
energy consumption in the UK (Hawkes et al., 2011: 2), and to ultimately reduce carbon
emissions.
This study has two parts: interviews with (a) social housing professionals and (b) residents. A detailed information sheet was provided to each participant before the interview
explaining the aims of the project: that the interview was voluntary and anonymous, and
that they could withdraw from the project at any time. All interviews took between 30
and 60 minutes, and were recorded and fully transcribed. The interviews were coded
openly and analysed thematically to capture emerging themes (Thomas, 2006).
The first strand of research comprises 20 semi-structured interviews between June
2010 and August 2011with professionals working for the housing association. Each professional was a front-line actor involved in the design, management or maintenance of
housing schemes developed under the directive of the UK governments policy the
Code for Sustainable Homes. These actors included architects, a building contractor,
development managers, a community regeneration officer, maintenance managers and
council employees. Interviews were carried out in two phases. Interviews were gained
with the assistance of actors working for the housing association.
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Ozaki and Shaw

Table 1. Residents profile.
Residents
Household composition
Nationality
AW
MO
GT
4 (mother, father, two pre-teen children)

3 (mother, two teenage children)
6 (mother, father, two teenage children,
two pre-teen children)
3 (mother, grown-up son, teenage
daughter)
2 (husband, wife)
3 (mother, two pre-teen children)
Chinese
Nigerian
Eritrean
OO
IA
TN
GM
FO
Nigerian
Nigerian
Vietnamese
British
Nigerian
In the interviews we explored how different professionals operationalised the Code

through the installation of sustainable technologies, examining diverse engagements
with these technologies. As part of this line of questioning, we enquired into how residents were introduced to sustainable technologies within the home, and how certain
forms of use were encouraged by the housing association. Interviews with professionals
working in direct relation to the case study are referenced for our analysis.
The second strand of our research is a study with residents consisting of 24 in-depth
face-to-face interviews with eight households from January 2011 to April 2012.
Interviews were carried out in three stages: (1) a few months after moving into new properties (JanuaryFebruary 2011); (2) nine months later (OctoberNovember 2011); and
(3) subsequently five to six months after the second interviews (MarchApril 2012).
Repeat interviews allowed us to establish a rapport with the residents and gain an indepth understanding of the routine practices and strategies developed by them to manage
these technologies, their everyday lives and energy consumption over a sustained period
of time. Because of issues of confidentiality, the collaborating housing association made
initial contact with the residents to see if they were willing to participate, using our introductory material that summarised the aims and conditions of the study. Thereafter we led
the recruitment process. The eight households interviewed consisted of first-generation
immigrants from Vietnam (1), China (1), and Africa (5) as well as a household from
Britain. Their cultural backgrounds and daily practices vary. Details of their profiles are
presented in Table 1. Interviews were conducted in their homes and residents were
encouraged to discuss how they carried out their everyday routine activities and engaged
with the sustainable technologies.
Governance and Normative Assumptions about

Sustainable Consumption
Government presents its role as acting through multiple stakeholders in public, private and
third sectors, resulting in an image of an individual consumer targeted by a dense network of
complex institutional actors, each seeking to re-channel the choices of the self-interested
consumer into a calculus of carbon reduction. (Webb, 2012: 114)
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Sociology 48(3)
Diverse actors are involved in the enactment of environmental governance which seeks
to affect individual behaviour. The social housing association is a key organisation that
implements government environmental strategies by installing and encouraging correct
use of sustainable technologies. To meet funding and planning criteria, the development
of social housing needs to demonstrate the potential for its buildings to achieve targets of
carbon reduction and energy renewal set out by the Code. In the analysis that follows, we
identify three strategies mobilised by the housing association that aim to disseminate and
implement assumptions about the consumption of energy and the conduct of everyday
life what is good, normal, healthy, efficient and profitable (Miller and Rose, 2008: 55)
which are closely tied to technology use. Specific forms of knowledge about technology use and energy consumption are promoted. In attempts to achieve this, the housing
association adopts a rational-choice model firmly grounded within a technology-driven
discourse: choice and education are two approaches used to try and engender environmental behaviour change through the use of technologies.
Technological Determinism: Do Not Switch Off!

To educate the residents about how to use sustainable technologies and reduce the consumption of energy, leaflets are given to residents informing them that the technologies
are energy efficient. For example, the housing associations booklet states that solar
panels will help reduce the amount you pay for hot water. Sustainable technologies are
positioned as the primary means through which environmental change occurs. Efforts to
try and ensure technological efficiency include applying stickers and signs to switches
that inform the residents not to turn off the solar panel and air ventilation systems:
We did make little stickers saying do not switch off and stuck it over the socket hoping
that they [residents] wouldnt. Most of them havent, but some of them did have the mentality
that if its a switch it needs to be off otherwise youre paying for it With the solar panels
if they just left the system running they wouldnt pay for the hot water. In the summer
certainly not pay for it, and in the winter probably half and half. (Housing Development
Officer)
This approach promotes the view that sustainable technologies alone will produce the
desired environmental effects if left switched on. As the quote suggests, however, there
exists a concern that residents will worry about the cost of keeping the sustainable technologies switched on and that by turning the technologies off, this will make them redundant. To try to counteract this potential for technological failure, as well as limit energy
consumption, a cost-based incentive is presented to residents.
Cost-based Incentives: How to Reduce Energy Consumption

In addition to written instructions, the housing association seeks to regulate energy consumption by offering advice to residents about how to reduce energy costs. As mentioned
earlier, residents recently moved from a nearby estate to the newly developed one, which
entailed significant changes to the type of residence, technologies used to generate hot
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Ozaki and Shaw
water and ventilation, and billing method. Because of the different nature of energy provision and payment method, financial considerations are viewed as pivotal to changing
residents behaviour:
There was going to be quite a big increase in rent charges and service charges [In the
previous homes] the residents paid a certain amount, which included unlimited heating hot
water and cold water So if they had the heating on 24 hours a day they would be charged
the same amount if they had the heating on for 30 minutes It seemed that rather than turning
the heating down they would just open a window because they werent paying for it. So
its educating residents about the changes that are going to happen when they move into their
new homes. (Housing Regeneration Officer)
To manage the transition to a different means of energy provision, workshops were

devised to tackle budgeting and money management, and information leaflets disseminated among residents:
We did information booklets for residents we were making it clear to them that, you
know, you will pay for the amount of heating and hot water you use [If] you had concerns
about the heating and water charges we gave residents the opportunity to sit down with an
independent financial advisor. (Housing Regeneration Officer)
Residents do have concerns over the higher cost of living in the new houses. Yet despite
this apprehension, strategies that focus on cost alone do not significantly affect the routine practices of residents, as we discuss later. An additional strategy is used to try to
create the environmentally beneficial outcomes imagined with the installation of the
sustainable technologies. The housing association and affiliated professionals disseminate standardised advice about correct usage of sustainable and mundane technologies
within the home.
Standardised Advice: How to Conduct Your Life and Save Energy

Normative concepts about correct technology use are reflected in the advice provided
to residents by the housing association to save energy by, for example, regulating water
usage by reducing the length of time to take a shower (described below). In the following
quote a development officer tries to give advice to residents on how to live in the new
house on the moving-in day, whilst it is evident that residents concentrate on making it
their home:
[Residents] have a familiarisation process [to the new home], it lasts an hour per household
and they get leaflets to say this is what this does But obviously, the day they get their keys
is so exciting that anything they [we] say goes straight over their heads Youre going through
the house pointing out where things are and how things should be used. Theyre thinking
when can I get my carpets in, how big are these windows, can I measure them up for my
curtains? Completely different wavelength. Youre trying to go through this is how you live in
your home and theyre thinking about dcor, carpets and all the things that are exciting about
moving into a new home [our emphasis]. (Housing Development Officer)
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Sociology 48(3)
Housing association professionals promote ways of living within the home that are tied
to normative notions of technology use. This is clear in the advice given to residents on
how to reduce their energy consumption:
You can cut down on your water by taking a shower than a bath always load the washing
machine when it is completely full. Were directing a lot of residents to the Thames Water
website it gives information about how much a family of four would expect to spend if they
have a water meter property. (Housing Regeneration Officer)
This advice neglects socio-cultural practices and related meanings, such as notions of
cleanliness. Indeed, a resident described how she had been given a timer device to reduce
her shower time to four minutes. This was not sufficient enough time for her to feel
clean: Im not using it [the timer] any more Its too short for me. Im like, oh my God,
Ive not cleaned properly! (FO).
It is evident that potential tensions exist between the housing associations efforts to
introduce energy efficient practices within the home and residents daily socio-technological practices, which we investigate in detail in the next section. We have discussed
three strategies adopted by the housing association that try to govern the behaviour of residents. The first strategy assumes that sustainable technologies alone will achieve the
desired environmental effect. The second approach employs cost-based incentives to
reduce energy usage, making it a matter of choice to decide to use less heating and hot
water, for example. The third strategy offers standardised advice for resource intensive
practices such as showering, which assumes that consumption practices are universal and
remain constant with time. The desire for efficient sustainable technology use embodied
in these strategies thus neglects the cultural and social concepts and practices that underpin energy consumption (see Shove, 2010; Southerton et al., 2004; Spaargaren, 2011).
We next examine residents routine practices and their use of both sustainable and
mundane technologies as part of accomplishing their daily lives, which, we argue, have
a significant impact on the ways in which practices interrelate and the diverse ways in
which energy is consumed.
Juggling Practices: Cooking, Showering, and Organising

Social Life
In our analysis of residents practices we find that they conflict with standardised and
normative notions about the use of sustainable technologies. We argue that sustainable
technologies do influence how everyday practices are conducted, but in ways unexpected
by policy makers and the housing association. Adapting to the new technologies as part
of carrying out their lives, residents creatively develop novel practices that build on
existing cultural practices, which in turn affect processes of energy consumption. We
focus on two particular practices that are closely linked to the installed sustainable technologies: cooking, and showering/bathing. We argue that with mundane technologies,
sustainable technologies reciprocally and mutually participate in shaping the wider
socio-cultural lives of residents, through which resource intensive practices become
entwined and energy is consumed.
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Ozaki and Shaw
Cooking
The heat recovery ventilation system installed in the residents homes is purportedly
energy efficient by offering a means to control the indoor climate through providing
fresh air. The regulation of the indoor climate is supposed to require a lessened need to
open windows and thus allow the heat of the property to increase in the winter and
decrease in the summer. We found that some households adapted their cooking practice
to try to control steam and cooking smell, developing their own strategies to manage
ventilation as the ventilation system did not remove smells from cooking:
I have not used it [heat recovery ventilation]. I dont bother any more Sometimes I go in
there [the kitchen], I see theyve [other household members] left it on for two or three days and
I just switch it off. But if Im cooking I dont even bother because it doesnt work I have to
leave the front door open, leave the back door open. All the windows upstairs are open If I
am in the house the front door, kitchen window [is open] so that the smell will go. And I
dont cook in the evening, I cook in the morning so that will give it time [for the smell to go]
if I have to fry fish, I cant fry fish in this house because for the next three months the smell
with stay in the house. I will have to take it [a cooking hob] out [to the patio] and fry it there.
(OO)
In addition to these strategies of scheduling cooking to the morning so that the smells
have time to dissipate, and changing the location of cooking from the kitchen to the garden patio, households also manage ventilation by cooking particular dishes, such as an
African stew. Residents cook the stew in bulk so that only one day a week is dedicated
to intensive cooking (producing smells and steam). Bulk cooking is scheduled when the
rest of the household is out of the house. This is important in colder months when opening windows and doors results in heat loss, but other family members are not affected:
[I shop] maybe two weeks ahead I buy my meat and fish, I have two [freezer] drawers that I
have left for that. Thats for the stew If youre doing all this cooking, it takes the whole day
to boil it, fry it, bag them in the freezer When you cook and you leave this door open, even
though you switch on the vent you can still smell it upstairs in the house but once you leave
the kitchen window open, at least the smell escapes immediately Its colder but then
Im the only one cooking in the kitchen and I do the cooking when no one is home. (MO)
Bulk shopping and cooking, as well as strategically using doors and windows, aids
households to manage ventilation. This process reciprocally shapes how families organise their time and leisure practices. Assembling the stew offers flexibility to conduct
these practices and achieve ventilation. This flexibility is also facilitated by technologies
such as the refrigerator-freezer to store large quantities of food and the microwave to
provide instant meals (see Shove and Southerton, 2000), which frees up residents
time for other activities:
[Now that we have bought a fridge freezer] she [his wife] will cook stew and then put them
in small containers and just freeze them. So you just go to the freezer as and when you need
them put them in the microwave just like those ready-made foods that you buy She
does a major cooking and she spends something like three hours in the kitchen And that will
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last sometimes nearly two months Its sort of freed up time to attend to other things, like
maybe go to the library, go to the pub, and you know, do the shopping. (IA)
I cook for the week the stew can be eaten with rice or whatever If I cook it on Saturdays
it lasts by [till] Wednesday or Thursday and Friday we just eat out. Once its cooked it can
be left in the fridge. [The stew] would be a mixture of fish, beans, and chicken, everything
goes together spiced up The boys can just come back from school they will just go in the
freezer, get it and, you know, put it in the microwave Some weekends we have weddings
So I tend to do [bulk shopping and cooking], like I did last weekend, so for the next three weeks
now Im OK, I dont have to get to the market If you have an African wedding you have to
go from about 12 pm, all day practically My son [also] has football on Saturday then you
have people who want to visit you we dont have any free weekends any more we dont
have any free day, let me just put it like that. (MO)
The incorporation of a new technology with existing ways of living in the home culminates in the emergence of novel socio-technological practices and arrangements. We see
next how these new arrangements have a knock-on effect on the conduct of other
resource intensive practices, such as showering. How these practices are adapted and
become entangled influences how energy is consumed. For instance, to manage ventilation one household made changes to the hardware and techniques of practice, such as
the tools and methods of cooking, giving up their traditional Vietnamese food, and cooking by not frying, but steaming:
The housing [association] dont give us permission to fit the extractor hood, so that means
were not allowed to make the food like before We have to change the way we cook
before [we moved in] we can [could] cook our dishes like traditional [Vietnamese food], but
since we move here we prefer to steam [rather than fry] Mostly we have for dinner is
vegetables, and we mix our fish which [we] make very quickly We dont cook as complicated
as before, so the ingredients we find [are] very simple We prefer the taste before more than
[to] now, but we have to get used to it. (TN)
This change has consequences for ways in which the resident organises her daily life and
other practices. The cooking is now simpler but with less flavour; because of this, alternative efforts were sought to introduce flavour by marinating food. This process demands
a significant period of time to complete and so the respondent schedules her food preparation for each morning:
You have to leave it [food] for a couple of hours at least and then it turns out very tasty. If you
do it too quickly it turns out like not tasty. Thats why I always prefer to do it in the morning
the gap between preparing and the meal is about four or five hours if I prepare in advance
the time I cook is less And when we have dinner I dont feel so tired Thats why I prefer
a shower in the morning because I prepare the food, after that I have a shower and in the
evening I cook it just 1520 minutes and we have dinner You have a nice dinner with your
family and were talking, my children are talking about what is happening at school. (TN)
Adopting a new cooking method and arranging her time in this way affects the scheduling of her shower and the demarcation of family time. It is evident that one strategy to
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cope with a new technology embodied in a new practice has a domino effect on the
arrangement of other activities during the day.
Residents alter their practices: the tools (ingredients), methods (steaming, frying) and
techniques (recipes) of cooking, to enact unique strategies for ventilation. These strategies are entwined in efforts to juggle family activities and time. The notion that adequate
ventilation will occur if you just keep the vent switched on promotes the idea that there
exists a universal home and user, separating sustainable technologies from these wider
social and cultural practices. Yet in reality we see that the varied practices of food preparation and cooking mutually shape residents engagement with technologies and their
energy consumption. Clearly, a standard ventilation system alone cannot control the
indoor climate and improve energy efficiency, as it overlooks the creative and culturally
diverse practices of residents. Sustainable technologies can change established routines
(Spaargaren, 2011) in ways unanticipated by the housing association: residents actively
adapt to these technologies with varied implications for use. Through these processes
new cultural practices emerge with potentially diverse and conflicting consequences for
anticipated environmental outcomes.
Showering and Bathing

As we saw above, changes in residents practices affected by newly installed sustainable
technologies have repercussions for alternative practices, such as the scheduling of
showering. Indeed, Hand et al. (2005) suggest it is important to:
acknowledge the temporal and sequential scheduling of everyday practices and to know
where showering or bathing fit into the daily or weekly routine the shower belongs to a set
of domestic devices whose popularity has grown precisely because they promise to help people
cope with the temporal changes of modern life (Warde, 1999). (Hand et al., 2005: 78).
The arrangement of time, family members and work, for example, demands careful planning and coordination and the shower aids this by allowing for speed and convenience
(Hand et al., 2005: 78). In the following quote, a family morning timetable is scheduled around showering:
Everyone takes a shower and leaves We wake up around 6.30. I think we finish, all of us, by
7.30. Within one hour everyone has finished, six people And by eight oclock weve all left.
First me or their mum, because of the nature of our work. It might be delayed. Otherwise my
bigger daughter, she has to leave by 7.30. She always gets to her job early. Theres a boy, the
same thing, he might leave at quarter or ten to eight. Theres one she leaves at ten past eight,
and the other one, the youngest daughter leaves at 8.30. (GT)
Current work on practices sheds light on the relations between showering and strategies
of time management (Southerton, 2006; Warde, 1999). Building on this, we argue that
residents wider socio-cultural organising praxis is shaped by sustainable and mundane
technologies, and vice versa, affecting how practices become interrelated, in turn, influencing other resource intensive practices. As part of the praxis of daily life, routine practices are closely interconnected; we cannot view them in isolation.
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Showering and bathing practices are also part of, and intertwined with, residents
social life:
[My daughter] doesnt have a bath in the morning, she has a bath in the night But if its
weekend when Im at home, she has to have a bath in the morning because we have to go to
church, so I cant leave and go out of the house without having a proper wash. (OO)
We all take a shower in the morning You use a bath for your children, maybe in the evening
We do baths in the evening if the kids have been to sports, and you know, summertime, because
they roll on the grass, they do a lot in summer, we do both morning and evening (MO)
In the latter household, the demarcation of morning showering (adults) and evening bathing (children) is closely tied to the practices in which adults (work) and children (sports)
are involved. The consumption of energy services, such as showering, and energy itself,
are together accomplished as part of peoples daily lives (Wilhite, 2008).
Practices (re)configure and sustain one another; they are intertwined with and constitutive of existing ways of doing things, which are adapted and transformed through
negotiating new social, cultural, and technological arrangements. Efforts to govern residents practices and energy consumption through strategies that essentially bracket off
sustainable technologies from the lives and activities of residents disregard how sustainable technologies contribute to how residents arrange their daily lives. During these
juggling acts new forms of practice are created, which do not conform to the technologies characteristics and technological potential anticipated by housing professionals.
Advice, such as taking a shower instead of a bath, therefore, does not lead to so-called
behaviour change as imagined by policy makers.
Discussion and Conclusion

There are clear tensions between the assumed normative ways of use of technology and
actual use. From the social practices perspective it is evident that domestic energy management and consumption is shaped by peoples attempts to juggle everyday routines
and wider socio-cultural praxis, rather than driven by sustainable technologies alone, as
policy makers and housing providers imagine. The heat recovery ventilation system does
not manage indoor climate by itself. Rather, it is affected by culturally diverse cooking
practices, ventilation strategies creatively developed by residents, and the scheduling of
other resource intensive practices. The solar water heating system is not used according
to its technical characteristics (e.g. generating hot water when the sun is out). Instead,
residents adapt showering and bathing practices to manage time as well as family and
social activities, reflecting divergent cultural norms and priorities. In most cases, these
processes of adaptation dominate over efforts to conform to the requirements of the sustainable technologies demanded of residents to achieve sustainable outcomes. Strategies
that rely upon consumer choice as a mechanism to deliver sustainable outcomes are thus
problematic. Residents socio-technological practices, which comprise sustainable and
mundane technologies, and are affected by the wider socio-cultural conditions and management of everyday life, influence energy consumption. Simply offering cost-incentive
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and standardised advice overlooks how energy consumption is achieved. The policy
approach of asking individuals to change their behaviours in accordance with the characteristics and requirements of the sustainable technologies simply does not work.
Residents narratives not only reinforce well-established sociological criticisms of the
policys rational-choice model, but also further our understanding of the relations between
sustainable technologies, practices and energy consumption. The narratives offer deeper
insights into how practices mutually shape and sustain each other. Analysing these, we
have empirically demonstrated and furthered our understanding of the interconnectedness of practices (Rechwitz, 2002; Shove and Walker, 2010), by broadening this theoretical contention in relation to the contingent socio-cultural and technological frames of
residents lives and their implicated ways of engaging with technologies. In doing so, we
have demonstrated how the entanglement of practices shapes energy consumption.
We contend that the relations between mundane practices (e.g. cooking and showering
or bathing) are entwined and constitutive of activities as residents creatively adapt to the
sustainable technologies, generating new forms of cultural practice. Despite recent work
that examines how mundane technologies become enrolled as part of objectual elements of
practice and energy consumption, there needs to be a greater appreciation of how both
sustainable and mundane technologies affect the interrelations between residents practices
in the sphere of culture (Pickering, 1995: 4) that influence how energy is consumed.
Governance attempts to promote normative concepts of correct use, which depend
on consumer choice, do not materialise in practice and thus have limitations.
Environmental sustainability cannot be achieved without understanding how sustainable
technologies reciprocally shape and are incorporated into residents activities and lives.
The rational-choice model excludes fundamental questions about routine practice and
the pervasive effect of social and technological relationships on energy consumption.
There is no linear relationship between sustainable technologies and sustainable energy
consumption. Rather, future research needs to investigate the different trajectories of
use that materialise out of the interrelations between practices. The varied practices that
emerge have important implications for how energy is consumed.
Acknowledgements
We thank the collaborating housing association and residents for their participation in this research.
This article was jointly written.
Funding
This research was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EP/
F036930/1).
Notes
1. UK domestic energy consumption comprises 28.4 per cent of total energy consumption
(BERR, 2008) and residential carbon emissions account for 29.4 per cent (DECC, 2011).
2. The Code for Sustainable Homes provides recommendations for house builders to make new
buildings environmentally sustainable. Developers and builders are able to choose technologies for each development. Points, which are calculated into Code levels, are given depending
on how much improvement they make (DCLG, 2006a).
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Ritsuko Ozaki is Senior Research Fellow in the Imperial College Business School. Her background is sociology and her research focuses on the adoption and consumption of new technologies and initiatives, with a particular focus on energy and environmental sustainability. Her current
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Isabel Shaw is Research Associate in the Imperial College Business School. Her research interests
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obtained her PhD from the sociology department at Lancaster University in 2008.
Date submitted February 2013
Date accepted May 2013
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The Sociological Quarterly ISSN 0038-0253
THREE ECOLOGIES: Urban Metabolism and

the Society-Nature Opposition
David Wachsmuth*
New York University
This article is an intellectual history of two enduring binariessociety-nature and citycountrysideand their co-identification, told through evolving uses of the concept of urban
metabolism. After recounting the emergence of the modern society-nature opposition in the
separation of town and country under early industrial capitalism, I interpret three ecologies
successive periods of urban metabolism research spanning three disciplines within the social sciences. The first is the human ecology of the Chicago School, which treated the city as an
ecosystem in analogy to external, natural ecosystems. The second is industrial ecology: materialsflow analyses of cities that conceptualize external nature as the source of urban metabolisms raw
materials and the destination for its social wastes. The third is urban political ecology, a reconceptualization of the city as a product of diverse socio-natural flows. By analyzing these three
traditions in succession, I demonstrate both the efficacy and the limits to Catton and Dunlaps
distinction between a human exemptionalist paradigm and a new ecological paradigm in
sociology.
INTRODUCTION
Louis Wirth opened his celebrated article Urbanism as a Way of Life with the observation that nowhere has mankind been farther removed from organic nature than
under the conditions of life characteristic of great cities (Wirth 1938:12). Historically, this has been a common sentiment, but one we now know is wrong. Nature is as
much present in city concrete as in a farmers field. Indeed, Wirths statement eloquently expresses the society-nature oppositionthe idea that the social and the
natural are distinct and perhaps opposed realms of reality. This article is an urban
intellectual history of that opposition, told via one specific concept that is particularly
expressive of the evolution of the theme over time: urban metabolism.
The term metabolism was coined in the early 19th century to describe chemical
changes within living cells. Within 50 years, its use was widespread in biology and what
would become biochemistry to characterize processes of organic breakdown and
recomposition, within individual organisms (at a cellular scale) and between organisms and their environment. Ever since, metabolism has lived a dual existence in the
natural sciences, referring both to processes by which bodies change and reproduce
themselves and to more holistic conceptions of ecosystem relations (Fischer-Kowalski
1998; Foster 1999).
*Direct all correspondence to David Wachsmuth, Department of Sociology, New York University, 295
Lafayette St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10012; e-mail: david.wachsmuth@nyu.edu
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Three Ecologies
It was in the latter register that the metabolism concept entered the social sciences,
via Karl Marx, who appropriated it to describe first the human transformation of
nature through labor and second the capitalist system of commodity exchange. Marx
was also the first to use the concept of social metabolism to question the apparent
separation between human beings and their environment:
What requires explanation is not the unity of living and active human beings with
the natural, inorganic conditions of their metabolism with nature. . . . What we
must explain is the separation of these inorganic conditions of human existence
from this active existence. (Marx 1964:8687; emphasis in original)
This is the society-nature divide, which Marx elsewhere referred to as a metabolic
rift (Foster 2000). In this article, I reexamine it as a distinctively urban phenomenon.
I begin by recasting familiar arguments about the production of nonhuman nature
to emphasize that the society-nature opposition took its modern form in the separation of town and country under the emergence of industrial capitalism. The
co-identification of these two oppositionssociety-nature and city-countrysideis
the rubric I use to interpret changing uses of the metaphor of urban metabolism. I
analyze three ecologies: three successive periods of urban metabolism research
spanning three disciplines within the social sciences.
The first is the human ecology of the Chicago School. In what was to become the
dominant sociological understanding of the city for much of the 20th century, Robert
Park and Ernest Burgess treated the city as an ecosystem in analogy to external, natural
ecosystems, and conceptualized urban metabolism as a process of social (i.e., nonnatural) change internal to the city. The second era of the urban metabolism concept is that
of industrial ecology: materials-flow analyses of cities, following Wolmans (1965)
foundational text The Metabolism of Cities. Like the Chicago School, it locates
society spatially within cities, but adds external nature as the source of raw inputs and
the destination for social wastes. The final era is the rise of urban political ecology
(UPE), a hybrid approach to studying urban natures premised on an analytical dissolution of the society-nature division. These scholars explicitly reconceptualize the city as
a product of diverse socio-natural flows.
The succession of the three ecologies demonstrates a progressively greater awareness of the role of nature within urbanization and thus within human society, but also
a changing real relationship between these terms. Nature begins as entirely absent from
the city, proceeds to inhabit its outside, and ends up profoundly implicated in its production and reproduction. The history I present here thus offers a qualification to
Catton and Dunlaps (1980) influential elaboration of a break in sociology between a
human exemptionalist paradigm, which holds human society to be exempt from
natural forces and constraints, and a new ecological paradigm, which incorporates
natural forces into its analysis. On the one hand, I demonstrate that a similar break
occurred outside the domain of mainstream sociology, lending support to their argument that changing material conditions have driven changing awareness of the role of
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David Wachsmuth
environmental factors in the social world. But on the other hand, the limits of the new
ecological paradigm are illustrated by further developments in urban metabolism
research in recent decades that have been slow to occur in either environmental or
urban sociology. I return to these considerations in the conclusion.
THE URBAN ORIGINS OF THE SOCIETY-NATURE OPPOSITION
The city is now frequently presumed to be the future proving ground for the relationship between human beings and their natural environment. Here, for example, is a
recent edition of UN-HABITATs influential State of the Worlds Cities report:
From a sustainable development perspective, the welfare of future generations
depends on how well present generations tackle the environmental burdens associated with urban living. Environmental harmonybetween rural and urban areas,
and within citiesis a growing concern among urban planners, policymakers and
environmentalists. (UN-HABITAT 2008:122)
Many such statements are contextualized with reference to a dawning urban age: 50
percent of the worlds population now live in cities. This is a round number, but ultimately not a very compelling quantitative justification for an apparently qualitative
shift in the relationship between cities, society, and the environment. If urbanization
has indeed provoked a metabolic rift in the social relation to nature (Foster 2000), it is
hard to see how any particular demographic threshold could be decisive. In fact, this
relationship is not as novel as contemporary discourse often assumes: the modern form
of the society-nature opposition is to a large extent a consequence of the separation of
town and country under 19th-century capitalism.
The basic proposition is that modern Western understandings of nature were set in
the emergence of industrial capitalism. In particular, what I take to be the most important feature of the society-nature oppositionthe idea that nature is a realm external
to human society and in some sense even antithetical to itowes its modern, recognizable existence to the social transformations wrought by the industrial revolution. This
argument is a common one, in some form or another (e.g., Polanyi 1944; Williams
1973, 1980; Berger 1980; Cronon 1995; Foster 2000; Smith 2008). The scholars who
have made it have persuasively demonstrated the role that the society-nature opposition has played in (1) legitimizing both the human domination of nature in the name
of progress, and (2) naturalizing socially produced injustices such as inequality, racism,
sexism, war, and imperialism.
But much of this research has tended to downplay the specific aspect of industrial
capitalism most responsible for the setting the terms of the modern society-nature
opposition: the separation of town and country.1 We see this clearly in William
Cronons brilliant article on the creation of wildernessanother term for external,
nonhuman nature. Echoing the seminal work of Nash (1967), Cronon (1995:69) argues
that wilderness is quite profoundly a human creationindeed, the creation of very
particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history, and locates
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Three Ecologies
this creation in 19th-century North America and Western Europe. He identifies two
important causes of the production of external nature: the sublime and the frontier.
The former is a Romantic sense of spiritual wonder imbued in certain remote landscapes, common, according to Cronon, to European and American imaginaries of
nature. The latter is a more distinctively American concept of promise and renewal
outside the bounds of civilization.
Cronon demonstrates the positive origin of wilderness as both sublime and frontier,
but only hints occasionally at its negative origin. That is, what was wilderness being
defined in contrast to, beyond industrial civilization in general? The closest we get in his
account is the following line: The dream of an unworked natural landscape is very
much the fantasy of people who have never themselves had to work the land to make a
livingurban folk for whom food comes from a supermarket or a restaurant instead
of a field, and for whom the wooden houses in which they live and work apparently
have no meaningful connection to the forests in which trees grow and die (Cronon
1995:80). But of course there were urban folk who did not grow their own food long
before either the sublime or the frontier separated the idea of nature from the idea of
society. So what changed?
The answer is the separation of town and country into distinctive and apparently
autonomous social realities, a process ushered in by the new spatial division of labor of
European industrial capitalism. As Sennett (1969:3) observes of Western Europe, up to
the time of the Industrial Revolution, the city was taken by most social thinkers to be
the image of society itself, and not some special, unique form of social life. We find a
paradigmatic example in the first book of Rousseaus Social Contract, where the term
city simply describes the body politic. Such a usage does not imply a contrast of city
with any other social sphere, and certainly not with an agricultural or pastoral countryside. Indeed, it would have been strange had Rousseau drawn such a contrast. For historically, as Weber (1958:70) notes concisely, The relation of the city to agriculture has
not been clear cut.
In England by the 19th century, however, manufacturing (previously dispersed
throughout the countryside in so-called cottage industries) was concentrating along
with a growing working class in the cities (Polanyi 1944; Thompson 1963). And
embattled rural communities, increasingly finding their ways of life threatened by the
new political and economic weight of the cities, engaged in radical acts of resistance
that paralleled the better known urban oppositional movements such as Luddism
(Calhoun 1982). The result was a widespread (i.e., both intellectual and popular)
imaginary of town and country as opposing but inextricably linked forces in English
society. The new industrial cities were not contrasted with smaller towns (as, for
instance, Rousseau earlier contrasted the metropolis with the town [Ellison 1985]) but
with the countryside. And the fate of the countryside was held to be a question of
reining in the destructive influence of the city (Spirn 1985).
In other words, within the citycountry relationship, the city came to occupy the
socially decisive position by the late 19th century. (This despite the fact that the majority of the English population continued to reside in villages and small towns.) The city
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David Wachsmuth
became the active, social subjectthe place where society really is locatedwhile the
countryside was progressively reduced to a dominated, nonsocial other (Haila
2000:157).
This is the context that Cronon was no doubt aware of but did not emphasize in his
account of the creation of wilderness. When he quotes Wordsworths Prelude, with its
solemn depiction of sacred nature, he might plausibly have paired it with William
Blakes And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time, a poem composed in 1804, within a few
years of Wordsworths:
And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills? (Blake 1994:114)
Here, wildernessexternal, nonhuman natureis put in its proper historical context,
next to the dark Satanic Mills of the newly industrializing city. We might likewise juxtapose Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grassits reflections on external nature readily locatable within the American transcendentalist traditionwith his later, modernist work
about New York City. It is the same coin: on one side, society in the city; on the other,
nature in the countryside.
Finally, here is Ebenezer Howard, writing in 1898, describing the magnets of town
and country that pull on individuals:
But neither the Town magnet nor the Country magnet represents the full plan and
purpose of nature. Human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be
enjoyed together. The two magnets must be made one. As man and woman by their
varied gifts and faculties supplement each other, so should town and country.
(Howard 1965:9)
Notice with how little hesitation Howard moves between town and country and
society and nature as expressions of the same opposition. Such an attitude was perfectly sensible in England by the end of the 19th century, but would have been nearly
incomprehensible 150 years earlier. This is the fundamental development I wish to
identify: the social separation of town from country in the rise of industrial capitalism,
and as a consequence, the perceived separation of human society from nonhuman
nature. In this sense, both the society-nature opposition and its manifestation in mainstream sociology as the human exemptionalist paradigm are constitutively urban
phenomena (Dunlap and Catton 1994:6; Clement 2010:292).
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HUMAN ECOLOGY: URBAN METABOLISM WITHOUT NATURE

The metaphor of metabolism was present almost from the very beginning of urban
sociology, in Burgesss (1925) article on The Growth of the City. Although Burgess
did not use this language, his concept of urban metabolism can be readily restated
along the lines of the society-nature opposition; like human ecology more generally, he
spatially mapped the social onto the city while relegating nature to an unspecified
outside.
Burgesss The Growth of the City is most famous for its concentric-circle model
of urban growth, whereby socioeconomic zones tend to expand outward and thus
invade neighboring zones in a process of succession (a term borrowed, like metabolism, from the natural sciences). But the way Burgess characterizes the process of
growth is what concerns us here:
[Questions about the growth of the city] may best be answered, perhaps, by thinking of urban growth as a resultant of organization and disorganization analogous
to the . . . processes of metabolism in the body. (Burgess 1925:53)
Burgess emphasizes two features of urban metabolism. First, he identifies the specific
process at work in the metabolism as mobility, which he defines as nonroutine movement, in contrast to later traditions in urban sociology that have tended to emphasize the importance of routine commuting patterns for constituting the
urban social fabric. Second, he distinguishes between two metabolic pathways
disorganization and organizationand argues that mobility leads to the former, while
consistency leads to the latter. While he holds some disorganization to be necessary for
subsequent reorganization ( la creative destruction), a surplus of disorganization
that is, too much mobility and not enough consistencywill unbalance the citys
metabolism and manifest as areas of demoralization, of promiscuity, and of vice
(Burgess 1925:59).
Despite the wide attention Burgesss article received as one of the foundational
documents of Chicago School human ecology, his specific treatment of urban metabolism has been overshadowed by the accompanying concentric-circle model of the city.
Little more than scattered applications of Burgesss metaphor appeared over the
decades after he published the article (e.g., Terpenning 1928; Hansen 1954), and an
otherwise comprehensive history of metabolism in the social sciences does not
mention or cite Burgess (Fischer-Kowalski 1998). Meanwhile, one recent study of
exactly Burgesss conception of urban metabolism as the mobility of people and their
interactions, despite using the metabolism terminology, fails to mention Burgess at all
(Townsend 2000).
Despite its relative obscurity, Burgesss urban metabolism speaks eloquently to the
human ecology project in general. To a significant degree, Burgess simply applied a
plausible metaphor to the theme of social order and disorder that was already emerging as a major concern of the Chicago School. But the very use of biological metaphors
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is telling: there was always a tension within the Chicago Schoolas in early
20th-century sociology more generallyabout which were appropriate, and about how
far to take them. In the first pages of his seminal article, Park (1915:57778) proposes
to study the city as a mechanism, but immediately hedges by suggesting it might also
be characterized as a growth. In Burgesss The Growth of the City, there is a basic
incompatibility between the metabolism metaphor, which implies that the city should
be treated as an organism (a sort of scaling down of Herbert Spencers conception of
society as an organism), and the succession metaphor, which implies that the city
should be treated as an ecosystem.
Human ecology was above all an investigation of how humans adapt to their
environment, with the city serving as the privileged environment for the Chicago
Schools research program. But, as Burgesss urban metabolism demonstrates, the relevant environment was conceived of as entirely a social one (for the same tendency
in subsequent mainstream sociology, see Catton and Dunlap 1980:22). All the biological metaphors remain just thatmetaphors. Burgess uses the concept of metabolism in analogy to natural metabolism, but nature itself makes no appearance in
Burgesss account whatsoever, nor does it figure significantly into human ecology
more generally.
The lack of a real role for naturewhether as resources, local flora and fauna, landscape, weather and climate, and so onin Burgesss explanatory agenda leads to some
remarkable tensions. For Burgess, the city is a self-contained system, within which
people and their social ties circulate, integrate, and disintegrate with no reference to the
outside world except ongoing human immigration. But at the same time, he is studying
the growth of the city: he understands urban metabolism to be a process of transformation, not simply reproduction, and growth itself is a premise rather than something
to be explained. In other words, Burgess approaches the city as (1) a self-contained
system (either in analogy to an organism or an ecosystem) (2) that is ceaselessly
growing. These two attributes are, of course, mutually exclusive. Any plant ecologist
who found a bounded system that grew indefinitely would be surprised indeed.
This is the society-nature opposition mapped onto town and country in its barest
form. The study of society is the study of the city, while nature lurks as an unmentioned backdrop, at best to inform the study of primitive folk societies in the countryside. There could be no clearer example of Catton and Dunlaps (1980) human
exemptionalist paradigm in action. But to observe the absence of a substantive role for
nature from human ecology is not to retrospectively accuse Burgess and the rest of the
Chicago School of incompetence or blindness. These scholars sought to understand a
novel social systemthe industrial citythat appeared to be operating under its own
autonomous, self-perpetuating logic. In this sense, urban metabolismand human
ecology more generallyfollows directly from the separation of town and country discussed above. A purely social urban metabolism, endlessly growing but nevertheless
self-contained, only became a plausible idea once cities were sufficiently large as a
result of rural-urban migration, sufficiently autonomous as social realms, and sufficiently significant in the general course of social life.
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INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY: URBAN METABOLISM FUELED BY NATURE

While Burgesss use of urban metabolism ended up an orphan, the next time the
concept surfaced it made a considerable impact on scholarly understandings of
urbanization and society-nature relations. This was via industrial ecology: the discipline concerned with materials and energy flows through industrial systems.
Although industrial ecologists study systems at a variety of scalesfrom individual
factories and industrial districts up to national economies and the entire globea
distinctive subfield has grown up around measuring materials flows through cities
and urban regions. It is here that the concept of urban metabolism made its second
important appearance (Fischer-Kowalski 1998; Fischer-Kowalski and Httler 1999).
Like human ecology, industrial ecology uses the concept of metabolism to understand the growth of cities; but unlike the former, the latter explicitly grounds its
understanding of urban growth in resource consumption and environmental constraints. Emerging in the 1960s and 1970s, industrial ecology thus expressed the
beginnings of Catton and Dunlaps new ecological paradigm in parallel to similar
developments within environmental sociology.
The story begins with Wolmans (1965) The Metabolism of Cities, in which he
pioneered the practice of studying the city as a machine for converting natural
resources into wastes. Fresh water enters the urban metabolism and exits as sewage;
iron enters the urban metabolism and exits via the scrapheap. Wolmans study was
stylized with respect to a hypothetical US city with a population of one million, but it
inspired a number of more detailed investigations. Although difficulties with data collection and comparability have limited the pace of this research, subsequent metabolic
studies have managed to quantify flows of water, materials, energy, and nutrients into
and out of a growing number of metropolitan regions (Decker et al. 2000; Kennedy,
Cuddihy, and Engel-Yan 2007). And while most of these studies have simply been
tallies of materials and energy, Newman (1999) has tentatively extended the metabolism idea to encompass other dimensions of sustainability, such as livability and health,
thus bringing the industrial ecology model of urban metabolism closer to the social
concerns of Burgesss original formulation.
The theoretical underpinnings of the industrial ecology approach to urban
metabolism have best been elaborated by the environmentalist Girardet (1996), who
for decades has banged the drum for urban sustainability. Most significantly, he draws
a distinction between circular and linear metabolisms: the former supposedly characterizes the natural worldone organisms waste is anothers sustenanceand the
latter characterizes the urban worldresources in, waste out. Girardet thus understands the dawning global environmental crisis to be an over-proliferation of linear
metabolisms as cities grow and spread.
Environmental sociologists may recognize the similarity between this diagnosis of
environmental crisis and that of Foster (1999, 2000), whose theory of metabolic rift
has become increasingly influential in the last decade. Foster builds on Marxs observation that the concentration of industry (and population) in cities that accompanied
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early industrial capitalism opened a rift in the circulation of soil nutrients. Nutrients
still left the soil as food, and yet, since this food was consumed far from its point of
origin, the waste products were no longer returned to the soil as fertilizer but were
simply expelled out the sewers. What had previously been a circulatory metabolism
was becoming a one-way flow. Foster generalizes this idea into a critique of capitalisms
tendency to undermine the conditions for its own survival (although one still rooted in
the imbalance between the city and the countryside), and other researchers have fruitfully applied the concept of metabolic rift to a variety of environmental questions (e.g.,
Moore 2000; Clark and York 2005). In all cases, the basic formulation resembles Girardets distinction between linear metabolism and circular metabolism, although the etiology differs and the political thrust is more radical.
Girardet presents the underlying conception behind these approaches to urban
metabolism in an unusually clear form:
Cities transform raw materials into finished products. They convert food, fuels,
forest products, minerals, water, and human energy into buildings, manufactured
goods, and financial and political power: all the components of civilization. (Girardet 1996:20)
In other words, urban metabolism is the conversion of nature into society. Likewise, in Newmans model of urban metabolismthe most holistic of the empirical
studies within industrial ecologynatural resources remain the sole inputs, to be
metabolized through dynamics of settlements into both livability and waste
outputs (Newman 1999:22021). Correspondingly, from Wolmans initial intervention to the present, industrial ecology has approached urban sustainability specifically
as the need for cities to consume fewer natural resourcesthat is, consume less
nature. (Not surprisingly, the focus of urban metabolism studies has increasingly
shifted from resources to carbon emissions [e.g., Chen and Chen 2012], reflecting
the larger transition in environmental concern from limits to growth to climate
change.)
The consequence is that industrial ecology implicitly maps the society-nature
opposition onto town and country in the same fashion as human ecology, although
natures role is elaborated. The country is the geographical area where natureraw
materialsis located, while the city is the geographical area where the society that
metabolizes this nature is located. The difference is that for human ecology, the object
of investigation was the growth of the city in social terms, so Chicago School sociologists could import analogies with nature into a purely social account of city growth,
while for industrial ecology the object of investigation is the sustainability of urban
resource use, so for Wolman, Girardet and the rest the city is only understandable in
relation to the external natural environment that supplies the raw materials for its
growth.
If industrial ecology gives a greater role in its urban metabolism to nature than
does human ecology, it gives a lesser role to humans. This is hardly surprisingthat
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materials science would pay more attention to materials, and sociology would pay
more attention to the socialbut it is worth emphasizing, because it strongly
informs the way that both environmental problems and their potential solutions are
approached. The industrial ecology approach is ultimately technocratic: it presents
environmental problems as technical problems rather than social ones. Girardet
(2008:124), for example, after discussing the imperative for cities to adopt circular
metabolisms, asks What does a circular metabolism mean in practice? The answer,
it turns out, is a discussion of cooperation on waste diversion between corporations
and the municipal government in a Danish town. We are told that such cooperation
is desirable and that other cities should emulate it. But what led the corporations and
municipality to cooperate? What were the politics at work? The power structures and
forms of contestation? In other words, where are the social and the historical?
For Girardet, the problem of linear urban metabolisms and thus unsustainable
urban society is one of insufficient local will. Nature stands at the ready, in a static
fashion, to be used in more or less harmonious ways. Cities (consistently and uncritically imbued with agentic properties in his account) each need to adopt more sustainable environmental practices with respect to that static nature to convert their
linear metabolisms into circular onesto close their individual metabolic rifts and
thereby reduce the resource pressure they put on the earth. But this raises the question: why should we look for municipal solutions to the pathologies of urban
metabolism when the environmental pressures are universally understood to be
regional or indeed planetary? Are problems in the city necessarily problems of the
city?
Throughout the industrial ecology literature on urban metabolism, we frequently
find self-consciously global environmental questions mapped onto the city. Wolman
(1965:179; emphasis added) is paradigmatic in this regard, introducing his foundational text with the observation that the planet cannot assimilate without limit the
untreated wastes of civilization, and then pivoting to a discussion of the city. Where
there is a justification for such logical leaps in more contemporary scholarship, it is
usually an invocation of the urban age thesis discussed briefly above. Our global
society is now an urban society, so solutions to our global problems must be urban
solutions. It is worth noting that Foster, whose diagnosis of the pathologies of contemporary urban metabolism has a lot in common with Girardet, makes no such
assumption. For Foster, the metabolic rift is a feature of global capitalism, and repairing the rift means confronting capitalism at a global scale. Marshaling the local will
of cities may well be part of such a confrontation, but cannot be the confrontation
itself. Still, Girardets assumption, widely shared as it is, demonstrates the potency of
the conflation of the society-nature and town-country oppositions. Society is in the
city, nature is in the country, so if there is a crisis in the relationship of society to
nature, the thinking goes, we must look for solutions in the city. The same tendency
is present in environmental sociology, where many analyses of urbanization have
treated it as a source of environmental degradation (Clement 2010:294)cities consuming nature.
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URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGY (UPE): THE SOCIO-NATURAL METABOLISM

OF THE CITY
The final phase in the history of urban metabolism belongs to urban political ecology
(UPE), a hybrid field at the intersection of political ecology and urban geography.
While Wolman and industrial ecology developed the metabolism concept independently of Burgess and human ecology, from the outset, UPEs leading practitioners
have analyzed industrial ecology metabolism and have developed their own distinctive
position to some extent as a critique of industrial ecology (e.g., Gandy 2004:374; Keil
and Boudreau 2006:4142; Swyngedouw 2006:3334). The key transition has been
from the proposition that social worldsincluding citiesare constructed on natural
foundations and subject to natural constraints (the new ecological paradigm perspective) to the proposition that nature does not stop at the foundations: the city is constitutively social and natural from the bottom to the top, and urban nature is just as
political as urban society. In this regard, UPE holds valuable lessons for environmental
and urban sociology, which still generally treats nature as a fuel in urban societys
engine.
Political ecologythe study of the politics of environmental degradation and environmental rehabilitationemerged in the same post-exuberant 1970s moment
(Catton and Dunlap 1980) of increasing environmental awareness as did industrial
ecology and environmental sociology. By the late 1990s the field was undergoing a
poststructuralist reassessment, in the midst of which Swyngedouw (1996) made his
initial call for a UPE. Until then, political ecology, like its cognate field of rural sociology, had concerned itself more or less exclusively with rural and wilderness areas. In a
sense, with respect to the relationship between the town-country and society-nature
oppositions, political ecology was the inverse of Chicago School human ecology: an
insightful analysis of the production of nature, but spatially mapped exclusively onto
the countryside, just as the Chicago Schools analysis of the social was mapped onto
the city. It is no coincidence, then, that Swyngedouws argument for a UPE was simultaneously an attempt to rethink the society-nature opposition in general.
The concept of urban metabolism that Swyngedouw (1996, 2006) develops
borrows heavily from Marxs original formulation of social metabolism as the human
transformation of nature through labora creative and social process that produces
and reproduces both human life and the natural world. But to avoid the traps of the
society-nature and material-discursive binaries, Swyngedouw introduces the neologism
socio-nature, insisting upon the ubiquity of nature in social realms (including the
city), while denying that nature can ever be independent of the social. The implication
is that we do not needand indeed cannot havespecific conceptual or methodological tools for investigating the place of nature in the city, as industrial ecology assumes.
All the features of modern urbanization are socio-natural, including the production of
dams, the re-engineering of rivers, the management of biodiversity hotspots, the transfiguration of DNA codes, the cultivation of tomatoes (genetically modified or not) or
the construction of houses (Swyngedouw 2006:27).
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Swyngedouw focuses particularly on water, one of the natural resources Wolman

included in his initial metabolism study. And while he endorses the basic insight of
industrial ecologythat natural resources flow through cities to be transformed
into the conditions of urban lifehe expands the metabolic analysis to include
political, economic, and cultural dimensions that Wolman and his successors largely
did not. The result is that, whereas industrial ecology metabolism studies see the city
as a specific, fixed site for the conversion of resources into products and wastes
something like a distributed factorySwyngedouw argues that the city, in the broadest sense of the term, is itself a product of socio-natural metabolism. So while the
UPE approach to urban metabolism builds on industrial ecology in some senses, it
discards the latters relegation of nature to nothing more than raw materialsan
inert participant in urban metabolism (Keil and Boudreau 2006). Instead, UPE gives
a process-oriented account of metabolism that emphasizes the interplay of local,
regional, and global socio-natures (e.g., respectively, urban heat-island effects, a river
system and its hydroelectric infrastructure, and international commodity trade flows)
in constituting any specific city or urban space (Heynen, Kaika, and Swyngedouw
2006:5).
We can thus see in UPE at least a tentative unraveling of the intertwining of city
and countryside with society and nature. Of course, simply renaming society and
nature socio-nature does not make the binary disappear through force of will, but in
substantive terms urban political ecologists have been more successful at dismantling
the persistent conflation of society with the city and nature with the countryside than
any other research program in the social sciences. By drawing on political ecologys
insights about agency and political struggle in the production of socio-nature, UPE
offers a means of escaping the either humans or nature dilemma represented in the
two poles of human ecology and industrial ecology.
Against the Chicago Schools view of urban societyin analogy to nature and
thus with urban power structures and injustices naturalizedUPE demonstrates
the often unexpected ways in which nature intervenes in the urban social order. In
his analysis of something as apparently banal as the suburban lawn, Robbins (2007)
is able to document not just a sprawling political economic web of grasses, weeds,
and chemicals but a two-way process of subject formation linking lawns and the
people who own the lawns: just as we make the lawns, the lawns make us who we
are. Such arguments build on the insights of actor-network theory about distributed
agency (Callon 1986), but do so within a political economic framework that remains
attentive to questions of power and inequality (Brenner, Madden, and Wachsmuth
2011).
And against the technocratic implications of industrial ecologys urban
metabolismwhere flows of materials are neutral objects to be mobilized in more or
less sustainable waysUPE asserts the importance of history and politics. The industrial ecology perspective on urban nature is a general (ontological) proposition that
cities metabolize nature and an analysis of in what quantities they do so. Urban political ecologists, by contrast, have explored the historical struggles that have caused the
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urban socio-natural landscape to take the form it does, and the differential environmental impacts that landscape has on different classes and groups within the city
(Gandy 2003; Domene and Saur 2007).
To assess the potential contributions for environment and urban sociology of
UPEs approach to urban metabolism, we can compare it briefly to what is probably
the most influential work on urban and environmental change in recent decades:
Cronons (1991) Natures Metropolis. Like UPE, Cronons history of Chicago and its
agricultural hinterland foregrounds the role of nature in constituting the city, in his
case by tracing the flow of commodities from raw materials to social institutions such
as railroads and the Chicago stock exchange. But there are two features of Cronons
work that place him more comfortably in the tradition of new ecological paradigm
environmental sociology and industrial ecology. First, he treats nature and the environment overwhelmingly as the fuel for the development of the urban social system
(although in his case the system spans city and hinterland). This is by design, of
coursethe book sets out explicitly to chart commodity flowsbut the consequence
of this design is that while Cronon is able to document the role of nature in the production of the social, he fails to grapple with the social production of nature (Smith
2008), which has been a major emphasis of UPE and is slowly filtering into urban
sociology (Capek 2010). Second, Natures Metropolis is largely silent on the class politics and power relations corresponding to the transformations of nature that it documents. Again, Cronon acknowledges that he deliberately left these questions aside,
but this will not likely be a satisfactory response to urban and environmental sociologists, for whom power relations are key concerns, and who would do better in this
regard to follow UPEs lead in investigating not just urban nature but the politics of
urban nature.
There are still some gaps in the UPE project though. Most notably, there is a contradiction between the most influential UPE theorizations of urbanizationwhich
stress its planetary dimensions and its juxtaposition of the global and the
local (Swyngedouw 1996; Keil 2003; Heynen et al. 2006)and the nearly exclusive
empirical focus on cities, traditionally understood (but see Pellow [2006] for an
insightful exception). This is methodological cityism: the city is taken to be the
privileged analytical lens for studying contemporary processes of urban social transformation that are not necessarily limited to the city (Angelo and Wachsmuth 2012).
So, while scholars working within the UPE tradition have produced insightful analyses of cities as products of global socio-natural processes, they have largely failed to
investigate noncity products of those same processes. In this respect, Cronons
mutual investigation of the city and the countryside has not yet been equaled within
UPE, where the city is richly theorized and investigated in socio-natural terms, but
the countryside remains inert by default, inasmuch as it is not explored in these same
terms.
Still, UPE has advanced a notion of urban metabolism that manages in important
respects to overcome the limitations of the human ecology and industrial ecology
models that came before. It does so while being in some ways a hybrid of the two, com518
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bining in the concept of socio-nature the social and political concerns more traditionally associated with urban sociology and the attention to the natural world associated
with ecology.
CONCLUSION: NATURES STEADY MARCH ON THE CITY
The intellectual history I have told about urban metabolism is a story of natures
steady march on the city. For human ecology, urban metabolism is analogous
to nature, but only analogousthe natural environment itself is simply a backdrop
to a purely social process of urbanization. For industrial ecology, nature is the source
of the urban metabolisms fuel and the destination for its wastes. In both cases,
the two terms of the society-nature opposition are mapped exclusively onto the
city and the countryside. For UPE, by contrast, urbanization is a constitutively
socio-natural process, where the city is not merely the site of urban metabolism but
rather its product. These successive understandings are summarized graphically in
Figure 1.
But there have been, in fact, two armies marching. On the one hand, conceptions of
urban metabolism have changed as social scientists have become better at thinking
about nature and the city. This somewhat modernist notion is, I think, undeniable, and
while the story as I have presented it here inevitably has imposed some measure of
Human ecology
Industrial ecology
Town
Country
Town
Society
Nature
Society
Country
Nature
Input (resources)
::
Output (waste)
Urban political ecology

Town
Country
Socio-nature
FIGURE 1. Varieties of the Intertwined Society-Nature and Town-Country Oppositions in Different Models of Urban Metabolism.
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simplifying linearity, there is no harm in acknowledging that urban political ecologists

have an overall more adequate conception of urban nature than the Chicago School
did. Conversely, and more importantly: conceptions of urban metabolism have changed
as urban metabolism has changed.
Roger Keil and John Graham argue that successive transformations in capitalist
urbanization have historically led to new societal relationships to nature. They identify three periods of the city-nature relationship in modern capitalism: the early
industrial period, where the city pretends to shed its dependency on natural
metabolisms, the Fordist period, where the separation of the city and the countryside became most deeply implicated in the destructive trajectory of capitalist urbanization, and the post-Fordist period, where nature is no longer exiled from the
city, but becomes the key element of the current era of urban growth (Keil and
Graham 1998:102105).
We do not have to strain very hard to see this periodization in the intellectual
history of urban metabolism. The Chicago School developed the metabolism concept
when urbanization seemed to have become untethered from the natural world, when
the social had become a realm unto itself. Wolman and his successors in industrial
ecology, meanwhile, developed the materials-flow analysis of cities in the context of
apparently out of control urbanization and suburbanization, and the challenges these
self-evidently appeared to pose to the worlds natural resource base and capacity for
absorbing wastes. UPE, finally, is the social science for the global urban age, where
nature can no longer be tenably understood as outside the city, but is fundamentally
incorporated into its further development.
Periodizing the urban metabolism concept thus helps us periodize urban metabolism itself. What is more, the first two stages in this periodization correspond closely to
Catton and Dunlaps (1980) human exemptionalist paradigm and new ecological
paradigm. The fact that there is a third stage in the periodization should give sociologists a pause. The new ecological paradigm recognition that human society is built on
natural foundations is necessary but arguably no longer sufficient to understand the
contemporary production of nature, and in particular the production of urban nature.
As the above discussion of UPE has indicated, one potentially fruitful way forward for
sociologists is to more explicitly connect environmental and urban research. For,
although this is starting to change, environmental sociology has historically had little
to say about urbanization except to treat it as a machine for consuming nature
(Clement 2010), and urban sociology has had little to say about nature except as a
background or a metaphor (Capek 2010). Neither has been in sustained dialogue with
UPE or other fields associated with geography, where research into the production of
urban nature is now relatively mature. Such conversations will only be more pressing as
scholars work to untangle the society-nature and town-country oppositions, which still
loom over the social sciences and over the planet, and thus help dispel what Williams
(1973:96) called the last protecting illusion in the crisis of our own time: that it is not
capitalism which is injuring us, but the more isolable, more evident system of urban
industrialism.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank Hillary Angelo, Neil Brenner, Colin Jerolmack, Anne
Rademacher, Esm Webb, and the participants in the NYLON workshop for their
thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of the article.
NOTES
1
Two exceptions are Bergers (1980) brief account of capitalist urbanizations relegation of
animals to the domestic sphere as pets, and Fosters (2000) elaboration of Marxs theory of
metabolic rift. But the former has overwhelmingly been read as an animal studies intervention,
while the latter is focused specifically on the soil-nutrient cycle between farms and cities.
Neither is commonly read as a general account of the relationship between the separation of
town and country and the society-nature divide. Williamss (1973) The Country and the City, by
contrast, is highly influential but places less emphasis on the discontinuities of the Industrial
Revolution and more on the long and ambiguous historical lineage of rural enclosure and social
transformation in England, and thus stands as a partial dissent from my argument here.
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AESOP-ACSP Joint Congress 15-19 July 2013 Dublin
TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED ENERGY LANDSCAPE

Jessica de Boer1 and Christian Zuidema2
1
Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, University of Groningen,

jessica.de.boer@rug.nl
Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, University of Groningen,

c.zuidema@rug.nl
Keywords: energy landscape, sustainability, spatial planning
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we show that an area-based approach to fostering the energy transition has
the potential to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to the viability of
innovative energy initiatives. On the basis of a desk study and gathering empirical data, we
witnessed that energy initiatives have the capacity to activate linkages with their local
physical and socio-economic landscape. Furthermore, when initiatives build upon the
qualities of their environment, they tend to be less sensitive to changed conditions and
shocks and hence, are more viable. Moreover, our study shows that drawing upon these
distinct local qualities and opportunities, fosters variety in locally specific energy initiatives.
The variety between initiatives in the landscape allows for the emergence of decentralised
energy systems that are an integrated part of the multifunctional physical and socioeconomic landscape, which again reduces the vulnerability of the entire energy system. The
image of what we coin an integrated energy landscape is therefore promoted as a potential
guidance for planners and policy makers to understand how they can contribute to the shift
towards a sustainable energy system.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Challenge of a Sustainable Energy System
Over the last decades, sustainability has become a central issue on the global governance
agenda. In the quest for a sustainable future, one of the crucial elements is the sustainable
provision of energy. The fossil fuels we still rely on for almost all of our energy provisions are
unsustainable for several reasons. Firstly, fossil fuel reserves are limited to a finite amount in
the earths crust; conventional oil production will probably begin to decline within the next
decade (Smil 2010, Sorrell et al. 2012). Secondly, fossil fuel combustion contributes to more
than 50% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gasses, causing further climate change (Hk et
al. 2010). Thirdly, at least for western nations, geopolitical uncertainties regarding a secure
provision of energy from major supply countries like Saudi-Arabia and Iran (cf. Correlj, van
der Linde 2006) also give incentives to search for domestic energy sources, including
renewable energy. Each of these reasons urge for a fundamental change in our energy
system, frequently referred to as the energy transition (Rotmans et al. 2001). Dominant
among these desired changes is a shift towards the use of renewable and often more locally
based sources. Such shifts, however, are not always easy to accommodate.
On the one hand, the current fossil fuel based energy system is far from easy to change. This
energy system is not just based on an infrastructure of wells, pipes, energy plants, networks
and consumers. It also involves a multitude of stakeholders, each with their own interests
and access to resources and power. In the meantime, contracts and existing regulatory
systems help stakeholders interact and constrain their freedom to act. In other words, the
energy system is a complex web of interrelated actors and networks, both in a physical,
1|
economic, social and institutional sense. Apart from limitations to fully oversee and grasp
such a complex web, ownership and power are fragmented, limiting the capacity of any actor
to alter the energy system. Traditional planning and policy approaches tend to focus on the
capacity of a single or group of stakeholders to come to decisions regarding desired endstates and the approaches to achieve them (Allmendinger 2009). Faced with the complex
web that characterizes the energy system, such approaches are seriously constrained (cf.
Roo 2012, De Roo, Silva 2010, and Kemp 2010). Planners and policy makers, including
spatial planners are thus asked to come up with new approaches.
On the other hand, a move towards a sustainable energy system also confronts spatial
planners with three challenges specific to their profession. For one, harvesting of well-known
sustainable energies such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy and
biomass is not equally possible in all locations (Smil 2008). Depending on local and regional
circumstances, such as the characteristics of the landscape, weather and the economic
activities taking place, certain renewables will be more favourable than others. (cf.
Dobbelsteen 2007). To illustrate, installing hydropower on the flat lands of the Netherlands or
Denmark is less advantageous than using wind turbines in these regions. Secondly, many
renewables have a high visibility in the landscape and are prone to cause NIMBY (Not In MY
Back Yard) effects (Cass 2010, Walker 2010). Not only do renewables typically demand more
space than generating energy from fossil sources, they also tend to be highly visible,
specifically in the case of wind farms or hydropower. Consequently, careful planning that
focuses on both the physical landscape and societal responses is required. Thirdly, many
independent and small-scale energy initiatives operate locally and are not yet part of the
energy network. This urges for a reconsideration of how the qualities of sustainable energy
production and consumption can become interwoven with existing energy systems in order to
make future energy systems viable. Spatial planners, again, have an important role to play in
the shift to a sustainable energy system (Noorman, De Roo 2011, Stremke, Koh 2010).
1.2 Outline
In this paper, we take an area-based approach to understand the role that sustainable
energy initiatives play in their local context and to investigate the area-based conditions for
up-scaling these energy initiatives in the energy transition. We begin section two by
presenting our research method for assessing the hypothesis that the integration of energy
initiatives in the landscape makes them less vulnerable and hence, more viable. In section
three, we discuss literature on the energy transition that highlights the importance of bottomup innovations that overcome the lock-ins that characterize existing fossil-fuel based energy
systems (Kemp 2010, Grin et al. 2009, and Loorbach 2010). For such bottom-up innovations
to become meaningful, however, we argue that they should be well connected to the local
physical and socio-economic landscape, as we show in section four. In taking an area-based
approach, we will highlight in section five, how energy initiatives have the capacity to activate
linkages with the local physical and socio-economic landscape. Based on such linkages, we
will argue and illustrate that energy initiatives become less sensitive to changed conditions
and shocks, and hence, are more viable. Furthermore, we will argue that embedding
sustainable energy initiatives within their local context can spawn the kind of innovation that
allows for an up-scaling of individual initiatives to a wider sustainable energy system. In
doing so, we will reflect on existing theories on transitions, which highlight the role of
individual niches of innovation and development (cf. Kemp 2010, Kemp, Loorbach 2006,
and Loorbach 2010). In taking an area-based approach to foster energy transitions we will
frame in section six, local contexts as the niches of innovation and development and show
that innovative energy initiatives position themselves in the energy landscape and thrive on
specific qualities of the physical and socio-economic landscape. With an area-based
approach, we conclude in section 7 that we can gain a clearer understanding of the important
conditions necessary for a successful energy transition.
2 | Boer and Zuidema / Towards the Integrated Energy Landscape
2 RESEARCH METHOD
Against the backdrop of the emerging, innovative energy initiatives in the energy transition,
this study investigated whether there is empirical support for the hypothesis that the
integration of innovative energy initiatives within the local landscape makes them less
vulnerable and hence, more viable. Building upon literature on transition thinking and areabased planning approaches (presented in section 3 and 5), we hypothesised that innovative
energy initiatives activate area-based linkages with the physical and socio-economic
landscape, which make them less sensitive to changed conditions and shocks. To assess our
hypothesis we gathered empirical data during two interdisciplinary research projects we are
involved in since 2012 (presented in section 4 and 6).
The first research project we are involved in is MACREDES, a four-year European Delta Gas
Research (EDGaR) funded project (EDGaR 2012). MACREDES aims to map the technical,
economic, socio-psychological and spatial conditions relevant for the integration of
decentralised energy networks within the conventional energy system. The second project is
DELaND, a three-year European funded Interreg IVa project with a consortium of Dutch and
German partners (Groen Gas-Grnes Gas 2012). It is focused on the potential role of
residual biomass streams in decentralised energy systems and on the potential for Public
Private Partnerships (PPPs) around biomass. Both research projects aim to gain a better
understanding of the spatial planning issues relating to the decentralisation of energy
systems, resulting in area-based guidelines for stimulating the energy transition.
Following our hypothesis, we assessed empirically how innovative energy initiatives and
actual projects benefit from area-based linkages. For the scope of this study, the initiatives
and projects are all in peri-urban areas in the Northern Netherlands. An innovative energy
initiative can be for instance, a community initiative that sets up an energy cooperation, or a
public-private partnership establishing an energy service company. During the first empirical
research-phase, we conducted a desk study in which we analysed research reports with
inventories of innovative energy initiatives and projects based on factors contributing to their
integration in the physical and socio-economic landscape. Besides this, we conducted
interviews and workshops with experts involved in the energy transition. Experts included
advisors working for transition-stimulating organisations, government officials who facilitate
innovative energy projects and spatial planning scientists.
Building upon gathered insights, we selected four cases for the second empirical researchphase to be analysed in more detail from the perspective of spatial planning. In this study, a
case can be framed as one or more innovative energy initiatives in the context of the local
physical and socio-economic landscape. We selected two explicit examples of energy
initiatives in the Northern Netherlands that had a traditional, top-down planning approach.
Both initiatives are high on the political agenda and subject to public debate. As we will
explain, both initiatives appeared to have weak connections with the physical and socioeconomic landscape. The other two cases we studied, were more connected with their local
context, we investigated how these cases seek to benefit from area-based linkages with the
physical and socio-economic landscape. For each case we conducted a desk study and had
interviews with partners of the initiative. For the first case study presented, our department of
Spatial Planning in Groningen also held an indicative survey on public opinion in one of the
villages where a wind farm is planned (Van Dijk 2012). 1500 surveys were available of which
227 people responded. The survey proved valid at a 1% significance level. The contrast
between the two types of cases enabled us to further develop our theoretical argument, as
we will explain in the conclusion of this article. In the following section, we begin to build up
our theoretical argument by discussing how to improve our understanding of the crucial role
of innovative energy initiatives, in the energy transition.
3 TRANSITION THINKING
The energy transition is a complex and long-term process. Therefore the specific conditions
required for a constructive contribution by innovative energy initiatives, are difficult to grasp.
Understanding how innovations to the energy system emerge and how these can transform
the existing energy system is for researchers an analytical puzzle (Geels 2011). Transition
thinking provides a framework, for understanding the complex web of interrelated actors and
networks, in a society based on multilevel perspectives that describe how these transitions
take place. On the macro level, the socio-technical landscape, consists of the material
infrastructure, political culture, social values, worldviews, the macro economy, demography
and natural environment (Kemp 2010). The dynamics at the macro level are rather
autonomous and tend to change slowly. The meso level is the regime and refers to
dominant actor networks and institutions (Kemp, Loorbach 2006). The rules, roles and belief
systems of the regime guide decision-making processes. This provides stability and
orientation to societal domains and sectors but simultaneously may result in inertia. The
institutional structure tends to stimulate the reproduction of practises that fit within the regime
and block innovations that conflict with the status quo. In contrast to the continuity and
stability of the meso level, the third micro level is characterised by high dynamics. At the
micro level, individual actors, technologies and local practices develop new ideas and new
initiatives in niches. The novel and pioneering niche activities do not develop routines nor
are they regulated yet. In the niche, initiatives have more freedom to experiment and
improvise, enabling deviation from the status quo of the regime level (Kemp, Loorbach
2006). Therefore, alternative technologies, product systems and social practises are
developed often outside or on the fringe of the existing regime (Kemp 2010). Our research
aims to further explain the processes at the niche level and how they interact with the
regime level.
Transition thinking describes the dynamics within and between these three levels; the basic
hypothesis is that transitions come about through the co-evolution of processes at different
levels in different phases of the transition (Kemp, 2010). A transition is the result of the
interaction between changes and innovations at these different levels; slowly changing
trends lead to new ways of thinking (paradigms) that lead to innovation and vice versa
(Kemp, Loorbach 2006; p.108). The interplay between the various levels explains why a
transition can be accelerated by certain catastrophes or crisis, but not caused by a one-time
event (Kemp, Loorbach 2006). Rather, transitions are about the complex interaction patterns
between individuals, organizations, networks, and regimes within a societal context, and how
over time, these can lead to nonlinear change in seemingly stable regimes (Loorbach 2010;
p.167). Within this pattern of complex interactions, unpredictable developments take place
while feedback loops can create rapid and unforeseen changes. Such complexity and
unpredictability can make it difficult to steer a transition or even know the outcomes in
advance. As we noticed in the introduction, such complex and unpredictable situations urge
planners to move beyond traditional planning approaches, as these largely focus on the
capacity of a single or group of stakeholders, to come to decisions regarding a desired endstate and the approaches required to achieve it (Allmendinger 2009). Instead, transition
thinking sees complexity and unpredictability as motives for shifting towards more adaptive
and flexible planning approaches that draw on a constant process of learning-by-doing
(Geels 2011, Kemp 2006, Rotmans et al.2001).
While focussing on learning-by-doing, transition thinking highlights the role for localised
niches in which innovations take place. Change can subsequently follow on, from learning
about successful experiments and by grasping how these experiments influence and interact
with higher-level actor networks, institutions and socio-economic practices. Transition
thinking frames these niches as individual actors, technologies and local practices where
experimentation takes place. The result is that sustainable energy projects tend to be framed
largely as initiatives to test new technologies or practical applications largely in isolation from
their physical and socio-economic context. We argue that such an isolated vision of energy
projects is too simplistic. After illustrating our argument in the next section, we will continue in
section five by explaining how niches might better be framed as area-based projects where
energy initiatives are embedded, in their physical and socio-economic context.
4 A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
The Dutch central government recognised early on, the potential of transition thinking and
embraced the term energy transition in 2001 (Ministry of VROM 2001). Nevertheless, only
about 4% of its total energy supply is renewable-based (CBS 2012). Success therefore, is
still fairly limited and a real transition is still pending. In contrast to transition thinking, the
Dutch government also foresees few roles for local initiatives in the energy transition.
Practice shows that the Dutch government has mainly focused on large, mono-functional
energy projects. In this section, we discuss two explicit examples of large energy projects in
the Northern Netherlands. These projects were chosen as the most visible large-scale
examples of sustainable energy initiatives in the media and political debate, within the
Northern Netherlands in recent years. The first case is a project that proposes to contribute
to the ambition of the State government to have 9%1 of the total energy usage in renewable
energy by 2020, through installing 6000 MW of wind power, in designated areas of the
Netherlands (CBS 2012, Ministry of I&M 2013). This quantified ambition resulted in largescale plans for wind farms of over 200 MW, similar to the wind farms in the Veenkolonin,
which we will reflect on later. The second case we discuss comprises the Municipality of
Groningen, which aims to become carbon-neutral in 2035. We assess from a spatial
planners perspective how these two innovative energy initiatives connect or conflict with the
unique local physical and socio-economic landscape.
4.1 Wind farms in the Veenkolonin
In the Northern part of The Netherlands is an area called the Veenkolonin (Peat Colonies)
where several wind farms are planned. The Veenkolonin is a peripheral area characterised
by low population density and a relatively high economic dependence on state subsidies and
unemployment benefits (Commissie Structuurversterking Veenkolonin 2001). The wind
farms planned in this area will have a total capacity of around 700 MW and contribute to the
ambition of the State government to have installed 6000 MW of wind power on land by 2020
(Ministery of EZ 2011). The farms are managed by the top-down state coordination energy
program (Agentschap NL 2013). As a result, the project was carried out as an isolated,
mono-functional energy project. The State made direct agreements with local landowners,
mostly farmers, on the allocation of the wind turbines. This connects the energy project to the
land of the famers but does not connect it to other values of the physical, natural landscape
for the local society.
When assessing the linkages of the project to the socio-economic landscape, we see that the
State and energy companies (Sijmons, van Dorst 2012) receive the most benefits, followed
by selected local farmers, who gain revenue from the allocation of wind turbines on their
land. Linkages with local initiatives, stakeholder interests and economic functions were not
explicitly considered. We inform the local society on several spatial designs for wind farms to
choose from (quoted from an interview with a wind farm developer on April 15th 2013 in
Groningen). As a result, the local population and much of the existing economic fabric were
overlooked in the planning. With no direct revenues or benefits, the local population merely
faces the social costs related to visibility, noise and the intermittent shade of the wind
turbines (Sijmons, van Dorst 2012). It resulted in the classic example of the NIMBY (Not In
1
By estimation, based on the total energy usage of The Netherlands in 2011 (2112 PJ = 66950MW) (CBS 2012)
My Backyard) effect, with heightened local resistance to the plans during public hearings and
subsequent consultation procedures (Rietveld 2013). As our survey reveals however, the
local people were not against the wind energy per se, rather they found it unfair that such an
unequal share of the planned, total wind power capacity was designated for installation in
their region. The allocation of the wind parks reinforces their feelings about the region being
disadvantaged. Whereas actually, the innovative wind parks might have provided an
economic and social boost to the Veenkolonin. A survey from our department of Spatial
Planning in Groningen indicates that 30-40% of the local society is not against the allocation
of the wind turbines in their back yard when they are compensated, either via a financial
share in the revenues of the wind turbines, or via a local foundation that allows for placebased investments in the area (Van Dijk 2012). The project did not create area-based
linkages with the local physical and socio-economic landscape, other than between the wind
farm project and the landowners. This makes it comprehensible from a spatial planning
perspective that the project coordinators have difficulty to implement the project successfully.
4.2 Carbon-neutrality in the Municipality of Groningen
A more encompassing approach to innovate the energy system, planned by the Municipality
of Groningen in the Northern Netherlands, aims for the entire city to be energy neutral by
2035 (Projectteam Groningen geeft energie 2011). A special project team has been set up for
developing and implementing projects on the basis of energy saving and sustainable energy
production (Projectteam Groningen geeft energie 2011). However, we assessed that the
connection with the local physical and socio-economic landscape is still weak.
As our interviews revealed, the political desire to be energy neutral preceded awareness of
the consequences of pursuing such an ambition: There is an ambition, but neither a vision,
nor a strategy to achieve it (quoted from an interview with a project manager of the project
team on December 13th 2012 in Groningen). In being responsible for distinct portfolios, most
project managers feel a limited sense of ownership of the ambition to become energy
neutral. The tendency to see energy projects as stand-alone or even technical projects
signals the following quote: There is an energy meeting with the energy program leader
regularly, but only two out of the five project managers are in that meeting (quoted from an
interview with a project manager of the project team on December 13th 2012 in Groningen).
This is unfortunate, as our interviews also confirm, since achieving energy neutrality of a city
will require cooperation of the whole local government and society.
While ownership of the ambition to become energy neutral is a problem in Groningen, the
projects that are initiated also seem rather isolated and technical in focus. Consequently,
projects initiated by the municipality do not build upon what is already happening in the
neighbourhoods of Groningen, such as collective procurement of solar panels. Nor do the
project managers activate the potential for socio-economic synergies with existing
companies, spatial projects or social initiatives. Among the prime initiatives pursued by the
municipality, includes the development of a vision to employ residual heat. The project,
however, is carried out top-down, an inventory is made of the residual heat sources, and their
possible utilisation for district heating is assessed (Warmtevisie 2012). As was confirmed
during an interview with a municipal advisor (April 17th 2013 in Groningen), the municipality
did not directly involve key partners, either those related to the sources of heat such as
industries, or the potential users such as housing cooperatives and residential organisations.
As these key partners are not project owners and many do not find the resources to follow-up
on the plans made by the municipality, impairing the success of the project.
Next to these weak linkages between the energy program and the socio-economic context,
we also find that linkages are missing with the physical landscape. The ambition to be energy
neutral was little understood when politically decided. In fact for the current level of energy
demand, the municipality would need to fill the surface of at least twenty times the area of the
Municipality of Groningen with wind turbines and solar PV for its energy supply, while
additional energy storage would still be required for back-up. Clearly, such an ambition would
at least require the cooperation of adjacent municipalities. Over the past years, such
cooperation has not occurred; only rumour suggests that neighbouring towns could be
energy suppliers for the municipality. Furthermore, such high ambition would also require the
Municipality of Groningen to be willing to install energy projects on currently unused land or
even on temporary unused plots in the municipality. Faced with an unfavourable economic
climate, there are many areas that are likely to be unused for 15 years or more and could
stimulate the emergence of area-based innovative projects. As was confirmed during an
interview with one of the project managers of the project team (May 23rd 2013 in Groningen),
few initiatives have emerged and at the same time, the municipality has been responsible for
postponing new spatial projects on vacant land, and seemed reluctant to consider energy
initiatives.
From this we conclude that the municipality, when developing their energy program, did not
consider the city as a physical and socio-economic system embedded in a larger spatial
context. Energy was framed largely as an isolated theme, to be dealt with possibly on a
project basis. As our reflection shows, becoming energy neutral does urge the municipality to
consider how innovative projects can be embedded the physical and socio-economic
context, or can be based on existing local initiatives. This calls for steps towards a spatial
vision, in which the separate themes of the energy program are integrated. For example,
innovations for smarter connections between energy production and consumption require an
infrastructural plan to link up with. Without an integrative energy vision, the ambition is
impossible to achieve within the physical and socio-economic conditions of the municipality.
Again, it shows the necessity to consider innovations in the energy system in connection with
the socio-economic and physical landscape.
4.3 Energy Initiatives in Isolation
Both cases show the limitations of treating sustainable energy initiatives as projects isolated
from their local contexts. The case of the Veenkolonin illustrates that an energy project
cannot be based on top-down plans and implementation alone. It explicitly needs to link into
the local dynamics. The second case of the Municipality of Groningen, subsequently
illustrates that taking the dynamics of the local society into account, is not so much about
formulating new policy ambitions and plans to describe or highlight a future energy projects
or desired end-states. Instead, it is about recognizing, accommodating and facilitating
niche developments and to connect them to each other and to the existing physical and
socio-economic context. Therefore, we also argue that seeing sustainable energy initiatives
as stand-alone projects is too simplistic. As we explained in the introduction, the energy
system is a complex web of interrelated actors and networks, both in the physical, economic,
social and institutional sense. As the cases above illustrate, not embedding projects in the
local context may cause social and economic blockages (e.g. resistance or unwillingness to
pay) and spatial blockages (e.g. no available land or no infrastructure to link up with).
Moreover, isolating energy projects denies use of societal potentials and creativity. Activation
of the local potential however, can foster commitment and financial incentives to stimulate
energy initiatives.
5 INTEGRATED LANDSCAPES
5.1 Activating area-based linkages
The previous section shows that planning for energy initiatives as isolated or stand-alone
projects risks difficult implementation of the project due to weak linkages with the local
context. In contrast, here we follow a spatial planning perspective and highlight the important
role of the physical and socio-economic context, to trigger the success of innovative
initiatives. If well embedded, we argue individual energy initiatives might become less
vulnerable to failure and more prone to active linkages with other interests and energy
systems so as to be up-scaled. Literature on area-based policy making and planning2 shows
that locally embedded issues defy a generic approach due to their unique circumstances
(Cameron et al. 2004, De Roo 2004, Turok 2004, Zuidema 2011). Instead, area-based
approaches can make use of such local circumstances, as Cameron et al. note, the local
scale of projects allows for a development process based on an understanding of local
needs, conditions, dynamics and potentials, and that includes local residents and
stakeholders in a collaborative planning process (2004).
The interest that area-based planning approaches have for local needs, conditions, dynamics
and potentials may explain their emphasis on synergy-effects and integrative solutions. For
instance, in environmental planning the synergy between the environment and other themes
results in integrative, sustainable solutions to environmental issues (Zuidema 2011, Roo
2003). Also, integrated infrastructure planning and urban planning assessments show the
multiple benefits of area-oriented approaches (Heeres et al.2012). For our research, synergy
can be defined as the additional value created by the innovative energy initiatives
(Mackintosh 1992). The additional value consists not only of sustainable energy production
and of financial benefits, but also of benefits for the physical and socio-economic landscape
in which the initiative is located. The integration of sustainable energy production in the
landscape, can be understood as the connection of energy production to other functions of
the physical and socio-economic landscape, such as drinking water provision, agricultural
farming or community trust and support. In our research, we assessed innovative energy
initiatives on the presence or absence of area-based linkages as indicators of synergy and
integration. This allowed us to understand firstly, the area-based conditions under which
synergy-effects, between the energy initiative and the landscape emerge, and secondly, how
sustainable energy production can be integrated in the wider physical and socio-economic
landscape both locally and on higher levels. In the following section, we illustrate with an
array of energy initiatives how initiatives tend to respond to their unique context by activating
area-based linkages. This will give insight into how initiatives become viable.
5.2 Area-based Energy Initiatives in a Unique Context
Local area-based energy initiatives are very diverse, not only regarding the type of energy
they produce and the scale on which they operate, but also in the ways in which they make
use of their context. Every region has its specific qualities in general, but also for energy
production. There are quite some examples of area-based energy initiatives that start from
the social and physical capital of an area. Individually, a farmer may use manure for the
cogeneration of its own electricity and heat, in a combined-heat-and-power installation (CHP)
(Pehnt et al. 2005). A household can co-produce electricity and heat with a hybrid solar PV
and solar heating system (Zhai et al. 2009, Lazou, Papatsoris 2000). Or in cooperation with
others, farming initiatives with biomass available from agriculture and nature maintenance,
are able to use such biomass streams for the production of energy (cf. Muller 2009). Also,
more and more communities are starting local energy initiatives. Thriving on the social trust
in the community (Walker et al. 2010) they may collectively procure solar panels to produce
their own energy or have their own wind turbines (Nada, van der Horst 2010). In The
Netherlands, more than 300 local energy initiatives are on the map (HIER klimaatcampagne
2012). The amount and diversity of local area-based energy initiatives highlights the potential
and the creativity in society, but also shows that innovative energy production is hard to
understand without its unique context. Every region has its specific qualities, which allows for
another specialisation regarding energy production. On a bigger scale, this offers perspective
2
sometimes also referred to as area-oriented planning or a place-based approach, cf. De Roo 2004, Heeres et al.
2012, Castells 2005, Barca et al. 2012
for the balancing of qualities between different regions. Sweden has a lot of wood, Denmark
has installed a lot of wind power offshore and Germany and The Netherlands have a lot of
biomass from agriculture (John Bartholomew and Son.1990). On a smaller scale, cities tend
to have waste-heat, while rural areas have biomass or the potential for wind farms. These
examples illustrate the relevance of differentiating between regions, to recognise their
different potentials. The point we want to make here is that the perspective of area-based
spatial planning can help to benefit from the potential of the local context and connect it with
the bigger scale. Therefore, the role of the spatial planner is crucial for understanding the
relevance of area-based energy production, as a spatially and socio-economically embedded
innovation, of the energy system.
5.3 Integration of Energy Initiatives on Multiple Scales
From a planners perspective, a niche can be defined by the unique context or what we call
an area-based 'niche'. It is not the novelty of the innovation that defines the 'niche', as
transition thinking tends to express but the fact that energy initiatives make use of their
unique contexts. This defines the 'niches' as being area-based. The local innovative
initiatives we discussed in the previous paragraph are embedded in their region and activate
area-based linkages. The embedding of an initiative in the existing structures of a region
makes it more prone to acceptance by the local society and less vulnerable for failure. From
a spatial planners' perspective, this connection is a pre-condition for successful up-scaling.
This fits with transition thinking, which argues for the power of certain niche developments to
become strong enough to breakthrough and compete with the established energy system
(Kemp 2010). If such an up-scaling of niche developments becomes institutionalised in
various regions, the regime will have no choice but to adapt: allowing the transition to take-off
towards a new balance in the energy system. Our point is that area-based niches are a key
condition for successful up-scaling in the energy transition. For understanding how areabased niches allow for a successful up-scaling of energy initiatives, it is useful to know how
area-based linkages are created, not only between the initiative and the landscape but also
between initiatives, and between clusters of initiatives. That is, area-based conditions for
successful up-scaling of 'niche' developments can be understood on various scales in the
landscape.
On the level of the energy initiative itself, the fact that the initiative is linked to a wider set of
interests in the area contributes to the viability of the energy system. An area-based initiative
is often based on overlapping interests, which gives the initiative a multifunctional purpose.
For example, farmers use bio-digesters to reduce their need to export manure, to generate
heat, produce gas and produce humus (Muller 2009). Even if the profit from biogas or heat
reduces, the other benefits are sufficient enough to continue with the project. In an economic
sense, this means that there is more capacity to adapt to market change. Furthermore, its
linkages to other interests provide more funding options. For example, solar panels on the
roof of a large distribution centre could be funded by the company itself, an energy company
or even individual users. Moreover, the embedding of the initiative in the local economy gives
trust and support. Local commitment may open up possibilities for extra investments in
innovations, or for bridging difficult periods with regional support. Hence, a spreading of risk
is achieved. From a societal perspective, local involvement will also stimulate learning about
the costs and benefits of local energy production, allowing for more public support for
innovation of the energy system. Moreover, the fact that energy initiatives emerge from local
society allows for closer consideration of the physical impact of energy production on the
landscape, enabling them to stay within perceptual boundaries of visual attractiveness. In
fact, this may prevent the risk of NIMBYism (Wstenhagen et al. 2007).
On a regional scale, we find that initiatives can form robust networks together, which in turn
contributes to robustness of the energy system. Robustness can be understood as
resistance to change, brought about by circumstance and shock. For instance, a heat
network can become robust when multiple sites with residual heat are connected to multiple
housing areas with heat demand (Broersma et al. 2011). In that case, the exit of a single
industry with heat supply will not lead to the collapse of the whole heat network. Another type
of robust network can be achieved when several biomass streams are connected to one
bioenergy plant, which makes it less dependent on one biomass supplier (Kooistra et al.
2011, Jenssen et al. 2012).
On an interregional level, we argue that an area-based approach can stimulate local and
regional diversification in energy systems. Local and regional diversification emerges from
the fact that area-based energy initiatives draw on regional qualities for energy production.
Initiatives make use of regional advantages, leading to a regional specialisation in energy
production. Some regions or localities will be specialised in solar energy, others in wind
power or geothermal heat, and others in energy from biomass, etc. This will lead to spatial
diversification, which can be employed to stimulate the creation of a viable energy system on
a higher level. Instead of a country relying strongly on only one source of renewables, spatial
diversification spreads the risks between regions. This avoids path-dependency (Martin,
Simmie 2008) and allows for the possibility to shift to a different technology (if local supply
fails or is ineffective) because other areas and regions have used other technologies. This
will make the overall system less vulnerable. It also makes it more robust by preventing the
emergence of a monoculture. For example, when the system is completely dependent on
wind, a windless period puts high demands on installed energy storage capacity (Mitchell et
al. 2005). If it is based on multiple sources of energy, these can compensate each other
reducing the need for buffers.
Hence, area-based energy initiatives contribute to the viable and robust innovation of the
energy system on various levels. Firstly, on the level of the initiative, the embedding of the
initiative in its local context ensures that the physical and socio-economic landscape has a
greater carrying capacity for the initiative. Its connections to other socio-economic functions
give the initiative adaptive capacity and strength. Secondly, on the regional level the
initiatives form a robust network together. Thirdly, on the interregional level diversification of
innovations to the energy system enhances the capacity to balance different energy qualities
and provide buffers for variations in energy quantities (Broersma et al. 2011). This is the
image of a multifunctional physical and socio-economic landscape, in which energy systems
are an integrated part. This image of what we coin an integrated energy landscape is a
potential vehicle to help planners and policy makers understand how a shift to a sustainable
energy system may become within reach.
6 WHY IT COULD WORK
In order to improve our understanding of the synergies that capacitate the energy transition
and stimulate the emergence of an integrated energy landscape, we assess here two cases.
The cases were chosen as they were both instigated without the influence of any national
policies or subsidies and draw on their own unique local circumstances. Each case highlights
constraints and opportunities of an area-based approach to innovate the energy system. We
analysed for each case the area-based linkages with the local physical and socio-economic
landscape, and assessed how the initiative is integrated in the region. These area-based
conditions provide spatial planners with an insight to support the emergence of an integrated
energy landscape. For each case we gathered empirical data through a desk study,
interviews conducted with partners of the initiative and workshops with actors related to the
spatial planning issues around it.
6.1 Haarlose Veld

In the east of The Netherlands, near the German border, the case Haarlose Veld is a clear
example of the synergy-effects, of an area-based energy initiative (Hier Opgewekt 2013). In a
coulisse landscape with poor sandy soils, farmers want to create an energy landscape, for
various reasons. On the one hand, the farmers have low revenues due to the poor conditions
of their land. This is the result of mono cultivation, intensive agriculture, restrictive manure
legislation, and very little organic matter entering the area, via rivers for instance. On the
other hand, it is a groundwater capture area, the water company faces relatively high filtering
costs due to the limited filtering capacity of sandy soil. Therefore, the farmers came up with
the idea to develop their land by improving the soil filtering capacity, and in turn generating
more revenue (Rienks et al. 2013). To begin with, the farmers improved their grounds with
crop rotation to enhance the organic matter compound. To this end they make use of energy
crops. While this might reduce some revenues, the water company is willing to compensate
farmers as they stand to profit from reduced filtration costs. Secondly, farmers start recycling
manure, which they put together with the energy crops in bio-digesters for energy
production. While this generates revenues itself, the by-product of the digester process is
used for improving soil quality. This further reduces the cost of fertilization, improves the
filtering capacity of the soil and is a way around the strict regulations for the use of manure.
Finally, the ground improvements result in carbon capture in the soil, which may enable
farmers in near future to receive carbon credits in return. The threefold synergy-effects of the
farmers initiative is the result of connecting the energy production, to the local physical and
socio-economic landscape. The strength of this initiative is that it is linked to a wider set of
interests and is not dependent on one energy production function alone. The integration of
functions increases its viability. The synergy between the involved actors makes energy
production multifunctional. The land is used for agriculture, energy production, filtration
capacity and carbon capture.
6.2 Hoogeveen
In the case of Hoogeveen, a city in the rural East of the Netherlands, the local residual
biomass flow and heating demands are linked to each other through a public-private
partnership (PPP) (Gemeente Hoogeveen 2012b). The synergy-effects of the PPP
construction build upon the following area-based conditions in the physical landscape. A
Sports Park is being realised by the municipality, maintenance of the sports field yields
biomass, while plans for a swimming pool and other sports facilities yield a large heat
demand. Close to the Sports Park is an industrial site, which is suitable for the allocation of a
wood-fuelled bioenergy plant. In addition, there is a local trader in biomass who gets hold of
large quantities of biomass from amongst others, regional biodegradable waste streams, the
municipality and nature maintenance. Then there is Rendo, the local energy company who
invests in sustainable energy projects, and BeGreen, an entrepreneur specialised in
bioenergy plants. BeGreen will install and maintain the bioenergy plant and Rendo will install
pipes for the district heating system. Each of these four local parties fulfils a role for the local
supply chain, based upon residual biomass and heat demand. Together they have the
opportunity for good synergy between them. In addition, it fits with the sustainability aims of
the municipality to become carbon-neutral with integrative sustainable solutions. What can
be done locally, do it locally. What can be done elsewhere better, do it elsewhere (interview
with a sustainability professional of the Municipality of Hoogeveen on March 19th 2013 in
Hoogeveen).
Regarding the area-based linkages with the socio-economic landscape, firstly we find that
the PPP-construction builds upon trust between local partners, secondly, the PPPconstruction is known to provide for economic continuity (Verhees 2013). Moreover,
participation of the Municipality ensures sufficient amounts of biomass and the efficient use
of waste heat of the energy plant. The energy company ensures that electricity production
can be sold directly to local costumers and the biomass trader is stimulated to regionally
collect waste streams of biomass for producing energy. These three conditions make the
construction less vulnerable. What is still missing however is a stronger embedding of the
initiative within the local social landscape. The initiative does not directly involve users of the
Sports Park and local residents, which diminishes the opportunity to earn public support,
whereas worries about health consequences of the plants emissions have spread to a local
newspaper (DVHN 2012). Socially embedding the initiative may prevent the occurrence of
NIMBY-effects and therefore something to take into consideration.
In conclusion, we can say that again, the energy initiative has connected energy production
with the local physical and socio-economic landscape. Also, at exactly those points where it
fails to do so (i.e. social support and debate) the problems have emerged. The network of
participating actors, activated through the project might well have potentials for up-scaling.
The Municipality of Hoogeveen is currently trying to use the project as a snowball effect for
setting up its own energy development company (Gemeente Hoogeveen 2012a). This could
subsequently help plan and support other local energy initiatives, making Hoogeveen an
interesting case to follow for future research.
7 CONCLUSION
This paper underlines the emerging need for spatial planners to become involved in the
energy transition. It is not only a reality to embrace area-based spatial planning could
make a key contribution to this transition. Building upon literature on transition thinking and
area-based planning we hypothesised that the integration of innovative energy initiatives
within the physical and socio-economic landscape makes initiatives less vulnerable and
hence, more viable. The empirical data presented provide support for this hypothesis.
The array of innovative initiatives that have passed this review demonstrates that it makes
sense to frame a niche by its unique context, what we term area-based 'niche'. We
contribute to the debate by noting that it is not the novelty of the innovation that defines the
'niche' as transition thinking tends to express, but the fact that energy initiatives make use of
their unique contexts define the 'niches' as being area-based. Indeed, in the first two cases
we saw that planning for energy initiatives, as isolated or stand-alone projects, risks difficult
implementation of the project due to weak linkages with the local context. It even resulted in
a standstill for the wind farm project in the Veenkolonin. In the case of the energy program
of the municipality of Groningen, we saw in addition that the spatially demanding
characteristics of sustainable energy, require a spatially conscious approach for innovation of
the energy system.
In the second two cases, we saw how area-based energy initiatives connect with the physical
and socio-economic landscape. Local actors actively involved with sustainable energy, show
an awareness of the multifunctional potential of sustainable energy. The partners in the case
of the Haarlose Veld and Hoogeveen addressed themes such as waste recycling and ground
water quality, in connection with the production of sustainable energy. Thus, area-based
initiatives consciously use the physical and socio-economic landscape in which they are
embedded. The synergies at hand give the initiative a robust basis upon which it can build.
Furthermore, they are both activating linkages between actors and land use that might
inspire new projects, both locally and in other areas. It is in doing so that they are examples
of innovations that do have the potential to be up-scaled.
The power of area-based niches can be used for shifting to a sustainable energy system.
Firstly, integration of the initiative with the physical and socio-economic landscape makes the
initiative viable. Secondly, integration of initiatives within the landscape allows them to form a
robust network together. Thirdly, landscape-specific innovation of the energy system will
result in diversification, thus enhancing the capacity to balance energy qualities and buffer
variations in energy supply (Broersma et al. 2011). This is the image of a multifunctional
physical and socio-economic landscape in which energy systems are an integrated part. This
image of what we coin an integrated energy landscape, is a potential vehicle to help planners
and policy makers understand how a shift to a sustainable energy system may become
within reach.
Of course, there are still challenges to face. Most energy initiatives are young, and it is yet to
be seen how fast they develop and up-scale. This sets the agenda for follow-up research in
which we want to draw lessons from the spatial-institutional arrangements that area-based
energy initiatives create in order to formulate guidelines, for designing landscape-specific
institutional settings. After all, only by taking constructive steps to up-scale viable, areabased energy initiatives, can a more fundamental energy transition be fostered.
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gove_1471
161..184
DERK LOORBACH*
This article introduces transition management as a new governance
approach for sustainable development. Sustainable development is used
here as a common notion referring to those persistent problems in (Western
industrialized) societies that can only be dealt with on the very long term
(decades or more) through specic types of network and decision-making
processes. Based on interdisciplinary research into complex processes of
long term, structural change in society, basic tenets for complexity-based
governance are formulated. These tenets are translated into a framework
that distinguishes between four different types of governance activities and
their respective roles in societal transitions. This framework can be used for
implementation of governance strategies and instruments. The approach
and framework have been developed deductively and inductively in the
Netherlands since 2000. This article presents the theoretical basis of transition management and will be illustrated by examples from transition
management practice, especially the Dutch national energy transition
program.
Introduction
Over the last decades, we have witnessed a shift from the centralized
government-based nation-state toward liberalized, marketbased, and
decentralized decision-making structures in modernized European
democracies. The power of central government to develop and implement
policies in a top-down manner has decreased, leading to increasingly
diffuse policymaking structures and processes stratied across subnational, national, and supranational levels of government (Hooghe and
Marks 2001). Generally referred to with the term governance (Kooiman
1993), the current practice of governments in Western European nationstates is increasingly to develop policies in interaction with a diversity of
societal actors. In other words, interaction between all sorts of actors in
networks often produces (temporary) societal consensus and support
upon which policy decisions are based. This development is far from
*Erasmus University Rotterdam
Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, Vol. 23, No. 1,
January 2010 (pp. 161183).
2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington
Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK. ISSN 0952-1895
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DERK LOORBACH
trivial in light of the many complex, persistent problems that face Western
societies, and for which sustainable development can neither be planned
nor emerge spontaneously.
There seems to be an increasing degree of consensus in governance
research that both top-down steering by government (the extent to which
social change can be effected by government policies) and the liberal free
market approach (the extent to which social change can be brought about
by market forces) are outmoded as effective management mechanisms to
generate sustainable solutions at the societal level by themselves, but it is
at the same time impossible to govern societal change without them
(Jessop 1997; Meadowcroft 2005; Pierre 2000; Scharpf 1999). Therefore,
new modes of governance are sought that reduce the lack of direction and
coordination associated with governance networks in general, and
increase the effect of existing forms of government and planning in the
context of long-term change in society. In effect, this implies a new balance
between state, market, and society and new ways to facilitate and make as
effective as possible the informal network processes through which alternative ideas and agendas are generated that are often seen as important in
fueling regular policymaking processes with new problem denitions,
ambitions, solutions, and agendas (Hritier 1999).
Although it is not easy to generalize, theories of governance developed
over the last 15 years are highly descriptive and analytical and rarely offer
a prescriptive basis for governance. Modern industrialized societies are
however confronted with many complex and unstructured problems (e.g.,
in our welfare systems, environment, agriculture, energy, mobility, health
care) for which long-term solution strategies need to be developed at the
level of the society. We can refer to this as the challenge for (a form of)
sustainable development or, to use a sociological concept, as reexive
modernization (Beck 1992): Long-term development that takes in to
account the adverse side effects of modernization and fundamentally
redenes its own dynamics and workings. Not only does this imply a new
paradigm on economic and technology development, it also includes a
redenition of how to govern society. While in this article we focus on
Western democracies, this need for reexive modernization and associated new ways of reexive governance (Voss 2005) are a general need for
industrialized and industrializing countries.
Since 2001, a governance experiment is ongoing in the Netherlands
under the ag of transition management (Rotmans, Kemp, and van
Asselt 2001; VROM 2001), of which the so-called Energy Transition
Program is best known (www.senternovem.nl/energytransition). It is
perhaps not coincidental that this experiment originated in the Netherlands, well known for its collaborative policymaking, long-term planning,
and innovative environmental policies. It is, however, also surprising,
since many facets of transition management constitute a break with dominant approaches: a focus on frontrunners, the objective of radical innovation, and the selective participatory approach (Van Buuren and Loorbach
TRANSITION MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
163
2009). The emergence of transition management can in this light perhaps

be seen as a break with the consensual tradition of policymaking in the
Netherlands, which according to some is a broader and ongoing development (Baumgartner and Jones 1993). On the other hand, the traditional
political culture and practices in national and local government seem on
the outside to be following new trends and changing quickly, while at
closer look, the changes often do not go deeper than the surface (Hendriks
and Grin 2007). The future will have to determine whether transition
management is a symptom of an emerging new political culture and
governance paradigm or another fashionable governance innovation that
is being used to cover up that in the meantime, it is still policy as usual.
This being said, governance processes based on transition management
have been developed in various sectors and regions over the past 10 years.
These are designed to create space for short-term innovation and develop
long-term sustainability visions linked to desired societal transitions.
These processes are producing broad innovation networks, including business, government, science, and civil society. These networks have shared
visions and agendas for social reform and are increasingly inuencing
regular policies in areas such as the energy supply, mobility, health care,
agriculture, and water management (see, e.g., Loorbach 2007; Van der
Brugge 2009). Increasingly, it is also seen internationally as an interesting
approach to mobilize, guide, and accelerate social innovation rapidly (e.g.,
Hendriks and Grin 2007; Kern and Smith 2007; Meadowcroft 2007),
although the approach itself is still developing.
Transition management as presented in this article is a governance
approach based on insights from governance and complex systems theory
as much as upon practical experiment and experience (Loorbach 2007). On
this basis, a framework is built that discriminates between different types
of governance activities that inuence long-term change. This framework
can be used both to analyze and to structure or manage ongoing governance processes in society. Transition management is innovative for two
reasons: It offers a prescriptive approach toward governance as a basis for
operational policy models, and it is explicitly a normative model by taking
sustainable development as long-term goal. Transition management is
itself still in development. The new, hybrid research eld of transitions in
which interdisciplinarity and practice-oriented research are central elements is still in a preparadigmatic stage (Rotmans et al. 2004; Voss,
Bauknecht, and Kemp 2006). This means that the thoughts and concepts
presented in this article are subject to debate. In fact, it is through scientic
and societal debate upon issues addressed in this article that our thinking
and practice of governance for sustainable development advances.
Governance and Complexity
Society has become increasingly complex on three levels: the level of
society itself, the level of the problems facing our society, and the level of
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dealing with these problems (governance). Trends such as economic and

demographic growth, internationalization, technology development, and
individualization have led to the emergence of the network society (Castells 1996; Teisman 1992; Voss, Bauknecht, and Kemp 2006) and an increasing societal complexity. This modern complex society is at the same time
the origin of many problems, as it is the breeding ground for novel
approaches to deal with these problems (as we will argue in this article).
In this article, we focus on a specic type of problems at the societal level,
which cannot be solved with simple, short-term solutions. These problems
are dened as persistent problems: They are unstructured (Hisschemller
1993) and highly complex because They are rooted in different societal
domains, occur on varying levels, and involve various actors with dissimilar perspectives, norms, and values. Solutions to such problems are not
given, and purely analytical approaches will not sufce. The structural
uncertainties surrounding future development necessitate more explorative, experimental, and reexive approaches.
Policymaking itself has become highly complex in the context of these
persistent problems and the related uncertainties, as different actors and
perspectives need to be dealt with, and clear solutions or mechanisms to
assess progress and success are lacking. In the short term, different new
concepts and approaches have emerged concerning how governments can
deal with a network society: interactive, participatory, network, and
process approaches (see, e.g., Edelenbos 2005; Jaeger et al. 1997; Jessop
1997; Klijn and Koppenjan 2000). These new governance arrangements
focus on understanding and sometimes facilitating network processes
around formulation and implementation of policy problems in the short
and mid term. Dealing with persistent societal problems in the long term
will require approaches that give special attention to learning, interaction,
integration, and experimentation on the level of society instead of policy
alone. This is especially true since every action or solution will lead to
changes in the societal structures, in turn transforming the problem itself.
A recent and poignant example is the issue of climate change, which
clearly can only be addressed through novel forms of governmentsociety
interactions across different levels to address a broad complexity of interrelated problems (Prins and Rayner 2007; Rabe 2007).
An emerging paradigm for analysis of persistent problems is complex
systems theory (or systems thinking). Systems theory refers to a universal language to address complex patterns of interaction between different components in complex adaptive systems (Gell-Man 1994;
Gunderson and Holling 2002; Holland 1995; Kauffman 1995). Systems
thinking quickly gained popularity during the 1990s in the context of
organizational sciences and management practice but has emerged since
the 1950s in a number of disciplines (Ackoff 1971; Midgley 2000; Varela,
Maturana, and Uribe 1974; Von Bertalanffy 1956). Often linked to the
evolutionary or co-evolutionary perspective, system theories have been
adopted in one form or another as a useful analytical approach in sociol-
165
ogy (Giddens 1984; Luhmann 1984), economics (Allen 2001; Boulding

1970), ecology (Gunderson and Holling 2002), policy sciences (Kickert
1991; Vickers 1965), and organizational sciences (Senge 1990). Recently, the
approach has been explicitly introduced into governance and political
sciences (Kemp, Loorbach, and Rotmans 2005; Rotmans, Kemp, and
van Asselt 2001) through the concept of transitions and transition
management.
Systems theory offers a conceptual lens to analyze and understand both
societal and governance complexity. The complexity perspective on
society makes it clear that uncertainties, nonlinear processes of change
and innovation, and emergence are important features of societal change,
but at the same time, there are specic patterns, dynamics, and mechanisms that drive change in societal systems (De Haan 2006). An understanding of these patterns and mechanisms provides greater insight into
the dynamics of a complex, adaptive societal system, which offers a basis
for improved insight into the feasibility of directing and inuencing it and
vice versa. The governance- or network-processes actors co-evolve with
these broader societal system dynamics. Societal actors (governments,
business, scientists, nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], intermediary organizations) create formal and informal networks because
they have partially overlapping interests, and they nd benets in temporarily sharing certain resources and working together toward shared
objectivessomething that they cannot do well without each other and
that they can better achieve jointly than individually. Within networks,
decisions and strategies are developed, negotiated and implemented that
lead to changes in societal structures, which in turn structure the governance patterns. The formal policy process in this view is only part of
governance. The central problem is that policymaking this way has
become less transparent; the division of power, as well as the accountability issue, is no longer clear, yet this produces a policy vacuum that needs
to be lled with novel strategies to ensure the effective production and
implementation of policies without losing democratic legitimacy.
In other words, governance itself is not independent of its surrounding
environment, be it political, social, or other. Driven by trends such as
European integration, internationalization, and empowerment of societal
actors, governance dynamics and structures have emerged in all sectors of
the economy and society. Not surprisingly, the interactive policy and
network approaches in which government involves societal stakeholders
in the policymaking process have recently become widespread. The organization and design of these interactive processes itself has become subject
of study (e.g., Edelenbos 1999) and has led to the emergence of the eld of
process and network management (De Bruijn and Ten Heuvelhof 1997;
Eising and Kohler-Koch 1999; Kickert, Klijn, and Koppenjan 1997;
Milward and Provan 2000). Besides the government, other societal actors
also attempt to direct a process where they have mutual inuence (De
Bruin, ten Heuvelhof, and in t Veld 1998).
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Based on an overview of the existing literature, we can conclude that

governance is characterized by diversity, uncertainty, heterogeneity of
society, and the decreased possibilities for inducing long-term change by
government. In light of the ambition of realizing long-term sustainable
development, prescriptive governance models need to take into account
that:
All societal actors exert inuence and thus direct social change, being
aware of the opportunities as well as the restrictions and limitations
of directing. Through agency and interaction in networks, society is
shaped as well, to which we conceptually refer as governance.
Top-down planning and market dynamics only account for part of
societal change; network dynamics and reexive behavior account
for other parts.
Steering of societal change is a reexive process of searching, learning, and experimenting.
The general conclusion from this overview is that there is a huge variety
and diversity of concepts, analytical models, and theories existing that
seem to provide some of the jigsaw pieces. None of the mentioned theories
seems to address the societal and steering complexity involved in issues
such as climate change, restructuring of energy, and mobility systems, or
the transformation of housing stock in long-term, multilevel, and multiactor terms in a prescriptive manner. We have found that different
elements are provided for such a mode of governance: actornetwork
interaction, different levels, different social domains with specic characteristics, plurality of actor perspectives, and new instruments, practices,
and approaches that emerge within the eld of steering and government.
A shared message seems to be that there is a relationship between the
nature of a system, the specic patterns and dynamics, and the way that
actors inuence and react to these. Transition management is therefore
analytically based on the concept of transitions as multilevel, multiphase processes of structural change in societal systems.
Starting Points for Governance Based on Complexity Theory
Transitions are processes of structural change in societal (sub-) systems
such as energy supply, housing, mobility, agriculture, health care, and so
on (Geels 2002a; Rotmans et al. 2000). Transitions come about when the
dominant structures in society (regimes) are put under pressure by external changes in society, as well as endogenous innovation. Under certain
conditions, seemingly stable societal congurations can transform relatively quickly (a societal transition could take decades). Two basic concepts are used to analyze transitions in societal systems. The multilevel
model (Rip and Kemp 1998) distinguishes between innovation in niches, a
167
dominant regime, and an external landscape. Developed in the context of

sociotechnical studies, it has been applied to study historical transformations such as those from sail boats to steam engines, from piston engines
to jet propulsion aircraft and from horse carriages to automobiles (Geels
2002b). The multiphase or S-curve model (Rotmans, Kemp, and van Asselt
2001), typical for innovation studies, distinguishes between the predevelopment, take-off, acceleration, and stabilization phases. Examples of
transitions are the changes in water management (Van der Brugge and
Rotmans 2007), waste management (Parto et al. 2007), agriculture (Grin,
Felix, and Bos 2004), and energy supply (Loorbach, der Brugge, and Van
2008; Van den Bergh and Bruinsma 2008; Verbong and Geels 2006).
Transitions of societal systems can be considered as a particular case of
complex systems dynamics (Grin, Rotmans, and Schot 2009). In a transition, a complex, adaptive system is successfully adjusted to changed internal and external circumstances, and the system thus arrives at a higher
order of organization and complexity. In societal systems, structural change
is often a result of individual actions as a response to changing societal
conditions, as the mentioned historical case studies illustrate. This touches
upon the old debate in sociology about structuration (Giddens 1984): How
does the interplay between the system level and individual or institutional
action (or agency) produce societal change? The transition concept tries to
unravel the complex interaction patterns between individuals, organizations, networks, and regimes within a societal context, and how over time,
these can lead to nonlinear change in seemingly stable regimes.
Based on this multilevel and multiphase understanding of transitions in
complex, adaptive societal systems and insights from the governance
literature, the following tenets for a form of governance based on complexity have been formulated (Loorbach 2007; Rotmans and Loorbach
2008):
The dynamics of the system create feasible and nonfeasible means for
steering: This implies that content and process are inseparable.
Process management on its own is not sufcientinsight into
how the system works is an essential precondition for effective
management.
Long-term thinking (at least 25 years) is a framework for shaping
short-term policy in the context of persistent societal problems. This
means back and forecasting: the setting of short-term goals based on
long-term goals and the reection on future developments through
the use of scenarios.
Objectives should be exible and adjustable at the system level. The
complexity of the system is at odds with the formulation of specic
objectives and blueprint plans. While being directed, the structure
and order of the system are also changing, and so the objectives set
should change too.
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The timing of the intervention is crucial. Immediate and effective

intervention is possible in both desirable and undesirable crisis
situations.
Managing a complex, adaptive system means using disequilibria as
well as equilibria. Relatively short periods of nonequilibrium therefore offer opportunities to direct the system in a desirable direction
(toward a new attractor).
Creating space for agents to build up alternative regimes is crucial for
innovation. Agents at a certain distance from the regime can effectively create a new regime in a protected environment to permit
investment of sufcient time, energy, and resources.
Steering from outside a societal system is not effective: Structures,
actors, and practices adapt and anticipate in such a manner that these
should also be directed from inside.
A focus on (social) learning about different actor perspectives and a
variety of options (which requires a wide playing eld) is a necessary
precondition for change.
Participation from and interaction between stakeholders is a necessary basis for developing support for policies but also to engage
actors in reframing problems and solutions through social learning.
Transition Management: A Descriptive Multilevel Framework
The challenge is obviously to translate these relatively abstract governance
tenets into a practical management framework without losing too much of
the complexity involved and without becoming too prescriptive. We have
attempted this by developing a framework for transition management.
This framework has emerged out of theoretical reasoning (following the
line of reasoning and conceptual integration described above) combined
with practical experiment and observation. It is, in other words, based on
natural processes of governance that can be observed in society (see,
e.g., Kemp 2006; Parto et al. 2007) but then structured and dened based
on the characteristics of complex societal transitions. In that sense, it is an
analytical lens to assess how societal actors deal with complex societal
issues at different levels but consequently also to develop and implement
strategies to inuence these natural governance processes. In the transition management framework, four different types of governance activities (alternatively called spheres; Van der Brugge and Van Raak 2007) are
identied that are relevant to societal transitions: strategic, tactical, operational, and reexive (Loorbach 2002, 2007).
Strategic
As strategic activities, we identify processes of vision development, strategic discussions, long-term goal formulation, collective goal and norm
169
setting, and long-term anticipation. In essence, all activities and developments that deal primarily with the culture of a societal (sub-) system as
a whole: debates on norms and values, identity, ethics, sustainability, and
functional and relative importance for society. In the context of regular
policies, especially in periods of predevelopment and takeoff, discussions
of this nature draw more attention. Think, for example, about the debate
about energy supply, in which energy security, climate impact, energy
prices, and diversity of resources are central issues for which the buildup
of sociopolitical sense of urgency, as well as consensus regarding future
development, is ongoing.
In such a sociopolitical context, uncertainty around future developments is high, and opinion leaders and innovative alternatives are able to
voice alternatives and inuence societal and political debate. However,
the way in which future visions, structural reection on ongoing and
future trends and developments, and debate on how innovation should
contribute to desired changes is often more implicit than systematically
structured. Long-term concerns and governance have no institutionalized
place in regular policymaking, which is generally focused on the short and
mid term because of political cycles, individual interests, and public
pressure. The ambition of transition management is to integrate (in a
sense institutionalize, although this is contrary to the nature of transition management) long-term governance activities into the realm of
policymakingnot as a regular and formalized activity but as a fundamentally necessary element of policymaking for sustainable development.
Tactical
As tactical activities, we identify steering activities that are interest driven
and relate to the dominant structures (regime) of a societal (sub-) system.
This includes all established patterns and structures, such as rules and
regulations, institutions, organizations and networks, infrastructure, and
routines. This sphere thus includes all actors that are dealing on a daily
basis with developing programs, nancial and institutional regulation and
frameworks, organizing networks and coalitions, and, in general, representing certain interests. The context in which such actors operate is at the
level of departments, subsectors, or within specic subthemes. For
example, subsystems or themes observed within the energy system could
be the different sources of energy (coal, gas, oil, sustainable) or could be
different domains, such as technology, policy, market, and consumption. Activities are focused on achieving goals within a specic context but
are almost never concerned with the overall development of the societal
system. They generally have a time horizon of 515 years, and are generally considered strategic at the level of individual actors.
A company or organization will probably have a strategic vision upon
the position of the organization in its direct (industrial, institutional, or
societal) context, from which it enters the interaction and negotiation with
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other actors. But from the perspective of transitions, this leads to fragmentation in governance and suboptimal solutions at the systems level. For the
government, the institutional fragmentation in terms of different ministries, departments, executive ofces, and directorates is a major barrier for
integrative long-term policies. The same might be true for other actors,
such as business, science, and NGOs that are operating in networks
negotiating change or projects and running their day-to-day operations.
Sometimes, these actors are not able or willing to contribute to system
innovation, but often they are unaware of the possibility. Not because they
are not functioning at their own level, but because an integrative strategic
governance level is missing, there are only very limited instances of successfully integrated long-term governance.
Operational
As operational activities, experiments and actions are identied that have
a short-term horizon and are often carried out in the context of innovation
projects and programs, in business and industry, in politics or in civil
society, and are generally referred to as innovation. In the context of
transition management, it is important to emphasize the inclusive denition of innovation as including all societal, technological, institutional, and
behavioral practices that introduce or operationalize new structures,
culture, routines, or actors. Action at this level is often driven by individual ambitions, entrepreneurial skills, or promising innovations. In the
innovation and sociotechnical literature, the process of innovation is often
presented as an emergent, often random, and uncertain process. In practice, these innovations often seem to emerge in niches (Kemp, Schot, and
Hoogma 1998) without any link to broader policies or agendas and can,
under specic conditions, develop into mainstream options. From this
perspective, innovations almost never lead to system innovations and
transitions except by chance.
Reexive
Reexive activities relate to monitoring, assessments and evaluation of
ongoing policies, and ongoing societal change. In part, they are located
within existing institutions established to monitor and evaluate, but in part
they are also socially embedded: The media and Internet, for example,
have an important role in inuencing public opinions and judging the
effectiveness of policies and political agendas. A central role is also played
here by science: Researchers analyze longer-term societal processes and
dynamics and put these on the societal and political agenda. These and
other reexive activities are necessary to prevent lock-in and to enable
exploration of new ideas and trajectories. From a transition management
perspective, however, the reexivity needs to be an integrated part
of governance processes and not, as is often the case nowadays, either
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TABLE 1
Transition Management Types and Their Focus (Loorbach 2007)
Transition
Management
Types
Focus
Problem Scope
Time Scale
Long term
(30 years)
Mid term
(515 years)
Short term
(05 years)
Strategic
Culture
Tactical
Structures
Abstract/societal
system
Institutions/regime
Operational
Practices
Concrete/project
Level of
Activities
System
Subsystem
Concrete
only come afterward or be detached from the actual governance itself.

Reexive activities are related to all three other types of governance
(Table 1).
This framework itself is recursive, meaning that it can be applied on the
level of a societal system, but as well as on a subsystem or even the project
level. The different types of governance are thus identied based on the
demarcation of the system; the debate about the future energy supply as a
whole can be considered, as well as a debate about the future of biomass.
However, the latter is a tactical activity in the context of the whole energy
transition and will itself be accompanied by tactical activities related to the
competition between different ows of biomass or different competing
technologies and their roadmaps. This recursiveness has a certain
elegancy because it allows for all sorts of interactions between and within
the different types of governance. In transition management practice,
these interactions and their effects are unpredictable and not directly
managed, but because they t within the same overall direction and
emerge within a network of actors, they can contribute largely to collective goals. In a sense, this type of self-organization is thus indirectly
managed: The conditions are created in terms of the structured process
and substance under which self-organization arises. The governance
system that subsequently develops is a multilevel network in which actors
sometimes even unconsciously contribute to shared goals through different types of governance strategies and actions.
The Transition Management Cycle: Linking

Descriptive to Prescriptive
Systemic instruments need to be developed to inuence the different
types of activities and to guide them in a specic direction. These instruments need to be designed based on the characteristics of the different
types of activities dened above and the types of individuals involved in
these. The framework for transition management therefore contains a
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DERK LOORBACH
process dimension that distinguishes between different clusters of activities that are recognizable throughout any governance processes around
long-term societal change. These are the typical phases identied by many
policy-process models but fundamentally different in their focus on societal processes, persistent problems, and normative direction. This process
model has been developed by Loorbach and Rotmans (Loorbach 2007;
Loorbach and Rotmans 2006) based on iteration between theoretical
reection and practical experiments with new systemic instruments. Such
experiments include, for example, regional transition arenas,1 the Dutch
national energy transition program,2 and two transition arenas on
resource transition and sustainable housing in Flanders, Belgium.3
The systemic instruments are captured in a cyclical process model as a
basis for implementing the transition management approach. It thus offers
the basis for a normative approach based on the analytical framework and
theoretically offers the perspective of actively inuencing the natural
self-steering and governance activities present in society. This so-called
transition management cycle consists of the following components (Loorbach 2004): (1) structure the problem in question, develop a long-term
sustainability vision and establish and organize the transition arena; (2)
develop future images, a transition agenda and derive the necessary transition paths; (3) establish and carry out transition experiments and mobilize the resulting transition networks; (4) monitor, evaluate, and learn
lessons from the transition experiments and, based on these, make adjustments in the vision, agenda, and coalitions. In reality, there is no xed
sequence of the steps in transition management. The cycle only visualizes
the need to connect activities and presents some possible logical connections but does not suggest a sequential order of activities (Figure 1).
Implementing Transition Management
The transition management framework does provide the basis for managing transitions in an operational sense. Although every transition management process will be unique in terms of context, actors, problems, and
solutions, the cycle is exible enough for adaptation but prescriptive
enough to be functional in practice. An integrated analysis of a societal
system in transition terms yields a very general idea of the dynamics in
society on different levels that are a starting point for governance.
Depending on this analysis, a strategy can be designed that, for example,
focuses primarily at structuration of societal problems, at envisioning, at
scaling up experiments, at political lobby, or a combination of these. Either
way, transition management focuses at the frontrunners in society, and
related to desired sustainability transitions, these are frontrunners that
promote sustainable development. In a sense, it tries to structure and
coordinate those informal networks of actors that, collectively and over
time, are able to inuence regular policy. The important role of outsiders
and informal networks on providing innovative ideas and impulses to
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FIGURE 1
The Transition Management Cycle
Problem structuring,
envisioning, and
establishment of the
transition arena (strategic)
Developing
coalitions,
images, and
transitionagendas
(tactical)
Evaluating,
monitoring,
and learning
(reflexive)
Mobilizing actors and

executing projects and
experiments (operational)
regular policymaking processes has been descriptively identied in many

studies (Hritier 1999; Nooteboom 2006; Olsson et al. 2006; Scharpf 1999;
Van der Brugge 2009) but so far hardly translated into a prescriptive
strategy. The approach described below is, as mentioned, based on theoretical deduction, as well as practical experience, and still in evolution.
The implementation in any specic context will lead to specic characteristics and thus specic lessons, which in turn can lead to novel insights
regarding the generic model. This approach of learning by doing is a
central part of transition management and, in a sense, a way to develop a
more experimental and explorative attitude toward social innovation in
practice.
Strategic: The Transition Arena
The transition arena is a small network of frontrunners with different
backgrounds, within which various perceptions of a specic persistent
problem and possible directions for solutions can be deliberately confronted with each other and subsequently integrated. To be involved, the
actors have their own perception of the transition issue in question from
their specic background and perspective. These people participate on a
personal basis and not as a representative of their institution or based on
their organizational background (government, business, science, civil
society). There should not be too many actors (1015), and they are
identied and selected based on their competencies, interests, and
backgrounds. The competencies expected of them and are: (1) ability to
consider complex problems at a high level of abstraction, (2) ability to look
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DERK LOORBACH
beyond the limits of their own discipline and background, (3) enjoy a
certain level of authority within various networks, (4) ability to establish
and explain visions of sustainable development within their own networks, (5) willingness to think together, and (6) open for innovation
instead of already having specic solutions in mind. These frontrunners
do not necessarily need to be experts; they can also be networkers or
opinion leaders. They should also be prepared to invest time and energy
in the process of innovation and commit themselves to it. And nally, it is
important that there are an equal number of frontrunners from the societal
pentagon: government, companies, NGOs, knowledge institutes, and
intermediaries (consulting organizations, project organizations and
mediators).
The fundamental issue here is not that the existing establishment and
interests (incumbent regime) come together within the transition arena
but that innovative individuals who can operate more or less autonomously are involved. Indeed, a certain representation from the existing
regime is necessary, also with an eye to the legitimacy and nancing of the
process of innovation. But a transition arena is not an administrative
platform, or a consultative body, but a societal network of innovation
(Van Buuren and Loorbach 2009). This demands a critical selection of
frontrunnersnot by a gatekeeper who selects who may or may not
participate but by an initiating core group in which experts on the process
and on the transition subject are involvedthat consider matters carefully.
The arena process is an open, evolving process of innovation that implies
variation and selection: After a certain period of time, some people drop
out and others join in. Management therefore means creating sufcient
space and favorable conditions for the frontrunners, such that the envisaged process of innovation begins to take shape. It does not mean gathering together a wide range of bodies around the arena, such as a steering
group, a consultation group, or advisory board, because that is exactly the
recipe for limiting the space for innovation and management that has just
been created.
When such a group of frontrunners has been brought together to focus
on a certain transition issue, an attempt is made to reach a joint perception
of the problem by means of a strongly interactive process. By deploying a
participative integrated systems approach, the complex problem(s) can be
structured and made easier to understand (Hisschemller and Hoppe
1996). The convergence of the various problem perceptions is facilitated
from the articulation of diverging perspectives of the actors involved,
which in turn will lead to new insights into the nature of the problem(s)
and the underlying causal mechanisms. These insights form the prelude to
a change in perspective, which is a necessary but insufcient precondition
to realizing a transition. Based on this new perspective and through discussion and interaction, sustainability visions are generated, which
primarily include the shared basic principles for long-term (sustainable)
development, leaving room for dissent upon short and mid-term
175
solutions, goals, and strategies. While there is an emphasis on consensus

or at least a willingness to cooperate within a common framework, this
consensus is only valid within the context of the transition network. By
necessity, transition visions will oppose expectations and visions of
regime actors, and in this sense, transition visions are explicitly seeking
conict with vested interests and powers to establish a fundamental
debate upon future development, the necessity of fundamental change,
and the possibilities of an envisaged transition.
Visions are an important management instrument for achieving new
insights and starting points and, therefore, a change of attractor. The
visions created evolve and are instrumental: The process of envisioning is
just as important as the ultimate visions themselves. Envisioning processes are very labor intensive and time consuming but are crucial to
achieving development in the desired direction. This direction, as long as
a sufciently large group of frontrunners supports it, provides a focus and
creates the constraints, which determine the room for maneuver within
which the future transition activities can take place. Based on the sustainability vision developed, a process can be initiated in which transition
paths are developed and a common transition agenda is drawn up. A
common transition agenda contains a number of joint objectives, action
points, projects, and instruments to realize these objectives. It should be
clear which party is responsible for which type of activity, project, or
instrument that is being developed or applied. Where the sustainability
visions and the accompanying nal transition images and transition objectives form the guidelines for the transition agenda that is to be developed,
the transition agenda itself forms the compass for the frontrunners that
they can refer to during their research and learning process.
Tactical: The Transition Agenda
The change in perspective, described by the visions and the accompanying
transition images of the future, should be further translated to and nd
root within various networks, organizations, and institutions. Focus at this
tactical level is therefore the structural (regime) barriers to development in
the desired direction, which can be explored through developing transitions scenarios (Sondeijker et al. 2006; Wiek et al. 2006). Such barriers
include regulatory, institutional, and economic conditions but could also
involve consumer routines, physical infrastructures, or specic technologies. In an expanding transition network stemming from the transition
arena, this vision is further translated by self-formed coalitions into
so-called transition paths: routes to a transition image via intermediate
objectives, which, as they come closer, can be formulated more quantitatively. Different transition paths can lead to a single transition image, and
conversely, a single transition path can lead to several transition images. In
this phase, the interests, motives, and policy of the various actors involved
(NGOs, governments, knowledge institutes, and intermediaries) come out
176
DERK LOORBACH
into the open; there will be negotiations about investments, and individual plans and strategies will be ne-tuned. The actors who should be
involved at this stage are those who represent one of the organizations
involved and who are willing and able to operate for more than just a
short period of time. Within this tactical layer, actors should be recruited
who, in particular, have sufcient authority and room for maneuver
within their own organization and who also have insight into the opportunities for their organization to contribute to the envisaged transition
process. An important condition for this is that the actors involved have
the capacity to translate the transition vision and the consequences of
this to the transition agenda of their own organization. When the organizations and networks involved start to adjust their own policy and actions
in this way, tensions will arise between the transition arena and the everyday policy agendas. Then the direction will have to be reviewed at a
strategic level, and if necessary, a new arena will have to be established
with some of the existing actors, but also with new ones.
Operational: Experiments
At the operational level of transition management, transition experiments
and actions are carried out that try to broaden, deepen, and scale up
existing and planned initiatives and actions (Raven, Van den Bosch, and
Weterings 2007; Rotmans and Loorbach 2008). The transition experiments
need to t within the context of the vision and transition paths developed.
They may compete, complement each other, or investigate various
options. Diversity is an important aspect, as long as these experiments at
the systems level are in a position to contribute to the envisaged transition.
Transition experiments are iconic projects with a high level of risk that can
make a potentially large innovative contribution to a transition process.
New transition experiments are derived directly from the developed sustainability vision and transition objectives, and they t within the identied transition paths. On the other hand, experiments can be linked to
innovation experiments that are already taking place as long as they t
into the context of the transition. When an experiment has been successful
(in terms of evaluating its learning experiences and contributions to the
transition challenge), it can be repeated in different contexts (broadening)
and scaled up from the micro- to the mesolevel (scaling up). This requires
a considerable amount of timeapproximately 510 years. Transition
experiments are often costly and time consuming, so it is important that
wherever possible, existing infrastructure (physical, nancial, institutional) is used for experiments, and that the experiments feasibility is
continuously monitored. Transition management at this level focuses on
creating a portfolio of related transition experiments that complement and
strengthen each other, have a contribution to the sustainability objective,
can be scaled up, and are signicant and measurable.
177
Reexive: Monitoring and Evaluation

Continuous monitoring is a vital part of the search and learning process of
transitions (Taanman 2008). We distinguish between monitoring the transition process itself and monitoring transition management. Monitoring
the transition process involves physical changes in the system in question,
slowly changing macrodevelopments, fast niche developments, and seeds
of change, as well as movements of individual and collective actors at the
regime level. This provides the enriched context for transition management. Monitoring of transition management involves different aspects.
First, the actors within the transition arena must be monitored with regard
to their behavior, networking activities, alliance forming and responsibilities, and also with regard to their activities, projects, and instruments.
Next, the transition agenda must be monitored with regard to the actions,
goals, projects, and instruments that have been agreed upon. Transition
experiments need to be monitored with regard to specic new knowledge
and insight and how these are transferred, but also with regard to the
aspects of social and institutional learning. Finally, the transition process
itself must be monitored with regard to the rate of progress, the barriers
and points to be improved, and so forth. Integration of monitoring and
evaluation within each phase and at every level of transition management
may stimulate a process of social learning that arises from the interaction
and cooperation between different actors involved. To ensure this, transition monitoring, much like fourth-generation evaluation (Guba and
Lincoln 1989), is about reecting collectively upon the process and in this
way articulating next steps.
Conclusions: Toward Transition Governance?
In this article, we presented a new governance framework for addressing
persistent societal problems. This transition management framework is
based on common notions from complex systems theory and new forms
of governance that are welded into a new governance approach. Understanding the dynamics of complex, adaptive systems provides insight into
the opportunities, limitations, and conditions under which it is possible to
direct such systems (Van der Brugge 2009). This perspective enables us to
reect upon and analyze actions and strategies of actors in these processes.
The combined analysis of system dynamics and actor behavior then allows
us to try to inuence these in such a way that the changes that result from
these are more likely to lead to sustainability in the long run. Transition
management in this way provides both an analytical perspective on longterm governance and a basis for actually dealing intelligently with this. To
this end, we presented basic governance tenets, a framework for analysis,
and the transition management cycle for actually implementing strategies
that help to guide and accelerate transitions.
Based on the understanding of transitions in complex societal systems,
central tenets of the transition management approach are, for example, the
178
DERK LOORBACH
need for a long-term perspective to guide short-term development, the

acknowledgment of uncertainties and surprise, the importance of networks and self-steering, and the necessity of creating space for innovation.
These basic tenets are translated into a framework that distinguishes
between different types of governance that relate directly to different
patterns of change in societal systems. We dened these different types of
governance activities (strategic, tactical, and operational) based on their
respective time horizons, outcomes, and types of actors involved. This
framework, besides that it could be used to assess how actors in general
are dealing with long-term changes in society, is the basis for the transition
management cycle, which is used to actually implement strategies to inuence societal transitions.
The management model is far from deterministic, but rather reexive.
Applying the model implies adjusting the basic tenets and transition
management instruments to a specic context, which will change as a
result, in turn requiring adaptations in the implementation. Transition
management as prescriptive mode of governance could be characterized
as a reexive approach toward long-term social change through small
steps based on searching, learning, and experimenting. It is normative in
its ambition, prescriptive nature, long-term focus, and analytical basis.
Transition management is promising both theoretically and as operational
management strategy, but it still develops quickly and largely needs to
prove itself. The approach has already been empirically tested in the many
transition experiments that are currently going on in the Netherlands and
Belgium. More than that, the management framework itself has been the
result of experiences within testing grounds.
However, we need to be clear that so far, transition management has
been mainly implemented and conceptualized as a shadow track in
which new visions, ideas, and agendas can be developed in a more innovative way than within the context of regular policy processes. In a sense,
transition management tries to systematically organize informal networks
and policy processes, which are often found to be an explanation for the
innovative and evolving policy at the EU level, in spite of the institutional
and cross-national differences and deadlocks (Hritier 1999). As such,
transition management in the form presented here will be most effective
in early phases of the policymaking processes or in those processes in
which a deadlock requires breakthroughs. It leaves open for further
research the fascinating question of how the basic ideas and principles
underlying transition management could be translated into specic operational models that would be more in tune with other phases in policy- and
decision-making processes.
One nal key question here is to what extent the approach can be
translated to other sociopolitical contexts and cultures. Some research and
experiments have been undertaken with the approach in Belgium, and
comparative studies have been launched to study similarities and differences in implementation within different sectors and regions in the Neth-
179
erlands. But diffusing and translating transition management to other

countries and contexts poses an inspiring challenge. The ambition is to
validate the partly descriptive and partly prescriptive parts of transition
management for the coming period empirically, and in such a manner that
a scientically well-grounded concept and framework can be used and
further developed in a broad societal context and also internationally.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers sincerely for
their in-depth comments and constructive suggestions, which helped to
improve the quality of the article considerably. In pointing out new and so
far underdeveloped research questions, they also helped in shaping the
authors future research agenda. This research is funded by the Dutch
Knowledge Network on System Innovations and Transitions (KSI),
(www.ksinetwork.nl).
Notes
1.
2.
3.
http://www.ontwikkelingsmaatschappij-parkstad.nl/
page.php?pagID=169&men1ParentID=179 (in Dutch).
http://www.senternovem.nl/EnergyTransition/Index.asp.
http://www.ovam.be/jahia/Jahia/pid/1607 (in Dutch), http://www.lne.
be/themas/duurzaam-bouwen-en-wonen/algemeen/
transitiemanagement-duwobo (in Dutch).
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Landscape and Urban Planning 44 (1999) 219226
Sustainability and cities: extending the metabolism model

Peter W.G. Newman1
Professor of City Policy, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6160, Australia
Received 21 September 1998; accepted 19 February 1999
Abstract
The use of the metabolism concept, expanded to include aspects of livability, is applied to cities to demonstrate the practical
meaning of sustainability. Its application in industrial ecology, urban ecology, urban demonstration projects, business plans
and city comparisons are used to illustrate its potential. # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Sustainability; Cities; Metabolism; Livability; Ecosystem; Indicators
1. Introduction
Sustainability has been dened through the United
Nations as a global process of development that
minimises environments resources and reduces the
impact on environmental sinks using processes that
simultaneously improve the economy and the quality
of life (UN World Commission on Environment and
Development, 1987). This paper tries to show how a
simple model developed for the Australian State of the
Environment reporting process (Newman et al., 1996)
can be used to give some substance to the application
of sustainability to cities. Data from the Australian
applications and some other case studies are provided
to illustrate how the model works.
2. Application of sustainability to cities
The principles of sustainability can be applied to
cities though the guidance on how this can be done
1
Tel.: +61-8-9360-6913; fax: +61-8-9360-6421
E-mail address: newman@central.murdoch.edu.au
0169-2046/99/$20.00 # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 0 9 - 2
was not very clear in Agenda 21 or other United

Nations documents (Keating, 1993). It is probably
true to say that the major environmental battles of
the past were fought outside cities but that awareness
of the need to include cities in the global sustainability
agenda, is now universally recognised by environmentalists, governments and industry. The Organisation
for Economic and Cultural Development, the European Community and even the World Bank now
have sustainable cities programs. In 1994 the Global
Forum on Cities and Sustainable Development heard
from 50 cities (Mitlin and Satterthwaite, 1994) and in
1996 the UN held Habitat II, the Second United
Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul. At the `City Summit' the nations of the world
reported on progress in achieving sustainability in
their cities (UN Centre for Human Settlements, 1996).
Anders (1991), in a global review of the sustainable
cities movement, pointed out:
``The sustainable cities movement seems united in
its perception that the state of the environment
demands action and that cities are an appropriate
forum in which to act''. (p. 17)
220
P.W.G. Newman / Landscape and Urban Planning 44 (1999) 219226
Others such as Yanarella and Levine (1992) suggest

that all sustainability initiatives should be centred
around strategies for designing, redesigning and building sustainable cities. From a global perspective, they
suggest that cities shape the world and that we will
never begin to implement the sustainability process
unless we can relate it to cities.
3. An emerging framework the city as an
ecosystem
Throughout this century the city has been conceived
by sociologists, planners and engineers as a ``bazaar, a
seat of political chaos, an infernal machine, a circuit,
and more hopefully, as a community, the human
creation par excellence'' (Brugmann and Hersh
(1991), cited in Roseland (1992)).
One of the strongest themes running through
the literature on urban sustainability is that if we
are to solve our environmental problems we need to
view the city as an ecosystem. As Tjallingii (1993)
puts it:
``The city is (now) conceived as a dynamic and
complex ecosystem. This is not a metaphor, but a
concept of a real city. The social, economic and
cultural systems cannot escape the rules of abiotic
and biotic nature. Guidelines for action will have to be
geared to these rules''. (p. 7)
Like all ecosystems, the city is a system, having
inputs of energy and materials. The main environmental problems (and economic costs) are related
to the growth of these inputs and managing the
increased outputs. By looking at the city as a whole
and by analysing the pathways along which energy
and materials including pollutants move, it is
possible to begin to conceive of management systems
and technologies which allow for the reintegration
of natural processes, increasing the efciency of
resource use, the recycling of wastes as valuable
materials and the conservation of (and even production of) energy.
There may be on-going academic debate about what
constitutes sustainability or an ecosystem approach
(Slocombe, 1993), but what is clear is that many
strategies and programs around the world have begun
to apply such notions both for new development and
redevelopment of existing areas.
4. The extended metabolism model

How does a city dene its goals in a way that
enables it to be more sustainable? How do you make
a systematic approach that begins to full the global
and local sustainability agenda? The approach
adopted here is based on the experience of the Human
Settlements Panel in the Australian State of the Environment Reporting process (see Newman et al., 1996)
and on the experience of making a Sustainability Plan
for Philadelphia with the graduate students at the
University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and 1997, as well
as awareness of the World Bank/UN Habitat project on
developing sustainability indicators for cities (World
Bank, 1994).
It is possible to dene the goal of sustainability in a
city as the reduction of the city's use of natural
resources and production of wastes while simultaneously improving its livability, so that it can better
t within the capacities of the local, regional and
global ecosystems.
This is set out in Fig. 1 in a model that is called the
Èxtended Metabolism Model of the City'. Metabolism is a biological systems way of looking at the
resource inputs and waste outputs of settlements. This
approach has been developed by a few academics over
the past 30 years, though it has rarely if ever been used
in policy development for city planning (Wolman,
Fig. 1. Extended metabolism model of human settlements.
1965; Boyden et al., 1981; Girardet, 1992). Fig. 1 sets

out how this basic metabolism concept has been
extended to include the dynamics of settlements
and livability in these settlements. It was developed
as the basis of the approach adopted by the Australian
State of the Environment Report (Newman et al.,
1996).
In this model it is possible to specify the physical
and biological basis of the city, as well as its human
basis. The physical and biological processes of converting resources into useful products and wastes is
like the human body's metabolic processes or that of
an ecosystem. They are based on the laws of thermodynamics which show that anything which comes into
a biological system must pass through and that the
amount of waste is therefore dependent on the amount
of resources required. A balance sheet of inputs and
outputs can be created. It also means that we can
manage the wastes produced, but they require energy
221
in order to turn them into anything useful and ultimately all materials will eventually end up as waste.
For example, all carbon products will eventually end
up as CO2 and this is not possible to recycle any
further without enormous energy inputs that in themselves have associated wastes. This is the entropy
factor in metabolism.
What this means, is that the best way to ensure that
there are reductions in impact, is to reduce the
resource inputs. This approach to resource management is implicitly understood by scientists but is not
inherent to an economist's approach which sees only
òpen cycles' whenever human ingenuity and technology are applied to natural resources. However, a city is
a physical and biological system. Fig. 2 and Table 1
apply the metabolism concept to Sydney.
The metabolic ows for Sydney in 1970 and 1990
are summarised in Table 1; they show that apart from
a few air quality parameters there has been an increase
Fig. 2. Resource inputs consumed and waste outputs discharged from Sydney, 1990. Source: Newman et al., 1996.
222
Table 1
Trends in certain per capita material flows in Sydney, 1970 and
1990; source: Newman et al. (1996)
Population
Sydney 1970
2 790 000
Sydney 1990
3 656 500
Resources inputs
Energy/capita
Domestic
Commercial
Industrial
Transport
88 589 MJ/capita
10%
11%
44%
35%
114 236 MJ/capita

9%
6%
47%
38%
Food/capita (intake)
0.23 tonnes/capita
0.22 tonnes/capita
Water/capita
Domestic
Commercial
Industrial
Agricultural/gardens
Miscellaneous
144 tonnes/capita
36%
5%
20%
24%
15%
180 tonnes/capita
445
9%
13%
16%
18%
Waste outputs
Solid waste/capita
Sewage/capita
Hazardous waste
0.59 tonnes/capita
108 tonnes/capita
0.77 tonnes/capita
128 tonnes/capita
0.04 tonnes/capita
Air waste/capita
CO2
CO
SOx
NOx
HCx
Particulates
7.6 tonnes/capita
7 1 tonnes/capita
204.9 kg/capita
20.5 kg/capita
19.8 kg/capita
63.1 kg/capita
30.6 kg/capita
9.3 tonnes/capita
9.1 tonnes/capita
177.8 kg/capita
4.5 kg/capita
18.1 kg/capita
42.3 kg/capita
4.7 kg/capita
Total waste output
324 million tonnes
505 million tonnes
in per capita resource inputs and waste outputs. The

reduction in hydrocarbons is because they are more
completely burnt in modern automobile engines but
this just means that there's more CO2 produced. If CO2
is to be reduced, there needs to be more fundamental
change, such as reducing the need to travel so much
(Newman and Kenworthy, 1999).
The metabolism approach to cities is a purely
biological view, but cities are much more than a
mechanism for processing resources and producing
wastes, they are about creating human opportunity.
Thus Fig. 1 sets out how this basic metabolism concept has been extended to include livability in these
settlements so that the economic and social aspects of
sustainability are integrated with the environmental.
This approach now becomes more of a human ecosystem approach, as suggested by Tjallingii and others
above.
Some typical sustainability indicators for cities
covering metabolic ows and livability are outlined
in Table 2. Livability is about the human requirement
for social amenity, health and well being and includes
both individual and community well-being. Livability
is about the human environment though it can never be
separated from the natural environment. Sustainability
for a city is thus not only the reduction in metabolic
ows (resource inputs and waste outputs), it must also
be about increasing human livability (social amenity
and health).
Livability indicators were produced for Sydney and
other Australian settlements for the State of the Environment Report (Newman et al., 1996), but only for 1
year. Further studies can thus determine if these
aspects of sustainability are improving or not.
5. Application of the extended metabolism model
The extended metabolism model can be applied at a
range of levels and to a range of different human
activities, for example:
Industrial areas can examine their inputs of
resources and outputs of waste while measuring
their usual economic parameters and other matters
such as worker health and safety. These data could
then be used to see how mutually useful solutions
could be found such as the recycling of one industry's waste as an important resource substitute for
an adjacent industry. The Kalundborg area of Denmark has made an assessment of this kind (Tibbs,
1992). Ayres and Simonis (1994) have adopted a
similar approach for industrial areas based on
ìndustrial metabolism'.
Households or neighbourhoods can make an
assessment of their metabolic flows and livability
and together make attempts to do better with both.
Examples of this approach in single developments
are being labeled ùrban ecology' (Newman and
Kenworthy, 1999).
Urban demonstration projects can be assessed for
their sustainability using the extended metabolism
model. For example, we were asked to evaluate the
223
Table 2
Annual goals and indicators for sustainable city
1. Energy and air quality
Reduce total energy use per capita
Decrease energy used per dollar of output from industry
Increase proportion of bridging fuels (natural gas) and renewal fuels (wind, solar, biofuels)
Reduce total quantity of air pollutants per capita
Reduce total green house gases (eg Kyoto goals of `demonstrable progress' by 2005 and 5% reductions by 200812 from 1990 levels and
then further reductions annually)
Achieve zero days not meeting air quality health standard levels
Reduce fleet average and new vehicle average fuel consumption
Reduce number of vehicles failing emission standards
Reduce number of households complaining of noise reducing
2. Water, materials and waste
Reduce total water use per capita
Achieve zero days not meeting drinking water quality standards
Increase proportion of sewage and industrial waste treated to reusable quality
Decrease amount of sewage and industrial waste discharged to streams or ocean
Reduce consumption of building materials per capita (including declining proportion of old growth timber to plantation timber)
Reduce consumption of paper and packaging per capita
Decrease amount of solid waste (including increasing recycle rates for all components)
Increase amount of organic waste returning to soil and food production
3. Land, green spaces and biodiversity
Preserve agricultural land and bushland at the urban fringe
Increase amount of green space in local or regional parks per capita, particularly in `green belt' around city
Increase amount of urban redevelopment to new development
Increase number of specially zoned transit-oriented locations
Increase density of population and employment in transit-oriented locations
4. Transportation
Reduce car use (vehicle kilometer traveled or vehicle miles traveled) per capita
Increase transit, walk/bike and car pool and decrease sole car use
Reduce average commute to and from work
Increase relative average speed of transit to cars
Increase service kms of transit relative to road provision
Increase cost recovery on transit from fares
Decrease parking spaces per 1000 workers in central business district
Increase length of separated cycleway
5. Livability, human amenity and health
Decrease infant mortality per 1000 births
Increase educational attainment (average years per adult)
Increase local leisure opportunities
Decrease transport fatalities per 100 population
Decrease reported crimes per 1000 population
Decrease deaths from urban violence
Decrease proportion of substandard housing
Increase length of pedestrian-friendly streets (based on specific indicators) in city and sub-centres
Increase proportion of city/suburbs with urban design guidelines to assist communities in redevelopment
Increase proportion of city allowing mixed use, higher density urban villages
Australian Better Cities program which consists of

45 demonstrations of urban innovations. The
approach adopted was to try to see the extent to
which each project was reducing resource inputs,

lowering waste outputs and simultaneously
improving the livability of the urban area (Diver
224
Table 3
Sustainability and construction
The Sydney 2000 Olympics are described as the `Green Olympics' due to the Greenpeace winning design for the Olympic Village. In this
Olympic Village there will be 100% renewable electricity (from roof top photo voltaics and wind power), energy efficient buildings, solar hot
water, no poly vinyl chlorides or rain forest timber, a rail service connection, bicycle/pedestrian oriented layout and water and waste recycling
systems (Bell et al., 1995). Karla Bell and Associates who were closely involved in the design have also designed a Swedish new town,
Hammarby Sjostad, which was part of the failed 2004 Stockholm Olympics bid but which will still be built as a `sprearhead for ecological and
environmentally friendly construction' (City of Stockholm, 1997)
The goals of the new town are a model of reduced metabolic flows:
Energy
100% renewable-based electricity and heating
Energy use to not exceed 60 kwh/m2 in 205 and reducing to 50 kwh/m2 by 2015
Transport
80% commuting by non automobile means
20% less traffic by 2005 and 40% less by 2015
15% vehicles using biofuels by 2005 and 25% by 2015
100% freight vehicles electric or low emission vehicles
Material flows
100% solid waste recycled
20% reduction in waste by 2005, 40% by 2015
Water consumption reduced by 50% in 2005 and 60% by 2105
Sewage used for energy extraction and nutrients for farm soil
Stormwater used locally
Building materials
No PVC or non-recyclable materials to be used
No rain forest timbers to be used
New building materials only 50% of construction by 2005 and only 10% by 2015
No `sick-building' chemicals in carpets and furniture glues
et al., 1996). An urban demonstration project in

Jakarta was evaluated in terms of sustainability
using the extended metabolism model (Arief,
1998).
Cities can even extend this evaluation process to
events like the Olympic Games and all the facilities
and infrastructure they require (see Table 3).
Individual businesses can apply the extended metabolism model and create a sustainability plan. The
first business to make a `sustainability report' is
Interface (Anderson, 1998) which is a large US
company making flooring. They began a process in
1994 after the CEO had read Paul Hawken's `The
Ecology of Commerce' (Hawken, 1994) and chose
to follow a Swedish set of principles called Natural
Step (Greyson, 1995). Their process was similar to
the metabolism model in that it examined resources
(`what we take'), dynamics (`what we make') and
wastes (`what we waste'). It did not specify livability outcomes, though their report stressed that
economic productivity improved as much from
staff morale as from new technology. Four hundred
separate sustainability initiatives were specified in
the firm based on the work of 18 different teams.
City comparisons. By comparing indicators for
resource use, wastes and livability in different
cities, it is possible to locate those cities (or parts
or cities) that have something to contribute to
policy debates on sustainability. Few cities have
done full assessments of their resources, wastes and
livability (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999). New
Zealand cities were assessed using the extended
metabolism model (Parliamentary Commission of
the Environment, 1998) and found that the area
requiring most attention was the growth in automobile dependence. Australian cities were studied
225
Table 4
Australian settlements and substainability based on `State of The Environment, Australia 1996'
1. The larger the cities the more sustainable they are in terms of per capita use of resources (land, energy, water) and production of wastes
(solid, liquid and gaseous) and in terms of livability indicators (income, education, housing, accessibility). The reason for this is the economies
of scale and density which mean that they have more public transport and recycling and are generally more innovative with new technology
(Newman and Kenworthy, 1999)
2. Larger cities are however more likely to reach capacity limits in terms of air sheds and water sheds. For large cities to continue to grow they
will need to be even more innovative if they are to be sustainable
3. In geographic cross section across Australian cities there is an increase in metabolic flows and declines in livability indicators from core to
inner to middle to outer to fringe suburbs. This pattern is related to the different urban development periods and most recently has been related
to re-urbanisation by more wealthy residents and firms. This rapid re-urbanisation of more central areas appears to be related to processes of
economic change in the new Information Age which may be helping cities to become less automobile dependent (Newman and Kenworthy,
1999)
4. Ex-urban and coastal settlements beyond the big cities are the least sustainable of all Australian development; they have large environmental
impacts, high metabolic flows and low invability on all indicators. These areas are heavily automobile dependent and highlight how
sustainability and transportation priorities are totally enmeshed
5. Remote aboriginal settlements have low metabolic flows and low livability (especially in regard to employment and health) but are the
settlements where new small-scale eco-technologies are being trialed.
using this approach and showed the broad trends set

out in Table 4.
Cities can operate this model on many such
levels, but most of all they need to be able to
measure how they are doing overall as a city in
reducing their metabolic flows whilst improving
their human livability. Most cities will be able to
point to a few innovations they are making in
sustainability but until they can bring a full
assessment of these matters together they will
not be addressing the fundamentals of urban
sustainability.
6. Conclusion
This paper has provided examples of how the
extended metabolism model can be used to assess
the sustainability of cities. The simultaneous achievement of reduced resources and wastes whilst improving livability provides a framework for guiding our
cities into the future.
References
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Landscape and Urban Planning 107 (2012) 193202
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Landscape and Urban Planning

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan
Perspective Essay
An expanded urban metabolism method: Toward a systems approach for

assessing urban energy processes and causes
Stephanie Pincetl a, , Paul Bunje b , Tisha Holmes c
a
Center for Sustainable Urban Systems, Institute of the Environment and Sustainbility, UCLA, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, 619 Charles E Young Dr East, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496,
United States
b
Center for Climate Change Solutions, Institute of the Environment and Sustainbility, UCLA, United States
c
Urban Planning, UCLA, United States
h i g h l i g h t s
We propose an new approach to conducting urban metabolism analysis.
These will strengthen its utility for policy makers.
Data remain difcult to obtain and synthesize, but new approaches are emerging.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 28 November 2011
Received in revised form 23 May 2012
Accepted 5 June 2012
Available online 2 July 2012
Keywords:
Urban metabolism
Urban systems
Life cycle assessment
Environmental and social impacts
a b s t r a c t
The integrated study of energy and urban systems has recently become a critical component of sustainability research and policy. Increasing urbanization of human societies combined with intense energy
demands of modern economies have driven a recognition that sustainable practices require a systems
approach to both the study and application of sustainability principles. Urban metabolism has emerged
as a leading methodology for quantifying energy consumption and use patterns in urban environments.
Though typically applied as a method of accounting for total energy and materials inputs and outputs into
cities, its interdisciplinary history and methods allow urban metabolism to be expanded in ways that will
allow more comprehensive and integrated assessment of the patterns and processes of urban energy systems. In this article, we review the concept of urban metabolismincluding its two typical approaches:
mass balance and emergy methodsand offer a means to expand urban metabolism into a platform that
incorporates socioeconomic analysis, policy analysis, and additional quantitative methodologies (such as
life cycle assessment). This expanded urban metabolism framework is more comprehensive analytically
and builds upon the documented capacity of traditional urban metabolism to account for total energy
and materials ows of cities to provide an integrated platform for analysis of both energy patterns and
the causal processes that govern energy in contemporary cities.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
With the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism, the
modern world entered an era of resource exploitation and intensity that it had never before experienced. This industrial revolution,
coupled with advances in science as well as the growth of cities
and the global economy, laid the basis for the prodigal twentieth century (as McNeill, 2000 writes), that invented processes
bringing enormously accelerated social and ecological change,
predicated largely on the use of fossil fuels. No other centuryno
millenniumin human history can compare with the twentieth for
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 310 825 2434.

E-mail address: spincetl@ioes.ucla.edu (S. Pincetl).
0169-2046/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.06.006
its growth in energy use. We have probably deployed more energy

since 1900 than in all of human history before 1900 (McNeill,
2000). Human impacts are transforming the very fundamental processes of nature (Vitousek, Mooney, Lubchenco, & Melillo, 1997);
humans are biogeophysical forces, unwittingly altering Earth systems with unknown outcomes.
This resource use intensity and massive deployment of fossil
energy for human activities, accompanied by exponential population growth and the trend toward increased urbanization, has
resulted in remarkable advances in economic growth, innovation,
health, and global interconnectivityparticularly in industrialized
economies. Still, the resource consumption of the contemporary era
is widely recognized to be greater than the planet can sustain indefinitely (Folke, Jansson, Larsson, & Costanza, 1997; Wackernagel &
Rees, 1996). In order to bring modern societys energy and resource
194
S. Pincetl et al. / Landscape and Urban Planning 107 (2012) 193202
demands into line with the nite resources of the Earth, much
more needs to be done to quantify resource use and to understand its political, economic, and ecological context. One promising
framework that has been advanced as an approach for quantifying
energy and resource use and supply in modern societal systems
is that of urban metabolism. Urban metabolism offers a platform for greatly expanded urban systems analysis. Researchers
such as Newman et al. (1996), commissioned by the Australian
government to study the trends of per capita resource input and
waste metabolism in Sydney, were early pioneers in linking urban
metabolic measures to livability and sustainability analysis. Yet the
analyses remained at a descriptive level and did not delve into the
social and political drivers of urban form and levels of ows. Much
of the discussion was exhortative, stating that industrial areas could
look at their ows to reduce waste through industrial ecology principles, or that projects could be assessed for their sustainability
using extended metabolism analysis. There was little recognition
of the structural (political, economic, social) processes and complexity of change. In this paper, we assess the state and value of
urban metabolism for inuencing urban sustainability and conclude by suggesting that urban metabolism analysis, to be effective,
also requires a politicalecologicaltheoretical framework and an
understanding of power and money.
In the discussion that follows, we attempt to make the case for
the expansion of urban metabolism to a more encompassing systems approach. While urban metabolism has been explored by a
number of different disciplines such as industrial ecology, ecology, chemistry, and urban planning, studies on cities have tended
to be done from each disciplinary perspective. The expansion of
urban metabolism to a wider systems-oriented approach requires
the collaboration of different disciplines in the analysis of a citys
metabolism, in matching energy and waste ows to land uses and
social-demographic variables, in evaluation of the socioeconomic
and policy drivers that govern the ows and patterns, as well as life
cycle assessment of the various processes and materials that make
up a citys metabolism. This is a difcult undertaking, necessitating harmonization of units of measure, scale, boundary denitions,
and the integration of the human element. Urban systems are sustained by resource ows and they generate waste, and these are
driven by policy frameworks (explicit and implicit) and human
social organization. Linking the resource base of cities to the human
decision-making frameworks they exist inoften politicalwill
provide insights about the contexts that support how urban areas
work.
We begin with an overview of urban metabolism rst as discussed by Marx, and much later as applied by industrial ecologists
and others. We provide an overview of its applications in the
current literature and its limitations. We then suggest a new
approach to urban metabolism, modied and augmented by sociodemographic and spatially explicit data, greater integration of
ecological impacts, considerations of systems-based policies (e.g.,
climate change and energy), and the situating of urban metabolisms
in current political ecology theory (Castree, 2008; Francis, Lorimer,
& Racko, 2011; Heynen, Kaika, & Swyngedouw, 2006; Pickett,
Buckley, Kaushal, & Wiliams, 2011; Robbins, 2004; Zimmerer,
2006). This expanded urban metabolism approach is inherently
interdisciplinary, requiring the techniques of life cycle assessment, ecological assessment, economic analysis, sociology and
policy studies, and the uncovering of systemic interdependencies
and interactions that undergird urban energy patterns and processes. It recognizes the multi-level governance challenges faced by
cities, including the opportunities for experimentation and learning (Corfee-Morlot, Cochran, Hallegatte, & Teasdale, 2011; Evans,
2011) as well as the limitations due to the politicized nature of systems policies (i.e., climate change) and declining public sector scal
capacity. Indeed, expanded urban metabolism is a science and data
driven systems approach that should also include how policies at

many levels may create specic energy/materials ows. Expanded
urban metabolism can help to address one of the most important
issues of the day: how to sustain the quality of life for humans
without permanently exhausting planetary resources or altering
the planetary dynamics that support civilization.
Following Sayer (2000), we are proposing methods that provide
concrete analyses of processes that create geographically distinct
outcomes. So while there are global trends showing an increasingly urban world (over half of the worlds population now lives in
cities (UNFPA, 2007), and cities have large impacts on the environment due to their concentration of human populations and
resource use (Alberti, 2008), each urban system has its own specicities, including the mix of resource use and social organization
as well as governance and position in larger systems (e.g., nationstates or climate zones). The tools of urban metabolism analysis
can provide an effective lens into the biophysical processes that are
harnessed by cities and conditioned by politicaleconomic structures. This paper proposes that the political and economic forces
that make cities grow or shrink are an intrinsic part of the urban
metabolism, though complex and highly integrated with nested
and tiered politicaleconomic institutions and systems that range
from the local to the global (Fig. 1).
We conclude by suggesting that a more interdisciplinary
approach to urban metabolism will reveal heretofore hidden ways
in which nature is enlisted in the service of urban and economic
growth, and that geographic specicity is important. Each place will
differ and so will the specic composition of resources and their
use. However, localities are no longer isolated and autonomous,
thus the ways in which they intersect and are imbricated in larger
networksfrom resource chains to capital owsmatters to a UM
analysis. In this paper, we outline an integrated socio-ecological
and socio-technical (Smith & Stirling, 2010) approach to measuring
and managing the inputs and outputs of todays urban regions.
2. Urban metabolism: context and history

Urban metabolism (UM) researchers have compared cities to
biological organisms. Organisms need energy and resource inputs,
transform them to do work, and produce waste, much like cities do
(Bettencourt, Lobo, Helbing, Kuchnert, & West, 2007; Pataki, 2010).
Dened as the sum total of the technical and socio-economic processes that occur in cities, resulting in growth, production of energy,
and elimination of waste (Kennedy, Cuddihy, & Engel-Yan, 2007),
UM emerged in the late twentieth century as a systems-based
approach to understand urban trajectories of resource use, waste
production, and associated impacts on the environment. Some
ecologists have been uncomfortable with the urban metabolism
framework as they point out that only individual organisms have
a metabolism and thus UM is improper biological analogy. Instead,
some have suggested that cities are more like ecosystemsthe
summing up of many metabolisms (Golubiewski, 2012; Pataki,
2010). Yet urban metabolism is the term of art in the industrial ecology community, and increasingly in geography, planning, and other
related disciplines, and it offers a vivid image that many understand. Thus urban metabolism provides a metaphorical framework
to examine the interactions of natural-human systems (Barles,
2007b; Kennedy et al., 2007; Odum, 1996; Wolman, 1965) and
provides a basis upon which to consider sustainability implications.
The intellectual development of urban metabolism can be
traced back at least to Marx. Contemporary critical urban theorists
such as Sywngedeou, Kaika, and Heynen, among others, have
approached urban metabolism from a neo-Marxist perspective,
using Marxs approach to analyzing the dynamic internal relationships between humans and nature (Heynen et al., 2006).
195
Fig. 1. An urban metabolism is situated in a nested and tiered system that is interconnected, interactive, and interdependent.
They then tie this analytic framework to political ecology, which

combines the concerns of ecology and political economy with the
impacts on society. Marx employed the concept of metabolism
to refer to the actual metabolic interactions between nature and
society that take place through human activity. Humans (especially
before the petroleum age) exerted animal and physical labor to
transform the Earth for their food and shelter. As they did so, they
altered biophysical processes while supplying the metabolism of
human activities. Marx used the term to describe the complex,
dynamic, and interdependent set of needs and relations brought
into being and reproduced through the concrete organization of
human labor (the organizational structures of work and industrial
processes, driven by capital ows). In his analysis, metabolism took
on both a specic ecological meaning and a wider social meaning
(Foster, 2000). Marx wrote that man lives from natureand is a
natural being himselfbut in addition, he also transforms nature to
produce his material needs (Marx in Foster, 2000). It is this transformation that changes the Earths systems, of which climate change is
perhaps the most dramatic example. The concept of metabolism,
with its attendant notions of material exchanges and regulatory
actions, allowed [Marx] to express the human relation to nature as
one that encompassed both nature-imposed conditions and the
capacity of human beings to affect this process (Foster, 2000).
Hayward (1995) discusses the way in which Marxs notion of
socio-ecological metabolism captures a humans existence as natural and physical, including the energetic and material exchanges
between humans and their natural environment. Hayward
explains that Marx saw metabolism emerging from the regulation
of the metabolic relationship by natural laws governing physical
processes, and from society by institutionalized norms: rules,
regulations, conventions, process methods, and so forth. Marx was

aware of the scientic advances of his time in physics, such as the
thermodynamic law of the conservation of energy. He was also
informed about developments in physiology, including cellular
metabolism, and drew from these scientic insights for his own use
of the concept. There is, as Foster notes, a lineage of use of the concept of metabolism from the 1840s to the present in systems theory
approaches to the interaction of organisms and environments.
3. Urban metabolism in the twentieth century

In 1965, Abel Wolman wrote a pioneering article, The
Metabolism of Cities, re-launching the UM concept for the engineering community. Wolman (1965) developed a model of a
hypothetical American city of one million people to actually calculate the inputs of materials and outputs of waste for such an
urban system, taking UM to a quantitative proof of concept. He
advanced the notion that urban footprints were no longer constrained to the geographic or political boundaries used to dene
them. Thus cities, through the use of resources and the generation
of waste and pollution, impacted the environment on broad local
and regional scales. Wolman was concerned about the pressures an
expanding and more afuent population placed on natural systems
and resources. He was particularly concerned about fresh water
supplies for cities and showed how a theoretical city sourced its
inputs from afar and left a footprint of impacts well beyond its geographic boundaries. Published in Science, Wolman reached a broad
audience. While Marx put the emphasis on the social organization
of harvesting of Earths materials, Wolman concentrated on the
196
physical limits of the materials themselves and their patterns of

utilization.
4. Measurement methods
Forty-ve years after this pioneering work by Wolman and his
contemporaries, UM has evolved into two distinct approaches:
mass balance accounting and Odums emergy method. The rst is
the more widely used energy-materials ux approach (discussed
in greater detail below). It is closely associated with the Industrial
Ecology and Engineering elds. It incorporates tools of material
ow analysis (MFA) to assess the movement of urban materials
(and energy) through the urban system (Barles, 2007a, 2009). It
also accounts for the energy necessary to transform raw materials and resources into material goods to meet demand needs and
the associated waste ows (Huang, Lee, & Chen, 2006). The latter
approach, discussed immediately below, is based on H.T. Odums
conceptualization of energy in which all measures are normalized
to standard units based on solar energy.
Odum (1983) accounted for metabolic ows by measuring the
available solar energy used directly or indirectly to make a product or deliver a service. He called this method Emergy. Emergy is
measured in solar emergy joules (seJ). As a systems ecologist, he
wanted to emphasize the dependence on the source of almost all
energy on the planetthe sun. Emergy researchers were trying to
show that there are qualitative differences of mass or energy ows
that were ignored by previous UM researchers. As pointed out by
one of the reviewers of this paper, one ton of cement and one ton
of sand are different for construction activity, just like one ton of
meat (beef) and one ton of vegetables provide different nutrients
and calories for peoples diets. Emergy accounting draws attention
to the fundamental dependence of cities on ecological processes
that themselves are possible only due to solar energy (Huang et al.,
2006; Huang & Chen, 2009). Emergy is a measure of energy ow (i.e.,
analogous to thermodynamic work) by nature and humans to generate products and ecological services. For Odum it was the basic
and ubiquitous common metric of environmental and economic
values (Odum, 1996; Odum & Odum, 2006).
The emergy method emphasizes standard units for all materials,
energy, nutrient, and waste ows in biophysical systems. While
theoretically possible, it is practically difcult to express all urban
processes in common units. Emergy accounting faces challenges of
inadequate or disparate data as well as difculties of integrating
and/or comparing materials and energy represented in different
units. The complexity of this approach and its resulting limited
application is due to converting ows to the seJ metric (Huang,
1998; Huang & Chen, 2009; Huang & Hsu, 2003; Odum, 1996). Thus,
the energy-material ux method, which emphasizes quantifying
as much of an urban systems materials and energy ows as possible, regardless of units, is the more common urban metabolism
approach.
Among urban metabolism studies that employ an energymaterial ux approach, widely used quantication methods
include material ow analysis (MFA), mass balance, and, increasingly, the joining of life cycle assessment (LCA) to UM. MFA is
based on the principle of mass conservation where mass in = mass
out + stock changes. MFA measures the materials owing into a system, the stocks and ows within it, and the resulting outputs from
the system to other systems in the form of pollution, waste, or
exports (Sahely, Dudding, & Kennedy, 2003). Materials enter, or
ow into urban systems, they are consumed to create biophysical structureshuman bodies, artifacts, buildings, roads, machines,
tools, agricultural crops and livestock, export productsand create waste (Haberl, Batterbury, & Moran, 2001). Within the concept
of industrial or societal metabolism, sustainability problems are
viewed as problems of the material and energetic relationships

between society and nature (Fischer-Kowalski & Haberl, 1997).
Mass balance is based on the fundamental physical principle
that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, merely transformed. Therefore the mass of inputs into a process, industry,
or region, balances the mass of outputs as products, emissions,
and wastes, plus any change in stocks. In the process, the matter
changes in form and function: mass balance is used to describe this
type of analysis. Standard mass units are used to quantify energy
ows such as kilograms, tons, or joules (energy being a transformation of mass as elucidated by Einstein). MFA analysis also can
be used to point out the degradation of resources through use. For
example, fossil fuel is burned and transformed into atmospheric
gases (including pollution) and heat (a form of energy). Neither can
be returned to the original state.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is used to provide a cradle-to-grave
accounting of direct, indirect, and supply chain effects of resource
transformation and use. LCA also can take into account the associated environmental impacts from extraction to nal disposal
(Chester, 2010; Solli, Reenaas, Stromman, & Hertwich, 2009) Thus,
LCA analysis integrates the inventorying part of materials ows
analysis to capture the indirect and direct supply chain impacts
of cities beyond their borders to assess the movement of materials
through the urban system (Barles, 2007a). Importantly, LCA offers a
practical suite of methodologies and tools for quantifying the materials of an urban metabolism, including the processes generating
inputs and outputs.
Whether MFA, mass balance, and LCA are used separately or
in conjunction, the energy-material ux approach to UM involves
quantication and tracking of mass and energy ows (e.g., raw
materials, nutrients and food) in standard units (e.g., kilograms,
tons, joules) as they enter, accumulate, and exit the urban system. LCA is formalized in the ISO 14044 standards, which specify
requirements and provide guidelines for life cycle assessment for
businesses (the principles are widely accepted by the full range
of LCA practitioners). There are dedicated software packages that
have been developed to conduct LCAs, including GaBI, developed
by PE International, and SimaPro, developed by PR Consultants. In
addition, in the U.S. at the product level, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Building for Environmental and
Economic Sustainability (BEES) tool is one among several building
design LCA accounting tools. The premier US life cycle inventory
database is the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratorys LCI
Database. One important caution is to realize these databases are
geographically specic, that is GaBI and SimaPro evaluate European
data, and the NREL LCI Database is US-specic. There are few comprehensive datasets available, thus LCAs tend to be specic to each
country or region (e.g., the EU). LCAs can help businesses reduce
cost by identifying wasteful practices or processes. However, LCAs
have only begun to be applied to urban processes, primarily to
complement and to supplement UM.
A citys physical metabolism can be described by quantifying
energy ows. These are traditionally dened to include energy
itself, water, materials, nutrients, and wastes. Researchers have utilized the energy-material ux urban metabolism framework to
analyze different urban areas and system components for over forty
years (Kennedy, 2010). The study of UM has enabled researchers to
understand a variety of phenomena in cities, regions, and neighborhoods around the world. Table 1 shows a comparative merits and
drawbacks of each UM method. Methods are often coupled, such
as LCA with MFA and mass-balance, since they describe different
aspects of the metabolism of cities and not one method captures
the complex system issues. While the Emergy method is still being
used, especially in China, its complexity and unproven measurement methods have meant that it is not as often practiced in the
U.S. and the West.
197
Table 1
Comparative urban metabolism measurement methods.
Method
Merits
Drawbacks
Emergy
Draws attention to ecosystem and natural resource

basis of ows; unsubstitutable role of solar energy for
life processes. May be best used for non-urban
analyses such as agricultural production as the
calculations are straightforward.
Can be used to derive aggregated indicators for
sustainability, especially those relating to pressures on
the environment. Quanties inputs and outputs of
numerous commodities.
Draws attention to degradation of resource through
use. Can track resource ows of industries,
geographical regions, materials or products and how
these resource ows change over time.
Provides cradle-to-grave accounting of resource use
and associated environmental impacts from extraction
to disposal.
Difcult to operationalize in seJ metric due to inadequate data,

difculty in integrating and expressing different urban
processes in one similar unit. Neglects geotechtonic or climatic
processes, nuclear energy, and qualitative factors (Smil, 2008;
Cleveland, Kaufmann, & Stern, 2000).
Requires data about materials extraction and use and the
ability to interpret and utilize for policy changes. Does not by
itself integrate multiple materials transformational processes.
Material ow analysis
Mass balance
Life cycle assessment
Economic InputOutput Life

Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA)
Adds economic factors to the LCA, and provides ability

to link to dollar metrics.
The exible nature of the UM framework has lent itself to

broader and more complex examination of processes within urban
systems. For example, the development of livability measures in
Sydney demonstrated a practical application of urban metabolism
metrics and methods to problems posed by the Australian government (Newman, 1999; Newman et al., 1996). These reports,
followed by subsequent annual accounting reports, were the rst
independent nation-wide assessment on the state of Australias
environment. They were created to aid Australian decision makers in government, as well as industry and community groups
(Newman et al., 1996). Newmans analyses provided some of the
data for Australias rst national sustainability plans. Signicantly,
Newman showed that larger cities were more sustainable in terms
of efcient per capita use of resources; they were also more livable
as demonstrated by better scores for indicators as income, education, housing, and accessibility. However, these cities were also
more likely to reach unsustainable carrying capacity limits, with
increasingly large inputs required from the hinterlands. According to the livability indicators, the quality of life deteriorated from
the core to fringe suburbs (Newman, 1999; Newman et al., 1996).
Newman also demonstrated that settlement location affected sustainability trajectories. Ex-urban and coastal settlements were the
least sustainable of all developments due to resource needs and the
inefciencies of decentralized urban systems.
With the rise of cities as the prime home of humans, as well
as a recognition of their substantial resource demands, UM had a
resurgence in interest at the turn of the century (Kennedy, Pincetl,
& Bunje, 2010). However, because UM has continued to be largely
an accounting tool measuring inputs and waste ows, there has
been little ability to explain differences among cities or reasons
for the changes in the urban metabolism of cities (Barles, 2009;
Gasson, 2002; Sahely et al., 2003). For example, as Warren-Rhodes
and Koenig (2001) observed, when Hong Kong was a manufacturing
center, its urban metabolism was lower than when it shifted to a
consumption based economy. But they included no comparison of
population numbers, income, or other socioeconomic factors in the
UM to be able to determine what causal factors lead to differences
between the two economic types.
UM has been applied to determine resource impacts by political
ecologists and others (Baker, 2009; Gandy, 2004; Hermanowicz &
Asano, 1999) and to determine certain material stocks and ows
(Barrett, Vallack, Jones, & Haq, 2002; Hammer & Giljum, 2006;
Kennedy et al., 2009; Niza, Rosado, & Ferrao, 2009; Schulz, 2007)
Lack of consistent classication of data has frequently been a

major barrier to the amalgamation of datasets. Integration into
other methodologies still being developed (such as ecological
footprinting).
Dening the boundaries must be made explicit. How far
upstream to take the analysis still problematic. Continued
debate on the appropriate application of different LCA
methods to urban systems.
Requires signicant, nationally specic data. Utilizes economic
(capital) metrics as a proxy for many materials and processes
that are often difcult to integrate with material ows or
mass/energy balance.
use UM to examine the role that location, urban form, technology, and economics can play in GHG inventories. UM has been
used by several urban designers to provide material ow analysis and a framework to envision more sustainable communities
and cities (Kennedy, 2010; Oswald, Bacchini, & Michaeli, 2003;
Quinn, 2007). Codoban and Kennedy (2008) have explored the
relationship between design and metabolism at the neighborhood
scale. Their study of the urban metabolism of four representative Toronto neighborhoods showed that different neighborhood
forms, including the construction of energy-efcient buildings and
development of public transit, had different implications for neighborhood metabolisms. Further research must be conducted to
evaluate whether unintended consequences impact nearby areas.
Climate change, which will differentially affect regions of the globe,
adds yet another dimension of resource use that UM studies can
usefully inform. For example, Mediterranean climate cities are
likely to experience greater heat incidents and water scarcities.
Understanding patterns of water use and energy requirements
(e.g., for cooling) through UM, coupled with water and energy policy, could greatly inform metropolitan adaptation and mitigation
strategies.
In addition to environmental, land use, and urban quality
parameters, urban metabolism analyses have the capacity to reveal
which inputs present an unsustainable balance between demand
and supply as well as pollution ows that result at an aggregate
scale. Additionally, these energy and material ows can be related
to provisioning and sustaining functions, such as resource sources
and sinks, that ecosystem services provide to communities. The
ecosystem services component of UM remains less well developed,
however. To date, UM has generally conducted a raw accounting
of pollution generated by the city, with little further study of the
environmental impacts (e.g., water pollution, atmospheric nitrogen deposition) on the surrounding hinterlands (or beyond). The
expanded urban metabolism framework described in this paper
seeks to facilitate the explicit incorporation of these assessments
into urban metabolism studies.
5. Urban metabolism, the second generation: upgrading
the analytical framework by adding spatiality, ecology, and
people
In this section we discuss the additional elements UM needs
to provide more complete analysis, as well as the theoretical
198
framework to connect its powerful information gathering capacity

to the local political, economic, and social context driving these
urban systems. It is difcult to set clear boundaries around the
intertwined humannatural interactions that need additional
studying. How urban ecosystems are created over time, for example, reects political, economic, natural, and social organization,
as well as how near-by and far-off ecosystems are enlisted to fuel
urban systems. One could, therefore argue that a citys UM has both
physical spatiality, and longitudinal space: history. We lay out each
topic individually and attempt to show how an expanded urban
metabolism framework can bring the necessary analytic synthesis.
6. Urban ecosystems and ecosystem impacts

Urban activities create novel urban ecosystems. These ecosystems have extensive social and built complexes that have a
dramatic effects on ecosystem form and function (Francis et al.,
2011; Pickett & Grove, 2009). Anthropogenic urban nature provides
ecosystem services, e.g., shading, habitat for fauna, food, purication for water, etc. This kind of human-mediated mixing of species
and built complexes is most intense and frequent in urban regions.
Networked global cities exchange organisms, materials and ideas
in unique biogeographical ways with signicant ecological consequences (Francis et al., 2011) that are not insignicant in an urban
areas metabolism, but are not investigated or accounted for either.
Such ecosystem services as biodiversity (whether human induced
or native), cultural and/or spiritual wellbeing from nature in the
city, urban heat island and stormwater mitigation from tree canopy
cover, and carbon sequestration or water purication by soils, are
only beginning to be quantied, and have not yet been incorporated
into UM. Novel urban ecologies are widely replicated across almost
all biogeographical, climatic, cultural, and economic regions in the
same way, but interact with local ecologies and bioregions differently (Francis et al., 2011). This raises research questions about
those dynamics, and also the impacts of such bio-cultural ecosystems on regions. UM is a framework for integrating these questions
into the understanding of specic urban systems.
Beyond the created urban ecosystem, the metabolism rates of
cities across the world involve increasingly large material and
energy ows of food-waste streams, imports, solid-waste accumulation, paper, plastics and building materials from areas outside
the boundaries of the urban system (Kennedy et al., 2007). The
metabolic cycles of cities are both open and unsustainable due
to the rates of materials consumption, but also because rates of
waste production do not match assimilation rates (Grimm et al.,
2008; Martinez Alier, 2002). Take, for example, the water quality
impacts of decades of air pollution in the Los Angeles basin. When
one of the major watersheds burned for the rst time in sixty years,
decades of air pollutants sequestered in the soils were released. The
heavy metal loadlead, cadmium and mercuryin the runoff concentrated decades of air pollution deposits, including pre-Clean Air
Act regulations. The implications for drinking water are signicant,
and the disposal costs and complexities of contaminated run-off
debris are daunting.
The inows sustaining urban systems have nearby and far-ung
impacts as well. In the Los Angeles case, again, water is imported
from the Owens Valley, 250 miles away, the Sacramento River
Delta, 400 miles away, and the Colorado River, 300 miles away. Each
water conveyance system has deeply altered the areas of origin,
changing ecological and hydrological processes. As the Los Angeles Region moves toward greater water self-reliance and the use
and management of autochthonous ground water resources, there
will be other changes in this already highly contaminated resource
(in certain areas) due to the legacy of war-related industries (military manufacturing used highly toxic petrochemicalssuch as
methyl ethyl ketonewhich were largely disposed of locally on

the soil of the small manufacturers, this has led to serious ground
water pollution). Legal structures such as ground water management rules need to be created, political/economic questions of
water ownership will need to be addressed, and scientic issues
such as reinltration rates and sustainable rates of extraction, will
also need to be integrated. Such ecological impacts (and their
political/economic regulatory aspects) are amplied through the
consumption and supply chains to a global scale that includes
mining, drilling, harvesting, and manufacturing the items that are
imported into the city-region.
Resource inputsand the impacts of extractionfrom far-ung
places can be parameterized in a UM analysis with life cycle assessment. LCA is a tool for assessing the cradle-to-grave effects of
products, processes, services, activities, or the complex systems in
which they reside (in this case a citys urban metabolism). LCA can
be integrated with UM through either the process- or economic
inputoutput (EIO)-based approaches.
Process-based LCA is the dominant and preferable approach for
assessing cradle-to-grave effects with high process, temporal, and
geographic representative data (Rowley, Lundie, & Peters, 2009).
Process-based LCA requires a great deal of primary data collection tracking each process step-by-step. There are software and
databases that have been developed to facilitate this task for different processes and technologies; process-based LCAs tend to be
more labor intensive, and likely yield more realistic accounting of
the life cycle of a product or ow because they address the specic commodities or process directly, whereas an EIO-LCA utilizes
aggregate economic data (Rowley et al., 2009).
There is a potential to link urban economic ows with EIO-based
LCA to complement process-based LCA. In the U.S., EIO-based LCA
can be applied broadly by joining the approach with North American Industrial Classication System (NAICS) economic data, the
standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and
publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
The Carnegie-Mellon Green Design Institute has developed an Economic InputOutput Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method that
estimates the materials and energy resources required for, and
the environmental emissions resulting from, activities in the economy for each of the NAICS categories of economic activities. This
approach applies only to the U.S. economy. The EIO-LCA method
was theorized and developed by economist Wassily Leontief in the
1970s based on his earlier inputoutput work from the 1930s for
which he received the Nobel Prize in Economics. Researchers at the
Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University operationalized Leontiefs method in the mid-1990s, once sufcient computing
power was widely available to perform the large-scale matrix
manipulations. Results from using the EIO-LCA on-line tool provide guidance on the relative impacts of different types of products,
materials, services, or industries with respect to resource use and
emissions throughout the supply chain. Thus, the effect of producing an automobile would include not only the impacts at the nal
assembly facility, but also the impact from mining metal ores, making electronic parts, forming windows, etc. that are needed for parts
to build the car, based on dollar values. The Green Design Institute
website (http://www.eiolca.net/) takes the EIO-LCA method and
transforms it into a user-friendly on-line tool to quickly and easily
evaluate a commodity or service, as well as its supply chain. It must
be noted, however, that this approach cannot capture nuance. For
example, plastic used in an automobile will be considered the same
as plastic used for a water bottle, though there are real life-cycle
differences in those materials.
Whether process or EIO-LCA is chosen (or a blend; see Rowley
et al., 2009), integration of LCA with urban metabolism provides a
heretofore undocumented linkage between the activities of urban
199
Table 2
Theories of political ecology and political economy as framework for understanding drivers of UM (after Gibbs, 2002).
Political ecology
Political economy
Uses political economic theoretical categories but

Focuses on:
The transformation of energy and materials and the environmental
and social impacts of that transformation.
Rules that guide resource exploitation (lack of rules is a type of mode
of regulation).
From Urban Regime Theory
Will draw attention to the ways governing coalitions will work
together for land development and access to resources such as
water, power, and scal supports in the form of transportation
funding, water infrastructure assistance (sewage treatment plants),
and their impacts on near and far-ung resources like watersheds or
ecosystems.
From Regulation Theory
Can include: weak to strong ecological modernization (materials
substitution, factor 5 energy efciency improvements), including
open or closed decision making with participation and involvement
spanning democratic to autocratic.
An approach that focuses on institutions, rules, money and power that shape
economic forces and ows of wealth. For example the organization of the
world market for rare minerals: China produces the vast majority of them, and
regulates their sale, despite GATT agreements for fair trade.
Political ecology includes detailed ecological information about

sources of materials and ows and impacts (can be done with LCA)
and human impacts, such as labor conditions and wages, health
impacts.
systems and their cradle-to-grave materials and energy inputs.

Building LCA accounting into urban metabolism will reveal the
relationships between specic urban areas and places that supply
them. It provides the basis for further investigating the ecological,
social, and political impacts of a set of activities in one place on
another.
7. Disaggregating metabolism
Most urban metabolism studies use highly aggregated
dataoften at the city or regional levelthat provide a snapshot of resource or energy use, but no correlation to locations,
activities, or people. Often this is due to a lack of ground-up (disaggregated) data. For various reasons, utilities and other energy
managers generally do not provide data at the census block or
track level, much less to the resolution of individual bills. Thus
there is a fundamental blindness about how much energy is used
in specic localities for specic purposes. Without being able to
attribute ows to people, places, and uses, it is nearly impossible
to determine the metabolism of a specic city. Thus another step
that is needed for UM to become more useful, and meaningful,
is to superimpose the ows with specic locationsplaces of
production and consumptionand then overlay census data as
well as the activities and land uses that are metabolizing the
inputs and generating the outputs within cities. In other words,
understanding who-is-using-what-ows-where-to-do-what (and
the concomitant waste produced) needs to be added to UM
analyses.
8. Theory for complex bio-social urban systems
The biggest challenge facing urban metabolism is the integration
of political, demographic, economic, and geographic factors that
govern or inuence a city or regions urban metabolism. Any citys
metabolism is the result of human agencythe ability to exploit
ecosystems and their services. This involves scales of governance,
institutional rules and conventions, multiple economic forces, and
Urban Regime Theory

Insight into characteristics of local governing coalitions:
Interactions among rms, local politicians, environmental enforcement
agencies (local and national), environmental pressure groups and the public.
Describes ows of money and power, especially as they relate to urban form
and real estate development.
Regulation Theory
Integrates the structural dynamics of capitalism with the institutional forms of
society. Focuses at the macro level to understand the accumulation process
and ensemble of institutional forms and practices that make the economy
function. Examines:
Mode of production public or private ownership of land/rms or other
economically productive assets.
Regime of accumulation currently founded on growth and mass production
for mass consumption, requiring massive supplies of raw materials and energy.
Mode of regulation social institutions and governmental regulations (e.g.
mining policy on public lands). The local and national state governments
actors that mediate among the economic forces.
n/a
capital ows that shape specic places. Here is where the UM

framework is weakest and needs the most theoretical development.
Political ecology and urban political economy offer a theoretical
framework for beginning this integrative process, framed by a critical realist philosophical perspective (Table 2). Critical realism is
an approach that draws attention to the need for multidimensional
accounts based on the synthesis of major signicant elements. It
is about how actors, actions, and contexts interact over space and
time and about the necessary and sufcient conditions that allow
certain urban political constructs to be successful (Sayer, 2000).
Critical realism is a theoretical position that posits that specic
places differ in important ways that need to be understood in and
of themselves. It points to the importance of contingency and that
human agents operate within social structures that they themselves create but then constrain future action. It seeks to understand
causal relationships and therefore is especially suited to unravel
complex urban systems.
Political ecology emerges from anthropology and is concerned
with how humans organize themselves to interact with nature. In
small-scale societies this tends to lead to analyses of the organization of the management of subsistence resources, who has
rights and responsibilities, how the society is organized internally,
and the distribution of resources. For contemporary societies the
approach draws on political economy, but adds in the material
basis of the economythe environmentand the specic conditions of places at certain times. Political ecology accounts for
and conducts research to understand and evaluate the inuence
of variables acting at a number of scales, nested within another,
with local decisions inuenced by regional policies, in turn within
global politics and economics, and then also from the local scale up
(Robbins, 2004) (see Fig. 1). Relying on systematic empirical data
gathering, description and exploration, political ecology explains
linkages in the condition and change of social/environmental systems by examining the organization of these systems and how
they work to metabolize the biophysical environment for human
use. The appropriation of nature that produces social and environmental conditions arises out of historical, political, and economic
200
processes, and of course, the constraints of the natural world

itself. The rise of industrialization was possible with the harnessing of fossil energy contingent on the coupled growth of
scientic knowledge and the emergence of capitalism as an economic organization. European expansion across the globe and
huge international migrations and explorations identied new
resources and new markets. The exploitation of fossil energy
and natural resources, over time, has enabled humans to live on
the planet at a level of material intensity never before experienced. This dramatic 250-year transformation is largely taken for
granted, but must now be examined for its future sustainability
in the context of localities (cities) and their nested hierarchies
(regions, nations, the globe) of material and energy use, a task
that an expanded urban metabolism framework is poised to
undertake.
9. Establishing an expanded urban metabolism framework
Urban metabolism is uniquely poised to offer a unifying
framework for quantifying, analyzing, and inuencing urban
form, function, process, and sustainability. Though the traditional
accounting methods described above are insufcient for understanding process and meaning in urban energy patterns, the UM
framework lends itself to greater interdisciplinary contributions
for the integration of methods and theories that build an understanding of complex urban systems. By integrating the theoretical
and methodological strategies described aboveincluding, but not
limited to, LCA, political ecology, and ecosystem servicesurban
metabolism can begin to organize the patterns and processes of
complex, non-discrete urban systems into comprehensible assessments of energy and material use in cities. This in turn becomes the
starting point for a true study and practice of urban sustainability.
We suggest the need to expand the urban metabolism method
into a more comprehensive framework that both analyzes the
biophysical material and energy parameters of cities as well as
the human, social, policy, economic, and related systems that both
structure and govern specic urban metabolic process (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Describing the additional elements of an expanded urban metabolism framework. Based on the spiral model of software development, urban metabolism
can serve as a platform for incorporating relevant and appropriate methodologies for quantifying elements of an urban system that characterize that systems
metabolism. The additional elements in the expanded platform allow for a more
thorough evaluation of the causal, scalar/hierarchical, and process-based characteristics of urban systems.
A sustainable metabolism would not exceed the hinterlands

ability to produce the energy and materials (electricity, building
materials, food, etc.) or absorb the wastes (waste water, solid
waste, toxic chemicals, urban heat island effect, etc.) that are
necessary to sustain an urban area. But to effectively achieve more
sustainable urban systems, it is necessary to expand the variables
that urban metabolism analyzes to include demography, economy,
health, mobility/accessibility, equity, community quality, policies
and regulations, employment, and education. Such analysis would
be useful to decision makers who are responsible for effecting
urban sustainability, including designers, engineers, planners and
municipal ofcials. It would permit targeted interventions by
these change agents. For example, urban ecosystem services could
be used to augment local water supplies through reinltration
zones, or the implementation of energy conservation measures
could be focused on excessively high users or low income
neighborhoods that could benet from energy conservation
programs.
While these expanded metrics may simply add more indicators (not an easy task in itself), to understand what these imply
for a citys metabolism and to effectuate the kinds of changes that
would be required to reduce the urban footprint and ensure a good
quality of life, implies shifts in policies and politics. This, of course,
could be highly contentious and will be informed by normative
perspectives. Technological optimists (ecological modernists) will
advocate for technological innovation and a materials substitution
strategy. Free market advocates will advocate for market forces to
allocate resources according to supply and demand, assuming that
efciency will be achieved with little regard to equity. Political ecologists and political economists will look at how rules are structured
and how power and money inuence processes to discern where
points of intervention to create systemic change can be found.
Indeed, there are a number of schools of thought about how change
takes place, from a Habermasian processual deliberative approach
(communicative rationality) to its radical critique (Mouffe, 2000).
What an expanded UM method allows is the application of different normative perspectives to a much more thoroughly described
complex urban system. Today policies and politics often take place
content free. While more data does not necessarily translate into
better decision-making, it does offer the potential for reducing
unintended consequences and improving the basis for policy making.
Critical to our suggested expansion is a recognition of the
scalar relationships of urban metabolism. As noted above, the
metabolism of a city is largely site-specic and dependent upon
the historical, geographic, demographic, economic, and climatic
context of a given city. These specicities are further embedded in a hierarchy of systems from the region up to the whole
planet. By incorporating both geographically specic metrics as
well as methods for quantifying the super-regional impacts (e.g.,
through LCA or ecosystem services), an expanded UM can serve
as a tool for addressing global sustainability. Climate change
is a prime example of how local decisions (e.g., land use,
transportation, energy intensity) can have global consequences
(Corfee-Morlot et al., 2011). By embedding local sustainability
metrics into their appropriate global framework, it is possible
to more clearly measure and impact things like local greenhouse gas emissions and their summative impact on the global
climate.
We hope that this suggestion of an expanded urban metabolism
framework will generate substantial debate and theoretical development. In general, we believe this expanded methodology can
begin with an urban metabolism analysis of a communitys energy
system, and then the identication of policy drivers that shape
consumption and waste patterns. This integrated process, which
includes multiple disciplinary approaches, analytical methods,
and scales of analysis, is necessary to ensure more complete

assessmentsand understandingof urban systems.
10. Conclusion
Urban centers grow in complex ways due to dynamic and interlinked geographical and institutional forces converging upon them
(Grimm et al., 2008). Cities are now nearly entirely dependent on
access to resources and ecosystem functions outside of their administrative boundaries. They are also, as a result, the primary driver of
global environmental change. This includes greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, the decline of biodiversity,
and impacts of resource extraction in far ung places such as mining in Africa for minerals, oil and gas extraction and much more.
Urban metabolism analysis can serve to bring to light these resource
impacts, and trace the consumption at the city level, back to the
place where the resource was originally obtained. Process impacts,
that may occur in yet another place, can also be quantied if UM is
linked with LCA.
At present, UM studies focus on fairly aggregated physical ows
of inputs and wastes at the city level without addressing the LCA,
but also not including an analysis of the social and institutional
drivers that organize, manage and regulate these ows and outcomes. Data gaps, omitted/hidden upstream ows, uncertainty
regarding the appropriate scale of analysis, and segregated information sources continue to constrain ne accounting of the urban
metabolism of cities. No studies have yet been able to describe ows
into a city and the waste sinks in a way that correlates those ows
with the specic residents and their activities, let alone a cradle to
grave accounting of the inputs. For example, few cities have data
about trash generation by ne-grained geographic scale or by land
use type.
Thus to determine what sectors are contributing different types
of waste, and the potential of waste reduction is quite difcult.
Moreover, without this type of specic information, it is also impossible to know what places and sectors are reducing their ows
and could be used as a model for other parts of the city/region.
This kind of data gap exists for water use, electricity and gas use,
materials intensivity of buildings and other infrastructure as well.
The same could be said about ecosystem services. While there is
a sense that a region such as Greater Los Angeles (for example)
could be far more water self-sufcient due to vast groundwater
resources, accurate mapping of optimal groundwater inltration
areas matched to land use is only emerging, and the sustaining capacity of groundwater resources themselves has not been
well assessed. Furthermore, change toward greater local water
resources use will also necessitate changes in land use regulations,
property rights, and groundwater management. Landscape designers and urban planners have an important role to play in these
changes. An expanded framework that also incorporates LCA methods will enhance the ability of urban metabolism to characterize
urban systems and inform their governance.
Finally, without a corresponding analysis of the social systemic
drivers of the ows, little headway will be made toward greater
urban sustainability, much less global climate change mitigation.
Patterns of resource use today, and the structures that support
them need to be unpacked for change to occur. These involve
power and money, politics and institutional conventions, as well
as increased afuence and population size. Merely describing the
ows better cannot make a difference without linking those ows
to the complex set of institutions, organizations, and societal relations that shape and guide economic activities, politics, and cultural
norms. This expanded urban metabolism framework is an attempt
to integrate these diverse research needs and advance the eld to
incorporate recognized needs and demands for societal relevance.
201
A nal note. Our suggested approach for a more integrated

and comprehensive urban metabolism method is complex and
requires not only greater data assimilation and analysis, but also
political, institutional and economic context setting. As budgets
for localities and states decline, this expanded method could
be both daunting and impossible to implement. However, there
are researchers developing models that accomplish the data
integration and whose efforts provide synthetic computational
models for localities, planners and policy makers. Universities are
good collaborators for these efforts, and provide knowledge and
modeling capacity for localities. The European BRIDGE project
(http://www.bridge-fp7.eu/) is one example, the UCLA Institute
of the Environment and Sustainability collaboration with the
Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Actions and Sustainability (LARC: http://www.environment.ucla.edu/larc/about/),
provides another. New partnerships between the research community and the implementation community will surely be part of
making this expanded urban metabolism framework succeed as the
ways government is able to conduct its business change in response
to budgetary constraints, and researchers are increasingly pushed
to make their work relevant by funding sources and by the public.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the California State Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER). The
research program was created when California decoupled electrical
generation from distribution to foster research on energy efciency.
The PIER program was not reauthorized by the California State Legislature.
We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for their
insightful comments and suggestions.
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Society, energy and materials: the

contribution of urban metabolism
studies to sustainable urban
development issues
Sabine Barles
Laboratoire Architecture, Urbanisme Socits LTMU , Institut

Franais d'Urbanisme, Universit de Paris 8 , 4 rue Alfred Nobel,
Cit Descartes, F 77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France
Published online: 19 May 2010.
To cite this article: Sabine Barles (2010) Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban
metabolism studies to sustainable urban development issues, Journal of Environmental Planning
and Management, 53:4, 439-455, DOI: 10.1080/09640561003703772
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Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

Vol. 53, No. 4, June 2010, 439455
Society, energy and materials: the contribution of urban metabolism

studies to sustainable urban development issues
Sabine Barles*
Laboratoire Architecture, Urbanisme Societes LTMU, Institut Francais dUrbanisme,

Universite de Paris 8, 4 rue Alfred Nobel, Cite Descartes, F 77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France
(Received 31 January 2009; nal version received 23 October 2009)
Urban areas, in particular cities, are signicant consumers of materials and
energy, either directly on their land areas or indirectly through the materials,
goods and services they import or export; there are upstream and downstream
consequences of the removal of resources and the discharge of waste materials (to
the atmosphere, water and soils), with multiple impacts on the biosphere. The
processes involved need to be better characterised to reduce these environmental
pressures. This is a sustainable development issue and it is a major goal of a eld
ecology which has been described as urban, industrial or sometimes territorial.
This paper reviews the specic origins and ndings of studies on urban
metabolism. It describes the analysis tools used, including material and substance
ows, energy balances, ecological, water and, more generally, environmental
footprints. Finally, recent ndings and areas for future research in the
dematerialisation of urban societies are summarised.
Keywords: industrial ecology; urban ecology; territorial ecology; material ow
analysis; substance ow analysis; environmental imprints
1. Introduction
Sustainable development refers to the interactions between societies and the
biosphere, which are considered two interdependent systems in co-evolution. The
anthroposystem or socio-ecosystem concepts also incorporate these two systems:
the term socio-ecosystem is used in the United-States and in several European
countries; however, the term anthroposystem is preferred in France (Leveque et al.,
in Leveque and Van der Leeuw 2003; see also Baccini and Brunner 1991, Berkes and
Folke 1998). There are many interactions; the most tangible are the energy and
material exchanges between societies and the biosphere. Societies, cities in particular,
are signicant consumers of materials and energy, either directly on their land areas
or indirectly through the materials, goods and services they import or export. Urban
metabolism thus has upstream and downstream consequences in terms of the
removal of resources and the discharge of waste materials (to the atmosphere, water
and soils), with multiple impacts on ecosystems and on the biosphere. Moreover, the
pronounced trend that characterises urbanisation processes is an increase in
the consumption of resources and in related emissions, which explains in part the
*Email: sabine.barles@univ-paris8.fr
ISSN 0964-0568 print/ISSN 1360-0559 online
2010 University of Newcastle upon Tyne
DOI: 10.1080/09640561003703772
http://www.informaworld.com
440
S. Barles
non-sustainability of urban societies other explanations being the non-renewable

nature of some consumed resources and the impossibility of renewing those that are
renewable at the same pace as their consumption.
Environmental sciences use several expressions (or terms) to characterise these
specic interactions. For example, the linear ow of materials refers to societies
taking resources from the biosphere and returning waste (i.e. transformed materials
often incompatible with the receiving area). The opening of biogeochemical cycles
refers to a similar process on the scale of substances or simple chemical elements:
while the natural functioning of the biosphere is characterised by closing material
cycles (carbon, nitrogen, etc.), the development of anthropogenic activities not only
intensies their ows, but also linearises them since the materials do not return to
their place of origin and, therefore, accumulate in a certain compartment of the
biosphere. If the materials somehow return to their origin, they return in a dierent
chemical form than the one they had at the time of their removal. Many of the
environmental problems encountered today can be attributed to these abundant and
linear ows: resource depletion, climate change, eutrophication, proliferation of solid
waste, dispersion of toxic material and loss of biodiversity, just to name a few. These
ndings also suggest solutions: dematerialisation, decarbonisation and dewatering
could lead to sustainability. These approaches are distinguishable from conventional
environmental techniques because they challenge the end-of-pipe solutions that have
long been used to settle environmental problems and aim to x them at their source
the collection of raw material and energy and material consumption.
Most of these facts are well known and have led some researchers to use the term
anthropocene for the current geological epoch (Crutzen 2002). This period is marked by
the emergence of determinisms with anthropogenic origins alongside natural determinisms that previously conditioned the planet. However, methods allowing a more detailed
characterisation of these facts, and other methods, based on these observations, allowing
the identication of a better governance of energy and material ows, are still largely
lacking. Furthermore, despite the considerable role cities play in these processes, they
remain largely unrecognised as agents in the ow of energy and material. Their local,
global or diered impacts in both space and time are also poorly recognised. Nevertheless,
taking into account their inherent concentration and their structuring role in agricultural
and industrial production, cities are probably signicant drivers of action and could
represent a special subject of study on exchanges between societies and nature.
Thus, the purpose of this paper is, once their origins have been established, to
present the trends of research studies that fall within the scope of these urban issues
and to place recent French work in this general overview. Urban metabolism studies
are relatively scattered and few in France and are often classied as urban
ecology (in the sense of ecology of cities more than ecology in cities (Grimm et al.
2000)), industrial ecology, territorial ecology or even social ecology. The tools and
methods used are discussed, including material and substance ows, energy balances,
ecological, water and, more generally, environmental footprints. Finally, areas for
future research in the dematerialisation of urban societies are identied.
2. Urban, industrial, territorial and social ecologies . . .
2.1. Supply, urban excreta and urban chemistry
Concerns regarding urban metabolism are not entirely new and, after having been
overlooked for many years, have once again become current. The European
441
scientic, intellectual and political communities addressed the question of supplying

cities (thus the entry of energy and materials) on an on-going basis up to the First
World War: since the beginning of the nineteenth century, this question provoked
many thoughts and actions on the scope of urban supply (often associated with the
notion of hinterland) and on the allocation of soils for this supply; problems which
were partially solved with the development of transport systems and the turn to fossil
energy (which severed the link between cities and forests and rendered forests less
essential to cities energy supply). During the nineteenth century, urban metabolism
(a term not used at the time) primarily involved the work of chemists concerned with
food production and agricultural fertilisation. Indeed, the population growth in
conjunction with the limitations of rural organic fertiliser sources led to fears of soil
depletion and intermittent, even permanent, food shortages. With growing population concentrations, cities began to be considered both as centres of consumption
and, through their abundant output of excreta, as new sources of fertilisers: human
and animal urine and excrement, organic mud produced on streets, household and
pre-industrial refuse, butcher shop and slaughter (later, slaughterhouse) by-products,
etc. Quantication of the potential fertilisers and the development of eective
collection and conversion techniques became major issues, as important as hygiene, in
the management of urban excreta.
This resulted in the birth of a true urban chemistry which was not biochemistry
before Pasteurs work that sought to understand rst the cycle of organic matter
and next of nutrients (nitrogen, then phosphorus and potash). Jean-Baptiste Dumas,
Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Justus von Liebig were the most famous among
European urban chemists. These chemists, and the manufacturers and engineers who
followed, fought against the linear ow of materials, favouring exchanges between
the city and agriculture. Similarly, many industrial activities that developed during
the nineteenth century depended on using urban by-products. The fertiliser
revolution and the mobilisation of new raw materials that made urban excreta
useless led to the death of urban chemistry and allowed for the opening of urban
metabolism (Barles 2005).
2.2.
The urbs ecosystem: heterotrophic and parasitic
Several decades elapsed before a renewed interest in urban metabolism was expressed
within the context of two emerging worries: the rst, the capacity of the planet to
feed and maintain a growing population and, the second, the destructive power of
man due to Earths nite, limited and unique characteristics. This was an idea
particularly brought forward at the Intergovernmental Conference of Experts on the
Scientic Basis for the Rational Use and Conservation of the Resources of the
Biosphere, sometimes called the Biosphere Conference, held in Paris in 1968 (see
Acot 1988). In addition to these planetary worries, a severe criticism of the industrial
town was frequently expressed. To cite only one example, in The City in History,
Lewis Mumford, who was aware of developments in ecology, denounced the myth
of megalopolis and forecast, like many of his contemporaries, the decline of
industrial towns (Mumford 1961).
The resulting urban ecology, developed from the 1960s onward, fell within the
scope of scientic ecology and, in particular, of the ecosystem theory brought
forward by Eugene Odum (1953). In 1965, the engineer Abel Wolman thus
introduced the notion of urban metabolism. He dened metabolic needs all the
442
S. Barles
materials and commodities needed to sustain the citys inhabitants at home, at work
and at play, the metabolic cycle and urban metabolic problems (Wolman 1965,
179). Shortly after, Eugene Odum described the city as a heterotrophic system
(Odum 1975) and later as a parasitic ecosystem (Odum 1989). The Belgian ecologist,
Paul Duvigneaud, who played an important role in the implementation of
international environmental research programmes, very closely followed him and
gave the Urbs (the Latin word for city) ecosystem signicant coverage in his very
popular Synthe`se ecologique (Duvigneaud 1974). He wrote: [translation] Scientic
knowledge . . . is required to ensure proper urban planning of the areas where most
men live (Duvigneaud 1974, p. 245). These rst texts on urban ecology of
naturalistic origin were well received internationally, particularly in France
(Mirenowicz 1982, Beaucire 1985), and were especially well conveyed by the
UNESCO Man and Biosphere programme, launched in 1971 (Celecia 2000). In this
framework, the cities of Rome, Barcelona and Hong Kong (Boyden et al. 1981) have
been the subject of detailed analyses.
Nevertheless, this research did not lead to the anticipated opportunities and
received erce criticism during the 1980s (see for example, for the French case,
Beaucire 1985, Theys and Emeliano 2001). Indeed, some urban ecologists wanted
to make ecology a division of science of its own, of which social sciences would
constitute only a part; an idea tolerated with diculty by social scientists.
Furthermore, these urban ecologists stuck to an energy determinism and to antiurban views (the city as a parasite) that prevented them from considering approaches
to control the environmental impact of cities. Finally, the methods developed to
analyse urban metabolism remained very approximate.
2.3.
Ecosystem, symbiosis and industrial ecology
The history of industrial ecology, which developed at the same time as naturalistic
urban ecology,1 reviewed by Suren Erkman (2004) in broad strokes, shows that, until
the end of the 1980s, the initiatives remained relatively isolated and focused on
industrial metabolism (the study of materials and energy ows) and industrial
ecosystems (the study of industrial assembly) among the pioneer texts, see Kneese
et al. (1970), Ayres (1978) and Billen et al. (1983). A major characteristic of these
approaches was the emphasis they placed on the need to link economic and ecologic
analyses. They even incorporated some principles stemming from ecology and
physics (for example, the law of conservation of matter) into the economic theory
(Kneese et al. 1970).
The present-day industrial ecology boom dates back to 1989 following the
publication of a special issue of Scientic American Managing Planet Earth, which
included the article Strategies for Manufacturing by Robert Frosch and Nicholas
Gallopoulos (1989).2 In the next decade, the number of research projects, experiments
and publications multiplied in this eld: for example Baccini and Brunner (1991),
Ayres and Simonis (1994), ORourke et al. (1996). The founding of the Journal of
Industrial Ecology in 1997 and of the International Society for Industrial Ecology in
2000 contributed to the structuring of industrial ecology as a discipline.
At rst, the principle objective of industrial ecology was the study and the
optimisation of the metabolism of the industrial sector. The approach was clear and
had two major goals: the rst was to identify and reduce loss of materials in order to
reduce the environmental impact of industrial processes and the cost of raw
443
materials; the second was to develop industrial symbioses, i.e. industrial assemblies
in which the by-products and refuse of one industry become the source for raw
materials or energy of another, based on Kalundborgs highly emblematic symbiosis
(Jacobsen 2006). Industrial ecology often favoured a quantitative and accounting
approach to metabolism, as well as a technological approach approaches that are
necessary, but not sucient, insofar as they do not consider the eect of stakeholders
with dierent proles and objectives on the ows or the social dimension of
industrial ecology (Boons and Howard-Grenville 2009). Furthermore, industrial
ecology often considered only one part of the anthropogenic ow of materials:
mainly the production sector. This three-pronged criticism was expressed by various
authors at the end of the 1990s (ORourke et al. 1996, Anderberg 1998), and seems to
have been heard since the organisers of the penultimate ISIE conference, held in June
2007, promoted the necessity of a full partnership with the social sciences and to
consider consumption (so the industrial society more than the industrial sector) as
part of the objectives of industrial ecology, together with the new need to address
explicitly the issues around sustainability.3 This concept of industrial ecology was
accepted earlier by some researchers and adopted in France.4
2.4. Territorial ecology and social ecology
Cities were initially largely absent in industrial ecology because the approaches were
generally poorly spatialised: for example, one of the reference works in the eld
(Ayres and Ayres 2002) devotes, on very sectional themes, only two chapters to
cities out of a total of 46. However, urban issues gained in importance (see for
instance Baccini and Brunner 1991). In 2007 one issue of the Journal of Industrial
Ecology is devoted to the city (Bai 2007b), and in 2008 the ConAccount conference
held in Prague specically addressed the urban metabolism question (Havranek
2009). After 2000, this trend gave rise to a new expression specic to France:
territorial ecology.5 This eld of research is based on both the accomplishments of
industrial ecology and urban ecology as dened in section 1.2 and brings together
scholars from various elds such as industrial ecology, urban planning, urban
engineering, urban biogeochemistry and ecological economics. As such, it is an
industrial ecology that is considered in a spatial context and that takes into account
the stakeholders and, more generally, the agents involved in material ows,
questions their management methods and considers the economic and social
consequences of these ows. This expression, which also has the advantage of
replacing the term urban ecology, is not universally used; in order to not add to the
confusion, some of those in the eld argue for the continued use of the original
designation (industrial ecology) in view of its precedence and the existing structuring
of the eld. The emphasis on the spatial dimension of energy and material ows
closely relates territorial ecology to the eld of social ecology championed by the
Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna (Austria).
3. Recent work
In this context, research projects were launched that fell, implicitly or explicitly, within
the elds of urban ecology, of industrial ecology when focused on cities (or parts of
cities), of territorial ecology with the same focus, or of biogeochemistry applied to
urbanised systems. While not an exhaustive list, this section presents an inventory as
444
S. Barles
illustrative as possible of the issues and themes examined in these studies, thanks to an
overview about how four dierent methodological approaches (Material Flow
Analysis; Substance Flow Analysis; Energy Flow Analysis and Environmental
Footprinting) are used to quantify the biophysical exchange processes of cities.
The studies reviewed here either fall under the scope of primary research or of
applied research and decision support. In the rst case, they seek to understand how
urban biogeochemistry works, the implications of the material and energy needs of
cities on other spaces and the entire biosphere, and how biogeochemical and social
operations interact. In the second case, the research falls within the scope of the
issues of sustainable development (Walsh et al. 2006) and addresses the requirements
that need to be met for dematerialisation (the consumption of fewer materials),
decarbonisation (the consumption of less carbon), and closing the material loops,
decoupling (between material consumption and economic development). These
studies may involve constructing indicators, identifying special targets for sustainability (a material, an industry, etc.), developing decision support tools for strategies
to dematerialise, decarbonise, etc.
There are relatively few methods for analysis: material, substance or energy
balances and life-cycle analyses (however, some researchers involved in life-cycle
analysis do not necessarily claim to belong to the eld of industrial ecology). These
methods apply the principle of conservation of matter (Nothing is lost, nothing is
created, everything is transformed) and the principles of thermodynamics (most
often the rst principle of energy conservation, sometimes associating it with the
second: the entropy of the universe always increases). Other methods, from various
disciplines, can supplement these basic methods on a case-by-case basis: the history
of technology, urban engineering, management sciences, sociology of organisations,
urban planning etc. Yet, metabolism remains at the heart of the approach, whether it
is to understand, characterise or modify it. These studies on metabolism can lead to
modelling and even simulation. The research subjects are varied, even when the
analyses are restricted to projects with an urban dimension (central city, urban area,
region), or to a particular substance.
3.1.
The urban materials balance
In the last few years, (bulk) Material Flow Analysis (MFA) has become more rened
and precise (see Baccini and Brunner 1991, Bringezu et al. 1997, 1998, Kleinj et al.
1999, Hammer et al. 2003a, Brunner and Rechberger 2004, Barles 2009, Havranek
2009), although studies of this type remain rare at the urban level.
The key questions raised and discussed are:
. How should the system be dened and then limited? Does it correspond to a
geographic or administrative unit and its natural substratum or must a
boundary be placed between, on one hand, a social and economic system
that is characterised by its population, its organisation and its activities and,
on the other hand, the natural environment that supports it (the case in
Figure 1)?
. What is the relevant scale of the research? Should consideration be given to the
urban area as a whole, some subsystems within the urban area or a larger area,
that is a regional one? Statistical constraints may determine the scale, but may
lead to bias.
445
Figure 1. Schematic of the Local Bulk Material Balance, adapted from the National Balance
Method of the Statistical Oce of the European Community (Eurostat).
Source: Reprinted with permission from S. Barles, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 13(6), (2009)
898913. Copyright by WileyBlackwell.
Notes: BI: Balancing input, e.g. the oxygen consumed by combustion reaction. BO: Balancing
ouputs, e.g. the water produced from the combustion reaction must be considered. BI and BO are
necessary to balance the MFA. Many indicators can be dened from this analysis: TMR: Total
Material Requirement; TMI: Total Material Input; DMI: Direct Material Input; NAS: Net
Addition to Stock; DPO: Direct Processed Output; LEPO: Local and Exported Processed Output;
TDO: Total Domestic Output; DMO: Direct Material Output; TMO: Total Material Output.
. Should the material balance be based on inputs and outputs of the system
before a more detailed analysis of the involved processes (Figure 1), or is it
preferable to infer the balance from the analysis of the natural and social
processes that characterise material ows, that is, to describe these ows from
within the system (Brunner and Rechberger 2004)?
. What pertinent indicators can be inferred from the material balance?
. How can the indirect ows be counted?
Establishing a uniform methodology is important in view of allowing comparisons in
time and space of multiple studies. Nevertheless, it remains an open question at the
local scale.
Furthermore, one of the objectives of bulk material balances is to characterise
the impact of cities on the biosphere on a global scale pressure on resources, air
pollution and, more generally, the impact on global change. This multi-scale
approach is relatively recent and there are few studies of this type to date see, for
example, beyond those previously cited: Schulz (2005), Kaye et al. (2006), Hammer
et al. (2006), Bai (2007a), Kennedy et al. (2007). It allows the weight of the urban
operation, in the full sense of the term, to be known. Thus, in the case of Paris and
its suburbs, all emissions represent more than half of the total material inputs and
are, consequently, more signicant than conventional exports (i.e. those linked to
monetary ows) (Table 1). Paris imports approximately 20,000 Kt (8.8 t/inhab)
and discharges 11,000 Kt (5.1 t/inhab) of materials annually. These numbers reveal
446
S. Barles
the stakes involved in dematerialisation. Nevertheless, the direct material

consumption in Paris 5.0 t/inhab remains low compared to Hamburgs (in
2001, 8.2 t/inhab for the central city and 11.4 t/inhab for its suburbs) (Hammer
et al. 2006).
Material balances can also be broken down into product categories. The results,
presented in Figure 2, show that these balances accurately reect the metropolitan
operation: much is eaten in Paris because of the large number of jobs and tourists; a
Table 1. Material balance for Paris, Paris and its inner suburbs (PPC) and Paris Greater
Metropolitan Region (Ile-de-France, IdF), 2003.
Paris (2,166,000
inhab)
DMI
DPO
LEPO
DMO
NAS
DMCcorr
Recycling (local & outside)
PPC (6,321,000
inhab)
IdF (11,259,000
inhab)
kt
t/inhab
kt
t/inhab
kt
t/inhab
19,160
6860
10,960
19,340
3100
10,780
1850
8.8
3.2
5.1
8.9
1.4
5.0
0.9
69,530
27,410
37,020
77,430
4110
29,120
4660
11.0
4.3
5.8
12.2
0.7
4.6
0.7
137,990
76,290
76,360
134,860
29,460
79,490
7320
12.3
6.8
6.8
12.0
2.6
7.1
0.7
Source: Adapted from Barles (2009).

Notes: DMI: Direct Material Input; DPO: Direct Processed Output; LEPO: Local and Exported
Processed Output; DMO: Direct Material Output; NAS: Net Addition to Stock; DMCcorr: Direct
Material Consumption (connected).
Figure 2. Direct Material Consumption (DMC) for Paris, its Inner Suburbs, Outer Suburbs
and Greater Metropolitan Region (Ile-de-France, IdF), 2003, t/inhab, rail transportation
excluded.
Source: Reprinted with permission from S. Barles, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 13(6), (2009)
898913. Copyright by WileyBlackwell.
447
large amount of construction materials are consumed in the outer suburbs due to
urban sprawl (both direct and, especially, indirect consumption linear infrastructure related to new housing). The link between land use and urban metabolism
is seen here.
It is also possible to compare and monitor local and national indicators. The
Hamburg case, analysed from 1992 to 2002, is revealing in this matter (Hammer
et al. 2003b): on the one hand, direct material inputs (DMI) are much higher than
the national average (65 and 22 t/inhab, respectively) as they are driven by
Hamburgs harbour functions; on the other hand, the direct material consumption
(DMC), which was lower than the German average at the beginning of the 1990s (10
and 20 t/inhab respectively), seems to catch up with, even exceed, this national
average 10 years later, suggesting that Hamburgs sustainability is lower in 2002 than
it was in 1992.
Material balances can also be used to dene targets for dematerialisation and,
more generally, for improvements to the ecologic performance of cities. Such
projects, still largely experimental, are on the cutting edge of research and actions
and can be directly dealt with by local communities. Within the framework of its
environmental policy, in 1995 the city of Stockholm launched an intensive study
linking material and substance ow analyses (Burstrom et al., in Bringezu et al.
1998). More recently, in the township of Geneva, a law on public action for
sustainable development (Agenda 21), adopted in March 2001, states in Article 12:
[translation] The State facilitates possible synergies between economic activities in
order to minimise their environmental impacts (Erkman 2006, p. 1). This principle
led to the realisation of a material and energy balance that will serve as the basis of
the townships sustainable development policies. For example, the balance of food
material reveals that barely 25% of organic waste is recovered. This nding leads to
the conclusion that both an increase in this rate and an intensication of
methanisation infrastructures, the process considered to be the most eective for
waste recovery, must be advocated for (Erkman 2006).
3.2.
Substance ows
Substance ow analysis (SFA) is used to address more specic questions (like water,
air or soil contamination by one substance or another), or to understand the role of
cities in global biogeochemistry. In view of the broad diversity of natural and
anthropogenic processes being considered, there is no standardised SFA method like
the one used for the material ows. Some of the questions that have been touched on
regarding bulk material remain (limits and scale, indirect ows), but they are solved
on a case-by-case basis. Compared to bulk materials, the characterisation of the
substance ows requires consideration of the processes internal to the system under
study (a city, for example), which can no longer be considered as a black box. More
generally, the same issues exist as for bulk material, from fundamental research
questions (e.g. what is a city from a biogeochemical perspective?) to applied research
questions.
Because cities produce little of their own food and food consumption has a
considerable impact on several biogeochemical cycles, the analysis of the ows of
biogenic elements is fairly developed. An initial set of research studies was carried
out over the (relatively) long term and raised questions on the evolution of urban
food needs and its consequence, not only in terms of agricultural production and
448
S. Barles
lands required to satisfy these needs, but also in terms of the management of the
resulting discharge and its release, in one form or another, into the environment.
The research was directed towards phosphorus and nitrogen and has revealed the
signicant stress imparted by a growing urban demographic on food production. It
has also shown the impact of the evolution of agricultural techniques (especially
fertilisers) and food practices (meat) on the agricultural areas farmed to meet the
dietary needs of cities (Schmid-Neset 2005, Billen et al. 2008), and the impact of
urban techniques on the varying return of nutrients to cultivated soils (Figure 3).
These studies constitute a textbook example of the analysis of the gradual opening of
biogeochemical cycles.
The topicality of these themes appears in several studies that stress the link
between land consumption and food production and/or the hugeness of the ows at
play, the low level of recycling and their impacts on the environment (eutrophication, oxygen decit) and public health (nitrates) (Gumbo et al. 1999, Frge et al.
2001, Danius and Burstrom 2001, Waggoner 2006, Forkes 2007). For example,
Jennifer Forkes (2007) shows that in Toronto despite the development of an organic
matter waste reclamation technique, the nitrogen recycling rate has decreased from
4.7% in 2001 to 2.3% in 2004. In Bangkok, 7% and 10% of dietary nitrogen and
phosphorus, respectively, are currently recovered (Frge et al. 2001). These studies
put in perspective the eect of the recycling policies that may be implemented and
demonstrate the need for a better understanding of the urban ow of biogenic
elements and an optimised waste reclamation technique. These ndings have
signicant consequences in terms of clean-up techniques (liquid and solid) that
adhere to ecological or sustainable sanitation perspectives.6
Because of their high toxicity, heavy metals are the subject of numerous studies
see for example, the Swedish programme Metals in the Urban and Forest
Figure 3. Flow of Dietary Nitrogen, Paris, 1869, tN.

Source: Adapted from Barles (2007).
Notes: The quantication of dietary inputs and the analysis of techniques associated with
urban excreta can be used to describe the ow of nitrogen and to show that 24% of nitrogen
entering in the form of food returns to agriculture (compared to 20% in 1871 and 40% in
1913). The particular importance of horse feed, that is to say of transport, in the urban
nitrogen cycle is also shown.
449
Environment Ecocycles and Critical Loads, directed by Bo Bergback and Kjell

Johansson at the end of the 1990s and the related special issue of Water, air, and soil
pollution (Iverfeldt 2001). The management problem associated with heavy metals is
dierent than the one for food substances. The consumption of metal is either
directly linked to its use in industry and other human activities (for example, zinc on
roofs or lead in accumulators) or a side eect of the consumption of other materials
in which it may be present as an impurity (for example, in coal). Furthermore, the
life of these substances, in society as in ecosystems, can be much longer.
Consequently, the evaluation of both stocks and ows is necessary and, beyond
the substances general circulation, dissipative losses (wear) and various fugitive
emissions must be identied and quantied. This is further emphasised by the fact
that these substances are often toxic at very low doses; minor ows can thus have
signicant consequences on the environment and on public health.
Current research is mainly aimed at quantifying and locating the subject
substance. It is possible to cite, for example, studies showing that Paris is one of the
major lead mines in France because of the stock it has built up since Roman
antiquity, despite a decrease in consumption since the end of the 1970s. This dip, still
slight, must not be interpreted as though the problem with lead is nearing resolution.
In fact, the problem still exists, as shown by the increasing number of cases of infant
lead poisoning in Paris: the present situation is less a reection of the current
consumption of this metal than its past uses, and today, urban centres appear as lead
stocks because this substance has been converted, used and incorporated into the
urban environment. This being the case, two basic questions remain: where is it?
where will it go? The analysis of the ow of substances contributes to nding answers
to these questions (Lestel et al. 2007).
Studies on mercury in Stockholm depict similar processes: there was a signicant
growth in use from the end of the eighteenth century to the mid-1970s, followed by a
rapid decline. Correspondingly, emissions to air, water and soil are declining as
rapidly. Nevertheless, much of the mercury imported during the last 200 years is still
stored, mainly in soils and sediment. As such, to understand the contamination of
Stockholm and its terrestrial and aquatic environment is also to understand the
manufacturing process of felt hats, mirrors and thermometers; techniques for gilding
and silvering and, especially, treatments for syphilis and dental cavities (Sveden and
Jonsson 2001).
3.3. Energy balances
Although the notion of metabolism refers both to the energy and to the material
required for the operation of a given system, studies of urban metabolism have long
favoured the material balance rather than the energy balance. One reason for this is
that the questions raised by interactions between human societies and nature stem
more from material than energy issues, although they do involve large amounts of
energy. For example, climate change is due, at least partially, to energy
consumption, but it can be analysed as a particular case of the opening of
biogeochemical cycles; it is indeed a case of excess material greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere that causes it; it is indeed the exploitation of certain material
resources particularly fossil fuels that is at the origin of the problem, even if these
resources are used for their energetic qualities. Another reason is that urban energy
issues are often addressed by engineers specialised in this eld and who belong to
450
S. Barles
scientic communities dierent from the one dealing with urban metabolism (Barles
et al. 2010).
Ignoring the energy issue has resulted in major environmental and social issues
being overlooked. It explains why hydraulic power is considered sustainable and yet
its development has undeniable impacts; why, in a more urban perspective, the
thermal island issue, despite its signicance in climate change, is disregarded; why
what is at the origin of the extraction of certain materials is not considered: the
energy needs of societies, transportation demands, etc. Moreover, the energy issue is
much greater than the simple consumption of extrasomatic energy (beyond
physiological needs) since the food issue is closely linked to it. Finally, the biosphere
is a biosphere thanks to solar energy, whose utilisation, indeed appropriation, allows
the functioning of human societies.
These ndings are behind approaches now used that are somewhat distinguishable from the traditional analysis methods of industrial or urban metabolism.
Examples of such approaches are found in the research conducted at the Institute of
Social Ecology in Vienna, especially by Fridolin Krausmann (2005) and Helmut
Haberl (2001a, 2001b, 2006). These researchers compare the metabolism of societies
to their total energy consumption, both technical and non-technical, and on this
basis develop a set of indicators that characterise the impact of human societies on
the biosphere (especially human appropriation of net primary productivity or
HANPP, see Haberl et al. (2007)). The approach of these studies bears a causal
connection with the notion of ecological footprint (that does not generally claim to
belong to the eld of industrial, urban, or territorial ecology).
3.4.
The environmental footprints of cities
The idea of a footprint has been widely disseminated thanks to William Rees and
Mathis Wackernagels concept of an ecological footprint (Rees and Wackernagel
1996a, 1996b). It represents the amount of biologically productive surface needed
to sustainably maintain a human society given its living standard and lifestyle; it
accounts for both the surfaces consumed and those that are needed to compensate
for the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the use of fossil fuels. A number
of criticisms have been aimed at the concept of an ecological footprint (Van Den
Bergh and Verbruggen 1999, Piguet et al. 2007, Billen et al. 2008, Fiala 2008),
including the non-location of the footprint, the mono-functional characteristic
attributed to soils, the bias inherent to the method (especially its aim to account
for too many phenomena thanks to a unique indicator a virtual area), the
possible pernicious eects of using it as a tool for action, and the fact that it
does not account for the sum of the interactions between societies and the
biosphere because it gives more weight to an energy approach (biomass and fossil
fuels).
The concept of environmental footprints or imprints is, however, particularly
important for characterising the impacts of metabolism (urban in the context of this
article) on the biosphere. The term footprint (or imprint) is used to designate both
the spatial dimension of the impacts (in three dimensions, the third one being its
depth, that is the intensity of its environmental impact) and their varying severity.
The plural of this term (footprints) is used to signify that there are many dierent
impacts. As such, each city has a set of footprints whose size, shape, localisation and
depth changes in time, but accurately reects the citys metabolism, the lifestyle of its
451
citizens and not only its urban, but also its national and international, socioeconomic, political and technical systems.
There is a lot at stake with this concept. The aim is to show the partial and
gradual delocalisation of resource consumption and the emissions and discharges
magnied by globalisation, and all the consequences that ensue in terms of intragenerational solidarity. Examples include studies on the water footprint that were
rst conducted on a nation-wide scale and aimed at describing, both qualitatively
and quantitatively, the virtual water transfers associated with international trade
(Chapagain and Hoekstra 2004). Some works are also conducted at the regional
(Peters et al. 2007) or urban level (Chatzimpiros and Barles 2009); cities import
goods whose development required the consumption of a certain quantity of water
elsewhere which also led to an impairment of the resource in the drainage basin
concerned. Similarly, studies on the food footprint or food-print (Billen et al. 2008)
have shown that it has decreased in area because the agricultural yield has increased
since the Second World War in developed countries. Its depth, however, has
increased as a result of the growing use of synthetic fertilisers and phytosanitary
products. Furthermore, the food-print is increasingly discontinuous and distant from
the cities supplied. In addition, the concept of environmental footprints allows
spatial limits to be placed where human and urban activities develop, while
emphasising the critical issue of land use and its competing allocations (Krausmann
2001).
4.
Conclusion: consolidating the eld
Although it is a relatively new eld of research, urban metabolism in its wide sense
as suggested by the French territorial ecology has a bisecular past and its
epistemology must still be rened (however, see Fischer-Kowalski 1999, FischerKowalski and Huttler 1999). Future progress, both in the scope of the research and
in the action to be taken, can be expected if the city begins to be considered not as an
unsustainable parasite, but as a source of physical, energy, social and intellectual
resources.
It would be necessary to consolidate the theoretical basis of urban metabolism
studies, in particular, by going beyond the problems that arise from using analogies
and metaphors that all too often characterise it. It would be also necessary to dene
methods for analysis and to infer from them disaggregatable synthetic indicators that
would allow built-up areas to be monitored in time or compared to other built-up
areas, whether it is to characterise or to control interactions between urban societies
and the environment. Particular attention should also be paid to the identication of
the latent and remote eects of cities in time and space, which are particularly critical
against the background of economic globalisation and global change: their
footprints are still too poorly known. In urban spaces, it would be important to
link urban structures, lifestyle and urban metabolism: the impact of urban structures
on energy consumption is relatively well known, but a lot less is known about their
impact on material ows (see, for example, Newman and Kenworthy 1991, Haase
and Nuissl 2007). Another issue that remains to be addressed is the creation of a
stronger link between energy and material approaches, one not being reducible to the
other.
Taking it a step further, urban metabolism studies must also go beyond energy
and material accounting. The link between economy and ecology in the urban
452
S. Barles
context has not been investigated enough, although there have been signicant
contributions in journals such as Ecological Economics. The analyses must consider
the spatial and the territorial contexts, as well as the agriculture industry city
triptych. In this way, it is possible to question the concepts of proximity, both spatial
and social; the governance of ows, including the role of lifestyle and urban practices
in material exchanges; and the role of local and territorial stakeholders. To date, this
eld of inter disciplinary research is fragmentary.
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Naturalistic urban ecology refers to urban ecology developed under the wider umbrella
of the eld of natural sciences, and not urban ecology as a branch of urban sociology (see
Boons and Howard-Grenville 2009).
Several other founding papers in this eld were published at the same time: (Ausubel and
Sladovich 1989, Reconciling 1989).
ISIE Conference Introduction, Toronto, 1720 June 2007. Available online [reference date
26 June 2007] from: http://www.pdc.utoronto.ca/events/International_Society_for_Industrial_Ecology_ISIE_2007/Preliminary_Schedule.htm
See, in particular, the results of the Prospective reection workshops on industrial
ecology, created by the National Research Agency in 2006 to promote the development of
industrial ecology in France. Available from: http://www.arpege-anr.org/
The author obtained this expression from Beno t Duret (Auxilia) but does not know who
coined it rst.
The Environment Institute of Stockholm is piloting the project EcoSanRes. Closing the
loop on sanitation (http://www.ecosanres.org/). This project is the basis of the
International Conference on Sustainable Sanitation: Eco-Cities and Villages, Dongsheng
(China), 2631 August 2007. Available from: http://www.ecosanres.org/icss/
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HABITAT INTL. Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 405-420, 1996

Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0197-3975/96 $15.00 + 0.00
Pergamon
S0197-3975(96)00022-7
Wastewater Infrastructure:
Challenges for the Sustainable City in the New Millennium
M.B. BECK* and R.G. C U M M I N G S t
*University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA;

tGeorgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
ABSTRACT
Aspects of the technologies that might be employed in the wastewater infrastructures of
cities in the longer-term future are discussed. For this purpose a wastewater infrastructure
is defined as the string of unit process technologies used to recycle and return the waterborne residuals of a city to its surrounding environment. In the cities of Europe and
North America, for example, this infrastructure conventionally comprises the urban sewer
network, wastewater treatment plant, and receiving water body. To provide context and
direction for the discussion, the impact of the city and its wastewater infrastructure on
the surrounding environment is reviewed over a time-scale of centuries. Two analogies
are employed in order to illustrate this impact: the concept of a city's 'metabolism'
within the global cycling of materials; and the notion of gauging the 'health' of the
system through something akin to measuring the 'pulse-rate' of an organism. Three scenarios
are drawn for the possible pattern of adaptation and more radical change in the technological composition of the city's future wastewater infrastructure. These may culminate in a
structure altogether different from that with which we are familiar today, i.e. a decentralised, highly segregated system in which control and manipulation of the composition of
any residual at its source is maximised. Further, it is argued that the issue of reliability
of performance may be a critical (technological) factor in choosing a preferred form of
wastewater infrastructure. We do not discuss the economic, social or cultural dimensions
of our subject; we acknowledge that these are likely to be decisive considerations, the
seeming technological attraction of any option notwithstanding. Copyright 1996 Elsevier
Science Ltd
~TRODUCTION
The word 'sustainability' has entered common usage in recent years, such that developing what might be called a sustainable agriculture or a sustainable form of forestry has
become a matter of priority in research. This trend, doubtless fuelled by the approach
of a new millennium, has provoked interest in the concept of a sustainable city. 1Quite
what would constitute the 'sustainability' of a city is not something we shall attempt
to elucidate in this paper, for we note that there has been little in the way of progress,
in general, in making the concept of sustainability operational, z But in a commonsense fashion, merely conceiving of the notion of a sustainable city has forced us to
think through how the entity of a city relates to the surrounding natural environment
Correspondence to: M.B. Beck, Daniel B. Wamell School of Forest Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens,
GA 30602-2152, USA.
405
406
M.B. Beck and R.G. Cummings
in which it exists. These considerations have led us to reflect on the city's impact on
that environment over geological time, on what might be a desirable form for the
relationship between the city and its environment, and on the choice of technologies
that might be preferred for the composition of the city's infrastructure. This last, which
will be the focus of our discussion, cannot, of course, be divorced from socioeconomic
questions of the acceptability to the public of technological change in an infrastructure.
For the purpose of this paper our interest in the sustainable city debate is in the
freedom it has engendered : to dare to break certain moulds of conventional thinking.
Thus, given the myriad problems facing cities that arise from a more complete exploitation of water resources, their more intensive use and re-use, and the threat (or actuality) of degraded water quality, a more profound form of enquiry has been brought to
bear on the question of whether the manner in which the wastewater infrastructure of
a city is organised is capable of improvement, perhaps even radical improvement. In
short, our task is to explore the question:
If we did not have the present urban system of sewer networks and wastewater
treatment facilities, would we re-invent and adopt them or, given what we know
now, would we opt for (potentially radically) different alternatives?
A complete answer to this question is well beyond the scope of this paper and is not
yet available (if it ever were to be). What is more, a city's infrastructure has many
parts and it is helpful only up to a point to separate out for analysis its wastewater
component. In the next section we shall discuss briefly how the structure and technology of a city's wastewater infrastructure has evolved, over decades and centuries. Our
purpose is to give a sense of the dynamics of change in the longer term, as a basis
from which to speculate on some possible extrapolations into the future. The following section examines two principles by which one might attempt to discriminate between
more and less desirable alternatives for this infrastructure. In developing these principles
we shall make an appeal - - common now in the late 20th century - - to the analogy of
the system, in our case the city, as an organism. Armed then with these principles, the
penultimate section sets out a vision of three strategic paths that might be pursued into
the medium- and long-term future: adaptation, with the use of some 'high' technology,
of the existing paradigm of wastewater infrastructures; a re-orientation of the purpose
of this paradigm; or change, of a more substantial nature, to a quite different structure.
The final section presents the conclusions to the argument.
GEOLOGICAL TIME AND THE IMPACT OF THE CITY

Our need is first to define the system that we are about to analyse, its inputs and its
outputs. There is also a need for a convenient and illuminating 'image' of how we
should view the well-being or otherwise of this system and, indeed, its interrelationship with its surrounding environment. Our point of departure is that cities are
associated with flows of energy and materials. At this macroscopic level we imagine
the city to be as a complex organism, just as below we shall have to view the environment in a similar fashion. In its metabolism the city consumes resources and generates
what we conventionally regard as waste products. ~
It is difficult, of course, after some reflection on where these materials come from
(as in food, for example), to avoid falling into the trap of equating the system of the
city with the entire global system. In fact, it is not at all easy to define what should
constitute the s y s t e m - - that piece of the real world in which one has a special interest
- - when in reality things move in cycles, notably the hydrological cycle and some
intertwined global material flows. But in order to make any progress we shall have to
cut our image of the system out and away from the seamless web of interactions in
which it sits. So let us now focus our attention more narrowly on precipitation and
other deposits on the urban land surface as our primal inputs and on streamflow and
Wastewater Infi'astructure
407
its burden of constituents as the outputs of primary concern to us. The system, therefore,
comprises just the terrestrial component of the hydrological cycle and the wastewater
component of the city's infrastructure. Still more narrowly, therefore, this does not
include the corresponding element of infrastructure for the supply of potable and industrial
water to consumers in the city.
Let us examine then how the city, and its associated wastewater infrastructure, have
evolved and what has been their impact, when viewed as a transient perturbation of
the pre-existing 'pristine' hydrology of a river basin, in an instant of geological time.
At the onset of the perturbation, there was migration of population into the city; then
the installation of a centrally organised water supply to the city; the installation of
sewerage for avoiding flooding from precipitation over the newly created impervious
surfaces; extension and adaptation of the notion of sewerage and the use of water for
the conveyance of wastes out of the confined spaces of the city; followed by wastewater
treatment at a regional facility; and then successively more effective wastewater treatment.
Over the decades and centuries a local problem of soil pollution, from the practice
of land application of sewage in an earlier rural society, has been transformed into a
regional problem of water pollution. As the wastewater infrastructure of the city has
become more comprehensive - - at least within the paradigm of European and North
American cities - - this regional problem of water pollution has, in turn, become a
problem of solid-waste management. For the concomitant of conventional technologies of wastewater treatment, driven by the goal of restoring the quality of the city's
liquid residual to a near pristine state, is an ever increasing volume of recalcitrant
sewage-derived solid residuals.
In short, urban development today in Europe, North America and elsewhere can
hardly be imagined in the absence of sewerage, i.e. a water-based system of waste
removal, and the biotechnical processes generally believed to be indispensable to
contemporary wastewater treatment. The tree-like pattern of the modern city's sewer
network with all routes leading to the 'centralised' wastewater treatment facility, is a
mind-set that has been hard to dislodge, no less so for ourselves than for anyone else.
MITIGATION OF IMPACT: THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH TO CHOOSE AMONG

ALTERNATIVES
This quickly drawn sketch of the dynamics of city infrastructure development tells us
something, in rather narrow terms, of the system's consequences for the environment.
It tells us nothing, however, of the 'desirability' of these consequences or of whether
movement is towards, or away from, a sympathetic relationship between the city and
its environment. For our pragmatic purposes, i.e. without any deep intellectual justification thereof, we shall now define two perspectives on the possible nature of such a
'sympathetic relationship'.
Global material flows

Placing the city and its wastewater infrastructure back into the seamless web of interactions that is the global system, we may take an equally strategic view of the role of the
city in the cycle of things. Indeed, in many ways we might not be considering global
environmental change and sustainability were it not for the changes observed in carbonbearing materials in the atmosphere and the distortions introduced into the global carbon
(C) cycle by anthropogenic activities. Carbon is not the only cycle of material flow of
interest in judging the impact of the city and its wastewater infrastructure. Nitrogen-,
phosphorus- and sulphur-bearing materials, together with synthetic organic chemicals,
heavy metal species and pathogens, make up a total of seven generic categories of
'contaminants"* of particular interest to the generation, collection, conveyance and
408
treatment of wastewater flows through the city. To these seven cycles a vital interest in
the hydrological cycle may be added.
For any one of these cycles some quasi-pristine condition may be imagined, as
represented pictorially in Fig. l a. We suggest, therefore, that a minimal distortion of
whatever we agree may have been the nature of this cycle at some point in the past
should be one attribute of a sympathetic relationship between the city and its environment. 5 Thus, if the impact of the city has been a distortion of this cycle of material
flows (Fig. lb), this would accordingly be judged as movement away from sympathy.
And what we seek ultimately is a wastewater infrastructure that does not exacerbate
any such distortion, as in Fig. lc, but rather tends to compensate for it, as in Fig. ld.
If Fig. la were to represent the hydrological cycle, for example, the impact of the
city has indeed been in the form of evolution towards Fig. lb, with further divergence
towards Fig. lc through the introduction of sewerage for the purposes of draining the
(a)
Co)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 1. The cycle of global material flows: (a) pristine, pre-city status; (b) distortion introduced as a result of the city;
(c) introduction of (undesirable) wastewater infrastructure exacerbating the distortions of the city; and (d) introduction of (desirable) wastewater infrastructure compensating for the distortions of the city.
Wastewater Infrastructure
409
urban land surface. In the pre-city condition, precipitation falling across the land surface
would hax,e travelled towards the nearest river, reaching it at many spatially dispersed
points along a variety of natural paths, many of them of relatively long duration through
the soil and sub-surface environment. Creation of the impervious surfaces of the city,
with subsequently the impermeable conduits of the sewer network, has greatly accelerated the movement of water from its impact on the ground and its eventual delivery,
mostly in flows concentrated at a few spatial locations, to the receiving river.
If alternatively Fig. la were to represent the global flow of nitrogen-(N-)bearing
materials, the principal distortion introduced into this cycle by the city would be perceived
as a net accelerated transfer of these substances (via food chains and surface runoff)
from the land to the water sector of the environment. 6 Where previously nitrogen
would have been returned in gaseous form from the land to the atmosphere directly, it
is now first diverted into the aquatic environment (in the soluble forms of organic-N
and ammonium-N) before its eventual return to the atmosphere. In order to suppress
both the excessive oxygen demanding and potentially toxic consequences of these
diversions (or distortions), many contemporary investments in a city's wastewater
infrastructure seek to exploit the natural biological processes of nitrification and denitrification in the intensified, engineered setting of a wastewater treatment plant. What
happens slowly in the receiving water body is to be encouraged to occur very rapidly
(and to a greater extent) in the treatment plant. The distortion of diverting the N-bearing
materials into the aquatic sector of the environment is thus to be rectified - - or arguably compounded - - by a treatment technology that will shunt the nitrogen yet still
more rapidly into the atmosphere than would have been the case in the pre-city condition. If we lock on to such technology, this may come to be seen as an undesirable
move towards Fig. lc (rather than towards Fig. ld). 7
Should we wish, in effect, to reverse this movement towards Fig. lc, SchulzeRettmer s has recommended an alternative technology of chemical precipitation for
generating a solid by-product of wastewater treatment known as struvite (magnesiumammonium-phosphate), notably 'naturally' occurring in guano, for example. This unorthodox
alternative would instead: (i) eliminate the production of biologically unavailable, if
not harmful, gases from denitrification; (ii) eliminate the energy-expensive need of
nitrification; and (iii) produce a readily usable, nutrient-enriched solid by-product. The
application of this last to the land environment clearly has a substitution potential with
respect to industrially manufactured fertilisers. Such substitution, coupled with the
absence of the gaseous 'end-products' of wastewater treatment, must in principle alleviate any distortions in the global flow of N due to an accelerated rate of cycling of
this element out of the atmosphere - - by industrial fixation - - and back into it, through
artificially intensified biological nitrification-denitrification.
Should we wish similarly to move back from Fig. lc in respect of the hydrological
cycle, we would do well to refer to an article by Geldof et al. 9 An illuminating appeal
has been made there to the notion of the city as an organism (the human being), and
its predominant paradigm of the sewer network as the alcoholic beverage that has left
the city with a hang-over. The symptoms of the hang-over are as already outlined: a
rapidly delivered excess of output water at the receiving river during the transient
perturbations of precipitation events; a more persistent absence of water elsewhere in
the system, i.e. a lowering of groundwater levels in the longer term; and, occasionally,
flooding of streets with foul sewage in a city having combined sewerage (that is,
sewers that convey a mixture of foul sewage and urban runoff). The proposed cure for
the hang-over, at least as seen by Geldof e t al., 1o is to promote the introduction of
technologies of local infiltration of surface runoff into the ground. These would be
dispersed across the city and would, if taken to their logical limit, retum the urban
section of our notional hydrological cycle to its pre-city condition and leave the wastewater
infrastructure to deal exclusively with the processing of foul sewage.
410
Spectrum of perturbations
The idea of a city having a hang-over is perhaps overly dramatic and may have pushed
the analogy with an organism too far. Given that we have already had to side-step the
issue of defining sustainability, making any further appeal to the 'health' of a city or to
'environmental health' may be counter-productive. For these too are hotly debated
issues, especially the latter, and we shall yet again be forced to proceed with the
analogy without any deep intellectual justification for the terms we are using.
In order to establish this analogy, consider that the well-being of our own organism
is in many ways gauged by the amplitude and frequency of a host of oscillatory patterns in the observed behaviour of the body (pulse-rate; electrocardiogram signals ).
Our system herein - - the block of earth on which the city stands, between the point of
impact of the rain-drop and its emergence into the stream - - is subject and responsive
to perturbations across the entire frequency spectrum. Oscillatory changes are apparent in the long term over millennia, centuries and decades; we might call these lowfrequency disturbances, typically associated with changes in climate, society and the
prevailing industrial base. At the opposite end of the spectrum the system will also be
subject to relatively high-frequency perturbations at weekly, diurnal and hourly scales,
arising from the habits and working patterns of life in the city and isolated precipitation events.
Putting aside other changes of land-use, we could suppose that the frequency spectrum
of the environment surrounding the city in some pre-city, pristine condition might
have looked like the continuous line in Fig. 2a. Its absolute shape is not important to
the more 'relativistic' argument that follows. The dashed line in the upper figure is a
rough impression of how the frequency spectrum of the system's response (the
IPre-19751
(a)
Intensity
Urban
popfflation
)ristine,---~
....v_....- ~-
mo
Sewers
mi
.v
Frequency
[Post-19951
(b)
Intensity
fistine,--)
Iafi'as.tructure
,~
Failures
mo
mi
Frequency
Fig. 2. Frequency spectrum of system perturbations: (a) dashed line represents pre-1975 impact of city; (b) dashed
line represents possible post-1995 impact of city. Continuous line represents possible pristine, pre-city condition.
WastewaterInfrastructure
411
environment's response) has been modified by the impact of the city and the introduction of an associated urban drainage system. The accelerated conveyance of surface
waters through the sewer network has amplified the response of the receiving water
body at the higher frequencies. In other words, the introduction of sewers has lessened
the proportion of oscillations over weeks and months that make up the system's response
and increased the contributing proportion of high-frequency oscillations at the scale of
hours and minutes. One could say that an element of damping - - originally provided
by the attenuated movement of water through the natural sub-surface environment - has been lost through the introduction of engineered sewer conduits. At the same time,
the concentration of population in the city and the introduction of an infrastructure of
foul sewerage and wastewater treatment, has given rise to a dominant peak in the
system's frequency response in association with the natural daily rhythm of society
and industry (Fig. 2a).
In the same sense as before, for the metaphor of global material flows, we might
posit a return to the pre-city template of the frequency spectrum of Fig. 2a as a desirable move towards the well-being of the city's environment. And in order to see just
how this might be possible, there is a need to reflect on the essential role of a city's
wastewater infrastructure in the wider setting of environmental protection.
First, we shall make the assumption that in the long run legislation governing protection of the environment will continue to become more stringent and be applied more
comprehensively.11 Second, let us suggest that as the infrastructure of pollution control
and prevention becomes increasingly complete ambient environmental quality will, on
the average, improve. Third, it is in the nature of things that our technology for observing the environment will become more complete and ever more refined - - providing
access to the burgeoning dimensions of 'contamination' at ever smaller concentrations
over larger spatial domains at yet finer scales of temporal variation. Fourth, it should
follow that through one means or another the public's awareness of an improved
environmental quality will grow. Put more specifically, where wastewater treatment
facilities have been installed, and a fishery restored to waters of previously unacceptable quality (at least in living memory), fish kills following transient stormwater surges
will be immediately apparent failures in the infrastructure of pollution prevention. Put
yet another way, economic and social activities will continue to generate at least the
same potential for contamination of the environment as they have always done. In
river basins at a mature stage of development, however, the installed wastewater
infrastructure of the city (or of agriculture, or of forestry) now interposes a progressively larger 'barrier', as it were, between the receiving water bodies and this potential
for contamination thereof. The need to maintain the operational reliability of this protective barrier must become a priority in the longer term. 12
It is a fair bet that there will be more of us around in the future and that we shall
continue to expand the array of exotic chemicals we produce and use. The cycles of
water and materials around our environments (Fig. 1) will be narrowed and driven
ever harder and more intensively. These cycles seem destined to become ever more
compressed, like a coiled spring. Transient failure in the system may become ever less
likely, yet ever more devastating when (eventually) it occurs. And so it might now be
argued (in 1996) that the ever more complete and comprehensive deployment of urban
wastewater treatment technologies over the past two decades has succeeded in eliminating the dominant diurnal peak in the system's frequency response (Fig. 2a). We may
have moved thus in time from Fig. 2a to Fig. 2b. Yet this success may come to be seen
as having been bought at the expense of introducing very high-frequency perturbations resulting from infrastructure failures (Fig. 2b).
Should we in fact plan for the occurrence of such failure, rather as we plan for
epidemics of influenza by vaccinating the population with a mild form of the expected
oncoming perturbation? Would we consider more or less healthy an environment made
(arguably) more vulnerable to inevitable insult and injury through the success of our
city wastewater infrastructures? For it has been observed that transient pollution events
412
in the rehabilitated Rhine River are all the more significant because of a decline in
resident bacterial populations, which had previously been supported by ample supplies
of urban wastewater. 3 Nitrobenzene - - a synthetic organic chemical and in this instance
a potential pollutant - - will now be apparent in the river, as a result of an accidental
spill, whereas previously it would have been more swiftly degraded before propagating very far. Perhaps we should keep our aquatic environments on their toes, so to
speak, by inflicting minor doses of harm on them, so that when the real threat of
infrastructure failure comes the environment is neither as vulnerable, nor lacking in its
resilience, as it might otherwise have been?
But our original question is not straightforward to answer, since 'previously' (in the
example of the Rhine) means 'in living memory', which will clearly not stretch back
to the quasi-pristine, pre-city condition that we imagine may once have prevailed. We
might have argued a case in favour of returning to some equilibrium, or some invariant state of the environment, free from perturbation. Certainly, much of the engineering of wastewater infrastructures has been geared specifically to the assumption and
desirability of a steady state, 14 and equally confidently we might now presume that the
high-frequency perturbations of the environment that will result from infrastructure
failures (Fig. 2b) are in general not desirable. The undesirability of other forms of
perturbation (relative to a longer-term 'equilibrium') is far less clear-cut, however.
Ecosystems have evolved in response to perturbations ~5 such that in piedmont streams
of the south-eastern USA frequent floods that " . . . keep the macroinvertebrate community in perpetual disequilibrium . . . " can be argued to be the norm, 16 and therefore,
perhaps, desirable. We shall have to leave this debate to run its course. The essential
point of Fig. 2 is that the template of the entire spectrum of temporal perturbations and
fluctuations in the response of a system may be an appropriate vehicle for both describing the system's state (health) and compressing the immense volume of attributes of
which this description is comprised.
SOME CHOICES
We do not yet know how to engage quantitatively these principles - - of minimal
distortion of the natural flows of materials and of matching some pre-city template of
perturbations - - in discriminating among alternative choices for the wastewater
infrastructure as a whole or for its component parts.
Given only is the fact of the current European and North American paradigm, as
our point of departure towards a city and infrastructure having a more sympathetic
relationship with their environment. This paradigm - - the sewer network, with all
routes leading to a centralised treatment plant - - must perform the following services:
accept the water-borne residuals of domestic, commercial and industrial activities in
the city, and return them to the city's environment in a benign manner, with maximal
resource recovery and minimal energy input. Others, of course, have not fully implemented
this paradigm. At the end of 1990, for example, just 44% of Japan's population was
served by mains sewerage. 17 They, and still others who have not yet embarked upon
this infrastructural development, may not want it, 18 and we, from the perspective of
Europe and North America, might want to evolve away from the present paradigm, for
the reasons already given above.
The options may be many, but for the purposes of the present discussion just three
are identified: incremental adaptation of the present (European, North American) structure
towards what we might call a virtuoso performance of this system, in serving its present
purpose; a change of outlook on whether this current purpose is still the goal of principal,
contemporary concern; or evolution by way of a change in the structure of the system
itself, possibly as a result of some radical dislocation in the entire concept of what
constitutes a wastewater infrastructure. The distinction between the three paths is primarily
a useful means of organising our analysis. For it is hard to draw a line between when
incremental adaptation has in fact become structural change.
413
In order to begin to explore the first of these possible paths into the future, it is now
pertinent to try and answer the questions: how far can we go with the current European
and North American paradigm and how might this lead to a more sympathetic cityenvironment relationship?
Towards a climax with the existing purpose

Two factors are critical to maximising the level of service achievable with the current
wastewater infrastructure. First, we assert that, in principle, a climax in the performance
of any engineered system is reached when there is intensive monitoring of its state (in
real time), massive scope for control action, and a perfect understanding of how causes
are related to effects. This last, however, is not just any old kind of knowledge, but
quite specifically the knowledge base underpinning our understanding of how a system
behaves when it is not at equilibrium. Second, our infrastructure comprises several
such unit processes (systems). So beyond that which might be achievable with an
individual process, yet further gains in performance can be obtained from integrated
co-ordination of the functions of all the unit processes of which the system, as a whole
- - at some scale - - is comprised. There is perhaps a grander scale at which the effort
of attempting co-ordinated control may begin to topple under its own administrative
weight and thereby cancel out the potential gains from ever wider integration. But we
believe this is at a scale larger than the current wastewater infrastructure.
On both these accounts we can safely say that the best is yet to come; and we shall
call it High-performance integrated control (H-PIC).
All engineering projects may be broken down into four phases, and a fifth added
now as a result of the modem awareness of a product's life-cycle. These are, in order
of the cycle: (i) planning; (ii) design; (iii) construction; (iv) operation (and maintenance);
and (v) disassembly (and recycling). Infrastructure engineering lies in the domain of
Civil Engineering. And in Civil Engineering, alone among all the major engineering
disciplines, matters of operational management have been consistently overlooked. In
a recent Presidential Address to the UK Institution of Civil Engineers these observations have been echoed thus: 19
Our world is at least four-dimensional and civil engineers must address the time
dimension in everything we do.
We have tended to concentrate on the creation of a product and to neglect the
operational and maintenance stages of the service which the product, or project,
provides.
The notion that Civil Engineers build objects intended to remain invariant with time is
widely held: "[I]f it is meant to move, it is mechanical engineering, if it is meant to
stay put, it is civil engineering", z Perhaps we all covet the steady state, because its
analysis is easier and because, in some anthropocentric fashion, we are more comfortable with the idea of equilibrium in our lives.
If post-construction operation was not conceived as a stage through which the wastewater
infrastructure would pass in its life-cycle, this product of civil engineering enterprise
will not now submit easily to the maximisation of operational performance, and it has
not. 21 It has not been produced with flexibility and adaptability of performance in
mind. Historically, there has not been 'massive scope for control action'. A key requirement for the possibility of reaching a climax in service has been missing. Even today,
rarely are the principles of process control - - as first articulated in terms of wastewater
treatment as long ago as the late 1960s 22 - - anywhere near fully realised in practice
for many of its unit process operations, let alone for the entire system as a whole.
On the positive side of the balance sheet, therefore, there is significant room for
improvement. On the negative side, however, adaptation towards our proposed climax,
of H-PIC, will not be swift. There is currently no system-wide integration of the
control functions for a wastewater infrastructure. There has been no shortage of sug-
414
gestions as to the benefits that would accrue therefrom, already for over two decades
now. 23 We have conventionally identified the sewer network, the wastewater treatment
plant, and the receiving water body as the three constituent sub-systems of this infrastructure.
The conceptual and institutional boundaries between the three have been sufficiently
strong for them to have been studied and managed, by and large, as independent entities, which clearly they are not. 24 In reality, there is but a strand of processing technologies that transfers a residual from its source and returns it, with certain transformations,
to the environment whence it came. Much as is presently the case with a petrochemicals
complex, so too could our wastewater infrastructure, the urban drainage complex, benefit
in the future from system-wide co-ordination of its processing operations. There is
scope for progress simply as a consequence of dislodging a mind-set - - of erasing the
conceptual distinctions among management of the parts - - and rectifying a historical
neglect of the three ingredients required for reaching the climax in engineered system
performance, i.e. the capacity to observe, to take action, and to understand nonequilibrium behaviour. 25
But how might all of this, our H-PIC of the city's wastewater infrastructure, lead to a
more sympathetic city-environment relationship? What, in fact, might we understand by
the word 'sympathetic' in this context? In the first place, the installation of a wastewater
infrastructure is a direct articulation of the fundamental concept of stabilising feedback
control. It is an action taken to modify the behaviour of the city in response to a perceived
mismatch between what is, and what is desired to be, the state of the environment in which
the city is located. It is, moreover, an action taken to modify behaviour in the long run,
over the left-hand side (over decades, years, months) of the frequency spectrum of Fig.
2. Notwithstanding the fact that this strategic action may have had deleterious consequences for the right-hand side of Fig. 2 (over weeks, days, hours and minutes), the
sparking of the feedback loop between the behaviour of the environment and the
behaviour of the city is a manifestation of some sympathy in the relationship between the
two. No such feedback can at present be articulated between the state of the environment
and the behaviour of the city in the short term (over the higher frequencies of the
right-hand side of the spectrum). Today's liquid product of the treatment plant cannot be
modified to match today's state of the receiving water body any more than the primary
sector of treatment can be changed as a function of the final liquid product, or the
behaviour of the sewer network manipulated as a function of the downstream crude
sewage it will deliver today to the treatment plant. Deliberate action cannot presently be
taken to modulate the high-frequency behaviour of the city's wastewater infrastructure in
sympathy with the surrounding environment, moved - - as it is - - by high-frequency
perturbations other than those emanating from the city. For the city's environment, quite
clearly, is not buffeted merely by the behaviour of that city alone.
To the extent that H-PIC can enable such deliberate (feedback) action, so it will
achieve greater sympathy in the city-environment relationship. It may also achieve
some modification of the high-frequency peak of infrastructure failures in Fig. 2b,
both for good and ill. For we shall be able to sail closer to the wind, as it were; make
much more complex manoeuvres at greater speed; get into difficulty perhaps more
easily; but equally so recover from failure more swiftly. On balance we might look to
the modern aircraft as the essence of what is achievable with H-PIC of a system. In
any event, H-PIC will be addressed to issues of infrastructure reliability and adaptation, and thus it is unquestionably of contemporary relevance. In the setting of the
natural material cycles of Fig. 1 it should ensure, at the least, that we shall be able to
do more of what is presently being done, more reliably and more efficiently (with less
consumption of energy). Yet what we do now, as is only too apparent, may not be
what we should be doing.
415
Changing the purpose of the paradigm
Abstracted from its physical manifestation, the strand of unit process technologies of
the current paradigm must be engineered in order to: (i) transport the water-borne
residuals of the city from their point of generation to their point of treatment; (ii)
separate particulate (solid) material from the liquid flux; (iii) promote the growth of a
microbial biomass, so as to manipulate the chemical status of the solutes in the liquid
product; (iv) destroy the separated solid material to the maximum extent possible; and
(v) remove the carrier material, i.e. the water, from the solid by-product. And this last,
through its use of the word by-product, epitomises much of the mind-set of the foregoing discussion. It has assumed - - tacitly - - that the city's environment is essentially
the water environment. Yet we know that the inevitable result of an infrastructure
geared to returning a high-quality liquid product to the water sector of the environment is an increasing volume of solid by-product into which most of the recalcitrant
materials from the activities of the city will eventually gravitate (the synthetic organic
chemicals, heavy metals and pathogens).
A basic and self-evident principle of chemical engineering is that the extent of manipulation of the chemical status of a substance is a function of the time allowed for certain
reactions to take place. In a wastewater infrastructure the time allowable is inversely
related to the capacity for storing (detaining) the flux of material en route from its
point of generation to its point of return into the environment. The very high-volume
liquid throughput of the system demands the engineering of relatively fast (microbial)
reactions, unless enormous tracts of land are to be occupied to provide sufficient detention in the passage of this flux. These processes consume energy. They are deliberately
engineered at a downstream location in the treatment plant. Therefore they do not
exploit the full detention time of the system; yet they are known to occur inadvertently
upstream (in the sewer network). They convert the more easily degradable forms of
the C-, N- and P-beating materials into the more recalcitrant form of surplus biomass;
and this then must be incorporated into the output solid product, arguably undermining the longer (but not limitless) detention time required - - and affordable - - for the
slower reactions exploited in processing the much smaller flux of separated solid material.
If we looked simply at the current paradigm in the abstract, as a strand of unit
process technologies from 'source' to 'sink', instead of its present physical manifestation (of the sewer network and the treatment plant), we might well want to overturn
some, if not all, of the five basic engineering principles by which we currently operate. We might want thus to dislodge the notion of the sewer network as a somewhat
passive conduit and replace it with the image of 'treatment' being pushed back upstream
from the 'end-of-pipe' plant towards the source of the residuals. 26 We might turn to
advantage the popular view of the solids in the system as a 'nuisance', whether as
deposits on the bed of the sewer network or as separated out from the liquid product
during treatment. On the one hand, the products of the slow reactions in the lowervolume, slower flux of solids might be used as precursors for subsequent manipulation
through the fast reactions in the higher-volume fast-moving liquid flux. Recycling of
these (intermediate) products from downstream to upstream is in turn a classic example
of engineering a longer residence time for reaction without increasing the volume of
the reactor (and such recycle will be much easier to realise with the concentrated
small volumes of solids processing products). On the other hand, we might prefer to
arrest destruction of the separated solids almost altogether, taking the view that the
raw material (as in the deliberate production of magnesium-ammonium-phosphate)
will add value to the land where its subsequent transformation (degradation) can take
place at a more leisurely pace. Last, we might tailor control of the microbial ecosystem
for treatment of the liquid product so as to shift the age-distribution of the population
more towards senescence, thereby to avoid the surplus solid product of excessive youthful growth.
HAB 20:3-E
416
In short, after two centuries of development we might seek to turn the historical
purpose of the wastewater infrastructure on its head. Imagine, for example, that its
goal were to be to recover an optimal solids product destined for return to the land, the
by-product of which m the water carrier - - would have to be siphoned off to the
receiving water body. Yet /f all these rotations of principle were to come to pass,
would our system be any further along a path to the pre-city conditions encapsulated
in Figs 1 and 2?
Figure 2 alas, is entirely a prisoner of the very same mind-set we have just attempted to overturn: it captures merely the essence of stimulus and response in respect
of the health of the water sector of the city's environment. We inhabit the land surface
of the globe, however, and have historically participated in cycles of C-, N-, P- and
possibly S-bearing materials, in which there were no rapid (accelerated) diversions
into the surface water-sector of the environment. Given this perspective, perhaps the
current paradigm, turned towards its other goal, would allow the city to sit more sympathetically in its environment, up to a point. For we have spun quite exotic materials - principally synthetic organic chemicals (not found to occur naturally) and heavy metals - - into the archetypal cycle of Fig. 1.
Changing the paradigm
The seeds of a more radical change of structure have been sewn. In the grand sweep
of things, why should the wastewater infrastructure be designed - - as we have said
throughout - - to accept the water-borne residuals of domestic, commercial and industrial
activities in the city? The language, let alone the purpose and engineering thereof,
may be profoundly wrong-headed. For that which we have scrambled comprehensively
in using water to convey material through the city is mightily difficult thereafter to
unscramble. Indeed, conventional wastewater treatment in European and North American
cities has wrestled with this problem since its inception.
'Sustainable development' is not the only contemporary maxim. There is 'clean
technology', which in our mind's eye will permit us to unhook industrial activity from
the city's wastewater infrastructure and thence eliminate many (although by no means
all) of the heavy metals and synthetic organic chemicals that gravitate towards the
solids product (see, for example, MacGarvin and Johnston 27 and Niemczynowicz28).
There is 'source control' too, as already reflected in Geldof e t al. 29 Armed with these
alternatives, we can attack our problem from other angles, dismantling the obstacles of
a few more prejudices in the process.
Where there are not separate sewer systems for moving foul sewage and urban surface
runoff across the city, by what principle might we wish to separate them? Before reaching
for the conventional response to this question - - of today's (supposedly) separate sewer
systems in the more modern cities - - let us pause to consider whence the majority of the
materials of concern derive and whither is their destination. With the current paradigm for
the wastewater infrastructure we have argued that the essential challenge may lie in returning the solid product to the land. In the presence of a clean industry, the most important
dividing line may fall not between foul sewage and surface runoff but between toilet
flushings and 'all else'. This latter comprises the remainder of the flux of liquid material
through a notional household, sometimes referred to as grey sewage, together with the
surface runoff. If we could, we might wish to re-engineer an alternative form of separate
sewer system, in which merely a second pipe is placed within the existing sewer for the
conveyance and strictly separate treatment of the solids product of the city. After all, in
terms of the heavy metals and synthetic organic chemicals that would otherwise be spun
into this product, what better evidence would there be of its acceptability for return to the
land than its prior passage through the human body, and through this alone? The thought
has some appeal; but, of course, it overlooks the pathogens that must still be removed
from the product.
The closer is the point of separation of the fluxes of materials to the activities of life
417
in the city, the more profound may be the implications for any downstream processing
of these fluxes before their return to the city's environment. The ways in which the
strands of unit process technologies may be drawn together, notwithstanding the explosion in seemingly novel methods of unit processing, may become combinatoriaUy many.
How, then, in the face of gross uncertainty with regard both to land requirements and
cost characteristics of the candidate technologies and to the level of service and reliability that would be expected of this infrastructure for sustainable cities of the mid21st century, should we identify promising strands of technology? We have reviewed
over 100 candidate technologies, and composed and run a screening model, in which
the strands may be generated at random and then selectively screened. 3 Among other
conclusions, it appears that if toilet flushings are separated at source from the remaining grey sewage and urban surface runoff, some of the most common forms of presentday biotechnical processes may well be substituted by physical and chemical means of
processing the resulting lower-strength liquid product.
For a variety of reasons such a possibility chafes uncomfortably against the urge to
design biodegradable products for consumption in the metabolism of the city. What,
we might ask, would be the benefit of incorporating this feature by design, if it is not
then to be exploited at the end of the product's life cycle? Any shift away from exploiting biological principles towards the use of physical and chemical principles would
likewise appear to run counter to the exhortation for Civil Engineers to work with
"ecosystems rather than concrete". 3~ Wetlands, the "kidneys of the landscape", 32 are a
salient attractor of contemporary attention, 33 not least because they may most aptly
symbolise the return to some pre-city condition. But in the context of the city we
could raise the obvious objection that these, and other forms of ecological engineering, 34 are expensive in terms of the limited land area necessary for achieving sufficient
detention times for reactions to proceed to a sufficient extent.
We might also raise the more subtle objection that the long-term behaviour of an
infrastructure founded on the properties of ecosystems is significantly less predictable
than one based on the properties of concrete or, more accurately, the properties of, say,
membrane and magnetic separation technologies. Failure may occur in any system not
because of the shocks to which it is subject but because of an inadequate understanding of its inner workings. In the spirit of Fig. 2b, an ecologically engineered infrastructure
may be less reliable in the long run than those we now have. ~5 What is more, and
perhaps precisely because of this inevitably inadequate understanding, ecosystems are
perceived to have a life of their own, which of course they do. They have an element
of 'self-design '36 that places them a little too far beyond the reassuring essence of a
conventionally engineered system, which is (arguably) that we have mastery over its
intended performance. Whether 'self-design' is but another label for 'inadequate understanding' or indeed a manifestation of structural change in the evolving behaviour of a
system, is a more philosophical question of some considerable interest. 37
Reliability of service and the minimisation of failure may in the end be the decisive
factors in conceiving of a wastewater infrastructure that is radically different from that
of today's European and North American cities, yet a desirable paradigm towards
which to proceed. Consider that we have now a paradigm of downstream, end-of-pipe
treatment of a mixed water/waste product of a 'less-than-clean' industry and city economy.
The ultimate destination (fate) of any xenobiotic substance confused with the natural
cycles of materials, at whatever point on their passage through the city, will most
probably be the solid product of downstream treatment. Yet there at least its further
propagation is arrested; it has been caught in a centralised, end-of-pipe barrier. A clean
technology in industry will confine some of these substances at source; separation at
source of toilet flushings, grey sewage, and urban runoff may confine their propagation downstream through some of the channels of the infrastructure; comprehensive
control at source of urban runoff38 would divert their potential movement into a host
of widely dispersed points of entry into the sub-surface, groundwater sector of the
city's environment; and the systematic migration of treatment upstream from the end
418
of the pi~e through the pipe and into the source, that is on-site treatment of domestic
sources, ~ will constitute the clean household, the companion of a clean industry and
a more sympathetic control of urban runoff at source. This, without the substitution of
water by air as the carrier, in a vacuum operated system of toilet flushing and sewage
conveyance,4 would leave us with an altogether different paradigm: of a decentralised, highly segregated infrastructure in which the engines of material manipulation
sit at the many heads of many pipes. If these many more engines fail, as they surely
will, including in the clean technologies of the new millennium, will the adverse
consequences thereof propagate far with any significance into the city's environment?
CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS SOME CRITICAL ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND

PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS
These things may reach deeply into our daily lives and habits. To what extent might
we, the public, city-dwellers, be inclined to accept the products of the current wastewater
infrastructure, turned to a different purpose? To what extent should our daily lives and
habits be altered by the dictates of a radically different paradigm for this component of
a city's infrastructure?
Our purpose has been to set out the evolving dynamics of possible change in the
city's wastewater infrastructure in order to pose m but not answer - - such questions
in a richer and more specific manner. We have made an appeal to the image of a city
as an organism, in order thence to trace over the long term whether the metabolism of
this organism is in sympathy with that of the city's surrounding environment, both
locally and globally. This has drawn in part on earlier work on assessing the impact of
a city s wastewater infrastructure on the global cycles of material" flows.41 Cuttmg
across the image of metabolism and the health of an organism from a rather different
perspective, we have observed how the city has quickened the pulse of its surrounding
environment, perhaps making this environment more vulnerable and less resilient in
the face of inevitable failures in the system of waste collection and treatment.
Armed thus with two broad notions of what might be considered a sympathetic
city-environment relationship, in the specific and largely technical terms of global
material cycles and frequency response, three possible paths into the future have been
charted. In short, these comprise: (i) doing more of what is presently being done, more
reliably and more efficiently, with the prevailing (European and North American) paradigm
for a wastewater infrastructure; (ii) changing the purpose of the current paradigm, to
produce an 'optimal' solid product, as opposed to an optimal liquid product; and (iii)
migration from the present, now often denigrated, centralised 'end-of-pipe' paradigm,
to a decentralised, highly segregated infrastructure in which the engines of material
manipulation sit at the heads of many short pipes returning the products of the city's
metabolism to the environment in a benign fashion - - when properly functioning. In
spite of the many seeming advantages of this last, we have raised a question regarding
the reliability of source-controlled clean technologies and clean households.
We have sought to overturn some long-held prejudices about the technical form and
purpose of a city's wastewater infrastructure and thus to prise open the door onto a
richer palette of possible technical solutions for moving the flux of associated materials through and around the city. In the wider setting, however, there is not merely the
technology of the wastewater infrastructure to be considered, but also the technology
of water supply, of solid waste (refuse) collection, of energy supply, and of transport
and communication. 42 And then there are the instruments of economic policy, some of
them perhaps different from those of the past, that may be wielded in order to foster a
more sympathetic city-environment relationship. 43 But beyond considerations of just
technology and economics we live in times when the prevailing mood is moving towards
that of 'stakeholder participation'. The consequences of the technocrat's ruminations
and value judgements will be visited less and less upon an unsuspecting public. 44 Yet
Wastewater Infrastructure
419
wider still, after three centuries of the wedge having been driven between reason and
emotion, 45 it has been argued that " . . . we are entering into a more philosophical
century where the unconscious logic of feeling [will play] an important background
role in steering our technology' .46 We are well aware, therefore, of the perhaps predominant
role social, institutional and philosophical considerations may have in fashioning the
technological fabric of a wastewater infrastructure of the future.
Acknowledgements - - Some of this work has its origins in a project on Environmentally Efficient Urban Drainage for
the 21st Century, supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) during 1992-1994.
We are grateful to the EPSRC for this support.
M.B. Beck is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine, London.
NOTES
1.
2.
P. Ekins and I. Cooper, Cities and Sustainability, Background to a Research Programme (Clean Technologies
Unit, UK, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Swindon, UK, 1993) and G. Haughton and C.
Hunter, Sustainable Cities (Jessica Kingsley, London, 1994).
As noted by Brooks [H. Brooks, "Sustainability and Technology", in Science and Sustainability (International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 1992), p. 30], reference to the sustainability concept
" . . . has a ring of scientific objectivity... (and enjoys) a rhetorical value in public discussions... " Further, "
there is still a challenge inherent in how to translate this concept (sustainability) into operational criteria for
the choice of development strategies and for the selection and adoption of new technologies to support these
strategies in a real world ecological, social, economic, political, and cultural context" (p. 29).
The parallel here is with Ayres' use of the expression "industrial metabolism" [R.U. Ayres, "Industrial Metabolism",
in J.H. Ausubel and H.E. Sladovich (eds), Technology and Environment (National Academy Press, Washington,
DC, 1989), pp. 23--49.]
In the cycle of things, it is hard to define what is a "waste" or a "contaminant"; hence the precaution of wrapping
such words in quotation marks.
M.B. Beck, J. Chen, A.J. Saul and D. Butler, "Urban Drainage in the 21st Century: Assessment of New Technology on the Basis of Global Material Flows", Water Science and Technology 30, 2 (1994), pp. 1-12.
A comprehensive assessment of the global nitrogen cycle in pre-industrial and modern times can be found in J.N.
Galloway, W.H. Schlesinger, H. Levy I1, A. Michaels and J.L. Schnoor, "Nitrogen Fixation: Anthropegenic EnhancementEnvironmental Response" (submitted).
In the first place, the diverted flows of N-bearing materials should perhaps not be residing for any significant
length of time in the water sector (they are there because we have a water-borne system of waste conveyance).
Second, the technology of biological nitrification-denitrification generates not only nitrogen gas but also nitrous
oxide. Inadvertent generation of this latter, in however small an amount relative to other sources, may be regarded
as undesirable, since nitrous oxide is suspected of the destruction of ozone and is known to be a greenhouse gas.
Third, it has been argued that the widespread use of biological denitrification would distort significantly and
adversely the balance of nitrogen between that which is biologically available in soils and that which is unavailable in the form of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere (see R. Schulze-Rettmer (1991) note 8).
R. Schulze-Rettmer, "The Simultaneous Chemical Precipitation of Ammonium and Phosphate in the Form of
Magnesium-ammonium-phosphate", Water Science and Technology, 23, 4--6 (1991), pp. 461-469.
G.D. Geldof, P. Jacobsen and S. Fujita, "Urban Stormwater Infiltration Perspectives", Water Science and Technology 29, 1-2 (1994), pp. 245-254.
Geldof et al. (1994), see note 9.
Unquestionably there are increasingly many planks in the platform of regulations on environmental protection,
as, for example, in the USA. See R.E. Balzhiser, "Meeting the Near-term Challenge for Power Plants", in J.H.
Ausubel and H.E. Sladovich (eds), Technology and Environment (National Academy Press, Washington, DC
1989), pp. 95-113.
M.B. Beck and A. Reda, "Identification and Application of a Dynamic Model for Operational Management of
Water Quality", Water Science and Technology 30, 2 (1994), pp. 31-41 and M.B. Beck, "Transient Pollution
Events: Acute Risks to the Aquatic Environment", Water Science and Technology (in press).
K-G. Malle, "Accidental Spills - - Frequency, Importance, Control, Countermeasures", Water Science and Technology 29, 3 (1994), pp. 149-163.
M.B. Beck (in press) see note 12.
S.R. Reice, R.C. Wissmar and R.J. Naiman, "Disturbance Regimes, Resilience, and Recovery of Animal Communities and Habitats in Lotic Systems", Environmental Management 14, 5 (1990), pp. 647-659; G.D. Grossman, J.F. Dowd and M. Crawford, "Assemblage Stability in Stream Fishes: a Review", Environmental Management
14, 15 (1990), pp. 661-671; and P.H. Whitfield, "From Transients to Trends: Time Scales and Environmental
Monitoring", in Using Hydrometric Data to Detect and Monitor Climate Change, Proceedings of NHRI Symposium
No. 8 (NHRI, Saskatoon, Canada, 1991) pp. 1-8.
See S.R. Reice et al. (1990), see note 15.
O. Fujiki, "Development of Sewage Works in Small and Medium Municipalities and Prefectural Masterplan of
Sewage Treatment", in Sewage Works in Japan 1992 (Japan Sewage Works Association, Tokyo, Japan, 1992), pp.
2-9.
J. Niemczynowicz, "New Aspects of Urban Drainage and Pollution Reduction Towards Sustainability", Water
Science and Technology 30, 5 (1994), pp. 269-277 and O. Varis, "Development of Urban Infrastructure - - The
Expanding Puzzle", in Human Settlements in the Changing Gh~bal Political and Economic Processes, Proceedings of the UNU/WIDER Conference, Helsinki (August, 1995).
. .
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
420
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.

T.M. Ridley, ls Our Civil Engineering Too Small? Presidential Address, UK Institution of Civil Engineers, London
(1995).
A. Harris, "'Intelligent' Structures Will Move the Divide", New Civil Engineer, 23 November, (1989), p.20.
M.B. Beck, "Operational Water Quality Management: Beyond Planning and Design", Executive Report ER-7
(International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 1981).
J.E Andrews, "Dynamic Models and Control Strategies for Wastewater Treatment Processes", Water Research 9
(1974), pp. 261-289.
M.B. Beck, "Dynamic Modelling and Control Applications in Water Quality Maintenance", Water Research 11,
(1976), pp. 575-595.
L. Lijklema, J.M. Tyson and A. Lesouef, "Interactions Between Sewers, Treatment Plants and Receiving Waters
in Urban Areas: A Summary of the INTERURBA '92 Workshop Conclusions", Water Science and Technology
27, 12 (1993), pp. 1-29.
M.B. Beck, "Modelling, Monitoring and Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants", Mededelingen Faculteit Landbouwkundige en Toegepaste Biologische Wetenschappen 59, 4a (1994), pp. 1979-1990. This last is inevitably
more refined in its description of what is believed to be happening (in theory) relative to that which can actually
be observed to be the case (in practice). For example, we know that the biomass of biological wastewater treatment is a rather complex microbial ecosystem whose many species of organisms are enmeshed in a food web
fuelled by a myriad incoming waste substrates and responding to a variety of operating states, all of which have
a direct bearing on the composition of the final liquid and solid products and the basic engineering need of
separating the one from the other. In practice, we measure "suspended solids" as a surrogate for the 'microbial
ecosystem' and 'chemical oxygen demand' as a surrogate for the "myriad waste substrates", and in most cases,
even these crude observations of the current state of the system are not made with sufficient frequency for the
proper exercise of process control. The straightforward presumption of refinement in the crudity, and expansion
from the narrowness, of present monitoring practice - - perhaps the mere playing out of innovations in sensor and
information technology currently visible on the horizon - - would enable us to peer significantly into the possible
future performance of the system. Such 'thought experiments' in the laboratory world of computer simulation
have yet to achieve integration at the scale of the entire wastewater infrastructure. But they have already been
used to explore advances in potential performance through a pairing of the sewer network with the treatment
plant [R.A.B. Gall, I. Tak~ics and G.G. Patry, "The Effect of Organic Reactions in a Collection System on Wastewater
Treatment Plant Performance", Water Science and Technology 31, 7 (1995), pp. 25-31 ] and of the treatment plant
with the receiving water body [Beck and Reda (1994), see note 12].
T. Hvitved-Jacobsen, EH. Nielsen, T. Larsen and N. An. Jensen (eds), The Sewer as a Physical, Chemical and
Biological Reactor, Water Science and Technology 31, 7 (1995).
M. MacGarvin and EA. Johnston, "On Precaution, Clean Production and Paradigm Shifts", Water Science and
Technology 27, 5~5 (1993), pp. 469-480.
J. Niemczynowicz (1994), see note 18.
Geldof et al. (1994) see note 9.
J. Chen and M.B. Beck, "Screening of Key Technologies for Urban Wastewater Infrastructures of the Future",
Water Science and Technology (in preparation).
M. Hoidgate, Sustainable Development - - What Does It Mean For Biologists and Engineers? (UK Institution of
Civil Engineers, London, 1994).
W.J. Mitsch, "Restoration of Our Lakes and Rivers with Wetlands - - An Important Application of Ecological
Engineering", Water Science and Technology 31, 8 (1995), pp. 167-177.
H. Brix, "Use of Constructed Wetlands in Water Pollution Control: Historical Development, Present Status and
Future Perspectives", Water Science and Technology 30, 8 (1994), pp. 209-223 and US General Accounting
Office, Water Pollution: Information on the Use of Alternative Wastewater Treatment Systems, Report No. GAO/RCED94-109 (US General Accounting Office, Washington, DC, 1994).
SIC. McCutcbeon, W.J. Mitsch, T.M. Walski, H.T. Odum and E.E Odum, "Joint Editorials", Ecological Engineering 3 (1994), pp. 107-119.
M.B. Beck (in press), see note 12.
H.T. Odum, "Ecological Engineering: The Necessary Use of Ecological Self-design', Ecological Engineering, 3,
~(1994), pp. 115-118.
EM. Allen, "Evolution, Innovation and Economics", in G. Dosi, C. Freeman, R. Nelson, G. Silverberg and L.
Soete (eds), Technical Change and Economic Theory (Hater, London, 1989), pp. 95-115 and M.B. Beck, A.J.
Jakeman and M.J. McAleer, "Construction and Evaluation of Models of Environmental Systems", in A.J. Jakeman, M.B. Beck and M.J. McAleer (eds), Modelling Change in Environmental Systems (Wiley, Chichester, UK,
1993), pp. 3-35.
Geldof et al (1994), see note 9.
J.H.J.M. van der Graaf, "Interactions of Sewerage and Wastewater Treatment: Practical Examples in the Netherlands",
Water Science and Technology 27, 5-6 (1993), pp. 1-9.
See US General Accounting Office (1994) note 33 and van der Graaf (1993) note 39.
Beck et al. (1994), see note 5.
Vails (1995), see note 18.
There may, for example, be much to be learned from the way in which these instruments have been used to
change the complexion of urban transport. See Haughton and Hunter (1994), note 1.
J. de Jong, P.T.C. van Rooy and S.H. Hosper, "Living With Water: at the Cross-roads of Change", Water Sc&nce
and Technology 31, 8 (1995), pp. 393-400.
G.D. Geldof, "Policy Analysis and Complexity - - a Non-equilibrium Approach for Integrated Water Managemeat", Water Science and Technology 31, 8 (1995), pp. 301-309.
A. Coruelis, "The Philosophy of Neeltje Jans", Water Science and Technology 31, 8 (1995), pp. 9-17.

On: 07 May 2014, At: 06:24
City: analysis of urban trends, culture,

theory, policy, action
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccit20
Rethinking urban metabolism: water,

space and the modern city
Matthew Gandy
Published online: 21 Oct 2010.
To cite this article: Matthew Gandy (2004) Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the
modern city, City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 8:3, 363-379, DOI:
10.1080/1360481042000313509

proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or
arising out of the use of the Content.
CITY, VOL. 8, NO. 3, DECEMBER 2004
Rethinking urban metabolism:

Water, space and the modern
city
Matthew Gandy
Downloaded by [UVA Universiteitsbibliotheek SZ] at 06:24 07 May 2014
Taylor and Francis Ltd
Water is a brutal delineator of social power which has at various times worked to either
foster greater urban cohesion or generate new forms of political conflict. In the paper which
follows, Matthew Gandy explores this statement by looking at the expansion of urban
water systems since the chaos of the nineteenth-century industrial city. In this early period,
the relationship between water and urban space can be understood by the emergence of
what he calls the bacteriological city, defined by features such as new moral geographies
and modes of social discipline based upon ideologies of cleanliness, a move away from laissez-faire policies towards a technocratic and rational model of municipal managerialism,
and a connection between urban infrastructures and citizenship rights. Gandy goes on to
discuss that while many cities never ultimately conformed to this model, the last thirty years
has seen a fundamental move away from the bacteriological city to a more diffuse, fragmentary and polarized urban technological landscape. Characteristics here include declining investment in urban infrastructures, a desire to meet shareholder rather than wider
public needs, oligopolistic structures amongst providers, the marketisation of goods such as
water, increased health scares and mistrust from consumers, and polarisation of the quality
of service provision. For Gandy, these shifts are better understood by more relational,
hybridised, rather than functional-linear, notions of urban metabolic systems.
Introduction
Water is the great connector and coordinator.
Garrett Eckbo1
Water is indispensable stuff for maintaining
the metabolism, not only of our human
bodies, but also of the wider social fabric. The
very sustainability of cities and the practices
of everyday life that constitute the urban are
predicated upon and conditioned by the
supply, circulation, and elimination of water.
Erik Swyngedouw2
Infrastructures, which were mutually reinforcing and totalising, are becoming more
and more competitive and local; they no

longer pretend to create functioning wholes
but now spin off functional entities. Instead
of network and organism, the new infrastructure creates enclave and impasse: no longer
the grand rcit but the parasitic swerve.
Rem Koolhaas3
rban infrastructure has often been

conceived as a functional lattice of
different elements which correspond to the different organs of the human
body. The metabolism of the modern city
has frequently been presented as an interconnected space of flows dependent on the
external input of energy, materials and
ISSN 1360-4813 print/ISSN 1470-3629 online/04/030363-17 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/1360481042000313509
364
CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
information. Yet irrespective of whether

the city is celebrated as a dynamic machine
or derided as a voracious monster, the
metabolic view of the city raises a series of
analytical dilemmas concerning the intersection between social and bio-physical
dimensions to urban space. The idea of
metabolism, whether used as societal metaphor or in relation to material processes,
has emerged from disparate and often
contradictory intellectual traditions. We
need in the first instance to differentiate
between those conceptions of metabolism
that derive from nineteenth-century developments within the biological and physical
sciences and those that originate within the
field of political economy.4 In a contemporary context, however, the bio-physical
emphasis on urban metabolism as a
homeostatic and circulatory dynamic
predominates within urban and architectural discourse to the relative exclusion of
neo-Marxian interpretations of metabolic
processes of urban transformation.
The current upsurge of interest in organic
architecture, the use of biological analogies in
urban planning and design, along with recent
neo-organicist explorations of the neurological or thinking space of the city, all underlie
the importance of clarifying how scientific
metaphors continue to play a significant role
in contemporary urban discourse.5 The value
of the metabolic metaphor has been its
emphasis on the complex interactions
between social and bio-physical systems that
allow the modern city to function yet the
functionalist impetus behind much organicist
thinking both now and in the past has consistently failed to grasp the way in which urban
space is historically produced. This paper
attempts to develop a dialectical rather than a
functionalist reading of urban space in which
an emphasis on dynamic processes of social
and political contestation takes precedence
over teleological conceptions of urban form.
The term dialectical is used here to denote a
mutually constitutive conception of relations
between nature and culture in urban space:
nature is not conceived as an external blue-
print or template but as an integral dimension

to the urban process which is itself transformed in the process to produce a hybridized and historically contingent interaction
between social and bio-physical systems. In
the case of water infrastructure the longstanding emphasis on the role of urban
technological networks in the growth and
development of urban space is extended to
explore the symbolic role of water infrastructure in the modern city and the emergence of
new forms of social and cultural hybridity.6
One of the difficulties in making sense of
these changes has been the persistence of
organicist metaphors for the understanding
of the flows and networks that underpin the
development of cities. If we are to understand the contemporary dynamics of urban
infrastructure we need to overhaul the idea of
urban metabolism inherited from the nineteenth century in which functionalist
conceptions of cities took precedence over
the analysis of structural dimensions to
urban change. We can, for example, trace a
close connection between the development
of organicist metaphors in the nineteenth
century and new approaches to urban analysis and interpretation associated with the
nascent development of the social sciences:
the new disciplines of sociology, psychology,
political geography and psychoanalysis
borrowed freely from the medical sciences in
order to combine a series of scientific and
moralistic discourses on the urban condition.
The pathology of the city, writes Anthony
Vidler (2000: 25), already fully present in
the organicist metaphors of romantic, realist,
and naturalist novelists from Balzac through
Hugo to Zola, gained new and apparently
scientific validation in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. The hygienist city
promoted by the nineteenth-century public
health movement conceived of urban space as
an identifiable assemblage of organs: a functional whole that could be shaped and
controlled according to a rationalized
conception of human will. Yet the connection between water infrastructure and the
ostensible transparency of the hygienist city
GANDY: WATER, SPACE AND THE MODERN CITY 365

was always ambiguous because so much
water infrastructure lay hidden either
beneath the city streets or relegated to those
marginal spaces on the urban periphery
where noxious trades became concentrated
in the wake of successive legislative measures
to tackle urban pollution.7
Until recently, the understanding of technological networks and the hidden city
had been largely left to engineers whilst other
visible aspects of urban design were widely
perceived as the traditional domain of architects and urban planners. This is partly a
historical legacy of capitalist urbanization
the critical phase in terms of the politics and
planning of urban infrastructure took place
in the nineteenth century but recent developments suggest that we are again entering a
transitional phase in the physical constitution
of urban space. The pervasive emphasis on
the virtual or digital realm associated with
the spread of cyber spaces and networks has
problematized the role of the city as a tangible locus for physical interaction since the
bulk of urban infrastructure remains resolutely fixed in space as a concrete dimension
to the lived experience of the city.8 Water
infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the
constitution of the concrete city not least
because its expense and complexity precludes
its effective substitution by alternative forms
of service provision. For this reason water
has become one of the focal points for new
attempts to conceptualize the materiality of
urban space and the evolving relationship
between the human body and urban technological networks.
The paper begins with an exploration of
what we might term the bacteriological city
as a distinctive assemblage of social, political
and technical elements which developed out
of the chaos of the nineteenth-century industrial city. We explore the co-evolutionary
dynamics between social and technological
systems extending from the private spaces of
the modern home to the largely hidden physical infrastructures which have enabled the
modern city to function. We encounter,
however, a series of anomalies and contradic-
tions underlying this relatively stable configuration between space, society and
technology, which problematizes many of
the assumptions associated with conventional
accounts of the development of the modern
city. The second part of the paper considers
how the fracturing of this earlier urban form
has contributed towards the emergence of a
new kind of urban technological landscape.
The integrative impetus behind the development of modern hydrological networks has
given way to an emerging dynamic of fragmentation and differentiation with profound
implications for the future of the modern city
and a viable public realm.
Plumbing the bacteriological city

The gloomy, crowded and disease-ridden
nineteenth-century city serves as a critical
focal point for many historical accounts of
the evolution of urban technological
networks and the transformation of modern
life. The bacteriological city that emerged
out of the chaos of the nineteenth-century
industrial city was driven by a combination
of factors: advances in the science of epidemiology and later microbiology which gradually dispelled miasmic conceptions of disease;
the emergence of new forms of technical and
managerial expertise in urban governance;
the innovative use of financial instruments
such as municipal bonds to enable the
completion of ambitious engineering
projects; the establishment of new policy
instruments such as the power of eminent
domain and other planning mechanisms
which enabled the imposition of a strategic
urban vision in the face of multifarious
private interests; and the political marginalization of agrarian and landed elites so that
an industrial bourgeoisie, public health advocates and other voices could exert greater
influence on urban affairs. The bacteriological city was, above all, a new socio-spatial
arrangement that could simultaneously
ensure a degree of social cohesion at the same
time as protecting the political and economic
366
CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
functions of the modern city. Water played a

pivotal role in this reconstruction of urban
space to produce what we would recognize
as an archetypal modern city with its closely
choreographed intersection between technology, space and society.
Yet the hydrological transformation of the
nineteenth-century city posed a fundamental
dilemma for nascent forms of urban governance: whilst the provision of an improved
water supply system could be achieved relatively easily the handling of waste water
posed an immense technical, fiscal and political challenge. The introduction of centralized
water systems in cities such as Paris in 1802,
London in 1808 and Berlin in 1856, set in
train a complex sequence of developments
which would take many decades to resolve.9
The accelerating impetus of what Sigfried
Giedion (1948) describes as the water revolution from the middle decades of the nineteenth century onwards overwhelmed the
sanitary arrangements of the pre-industrial
city which relied on privies, cesspits and the
activities of night soil collectors in combination with limited networks of storm water
sewers. The installation of water closets also
diluted the nitrogen value of human wastes
for agriculture at the same time as the growth
of cities rendered the activities of night soil
collectors increasingly uneconomic with ever
greater distances to potential markets. The
economics of human manure was also
progressively undermined by the development of synthetic fertilizers which began to
play an ever greater role in agriculture (see
Corbin, 1986; Laporte, 2000). Despite these
developments, however, we find an intense
debate in the second half of the nineteenth
century over the flushing of human faeces
into the new sewer systems of European
cities: Baron Haussmann, for instance,
strongly opposed any human wastes entering
the magnificent new sewers of Second
Empire Paris and similar arguments were
made on behalf of Berlin by the agricultural
chemist Justus von Liebig and for London by
the prominent public health advocate Edwin
Chadwick.10 These differing notions of
urban symmetry belie contrasting conceptualizations of a rational urban order: anxieties over the loss of human manure rested
on a cyclical pre-modern understanding of
wealth creation whilst the diffusion of new
integrated sewer systems reflected a refashioning of relations between nature and society in the modern city to produce a
metropolitan nature quite different from
the organicist conceptions of nature which
predominated in the past. The modern city
was in other words at the forefront of a new
cultural sensibility towards nature as a focus
of contemplation rather than material necessity as the last vestiges of any cyclical interaction with a rural hinterland were replaced by
a metropolitan emphasis on nature as a
source of leisure (see Green, 1990; Gandy,
2002). By the 1890s advances in the science of
bacteriology in combination with the persistence of water-borne disease outbreaks had
largely supplanted the earlier organic
conceptions of urban order.11 The discovery
of pathogens and their role in disease epidemiology introduced the role of germs as
biological protagonists in the on-going
debate over urban sanitation and as a result
the physical transformation of the city and
the introduction of new water purification
technologies became a historical inevitability.
At the same time as the hidden city of
pipes and sewers was being extended beneath
the city streets a parallel transformation in
the private sphere was also taking place.
When reflecting on the relationship between
water and cities it is easy to underestimate
the significance of transformations in the
design, use and meaning of private space in
contributing towards the reshaping of urban
space as a whole. Indeed, one might argue
that the growing use of water within the
home, exemplified by the diffusion of the
modern bathroom, drove the hydrological
reconstruction of the modern city. The
spread of the private bathroom marked a new
bashfulness towards the body as emerging
fashions for washing, hygiene and bodily
privacy fostered increasing aversion to
human excrement. The modern home

became subject to a new moral geography of
social behaviour that enabled the development of modern technologies to be incorporated into an invented tradition of
domesticity.12 The plumbing of the metropolis was thus a process of both physical reconstruction and social engineering so that the
use of water in the modern city was marked
from the outset by a tension between punitive and progressive hygienist discourses.
The evolution of modern plumbing systems
can be conceived in Foucauldian terms as
part of a bio-political dynamic wherein
social relations and codes of bodily conduct
were increasingly subjected to indirect
modes of social discipline (see Osborne,
1996; Otter, 2002). By invoking a Foucauldian reading of power we can extend our
conception of the regulation of urban space
to include those aspects of social order and
behavioural conduct which lie outside of the
formal arenas of legal sanction and administrative control yet are nonetheless crucial to
our understanding of how modern societies
function (see Agamben, 1998). The symbiotic
relationship between water supply systems
and the development of the modern city has
not only involved a hybridized interaction
between nature and culture but also a coevolutionary dynamic between technology
and the human body. Although the spread of
these new technological and architectural
interactions with the human body remained
highly uneven in different national and
cultural contexts (and was largely restricted
to middle-class homes until the wider diffusion of prosperity in the second half of the
twentieth century) we might argue that the
ideological force of emerging ideologies of
cleanliness and bodily conduct extended
beyond the private bathroom to include the
development of municipal baths, public
health campaigns and other aspects of everyday life in the modern city (see, for example,
Glassberg, 1979; Trupat, 1996).
The diffusion of water technologies is
closely linked with the development of the
public realm as an identifiable facet of the
modern city but it is at the same time a fragile
dimension to urban space that reveals a

number of tensions underlying the political
and economic impetus behind capitalist
urbanization as a geographically uneven and
historically episodic process of social and
cultural transformation. The emerging
bacteriological city involved a medley of
different social, political, economic and environmental goals set within the context of a
movement away from fragmentary and laissez-faire approaches to urban governance.13
With its dense networks of water infrastructure and its eventual integration into modern
discourses of pollution control, the bacteriological city forms an integral element in the
development of the public realm as both a
physical artefact and a political idea. The
close relationship between urban water infrastructure and the development of municipal
governance emerges as one of the critical
dynamics behind the development of the
modern city. Yet we should be careful not to
exaggerate the significance of public health
concerns within this process since the core
dynamic of urban reconstruction rested on
the facilitation of a more rationalized urban
structure for the political control of space
and the enhanced role of modern cities as
arenas for capital accumulation. The heroic
school of urban history has tended to
provide a highly romanticized and individualized account of the role of architects, engineers and physicians in this urban
transformation that ignores the wider political and economic exigencies underpinning
the development of the modern city and new
modes of urban governance.
By the early decades of the twentieth
century the bacteriological city was widely
perceived as the logical end point to the
processes of spatial rationalization under way
since the middle decades of the nineteenth
century.14 A distinctive arrangement of space
emerged which reached its zenith in the fully
networked industrial city of the Fordist era.
The hygienist emphasis on the purification
and ordering of space had radically altered
the relationship between the body and the
city to produce a new socio-technological
368
CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
nexus extending from the interior space of

the modern home to territorially bounded
managerial modes of urban governance. In
historical terms the bacteriological city
and the associated modern infrastructural
ideal to use Graham and Marvins (2001)
term represents a remarkably stable structure or constellation of different elements
since its inception in the middle decades of
the nineteenth century. An emerging interface between water, space and society gradually extended from the urban milieu of the
bacteriological city to encompass regional
and national dimensions to water resources
planning and wider strategic goals such as
rural development, power generation and
fiscal policy (Bakker, 2002; Moral and Saur,
2000; Swyngedouw, 1999). The development
of water infrastructure was thus integrally
connected not only with the emergence of
new forms of municipal governance but also
with a wider transformation in the scope and
rationale of state activity. Giant water infrastructures such as dams and aqueducts
became part of a distinctive technological
landscape founded on the Promethean
impulse to transform nature in the service of
a new society at the forefront of science,
modernity and progress (see, for example,
Banham, 1988). The local, regional and
national state took on a variety of waterrelated tasks that the private sector was either
unable or unwilling to perform leaving managerial and technical expertise concentrated in
the public sector. Yet these new regional
structures were increasingly remote from the
original political dynamic between municipal
reform and potable water supply in which
water infrastructures had played an active
role in fostering the development of a viable
albeit partial public realm.
The development of the bacteriological city
with its integrated technological networks
rested on a widely held misconception that
all cities would ultimately conform to this
model. When viewed in a global context,
however, the anomalies inherent in the bacteriological city become immediately apparent.
The water revolution which emanated
from the nineteenth-century cities of Europe

and North America did not in fact extend
very far with even the better-connected
towns and cities elsewhere often dependent
on intermittent or sporadic access to piped
water. In most colonial cities, for example,
the reconstruction of the underground city
was only ever partially completed with disastrous consequences for public health. During
the early decades of the twentieth century, at
a time of rapid public health improvements
across Europe and North America, cities
under colonial control such as Baghdad,
Bombay and Lagos, all experienced devastating outbreaks of disease on account of their
chaotic and inadequate urban infrastructure
(see Klein, 1986). Until recently, the uneven
levels of connectivity in developing countries
had been widely perceived as a temporary
phenomenon to be overcome through ambitious efforts at urban planning and reconstruction. In the late 1970s, for example,
urban planners in Lagos, Nigeria, anticipated
that within 20 years the entire city would be
connected to a modern water supply system
yet the actual figures for West Africas
premier metropolis by the early twenty first
century were under five per cent for direct
household water connections leaving most of
the citys fifteen million people dependent on
wells, boreholes, standpipes, tankers, street
vendors and other sources (Coker, 2003; UN,
1980). The infrastructure crisis now facing
fast growing cities such as Lagos, Mumbai or
Nairobi, is a testament not simply to the technical and fiscal challenge inherent in the
production of the bacteriological city but the
legacy of an incomplete modernity which
rested on a brutal distinction between citizens who could lay claim to potable water
and mere subjects who were left to make
do as best they could (see Mamdani, 1996).
The period since the 1970s and 1980s has,
despite a series of international declarations,
witnessed a general deterioration in urban
living conditions. The teleological discourses
of technical and managerial progress associated with the bacteriological city fostered
by the positivist impulses of the engineering

sciences served to obscure the contradictory dynamics behind capitalist urbanization.
Processes of industrial restructuring, mass
rural-urban migration in the developing
world, and the gathering impetus of
economic globalization since the early 1970s,
shattered the assumptions and relationships
which underpinned the integrated urban ideal
that had developed during the first half of the
twentieth century. The megacities of the
global South now reveal some of the sharpest
dilemmas and contradictions posed by the
urban infrastructure crisis with widening
disparities emerging in access to sanitation
and potable water. The emerging brown
agenda, focused on the need for global
improvements in water and sanitation with its
implicit linkage to a rights-based conception
of access to water and sanitation, sits uneasily
alongside the shift away from the bacteriological city with its focus on centralized,
universal and state-directed patterns of
service delivery. Yet the current sanitation
crisis is most acute in precisely those cities
that never enjoyed the same kind of technological transformation as that experienced in
the cities of Europe, North America or more
recently in parts of south Asia.
Fractured spaces
Though we can delineate the characteristic
features of the bacteriological city it is much
more difficult to discern any clearly defined
infrastructural successor. The contemporary
city is being shaped by a different combination of fiscal and political pressures which
have generated new kinds of relationships
between the physical structure of space and
changing patterns of urban governance. The
era of municipal managerialism which
persisted under a range of different political
systems has been displaced by a more diffuse,
disconnected and differentiated urban form
in which the idea of the public as a clearly
defined political and ideological entity has
been thrown into doubt and in which those
activities formerly undertaken by the state
have become redistributed among a panoply

of different private or non-governmental
agencies ranging from corporate giants in the
field of municipal service provision to new
types of grassroots organizations. It would
be wrong, however, to suggest that the bacteriological city has disappeared since most
cities remain dependent on these immense
technological networks yet the context in
which these urban hydrological systems now
operate has been radically transformed. What
is now emerging is a complex palimpsest of
different forms and structures that leaves
existing conceptions of the city in a state of
flux and uncertainty.
The drift towards an increased marketization of water can be interpreted as an intensification of incipient trends contained
within the history of capitalist urbanization;
the most recent chapter in an oscillating
dynamic between public and private in
the provision of water and sanitation which
both predates and extends beyond the
specific arena of European and North American urbanization. Water has always been
closely intertwined with the flow of capital;
municipal bonds for water infrastructure, for
example, represent a core element in the
development of modern capital markets. The
issue hinges on the changing relationship
between capital, space and power: namely the
intersection between patterns of capital
investment and the evolution of municipal
governance. This process involves a series of
different elements or possible configurations
between tiers of governance, capital markets,
corporate entities and other players, but the
core issue is that a relatively stable, centralized and state-dominated structure is being
replaced by a very different set of political
and economic dynamics to those that
prevailed under the bacteriological city.
A key development since the mid-1970s
has been the emergence of a fiscal crisis
facing the maintenance of urban infrastructure with declining levels of investment leading to widespread dilapidation and neglect.
By the late 1980s, for example, over 25 per
cent of Londons water mains were over 100
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CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
years old and over 30 per cent of its water

was being lost through leaks. Rusted and
corroded water supply systems in London
and elsewhere had become part of an emerging post-industrial landscape marked by new
patterns of social segregation, rising poverty
and a pervasive politics of municipal crisis.
By the 1990s, and the widespread reorientation of municipal governance towards the
needs of capital, the large-scale divestment of
public assets such as municipal water supply
systems had become an integral component
in ambitious privatization programmes.
Although these vast sales raised money in the
short-term as a means to bolster state
finances the underlying pretext has been an
attempt to avoid fiscal and political responsibilities in the future: a prospect underpinned
by new technical and regulatory complexities
facing the management of urban infrastructure in comparison with the relatively simple
systems of the past. Recent changes in the
water and sanitation sector have been marked
by a transition from a municipal ethos dominated by civil engineering to a commercially
driven need to assuage the demands of shareholders which has generated intense conflicts
of interest between the users of water
systems and the profit maximization strategies of privatized utilities. In the UK, for
example, cost-cutting measures by water utilities after privatization in 1989 led to spiralling water charges, a surge in disconnections
and outbreaks of dysentery. The ensuing
political outcry eventually led to new legislation in 1999 encompassing a windfall tax
on the vast profits enjoyed by privatized utilities and lower price caps to protect low
income households from escalating water
and sewerage charges (though utilities have
partially circumvented this with the introduction of more expensive token based pay
as you use systems for poorer households).
As a response to these changes share prices
for UK water utilities dropped by as much as
50 per cent to levels below their regulatory
asset value and two of the ten privatized utilities adopted a mutualization structure
whereby long-term capital costs would be
passed back to the state (see Bakker, 2001,

2004; Castro et al., 2000).
Other changes experienced in the UK and
elsewhere include the diversification of water
companies into other services and an internationalization of activities into lucrative overseas contracts. Examples of this process
include Thames Water Londons former
public water utility which after privatization in 1989 developed overseas interests in a
number of countries including China, Egypt,
Indonesia and Thailand, and was itself
acquired by the German multi-utility RWE
in 2000. At an international level there is now
a drift towards an increasingly oligopolistic
structure for global water provision dominated by a small number of mainly European
companies. There is also the prospect in the
wake of the disastrous water privatizations in
Buenos Aires and Manila of a further widening of disparities in supply with the strategic
withdrawal of these corporate entities from
problematic cities or regions to focus only on
those urban citadels from which higher water
charges and profits can be extracted so that
the poor must continue to rely on degraded
and inadequate public supply systems (see
Chinai, 2002; Swyngedouw et al., 2002). The
material assets of capital infrastructure have
also been increasingly used as leverage for
other financial activities. In this instance
capital assets such as water and sewerage
systems usually developed over many
decades from public sources of investment
have become closely entwined with the
development of new forms of economic
activity rooted in speculative rather than
productive forms of profit generation (notable examples include the ill-fated Enron
corporation which collapsed in 2001). Taken
together these changes mark a further shift
away from the municipal model though some
cities such as New York have, after a
protracted political debate, opted to retain
public control over their water systems (see
Gandy, 2002). A range of research has indicated that many of the most efficient water
utilities remain under public control (Stockholm being an axiomatic example), that

public utilities are better able to respond to
new political challenges such as improved
equity in water access (as in South Africa)
and that public utilities in developing countries can raise their own sources of capital (as
indicated by the successful bond issue in
Ahmedabad, India). The implications are that
the alternative to the bacteriological city is
not necessarily outright privatization as
promoted by the World Bank and other
Western financial institutions but extends to
a range of possibilities in part dependent on
the ability of different interest groups,
including the local state itself, to articulate
different patterns of service delivery and
mobilize alternative sources of investment
such as municipal bonds rather than bilateral
loans vulnerable to currency fluctuations (see
Hall, 2004; Lobina and Hall, 1999). Pivotal to
the efforts of the World Bank to extend
privatization is the dependence of inadequate
and dilapidated municipal systems on external sources of capital that cannot be generated locally (hence the crucial significance of
local bond issues and other strategies being
pioneered in India and elsewhere). In some
instances state divestiture has been a precondition for obtaining bilateral loans in a
dramatic contrast with the nineteenthcentury cities of Europe or North America
which could utilize colonial sources of capital to finance the expansion and modernization of urban infrastructure.
The conversion of water from a public
good into a marketable commodity also
holds wider implications so that water is no
longer perceived as an integral component of
modern citizenship rights (though this
distinction was in any case very unstable in
the bifurcated context of colonial and postcolonial cities). The decline of the bacteriological city has been accompanied by an
erosion of the political connections between
water supply and the public realm that developed under the aegis of technological
modernism and scientific modes of municipal
governance. Since the notion of modern citizenship as articulated by David Harvey,
Richard Sennett and other urban scholars is
pivotal to the development of a thriving

public sphere it follows that a weakening in
the ostensible connection between urban
infrastructure and the public realm has
profound political implications (see Harvey,
1996; Sennett, 1974). The connection
between water and citizenship rights is now
left in an anomalous position since there is no
longer any clear connection between the
socio-spatial structure of the city and the
articulation of a cogent public interest. The
contemporary city can be characterized by a
form of antibiotic urbanism in which the
historic associations between urban governance, political reform and public health,
pioneered by figures such as Edwin Chadwick, James Hobrecht and Robert Koch no
longer apply. The public health crises of the
past exemplified by cholera and typhoid
affected not only the poor but also the
middle classes and threatened the social and
political cohesion of the entire city. Contemporary public health threats, by contrast, are
largely restricted to zones or enclaves of
deprivation in the absence of organized
urban social movements to rival those of the
industrial city.
In addition to this fracturing of the public
health dynamics of urban space we can also
identify a series of changes in the relationship
between water and urban society. Trust in
public water supplies in developed economies has declined since the 1980s as a result
of tangible health scares from pathogens such
as Cryptosporidium and E. coli, as well as the
generalized spread of political and environmental mistrust.15 Public supplies both in
developed and developing economies must
also contend with the emergence of more
differentiated markets for potable water
exemplified by the proliferation of bottled
waters in an apparent reversion to nineteenth-century patterns of elite water
consumption. The Coca Cola soft drinks
manufacturer, for example, has recently and
somewhat controversially been selling
repackaged municipal tap water to consumers in London after minimal and from a
public health standpoint quite unnecessary
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CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
treatment procedures. And in India the same

corporation has been aggressively promoting
table water to urban elites whilst at the same
time promoting soft drinks in water deficient
rural India in preference to the development
of more equitable potable water sources (a
strategy underlined by the rapacious water
extraction activities of bottled water companies in India and elsewhere).16 The rural
water crisis affecting much of India and
many other parts of south Asia and subSaharan Africa is also a crucial dimension to
the subsistence crisis which is forcing
millions to seek a better life in cities so that
the urban infrastructure crisis is integrally
related to intensifying patterns of rural
poverty.
A key dilemma behind the shift to an
increasingly market-driven conception of
urban infrastructure is that those elements of
fixed capital with the greatest sunk costs
generate significantly lower rates of return
than other infrastructure networks such as
telecommunications. There is not so much an
emerging digital divide, as has been
mooted in some of the literature, but rather a
glaring concrete divide in the corporeal
experience of space marked by persistent and
widening disparities in access to basic
services. The continuing global prevalence of
water-borne disease is a clear indication of
this regional and global disparity in urban
living standards. The urban slum is now the
focal point for contemporary debate over the
future of urban infrastructure. In subSaharan Africa, for example, over 70 per cent
of the urban population live in slums and
global numbers of slum dwellers are set to
double within the next thirty years (Davis,
2004; UN, 2003). Widening inequalities in
the distribution and quality of urban services
such as water supply form part of a process
of urban polarization over which the state
appears to now play only a minimal role in
the face of pressures towards further liberalization, deregulation and fragmentation. This
is not to argue, however, that the state itself
especially the nation state is becoming
irrelevant to this process since it continues to
play a pivotal role in facilitating processes of

globalization (see Sassen, 1995; 1998) so that
control over the apparatus of state power
must remain a focal point for political
discourse despite the burgeoning significance
of different forms of grassroots democracy
(see Appadurai, 2002). Democratic control
over municipal water supply has become a
contested arena that links with the antiglobalization movements attempts to defend
public services. The issue of the local state,
therefore, whether as service provider or
regulatory agency, remains pivotal to the
resolution of the urban sanitation crisis not
least because NGOs and other grassroots
organizations cannot act as credible substitutes for democratic forms of urban governance. The cyber slums of the South
with the latest wireless technologies but
inadequate water and sanitation lie caught
between the discourses of grassroots activism
and neo-liberalism; the question as to who
will coordinate, build and finance the necessary water and sanitation infrastructures that
can offer the prospect of a better quality of
urban life for the majority of the global
urban population remains unanswered.17
As for the affluent cities of the future, these
are likely to contend with the extension of
water metering and other devices to promote
greater water efficiency within individual
homes as part of an integrated network of
technological control extending to all areas of
everyday life (see Mitchell, 2003). And
beyond the spaces of the home a new hydrological landscape may evolve bringing the
latest developments in water efficient design
to even the most arid urban locales (see
Suzenet et al., 2002). At a regional scale,
however, there is likely to be escalating
conflict over access to diminishing and
increasingly expensive water resources so that
socially created forms of water scarcity begin
to intersect with conflicts generated by the
hydrological frontier of fast growing cities.
The kind of complex political dynamics experienced over many decades in parts of the
Middle East or southern California, for example, and other semi-arid urbanized landscapes,

will become a much more widespread
phenomenon. In more extreme cases rates of
urbanization may even be curtailed by water
stress, particularly where fast growing cities
are dependant on vulnerable ground water
reserves, having wider implications for
economic growth within the economy. The
cost of water is certain to increase further
under intensifying pressure for prices to
reflect the full marginal costs of production
(however these might be defined) as part of
the on-going challenge to welfarist patterns
of water provision associated with the bacteriological city. The further liberalization of
water services will intensify social and
economic contradictions within the urban
arena leading to complex regulatory and political dilemmas. And as increasing numbers of
cities become integrated into a highly competitive global urban system the scale and intensity of water conflict is likely to become more
pervasive.
Conclusions
Water is not simply a material element in the
production of cities but is also a critical
dimension to the social production of space.
Water implies a series of connectivities
between the body and the city, between
social and bio-physical systems, between the
evolution of water networks and capital
flows, and between the visible and invisible
dimensions to urban space. But water is at
the same time a brutal delineator of social
power which has at various times worked to
either foster greater urban cohesion or generate new forms of political conflict. When we
think of what a city is we cannot avoid
contemplating the complex mass of structures that bind different elements of urban
space into a coherent functional entity. Yet
this integrated urban form is by no means the
prevalent model when we consider the
phenomenon of modern urbanism in a wider
geographical or historical context: the diversity of different institutional structures and
arrangements for water provision illustrates
the complexity of urban infrastructure and

its evolving relationship with different modes
of social and economic organization.
The urban ideal of the fully connected
metropolis emerged as a powerful symbol for
modernity in the wake of the chaotic and
disconnected nineteenth-century city. Under
the bacteriological city a relationship evolved
between more democratic forms of urban
governance and the development of modern
citizenship rights. The ostensible technical
and managerial simplicity associated with this
phase of urban governance afforded the
possibility for an unproblematic conception
of urban metabolism as an assemblage of
material flows; a web of movements enabling
what we would recognize as an archetypal
modern city to function effectively. In practice, however, the interweaving of social and
technological systems within the bacteriological city was far more complex than most
architects, engineers and planners were ever
willing to admit. The messy and indeterminate spaces of the urban unknown persisted
within this intellectual context as a margin or
boundary beyond which these technical
discourses fell silent. With the fading of the
bacteriological city and its characteristic
modes of urban governance the bio-physical
conceptions of urban metabolism have
become further problematized through an
inability to explicate the changing nature of
the contemporary city within an increasingly
globalized urban system. The use of biological analogies may serve some heuristic or
imaginative value in the context of architectural design for individual buildings but when
applied to an entire city or region these essentially arbitrary combinations of scientific
metaphors quickly become untenable and
lose any analytical utility. If the idea of urban
metabolism can be disentangled from its
organicist and functionalist antecedents,
however, it can serve as a useful point of entry
for a critical reformulation of the relationship
between social and bio-physical processes. A
dialectical or hybridized conception of urban
metabolism can illuminate the circulatory
processes that underpin the transformation of
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CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
nature into essential commodities such as

food, energy and potable water: the idea of
metabolism in this sense derives not from any
anatomical or functional analogy but from an
emphasis on the interweaving of social and
biophysical processes that produce new
forms of urban or metropolitan nature in
distinction to the rarefied realm of nature
which remains dominant within much urban
and environmentalist discourse. A scientistic
model is replaced by a historically driven
conception of urban nature which is rooted in
the political dynamics of capitalist urbanization as a contested and multi-dimensional
process of urban change. We can discern a
coalescence here between neo-Marxian
conceptions of the transformation of first
nature and more recent emphasis on the role
of networks in the production of urban space.
In developing a more bio-dynamic conception of urban space we can also draw on
significant contributions from within the
history of modernist architecture and design
such as Alvar Aalto, Hans Scharoun or Bruno
Zevi.18 Relational or hybridized conceptions
of urban metabolism with emphasis on
phenomena such as commodity chains, the
particularities of local context and the fluidity
of urban form are quite different from
non-dialectical models of urban metabolism
rooted in a homeostatic conception of the city
as a self-regulatory system. The newly emerging conceptions of urban hybridity developed
by Bruno Latour, Erik Swyngedouw and
others, recognize that water networks are also
active agents in the production of space not
only through reflexive interactions with
processes of socio-technical evolution but
also through their constitutive role in the
production of urban culture.19 These relational perspectives differ fundamentally from
the linear flow-based models of urban space
associated with concepts such as industrial
metabolism, ecological footprints and
other functionalist conceptions of urban
space.20 Though the ecologically orientated
ideas of Peter Baccini, Herbert Girardet and
others seek to make a clear differentiation
between their conception of urban space and
the technocratic urban models derived from

the classic genres of scientific urban management exemplified by the intervention of
Abel Wolman there is nonetheless a
convergence between these different perspectives around the conception of the city as a
metabolic system which can be examined in
isolation from wider processes of historical
change.
Under the twentieth-century discourses of
scientific urbanism and technological
modernism we find that the hydraulic
conceptions of the modern city were
extended and consolidated to produce a
highly sophisticated model of urban space as
an efficient machine. In reality, however, the
evolving dynamics of urban space from the
middle decades of the twentieth century
onwards became increasingly difficult to
subsume within the technocratic assumptions
of the bacteriological city. A combination of
political, economic and social developments,
which gathered accelerated momentum in the
wake of global economic turbulence of the
1970s, contributed towards the emergence of
a set of new configurations between space,
society and technology. The role of water
within this process of urban restructuring
reveals a series of tensions between the
abstract commodification of space and the
continuing centrality of material interactions
between human societies and technological
networks. By focusing on the flow of water
through urban space we can begin to disentangle the nexus of social and technological
structures that constitute everyday life in the
modern city and the creation of a viable
public realm. What is clear, however, is that
the relationship between the development of
urban infrastructure and a functional public
realm is a fragile and historically specific
phenomenon. The need to connect policy
deliberation over water infrastructure with
the establishment of effective and legitimate
forms of urban governance remains as
important now as it was in the past but such
arguments can no longer rely on either the
bacteriological logic of public health advocacy or the rationalist conceptions of urban

space promoted by political and economic
elites.
12
12
Notes
1
1
2
3
4
10
10
11
11
Eckbo, (1990, p. 3).

Swyngedouw (2004a, p. 1).
Koolhaas (1994, p. 1264).
Swyngedouw (2004b). The development of the
concept of metabolism in the nineteenth century
also involved significant intellectual exchanges
between developments in, for example, agricultural
science and new approaches to political economy
exemplified by the influence of Justus von Liebigs
critique of capitalist agriculture on the writings of
Karl Marx. See, for example, Foster (2000).
Recent examples of organic architecture and
metabolic conceptions of urban form are to be
found in, for example, Gans and Kuz (2003),
Gauzin-Mller (2002), Pearson (2001), Senosiain
(2003) and Slessor (1997).
The cultural and symbolic dimensions to water are
explored in, for example, Bhme (1988; 2000),
Ipsen (1998) and Sennett (1994).
On the history of attempts to control urban pollution
see, for example, Barles (1999), Bernhardt and
Massard-Guilbaud (2002), Luckin (2000) and Tarr
(1996).
The corporeality of the water-technology-body
interface sits uneasily alongside those urban
discourses which emphasize the putative
dominance of the digital realm. The increasing
emphasis on various manifestations of cyber space
has brought into sharp relief the somewhat
anomalous characteristics of water infrastructure in
comparison with other urban technological
networks. It is difficult, for example, to relegate the
crumbling water infrastructure of the modern city to
Marc Augs (1995) notion of non-place because
it continues to play such a significant role in the
way we perceive space as a cultural as well as a
tangible dimension to the urban experience (see,
for example, Baeten, 2002; Garver, 1998; Kaika
and Swyngedouw, 2000; Keil and Graham,
1998; Skeates, 1997).
On the history of water supply see, for example,
Barles (1999), Barraqu, (1995), Goubert (1989),
Guillerme (1988), Jacobson and Tarr (1994),
Melosi (2000), von Simson (1983) and Tepasse
(2001).
On nineteenth-century debates over the continuing
use of human manure in agricultiure see, for
example, Bschenfeld (1997), Gandy (1999),
Tepasse (2001) and von Simson (1983).
We should note, however, that disputes over the
epidemiology of urban disease persisted long after
advances in bacteriology as evidenced by the
13
13
14
14
15
15
16
17
16
17
18
18
19
19
20
public disagreements between the experimental

hygiene of Max von Pettenkofer and the new
science of bacteriology advanced by Robert Koch.
See Koppitz (2004) and Vgele (2001).
On ideologies of domesticity and the modern
home see, for example, Frank (2003), Kaka
(2004), Lupton and Miller (1992) and Wright
(1975; 1980).
On public health campaigns, water supply and the
reform of urban governance see, for example,
Evans (1987) and Penzo (1994).
By the early decades of the twentieth century rates
of water connection neared 100 per cent across
much of urban Europe and North America (see, for
example, Barraqu, 1995; Goubert, 1986;
Guillerme, 1988; Melosi, 2000). Despite the
significance of this technical transformation of
space we still know comparatively little about the
evolving relationship between the technical
and political transformation of cities with most
attention devoted to the development of other
technological networks such as electricity,
telecommunications and transport infrastructures.
France, for example, completed its water
distribution network significantly later than Britain
and Germany and in much of the developing world
the extent of network coverage has steadily
declined in relation to rapid urban growth. The
development of more sophisticated and
interdisciplinary approaches to the study of urban
technological networks can be traced in particular
to the work of Thomas Hughes (1983). Other key
sources include Bijker et al. (1989), Coutard
(1999), Gkalp (1992), Graham and Marvin
(1995; 2001), Guy et al. (2001), Jacobson and
Tarr (1994), Lahiji and Friedman (1997) and Troy
(1995).
On recent public health scares affecting water
supplies in developed economies see, for example,
Gostin et al. (2000), LeChevallier et al. (1991) and
MacKenzie (1994).
See, for example, McDougall (2004).
The United Nations, the World Bank and other
multinational institutions estimate that vast
investments of at least $60 billion a year are
needed to avoid a further deterioration in urban
living conditions (see, for example, Camdessus and
Winpenny, 2003).
See, for example, Frampton (2003), Pelkonen
(2003) and Porteous (2002).
A focus on the production of metabolized water
encompasses not just its physical and chemical
properties but also an associated assemblage of
symbolic and cultural meanings as it becomes
incorporated into the political ecology of the
modern city. See, for example, Swyngedouw
(2004), Latour (2004) and Latour and Hermant
(1998).
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CITY VOL. 8, NO. 3
20 Some similarities can also be discerned here with

recent post-structuralist theorizations of urban space
which seek to counter the nodal emphasis of much
of the world-city literature (see, for example, Crang,
2000; de Landa, 1998) but these ideas have thus
far been mainly applied to virtual rather than
concrete spaces in the city. For overviews of recent
flow-based conceptions of urban and industrial
metabolism see, for example, Baccini (1997),
Fischer-Kowalski and Htter (1999) and Schramm
(2000). Different variants on the urban metabolism
theme also include, for example, the Japanese
based Metabolist movement which emerged in the
late 1950s and played on the cybernetic impetus
within planning and architectural discourse.
Founder members such as the Japanese architect
Kisho Kurokawa used elaborate capsules and other
structures to capture aspects of urban growth and
effectively invert the tendency for urban
infrastructure to be hidden within architectural
structures (see Kurokawa, 1992).
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On: 10 June 2014, At: 02:57
Society & Natural Resources: An

International Journal
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/usnr20
Managing Sustainable Urban Water

Reuse: Structural Context and Cultures
of Trust
a
June S. Marks & Maria Zadoroznyj
Department of Sociology , Flinders University of South Australia ,

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Published online: 24 Feb 2007.
To cite this article: June S. Marks & Maria Zadoroznyj (2005) Managing Sustainable Urban Water
Reuse: Structural Context and Cultures of Trust, Society & Natural Resources: An International
Journal, 18:6, 557-572, DOI: 10.1080/08941920590947995

proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising
out of the use of the Content.
Society and Natural Resources, 18:557572

Copyright # 2005 Taylor & Francis Inc.
ISSN: 0894-1920 print/1521-0723 online
DOI: 10.1080/08941920590947995
Managing Sustainable Urban Water Reuse:

Structural Context and Cultures of Trust
JUNE S. MARKS AND MARIA ZADOROZNYJ
Downloaded by [UVA Universiteitsbibliotheek SZ] at 02:57 10 June 2014
Department of Sociology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide,

South Australia, Australia
Water scarcity in urban environments is an issue of increasing concern in Australia
and many other parts of the world. Technological solutions include recycling municipal effluent, which can be treated to a standard suitable for nonpotable uses such as
garden watering and toilet flushing. Successful operation of such solutions requires
institutional arrangements for long-term management, as well as public awareness
and cooperation to establish safe practices. This article reports on research undertaken at four case study sites in Australia and the United States and identifies the
social and management issues important to the success of water reuse projects.
The cross-national findings demonstrate that best practice in residential water reuse
technology should be coupled with institutional and structural arrangements that
inform and involve the public and provide transparent governance. It is suggested
that this combination of technical and social structural elements will facilitate a
sustained trust in, and acceptance of, water reuse.
Keywords community, public acceptance, recycled water, risk, trust, water reuse
It is now widely accepted that the use of reclaimed water, termed water reuse, can
assist in achieving sustainable urban development (e.g., Anderson 1996). Accordingly, in Australia, various state governments have now set targets for cities to
recycle at least a fifth of their total sewage effluent. Reclaimed water is derived from
sewerage systems and treated to a standard that is satisfactory for its intended use.
As other natural resources and ecological research suggests (Lawrence, Higins,
and Lockie 2001; Nyhus et al. 2002), the findings in this article relating to water
reuse demonstrate that successful, sustainable management requires an interdisciplinary approach with input from social scientists that can address the nontechnical,
human aspects of resource management. It has also been demonstrated that the
character of social structures, social and legal institutions (Klug 2002), and social
relations of power (Gupte 2003; Sneddon et al. 2002) has a significant impact on
the sustainability of outcomes. History shows that technology can cause new problems while solving others (Arcury & Christianson 1990, 389390; Beck 1992).
The research reported in this article uses cross-national comparative case studies
at four urban water reuse sites and examines their differing social and institutional
structures in relation to residents levels of understanding and trust in water reuse.
Received 4 April 2004; accepted to November 2004.
Address correspondence to June S. Marks, Department of Sociology, Flinders University
of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia. E-mail: june.marks@flinders.
edu.au
557
558
J. S. Marks and M. Zadoroznyj
Contemporary Social Organization and the Significance of Trust
Modern urbanized societies are characterized by abstract systems such as water

and electricity that are little understood by consumers and over which individuals
have limited control (Giddens 1990, 90). Consumer expectations about their provision have become routinised based on the largely well-established, unproblematic
delivery of the service. For the theorist Giddens:
In conditions of modernity, attitudes of trust towards abstract systems are
usually routinely incorporated into the continuity of day-to-day activities
. . . trust is much less of a leap of commitment than a tacit acceptance
of circumstances in which other alternatives are largely foreclosed.
(1990, 90)
With the depletion of water resources through overdrawing of rivers and underground sources, this routine service is being reviewed as part of the drive for sustainable urban development. Used water, previously wasted through disposal to oceans
and rivers, is being treated to a higher standard and delivered to households for
nonpotablenot for drinkinguses, known as residential reuse. Nonpotable uses
include garden watering, toilet flushing, car washing, and other incidental uses such
as ornamental features. This helps to conserve water resources, but it also raises the
possibility of public health risk if the water is inadequately treated or inappropriately
used. As such, basic trust in household water supply is necessarily challenged.
Under these circumstances, trust has to be actively produced (Giddens 1994, 93),
but what are the social and structural conditions important to the development of
active trust?
Sztompka (1999) provides a model that takes as its focus the process of trust formation, or what he calls the social becoming of trust. Like Giddens (1993),
Sztompka argues that a complex interplay of historical antecedents, political, social,
and cultural conditions, and individual characteristics all contribute to the level and
character of trust. For Sztompka, trust is a necessary prerequisite for political
orderwithout it, social systems are precarious at best (1999, 139). The institutions
of a democratic state are predicated on the trust-building process, an important
dimension of civic culture that includes civil society, cultural capital, and social
capital (Sztompka 1999, 15; Misztal 2001, 381). For both Giddens (1990; 1991;
1994) and Sztompka (1999, 21), trusting becomes the crucial strategy for dealing
with an uncertain and uncontrollable future in situations of risk.
How, then, is trust built in the case of water recycling with its associated
increased health risk and uncertainty? We can deduce that because trust is an
ongoing dynamic, it flows from historical conditions and is further shaped by current
social influences, as shown in Figure 1. Of particular relevance to water reuse, are the
constraining and enabling conditions of the natural environment (Sztompka 1990,
252253), such as water scarcity or pollution of water resources.
In the case of residential reuse, changes in the way of thinking about, or using,
water sourced from sewage effluent are experienced within a particular structural
context that interacts with the characteristics of a given community. The resulting
experiences influence higher or lower levels of trust in the new technology and those
that are advocating its use. This revised culture of trust then becomes the new context that shapes future considerations and action.
Sustainable Water Reuse: Structure Trust
559
Figure 1. The social becoming of trust model. Adapted from Sztompka (1990, 1999).
In essence, existing social theory suggests that two kinds of components are
important to the building of trust (Giddens 1990; Sztompka 1996; 1999; Misztal
1996; 2001). The first of these relates to structural conditions. For example,
Sztompka (1999) identifies five structural factors that provide opportunities to build
trust:
1. Normative coherencea general awareness that is developed through a
coherent, noncontradictory system of law that exerts influence on other
extralegal forms of regulation.
2. Stability of social orderthe extent to which the institutions or processes
have provided firm reference points through enforcement of regulations.
3. Transparencyof the principles and processes of the social organization.
4. Familiarityto facilitate knowledge of and confidence in the changed
environment.
5. Accountability promoted though properly functioning institutions that
provide checks and balances, a form of insurance that is essential to the
development of trust.
The second component comprises the personal and collective characteristics of
social actors important in shaping the prevailing cultural climate of trust
(Sztompka 1999, 120). The personal and collective characteristics of a community
influence its social mood, derived from its social networks and collective capital
in terms of quality-of-life values and awareness of and willingness to take up existing
structural opportunities (1999, 125132).
Research Design and Methodology

Until recently there has been little research or published literature on the social
aspects of water reuse. For these reasons a case-study approach was taken to explore
the community experience of recycling water and to analyse how trust is built
through the experience. Four residential reuse sites were selected to investigate the
experience of those who have chosen to live in these developments. Residential reuse
sites involve a community-scale practice of recycling water. These purpose-built
housing developments incorporate dual pipes, one reticulating potable (drinking)
water and the other, a purple pipe, distributing nonpotable reclaimed water for
open-space irrigation and for household use.
560
Replication logic was used for selection of multiple-case studies to strengthen the
analytic generalizations to the theory (Yin 1989, 44; Glaser and Strauss 1967, 49).
New Haven Village was chosen as the first site because, at the commencement of
the research in 2000, this eco village north east of Adelaide was the only site in
Australia where residents were using reclaimed water for toilet flushing and outdoor
uses in a purposefully built development. Following data collection and analysis for
the New Haven study, subsequent cases were selected in 2001 on the basis of theoretical replication, whereby different results were expected for predictable reasons
(Yin 1989, 53).
Mawson Lakes, north of Adelaide, was selected as the second site. This was the
only other purposefully designed development in Adelaide and, because the
reclaimed water was not yet on line, the expectations rather than experience of
nonpotable reuse comprised the main variation between the two case studies. A
cross-national comparator was required to include sites where residential reuse
was well established. Therefore, the third case selected was the city of Altamonte
Springs in Florida (USA), where an established municipal system has recycled water
for residential use for around 12 years. The fourth study was located in Melbourne,
Brevard County, Florida, where a centrally managed system similar to Altamonte
Springs has been on line for approximately the same period of time as New Haven.
Both Florida sites provide reclaimed water for outdoor uses only (garden irrigation,
car washing, hosing down), while the Australian sites extend the purple pipes into the
houses to enable the water to be used for toilet flushing. Table 1 summarizes the
background context to the sites.
Multiple sources of data were collected for each embedded case study to enhance
construct validity (Yin 1989, 41). As summarized in Table 2, data were collected for
each unit of analysis relating to the study community as a whole through to the
experience of individual residents. The type of project and intermediate-level data
varied according to availability and application to each case study. Additionally,
at New Haven, interviews were also conducted with the engineering contractor
responsible for maintaining the reclaimed water treatment plant, the accountant
for the local council, a nongovernment welfare housing manager, one of the original
project developers, and an engineer for the recycled water permitting authority.
Twenty householders were recruited through random selection from the residential
customer databases for each of the four sites. High response rates resulted, with
67% at Altamonte Springs, 80% at Brevard County, 85% for New Haven, and
87% at Mawson Lakes. Semistructured, face-to-face interviews were audiotaped at
each of the Adelaide sites and, due to time and budget constraints for the United
States field trip, Florida residents were interviewed on site by telephone with verbatim notes taken in shorthand.
The comparative case-study method provided the opportunity to identify similarities and differences between the sites. Although residents at Mawson Lakes had not yet
gained delivery of reclaimed water, the data complemented and strengthened findings
for the other case studies and underlined the significance of this early stage of preengagement. The qualitative data could not be generalised to the respective populations;
however, worthwhile comparisons could be made between the data sets, backed by
field observations and other data, as listed in Table 2. Face-to-face interviews with
the Florida respondents would have provided a more accurate comparator, yet this
was no barrier for these experienced end users in terms of understanding the interview
questions, and roughly half provided additional explanations and comments.
561
Neighborhood
Bathroom connection,
garden tap
Nil
$264 pa ($13=m),
equal to waived
sewerage rates
Scale
Equipment costs in
addition to irrigation
Connection costs
Charges
Not yet on line

approx. 200 in January
2001, expanding to 3500
Original Plan for
decentralized system
under review (2003)
Whole suburb
Bathroom connection,
garden tapa
Not yet on line
Not confirmed,
but will be metered
Mawson Lakes, Australia
19941995
2700 and expanding
Brevard County, FL
$6b=month
$14 per month sewage
rates
$240
$9.62 per month
sewage rates
Metropolitan
Special subsurface hose connection if required.
Centralized system and managing authority
Late 1980s
5477
Altamonte Springs, FL
This cost ranges from approx. $700 to $1200 at Mawson Lakes, depending on the number of toilets featured in the house design.
Australian dollars, August 2001 (AU$1 US$0.52).
Decentralized, locally
managed
Organization
1995
62 (completed)
On line since:
Households connected
New Haven, Australia
Table 1. Characteristics of the four study sites
562
Householders
Individual
managers
Subunits
Intermediate
Main unit
Project
Unit of analysis
Interviews with residents,

field observations
Interviews with managers
Archival data: media

reports, invoices, previous
surveys, industry literature
Policy and information

documents, provider
web site, observations
Data sources
Table 2. Embedded case-study design
Attitude toward policy, economic,

technical issues, communication
Experience of nonpotable reuse
Aspects of project such as

charges, notices,
research findings
Historical context and indications

of structural supports
Project level data
Quality of communications,
service
Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes,
behavior
Awareness of billing, notices,

event coping procedures
Background, familiarity,
compliance with policies
End-users
563
Results
The findings for each of the four residential reuse developments relating to the structural context are drawn from all information sources. These are presented under the
five conditions theorised as trust-building factors (Sztompka 1999). This is followed
by an exploration of the characteristics of the social actors that shape the prevailing culture of trust, mainly based on interviews with residents at each of the four
locations.
The Structural Context of Residential ReuseComparisons Across the Sites

The comparisons between the four study sites with respect to institutionalised
structural arrangements are summarized in Table 3.
Awareness of Regulations and Rules
The regulations governing New Haven and Mawson Lakes are derived from the
national guidelines for water reuse. Although the State Health Department is
responsible for issuing (South Australian Department of Human Services, Adelaide)
permits to operate sewage treatment plants, it has few resources available for following up compliance with the criteria set for each individual permit (M. Kayaalp
personal communication 2002). Therefore, there has been little attention given to
operations and management of the decentralized recycled water system at New
Haven. In turn, the local council that inherited the responsibility for this demonstration site claims that it, too, is constrained by a lack of additional resources
to accommodate anything more than the outsourcing of plant operations and maintenance. Information at New Haven and Mawson Lakes consists of marketing
brochures, building encumbrance documents, and a model of the development.
No specific advice is directed to residents outlining the rules for using the recycled
water.
Few research participants at New Haven were aware of the original permitting
rules that stipulate subsurface, drip irrigation and prohibition of recycled water
Table 3. Structural variations of the four case studies
New
Haven
Awareness of
Weak
regulations and rules
Stability through
Not
enforcement of rules
enforced
Transparency of
Low
governance
Familiarity with the
Informal
changed environment
through formal
communications
Accountability of persons Unclear
and institutions
Mawson
Lakes
Altamonte
Springs
Brevard
County
Weak
Strong
Strong
Ad hoc
Rigorous
Rigorous
Low
High
High
Informal,
developing
Unclear
Formal,
established
Clear
Formal,
established
Clear
564
garden taps. The only tenant among the 20 residents interviewed was unaware that
recycled water was connected. Enquiries with her landlord, a manager of five welfare
houses in the development, confirmed that tenants were not informed nor given
access to the water for garden irrigation because it was considered they would not
be able to understand the technology. At Mawson Lakes, 12 respondents were not
aware that the reclaimed water would be sourced from sewage effluent, and one-fifth
believed that the reclaimed water was already on line. Around one-third were
considering whether to use the water to fill swimming pools, a use clearly outside
appropriate guidelines.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (2003) is a strong and
vocal regulatory institution for the promotion and monitoring of recycled water
developments in Florida. Rules are reflected in city ordinances and county codes,
as confirmed in the information provided by Brevard County to recycled water users,
as follows:
The use of reclaimed water is regulated through Chapter 62610 of the
Florida Administrative Code and Chapter 23 of the Brevard County
code. The following rules were derived from those regulations. (Brevard
County 2001)
Residents at Altamonte Springs and Brevard County are required to read
through a package of information provided before signing a connection form that
acknowledges their obligations as well as the responsibilities of the provider. From
the descriptions given by respondents for the ways they use recycled water, it was
confirmed that residents are aware of the rules governing safe use.
Stability Through Enforcement of Rules
Some of the original settlers at New Haven reported that the developers used aboveground spray irrigation as well as subsurface, drip irrigation in display home landscaping. Since then, in the absence of regulatory follow-up, the council has adopted
a laissez-faire stance and also uses spray irrigation for common areas within the
development. Longer term residents are aware of the original stipulations but have
adapted the irrigation system to overcome clogging of drippers. Three-quarters of
the respondents use sprayers, sometimes in conjunction with drippers. Additionally,
several have installed taps that are not identifiable as standard issue recycled water
taps (purple with removable handle). A similar pattern characterizes the experience
at Mawson Lakes. Although building encumbrances specify requirements to the contrary, some builders have installed ordinary taps rather than purple recycled water
taps and half the households interviewed had no outdoor drinking-water taps.
Relative stability and consistency of policies are evident at Altamonte Springs
and Brevard. For example, permission must be obtained to use garden hoses, and
only a special hose connection is allowed, which is housed in a below-ground service
box. Site inspections are made by the local water department to oversee this practice,
and noncompliance can result in disconnection from the reclaimed water service.
Florida respondents referred to these arrangements that govern hand watering or
car washing, and site observations verified the installation and use of the specified
hose connection. Altamonte Springs respondents confirmed that a water restriction
policy, which affects reclaimed water, is being enforced through a system of
monitoring, warnings, and fines.
565
Transparency of Governance
Of the four sites, the exemplar with regard to organizational transparency is Brevard
County. Government board meetings are advertised well ahead, inviting public
attendance. The proceedings are televised locally and throughout the government
offices to facilitate input from managers if and when required. There is no parallel
to this in Altamonte Springs; however, both Florida sites use their web sites and
newsletters to disseminate reclaimed water policies. Such transparency of governance
is not evident in the Adelaide sites. At New Haven, no mention is made of meetings,
nor of the recycling system itself, on the local council web site. Residents do not
receive prior warning of interruption to the service due to periodic system maintenance. Mawson Lakes residents were not being kept informed of progress toward
the final design, commissioning, and which authority will be responsible for the
ongoing management of their recycled water system.
The lack of transparency at both Adelaide sites in relation to managing safe uses
of the water was further exemplified in the reclaimed water rates. Citing the benefits
of reclaimed water, Mawson Lakes respondents were expecting that the water would
be a quarter to a third of the cost of potable water. It was ascertained that these are
early estimates that were either advertised in the local press or relayed by real estate
salesmen. Respondents had not been updated with the fact that, based on current
estimates, the price is more likely to be three-quarters of the charge made for traditional mains water. New Haven householders are billed at a low ratethe equivalent of the sewerage rate for the service. However, their accounts imply that this rate
is being heavily subsidized when, in fact, this is not the case. The council attributes
the anomaly to the limitations of their computing system.
Familiarity With the Changed Environment Through Formal Communications
While advice and assistance can be accessed through the management of the system
at the Florida sites, this was less apparent for the Adelaide developments. In addition
to the information provided upon connection to the system, the city of Altamonte
Springs employed a public relations person for over 17 years to orient residents to
recycled water issues. Brevard County uses its comprehensive web site to convey
information and invite feedback from customers. Information is also channeled
through homeowners associations at each of the Florida sites. In Adelaide, apart
from promotional models of the developments that include basic details of the system, seen and noticed by a few of the respondents, there have been no proactive,
ongoing efforts made to inform householders about this new technology and indeed
there was no clear delegation of authority to do so.
Therefore, in the absence of formal communication in Adelaide, informal social
networks have emerged. Residents at both sites rely on social cues, copying what
their neighbors do or being directed by neighborly advice. At New Haven, the idiosyncrasies of the neighbourhood treatment and distribution system are managed by a
collaborative effort between the engineering contractor responsible for plant operations and maintenance and three self appointed residents (village big men). It was
explained by the engineer concerned and respondents that these three residents
report pipe damage caused by builders and variations to water quality, then keep
their neighbors informed of progress made in solving the problem. At both sites,
enquiries revealed that builders and plumbers also needed to be familiarised with
the recycled water system. The main hazard with the dual system is when pipes
become cross-connected, allowing the nonpotable reclaimed water to flow through
566
drinking-water taps. Confusion and a lack of know-how was observed by respondents, compounding the problematic access to information on safe practices to avoid
public health risks.
Accountability of Persons and Institutions
As most residents at the two study sites in Adelaide are either unaware of, or are not
obliged to follow, any particular rules governing the use of recycled water, they are
equally unsure of who is ultimately accountable for the quality of the recycled water
and the system as a whole. For example, one resident who has lived at New Haven
for over 2 years thought that the state water authority, SA Water, was responsible
for managing the decentralized reuse system. Mawson Lakes respondents did not
know whether SA Water, the local council, or both would be responsible. In contrast, the information package provided at the Florida sites ensures that all residents
involved are aware of which government utility is responsible for providing the
reclaimed water service and the main rules governing its use.
Characteristics of Social Actors
This section considers some of the findings that describe the capacity of these
communities to manage opportunities and constraints emerging from the structural
context. The variation in key responses is summarized in Table 4.
Collective Capital
The characteristics relevant to acceptance of and trust in nonpotable reuse include
social capital, forged through social networks, and cultural capital arising from an
awareness of the environmental drivers for undertaking water recycling, knowledge
gained from the experience of living in a residential reuse development, the level of
concern for the management of health risks, and trust in water reuse and the recycled
water provider.
Social Capital. Homeowners associations have a proactive communicative role
at the Florida sites, as already described. The information relayed by the social networks in the Adelaide sites is more problematic because it is generated informally,
Table 4. Characteristics of social actors
New
Haven
Mawson Altamonte Brevard

Lakes
Springs
County
Collective capital
Social capital: social networks
Reactive Reactive Proactive Proactive
Environmental awareness
25%
60%
30%
30%
water issues
Benefit of saving natural resources
60%
30%
25%
30%
Health risk concerns
55%
30%
15%
40%
Need for more information
60%
80%
15%
25%
Trust in providers (mean levels)
Local council=city=county provider
6.2
6.5
7.7
7.2
SA Water (Adelaide sites)
5.2
5.6
Social mood
Uncertain Optimistic Positive
Positive
567
outside the sphere of responsible governance. At New Haven, the collaborative network of three residents and the treatment plant engineer helped others cope with
interruptions to the service. A lack of water due to poor quality or other problems
causes greater inconvenience than is the case in Florida, because the water is used for
toilet flushing. However, other advice received from neighbors at New Haven circulated misinformation. For example, a new owner believed taps were allowed in the
back garden when in fact only subsurface irrigation was specified in licensing criteria
for the New Haven system:
[A neighbor] said they werent allowed to put taps out in the front garden
or on the front of the house with the grey water going through, for any
passers-by that just happen to stop and drink it. So all of the taps concerning the grey water are located at the back.
Similarly, at Mawson Lakes, residents who have not had potable taps installed or
have had ordinary taps fitted instead of the specified type were reassured by the fact
that others were in the same situation. On the other hand, there were indications that
Mawson Lakes residents would protest if the system does not function properly.
They have taken the initiative to form a residents association and there are expectations for an acceptable quality of service. One respondent, a builder and foundation
member of the association, reflected: If it was offensive then I wont use it. . . . Ive
got every expectation they will monitor the quality all of the time. The response
from a mother of two echoed the reflexive nature of others statements: I dont have
any problems with it. I know it is going to be done correctly, and if its not, there will
be such a huge thing about it they will stop it straight away anyway. A recently
arrived resident, a business manager who has made a substantial investment in his
property, stated: If I could smell it Id be worried about it, yes. Id be shutting
the system down quite fast!
Environmental Awareness. Awareness of the environmental drivers for water
reuse was explored through general and more specific questions in the Adelaide
interviews, while Florida respondents were directly asked if they had any concerns
about water. As a result, a quarter of New Haven research participants voluntarily
identified the problem of the salinity of the Murray River, compared to over half of
those interviewed at Mawson Lakes. The depletion of water resources was nominated by around one-third of each of the Florida samples.
Benefits of Residential Reuse. All 80 respondents appreciated at least one of
the benefits of recycling water. These were identified by respondents as personal
cost savings and environmental benefits. Recycled water is supplied at a lower price
than traditional mains water, so it is no surprise that the majority at each site
appreciated this cost-saving factor. New Haven respondents were less sure of this
benefit, reflecting the confusion experienced over the billing. However, they were
more conscious of the saving of natural resources (see Table 4).
Health Risk Concerns. Several questions posed early in each interview indirectly
explored whether participants had any health-related concerns in using recycled
water. Most respondents knew the sewage source of the water, except at Mawson
Lakes where the water was not being distributed. None of the 80 residents
volunteered any problems with the recycled water. Finally, they were asked: Can
568
you describe any concerns you may have about recycled water? Few related any
concerns at the Florida sites, and initially only one respondent expressed concern
at each of the Adelaide sites.
At Altamonte Springs, two women were worried about exposure; for example, a
50-year-old musician reflected: I know its not safe to drink. I dont know if its
dangerous for bare feet. Health?
A consulting engineer in his sixties had some doubt: A concern if I had young
ones about the yardmight access it, drink it. As I understand itIm not a chemist.
Three respondents in Brevard wondered about the safety of reclaimed water. Its
safety for pets was raised by a homeowners association president, an Hispanic
mother queried the quality in relation to pathogens such as giardia (an intestinal
parasite). A young mother with a masters degree in communication cogently articulated the risk of delayed or secondary consequences:
I am trusting they are being truthful; that its not harmful. They would
not want you drinking it. I often wondered if there is a residue of anything [so] kids running in the grass bare feet and 20 years down the line
they may be saying: We were wrong. So I am taking them on face
value. They say kids should not have contact with it. Children like to play
in water.
A further two of the respondents who initially said they had no concerns qualified
that this was because they have no small children and no animals and they wouldnt
let visiting grandchildren out in it, revealing concerns for children and pets.
At New Haven, where recycled water is used for both toilet flushing and irrigating the garden, each respondent eventually revealed concerns. Problems with water
quality in relation to toilet flushing were experienced by all respondents who noticed
either odor, color, or sediment effects. A clerical assistant asked:
Have other people complained about the smell that you get from it? . . .
When you are brushing your teeth you want to throw up some mornings.
Its coming up the drains and sometimes up the toilet.
Additionally, two-thirds described disruptions to the service due to treatment plant problems or pipe breakages, when buckets would be required to flush toilets. An automatic
switch to potable water has now addressed this issue, but this was a problem for 5
years. Some reported that major events occurred once a year, others remembering them
happening about every 6 months or more frequently. An engineer and his wife
reported: When it breaks down, its dreadful. . . . When the water comes through,
again, its not very good quality and it smells in the toilet. In addition, three respondents wondered if the taps connected to the recycled water system might be accessible
to unwary children. Overall, 11 respondents nominated health-risk concerns.
Mawson Lakes residents had given little thought to the system, which was not yet
in operation, but six respondents queried the safety of using the water. One father,
an information technology training manager, considered the risk to his children:
If the water is coming back onto my land, I want to be sure that the water
that is coming back on is clean, as it needs to be, to not cause my kids to
get bugs from going outside and playing in the garden.
569
Therefore, a proportion of respondents at each site identified concerns specifically

related to public health risk, with some stating a need to know more about safety
issues, as summarized in Table 4. Despite the comprehensive information
provided to Altamonte Springs and Brevard County respondents, there was still a
need for further information to allay concerns, confirming the importance of
ongoing communication.
Trust in Nonpotable Reuse. Has the experience of recycling water affected
respondents trust in this alternative resource? A proportion of respondents at each
site were prepared to handle the water for things like hand watering, car washing,
and hosing down pavements and buildings. However, a degree of misplaced trust
was detected at Mawson Lakes, where some residents were unwisely contemplating
its potable use for swimming pools.
The comparative negative experience at New Haven has not dampened enthusiasm
for recycling water. Levels of acceptance in recycling water for nonpotable uses were not
directly assessed at the Florida sites because this alternative water resource is well established throughout the state. Agreement to using reclaimed water for irrigating parks and
gardens and for industry and agriculture was specifically queried at the Adelaide sites.
All participants supported irrigation of public parks, and both industrial and agricultural reuse was approved by 95% at New Haven and 90% at Mawson Lakes.
Trust in Reclaimed Water Provider. Respondents at each site were asked:
Would you please give a score between 1 and 10 as to how much you trust
information on water quality or the environment given by these agencies:
(a score of 10 indicating that they are totally trustworthy).
The list of agencies included the health department, scientists, the environmental
protection agency, environmental groups, and those responsible for providing
reclaimed water. The mean was taken of the scores given to each agency. Unsure
or dont know responses were excluded, as were the scores given by three residents
who were members of staff of the city of Altamonte Springs because of possible bias
(each rating the city 10). Due to the uncertainty of who was responsible for the
reclaimed water systems at the Adelaide sites, trust in both the local council and
SA Water was examined.
The results suggest that the Florida respondents had greater trust in their
recycled water service providers than respondents in Adelaide, as illustrated in
Table 4. Further, this resulted in the highest ranking for the reclaimed water providers at the Florida sites, while the lower mean scores for the Adelaide local councils
and SA Water placed them toward the least trusted of all agencies considered. Explanations for the lower trust levels in Adelaide partly relate to disenchantment with the
recent corporatization of the water authority and lower trust scores for all agencies
with the exception of scientists.
In relation to the local council, a New Haven respondent advised:
I dont know whether it was just us or the pattern for new people coming
in to this place, but we really didnt receive much education or information about how to use the water; the best way to use it, and that sort
of vital information.
570
Another respondent, previously a farmer, reflected on trust in the local council in

relation to the operation of the reclaimed water system:
The things always broken down I suppose. . . . Thats why I dont like
councils. They say all these wonderful things like we do this and that
but they wont spend the money on it you know.
Social Mood
The interaction of the structural elements discussed in the previous section and
collective capital of the social actors involved contributes to the social mood that for
Sztompka (1999) has a significant impact on the development of trust. Compared to
the experience in Florida, there were barriers to the development of a trusting social
mood at the Adelaide sites. At New Haven, respondents expressed satisfaction with
the gains from using the water but uncertainty in relation to the competence of council
management and the cost of operating the system. A sense of inadequacy was conveyed
by the local council manager in relation to managing this decentralised system with limited resources. At Mawson Lakes, there was a preoccupation with establishing new
homes, and respondents were keen for the development to be the success promised
in the prolific advertising. Therefore, although there was disappointment in the delays
in establishing some services, including the recycled water, there was a general sense of
optimism for the future at this new subdivision. The development manager had a cautious approach to finalizing the design and building of the water reuse system, being
unsure of how this initiative would ultimately affect land sales and profits.
Respondents in Florida had a more matter-of-fact attitude toward the recycled
water system. Only the water restrictions and fines were a source of annoyance for a
few residents at Altamonte Springs. At Brevard, three householders drew attention
to the interruptible nature of the supply, although this feature of the system was
made clear to residents upon connection. Overall, however, there was a sense that
recycled water had become a taken-for-granted, routinized feature of these Florida
sites. The managers responsible for the operations and management of the reclaimed
water were water engineers, and both systems were a source of pride that, in turn,
encouraged vigilance to ensure continued success.
Summary
As already indicated, the four case study sites vary between the well-established,
centrally managed Florida developments and the newer, locally managed systems in
Adelaide. The more rigorous structural support for both Florida sites compared to
the Adelaide developments is evident (Table 3). As the qualitative data demonstrate,
the structural differences between the Florida and Adelaide sites are reflected in the
residents health risk concerns and the need for further information (Table 4). The
structural context also gives shape to the social mood observed through interviews
with respondents and managers of the respective system; this in turn is congruent
with the levels of trust in reclaimed water providers, despite relatively positive attitudes about the benefits of water recycling.
Conclusion
This comparison of the structural shapers of trust and characteristics of social actors
involved in the experience of water reuse reveals important differences between the
571
Florida and Adelaide sites. It illustrates that a supportive structural framework facilitates knowledge of and trust in the use of reclaimed water, as indicated at
Altamonte Springs and Brevard County. By contrast, weaker regulatory, managerial, and communicative mechanisms effect compensatory informal structures at
New Haven and Mawson Lakes. The knowledge of respondents in these sites is only
partial and incomplete with respect to the operations and risks associated with nonpotable reuse. While social cues may reassure neighbors and, in the case of New
Haven, provide networks to help householders cope with the irregularities of the
reclaimed water service, these types of informal social structures work against establishing safe practices. Misinformation and the lack of regulatory enforcement result
in illegal taps being installed, which run the risk of being mistaken for potable taps.
The lack of detailed information creates a false reassurance that the water is suitable
to fill swimming pools. And the neglect of educational and regulatory controls
creates confusion for tradesmen in managing the separation of the dual pipe system.
Three conclusions can be drawn that have policy implications. First, the data
suggest that the transparency of governance and regulatory institutions and the
two-way communications between expert management and residents associations
that characterize the centrally managed Florida sites need to accompany the shift
to decentralized water services. Second, if indoor uses of reclaimed water such as
toilet flushing are to be provided, stringent controls are all the more important to
ensure that indoor reuse is not confused with potable connections and that a
consistent quality and supply of water are provided. Finally, where residents informally create and manage the flow of information to their neighbors, a false sense
of confidence is established. Disruptions to the service, problems of water quality,
or deviation from permitting rules may be accepted as the norm of communityscale water recycling. The problem, of course, is that this exacerbates the issues
of transparency and accountability: Who is in charge? The informal network
has neither a legitimate regulatory role nor the resources to accurately inform
all residents.
This research demonstrates the significance of particular structural and institutional arrangements in developing trust in water reuse. In an increasingly reflexive
risk society, close attention is needed to ensure that the overarching legal institutional framework is reflected in enforceable policies to guide agency. In this
analysis of some of the characteristics identified by Sztompka for being important
to the development of trust, it is clear that variations in structural factors have a significant impact on a well-informed appreciation of water reuse and its associated
risks, as well as trust in the providers of the service. Managing these structural
arrangements is therefore critical to the sustainability of urban water reuse and to
the environmental improvements that may be effected through this practice.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 50 (2013) 123e132
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste

management systems in a zero waste city
Atiq Uz Zaman*, Steffen Lehmann
Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sdb), School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia,
GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 24 September 2012
Received in revised form
22 November 2012
Accepted 29 November 2012
Available online 31 January 2013
Waste is the symbol of inefciency of any modern society and a representation of misallocated resources.
Signicant progress has been achieved in reducing waste but it varies from city to city. Currently, cities
use their waste diversion rate as a tool to measure the performance of their waste management systems.
However, diversion of waste from landll does not give a holistic picture of zero waste performance. This
paper conceptualises the concept of the zero waste city and proposes a new tool to measure the performance of waste management systems called the zero waste index. The zero waste index forecasts the
amount of virgin materials, energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions substituted by the resources
that are recovered from waste streams. Three high consuming cities (Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm) were analysed using the zero waste index. The zero waste indexes in Adelaide, San Francisco
and Stockholm were found to be 0.23, 0.51 and 0.17 respectively (i.e. around 23%, 51% and 17% of
resources were recovered and potentially substituted for virgin materials). In addition, the zero waste
index estimated the potential energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) and water savings due to resource recovery
from municipal solid waste in each of the three cities. It is evident that the zero waste index is an
innovative tool to assess waste management performance and materials substitution by waste management systems in different cities.
Crown Copyright 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Municipal solid waste
Performance indicator
Diversion rate
Material substitution
Zero waste city
Zero waste index
1. Introduction
In 1962 it took 0.7 years for the earths annual biological harvest
to regenerate and now it takes 1.25 years (Smith, 2005). Global
ecosystem services have been over-used signicantly in parallel
with world economic growth. Global economic growth has
increased 5 times since the mid-twentieth century and 60% of the
worlds ecosystem services have been degraded during the same
period (Jackson, 2009: 13). It is estimated that by 2050 we will have
9 billion people on earth. If every person achieved afuence similar
to the OECD nations then the global economy would need to be 40
times bigger than it is today (and 200 times bigger than in 1950) by
the end of this century (Jackson, 2009: 13e14).
Global non-renewable resources are depleted as a result of overconsumption. Continuous depletion of natural nite resources by
urban populations is leading to an uncertain future. Therefore, to
prevent further depletion of global resources, we need sustainable
consumption and strategic waste management systems based on
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 61883020654.
E-mail
addresses:
zamau001@mymail.unisa.edu.au
steffen.lehmann@unisa.edu.au (S. Lehmann).
(A.U.
Zaman),
(1) waste avoidance, (2) material efciency and (3) resource

recovery (Lehmann, 2010).
Waste is the symbol of inefciency of any modern society and a
representation of misallocated resources. More than 50% of the
worlds population live in urban areas (UN-HABITAT, 2010), and
some estimates have suggested that 80% of the human population
will dwell in urban areas by 2030. Cities cover only around 2% of the
worlds surface, consume over 75% of the worlds natural resources
and generate 70% of all the waste produced globally (UN-MEA,
2006; Ramsar, 2012). Creation of any waste depletes natural
resources, uses energy and water, places pressure on land, pollutes
the environment and, nally, creates an additional economic cost
for managing the waste. We need to move to a position where there
will be no such thing as waste, merely transformation; this position
is called zero waste.
Zero waste is one of the most visionary concepts for solving
waste problems. Many cities around the globe such as Adelaide, San
Francisco and Stockholm have declared their zero waste vision and
these cities are working to be the worlds rst zero waste city. But
how to transform our existing cities into zero waste cities and how
to measure the performance of a zero waste city are the prime
questions to answer in zero waste research.
0959-6526/$ e see front matter Crown Copyright 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.041
124
A.U. Zaman, S. Lehmann / Journal of Cleaner Production 50 (2013) 123e132
The products that we consume every day are primarily produced using virgin materials, energy and water. From resources
extraction to waste generation, consumption depletes the environment by contributing greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere. The aim of this paper is to conceptualize zero waste based on
material ow analysis. The paper also aims to develop a measurement tool to account for the performances of waste management
systems in cities and to forecast the potential demands for virgin
materials, energy and water, and reductions in GHG emissions. This
paper therefore proposes a zero waste index (ZWI) as a new tool to
measure waste management performance. The comparative performance of the waste management systems in Adelaide, San
Francisco and Stockholm will be studied using the proposed zero
waste index.
2. Development of the zero waste concept
From outer space to the bottom of the ocean, generations of waste
is accumulating over time. On one hand, the estimated amount of
debris put into space by humans and no longer in function has
increased from 14,000 pieces in 2007 to 18,000 pieces in 2008 (SSN,
2011). On the other hand, accumulation of waste in the great Pacic
Garbage Patch (currently 1,760,000 sqkm, 12 times bigger than
Bangladesh) is getting larger every day (MNN, 2010; PPC, 2011).
Currently, the worlds cities generate about 1.3 billion tonnes of
solid waste per year and the volume is expected to increase to
2.2 billion tonnes by 2025 (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). Waste
generation rates will more than double over the next twenty years
in lower income countries. However, this current trend of generating waste is not a recent practice; it comes from the very early
stages of modern society. So how would it be possible to transform
current society into a zero waste society?
2.1. Background of hyper-consumption
According to Strasser (1992), households did not produce much
trash in the late nineteenth century by todays standards. Disposable products such as canned foods, safety razors and many
more were introduced in the early twentieth century, designed to
be thrown away after a brief use. They constituted a new kind of
waste (Strasser, 1992), imposing enormous pressure on city
authorities, which had to manage it properly.
Scholarly interest in the history of consumption rst emerged
during the Cold War, when the issue of consumption became a
vehicle in the political and ideological clash of capitalism and
communism. Consumerism satised in the capitalist West but not
the socialist East (Strasser et al., 1998). Consumption was seen as a
driver of economic growth from then on. Increasing economic
growth until the global economic boom in the late 1990s led
developed societies to become hyper-consuming societies. Disposable product design and never-ending market expansion were
rmly established well before the beginning of the Great Depression (Strasser, 2000: 9).
An enormous amount of natural resources are depleted every
day due to the high demand for new products. Globally 120e
130 billion tonnes of natural resources are consumed every year
and produce around 3.4 to 4 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste
(Giljum et al., 2008; Chalmin and Gaillochet, 2009).
2.2. The concept of zero waste and the zero waste city
Zero waste means designing and managing products and
processes systematically to avoid and eliminate waste, and to
recover all resources from the waste stream (ZWIA, 2004). Working
towards zero waste has become a worldwide movement that
motivates changes in design that make it possible to disassemble

and recycle products. To put it simply, zero waste means no
unnecessary and unwanted waste from a product at any stage of its
life cycle. The scope of zero waste comprises many concepts that
have been developed for sustainable waste management systems,
including avoiding, reducing, reusing, redesigning, regenerating,
recycling, repairing, remanufacturing, reselling and re-distributing
waste resources. Hence, a zero-waste strategy is growing in popularity as best practice. It not only encourages recycling of products
but also aims to restructure their design, production and distribution to prevent waste emerging in the rst place (UNECE,
2011).
Most modern societies have been implementing integrated
waste management systems to recycle and recover resources from
waste. However, the concept of zero waste is not limited to optimum recycling or resource recovery; in addition to that zero waste
requires elimination of unnecessary waste creation at the rst stage
of designing a product. Therefore, zero waste design principles go
beyond recycling to focus rstly on avoidance and reduction of
waste by innovative product design and then recycling and composting the rest (City of Austin, 2008).
Fig. 1 shows the key principles of the zero waste city. With proper
implementation of all these principles, current cities could be
transformed into zero waste cities. The key drivers are based on
short-term and long-term implementation strategies. Awareness and
education, behaviour change and systems thinking are long-term
strategies, whereas innovative industrial design, legislation and
100% recycling are the short-term strategies to implement in a city.
One of the important aspects of the zero waste city is the conversion
of the linear city metabolism to a circular city metabolism.
This transformation requires a series of holistic strategies based
on key development principles. Education and research is on the top
of the zero waste hierarchy. Without proper environmental awareness and advanced research on waste, it would not be possible to
achieve zero waste goals. Sustainable consumption and behaviour is
placed second in the zero waste hierarchy. As the current trend of
consumption is unsustainable and can not be continued for ever, it is
important to understand the reality and act accordingly. The next on
zero waste hierarchy is transformed industrial design for example,
cradle-to-cradle design, eco-design or cleaner production combined
with extended producer responsibility. It is important to have specic zero depletion legislation and incentive policies as part of the
strict environmental legislations. If products are designed in such a
way that everything can be recycled, then achieving optimum
recycling and resource recovery will not be impossible in the long
run. Finally, a new system thinking approach and innovative technologies are needed to transform current cities into zero waste cities.
2.3. Linear to circular city metabolism
Urban metabolism may be dened as the sum total of the
technical and socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste
(Kennedy et al., 2008: 44). If we can measure a citys material ow
then it is easy to analyse the efciency of the resource management
systems in a city. Many studies have measured the material ow in
cities. However, the concept of zero waste directs the linear city
metabolism to a circular city metabolism.
Most cities have a linear metabolism, where materials, energy
and water are consumed as inputs and, after this consumption, they
produce solid waste, wastewater and emissions to the atmosphere.
In a zero waste city material ow is circular, which means the
same materials are used again and again until the optimum level of
consumption. No materials are wasted or underused in circular cities. Therefore, at the end of their lives products are reused, repaired,
125
Fig. 1. Drivers for transforming current cities into zero waste cities.
sold or redistributed within the system. If reuse or repair are not

possible then they are recycled or recovered from the waste stream
and used as inputs, substituting the demand for the extraction of
natural resources. Fig. 2 shows the symbolic material ow of a circular city, where the endeof-life product or output waste are treated
as resources and used as inputs in the citys metabolism.
From Fig. 2, it is clear that a citys performance is reected by its
waste management systems. Material ow in a zero waste city
should be circular and resources should be used efciently. The
performance of waste management systems therefore symbolizes
the performance of a zero waste city. Hence, it is important to
development a zero waste measurement tool for cities.
2.4. Similar studies of waste management and urban metabolism
Many researchers have studied waste management systems in
different cities. A UN-Habitat recent study of waste management
systems in 20 cities is one of the important works in this area. The
study was further analysed and presented by Wilson et al. (2012).
However, materials substitution by the recycling and recovery
activities of the cities was not reected in these studies. The World
Bank also recently published a report on current waste management
conditions globally (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). Both studies

identied the potential platform of knowledge sharing between
developed and developing counties around the globe. There are many
examples of best practices that can be modied based on the local
needs and applied in the different parts of the world. Many studies
have been conducted on urban metabolism. A few of the signicant
studies are Girardet (1992) on Hong Kong, the European Environment
Agency (1995) on Prague, Alberti (1996) on measuring tools and
indicators, Newman and Kenworthy (1999) on Sydney, Australia,
Sviden and Jonsson (2001) on Stockholm, Sweden, Hammer and
Giljum (2006) on Hamburg, Germany, Vienna and Leipzig, Schulz
(2007) on Singapore, and Browne et al., 2009 on Limerick, Ireland.
Researchers worked on different contexts to understand urban
metabolism such as material ow, energy ow, nutrients ow, water
ow. However, there is no evidence that studies have been done on
materials substitution by the waste management systems in a city.
Recent research on the environmental performance of cities has
been initiated by Siemens through a project called Green City Index
(Siemens, 2012). The Green City Index measures and rates the
environmental performance of cities from Asia, Europe, Africa and
North America. In the study Siemens considers around 9 different
environmental indicators including waste performance. Waste
performance was primarily based on the waste diversion rate. This
paper acknowledges the limitations of the diversion rate as a performance indicator of the waste management systems in a city and
hence proposes a new tool to measure performance called the zero
waste index. The proposed zero waste index measures waste management performance by considering the materials, energy, water
and emissions substituted in the waste management systems.
3. Materials and methods
Fig. 2. Material ow in a zero waste city (adapted from Girardet, 1992, 1999).
Practice-based built environment research includes case-based,

evidence-based and performance-based research modes (Lee, 2011).
In this study a waste management performance index called the zero
waste index is developed based on the evidenced-based research
methodology through peer reviewed literature, reports, the life cycle
analysis (LCA) database and other secondary online sources. Finally,
the proposed zero waste index is analysed by measuring the
126
performance of waste management systems in the cities of Adelaide,

San Francisco and Stockholm.
There are many ways to measure the waste management systems in a city. Decision makers and waste experts use various
indicators such as the per capita generation rate, collection rate and
recycling rate to measure the performance of the waste management systems. In the last decade, the waste diversion rate has been
used as an important indicator to measure the performance of a
city. Waste diversion from landll has been widely accepted by
local governments, waste authorities and city corporations.
Therefore, a higher diversion rate from landll has been considered
as a benchmark of success.
recyclables are recycled, and how much less waste is generated

overall (Marpman, 2011).
A holistic waste management performance tool is therefore
needed. Waste avoidance is one of the key aspects that should be
considered in measuring the performance of a waste management
system. A new index is therefore needed that can measure more
than the diversion rate to assess the performance of the waste
management system. This paper presents a new index system
called the zero waste index (ZWI) as an indicator to measure the
waste management system holistically.
3.1. Waste diversion rate
3.2. Zero waste index
The waste diversion rate is one of the key indicators used by

municipalities today to measure the performance of waste management systems. The diversion rate can be dened as the percentage of total waste that is diverted from disposal at permitted
landlls and transformation facilities such as incineration, and
instead is directed to reduction, reuse, recycling and composting
programs (CalRecycle, 2012). The diversion rate can be measured by
a generation-based measurement system or a disposal-based
measurement system. In a generation-based measurement system, disposal and diversion are measured and added together to
determine generation. In a disposal-based measurement system,
the denition of waste generation is the same (disposal plus
diversion), but what is measured changes. In the disposal-based
measurement system, waste generation is estimated and then
measured disposal is subtracted from generation to estimate
diversion (IWMB, 2001). Therefore, traditional waste diversion rate
can be formulated as in Equation (1).
Waste diversion rate
The zero waste index is a tool to measure the potentiality of

virgin materials to be offset by zero waste management systems.
One of the important goals of the zero waste concept is zero
depletion of natural resources. Therefore, measuring the performance of the zero waste city would eventually measure the resources
that are extracted, consumed, wasted, recycled, recovered and
nally substituted for virgin materials and offset resource extraction by the waste management systems. The zero waste index can
be formulated as in Equation (2).
However, the waste diversion rate does not indicate the virgin
material replacement efciency of the waste management system,
which is very important in conservation of global natural resources.
Thus, the zero waste index is a cutting-edge tool to measure virgin
material substitution by waste management systems. By introducing
the zero waste index globally, we could measure the virgin material
offset potentiality and the potential depletion of natural resources.
The ZWI is also a useful tool to compare different waste
management systems in different cities and it gives a broader
picture of the potential demand for virgin materials, energy, carbon pollution and water in a city. The ZWI is thus a performance
indicator to assess the overall performance of waste management
systems.
Zero waste index (ZWI)
Diversion rate
Weight of recyclables
Weight of garbage Weight of recyclables
100%
(1)
P
Zero waste index
potential amount of waste managed by the city substitution for the systems
Total amount of waste generated in the city
Recyclables waste that is reused, recycled, composted or

digested
Garbage waste that is landlled or incinerated (City of
Toronto, 2012).
Currently, many cities such as Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm are trying to be zero waste cities by achieving 100%
diversion of waste from landll. However, diversion from landll
and recycling are not sufcient for zero waste initiatives. The
diversion rate as per Equation (1) does not consider waste avoidance through industrial design, effective policies and behaviour
change; hence the diversion rate of waste is not sufcient to
measure the zero waste performance of a city. The diversion rate is
merely an indicator of recycling performance. It does not give the
full picture of the recycling initiatives and does not tell us how
much of the waste stream is recyclable, whether or not all
ZWI
Pn
1 WMSi*SFi
Pn
1 GWS
(2)
WMSi amount of waste managed by system i (i.e. i 1, 2, 3 .

n amount of waste avoided, recycled, treated, etc.)
SFi Substitution factor for different waste management systems based on their virgin material replacement efciency
GWS Total amount of waste generated (tonnes of all waste
streams)
The zero waste index is based on the value of material that can
potentially replace the virgin material inputs. The substitution of
energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions is also considered
with the material substitutions. Substitution values for material,
energy, water and GHG emissions have been extracted from the life
cycle database of different life cycle assessment tools and database
sources. The amount of materials and resources substituted is

positively related to the advancement of technology used in the
material recovery process; therefore, the substitution value varies
for different materials and for different waste management systems. Even though, waste prevention is one of the core components
in the zero waste concept, but quantitative measurement of waste
prevention by behaviour change has not been considered in this
research due to limited scientic quantitative measurement data.
Table 1 shows the substitution values for waste streams for different waste management systems. Six major waste streams are
considered based on waste data availability in Adelaide, San Francisco and Stockholm. Due to high dissimilarities in waste streams and
data collection systems only six waste streams e paper, glass, plastic,
metal, organic and mixed municipal solid waste e are considered for
this study. Table 1 (adapted from Clean Energy Future, 2011; DECCW,
2010; DTU Environment, 2008; Grant and James, 2005; Grant et al.,
2001; Larsen et al., 2012; Massarutto et al., 2011; Metro Vancouver,
2010; Morris, 1996; US-EPA, 2006; Van Berlo, 2007; Zaman, 2010;
Zaman and Lehmann, 2011) presents the waste volume managed
in these cities and the respective potential substitution value for
different waste management systems.
4. Case study cities
4.1. Adelaide, Australia
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia where a total of
1,089,728 inhabitants live in an 841.5 km2 urban area (UN-HABITAT,
2010). Australian per capita GDP was US $41,300 in 2010 (CIA,
2011). Almost 85% of South Australias population live within the
Adelaide metropolitan area. Zero Waste SA is a South Australian
state government organization established by legislation called the
Zero Waste SA Act (2004) to improve waste management systems
and to foster zero waste South Australia (ZWSA, 2011). Banning
127
plastic shopping bags has been one of the key initiatives to avoid
creation of waste in Adelaide.
The composition of municipal solid waste varies widely, both
within and between countries and between different seasons of the
year (UN-HABITAT, 2010). Municipal solid waste in Adelaide
includes a signicant amount of construction and demolition
waste. Container deposit legislation was adopted in 1977; therefore, certain packing containers have been recycled for more than
three decades in Adelaide. The average person generated around
681 kg of MSW in Adelaide in 2008e2009. Around 46% of all MSW
was recycled, 8% was composted and the remaining 46% was disposed to landll. Fig. 3(a) shows the composition of MSW in Adelaide and Fig. 3(b) shows the waste management systems.
4.2. San Francisco, USA
The city and county of San Francisco is quite small for a large
city, covering 122 km2 with a population of 835,364 (UN-HABITAT,
2010). It is located on a hilly peninsula separating San Francisco Bay
from the Pacic Ocean. San Francisco has a long history in waste
collection systems from informal waste recycling in the early
twentieth century to the modern collection systems today. The
initiator of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Urban Environmental Accords, San Francisco is a national and
international environmental leader.
San Francisco is one of the leading cities in the USA and it has
considered zero waste as a waste management manifesto. The zero
waste challenge is reected in solid waste system support for
reducing consumption, maximizing diversion and encouraging
reuse, repair and green purchasing. Banning troublesome goods such
as plastic bags and superuous packaging, and promoting alternatives such as recyclable or compostable take-out food packaging
and reusable transport packaging are the prominent initiatives
for achieving zero waste goals (UN-HABITAT, 2010). A total of
Table 1
Substitution values for the zero waste index.d
Case
study
cities
Waste
management
systems
Waste
category
Total waste
managed
in the city
(tonnes)
Virgin material
substitution
efciency
(tonnes)
Energy substitution
efciency
(GJLHV/tonne)
GHG emissions
reduction
(CO2e/tonne)
Water saving
(kL/tonne)
Adelaide
Recycling
San Francisco
Composting
Landll
Recycling
Stockholm
Composting
Landll
Recycling
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MWa
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MWa
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MWa
Mixed MWa
23,918
17,084
17,084
17,084
2,66,521
59,424
3,41,692
1,21,997
15,096
20,332
55,915
50,830
1,01,665
1,42,331
3,6552
10,083
3781
8823
66,805
4065
2,39,891
36,596
0.84e1.00
0.90e1.00
0.79e0.96
0.90e0.97
0.25e0.45
0.60e0.65
0.00
0.84e1.00
0.90e0.99
0.79e0.96
0.90e0.97
0.25e0.45
0.60e0.65
0.00
0.84e1.00
0.90e0.99
0.79e0.96
0.90e0.97
0.25e0.45
0.60e0.65
0.00
0.00
6.33e10.76
6.07e6.85
36.09e191.42
38.81e64.08
5.00e15.0
0.18e0.47
0.00e0.84c
6.33e10.76
6.07e6.85
36.09e191.42
38.81e64.08
5.00e15.0
0.18e0.47
0.00e0.84c
6.33e10.76
6.07e6.85
36.09e191.42
38.81e64.08
5.00e15.0
0.18e0.47
0.972e2.995b
0.00e0.84c
0.60e3.20
0.18e0.62
1.40e17.8
0.95e1.88
1.15
0.25e0.75
() 0.42e1.2
0.60e3.20
0.18e0.62
1.40e17.8
0.95e1.88
1.15
0.25e0.75
() 0.42e1.2
0.60e3.20
0.18e0.62
1.40e17.8
0.95e1.88
1.15
0.25e0.75
0.12e0.55
() 0.42e1.2
2.91
2.30
5.97e181.77
11.37
2.0e10
0.44
0.00
2.91
2.30
5.97e181.77
11.37
2.0e10
0.44
0.00
2.91
2.30
5.97e181.77
11.37
2.0e10
0.44
0.00
0.00
Composting
Incineration
Landll
a
Average composition of municipal waste.

Heat capture efciency of WTE technology 15e30%.
c
Energy from landll facility. A positive value represents the savings and a negative value represents the demand or depletion.
d
As site specic data may vary, the nal outcome of the zero waste index may also vary in different sites. However, in this study site specic data variations are not
considered due to unavailability of data in the site specic context. Sources: Morris (1996), Grant et al. (2001), Grant and James (2005), US-EPA (2006), Van Berlo (2007), DTU
Environment (2008), DECCW (2010), Metro Vancouver (2010), UN-HABITAT (2010), Clean Energy Future (2011), Massarutto et al. (2011), Zaman (2010), Zaman and Lehmann
(2011), Larsen et al. (2012).
b
128
Municipal waste composition in

Adelaide
Municipal waste management in

Adelaide
Organic
26%
Recycle
46%
Landfill
46%
Others
52%
Paper
7%
Plastic
Glass 5%
5%
Metal
5%
Compost
8%
Fig. 3. Composition and waste management systems in Adelaide (UN-HABITAT, 2010).
508,323 tonnes of MSW was generated in 2008 (609 kg per person

per year). MSW was managed by recycling (52%), composting (20%)
and landll (28%). Fig. 4(a) shows the composition of MSW in San
Francisco and Fig. 4(b) shows the waste management systems.
4.3. Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden with 847,073 inhabitants
(2010) living in a 188 km2 land area (Statistics Sweden, 2010; USK,
2011). Avfall Sverige is an organization that supports all municipalities in Sweden. The City of Stockholm started a project called
Vision Stockholm 2030 for Stockholms sustainable development
in the future (City of Stockholm, 2009). One of the key objectives of
the 2030 vision is transforming Stockholm into a resource-efcient
region (RUFS, 2010).
Stockholm is very prominent in regulations and policies in waste
management systems. One of the most important waste management policies is the ban on putting combustible waste and organic
waste in landll (Avfall Sverige, 2008). A total of 4,06,596 tonnes of
waste was generated in Stockholm in 2008e2009, which was
around 480 kg per person per year (Stypka, 2007; Avfall Sverige,
2011). Fig. 5(a) shows the composition of MSW in Stockholm and
Fig. 5(b) shows the waste management systems.
5. Results and discussions
A comparison of the waste management systems in Adelaide,
San Francisco and Stockholm is presented below by considering
both performance indicators, i.e. the diversion rate and the zero
waste index.
5.1. Waste diversion rate
The diversion rate of municipal solid waste in Adelaide, San
Francisco and Stockholm are given below based on Equation (1).

San Francisco
Others
24%
Metal
4%
Glass
3%
Total waste generated 7,42,807 tonnes, comprised of 59,424

tonnes composted (8%), 3,41,691 tonnes recycled (46%) and
3,41,691 tonnes disposed to landll (46%). So the total diversion rate
in Adelaide was 54%. Total waste generated 5,08,323 tonnes,
comprised of 1,01,665 tonnes composted (20%), 2,64,327 tonnes
recycled (52%) and 1,42,330 tonnes disposed to landll (28%). So the
total diversion rate in San Francisco was 72%. Total waste
generated 4,06,596 tonnes, comprised of 4065 tonnes composted
(1%), 1,26,044 tonnes recycled (31%), 2,39,891 tonnes incinerated
(59%) and 36,593 tonnes disposed to landll (9%). So the total
diversion rate in Stockholm was 32%.
5.2. Zero waste index
Applying Equation (2) in Table 2, the zero waste index for
Adelaide is 0.23. That means around 23% of resources were recovered from the waste management systems from the amount of
waste generated. It is evident from Table 2 that the average person
in Adelaide generated around 681 kg of waste every year and the
resources recovered and potentially substituted for virgin material
was 153 kg. Waste management systems in Adelaide potentially
substitute the energy demand of 2.9 gigajoules (GJ), equivalent to
805 kilowatt hours (kW-h) per person per year. GHG emissions
substituted were 387 kg CO2e and total water savings from the
waste management systems was 2800 L per person per year.
The zero waste index for waste management systems in San
Francisco is 0.51, which means around 51% of materials were
recovered and potentially replaced the demand for virgin materials
from the waste generated in a year. From Table 2, the average
person in San Francisco generated around 609 kg of municipal solid
waste and around 307 kg of materials are recovered and substituted
for virgin materials. Waste management systems in San Francisco
potentially substituted 5.1 gigajoules (GJ), equivalent to 1417 kilowatt hours (kW-h) of energy demand, 672 kg of CO2e GHG emissions and 3420 L of water per person per year.
Waste management in San

Francisco
Landfill
28%
Organic
34%
Paper
24%
Compost
20%
Plastic
11%
Fig. 4. Composition and waste management systems in San Francisco (UN-HABITAT, 2010).
Recycle
52%

Stockholm
Textile & Others
rubber 20%
2%
Waste management in Stockholm

Landfill
9%
Organic
31%
Recycle
31%
Glass
8%
Incinerate
59%
Paper
29%
Metal
3%
Plastic
7%
129
Compost
1%
Fig. 5. Composition and waste management systems in Adelaide (Stypka, 2007; Avfall Sverige, 2011).
From Table 2, the zero waste index for waste management

systems in Stockholm was 0.17 which means around 17% of materials were recovered and substituted for virgin materials from the
amount of waste generated. The average person in Stockholm
generated around 480 kg of waste in a year and from that amount
around 79 kg of materials were recovered and replaced virgin
materials. Waste management systems in Stockholm potentially
substituted 2.83 gigajoules (GJ), equivalent to 786 kilowatt hours
(kW-h) of energy demand, 330 kg CO2e GHG emissions and 920 L of
water per person per year.
considering the substitution of virgin materials from waste, energy,

greenhouse gas emission and water savings.
5.3. Comparative zero waste indexes in Adelaide, San Francisco and

Stockholm
5.3.1. Virgin material substitution

Virgin material substitution by reusing and recycling is one of
the main goals of the zero waste concept. Current trends of hyperconsumption deplete an enormous amount of natural resources
every day. Hence, substituting resources available from the waste
that is produced every day would be the ultimate goal for achieving
zero waste. As Fig. 6 shows, San Francisco recovered 51% (307 kg) of
the municipal solid waste that is produced by every person each
year. Adelaide and Stockholm recovered around 23% (153 kg) and
17% (79 kg) respectively from the municipal waste that is generated
every year.
The comparative analysis is not to rank the cities but to analyse

the performances based on resource recovery and waste management systems. The following comparative study is done by
5.3.2. Energy savings

One of the important resources that depletes with waste is
energy. Sometimes, more energy is used to produce a product
Table 2
Potential substitution of resources in the zero waste index.
Cities
WMS (ii)
Waste
category
(iii)
Total waste
managed in
the city
(tonnes) (iv)
Potential total
virgin material
substituted
(tonnes) (v)
Total energy
substituted
(GJLHV)
Total GHG
emissions
reduction
(tonnes CO2e)
Total water
saving (kL)
Zero waste
index,
(ZWI v/iv)
Adelaide
Recycling
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MW1
23,918
17,084
17,084
17,084
2,66,521
59,424
3,41,692
7,42,807
681 kg
20,091
15,375
13,496
15,375
66,630
35,654
000
1,66,621
153 kg
2,04,260
1,10,362
19,44,159
8,78,800
26,65,210
19,609
000
3,157,190
2.9 GJ
45,444
6833
1,64,006
23,917
3,06,499
29,712
1,43,510
4,21,901
387 kg
69,601
39,293
1,554,644
1,94,245
15,99,126
26,146
000
30,94,565
2.8 kL
0.23
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MW1
1,21,997
15,096
20,332
55,915
50,830
1,01,665
1,42,331
5,08,323
609 kg
1,02,477
13,724
16,062
50,323
12,707
60,999
000
2,56,292
307 kg
1,041,854
98,508
23,13,781
2,83,691
5,08,300
33,549
000
42,79,683
5.1 GJ
2,31,794
6099
1,95,187
78,281
58,454
50,832
59,779
5,60,868
672 kg
3,55,011
35,072
27,60,212
6,35,753
3,04,980
44,732
000
28,64,254
3.42 kL
0.51
Paper
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Mixed
Organic
Mixed MW1
Mixed MW1
36,552
10,083
3781
8823
66,805
4065
2,39,891
36,596
4,06,596
480 kg
30,703
9074
2987
7940
16,701
2439
000
000
69,844
79 kg
3,12,154
65,136
4,26,863
4,53,855
6,68,050
1341
4,77,383
000
2,404,782
2.83 GJ
69,448
4033
36,297
12,352
76,825
2032
80,363
1536
2,79,814
330 kg
1,06,366
23,190
3,44,071
1,00,317
4,00,830
1788
000
000
7,75,928
0.92 kL
0.17
Composting
Landll
Total value
Benets per person per year
San Francisco
Recycling
Composting
Landll
Total value
Stockholm
Recycling
Composting
Incineration
Landll
Total value
130
GHG savings (kg CO2e)
Materials substitution (kg)

Waste Generation (kg)
Materials Substitution (kg)
Adelaide
Adelaide
San
Francisco
Stockholm
Fig. 6. Virgin material substitution in Adelaide, San Francisco and Stockholm.
than when the product is used in its lifetime. Hence, recovering

resources from waste potentially saves an enormous amount of
energy. Comparing the energy savings in the three cities, San
Francisco substituted the highest amount of energy demand from
the resources recovered in waste management systems. The
average person in San Francisco substituted around 1417 kilowatt
hours (kW-h) of energy demand in a year. In Adelaide and
Stockholm, the energy demand substitution value was 805 kilowatt hours (kW-h) and 786 kilowatt hours (kW-h) respectively.
Even though the zero waste index for Stockholm was 0.17, which
was lower than San Francisco (0.51) and Adelaide (0.23), overall
energy saving was signicantly higher in Stockholm. The key
reason for the high energy savings from the waste management
system in Stockholm was the energy generation from incineration
of municipal solid waste. Fig. 7 shows the comparative energy
savings in Adelaide, San Francisco and Stockholm.
5.3.3. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
One of the major environmental impacts from waste is greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, which intensies global
San
Francisco
Stockholm
Fig. 7. Energy savings from waste management systems in Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm.
Stockholm
Fig. 8. GHG savings from waste management systems in Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm.
warming and climate change. Landll is the main source of methane and other GHG emissions from waste management systems.
Resource recovery from waste eventually substitutes the emissions
that would otherwise reach the atmosphere if waste is managed by
landll. Each person in Adelaide, San Francisco and Stockholm
saved 387 kg CO2e, 672 kg CO2e and 330 kg CO2e of GHG each year,
respectively, from the waste management systems. In countries like
Australia where a carbon tax costs polluters a huge amount of
money, waste management authorities can claim carbon credits
that they have saved from waste recycling activities. Fig. 8 shows
the GHG savings.
5.3.4. Water savings
Water is not an abundant resource anymore; rather it is already
a scarce natural resource in many parts of the world. The relationship between water and waste is signicant at the point of
resource recovery because a signicant amount of fresh water is
used to process raw materials to produce products. Therefore,
substituting virgin materials can save water. Fig. 9 shows the per
capita water saved in the three cities. Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm saved around 2800 L, 3420 L and 920 L per person per
year respectively.
Energy savings (kW-h)
Adelaide
San
Francisco
Water savings (L)
Adelaide
San
Francisco
Stockholm
Fig. 9. Water savings from waste management systems in Adelaide, San Francisco and
Stockholm.
6. Concluding remarks
From the previous discussion it is clear that the zero waste index
provides a better picture of the overall waste management performance of a city than the diversion rate. Moreover, a 100%
diversion of waste from landll would obviously be a milestone for
a waste authority but would not necessarily achieve zero waste
goals. The diversion rate does not give an indication of resources
that have been recovered and substituted, which eventually avoids
extraction of further resources. The zero waste index forecasts the
amount of resources that are recovered from the waste streams and
substituted for virgin materials. In addition, the ZWI also forecasts
the demand substitution of energy, water and emissions by the
waste management systems.
The overall performance of waste management systems in
Adelaide is higher compared to Stockholm. This difference is due to
the virgin material recovery and energy substitution by the waste
management systems. Adelaide substitutes more virgin materials
than Stockholm. The overall performance of the three cities was
analysed and San Francisco was found to be top among the three
cities.
The study aimed to develop a holistic tool for measuring the
waste management performance of a city. From the study results it
is evident that San Francisco has a higher zero waste index than
Adelaide and Stockholm. Virgin materials substitution, energy
savings, emissions saving and water savings were also higher than
the other two cities. This study was limited to the municipal waste
management systems in 6 broad waste categories: paper, plastic,
metal, glass, organic and mixed municipal solid waste. Further
research is required to develop a zero waste index system for other
types of waste such as commercial and institutional waste, industrial waste, and construction and demolition waste.
Acknowledgements
This article was supported by the Zero Waste SA Research Centre
for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sdb) at the University of
South Australia. The study is a part of an ongoing research project
studying strategies for zero waste and urban material ows conducted at the sdb Centre. The authors thank two anonymous
referees for their insightful comments.
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Urban Metabolism of Paris

and Its Region
Sabine Barles
Keywords:
construction materials
industrial ecology
material flow analysis (MFA)
regional MFA
urbanization
urban sprawl

Sabine Barles
Laboratoire Theorie des Mutations
Urbaines
FRE Architecture,
Urbanisme, Societes
4 rue Alfred Nobel
Cite Descartes
77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France
sabine.barles@univ-paris8.fr
www.ifu.univ-paris8.fr/LTMU/
spip.php?rubrique53
Summary
The article presents the results of a research project aimed
at (1) examining the feasibility of material flow analysis (MFA)
on a regional and urban scale in France, (2) selecting the most
appropriate method, (3) identifying the available data, and (4)
calculating the material balance for a specific case. Using the
Eurostat method, the study was conducted for the year 2003
and for three regional levels: Paris, Paris and its suburbs, and
the entire region. Applying the method on a local scale required two local indicators to be defined in order to take into
account the impact of exported wastes on MFA: LEPO, local
and exported flows to nature, and DMCcorr , a modified domestic material consumption (DMC) that excludes exported
wastes (and imported ones if necessary).
As the region extracts, produces, and transforms less material than the country as a whole, its direct material input
(DMI) is lower than the national DMI. In all the areas, LEPO
exceeds 50% of DMI; in contrast, recycling is very low. The
multiscale approach reveals that urban metabolism is strongly
impacted by density and the distribution of activities: the dense
city center (Paris) exports all of its wastes to the other parts
of the region and concentrates food consumption, whereas
the agricultural and urban sprawl area consumes high levels of
construction materials and fuel. This supports the use of MFA
on an urban and regional scale as a basis for material flow
management and dematerialization strategies and clearly reveals the important interactions between urban and regional
planning and development, and material flows.

c 2009 by Yale University
DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00169.x
Volume 13, Number 6
898
www.blackwellpublishing.com/jie
Introduction
Material flow analysis (MFA) is a powerful tool that helps elucidate national, regional,
and urban metabolism. It provides indicators of
(un)sustainability and can contribute to the definition of a public environmental policy (Bringezu
et al. 1998). MFA is now widely used at the national scale (see for instance Weisz et al. 2006),
although it is not extensively used in developing
countries.
Although MFA has proven to be useful on a
national scale, analyses focused on smaller areas
are necessary to gain a better understanding of
what material consumption is and how it can be
controlled and reduced. Most of the world population is concentrated in urban areas (77% in
France, just above 50% in the world), such that
the total consumption of these areas is inclined
to be higher than elsewhere. Furthermore, most
of the products consumed in urban areas are imported. Cities can thus be considered as types of
attractors for materials. Because these imported
materials come from various parts of the world,
the environmental imprint of cities is a worldwide
mosaic. Thus, the analysis of urban material flows
can help to elucidate not only urban functioning
but also issues on a larger scale.
Pioneering studies in the field highlight the
importance of urban metabolism and provide
some data on the urban material balance (Wolman 1965; Odum 1975; Duvigneaud 1980; Boyden et al. 1981). These studies, however, remain
quite focused and do not go beyond the condemnation of cities as parasites, importing fresh materials and exporting wastes. More recently, new
methodological developments and case studies
provide encouraging results and pave the way for
further studies. MFA has now been shown to be
relevant not only in describing socionatural interactions but also in supporting public policies
and action (see for instance for Vienna: Daxbeck
et al. 1997; for Stockholm: Burstrom et al. 1998;
for Geneva: Faist Emmenegger and Frischknecht,
2003; for Hamburg, Vienna, and Liepzig: Hammer et al. 2006).
Paris is, by far, the largest urban area in France
and one of the most important in Europe, together with London and the Ruhr conurbation;
its population ranks 20th in the world. Paris
was not, however, included in Deckers study

of energy and material flow through the worlds
25 largest cities (Decker et al. 2000), and its
metabolism has never been analyzed fully beyond
an early attempt (Dambrin 1982). In France, only
Lille has been the subject of MFA, but the study
focused only on a subset of locally relevant material flows (Duret 2009).
This article summarizes the results of a research project aimed at examining the feasibility
of MFA on a regional and urban scale in France.
The scope of the study includes selecting the most
appropriate methodology for the analysis, identifying the available data, and presenting the results
of MFA for Paris and its region (Ile-de-France).1
In the first section, the methodology for the study
is presented and the case study is introduced. In
the second section, the data used and the results
of the MFA conducted in 2003 for three areas
Paris (2.2 million inhabitants), Paris and its suburbs (6.3 million inhabitants), and the greater
region of Paris (11.3 million inhabitants)are
presented. The results are discussed and the three
areas compared, and a detailed analysis of domestic material consumption (DMC), with particular
emphasis on construction materials, is presented.
Finally, the results obtained from this study are
compared to other urban MFA.
Method and Case Study

Method
Established methodologies exist to conduct
MFA. For the purposes of this project, the method
developed by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat 2001) was chosen.
This method was not originally designed for local or regional case studies, only for studies on a
national scale, and a discussion of its application
at the regional level can be found in work by
Hammer and colleagues (2003). The Eurostat
method has been used extensively and allows
comparisons between studies on different territorial scalesnational versus regional or urban
and between cities and regions. It is based on
data available at the national level, and we have
assumed that at least some of these data exist at
the regional level. The analysis is based on the
determination of the main inputs and outputs
Barles, Urban Metabolism of Paris and Its Region
899
Figure 1 Main flows and indicators in material balance according to the method adapted from Eurostat
(2001). Note the following: (1) The system (Society/Economy) is limited by its political or administrative
borders; it comprises the society as a whole (population and artifacts) and excludes nature from which it
extracts primary material. (2) Water balance is not included (except in the case of balancing outputs). For an
explanation of indicators, see table 1.
for the system under consideration and does not

require a description of the material circulation
within the system; it is thus a fairly easy analysis to perform. This ease of use is important to
develop a method that is both useful for research
and applied purposes and to provide the rationale
as to why this method was chosen rather than
Brunner and Rechbergers (Brunner and Rechberger 2004). Their method may appear more
scientific and systematic, but it is less easily applied to the available data because it is based on
the analysis of processes inside the system under
study, where the outputs are calculated on the
basis of the inputs and transfer coefficients that
characterize those processes. Furthermore, their
method requires that the main processes and activities be predefinedto nourish, to clean, to
reside and work, to transport and communicate
(Brunner and Rechberger 2004, 4448)such
that the social metabolism is interpreted a priori
and cannot be as easily transferred to other cases.2
Finally, the Eurostat method can provide some
900
global indicators in the context of sustainability policies, while the Brunner and Rechberger
method cannot.
To capture the material impact of regional
and urban activities, we followed the territorial
principle rather than the residential principle:
Flows accounted are local ones and defined by the
physical boundaries of the system under study (resulting from administrative boundaries, see Case
Study section below). For the purposes of this
study, we used an adaptation of a methodological guide published by Eurostat in 2001 (Eurostat
2001). The principles of the adapted method, the
main flows to be determined, and the main resulting indicators are shown in figure 1. (See table 1
for an explanation of all indicators and abbreviations.) Our first adaptation of the method does
not depend on the local character of the case
study.
To balance the MFAthat is, based on the
conservation of mass principleit is necessary
to take into account the so-called memorandum
Table 1 Explanation of indicators and abbreviations

Indicator/
abbreviation
BI
BO
DMC
DMCcorr
DMI
DMO
DPO
LEPO
NAS
TDO
TMI
TMO
TMR
Explanation
balancing inputs
balancing outputs
domestic material consumption =
DMI exports
corrected domestic material
consumption = DMI imported
wastes exports except wastes
direct material input DMI + BI =
NAS + DMO + BO
direct material output
domestic processed output
local and exported processed
output = DPO + exported flows
to nature
net addition to stock
total domestic output
total material input TMI + BI =
NAS + TMO + BO
total material output
total material requirement
items. For instance, according to the simplified

equation
(fuel + oxygen) (carbon dioxide + water),
combustion involves oxygen (as an input) and
water (as an output); these two flows must be
weighed for combustion processes to balance. It
would also be possible to include only carbon, instead of CO2, and hydrogen, instead of H2 O, in
the MFA, but that would be required for every
compound emitted during combustion processes
(and other processes). Balanced items are not included in indicators such as direct material input (DMI), direct material output (DMO), and
so on. As a result, there is no relation between
DMI and DMO or more generally between inputs
and outputs. To maintain physical links between
the indicatorsand the conservation of matter,
the very principle of MFAbalancing inputs
(BI) and outputs (BO) are included, as shown in
figure 1. This balance is also necessary to estimate the net addition to stock (NAS), as NAS =
DMI + BI DMO BO.
Adaptation of the method to the regional and

local scales had only one consequence on the
method itself. When it is applied at the national
level, the method considers four main outputs:
flows to nature, unused domestic extraction (actually not included in current accounts), exports,
and indirect flows associated with exports. It then
indirectly assumes that flows to nature are domestic ones (at least at the time of their emission).
On the regional or local scale, such an assumption is no longer valid: Cities rarely dispose or
locally treat their liquid or solid wastes. Wastewater treatment plants, sanitary landfills, and
waste incinerators are often located several kilometers away from cities and outside their administrative borders. Wastes can consequently be considered as exports, and at least in part, so can
flows to nature. Using the Eurostat method, without taking this into account, would create a bias
by minimizing flows to nature, as they would be
limited to the locally emitted part of those flows;
it would also minimize recycling, as it often occurs outside the city; it could also minimize total
exports (wastes + other exports) as some of the
exported wastes are not accounted for in trade
statistics that are often used to assess exports (for
instance wastewater transported outside the city
by sewage pipes).
Thus, for our analysis, certain flows had to be
categorized (and care was taken to avoid double
counting):
exports were categorized into wastes exported and other exports,
flows to nature were categorized into local
and remote flows to nature, and
recycling was categorized into local and remote recycling.
We also added the LEPO indicator (local and
exported processed outputs) to the adapted Eurostat method. LEPO was calculated in the following way: For one particular study area, solid
and liquid wastes were divided into two categories, those that are locally treated (or discharged to nature) and those that are exported.
For each category, and according to the different
treatments applied, the flow was further divided
into flows to nature (emissions to air and water, landfilling, and dissipative use) and recycling.
901
(For instance, incineration results in emissions to

air and in clinker, and a part of this clinker is
recycled and the other part is landfilled.) Flows
to nature resulting from local treatment of solid
and liquid wastes were added to other local flows
to nature to assess domestic processed output to
nature (DPO). In the case study, emissions to air
resulting from the local treatment of solid and liquid wastes were not included in the sum to avoid
double counting of the data contributing to global
air emissions from every source (see below, Data
Collection section). Flows to nature resulting from
remote treatment were added, and the resulting
sum represented the exported processed outputs
to nature. LEPO was obtained by adding this flow
to DPO.
Remote treatment of wastes also has an impact
on DMC. In the established Eurostat method:
DMC = DMI Exports
However, when applied on a local scale, DMC
does not accurately reflect domestic material consumption in its socioeconomic sense and is minimized because of the increase in exports due
to exported wastes. To overcome this problem,
the exported wastes can be subtracted from the
total exports to calculate DMC. It could be argued that it consequently becomes necessary to
subtract imported wastes from DMI: In our case
study, however, there are no imported wastes, but
a generalized application of this method adapted
for the local scale would have to take this into
account. To avoid any confusion between DMC
as it appears in the Eurostat method and DMC in
the method adapted for the local scale, we define
the latter as DMCcorr (corrected DMC):
DMCcorr = DMI Imported wastes

Exports except wastes
Or:
DMCcorr = DMI Imported wastes
Total exports + Wastes exported
In our case study, no wastes are imported; therefore:
DMCcorr = DMI Exports except wastes.
902
Case Study
France is divided into administrative regions
that are themselves divided into departements
made up of many municipalities.3 Due to its
specific role, Paris is both a municipality and a
departement. The urban area of Paris is within
the administrative region of Ile-de-France, which
is itself currently divided into three zones
(figure 2 and table 2): (1) Paris (P); (2) its dense
suburb called Petite couronne (PC), which includes three administrative departements (Hautsde-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne);
and (3) the rest of the region called Grande
couronne (GC). GC is characterized by urban sprawl, industrial activities, and intensive agriculture and is made up of four
departements (Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne, Val-dOise). Ile-de-France is the most
highly populated region of France and has the
highest population density and gross domestic
product (both in volume and per capita) in the
country.
Initially, the study focused only on the Paris
area, but it soon became apparent that such a
choice was very restrictive for proper analysis.
The administrative boundaries of Paris do not
contain the urban area as a whole; they just encompass the very dense city center within the
large urban zone. Material flows, however, can
be impacted both by urban shape (density versus sprawl) and a variety of activities (residential,
tertiary, industrial, and agricultural). As such, for
the purpose of this study, we defined three concentric areas around Paris and conducted an MFA
for each of these: (1) Paris (P); (2) Paris and its
dense urban Petite couronne suburbs (PPC); and
(3) the entire Ile-de-France region (IdF). Consequently, area 3 (IdF) includes area 2 (PPC), and
area 2 (PPC) includes area 1 (P). Internal flows
have, of course, been subtracted out when calculating MFA for areas 2 and 3 (PPC and IdF).
When possible, specific results for PC or GC are
discussed in the article.
Results and Discussion

Data Collection
One of the objectives of this research was to
assess the feasibility of MFA on a regional scale in
Figure 2 Study areas of the Ile-de-France (IdF) region. inhab. = inhabitants; one square kilometer (km2 , SI)
0.386 square miles. Source (map): IAURIF (2008); copyright IAU Ile-de-France. All rights reserved. Used
with permission.
The origin of the data and its quality are summarized in table 3. The most precise, continuous,
and homogenous of the data were data on local extraction of biomass (thanks to agricultural
statistics), data on imports and exports, except
for fossil fuels (thanks to freight statistics), and
data on household wastes. Data on the local extraction of minerals, on imports, on the local extraction of fossil fuels, on other solid wastes and
France. To this aim, we examined the availability

of data for this type of analysis. Data required for
MFA are mainly available at the regional and,
albeit to a lesser extent, at the departement levels.
In this case, we benefited from the particular administrative status of Paris as both a municipality
and a departement and found that nearly all the
required data were available (this is not likely to
be the case for other cities in France).
Table 2 Land use, Ile-de-France, 2003, as a percentage (%) of the territory

%
Water
Forest
Agriculture
Parks and squares
Housing
Economic activities (secondary and tertiary)
Public facilities
Transport
Other
Total
P
3
7
0
12
39
5
18
15
1
100
PC
2
8
3
10
40
10
12
11
5
100
PPC
2
8
3
10
39
9
13
11
4
100
GC
1
24
55
4
7
1
2
2
3
100
IdF
1
22
48
4
12
2
3
3
3
100
Source: IAURIF 2008.

Note: P = Paris; PC = dense suburb of Paris; PPC = dense urban area (PPC = P + PC); GC = urban sprawl and
agricultural area; IdF = Ile-de-France region = P + PC + GC.
903
Table 3 Data: origin and quality

Flow
Data origin and remarks
Local extraction
Fossil fuels
Minerals
Biomass
Oxygen
Imports
Fossil fuels
Others
To nature
To air:
emissions
To air: water
Landfill
To water
Dissipative
flows
Discontinuous data. DGEMP (Direction generale de lenergie et des matières

premières/Energy and Raw Materials Branch, Ministry of Industry) and INSEE
(Institut national de la statitistique et des e tudes e conomiques/National Institute
for Statistics and Economic Studies). Minor flow.
Discontinuous data. DRIRE (Direction regionale de lindustrie, de la recherche et de
lenvironnement/Regional Branch of Industry, Research and the Environment) and
UNICEM (Union nationale des industries de carrières et materiaux de
construction/National Union of Quarries and Building Materials Industries).
Detailed annual data for crops at departement level. Older update for wood.
Discontinuous data for hunting (not very important in the region). AGRESTE
(Agricultural statistics, Ministry of Agriculture).
Deduced from emissions.
Incomplete data, sometimes old, required compilation from various studies. Primarily
from DGEMP.
Detailed annual data at departement level, including detailed nomenclature of
products. SITRAM (Freight database, Ministry of Transport).
Data at departement level (2000). CITEPA (Centre interprofessionnel technique
detudes de la pollution atmospherique/Interprofessional Technical Center for
Studies on Atmospheric Pollution).
Deduced from emissions.
Biennial data for municipal wastes (should become annual), rare for other wastes.
Studying waste treatment requires the compilation of various reports. ORDIF
(Observatoire regional des dechets dIle-de-France/Ile-de-France Region Waste
Management Observatory), ADEME (Agence de lenvironnement et de la matrise
de lenergie/Energy and Environment Management Agency), DREIF for
construction and demolition wastes (Direction regionale de lequipement en
Ile-de-France/Regional Directorate for Public Works in Ile-de-France,
dependent on the Ministry of Public Works).
Unequal data. SIAAP (Syndicat interdepartemental pour lassainissement de
lagglomeration parisienne/Interdepartmental Syndicate for Sanitation in the Paris
Region ), AESN (Agence de leau Seine-Normandie/Seine-Normandie Water
Basin Agency).
Incomplete and scattered data. Only fertilizers (direct data), road salt (rough
estimate), agricultural use of sewage sludge and other wastes (direct data), road and
tire wear have been taken into account. Road wear is assumed to be 1
millimeter/year and is calculated on the basis of road surface. Tire wear is assumed
to be 6 kilograms/300,000 kilograms for trucks and 1 kilogram/50,000 for private
vehicles, that is 0.16 grams/vehicle/kilometer for trucks (8 wheels) and 0.8
grams/vehicle/kilometer for cars (4 wheels).
Exports
Detailed annual data at departement level, including detailed nomenclature of

products. SITRAM.
Recycling
See Landfill entry, above.
liquid wastes, and on emissions to air, are of lesser

quality or are not entirely compatible with MFA.
Despite these limitations, we successfully used the
available data to calculate direct flows; we could
904
not, however, calculate hidden flows (unused

domestic extraction and indirect flows) from
these data. The year 2003 was chosen as the reference year based on the quality and quantity of
Table 4 Main results of the material flow analysis 2003

Paris (2,166,000
inhab.)
kt
INPUT
Local extraction
Fossil fuels
Minerals
Biomass
Total local extraction
Imports
Fossil fuels
Others
Total Imports
DMI
OUTPUT
To nature
Emissions to air
Waste landfilled
Emissions to water
Dissipative flows
DPO
Exportations
Exported flows to nature
Exports excluding wastes
Total exports
DMO
LEPO
RECYCLING
Local
External
Total recycling
Wastes exported
DMC
DMCcorr
BI oxygen (combustion)
BO water (combustion)
NAS
t/cap
PPC (6,321,000
inhab.)
kt
t/cap
IdF (11,259,000
inhab.)
kt
t/cap
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0
0
30
30
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
540
16,990
6,010
23,540
0.0
1.5
0.5
2.1
3,910
15,240
19,160
19,160
1.8
7.0
8.8
8.8
13,050
56,450
69,500
69,530
2.1
8.9
11.0
11.0
26,100
88,350
114,450
137,990
2.3
7.8
10.2
12.3
6,710
0
0
150
6,860
3.1
0.0
0.0
0.1
3.2
24,470
2,500
10
440
27,410
3.9
0.4
0.0
0.1
4.3
53,840
20,010
40
2,400
76,290
4.8
1.8
0.0
0.2
6.8
4,100
8,380
12,480
19,340
10,960
1.9
3.9
5.8
8.9
5.1
9,610
40,410
50.020
77,430
37,020
1.5
6.4
7.9
12.2
5.9
69
58,500
58,570
134,860
76,360
0.0
5.2
5.2
12.0
6.8
0
1,850
1,850
5,950
4,830
10,780
6,560
3,280
3,100
0.0
0.9
0.9
2.7
2.2
5.0
3.0
1.5
1.4
4,210
440
4,660
10,050
19,070
29,120
24,010
12,010
4,110
0.7
0.1
0.7
1.6
3.0
4.6
3.8
1.9
0.7
7,320
0
7,320
70
79,420
79,490
52,650
26,330
29,460
0.7
0.0
0.7
0.0
7.1
7.1
4.7
2.3
2.6
Note: P = Paris; PPC = dense urban area (Paris and its dense suburb, taken together); IdF = Ile-de-France region. One
kiloton (kt) = 103 tonnes (t) = 103 megagrams (Mg, SI) 1.102 103 short tons. t/cap = tonnes per capita. DMI =
direct material input; DPO = domestic processed output; DMO = direct material output; LEPO = local and exported
processed output; DMC = domestic material consumption; DMCcorr = corrected domestic material consumption; BI =
balancing inputs; BO = balancing outputs; NAS = net addition to stock.
available data. For MFA to develop, however

and it should conceivably be conducted every
year or at the very least every five years for effective environmental policies to be implemented
it will be necessary for government to improve
data production, collection, and availability.
General Results
The main results of our MFA are summarized
in table 4 and figure 3. As shown in table 4, fossil
fuel extraction, mineral and biomass extraction,
imports (fossil fuels and others), emissions to air,
905
Figure 3 Main indicators of MFA

for Paris, PPC, and IdF, 2003 (tonnes
per capita). P = Paris; PPC = dense
urban area; IdF = Ile-de-France
region. For an explanation of
indicators, see table 1. RC =
recycling.
and exports, excluding wastes, are calculated from

direct (or semidirect in the case of fuel) data.
Landfilled waste, emissions to water, and dissipative flows resulting from waste and wastewater
treatment have been calculated according to the
method outlined above, in the Method section.
Dissipative flows are known directly (fertilizers
for instance) or indirectly (see table 3). NAS is
the result of subtracting balanced outputs from
balanced inputs.
We first looked at the impact of applying MFA
at a local level on DMC (as it is defined by the
Eurostat method). We found that the value for
DMC ranges from 2.2 tonnes per capita (t/cap)
in Paris, to 3.0 t/cap in PPC and 7.1 t/cap in
IdF.4 These DMC values are very low, particularly for the areas of Paris and PPC, and clearly
are the result of the exportation of waste (as discussed above, in the Method section), highlighting the importance of using DMCcorr to accurately analyze local socioeconomic metabolism.
The DMCcorr for the Paris and PPC areas are
5.0 t/cap and 4.6 t/cap, respectively. DMCcorr is
the same as DMC for IdF as the region exports
nearly no wastes. Results for DMI and DMC can
be compared with national figures provided by
Eurostat (2008); other comparisons are not possible as flows to nature are not accounted for at the
national level. For 2003, DMI on the local scale
is 8.8 t/cap for Paris and 12.3 t/cap for IdF, compared with a DMI of 16.5 t/cap at the national
level. DMCcorr for the areas of Paris and IdF is
lower than the national DMC (5.0 t/cap and 7.1
t/cap versus 13.2 t/cap, respectively). The primary
reason that local DMC and DMI are lower than
national values is that, beyond its industrial and
906
agricultural activities, the region extracts, produces, and transforms less material than the rest
of the country. These processes upstream of social metabolism, lead to increased emissions and
wastes and, as a consequence, to higher DMI and
DMC values. In fact, the opposite occurs in this
region; it imports many goods that are produced
outside of its boundaries. The elaboration of these
goods requires much more consumption of materials than their final material content. As cities
generally consume significantly more than they
produce, further research is required on indirect
flows for regional and, especially, urban MFA.
DMC and DMI at the local level may also be
lower because an increase in stock is less important in the Ile-de-France region than in other
regions in France. For instance, only 10% of new
buildings (in terms of floor area) in France are
constructed in Ile-de-France (MEEDDM 2008)
although nearly 20% of the French population
lives there. The distance between DMI and DMC
is also important: The percent of DMI to DMCcorr
is 178% in Paris, 239% in PPC, and 174% in IdF,
while it is 125% at the national level.
We also examined the total flows to nature
as represented by LEPO. LEPO values were 5.1
t/cap for Paris, 5.9 t/cap for PPC, and 6.8 t/cap
for IdF. These data reveal that more than half
the regions DMI is returned to nature (57%,
53%, and 55% of DMI for Paris, PPC and IdF,
respectively). Furthermore, the data show that
flows to nature exceed commercial exports and
that limiting MFA to monetary flows is particularly irrelevant. The high emissions to air in
LEPO (61% of LEPO in Paris, 66% in PPC,
71% in IdF) clearly illustrate the importance of
Table 5 Wastes landfilled, by geographic origin of wastes, 2003 (kg/cap)

Origin of wastes
Household and related wastes
Ordinary industrial wastes
Demolition wastes
Agricultural wastes
Dangerous industrial wastes
Wastewater treatment wastes
Total
Paris
PC
GC
IdF
98
115
1,654
0
0
4
1,872
83
67
1,746
0
18
4
1,919
150
64
1,301
32
63
7
1,617
116
75
1,533
14
34
6
1,778
Note: One kilogram (kg, SI) 2.204 pounds (lb).
dematerialization and decarbonization. These

values can also be compared with the very low recycling rates, even when both local and external
recycling are considered: less than 1 t/cap, about
10% of DMI in Paris, 7% in PPC, 5% in IdF. If
demolition wastes are excluded from the analysis, the amount of wastes landfilled remains low
due to the wide use of incineration. The different
categories and the geographical origins of landfilled wastes, 86% of which are demolition wastes,
are presented in table 5. Landfilling mainly occurs in GC (86% of total landfilled wastes,
table 4). These data clearly reveal that the French
waste policy, which places emphasis on household wastes, insufficiently addresses other types
of wastes.
Our results for NAS are very low, and we propose two reasons to explain these values. First, Ilede-Franceand especially its dense partmay
already be saturated with materials (see also below in the section Comparison to Other Regions),
or characterized by a high rate of stock turnover
a less probable hypothesis as, for instance, the
renewal of buildings is very slow. Second, NAS
is not calculated directly but is the result of subtracting DMO+BO from DMI+BI; thus, the calculation of NAS is susceptible to various sources
of errors (especially for BO and BI) that may limit
its accuracy.
We also compared the three study areas with
each other. Our data show that every flow, except DMCcorr and recycling, increases with the
size of the area. These increases are likely due to
activities, in particular for the primary and secondary sectors, which are all the more developed
and diversified since the study area around the
city center is large. Furthermore, these activities
require and create very large material flows. The

increased flows may also be due to the type of
area defined within each zone: IdF includes areas of urban sprawl, whereas Paris and PPC are
made up of densely populated zones (see the next
section, Detailed Analysis of DMC).
The city center (Paris) depends almost entirely on other areas for inputs and flows to nature that are, with the exception of emissions to
air and dissipative flows, exported to other parts
of the region. This dependence decreases slightly
in the dense urban zone (PPC), mainly because
some solid waste incinerators and wastewater
treatment plants are located in the Petite couronne
(figure 2). IdF is self-sufficient in regards to flows
to nature (or, more precisely, does not directly
export them) but is evidently not self-sufficient
in regards to inputs: Local extraction represents
only 17% of DMI for this region compared with
70% for France as a whole. In view of achieving
sustainability, therefore, it would be important
to replace imports (and their indirect flows) with
local recycling.
Detailed Analysis of DMC
The detailed results help to partially explain
the observed differences between the areas under
study and may help in creating effective policies.
Using the available data, DMC was estimated not
only for P, PPC, and IdF but also for PC and GC
(figure 4). As figures concern specific products,
the distinction between DMC and DMCcorr is no
more necessary. A slight underestimation exists
of the imports and exports because some of the
detailed rail data on the departement scale could
not be made available to the general public. An
907
Figure 4 Domestic material consumption (DMC), 2003 (tonnes per capita). P = Paris; PC = dense suburb
of Paris; PPC = dense urban area (PPC = P + PC); GC = urban sprawl and agricultural area; IdF =
Ile-de-France region.
overview of rail transport on the regional scale

and of the quality of DMC calculated without
taking rail transport into account are presented
in table 6. It is assumed that the results for agricultural and food products, fertilizers and chemical
products, manufactured products, and fossil fuels
are reliably accurate but are less so for minerals
and construction materials.
Food consumption per capita is higher in Paris
than anywhere else in France. Because Paris is
both an employment and tourist destination,
there are more mouths to feed than inhabitants:
MFA reliably reflects the functioning of this urban area. In consequence, organic wastes are also
likely to be of great importance. In Paris, daily

food DMC reaches 10,600 t, which is 4.9 kg/cap
if the official population of the capital is used
(as shown in figure 4). Even if the population is
increased by 50% to account for every potential
consumer of food in the city (which is probably
an overestimate of the eating population and,
as a consequence, an underestimate of its per
capita food consumption), DMC still amounts to
3.3 kg/cap, which is much more than an average
person can eat in one day. As we have previously
shown for nitrogen (Barles 2005), a great proportion of the food products entering Paris thus
likely ends up as solid waste. This urban waste
Table 6 Rail transport of goods of the Ile-de-France (IDF) region, 2003

Imports
Rail (kt)
Agricultural & food products
Minerals & mineral products
Construction materials
Fertilizers & chemical products
Manufactured products
Fossil fuels
Total
1,009
554
3,915
156
1,336
100
7,070
Note: DMI = direct material input; kt = kilotons.
908
Exports (Ex)
% of DMI
4.1
13.5
10.9
3.1
4.3
0.4
5.5
Rail (kt)
387
557
181
315
1,739
73
3,253
Internal traffic
(IT)
% of Ex
Rail (kt)
% of IT
2.7
14.2
2.7
8.4
7.0
1.1
5.4
5
120
124
5
26
214
494
0.0
0.7
0.2
0.1
0.1
4.0
0.3
could be effectively used for the production of

fertilizers or biogas, but this option is rarely considered in city centers because agricultural and
organic issues are not deemed relevant in these
areas. The origin of food and agricultural products and the distance between DMI and DMC are
also points of concern. At the regional scale, DMI
is 2.2 t/cap, of which local extraction represents
0.5 t/cap, while DMC is 0.9 t/cap and exports are
1.3 t/cap; as such, despite its very high production levels, regional agriculture in this area is no
longer solely restricted to the local food supply
(see also Billen et al. 2009).
The consumption of manufactured products
is higher in Paris than in PC and as such higher
in PC than in GC. This is likely the result of
unequal living standards in these areas and a reflection of the importance of the service sector in
Paris.
As a result of both the repartition of various
activities and urban sprawl, fossil fuel consumption is higher in GC than in PC and higher again
in PC than in Paris (and in France than in IdF:
2.0 and 1.7 t/cap, respectively): Per capita consumption is 50% higher in GC than in Paris.5
These results are not surprising and support more
detailed studies on energy-urban form relationships (see for instance Newman and Kenworthy
1999, VandeWeghe and Kennedy 2007).
Construction materials in GC make up a significant proportion of the DMC; however, the
value is biased due to a lack of detailed rail
data (see above for discussion of this bias). To
assess the impact of this bias on the consumption of construction materials, we assumed all
2003 rail traffic for this particular material was
within PPC (table 7). Although this assumption
leads to a threefold increase in DMC in PPC,
it remains significantly different than the DMC
in GC.
This difference may be due to the fact that the
construction sector is more dynamic in GC than
in PPC. In France, a permit is required to build
(for housing or other buildings), and a builder
must inform the administration when construction begins. As such, a database exists on a municipality scale of every construction job, its start
date, and expected floor area (this information is
required to obtain a permit) (MEEDDM 2008).
Results from 2001 to 2003 (it is assumed that
Table 7 DMC for construction materials (1)

without rail and (2) assuming that all rail traffic is
within PPC
(1)
PPC
GC
IdF
(2)
kt
t/cap
kt
t/cap
1,897
23,492
25,389
0.3
4.8
2.3
5,754
23,492
29,122
0.9
4.8
2.6
Note: DMC = domestic material consumption; PPC =

dense urban area (Paris and its dense suburb, taken together). GC = urban sprawl and agricultural area; IdF =
Ile-de-France region; kt = kilotons; t/cap = tonnes per
capita.
some of the construction was started in 2001

but not completed until 2003) are shown in
figure 5. In each year, around 60% of the construction (in terms of floor area to be built) is located in GC. These data do not, however, explain
the difference in the consumption of construction materials between this area and the other
parts of IdF. Another explanation may be that
the type of buildings constructed in these areas differs: Approximately 49% of dwellings (in
terms of number of dwellings and not of floor
area) built between 2001 and 2003 in GC are
single family, whereas this percentage is 13% for
PPC, 0% in Paris, and 16% in PC. Does the
construction of a single-family house consume
more construction materials than an apartment
dwelling? The answer to this question is disputed
in France. Even if the answer is that it does not, as
we have assumed here, construction of a singlefamily house indisputably requires more infrastructure and public works than the construction
of an apartment building. The low-density housing that is often characteristic of urban developments in GC therefore has a significant impact not only on energy but also on construction
materials.
Conversely, the region is far from selfsufficient with regard to construction materials:
Local extraction is only 1.5 t/cap, whereas regional consumption is 2.6 t/cap and landfilled
demolition wastes are 1.5 t/cap (table 5). These
data help to define two targets for dematerialization: first, controlling urban extension (which is
generally only linked to the energy issue) to reduce the demand for construction materials and
909
Figure 5 Expected floor area of construction begun in 2001, 2002, and 2003 in thousand square meters
(1,000 m2 ). Source of data: MEEDDAT, 2008. P = Paris; PC = dense suburb of Paris; GC = urban sprawl and
agricultural area.
second, recycling demolition wastes to reduce

their extraction.
Comparison to Other Regions
Few MFA exist on regional and especially urban scales. Where they do exist, comparisons
are often not possible because different methods have been used. Recently, Hammer and colleagues (2006) published results for Hamburg, Vienna, and Liepzig based on the Eurostat method
(table 8). These three cities differ significantly
from Paris and its urban area as they are less populated and larger and, therefore, less dense. Their
economic and political roles are also quite different: Hamburg is a major harbor, Vienna a capital, and Liepzig a regional center. As such, the
only indicator we were able to compare directly
is DMC. DMC for both Hamburg and Liepzig
are higher than that for Paris and IdF; DMC for
the Vienna center is equal to the DMC for Paris.
Of the three cities studied by Hammer and colleagues, Vienna also has the highest density (see
table 8).
Table 8 Main characteristics of Hamburg, Vienna, Liepzig, and Paris

Hamburg
(2001)
Area (km )
Population
( 1,000)
Density
(inhab./km2 )
DMC (t/cap)
Vienna (2001)
Liepzig (2001)
Paris & IdF (2003)
Center
Urban
Area
Center
Urban
Area
Center
Urban
Area
PPC
IdF
755
1726
8616
3264
415
1550
4596
2120
298
493
4386
1091
105
2166
762
6321
12012
11259
2286
379
3736
461
1658
249
20629
8295
937
8.2
11.4
5.0
8.8
25.3
5.0
4.6
7.1
Source: Hammer and colleagues (2006) for Hamburg, Vienna, and Liepzig; present study for Paris. P = Paris; PPC = dense
urban area (Paris and its dense suburb, taken together); DMC = domestic material consumption; IdF = Ile-de-France
region; inhab./km2 = inhabitants per square kilometer; t/cap = tonnes per capita.
910
Although a more detailed analysis is required to take into account the various origins and uncertainties of the data, we nevertheless propose that Paris experiences a kind of
material saturation that explains its low DMC
(see also discussion above). Viennas low DMC
may also be explained by a similar material
saturation.
Conclusion
The first goal of our study was to examine
the feasibility of MFA on the regional and urban
scale in France. We conclude that such an analysis is possible and that the Eurostat method can
be applied successfully to this type of analysis.
Some adaptations of the Eurostat method were
necessary, however, to take into account the importance of exported wastes and flows to nature
and their impact on DMC. Two local indicators
were thus defined: LEPO, a measure of the local and exported flows to nature, and DMCcorr , a
modified DMC that is calculated by excluding exported wastes from exports (and, where necessary,
imported wastes from imports). Improvements to
the production and/or collection of public data
are necessary to allow for more precise and replicable analyses, over the short and long term.
MFA allows urban functioning to be weighed.
DMI, DMC, and DMCcorr are lower on the local
scale compared with the national scale, reflecting
the fact that urban areas import most of what they
consume and create large hidden flows. LEPO
are also considerable: They exceed 50% of DMI,
whereas recycling is nearly nonexistent. These
results question the validity of the current public
policies concerning waste recycling and emission
reduction.
The study was conducted at three levels, and
the results clearly highlight the value of using
such a multiscaled approach. Our data show that
Paris depends on a wide area for its material provision and on the suburbs and the region as a whole
for its waste treatment. These results demonstrate
the material consequences of both the concentration of activities in the city centerconsumption
of foodand urban sprawl in the regionhigh
consumption of construction materials and fuel.
The link established between construction materials flows and planning issues is also worth not-
ing. It reveals the need for new public policies,

especially concerning waste managementto reduce construction materials importsand urban
planningto reduce their consumption. In addition, more research and the development of action plans to link urban and agricultural policies
to improve the use of urban fertilizers and to favor local food supply are required. Such policies
would necessitate an in-depth interdisciplinary
analysis of the governance of material flows.
Further studies on urban metabolism to characterize the urban environmental imprint would
not only require capturing the hidden flows
(Barles 2008), but also comparing data in space
and time (Decker et al. 2000; Kennedy et al.
2007). Furthermore, to obtain significant results,
it would be important to link MFA to the particular socioecological conditions that influence
material flows and their evolution. This type of
analysis would thus lead to a better understanding
of such systems.
Acknowledgements
Paris City Council and the French National
Research Agency (ANR-08-VILL-0008-02) provided the funding for this study. I thank Natacha
Lizerot and Tifenn Audrain for their valuable assistance in data collection.
Notes
1. More details are available in the research report
(Barles 2007).
2. They mention that additional activities can complete this list to analyse and solve a particular
resource-oriented problem (Brunner and Rechberger 2004, p. 44). Such a definition of main activities is perhaps relevant today in developed countries
but probably not in other parts of the world or during other times (cleaning was not so important two
or three hundred years ago and working simply does
not exist in some societies).
3. More precisely, departements are divided into cantons
consisting of municipalities. This distinction is not
necessary here.
4. One tonne (t) = 103 kilograms (kg, SI) 1.102
short tons.
5. It has to be kept in mind that this fuel consumption
does not represent all of the energy consumption
within the area as it does not take into account
imported electricity.
911
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About the Author

Sabine Barles is a professor at the Institut
Francais dUrbanisme (French Institute of Urbanism) at the University of Paris VIII (FRE
Architecture, Urbanisme Societes [Architecture,
Urbanism, Societies]) in Champs-sur-Marne,
France.
913
Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace

of life in cities
Lus M. A. Bettencourt*, Jose Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Kuhnert, and Geoffrey B. West*
*Theoretical Division, MS B284, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545; Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University,
P.O. Box 873211, Tempe, AZ 85287-3211; Institute for Transport and Economics, Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Strasse 23,
D-01062 Dresden, Germany; and Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Humanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with the
majority of people now living in cities. Cities have long been
known to be societys predominant engine of innovation and
wealth creation, yet they are also its main source of crime, pollution, and disease. The inexorable trend toward urbanization worldwide presents an urgent challenge for developing a predictive,
quantitative theory of urban organization and sustainable development. Here we present empirical evidence indicating that the
processes relating urbanization to economic development and
knowledge creation are very general, being shared by all cities
belonging to the same urban system and sustained across different
nations and times. Many diverse properties of cities from patent
production and personal income to electrical cable length are
shown to be power law functions of population size with scaling
exponents, , that fall into distinct universality classes. Quantities
reflecting wealth creation and innovation have 1.2 >1 (increasing returns), whereas those accounting for infrastructure display
0.8 <1 (economies of scale). We predict that the pace of social life
in the city increases with population size, in quantitative agreement with data, and we discuss how cities are similar to, and differ
from, biological organisms, for which <1. Finally, we explore
possible consequences of these scaling relations by deriving
growth equations, which quantify the dramatic difference between growth fueled by innovation versus that driven by economies of scale. This difference suggests that, as population grows,
major innovation cycles must be generated at a continually accelerating rate to sustain growth and avoid stagnation or collapse.
population sustainability urban studies increasing returns
economics of scale
umanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with

the majority of people now living in cities (1, 2). The present
worldwide trend toward urbanization is intimately related to
economic development and to profound changes in social organization, land use, and patterns of human behavior (1, 2). The
demographic scale of these changes is unprecedented (2, 3) and
will lead to important but as of yet poorly understood impacts on
the global environment. In 2000, 70% of the population in
developed countries lived in cities compared with 40% in
developing countries. Cities occupied a mere 0.3% of the total
land area but 3% of arable land. By 2030, the urban population
of developing countries is expected to more than double to 4
billion, with an estimated 3-fold increase in occupancy of land
area (3), whereas in developed countries it may still increase by
as much as 20%. Paralleling this global urban expansion, there
is the necessity for a sustainability transition (46) toward a
stable total human population, together with a rise in living
standards and the establishment of long-term balances between
human development needs and the planets environmental limits
(7). Thus, a major challenge worldwide (5, 6) is to understand
and predict how changes in social organization and dynamics
resulting from urbanization will impact the interactions between
nature and society (8).
www.pnas.orgcgidoi10.1073pnas.0610172104
The increasing concentration of people in cities presents both

opportunities and challenges (9) toward future scenarios of
sustainable development. On the one hand, cities make possible
economies of scale in infrastructure (9) and facilitate the optimized delivery of social services, such as education, health care,
and efficient governance. Other impacts, however, arise because
of human adaptation to urban living (9, 1014). They can be
direct, resulting from obvious changes in land use (3) [e.g., urban
heat island effects (15, 16) and increased green house gas
emissions (17)] or indirect, following from changes in consumption (18) and human behavior (1014), already emphasized in
classical work by Simmel and Wirth in urban sociology (11, 12)
and by Milgram in psychology (13). An important result of
urbanization is also an increased division of labor (10) and the
growth of occupations geared toward innovation and wealth
creation (1922). The features common to this set of impacts are
that they are open-ended and involve permanent adaptation,
whereas their environmental implications are ambivalent, aggravating stresses on natural environments in some cases and
creating the conditions for sustainable solutions in others (9).
These unfolding complex demographic and social trends make
it clear that the quantitative understanding of human social
organization and dynamics in cities (7, 9) is a major piece of the
puzzle toward navigating successfully a transition to sustainability. However, despite much historical evidence (19, 20) that cities
are the principal engines of innovation and economic growth, a
quantitative, predictive theory for understanding their dynamics
and organization (23, 24) and estimating their future trajectory
and stability remains elusive. Significant obstacles toward this
goal are the immense diversity of human activity and organization and an enormous range of geographic factors. Nevertheless,
there is strong evidence of quantitative regularities in the
increases in economic opportunities (2529), rates of innovation
(21, 22), and pace of life (1114, 30) observed between smaller
towns and larger cities.
In this work, we show that the social organization and dynamics relating urbanization to economic development and knowledge creation, among other social activities, are very general and
appear as nontrivial quantitative regularities common to all
cities, across urban systems. We present an extensive body of
empirical evidence showing that important demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral urban indicators are, on average,
Author contributions: L.M.A.B., J.L., and G.B.W. designed research; L.M.A.B., J.L., D.H., C.K.,
and G.B.W. performed research; L.M.A.B. and G.B.W. contributed new reagents/analytic
tools; L.M.A.B., J.L., D.H., and C.K. analyzed data; and L.M.A.B., J.L., and G.B.W. wrote the
paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Abbreviation: MSA, metropolitan statistical area.
To
whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lmbett@lanl.gov.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/

0610172104/DC1.
2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
PNAS April 24, 2007 vol. 104 no. 17 73017306
SUSTAINABILITY
SCIENCE
Edited by Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, and approved March 6, 2007 (received for review November 19, 2006)
scaling functions of city size that are quantitatively consistent

across different nations and times [note that the much studied
Zipfs law (ref. 31) for the ranksize distribution of urban
populations is just one example of the many scaling relationships
presented in this work]. The most thorough evidence at present
is for the U.S., where extensive reliable data across a wide variety
of indicators span many decades. In addition, we show that other
nations, including China and European countries, display particular scaling relationships consistent with those in the U.S.
Scaling and Biological Metaphors for the City. Scaling as a tool for
revealing underlying dynamics and structure has been instrumental in understanding problems across the entire spectrum of
science and technology. This approach has recently been applied
to a wide range of biological phenomena leading to a unifying
quantitative picture of their organization, structure, and dynamics. Organisms as metabolic engines, characterized by energy
consumption rates, growth rates, body size, and behavioral times
(3234), have a clear counterpart in social systems (14, 35).
Cities as consumers of energy and resources and producers of
artifacts, information, and waste have often been compared with
biological entities, in both classical studies in urban sociology
(14, 35) and in recent research concerned with urban ecosystems
and sustainable development. Recent analogies include cities as
living systems (36) or organisms (37) and notions of urban
ecosystems (38) and urban metabolism (17, 3840). Are
these terms just qualitative metaphors, or is there quantitative
and predictive substance in the implication that social organizations are extensions of biology, satisfying similar principles and
constraints? Are the structures and dynamics that evolved with
human socialization fundamentally different from those in biology? Answers to these questions provide a framework for the
construction of a quantitative theory of the average city, which
would incorporate, for example, the roles of innovation and
economies of scale and predictions for growth trajectories, levels
of social and economic development, and ecological footprints.
To set the stage, consider first some relevant scaling relations
characterizing biological organisms. Despite its amazing diversity and complexity, life manifests an extraordinary simplicity
and universality in how key structural and dynamical processes
scale across a broad spectrum of phenomena and an immense
range of energy and mass scales covering 20 orders of magnitude. Remarkably, almost all physiological characteristics of
biological organisms scale with body mass, M, as a power law
whose exponent is typically a multiple of 1/4 (which generalizes
to 1/(d 1) in d-dimensions). For example, metabolic rate, B,
(the power required to sustain the organism) scales as B M3/4
(32, 33). Because metabolic rate per unit mass, B/M M1/4,
decreases with body size, this relationship implies an economy of
scale in energy consumption: larger organisms consume less
energy per unit time and per unit mass. The predominance and
universality of quarter-power scaling have been understood as a
manifestation of general underlying principles that constrain the
dynamics and geometry of distribution networks within organisms (e.g., the circulatory system). Highly complex, selfsustaining structures, whether cells, organisms, or cities, require
close integration of enormous numbers of constituent units that
need efficient servicing. To accomplish this integration, life at all
scales is sustained by optimized, space-filling, hierarchical
branching networks (32, 41), which grow with the size of the
organism as uniquely specified approximately self-similar structures. Because these networks, e.g., the vascular systems of
animals and plants, determine the rates at which energy is
delivered to functional terminal units (cells), they set the pace of
physiological processes as scaling functions of the size of the
organism. Thus, the self-similar nature of resource distribution
networks, common to all organisms, provides the basis for a
7302 www.pnas.orgcgidoi10.1073pnas.0610172104
quantitative, predictive theory of biological structure and dynamics, despite much external variation in appearance and form.
Specifically, this theory predicts that characteristic physiological times, such as life spans, turnover times, and times to
maturity scale as M1 M1/4, whereas associated rates, such as
heart rates and evolutionary rates, scale as M1 M1/4. Thus,
the pace of biological life slows down with increasing size of the
organism.
Conceptually, the existence of such universal scaling laws
implies, for example, that in terms of almost all biological rates,
times, and internal structure, an elephant is approximately a
blown-up gorilla, which is itself a blown-up mouse, all scaled in
an appropriately nonlinear, predictable way. This concept means
that dynamically and organizationally, all mammals are, on the
average, scaled manifestations of a single idealized mammal,
whose properties are determined as a function of its size.
From this perspective, it is natural to ask whether social
organizations also display universal power law scaling for variables reflecting key structural and dynamical characteristics. In
what sense, if any, are small, medium, and large cities scaled
versions of one another, thereby implying that they are manifestations of the same average idealized city? In this way, urban
scaling laws, to exist, may provide fundamental quantitative
insights and predictability into underlying social processes, responsible for flows of resources, information, and innovation.
Results
Scaling Relations for Urban Indicators. To explore scaling relations
for cities we gathered an extensive body of data, much of it never
before published, across national urban systems, addressing a
wide range of characteristics, including energy consumption,
economic activity, demographics, infrastructure, innovation,
employment, and patterns of human behavior. Although much
data are available for specific cities, scaling analysis requires
coverage of entire urban systems. We have obtained datasets at
this level of detail mostly for the U.S., where typically more data
are available and in more particular cases for European countries
and China.
As we show below, the data assembled and examined here can
be grouped into three categories: material infrastructure, individual human needs, and patterns of social activity. We adopted
a definition of cities that is as much as possible devoid of
arbitrary political or geographic boundaries, as integrated economic and social units, usually referred to as unified labor
markets, comprising urban cores and including all administrative
subdivisions with substantial fractions of their population commuting to work within its boundaries. In the U.S., these definitions correspond to metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs); in the
European Union, larger urban zones (LUZs); and in China,
urban administrative units (UAUs). More detailed definitions of
city boundaries are desirable and an active topic of research in
urban geography (3).
Using population, N(t), as the measure of city size at time t,
power law scaling takes the form
Yt Y0 Nt.
[1]
Y can denote material resources (such as energy or infrastructure) or measures of social activity (such as wealth, patents, and
pollution); Y0 is a normalization constant. The exponent, ,
reflects general dynamic rules at play across the urban system.
Summary results for selected exponents are shown in Table 1,
and typical scaling curves are shown in Fig. 1. These results
indicate that scaling is indeed a pervasive property of urban
organization. We find robust and commensurate scaling exponents across different nations, economic systems, levels of
development, and recent time periods for a wide variety of
indicators. This finding implies that, in terms of these quantities,
Bettencourt et al.
Table 1. Scaling exponents for urban indicators vs. city size
95% CI
Adj-R2
Observations
Countryyear
New patents
Inventors
Private R&D employment
Supercreative employment
R&D establishments
R&D employment
Total wages
Total bank deposits
GDP
GDP
GDP
Total electrical consumption
New AIDS cases
Serious crimes
1.27
1.25
1.34
1.15
1.19
1.26
1.12
1.08
1.15
1.26
1.13
1.07
1.23
1.16
1.25,1.29
1.22,1.27
1.29,1.39
1.11,1.18
1.14,1.22
1.18,1.43
1.09,1.13
1.03,1.11
1.06,1.23
1.09,1.46
1.03,1.23
1.03,1.11
1.18,1.29
[1.11, 1.18]
0.72
0.76
0.92
0.89
0.77
0.93
0.96
0.91
0.96
0.64
0.94
0.88
0.76
0.89
331
331
266
287
287
295
361
267
295
196
37
392
93
287
U.S. 2001
U.S. 2001
U.S. 2002
U.S. 2003
U.S. 1997
China 2002
U.S. 2002
U.S. 1996
China 2002
EU 19992003
Germany 2003
Germany 2002
U.S. 20022003
U.S. 2003
Total housing
Total employment
Household electrical consumption
Household electrical consumption
Household water consumption
1.00
1.01
1.00
1.05
1.01
0.99,1.01
0.99,1.02
0.94,1.06
0.89,1.22
0.89,1.11
0.99
0.98
0.88
0.91
0.96
316
331
377
295
295
U.S. 1990
U.S. 2001
Germany 2002
China 2002
China 2002
Gasoline stations
Gasoline sales
Length of electrical cables
Road surface
0.77
0.79
0.87
0.83
0.74,0.81
0.73,0.80
0.82,0.92
0.74,0.92
0.93
0.94
0.75
0.87
318
318
380
29
U.S. 2001
U.S. 2001
Germany 2002
Germany 2002
cities that are superficially quite different in form and location,

for example, are in fact, on the average, scaled versions of one
another, in a very specific but universal fashion prescribed by the
scaling laws of Table 1.
Despite the ubiquity of approximate power law scaling, there
is no simple analogue to the universal quarter-powers observed
in biology. Nevertheless, Table 1 reveals a taxonomic universality
whereby exponents fall into three categories defined by 1
(linear), 1 (sublinear), and 1 (superlinear), with in each
category clustering around similar values: (i) 1 is usually
associated with individual human needs (job, house, household
water consumption). (ii) 0.8 1 characterizes material
quantities displaying economies of scale associated with infrastructure, analogous to similar quantities in biology. (iii)
1.11.3 1 signifies increasing returns with population size and
is manifested by quantities related to social currencies, such as
information, innovation or wealth, associated with the intrinsically social nature of cities.
The most striking feature of the data is perhaps the many
urban indicators that scale superlinearly ( 1). These indicators
reflect unique social characteristics with no equivalent in biology
and are the quantitative expression that knowledge spillovers
drive growth (25, 26), that such spillovers in turn drive urban
agglomeration (26, 27), and that larger cities are associated with
higher levels of productivity (28, 29). Wages, income, growth
domestic product, bank deposits, as well as rates of invention,
measured by new patents and employment in creative sectors
(21, 22) all scale superlinearly with city size, over different years
and nations with exponents that, although differing in detail, are
statistically consistent. Costs, such as housing, similarly scale
superlinearly, approximately mirroring increases in average
wealth.
One of the most intriguing outcomes of the analysis is that the
value of the exponents in each class clusters around the same
number for a plethora of phenomena that are superficially quite
different and seemingly unrelated, ranging from wages and
patent production to the speed of walking (see below). This
Bettencourt et al.
behavior strongly suggests that there is a universal social dynamic

at play that underlies all these phenomena, inextricably linking
them in an integrated dynamical network, which implies, for
instance, that an increase in productive social opportunities, both
in number and quality, leads to quantifiable changes in individual
behavior across the full complexity of human expression (10
14), including those with negative consequences, such as costs,
crime rates, and disease incidence (19, 42).
For systems exhibiting scaling in rates of resource consumption, characteristic times are predicted to scale as N1, whereas
rates scale as their inverse, N1. Thus, if 1, as in biology, the
pace of life decreases with increasing size, as observed. However,
for processes driven by innovation and wealth creation, 1 as
in urban systems, the situation is reversed: thus, the pace of
urban life is predicted to increase with size (Fig. 2). Anecdotally,
this feature is widely recognized in urban life, pointed out long
ago by Simmel, Wirth, Milgram, and others (1114). Quantitative confirmation is provided by urban crime rates (42), rates of
spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS, and even pedestrian
walking speeds (30), which, when plotted logarithmically, exhibit
power law scaling with an exponent of 0.09 0.02 (R2 0.80;
Fig. 2a), consistent with our prediction.
There are therefore two distinct characteristics of cities revealed by their very different scaling behaviors, resulting from
fundamentally different, and even competing, underlying dynamics (9): material economies of scale, characteristic of infrastructure networks, vs. social interactions, responsible for innovation and wealth creation. The tension between these
characteristics is illustrated by the ambivalent behavior of energy-related variables: whereas household consumption scales
approximately linearly and economies of scale are realized in
electrical cable lengths, total consumption scales superlinearly.
This difference can only be reconciled if the distribution network
is suboptimal, as observed in the scaling of resistive losses, where
1.11 0.06 (R2 0.79). Which, then, of these two dynamics,
efficiency or wealth creation, is the primary determinant of
urbanization, and how does each impact urban growth?
PNAS April 24, 2007 vol. 104 no. 17 7303
SUSTAINABILITY
SCIENCE
Data sources are shown in SI Text. CI, confidence interval; Adj-R2, adjusted R2; GDP, gross domestic product.
Fig. 1. Examples of scaling relationships. (a) Total wages per MSA in 2004 for
the U.S. (blue points) vs. metropolitan population. (b) Supercreative employment per MSA in 2003, for the U.S. (blue points) vs. metropolitan population.
Best-fit scaling relations are shown as solid lines.
Urban Growth Equation. Growth is constrained by the availability
of resources and their rates of consumption. Resources, Y, are

used for both maintenance and growth. If, on average, it requires
a quantity R per unit time to maintain an individual and a
quantity E to add a new one to the population, then this
allocation of resources is expressed as Y RN E (dN/dt),
where dN/dt is the population growth rate. This relation leads to
the general growth equation:
[2]
Its generic structure captures the essential features contributing

to growth. Although additional contributions can be made, they
can be incorporated by a suitable interpretation of the parameters Y0, R, and E [for generalization, see supporting information
(SI) Text]. The solution of Eq. 2 is given by
1
1
[3]
This solution exhibits strikingly different behaviors depending

on whether 1, 1, or 1: When 1, the solution reduces
to an exponential: N(t) N(0)e(Y0 R)t/E (Fig. 3b), whereas for
1 it leads to a sigmoidal growth curve, in which growth ceases
at large times (dN/dt 0), as the population approaches a finite
carrying capacity N (Y0/R)1/(1) (Fig. 3a). This solution is
characteristic of biological systems where the predictions of Eq.
2 are in excellent agreement with data (41). Thus, cities and,
more generally, social organizations that are driven by economies of scale are destined to eventually stop growing (4345).
The character of the solution changes dramatically when growth

is driven by innovation and wealth creation, 1. If N(0)
(R/Y0)1(1), Eq. 2 leads to unbounded growth for N(t) (Fig. 3c).
Growth becomes faster than exponential, eventually leading to an
infinite population in a finite amount of time given by
tc
Y0
R
dNt
Nt
Nt.
dt
E
E
Y0
R
Y0
N10
exp 1 t
Nt
R
R
E
Fig. 2. The pace of urban life increases with city size in contrast to the pace
of biological life, which decreases with organism size. (a) Scaling of walking
speed vs. population for cities around the world. (b) Heart rate vs. the size
(mass) of organisms.
E
R 1
1n 1
N
0
1R
Y0
E
1
.
1R N 10
[4]
This growth behavior has powerful consequences because, in

practice, the resources driving Eq. 2 are ultimately limited so the
singularity is never reached; thus, if conditions remain unchanged, unlimited growth is unsustainable. Left unchecked, this
lack of sustainability triggers a transition to a phase where
N(0) (R/Y0)1/(1), leading to stagnation and ultimate collapse
(Fig. 3d).
To avoid this crisis and subsequent collapse, major qualitative
changes must occur which effectively reset the initial conditions
and parameters of Eq. 3. Thus, to maintain growth, the response
must be innovative to ensure that the predominant dynamic of
the city remains in the wealth and knowledge creation phase
where 1 and N(0) (R/Y0)1/(1). In that case, a new cycle
is initiated, and the city continues to grow following Eq. 2 and
Fig. 3c but with new parameters and initial conditions, Ni(0), the
population at the transition time between adjacent cycles. This
process can be continually repeated leading to multiple cycles,
thereby pushing potential collapse into the future, Fig. 4a.
Unfortunately, however, the solution that innovation and
corresponding wealth creation are stimulated responses to ensure continued growth has further consequences with potentially
Bettencourt et al.
Fig. 3. Regimes of urban growth. Plots of size N vs. time t. (a) Growth driven
by sublinear scaling eventually converges to the carrying capacity N. (b)
Growth driven by linear scaling is exponential. (c) Growth driven by superlinear scaling diverges within a finite time tc (dashed vertical line). (d) Collapse
characterizes superlinear dynamics when resources are scarce.
Discussion
Despite the enormous complexity and diversity of human behavior and extraordinary geographic variability, we have shown
that cities belonging to the same urban system obey pervasive
scaling relations with population size, characterizing rates of
innovation, wealth creation, patterns of consumption and human
behavior as well as properties of urban infrastructure. Most of
these indicators deal with temporal processes associated with the
social dimension of cities as spaces for intense interaction across
the spectrum of human activities. It is remarkable that it is
principally in terms of these rhythms that cities are self-similar
organizations, indicating a universality of human social dynamics, despite enormous variability in urban form. These findings
provide quantitative underpinnings for social theories of urbanism as a way of life (12).
Fig. 4. Successive cycles of superlinear innovation reset the singularity and

postpone instability and subsequent collapse. (a) Schematic representation:
vertical dashed lines indicate the sequence of potential singularities. Eq. 4,
with N 106, predicts tc in decades. (b) The relative population growth rate of
New York City over time reveals periods of accelerated (superexponential)
growth. Successive shorter periods of super exponential growth appear,
separated by brief periods of deceleration. (Inset) tc for each of these periods
vs. population at the onset of the cycle. Observations are well fit by Eq. 4, with
1.09 (green line).
Our primary analytical focus here was concerned with the

consequences of population size on a variety of urban metrics. In
this sense, we have not addressed the issue of location (4951) as
a determinant of form and size of human settlements. We can,
however, shed some light on associated ideas of urban hierarchy and
urban dominance (14, 51): increasing rates of innovation, wealth
creation, crime, and so on, per capita suggest flows of these
quantities from places where they are created faster (sources) to
those where they are produced more slowly (sinks) along an urban
hierarchy of cities dictated, on average, by population size.
A related point deals with limits to urban population growth.
Although population increases are ultimately limited by impacts on
Table 2. Classification of scaling exponents for urban properties and their implications for growth
Scaling exponent
1
1
1
Bettencourt et al.
Driving force
Organization
Growth
Optimization, efficiency
Creation of information, wealth
and resources
Individual maintenance
Biological
Sociological
Sigmoidal: long-term population limit

Boom/collapse: finite-time singularity/unbounded
growth; accelerating growth rates/discontinuities
Exponential
Individual
PNAS April 24, 2007 vol. 104 no. 17 7305
SUSTAINABILITY
SCIENCE
deleterious effects. Eq. 4 predicts that the time between cycles,

ti, necessarily decreases as population grows: ti tc 1/Ni(0)1.
Thus, to sustain continued growth, major innovations or adaptations must arise at an accelerated rate. Not only does the pace
of life increase with city size, but so also must the rate at which
new major adaptations and innovations need to be introduced to
sustain the city. These predicted successive accelerating cycles of
faster than exponential growth are consistent with observations
for the population of cities (Fig. 4b), waves of technological
change (46), and the world population (47, 48).
It is worth noting that the ratio Ei/Ri has a simple interpretation as the time needed for an average individual to reach
productive maturity. Expressing it as Ei/Ri 20 years, where
is of order unity and the population at the beginning of a cycle
as Ni(0) 106 gives tc 50 1 years. For a large city, this
time is typically a few decades, slowly decreasing with increasing
population. Actual cycle times must be shorter than tc.
the natural environment, we have shown that growth driven by

innovation implies, in principle, no limit to the size of a city,
providing a quantitative argument against classical ideas in urban
economics (4345). The tension between economies of scale and
wealth creation, summarized in Table 2, represents a phenomenon
where innovation occurs on time scales that are now shorter than
individual life spans and are predicted to become even shorter as
populations increase and become more connected, in contrast to
biology where the innovation time scales of natural selection greatly
exceed individual life spans. Our analysis suggests uniquely human
social dynamics that transcend biology and redefine metaphors of
urban metabolism. Open-ended wealth and knowledge creation
require the pace of life to increase with organization size and for
individuals and institutions to adapt at a continually accelerating
rate to avoid stagnation or potential crises. These conclusions very
likely generalize to other social organizations, such as corporations
and businesses, potentially explaining why continuous growth necessitates an accelerating treadmill of dynamical cycles of innovation.
The practical implications of these findings highlight the
importance of measuring and understanding the drivers of
economic and population growth in cities across entire urban
systems. Scaling relations predict many of the characteristics that
a city is expected to assume, on average, as it gains or loses
population. The realization that most urban indicators scale with
city size nontrivially, implying increases per capita in crime or
innovation rates and decreases on the demand for certain
infrastructure, is essential to set realistic targets for local policy.
New indices of urban rank according to deviations from the
predictions of scaling laws also provide more accurate measures
of the successes and failures of local factors (including policy) in
shaping specific cities.
In closing, we note that much more remains to be explored in
generalizing the empirical observations made here to other
quantities, especially those connected to environmental impacts,
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as well as to other urban systems and in clarifying the detailed

social organizational structures that give rise to observed scaling
exponents. We believe that the further extension and quantification of urban scaling relations will provide a unique window
into the spontaneous social organization and dynamics that
underlie much of human creativity, prosperity, and resource
demands on the environment. This knowledge will suggest paths
along which social forces can be harnessed to create a future
where open-ended innovation and improvements in human
living standards are compatible with the preservation of the
planets life-support systems.
Materials and Methods
Extensive datasets covering metropolitan infrastructure, individual needs, and social indicators were collected for entire
urban systems from a variety of sources worldwide (e.g., U.S.
Census Bureau, Eurostat Urban Audit, Chinas National Bureau
of Statistics). Details about these sources, web links, acknowledgments, and additional comments are provided in the SI Text.
Fits to data were performed by using ordinary least-squares
with a correction for heteroskedasticity using the Stata software
package. We performed additional tests on the data, fitting their
cumulative distribution and using logarithmic binning to assess
the robustness of the exponents .
We thank David Lane, Sander van der Leeuw, Denise Pumain, Michael
Batty, and Doug White for stimulating discussions and Deborah Strumsky, Shannon Larsen, Richard Florida, and Kevin Stolarick for help with
data. This research was begun under the auspices of the ISCOM
(Information Society as a Complex System) project, Grant IST-200135505 from the European Union (to G.B.W.) and was partially supported
by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program (Los
Alamos National Laboratory) Grants 20030050DR (to G.B.W.) and
20050411ER (to L.M.A.B.), National Science Foundation Grant phy0202180 (to G.B.W.), and by the Thaw Charitable Trust (G.B.W.).
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Bettencourt et al.
Chapter 18
norms, and so individual service points sweep larger areas of clients.

Increased average speed supports larger agglomerations (e.g., large
retail shopping malls) and so gains economies of scale. Higher speeds
can give greater separation between incompatible land uses without
breaking scheduling norms.
As a consequence of land-use adjustments, high-speed cities have
longer average journey lengths, but this means their growth dynamics can relax to lower densities with greater local accumulation. An
hour or so traveling time represents the effective limit to the radius
of commercial activity of an urban settlement. The resulting dependency of transport-energy use on urban density is roughly linear when
plotted against the mean interpersonal distance interpreted from twodimensional urban density (Kenworthy and Newman, 1990), as might
be expected from a largely traveler-interaction effect. Since the total
start-to-finish journey time is the key determinant of location there are
densities below which only individual motorized transport can provide
a plausible service. By the same token, as urban density increases the
interaction between travelers becomes increasingly significant and
energy use ceases to fall as energy is wasted in congestion and traffic
queues. Very high density centers offer little advantage to transportation because congestion is so severe (especially true in cities in which
both the mass transit and private transit systems become embroiled in
the same gridlock). Urban areas in this state tend to spill outwards and
create a self-organizing critical density consistent with the underlying
social norms.
18.2.2.5
Economic Complexity
The new insights of complex system econophysics complement rather

than displace traditional urban economics. The timescales and spatial statistics employed tend to be different. Ecophysics focuses on changes over
long timescales and wide spatial averages, while traditional models the
short-term dynamics that manage the scarcity and surplus of individual
space. The overlap is the understanding of the dynamics of rents, both in
the form of local taxation and ground rents. These influence income distribution and the dynamics of investments and also change the economics of urban- versus rural-based activities (Irwin et al., 2009). Differences
between urban settlement dynamics in different societies may also reflect
institutional differences (e.g., as reviewed by Diamond, 2004).
18.2.2.6
Future Dynamics
The energy demand and energy mix of urban settlements normally follows rather than leads urban expansion (Seto and Shepherd, 2009).
However, the historical generalities of urban growth hide the continual
adoption and invention within the settlements themselves. Even new
transport technologies that made such a fundamental contribution to
urban form usually arose from solving a problem caused by an existing
technology. So projecting the urban future on the basis of past trends is
Urban Energy Systems
dangerous if attention is not paid to changes in detailed mechanisms.

Indeed, some signs indicate that this new urbanized century might be
different in character from the urban-rural mix that preceded it.
For example, the simplicity of Zipfs law is now retained for the worlds
largest cities only if the associated metropolitan region is treated with
the city as one (see Figure 18.4 above). If airline connectivity is a new
paradigm of interurban transport, the connectivity of the largest cities appears not to have caught up with expectations from a natural
extension of the power law to describe airline connectivity of smaller
towns (Guimer et al., 2005). Indeed, scaling arguments (Khnert et al.,
2006) suggest that the frequency with which settlements need to find
paradigm-shifting innovations must increase as they grow. Since breakthroughs are, by definition, unforeseeable there is a future scenario in
which the growth of the worlds largest metropolitan areas falters.
Urbanization forms part of the demographic transition and is expected
to deliver a stabilization and then decline in world population around
the middle of this century. As a consequence urban settlements may
face retractions in some unspecified form. How built form relaxes to
new configurations poses a fascinating question to a new understanding of urban structure.
18.2.3
Specifics of Urban Energy Systems
In principle, urban systems are not fundamentally different from other

energy systems in that they need both to satisfy a suite of energy-service demands and to mobilize a portfolio of technological options and
resources. However, urban systems also have distinguishing characteristic
that sets them apart:
A high density of population, activities, and the resulting energy use
and pollution (see Section 18.4.2 for a more detailed discussion).
A high degree of openness in terms of exchanges of flows of information, people, and resources, including energy.
A high concentration of economic and human capital resources that
can be mobilized to institute innovation and transitional change.
Urban areas are characterized by high spatial densities of energy use,
which correspond to their high population concentrations, and by low
levels of energy harnessed and extracted: cities are loci of resource management, processing, trade, and use, rather than of resource extraction
or energy generation. All settlements depend on a hinterland of agriculture, forestry, mining, and drilling; in the present fossil-fuel economy,
this hinterland has a global reach. Indeed, the same may be true of many
rural areas, which, in developed countries, often focus on a few crops.
These specialized rural areas also require imports of energy, goods, and
services, which often may be on the same scale, per capita, as those
of urban areas. Indeed, spatial division of labor is a characteristic of
1325
modern societies, with consequences for local energy use and policies.
In industrialized countries both urban and rural areas depend heavily
on energy-intensive industry, which may be located in or outside cities.
If heavy industry is located outside urban areas, urban energy use may
apparently be lower than rural energy needs, even though urban dwellers also consume the products from industrial activities.
High levels of energy demand open possibilities to reap significant
economies-of-scale effects in energy systems, in supply as well as in
transport and distribution. (It is not a coincidence that, historically,
many major, large hydropower resources were developed to supply electricity to large urban agglomerations, from Niagara Falls in the Unites
States to Iguacu (Itaipu) in Brazil.) Simultaneous to cities being loci of a
wide diversity of activities, significant economies of scope are possible.
The wide range of different energy applications from high-temperature
industrial processes down to low-temperature residential home heating,
and even to the energy provision of greenhouses, allows the maximization of energy efficiency through better source-sink matching of energy
flows in the system, be it through conventional cogeneration schemes
or through more complex waste-heat cascading. These can, however,
only be realized if diverse energy uses in a city are sufficiently mixed
and co-located to allow these concepts of industrial ecology to be the
implemented. On the negative side of density, typical urban agglomeration externalities are important: low transport efficiencies through
congestion and high pollution densities add urgency to environmental
improvement measures. Retrofitting a high-density built environment
can also incur many transaction costs that would not apply in low-density developments. However, it is no coincidence that cities have always
been the first innovation centers for environmental improvements (Tarr,
2001; 2005).
The latter perspective is perhaps the most fundamental for the transformation of energy systems. Urban agglomerations are the major centers and hubs for technological and social innovation (Khnert et al.,
2006), as they both dispose of and mobilize formidable resources in
terms of human, innovation, and financial capital. Bringing these transformations to fruition may ultimately be of greater long-term environmental significance than any short-term environmental policies. So,
energy and environmental policies in an urban context may have substantial leverage in inducing further much-needed innovation in the
core, where such activities take place.
18.2.4
City Walls and Urban Hinterlands:

The Importance of System Boundaries
18.2.4.1
Introduction
Measuring the energy use of cities is no easy task, compounded by the

absence of widely agreed measurement concepts and data-reporting
formats. And yet for reasons of scientific enquiry, policy guidance, and
political negotiation the important issue of attribution needs to be
1326
Chapter 18
addressed. The seemingly easy question of How large is the energy use
(or associated GHG emissions) of a city and what can be done to reduce
it? can vary enormously as a function of alternative geographic and
system boundaries chosen. Therefore, this section reviews the different
issues that must be addressed in urban energy assessments and aims
to clarify the various concepts and definitions and help make their differences more transparent. In a modification of an old adage that only
what gets measured gets controlled, this chapter postulates that only
what is measured correctly and transparently at an urban scale is useful
for policy guidance.
As a simple example of the importance of boundaries in urban energy
assessments consider the issue of the administrative/territorial boundary chosen for defining a given city. Barles (2009) studied the fossil-fuel
use of Paris, its suburbs, and the larger Parisian metropolitan region. The
per capita fossil-fuel use was lowest in the city of Paris, and increased
as the region considered expanded. This phenomenon is caused by a
combination of inherent and apparent factors: the inherent factor is
the lower transportation energy required by areas of higher population
density (in central Paris with its formidable Metro system, compared to
its suburbs); the apparent effect is the changing of the system boundary
to encompass more energy-intensive industrial activities located beyond
the city center.
Generally, urban-energy assessments must be oriented either to physical, and hence local, energy flows (a territorial or production perspective) or, if trade effects are included, follow economic exchanges
linked to energy use (a consumption perspective). The joint consideration of the production and consumption perspectives is most likely
to yield a full assessment of urban energy,7 albeit to date the literature and data base for such a comprehensive perspectives is extremely
limited.
In assessing a variety of local and upstream contributions to the urban
metabolism, it is sometimes tempting to aggregate the disparate elements into one indicator. For instance, the ecological footprint (see Rees
and Wackernagel, 1996) is increasingly used to describe the impact
of urban resource use (e.g., in London, Barcelona, and Vancouver).
The ecological footprint of an urban area is invariably larger than the
surface area of the city itself, which leads to the facile (but erroneous) conclusion that the city is unsustainable. Cities are part of an
exchange process, whereby they produce manufactured goods and
services while depending on a hinterland for their supplies and the
existence of this hinterland cannot of itself be unsustainable. Better
indicators are the relative magnitude of resource use and emissions
(per capita, household, or income), compared to rural or other urban
populations, or environmental limits, like carbon accumulation in
the atmosphere. Since the ecological footprint is, in any case, driven
The terms direct and indirect energy are avoided here, since they have a different
meanings in each of the approaches considered. Instead, the terms nal, primary,
upstream, and embodied energy are used here.
Chapter 18
Table 18.4 | Overview of urban energy-accounting frameworks.

Approaches
Data basis
Definition of energy
users
Position along
energy chain
Final energy
Physical
Final user (energetic)
Final
Not included, can be added using typical

conversion efciencies between primary
to nal energy for different energy
carriers
Territorial Example: Regional

energy statistics, Baynes and Bai,
2009
Regional energy
metabolism
Physical
Region
Combination of nal,
secondary and primary
Not included, but can be added using

typical conversion efciencies
Territorial example: Schulz, 2007
Regional economic
activity
Economic
(physical
extensions)
Final demand (economic)
Total Primary Energy

Supply
Includes upstream & embodied energy

of goods and services, no sectoral
differentiation
Territorial Example: Dhakal, 2009
Energy
Input-Output
Economic
(physical
extensions)
Final demand (economic)
Total Primary Energy

Supply
Includes upstream & embodied energy

of goods and services, no sectoral
differentiation
Consumption Examples: Weisz

et al., 2012; Wiedenhofer et al.,
2011
by fossil-fuel carbon emissions, studying urban energy use directly

appears to be a more constructive approach.
18.2.4.2
Energy Accounting Methods
Table 18.4 classifies the various methods used to estimate urban energy
use. This classification utilizes two main criteria: the basis of the data
and the definition of energy users. The first two methods are based on
physical flows, and as such produce territorial or production oriented
energy balances; the other two focus on economic flows, and are consumption oriented. The economic-based models (regional economic
activity and economic I-O (input-output) approaches) are further distinguished by the level of sectorial detail.
The final energy method uses physical data, such as energy statistics
from utilities or fuel sales, as the data basis. Users are defined as energetic end users within the city boundaries. Energetic end users are the
consumers of final energy (such as electricity, heat, gasoline, or heating fuels). It is important that both producers and consumers (i.e., firms
and households) use final energy. By disaggregating the final energy
use by sector, one can differentiate between residential, commercial,
and industrial uses. These sectorial accounts of urban final energy use
also allow comparisons with national level data or data of other cities
and can serve as a useful guide, e.g., for energy-efficiency benchmarking that can guide policy.
The direct final energy account can further be extended by estimating the upstream energy requirements needed to provide the final
energy, using e.g., lifecycle analysis. The upstream energy is the primary or secondary energy use linked to the final energy utilized by
the end users within a city. Depending on the estimation method,
the upstream energy may or may not include the energy required to
extract and transport the primary energy itself. For clarity, it is crucial
to specify which type of upstream energy is considered: secondary, primary, or primary, including energy for extraction activities themselves.
Upstream or embodied energy
Territorial/Production or
Consumption approach
To avoid confusion with other terms used for upstream energy, this
section reserves the term upstream for energy-linked direct energy
flows (mobilized outside the geographic city boundary, but linked to
a citys final energy use), and the term embodied for goods and services linked to indirect energy flows (i.e., energy embodied in resources,
materials, and goods traded).
Final and upstream energy uses are not the total primary energy required
by urban activities, since they do not include the energy needed to produce goods and services imported into the city. Conversely, the final and
upstream energy uses of a city also include energy uses to manufacture
goods and provision of services exported from the city (and consumed
in other cities or in rural areas). Care therefore needs to be taken to
avoid double counting of energy flows, for example by adding imported
embodied energy flows to the final and upstream energy uses of a city,
but ignoring the (final and upstream) energy embodied in goods and
services produced in a city, but exported for consumption elsewhere.
This double counting is averted in I-O methods but can be a problem
in approaches that rely on lifecycle analysis (Ramaswami et al., 2008;
Hillman and Ramaswami, 2010).
The difference between the final and upstream energy use can be considerable. Take the example of electricity: typically, for 1 GJ of electricity
consumed in a city, up to 3 GJ of primary energy in the form of coal
must be burned in a conventional steam power plant. (This ratio is substantially lower for combined-cycle power plants fired by natural gas,
which illustrates the need to consider the actual urban energy system
characteristics rather than aggregate upstream adjustment factors.)
Heating fuels, such as gas and fuel oil, also have upstream energy use
through their extraction and transport. According to Kennedy et al.
(2009), who applied this method to the GHG emissions of 10 global
cities, the lifecycle GHG emissions associated with urban fuel use are
between 9% and 25% higher than their local emissions. This approach
is also that followed by the Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool of the
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI, 2009),
although since the software is proprietary (and not transparent),
1327
Chapter 18
Table 18.5 | Energy and material ows of selected cities showing the importance of energy ows in the total metabolism of cities.*
City
Reference
Population (millions)
Year
Cape Town
Geneva
Hong Kong
Paris Petite Couronne
Singapore
Gasson (2007)
Faist (2003)
Newcombe et al.
(1978)
Barles (2009)
Schulz (2005)
0.4
3.9
6.3
4.1
2000
2000
1971
2003
20002003
Energy (GJ/cap/year)
Primary
40
Regional (city)
22
92
72
258
43
103
Domestic material consumption (tonnes/cap/year)

Total
7.7
4.6
29.7
Fossils
1.8
2.1
5.2
Biomass
1.0
0.3
Construction minerals
4.8
22.5
Industrial minerals and ores
0.1
1.71
Water
110
151
100
112
* Domestic material consumption = domestic extraction + imports exports, which in the urban case is dominated by imports.
1 includes other products
geographically limited, and often applied only to municipal energy use,

it is not clear how reliable or significant the results are.
The Regional Energy Metabolism method also uses physical data, but
defines the user as a geographic region (in this case, boundary of the
urban area): thus, all energy flows that cross the regional boundary are
measured. This method is based on a socio-metabolic understanding of
the city, including energy, materials, water, important waste flows, infrastructure stocks, and other relevant physical attributes of a city. Indeed,
a complete urban metabolism would include other energy flows, such as
the calorific value of physical goods entering and leaving the city and biomass for human (and animal) nutrition, which are not included in other
approaches. This method includes all the energy that is imported into
the city, regardless of its conversion stage. In contrast to the final energy
method, the primary energy used by the energy sector within the city is
included in the regional energy metabolism. Thus, the location of a power
plant inside or outside a citys boundaries has a large influence on the
measurement of its energy use in this method. As a result, the regional
energy metabolism of a city is always larger than its final energy. The mixture of primary and final energy, however, makes it difficult to compare
this methods results with national level data and those of other cities.
So far, the urban metabolism approach has been applied to material flows
rather than energy flows for Cape Town (Gasson, 2007), Geneva (Faist et
al., 2003), Hong Kong (Newcombe et al., 1978), Paris (Barles, 2009), and
Singapore (Schulz, 2006; 2010b; see also Chapter 1). Table 18.5 summarizes some findings from urban metabolism studies. Energy is extremely
important in the urban metabolism: energy carriers represent a significant
share (a quarter to a half) of domestic material consumption. Moreover,
other materials consumed (biomass, construction and industrial minerals,
and ores) also represent important flows of embodied energy.
1328
The Regional Economic Activity approach uses the urban final

demand aggregate (defined in economic (monetary) terms, that is as
gross regional product (GRP)) and a national or regional energy-toGDP relationship to estimate the city-specific energy use. This method
was used by Dhakal (2009) for major Chinese urban areas (see Section
18.5.2), and is the only possible approach when no city-specific energy
data are available. However, the limitation of this method is that it
ignores all city-specific drivers of urban energy use except income. The
national or regional energy-to-GDP ratio usually uses total primary
energy supply as the energy variable. This method is thus fully comparable with statistics on the national level.
Energy I-O accounting approaches are based on national economic I-O
tables, which measure (usually in monetary terms) all sales and purchases of goods and services among the producing sectors and to final
demand. These tables can be extended to account for physical energy
flows or emissions. Based on I-O tables, the embodied energy (i.e., the
energy used throughout the whole production chain to produce the
final goods and services) can be calculated. This approach allows allocation of energy use to specific sectors of economic activity. Using consumer-expenditure surveys for urban areas, I-O studies have assessed
the energy use of Indian urban and rural populations (Pachauri et al.,
2004; Pachauri, 2007), Brazilian urban households (Cohen et al., 2005),
Sydneys energy use (Lenzen et al., 2004), as well as for postal district
resolution maps of Australia (Dey et al., 2007). Illustrative results on
direct versus embodied energy use in Asian megacities based on I-O
analyses are given in Figure 18.5.
First, it is important to recognize how embodied energy flows compare
with direct energy flows, particularly for high-income cities such as
Tokyo. Second, the dynamics of energy flows are characterized by the
Chapter 18
4.0
Embodied
3.5
Direct
Energy Use (EJ)
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Tokyo (1990)
Tokyo (1995)
Beijing (1992)
Beijing (1997)
Shanghai
(1992)
Shanghai
(1997)
Figure 18.5 | Estimates of direct (on-site) versus embodied (via imports of embodied
energy in goods and services) energy use of Asian megacities. Source: Dhakal, 2004,
based on Keneko et al., 2003.
growth of direct energy flows (income growth leading to buildings and

transport energy demand growth), whereas embodied energy growth
remains comparatively flat. In these examples the income effect on direct energy use is larger than changes in trade flows into the city over the
limited time period considered in the studies.
I-O avoids the thorny issue of double counting, as only the final
demand (i.e., household consumption and that of government, even
though this is rarely reported) serves as the allocation unit of all direct
(including upstream) and indirect energy flows, whereas industrial and
service-sector energy uses are treated as intermediary uses, allocated
to final consumption (in a city and elsewhere) based on expenditure
levels and structure. Hence, this approach is often referred to as a consumption approach, as opposed to the production approach that
focuses on apparent energy use. The I-O based consumption approach
can thus differentiate between cities with different incomes and final
consumption patterns, but cannot capture differences in industrial
and service energy use, not to mention differences in energy systems
(e.g., degree of cogeneration) between different cities. The issue of the
representativeness of national I-O tables for cities with different consumption structures, even within identical expenditure categories, and
with different (usually higher) price levels has not been addressed by
systematic studies. National I-O analyses do not provide information
on embodied energy flows in commodities and goods traded internationally, which requires the use of multiregional I-O models, whose
data quality is often weak. Studies performed for Norway (Peters et al.,
2004), the United Kingdom (Wiedmann et al., 2007), and the United
States (Weber and Matthews, 2008) show that a significant fraction of
energy use can be attributed to imports, especially in industrial economies (Peters and Hertwich, 2008). The application of the I-O method
to developing countries is, however, not straightforward, since the
large informal sector is absent from the official I-O tables, which themselves exist in up-to-date versions only for a few developing countries.
It has also been shown that uncertainties are very large for the GTAP
(Global Trade Analysis Project) database used in multiregional I-O models (Weber and Matthews, 2008).
From the I-O studies, the largest categories in urban household energy
use are housing, electricity, transportation, and food. Of these, food and
electricity have the largest upstream and embodied energy content.
Thermal electricity generation involves heat losses up to two-thirds during transformation, plus transmission and distribution losses. Food has
both nutritional and embodied energy components: a diet of 3000 kcal/
day corresponds to 4.5 GJ/year in nutritional energy per person. The
commercial primary energy required to produce food ranges from 2.5 to
4.0 GJ/capita for Indian urban households and from 6 to 30 GJ/household for Brazilian urban households (where the ranges correspond to
low and high income brackets) to around 40 GJ/capita for European
households (Vringer and Blok, 1995; Pachauri, 2004; Cohen et al., 2005).
The majority of the energy embodied in food production is consumed
outside city boundaries.
Comparison of energy-accounting frameworks
To compare and contrast the results from different accounting
approaches Chapter 18 initiated a collaboration among various
research teams to provide a quantitative illustration, applying two different methodologies (final energy and energy I-O) for two different cities: London and Melbourne. Recent (partial) results for Beijing
are also included for comparison. These two approaches are often
contrasted at the national level for energy or GHG, where they are
generally known as production8 or territorial (for the final energy
method), and consumption (for the energy I-O method) (see, for
instance, Peters, 2008).
For the Melbourne study, Manfred Lenzen and his group at the University
of Sydney used environmentally extended I-O methods coupled with
household expenditure surveys to map direct and embodied GHG emissions of household consumption (Dey et al., 2007). This method was
adapted to provide results in terms of primary energy use for the city of
Melbourne (Australia). Baynes and Bai (2009) scaled state data down to
the urban level, focusing on the (direct) final energy use of Melbourne
city. The London study compares final energy use from official statistics (UKDECC, 2010) and results from a multiregional, environmentally
extended I-O analysis with explicit representation of the household consumption vectors for the Greater London Authority. The yet unpublished
study is based on a method of Minx et al., (2009) and was carried out
by the Technical University of Berlin, the Potsdam Institute for Climate
Impact Research, and the Stockholm Environment Institute.9 The Beijing
study (Arvesen et al., 2010) only considered household energy use (and
hence misses the large industrial and service sector energy use) and
combined both the final energy method (with additional approximate
fuel-specific estimates of upstream conversion energy needs) with an
I-O approach.
The term production accounting as applied to household energy use is somewhat

misleading, but to not introduce further terminological complexity, the term (well
established in the national scale literature) is retained here.
Weisz et al., 2012.
1329
Chapter 18
Table 18.6 | Primary energy use for two different energy-accounting approaches for three cities for which (partial) data are available: Melbourne, London, and Beijing. All
values are expressed in GJ/capita (permanent) resident population. Dashes (-) indicate categories of energy use that cannot be compared directly between the two different
accounting methods.
Primary energy
GJ/capita for:
Melbourne 2001
Greater London 2004
Beijing 2007 Household energy only
Pop.: 3.2 million
Pop.: 7.6 million
Pop.: 12.1 million
Prod. acc.
Cons. acc.
Prod. acc.
Cons. acc.
Prod. acc.
Cons. acc.
Residential heating
22
12
28
Residential electricity
28
30
17
Residential housing (heating + electricity)
50
42
45
35
18
11
3341
27
10
197
56
n.a.
116
108
34
279288
184
111
143
25
52
Private cars
Nonresidential use
Household consumption of goods and services
Total
Pop = population; Prod. acc. = production accounting; Cons. acc. = consumption accounting; n.a. = not available.
The results are summarized in Table 18.6. To enable comparison, the

position along the energy chain has to be the same, so the primary
energy equivalent of final energy is estimated where detailed statistics are unavailable (using standard conversion efficiency factors from
Kennedy et al., 2010). To correct for different sizes of the cities, all values
are expressed in GJ/capita.
The two methods cover different types of energy flows, some of which
can be compared, and others cannot (denoted by dashes in Table 18.6).
Energy I-O (consumption accounting) focuses on the energy use of
households within the city boundary, directly and embodied in the purchase of goods and services. A direct comparison with the territorial
final energy (production accounting) method is only possible, therefore, for the energy directly purchased by households: for residential
housing (heating and electricity) and (in the case of Melbourne and
Beijing) private transportation. The final energy method also measures
urban nonresidential energy (for industry and commercial activities, as
well a non-private transportation), which the energy I-O method does
not cover. Conversely, the energy embodied in the household purchase
of goods and services is not covered by final energy method.
The most interesting result lies in the (first ever) quantification of the
differences between the two different accounting methods. As expected,
the consumption-based accounting method yields much higher energy
use for London (+30%)10 and Beijing (+100%). Conversely, Melbournes
territorial energy use is significantly higher than the energy used directly
10 CO2 accounts for London (Hersey et al., 2009) suggest that the differences between
the two accounting methods could be 100% (some 45 versus 90 million tonnes CO2
for the production versus the consumption accounting, respectively), a difference
that appears very large in view of the results form the energy comparison reported
here. I-O techniques are used here (Table 18.3.6) whereas the London CO2 study
used a lifecycle assessment approach to estimate consumption based CO2 emissions
(but the method and data have not been published), so there might be an additional
methodological explanation for the large differences in estimates of the energy and
CO2 consumption-accounting footprint of London.
1330
and indirectly by its households. This is not because the Melbourne

households consume less energy: in fact, in total, they consume almost
one-third more than the London households, mainly through private
transportation (cars). Instead, it is because Melbournes nonresidential
energy use is almost quadruple that of Londons, on a per capita basis.
Melbourne is still a major industrial production center, and this industrial
activity results in more energy per capita than that of household consumption. London, in contrast, has very little industrial activity, with services dominating its economic activities, and so household consumption is
larger than the territorial production-account energy use. The importance
of industrial energy use is also illustrated in the case of Beijing. Total secondary energy use (all sectors) in Beijing in 2007 was some 145 GJ/capita
(Beijing Government, 2010), i.e., three times larger than the total direct
plus embodied estimated household energy use reported in Table 18.6.
Taking upstream energy conversion losses into account, the primary
energy use (the energy level directly comparable to the other cities in
Table 18.6) of Beijing is approximately 200 GJ/capita, i.e., in the same
ballpark as Melbourne or London (production accounting). The major
difference is that average per capita income in Beijing is with 10,000
purchasing power parity dollars (PPP$) per capita, approximately a factor four lower than that of Melbourne and a factor of six lower than
Londons, suggesting the twin importance of economic structure and
efficiency of energy end-use as determinants of urban energy-use levels,
with the latter offering a substantial potential for improvement.
The above results confirm that production accounting of energy reflects
the economic structure of urban areas, and their role in the international
division of labor, whereas consumption accounting energy reflects
a mixture of local conditions (climate and transit infrastructure) and
expenditure levels (income and lifestyle effects). This exercise also demonstrates the power of applying and comparing different methods at the
urban level. By showcasing the differences in production and consumption accounting of energy, the potential role of local policy measures
(e.g., transport) versus broader consumption measures (consumption
Chapter 18
Figure 18.6 | Total GHG emissions from Toronto (tonnes CO2-equivalent/capita/year). High-resolution images as well as maps for various energy-demand subcategories (residential, transport, etc.) are available from VandeWeghe and Kennedy, 2007.
reduction, or low energy/emissions supply chain management) can be

made explicit.
The comparison of the two methods indicates two policy avenues.
Local policy priorities should focus on housing, transit, and industrial
energy savings. But these must imperatively be complemented by
shifts and reductions in the energy embodied in household purchases
of goods and services to avoid that savings at the regional level are
offset by increased energy demand from the consumption of goods
and services, which occurs somewhere else in the world. Such a policy
agenda clearly goes beyond the local level and needs to be addressed
on multiple scales.
18.2.4.3
Spatially Explicit Urban Energy Accounts
Spatially explicit energy-use studies may be the key to understanding the influence of urban form and periurban and urban specificities.
For Sydney, Lenzen et al. (2004) disaggregated total primary energy
use in 14 areas, and followed this up with a GHG emissions atlas of
Australia at the postal district level (Dey et al., 2007). For Toronto,
VandeWeghe and Kennedy (2007) derived spatially explicit directenergy use based on transportation and energy-expenditure surveys
(see Figure 18.6). Andrews (2008) analyzed direct energy use of several districts in New Jersey, ranging from rural to urban. A comprehensive spatial GHG account, including discussions of uncertainties, was
1331
recently completed for the city of Lviv, Ukraine. An innovative study

used the Vulcan emissions atlas to compare transportation and building emissions in urban, periurban, and rural counties of the United
States (Parshall et al., 2010).
The Sydney and Toronto studies found higher energy and emissions in the
outer, low-density suburbs. The US study also found a threshold effect in
per capita urban transportation energy compared to more rural counties.
In Sydney and Toronto, building fuel use was higher in the center city. The
causes for higher building energy in the center city could be the age and
quality of the housing stock, the presence of an energy-intensive central
business district, and higher incomes in those areas. In the Sydney study,
where economic information is available, building energy use is highly correlated with income, but less correlated with population density. In Sydney,
central districts tended to have higher incomes than the outer suburbs, a
trend absent in the New Jersey study. Since these studies are of industrialized countries and automobile-based urban areas of North America and
Australia, their results may not apply to urban areas more generally.
18.2.4.4
Recommendations for Urban Energy Assessments
The indeterminacy in defining urban energy should not be misinterpreted

as a flaw in the urban systems perspective. It reflects that the data are
approaching the actual final-decision level at which the purpose of the decision, to some degree, can resolve many of the statistical and data ambiguities. For example, administrative boundaries and a production perspective
are appropriate system boundaries if the decisions are to be undertaken by
local administrations. Final energy-use data remain an essential and useful
tool for analysis of energy efficiency and for crafting policies for improved
efficiency. Conversely, a consumption perspective on urban energy and
GHG use helps to raise awareness that, ultimately, urban energy and GHG
management cannot be relegated to an energy optimization task, but
equally involve changing lifestyles and consumption patterns.
As urban energy statistics have a vital role in allowing agents to benchmark, it is essential to be sure that the methods are comparable and
that gaming is not taking place. Each of the methods described above
can produce results that allow benchmarking and comparisons, as
long as the method and data sources are described clearly, and consistent data, sectorial definitions, and system boundaries are applied
and spelled out clearly. The method should also be as transparent and
as open as possible, to guarantee reproducibility and fact checking.
Moreover, examples of energy assessments that only account for some
sectors are not measurements of urban energy. The sectorial distribution of energy use (residential, commercial, industrial, administrative) as
well as purpose (transportation, heating) are essential complementary
elements for informed analysis and decision making and should be an
integral part of urban energy reporting.
Urban energy and GHG statistics should provide a basis for policy
formulation, investment decisions, and further action toward climate
1332
Chapter 18
protection. Therefore, it is essential that their origin and data quality is

made transparent and methodologies are comparable. Suggestions to
improve terminology are provided in this chapter. It is far too common
to read the energy use of this city is X Joules, without any qualification what type of energy (final or primary, including upstream or
embodied energy) is referred to. There is also a rich field in enhancing the usefulness of urban energy accounts by expanded information on energy quality (e.g., separating heat demand by low, medium,
and high temperature regimes), which can form the basis of extended
energy efficiency studies, for example in the form of exergy analysis
(see Box 18.6).
City energy assessments should also include clear definitions of the
system boundary used. Currently, many urban energy assessments, in
effect, arbitrarily choose the system boundary to reduce the reported
energy use or GHG emissions, for instance by claiming their electricity comes from different sources than the average regional mix, or
by excluding certain energy uses that are, nonetheless, central to the
very functioning of cities, such as airports or a large tourist population.
Arbitrary, or ill-defined, system boundaries defy the very purpose of
urban energy assessments: to guide public and private sector policies
and decisions and to allow comparability and credibility of the entire
process.
18.3
Urban Energy Use
18.3.1
Current Urban Energy Use (Global and Regional)
How large is the urban fraction of global energy use? This seemingly
simple question is hard to answer as, contrary to the data for countries, no comprehensive statistical compilation of urban energy use
data exists. With 50% of the world population being urban, a range of
(largely ballpark) estimates put the urban energy share between twothirds to three-quarters of global energy use, but such global estimates
have, until recently, not been supported by more detailed assessments.
This Section reviews the two detailed assessments of urban energy use
available to date: the estimate of the IEA published in its 2008 World
Energy Outlook (IEA, 2008) as well as an estimate developed by a team
of researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA) for this study.
In the absence of detailed, comprehensive urban energy-use statistics, two analytical approaches were pursued to derive global (and
regional) urban energy use estimates. One technique, which might be
labeled upscaling, uses a limited number of national or regional estimates of urban energy use and then extrapolates these results to the
global level. This is the approach followed by the IEA (2008) study that
estimated (direct) urban energy use at the primary energy level. The
second approach adopts downscaling techniques in which national
level statistics are downscaled to the grid-cell level, and then combined with geographic information system (GIS)-based data sets on
Chapter 18
falling total (including noncommercial) energy intensities with rising

incomes (see Nakicenovic et al., 1998) as evident in the cities of Africa
and Latin America in Figure 18.10.
18.4
The Urban Energy Challenges
The urban energy challenges are embedded within overall social, economic, and environmental development challenges and their numerous interdependencies and linkages. This energy assessment focuses
on the interdependencies that bear directly on urban energy. The linkages between development and energy are most straightforward in the
area of the literature on energy poverty, energy access, and adequate
housing and transport access for the urban poor. Hence the discussion
begins with a discussion of energy access and poverty within an urban
context (Section 18.4.1). The discussion then moves on to the nexus of
urban energy use and urban environmental quality and the challenges
imposed by the high densities of energy demand and the corresponding need for efficient and low-emission energy systems (Section 18.4.2).
Lastly, Section 18.4.3 discusses the challenges for urban energy infrastructures, including reliability and security.
Other urban development challenges with more indirect implications
on energy, such as urban transport, land-use, and density planning, are
discussed Section 18.5.
18.4.1
Energy Access and Housing for the

Urban Poor
18.4.1.1
Introduction
In the development literature, energy is not generally recognized as

one of the basic needs (Pachauri et al., 2004), although it is in discussions of poverty in high-income nations (where it is referred to as
energy poverty, see Boardman, 1993; Buzar, 2006). One reason for
this absence is that one of the main indicators of energy poverty in
high-income nations is the substantial proportion of household income
spent on fuels and electricity (typically more than 10%). However, this
is not an appropriate measure for much of the urban population in
low-income and some middle-income nations because their incomes
are so low in relation to the costs of food and necessities other than
food that their energy use is very low. This is both in the energy used
within their homes (lighting, cooking, and, where relevant, space heating and appliances), in the energy implications of the transport modes
they use, and, for those who are self-employed, in the energy used in
their livelihoods. Thus, the main indicator for their energy poverty is in
the inadequacies of the energy they can afford and in the poor quality
of the energy sources they use (Boardman, 1993; Buzar, 2006) which
in this assessment is referred to as energy access. Such individuals
or households also have so few consumer goods that their individual
embodied energy is also low.
Thus, for nations with a proportion of fuel use from noncommercial

fuels and where low-income urban households keep energy expenditures down by using dirty fuels (including wastes) or cutting fuel use,
the proportion of income spent on energy is not a good indicator of
poverty. In addition, an analysis of poverty in relation to energy should
also consider the time and effort used to obtain needed fuels, the health
implications (including those that arise from indoor air pollution and
the risks of fire and burns), and the quality and convenience of the fuels
used to meet daily needs (i.e., in space heating or cooling, and for hot
water). Pachauri et al. (2004) suggest that, ideally, the analysis of the
adequacy of energy should include primary energy use, end-use energy
(especially electricity), useful energy (e.g., whether the primary or enduse energy delivers the energy needed), and the quality and adequacy
of energy services for households (including transport). However, data
are often only available for the first two of these. Moving out of poverty
involves shifts away from the dirtier and less convenient fuels17 and
obtaining access to electricity, as well as keeping down total monetary
expenditures on energy.18
Thus, the two most common implications of poverty in regard to energy
use among urban populations in low- and most middle-income nations
are, first, use of the cheapest fuels and energy-using equipment (including stoves, which bring disadvantages, especially in regard to indoor air
pollution, inefficient fuel combustion, and convenience) and, second, no
access to electricity. Low-income households may also limit the number
of meals (in extreme circumstances to one a day) to save money both
on food and cooking fuel. Poverty is also evident in the lack of space
heating within cold climates or seasons although this is difficult to
measure as expenditure surveys cannot identify what consumers forgo.
Owners of home-based enterprises often make significant energy purchases. Urban poor households often face much higher risks of burns
and scalds for household members (especially children) and of accidental fires, underpinned by a combination of extreme overcrowding
(often three or more people to each room), unsafe fires or stoves, the
absence of electricity for lighting (candles and kerosene lights are used),
housing built of flammable materials, high-density settlements, a lack
of firebreaks, and no emergency services, including fire services (Hardoy
et al., 2001; Pelling and Wisner, 2009). All the above are also often associated with homes and livelihoods in informal settlements which helps
explain the lack of electricity (with electricity utilities unwilling or not
allowed to operate there), the poor-quality housing, and the lack of provision for fire-prevention and emergency services.
17 This includes a shift to clean fuels clean in the sense of minimizing raw pollution
and health impacts for the users for instance, with electricity and gas or energy
derived from renewable energy sources being clean and coal and raw biomass being
dirty (how dirty these are depends on the technology used in the home). Kerosene
and charcoal fall between these two extremes. The term clean fuels is ambiguous in
that it is used to mean different things for instance, for fuels or energy sources that
have low or no CO2 emissions rather than lower health impacts for users. In addition,
electricity at the point of use may be clean, but it often comes from coal-red power
stations that have high CO2 emissions and often high levels of pollution.
18 For a more detailed discussion see also Chapter 4.
1339
Chapter 18
Table 18.9 | The housing submarkets used by low-income urban dwellers and their energy-use implications.
Housing type
Energy implications in the home
Energy implications for transport
Typically one room per household; often electricity available,

but usually too expensive to use for cooking and space
heating
Usually close to sources of livelihood or demand for casual

work (hence this type of accommodation is in demand)
Very low energy use; no provision for cooking?
As above
Informal settlement 1: squatter settlements (in many cities

these house 3060% of the entire population)
In low-income nations, usually reliance on dirtier fuels and

lack of electricity; in many middle-income nations less so; for
many households, part of fuel/electricity expenditure is for
livelihoods in the home; illegal electricity connections may be
common; often high risks from accidental res
Many in peripheral locations, which implies high transport

costs in time and money; better located squatter settlements
often become expensive through informal rental or sale
Informal settlement 2: housing in illegal subdivision
More expensive than illegal land occupation, but less at risk

from eviction and often with more provision of infrastructure
(including electricity) or at least more possibilities of
provision as the land occupation is not illegal
Many in peripheral locations which implies high transport

costs; in large cities, the cheapest illegal subdivisions can
imply several hours traveling a day to and from sources of
income
Rooms rented in tenements
Cheap boarding houses/dormitories (including hot beds)
Accommodation at the workplace

Pavement dwellers and those who sleep in open or public
spaces
Common for single men in some cities; extent not known

and includes apprentices
Very low incomes so very low fuel use
Walk to work
Source: Hardoy and Satterthwaite, 1989; Yapi-Diahou, 1995; Harms, 1997; Mitlin, 1997; Mwangi, 1997; Bhan, 2009.
However, it is important to also consider the cost burdens of energy

to low-income households who have access to electricity and who use
cleaner, more convenient fuels. For instance, in cities such as Mumbai
(India), low-income households who move from informal to formal
housing benefit from access to electricity, but often find it difficult to
pay the bills. Here, there are more parallels with what the literature
refers to as energy poverty in high-income nations. Buzar (2006) notes
that increasing numbers of households in former communist states in
Eastern and Central Europe19 face difficulties in affording energy, in part
because of significant energy-price increases as subsidies are removed,
and in part because of the failure of the state to develop safety nets to
protect low-income groups. This leaves many families with no option
but to cut back on energy purchases, a problem further aggravated by
cold climates and the poor energy efficiency of the building stock.
Table 18.9). Good locations in relation to income-earning opportunities

mean that transport expenditures can be kept down and more central
locations usually have more possibilities of infrastructure and service
provision. But they are also more expensive and generally have less
possibility of space and of keeping down housing costs through illegally
occupying land and self-built homes. At their most extreme, to obtain
central locations, low-income groups live in shacks built on pavements
or waste dumps or in small rooms with more than three people to a
room or share beds (so a single person pays to sleep in a bed in a shared
dormitory with each bed serving two or three people over a 24-hour
period, known as hot beds).
Low-income groups in urban areas face limited choices in renting, buying, or building accommodation that they can afford and so have to
make trade-offs between a good location, housing size and quality,
infrastructure and service provision, and secure tenure (see references
One of the most extreme examples of this are the tens of thousands of
pavement dwellers in Mumbai, where the choice to live on the pavement (and usually with low lean-to shacks too small to sleep in) is from
a combination of their very low incomes, the central location of where
they earn their incomes (they walk to work), and the impossibility of
affording transport costs from less central locations (SPARC, 1990).
Another example are households in Indore (India) who choose to live on
land sites adjacent to small rivers that flood regularly. These have economic advantages because they are close to jobs or to markets for the
goods the households produce or collect (many earn a living collecting
waste). The land is cheap and, because it is public land, the residents are
less likely to be evicted. These sites have social advantages because they
are close to health services, schools, electricity, and water, and there
are strong family, kinship, and community ties with other inhabitants
(Stephens et al., 1996).
19 This section does not cover high-income nations and low- and middle-income
nations that were formerly part of COMECON (termed countries undergoing economic reform in GEA).
Rented accommodation or land on which houses can be built is cheaper

in more peripheral locations and often more distant from income-earning
opportunities the cheaper the cost and the greater the possibility of
18.4.1.2
Housing Quality and Location
Around 800 million urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations

live in poor-quality, overcrowded housing with inadequate provision for
basic services (UN HABITAT, 2003; 2008). A taxonomy of their housing
submarkets with associated energy implications is given in Table 18.9.
1340
Chapter 18
Table 18.10 | The proportion and number of the urban population that lacks electricity and access to modern fuels in developing countries, least-developed countries, and
sub-Saharan Africa.
Percentage and number of the urban
population
Developing countries
Least-developed countries
Sub-Saharan Africa
Lacking access to electricity
10% (226 million)
56% (116 million)
46% (124 million)
Lacking access to modern fuels
30% (679 million)
63% (130 million)
58% (156 million)
Source: UNDP and WHO (2009).20 Statistics on the urban population are drawn from UN Population Division (UN DESA, 2008) and are for 2005. The dates for the statistics on
access to electricity and modern fuels vary by country, with most being between 2003 and 2007.
building a home illegally (and so avoid paying a full rent, which is often
among the main reasons why distant informal settlements develop). But
this means high time- and monetary-transport costs, and it is difficult
to establish the high transport costs for those living in peripheral locations because most of the data on the proportion of income spent on
transport are averages for cities. In addition, it is likely that many household surveys under-represent those who live in informal settlements
for instance, a lack of formal addresses and maps makes it difficult to
include their inhabitants in surveys or those responsible for collecting
data fear to work in informal settlements (for an example of this, see
Sabry, 2009). Peripheral locations also constrain the inhabitants access
to economic opportunities, as many locations are too distant or too
expensive to commute to.
18.4.1.3
Urban Populations and Energy use in Low- and

Middle-Income Nations
There are some general statistics on the forms of energy use for urban
populations for instance, in what fuels (and mix of fuels) are used and
whether or not they have access to electricity (Table 18.10). However,
there are no general statistics on how fuel use and access to electricity
vary within nations urban populations or within cities by income group.
In part, this is because many energy statistics for individuals or households are only available for national populations. Where these are disaggregated, it is often only as averages for urban populations when there
are very large differences between different urban centers and between
different income groups within each urban center. In part, this is because
the documentation of energy provision deficiencies has not been given
the same level of attention as, say, deficiencies in provision for water and
sanitation. The only exception is the very considerable documentation on
the health impacts of pollution from the use of dirty fuels (and other
factors, including poor ventilation and inefficient stoves), although much
of this literature is for rural households and perhaps underestimates the
extent of this problem among urban poor households.
20 This source is inconsistent in how it reports some of the gures for access to electricity; the gures above for the least-developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa
are from Figure 3, but the accompanying text (page 12) says that 46% of the urban
population of least-developed countries and 56% of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan
Africa lack electricity access. The report does not specify where its population gures come from, although it lists the UN Population Divisions World Population
Prospects: the 2006 revision in its sources.
Table 18.10 highlights the very considerable proportion of the urban

population in low- and middle-income nations that lacks access to modern fuels 30% (which implies close to 700 million urban dwellers).
A higher proportion has access to electricity, but about half the urban
population within the least-developed nations and within sub-Saharan
Africa lack access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, this implies
that around 120 million urban dwellers lack access to electricity. For all
developing countries taken together some 230 million urban residents
lack such access.
Particular studies suggest that it is common for urban poor households
in Africa and Asia to use a mix of fuels for instance, different fuels for
different kinds of food and fuel-switching at certain times of year when
fuel prices or household incomes change (see Pachauri and Jiang, 2008
for China and Meikle and North, 2005 for Arusha). Regional and seasonal differences may be significant, and households are also influenced
by subsidies and incentives, fuel availability, and cultural preferences.
Policymakers rarely understand these complexities.
The available data on energy use by low-income urban dwellers range
from very large numbers who use little or no fossil fuels and electricity
(i.e., wood, dung, straw, and charcoal) through those who use kerosene
and coal or coal-based fuels to those who use gas (bottled or piped) and
electricity. For electricity, in some nations almost all urban households
(including low-income households) have electricity and in others only a
very small proportion of urban households have electricity.
Available studies also give examples of the scale of the differentials in
energy used between high-income and low-income households within
particular urban centers; some show that these can vary by a factor of
10 or more, but of course the scale of the differentials depends, in part,
on how the urban population is divided for this comparison (e.g., differentials will be greater if the richest and poorest deciles are compared
instead of the richest and poorest quartiles).
The two nations with the worlds largest urban populations are China
and India (by 2010 these accounted for more than a quarter of the
worlds urban population). In India, fossil-fuel based energy sources
increasingly dominate the energy mix of urban households, although
biomass (including firewood and dung) continues to be used, especially
by the lowest income groups. In addition, during the mid-1990s there
was an evident rise in the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and
1341
electricity among urban households (Pachauri and Jiang, 2008). In China,

among urban households there has been a shift away from the direct
use of coal to gas and electricity (although coal is still important for a
significant proportion of urban households). Energy use among urban
households declined from 1985 to 2002 (from 9 GJ/capita to around
5 GJ/capita), because of a shift to more-efficient fuels (Pachauri and
Jiang, 2008). Also, dependence on coal may not be reduced if coal-fired
power stations are an important part of meeting the consequent rising
demand for electricity.
Table 18.10 shows how most (90%) of the urban population in developing countries had access to electricity and 70% had access to modern fuels (mostly gas) in 2007 but also how the picture on energy
access for urban populations was very different for the least-developed
countries and for sub-Saharan Africa. When considering fuel use among
urban poor households in all low- and middle-income nations, this varies from, at one extreme, continued reliance on fuelwood, charcoal, and
waste materials (and no electricity) through to greater use of solid or
liquid fossil fuels (coal and/or kerosene, often called transition fuels) and
a proportion of households with electricity, and on to the use of cleaner
fuels (LPG or connection to gas) and electricity.
This diversity in the forms of energy used is also likely to be present
between urban poor households within most (but see above). The only
obvious characteristics that all urban poor households share is limited purchasing power for energy (for all uses) and a desire to keep
costs down, so their fuel use and fuel-energy mix is much influenced
by the price and availability of different fuels and electricity. Having
access to electricity at prices that low-income households can afford
obviously represents a major advantage for lighting and for key appliances (including fridges and, where needed, fans) and for the reduced
risk of accidental fires. However, they will keep electricity use down
(for instance, where it is expensive in comparison to other fuels, they
may not use it for cooking or space heating) unless there is no better
alternative (or they have made illegal connections to power grids that
keep costs down).21 Having gas for cooking and hot water (and, where
needed, space heating) has great advantages of convenience and of low
generation of indoor air pollution, but in many urban contexts it is only
available as LPG canisters (and so less convenient and more expensive
than gas piped to the home). This often makes it too expensive for large
sections of the urban population.
Among the low-income households in urban centers in the lowestincome nations, fuel use is dominated by charcoal, firewood, or organic
wastes (e.g., dung). The more access to fuels is commercialized, the less
fuel is used. In many small urban centers in low-income nations, it may
be that certain fuels (wood, dung, agricultural wastes, etc.) are cheap
and that a proportion of the urban population can gather fuel rather
21 Care is needed here: illegal connections are often not providing electricity free as the
connection is through another household that charges for this or the occupants are
tenants and have to pay the landlord extra for electricity.
1342
Chapter 18
Table 18.11 | The main fuels used for cooking in urban areas in developing
countries, least-developed countries, and sub-Saharan Africa (in percent of urban
population using particular fuels).
Percentage of the
urban population
Developing
countries
Least-developed
countries
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Using wood, charcoal,

and dung for cooking
fuels
18
68
54
Using coal for cooking
Using kerosene for

cooking
20
Using gas for cooking
57
20
11
Using electricity for

cooking
11
Source: UNDP and WHO, 2009.
than pay for it but probably the larger the city, the greater the commercialization of all fuels. Also, the very limited space within the homes
of most low-income urban households especially those that live in
central areas with, in many cases, less than 1 m2/person limits the
capacity to store bulky solid fuels.
Fuel use for cooking
Table 18.11 shows the contrast between the proportion of the urban
population using wood, charcoal, and dung in developing countries (less
than one-fifth of households), in the least developed nations (two-thirds
of urban households), and in sub-Saharan Africa (more than a half). In
developing countries close to two-thirds of the urban population use
gas or electricity for cooking; for the least-developed nations and subSaharan Africa, this is less than one-quarter. There are large differences
in this within the least-developed nations and in sub-Saharan Africa. For
instance, for many of these nations only a small percentage of the urban
population has access to electricity.
For most nations with per capita GDPs under $1100, 85% or more of
their urban population use wood and charcoal for cooking and all
these nations are in sub-Saharan Africa, except Haiti. For nations with
per capita GDPs above $14,000 virtually all urban households do not
use wood or charcoal. For nations with per capita GDPs of $11004000,
the variations in the percentage of the urban population that use wood
or charcoal are very large (UNDP and WHO, 2009).
Households select fuels for food preparation for reasons that include
cost, availability, convenience, type of food, and cooking equipment, as
illustrated by a study in Ibadan (Nigeria). Kerosene was the major cooking fuel for low- and middle-income households until subsidies on petroleum products were withdrawn in 1986. As a result of the increased
kerosene and cooking-gas prices, surveyed households in 1993 had
begun to use fuelwood, sawdust, and other cheaper energy sources.
A follow-up in 1999 discovered that households had switched back to
kerosene, while also reducing the frequency of cooking, eating cold leftovers, and substituting less nutritious but faster-cooking foods (Adelekan
Chapter 18
and Jerome, 2006). A study of energy use in an informal settlement in

the Cape Peninsular in South Africa showed how households that had
legal electricity connections and meters could access 50 kWh/month
free basic electricity, which encouraged them to cook with electricity
rather than paraffin (Cowan, 2008).
Low-income urban households often cook with solid fuels that pose
serious health threats to household members from indoor air pollution, especially for those with the longest exposure (see Chapter 4 for
details). Among urban populations in many sub-Saharan African nations,
wood and charcoal are still the most widely used cooking fuels (see, for
instance, Ouedraogo, 2006 on Ouagadougou; Boadi and Kuitunen, 2005
on Accra; Kyokutamba, 2004 on Uganda; and van der Plas and AbdelHamid, 2005 on NDjamna).
This reliance on charcoal by large sections of the population of major (and
often rapidly growing) cities generated concerns regarding its contribution
to deforestation, although a detailed study in several African nations in
the late 1980s found very little evidence of this (Leach and Mearns, 1989)
and a more recent review suggests that fuelwood is seldom a primary
source of forest removal, although in some of the areas where charcoal
production is concentrated, this may be the case (Arnold et al., 2006).
Urban dwellers in India are shifting to cleaner cooking fuels, although the
shift between 1983 and 1999 was most evident among higher income
groups. In 2000, less than 40% of the bottom two urban deciles cooked
with clean fuels. And among the poorest urban groups, adoption of clean
cooking fuels hardly increased from 1983 to 2000 (Viswanathan and
Kavi Kumar, 2005). LPG and kerosene are highly subsidized in India, but
nonpoor groups are the main beneficiaries and many low-income urban
residents continue to cook with dirtier energy sources (Gangopadhyay
et al., 2005; Pohekar et al., 2005).
In Thailand, slum dwellers spent about 16% of their monthly income

on energy (cooking, electricity, transport) in Bangkok and about 26%
in Khon Kaen. Households in these slums with incomes below the
poverty line spent 29% of total household income on energy in Khon
Kaen and 18.5% in Bangkok mainly because of the high cost of
electricity (Shrestha et al., 2008).
In Ethiopia, fuel and power took 11% of expenditure among urban
poor (Kebede et al., 2002).
In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, the bottom two deciles spent over
10% of their incomes on electricity alone (ESMAP and UNDP, 2005).
In Kibera, Nairobis largest informal settlement, for over 100 households surveyed energy expenditures reached 2040% of monthly
incomes (Karekezi et al., 2008).
In Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), many households in surveys in informal
settlements were spending 1525% of their incomes on energy
(WEC, 2006).
In Cairo (Egypt), households with incomes at the lower poverty line
spent 820% of their income on electricity (Sabry, 2009).
Low-income households who obtain electricity through shared electricity meters can be charged higher rates because of rising block tariffs
(examples in Kumasi (Ghana), Mumbai, and an informal settlement in
South Africa are given by Devas and Korboe, 2000 and Cowan, 2008).
High expenditures on energy

A considerable range of national and city studies and studies of particular settlements show how expenditures on fuels for household use are
consistently burdensome for low-income households (but may not show
up as high expenditures or high proportions of income spent on fuel, as
discussed above). Examples of high expenditures on energy are:
Space heating
Data on heating expenditures are limited, but it is clear that where
space heating is needed, low-income urban dwellers can face high costs
to keep warm. For instance, surveys in 1999 found that low-income citydwellers in Armenia, Moldova, and the Kyrgyz Republic devoted 510%
of their household incomes to heating (Wu et al., 2004). Poor households
may also heat their homes with inefficient, polluting fuels to reduce
expenditures. During the winter of 2002, Tbilisis poor households who
were not on the gas network resorted to using wood for heating and
cooking (ESMAP, 2007). Wood prices were cheaper than those of other
fuels, except natural gas. In Buenos Aires peripheral settlements of Villa
Fiorito and Budge, the average household relies on charcoal for space
heating and cooking, with space heating taking up nearly 13% of household annual net energy use (Bravo et al., 2008). In the heart of South
Africas coal-mining country, residents of Vosman Township rely on coal
for space heating, water heating, ironing, and cooking (Balmer, 2007).
Even in the United Kingdom, four million households were deemed to
live in fuel poverty in 2007 (defined by spending 10% or more of income
on maintaining an adequate level of warmth) (UKDECC, 2010).
In Guatemala, cooking and lighting took up about 10% of household

expenditures for the three poorest urban deciles in 2000 (ESMAP
and UNDP, 2003).
In China, coal is a key heating fuel for the poor, particularly in cold northern cities where heating may take up as much as 40% of households
total energy needs (Pachauri and Jiang, 2008). Although data are not
Cooking with LPG is common in the Philippines, but poor urban households also buy kerosene or biomass fuels to keep costs down. In a survey
of two low-income districts in metro-Manila, LPG was the main cooking fuel in 75% of households (APPROTECH, 2005). However, as LPG
prices increased in 2004, low-income groups also began to cook with
kerosene, fuelwood, or charcoal. Although residents intended to reduce
expenditures, they still paid higher unit prices because they could only
afford to purchase small quantities (APPROTECH, 2005).
1343
specifically available on coal use for heating, national surveys indicate

that 65% of the poorest urban households utilize coal (Pachauri and
Jiang, 2008). Coal-using urban residents are exposed to extremely high
levels of indoor air pollution (Mestl et al., 2007).
Lighting and access to electricity
There is a clear association between the percentage of the urban
population with electricity and a nations per capita GDP (UNDP and
WHO, 2009). Almost all nations with GDPs per capita of US$6000 or
more have 95100% of their urban population with electricity. For
nations with per capita GDPs below US$3000, there is a quite consistent picture of rising proportions of urban households with electricity,
with some variation. There is more variation between US$3000 and
US$6000.
However, were the sample frames for the urban households interviewed
in the surveys from which this data comes rigorous in including the
needed proportion of households that are in informal or illegal settlements? For instance, half of Kenyas urban population is said to have
access to electricity in 2003, yet a survey in 1998 of informal settlements
in Nairobi (which house half of Nairobis population) found that only
17.8% had electricity (APHRC, 2002).
In most middle-income nations and some low-income nations, most of
the urban population has access to electricity. By 2002, there was nearuniversal access to power in Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro
(WEC, 2006). Indias household surveys in 20042005 found that 91%
of urban households used electricity; for Chinese city dwellers, household surveys reported that 96% used electricity in 2001 (Pachauri and
Jiang, 2008). Many nations, including Colombia, Dominican Republic,
Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, and Ukraine, report that more than
98% of their urban population has electricity (UNDP and WHO, 2009).
These positive developments illustrate that the proximity to existing
energy infrastructure in urban areas enables rapid progress when dedicated policies of connecting urban poor are in place. Barriers of low
income and limited grid extensions therefore can be overcome.
Thus, many cities and national urban populations have a high proportion
of urban poor households with access to electricity. For instance, a study
of energy-use patterns in slums in Bangkok and Khon Kaen in Thailand
found almost 100% with electricity connections (Shrestha et al., 2008),
although in Bangkok 32% of households were connected through their
neighbors (Shrestha et al., 2008). Almost all slum dwellers in Cairo
have electricity connections (Sabry, 2009). In Mexico in 2000, access to
electricity was enjoyed by 9197% of the lowest-quartile households
in cities along the US border (Pea, 2005). National surveys in 2001
found that over 80% of Pakistans poorest urban deciles had electricity
(ESMAP, 2006).
Access to electricity is not only an issue of quantities. Quality of service
in terms of regularity, reliability and the duration of provision are of
equal importance.
1344
Chapter 18
Table 18.12 | The cost per household (in current US$) of providing electricity in
different cities.
City
Cost per household (US$)
Ahmedabad
114
Manila
154
Rio de Janeiro
226
Salvador
350
Cape Town
417
Source: USAID, 2004.
The costs of electricity access for the urban poor are generally low
(Table 18.12). Nonetheless, some caution is needed in using the figures in Table 18.12 because it is not clear whether these are just the
cost of extending electricity to these households or also include other
costs, such as the costs of extending overhead lines and upgrading the
power-generation system (USAID, 2004).
A study of the costs of different slum upgrading programs in Brazil
showed that the provision of electricity and lighting was 13% of total
costs, although these were comprehensive upgrading programs that
included provision of water and sewer connections for each house, and
building homes for those that had to be rehoused (Abiko et al., 2007).
The costs would be higher as a proportion of total costs within a more
minimalist upgrading program for instance, one that only provided
communal water provision and drainage and not piped water and sewer
connections to each household.
Further discussion on energy access issues beyond electricity is contained in Chapter 4.
18.4.1.4
Transport
When choosing where to live, low-income individuals or households

have to make trade-offs between good locations for access to incomeearning opportunities, to housing quality, size, and tenure, and to infrastructure and services. In most cities in low- and middle-income nations,
a significant proportion of low-income groups live in peripheral locations
because it is cheaper (and often less crowded) or there are more possibilities of obtaining land on which to build housing (although usually
illegally). But peripheral locations usually mean high monetary and time
costs in traveling to and from work and services. Thus, transportation
costs can eclipse household spending on cooking, heating, and lighting.
Various studies of transport use and expenditures in cities or of urban
poor communities show that public transport costs represent a significant part of total household expenditure. For instance, for the inhabitants
of eight informal settlements in Cairo transport costs were a major burden. Many such settlements on the outskirts are not adequately served
by the public bus network or the metro. Many inhabitants have to use
more expensive privately operated microbuses for part of the journey
Chapter 18
and a high proportion have to change to other buses or the metro for
their journey. High travel costs were one reason why few children went
to secondary school (Sabry, 2009). Other examples include:
Table 18.13 | Grouping households in India by the amount of energy they use and
the energy services available to them (average household of ve persons) in Wattyears (1 Wyr = 31.55 MJ).
Energy services of households
In Karachi, interviews with 108 transport users who lived in one

central and four peripheral neighborhoods found that half were
spending 10% or more of their income on transport (Urban Resource
Centre, 2001).
In Bandung City (Indonesia), interviews with a sample of 145 kampong residents found that nearly 7% of their monthly income was
devoted to transport costs (Permana et al., 2008).
In Buenos Aires, a 2002 survey found that the bottom quintile walked
to work for 53% of their journeys, but they still spent over 30% of
their family incomes on public transit (Carruthers et al., 2005).
In Sao Paulo, a 2003 survey found that low-income groups spent
1830% of their incomes on travel (Carruthers et al., 2005). Wealthy
residents spent just 7% of their incomes on transport, but were able
to travel far more frequently. The number of trips completed by Sao
Paulos poor was less than one-third of those completed by the highest-income residents.
In Salvador (Brazil), low-income residents often live in the urban
periphery and a survey of over 500 households in the poor neighborhoods of Plataforma and Calavera found that transport expenditures averaged 25% of monthly expenditures (Winrock International,
2005).
Thus, it is common in cities for low-income groups to face high transport
expenses that curtail their travel possibilities and leave them with onerous journeys, often on foot. Transport costs also limit livelihood opportunities for low-income groups that live in peripheral locations, as the
cost and time to reach parts of the city are too high. A 2003 survey in
Wuhan, China, showed how prohibitively high transit costs resulted in
the poor rejecting jobs far from their homes (Carruthers et al., 2005).
Associated with extreme poverty: up to

one warm meal a day, a kerosene lamp,
possibly a little hot water
<15 W
Associated with poverty: 12 warm meals

per day, a few kerosene lamps or one
electric bulb, some hot water
1530
Associated with above the poverty line: two

warm meals a day, hot water and lighting,
some small electrical appliances for groups
with electricity, possibly a scooter
3060
Associated with a comfortable level of

well-being: two or more warm meals a day,
hot water, lighting, some space heating, for
groups with electricity possibly some space
cooling and electric appliances, possibly a
scooter or an automobile
60+
Source: Pachauri et al., 2004.
overcrowded, accidents are common, and customers are vulnerable to

rising or erratic fares.
18.4.1.5
Marginalized neighborhoods may not be served by public transit, and

low-income women can face particular challenges in accessing secure,
efficient transportation (Watkiss et al., 2000). Informal buses have proliferated in many cities, and can help alleviate transport shortages (Zhou,
2000). However, in this unregulated sector vehicles are usually old and
Differentials within Urban Populations
Various studies show how it is common for low-income urban households in low- and middle-income nations with electricity connections
to use 2050 kWh/month (see Kulkarni et al., 1994; Karekezi et al.,
2008). This is a small fraction of average household use in the United
States (6401329 kWh/month depending on the region) or Europe
(341 kWh/month). So it is likely that differentials of the order of 100
or more are present between the worlds wealthiest and least wealthy
households with electricity. Pachauri et al. (2004) considered how the
amount of energy used and the quality of energy services available varied by income-group (Table 18.13).
18.4.1.6
Some studies show how many low-income groups walk long distances
to keep their transport expenditures down (see, for instance, Huq
et al., 1996 for various cities in Bangladesh, and Barter, 1999 for central Bombay/Mumbai and Jakarta). So, while such individuals may pay
little for transport costs, they pay through long journey times and extra
physical effort. In the survey of Wuhan, China (Carruthers et al., 2005),
the bottom quintile reported walking for almost half of their journeys,
while 27% of their travel was by public transit and 22% by cycling.
Useful energy use per capita (Wyr)
Summary
Development literature focuses principally on provision of water and

sufficient food, not on clean energy and electricity. Several hundred million urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations lack access to
electricity and are unable to afford cleaner, safer fuels such as gas or
LPG (or even kerosene). Most are in low-income nations in Asia and subSaharan Africa. In many such nations, more than half the urban population still rely on nonfossil fuel cooking fuels with obvious consequences
for health problems (and large health burdens) and for the time needed
to obtain fuels. In many low-income nations, more than half the urban
population also lacks access to electricity, even though urban population concentrations lower unit costs for providing electricity and gas (or
LPG gas distribution). For a large part of the urban population that lacks
clean fuels and electricity, the reasons are not that they cannot afford
1345
Chapter 18
these but that they face political or institutional obstacles to accessing

them. Most live in informal settlements with no legal addresses and
legal tenure, where they are also denied paved roads and provision
for water, sanitation, and drainage, and often healthcare, schools, and
emergency services.
It is mostly in nations where relationships between local government

and the inhabitants of these informal settlements are not antagonistic,
with widespread public support for slum and squatter upgrading, that
clean energy and electricity reaches urban poor groups.
A high proportion of urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations

find it difficult to afford their energy bills (for fuel and, where available,
electricity and expenditure on transport); these often take 1015% of
household income and for many a higher proportion.
18.4.2
Energy Demand and Air Pollution Densities,

including Heat Island Effects
18.4.2.1
Introduction
However, in many middle-income nations (and all high-income nations)

nearly all low-income urban dwellers have legal electricity connections
and can afford clean fuels. The shift to clean fuels and the availability
of electricity bring many advantages in terms of health, convenience,
and time saved in accessing and using energy. If the cost of a legal connection to electricity and to natural gas supplies can be afforded and
supplies are affordable and reliable, no time is needed to purchase or
gather fuels, and then carry home solid or liquid fuels or LPG cylinders.
Also, no space in the home is needed to store these. Reliable electricity
supplies also bring many other obvious advantages reliable, cheap,
and safe lighting at night, the possibility of fridges, televisions, and
electric fans, support for home enterprises, and a very large reduction
in fire risk.
The concepts of energy demand and pollution densities refer to the

quantity of energy used and/or produced or the pollution emitted per
unit of land. Their common denominator and driver is urban population density. Despite being of fundamental importance in an urban
context, the literature on energy or pollution densities is surprisingly
limited, apart from that on urban heat island effects, reviewed in detail
in Section 18.4.2.4 below.
Climate change implications may pose problems for low-income urban

dwellers obtaining electricity and clean fuels. However, the shift from
dirty fuels to clean fuels produces a lower than expected contribution
to global warming because of the inefficiencies in how dirty fuels are
consumed and in the reduced contribution of fuel use to black soot
aerosols. Thus, a shift to clean fossil fuels leads to major improvements
in the global impacts associated with non-CO2 emissions. In addition,
current differentials in electricity use per household or in CO2 emissions
per household are likely to vary by a factor of at least 100 between the
wealthiest households and the least-wealthy households.
Urban Energy Demand Densities
This Section illustrates the concept of energy supply and demand

densities both generally and by drawing from contrasting examples of
two high-density megacities (Tokyo and London), as well as a small,
low-density city (Osnabrck, Germany). A brief discussion of associated policy issues follows.
The classic reference on energy demand and supply densities remains
Smil (1991), from which Figure 18.11 is adopted in modified form.
The customary unit for energy densities is Watts per square meter (W/m2),
referring to a continuous use of the power of one Watt over a year.
10 5
Coal fields
Oil fields
High-rises
10
Tokyo
23 wards
Supermarkets
Houses
1346
Steel mills,
refineries
Industry
Flat plate collectors
Photovoltaics
Tidal
10 1
The constraints on supporting the shift to clean fuels and providing all
urban households with electricity are less in energy policy and far more
in government policy and daily practice in regard to those who live in
informal settlements and work in the informal economy. A large part of
the population that lacks clean energy and electricity also lacks reliable
piped water supplies and good provision for sanitation and drainage.
They often lack access to schools and healthcare. Governments often
ignore them, even though their settlements house 3060% of the city
population, most of its low-wage labor force, and many of its enterprises.
Thermal
power plants
W/m2
The costs of connection to an electricity grid and the use of electricity can be burdensome for low-income groups, but innovations have
reduced these costs for instance, rising tariffs with low prices for
lifeline electricity use (or in South Africa no charge for up to 50 kWh/
month), pay-as-you-use meters, and standard boards that remove the
need for household wiring.
18.4.2.2
Cities
Hydro
Central solar
towers
Wind
Photosynthesis
10
-1
10 0
10 3
10 6
10 9
Area (m 2)
Renewable
Supply and Demand
Fossil
Figure 18.11 | Energy densities of energy supply from fossil (gray) and renewable
sources (green) versus density of energy demand (red) for typical settings, in W/m2
and m2 area. Source: modied from Smil, 1991.
Chapter 18
City of London or in the top 25 grid cells (i.e., top 25 km2) of the Tokyo
wards that use close to 18% of Tokyos total final energy. Such high
energy-demand densities are comparable to the entirety of the solar
influx, which equals 157 W/m2 in Tokyo and 109 W/m2 in London. Mean
energy densities, 28.5 W/m2 for the Tokyo 23 wards (621 km2) and 27.4
W/m2 for Inner London (319 km2), are similar. (For Greater London with
its larger size (1572 km2), lower population densities, and greater extent
of green areas, energy densities are naturally lower, at 13 W/m2.)
W/m2 demand density
1000
100
Tokyo
London
10
Incoming solar radiation
Solar radiation converted to

electricity PV efficiency = 20%
1
1016
1017
1018
Cumulative energy use

(Joules, summed by 1 km2 grid cells Tokyo, by Borough London)
Figure 18.12 | Energy-demand densities (W/m2) for London (33 boroughs) and Tokyo
(1 km2 grid cells, 23 wards) versus cumulative energy use of these spatial entities (in
Joules). For comparison the energy ux of incoming solar radiation (W/m2) and the
electricity that could be generated (assuming photovoltaics (PVs) with a conversion
efciency of 20%) is also shown. Source: Dhakal et al., 2003; UKDECC, 2010.
Within an urban context particularly, energy demand densities are of

significance. The twin influences of high population and high income
mean that the spatial density of energy demand of cities typically ranges
from 10100 W/m2, a range exemplified by cities such as Curitiba (Brazil)
and Tokyo. Energy-demand densities in smaller portions of urban areas
can approach values of 1000 W/m2, as in sub-sections of the 23 wards
of central Tokyo (Dhakal et al., 2003).
The significance of urban energy-demand density arises in three areas.
First, the higher the energy density, the larger the impact of emissions,
either as air pollutants or as waste-heat releases. Second, from an
energy-demand perspective, high energy densities suggest opportunities for waste-heat recycling and economic provision of clean district
heating and cooling services. Third, energy-demand densities are significant constraints for the provision of energy services through renewable
energies, which (with the exception of geothermal) typically range from
0.1 to 1 W/m2 and thus yield a significant mismatch between demand
and supply at the urban scale.
From an energy-systems perspective it is important that the prevailing
high energy-demand densities characteristic of urban areas are much
in line with those of fossil fuel infrastructures and conversion devices
(Grubler, 2004). The general mismatch between (high) urban energy
demand and (low) renewable energy supply densities is shown with
actual energy demand data for London and Tokyo in Figure 18.12.
The typical order of magnitude of energy use of a megacity is in the
order of an exa-Joule (1018 J), a unit normally reserved reporting the
energy use of entire countries. The (direct final) energy use of Tokyos
23 wards is estimated to be about 0.6 EJ and that of the larger Tokyo
Metropolitan area as 0.8 EJ (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2006),
compared to 0.6 EJ for London (33 boroughs) and 0.8 EJ for New York
City22 (Kennedy et al., 2009). Energy-demand densities in Tokyo and
London typically span a range from a few W/m2 to >200 W/m2, as in the
Assuming that all the incoming solar radiation could be converted for
human energy use (e.g., to electricity with 20% efficient PV panels),
the maximum renewable energy supply density would range from 22
(London) to 31 (Tokyo) W/m2 in line with average demand densities
in the two cities, but only under the assumption that the entire city
area could be covered by PV panels! Even assuming an upper bound
of potential PV area availability (roofs, etc.), the results from a lowdensity urban area (Osnabrck, Germany, see below) of 2% of the city
area, solar energy could provide a maximum of between 0.4 (London)
and 0.6 W/m2 (Tokyo), which would cover between 2% (Tokyos 23
wards) and 13% (Inner to Greater London) of urban energy use in the
two cities. Local renewables can therefore only supply urban energy in
niche markets (e.g., low-density residential housing), but can provide
less than 1% only of a megacitys energy needs.23
Given that local renewables in large cities are at best marginal niche
options (because of the density mismatch between energy demand and
supply), what is their potential in small, low-density cities? Using aerial survey techniques, Ludwig et al. (2008) performed a comprehensive
assessment of suitable application of rooftop solar PVs for Osnabrck
(Figure 18.13). Osnabrck, with an area of 120 km2 and a population
of 272,000 (a density of 23 people/ha) is characterized by an incoming
solar radiation of 983 kWh/m2 (112 W/m2). In the study, all suitable roof
areas of some 70,000 buildings in the city were assessed (considering
optimal inclination as well as shadowing by adjacent buildings) and
the results published for local residents in a database per individual
dwelling.
22 Final energy use within the city limits and excluding bunker fuels (aviation, shipping). The latter are reported to be 0.28 EJ (0.2 EJ aviation fuel and 0.08 EJ marine
bunkers) for New York City compared to 0.76 EJ nal energy use in 2005 (Kennedy
et al., 2010). For London, aviation fuel also accounted for some 0.2 EJ for the year
2000 (Mayor of London, 2004).
23 This mind experiment considers a highly efcient conversion route of solar energy
via high-efciency PVs (with 20% net conversion efciency). Assuming biomass as
an alternative reduces the energy yield by a factor of up to 20, as the average conversion efciency of solar energy via photosynthesis is only around 1%. Conversely,
considering solar hot-water collectors (with a maximum efciency approaching
100% of incoming solar energy) also does not change drastically the conclusion of
the extremely limited local renewable potentials in high density cities, as solar hot
water typically provides only a few percent of energy demand (hot water accounts
for 2% of nal energy demand in Europe (Eurostat, 1988)). Even if this were provided entirely by solar energy where feasible (in low- to medium-density housing, as
high-rise buildings do not offer sufciently large roof areas) the yield is less than 1%
of energy demand in a densely populated large city.
1347
Chapter 18
Figure 18.13 | Example of assessing local renewable potentials: roof area (left panel) and suitable roof-area identication for solar PV applications (right panel) for the city of
Osnabrck, Germany. Red: roof area well suited for PV; orange: suitable; yellow, only conditional suitability for PV applications; grey: shadowed roof area (unsuitable). Source:
modied from Ludwig et al., 2008.
The study identified a total of two million m2 of suitable PV roof area

for Osnabrck (corresponding to 1.6% of the city area), which if used
completely for PV applications could provide some 249 million KWh of
electricity, or about the entire residential electricity demand of the city
(235 million kWh) or up to 26% of the total electricity demand of
Osnabrck (940 million kWh). It is of particular interest to interpret the
Osnabrck results in terms of their corresponding renewable energy
supply density, which adds up to some 0.2 W/m2 and can be considered a realistic upper bound of the local renewable energy potential for
low-density urban areas. In the example of Osnabrck, local renewables
could provide some 3.3 GJ/capita or 2% of the average German per
capita final energy use of 154 GJ/capita.
This example shows an important trade-off between population density, transport energy demand, and the potential for local renewables.
Generally, the areas available for harvesting local renewable energy
flows are higher for a lower population density in an urban area.
Osnabrck, with a population density of 23 inhabitants/ha and a high
proportion of low-density residential housing (single-family homes) evidently offers larger potentials to harness solar energy compared to a
megacity with population densities of 130 people/ha and predominantly
high-rise buildings (as for Tokyos 23 wards). However, this higher potential for harnessing local renewables at lower population densities is at
odds with the potential to lower the dependence on energy-intensive
individual transport modes (automobile usage) in urban areas via public transport. Public transport systems require relatively high population
densities to offer an attractive and economically viable alternative to
private automobiles, with the minimum population density threshold
required typically above 50100 inhabitants/ha (see Section 18.5.3).
In terms of energy, there is thus an inherent trade-off between urban
form, transport choices, and the potential of harnessing local renewable
energy flows. Put simply, the positive energy implications of an active
building (e.g., a Passivhaus standard energy-efficient home with PV
panels on the roof that produce electricity both for its own use and for
1348
the grid) can quickly turn negative if the building is situated in a lowdensity, suburban setting with a high automobile dependence.
Therefore, if renewable energies are increasingly to supply the urban
energy needs on a large scale, the resulting needs for conversion and
long-distance transport, as well as very large energy catchment areas
(the energy footprint of cities), needs to be taken into account.
In an attempt to quantify the implications of the energy supply and
demand-density mismatch, IIASA researchers used spatially explicit
energy-demand estimates for Europe to calculate related energy-demand
density zones (Figure 18.14). The study found that about 21% of final
energy demand in Western Europe is below the supply density threshold
of 1 W/m2, a characteristic upper bound for locally harvested renewable
energy flows. The corresponding value for Eastern Europe is somewhat
higher, with 34% of energy demand below 1 W/m2. Nonetheless, in all
densely populated, highly urbanized regions, the majority of renewable
energy supply has to come from areas of low population and energydemand densities, where renewable energy flows can be harnessed and
transported to the urban energy-use centers, which represents a formidable infrastructure challenge.
The findings of the IIASA study are also confirmed by a detailed, spatially explicit assessment of solar electricity (PV) potentials for all of
Western Europe by Scholz (2010; 2011) (see also Chapter 11).
The Scholz study identified a total solar (rooftop)24 PV generation potential of 638 TWh (equivalent to 2.3 EJ, or some 40% of the residential
24 Adding also building facades to the potential PV areas does not change the results
signicantly. In a study of solar PV potentials considering the entire building envelope Gutschner et al., (2001) estimated a total electricity potential of 600 TWh for a
sample of 10 European countries, which is good agreement to the Scholz study (638
TWh). Facades were estimated to add another 25% to the rooftop PV potentials by
Gutschner et al. (2001).
Chapter 18
40.0
40.0
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
30.0
% of population and energy use
% of population and energy use
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
<0.1
0.1-1
1-5
5-10
10-25
W / m2
WEU Population
WEU Final Energy Demand
>25
<0.1
0.1-1
1-5
5-10
10-25
W / m2
EEU Population
EEU Final Energy Demand
>25
Figure 18.14 | Top: Spatially explicit energy demand densities in Europe (W/m2): Blue and white areas indicate where local renewables can satisfy low-density energy demand
(<0.51 W/m2). Yellow, red and brown colors denote energy demand densities above 1, 5, 10, and 25 W/m2 respectively.
Bottom: Distribution of population (grey) and nal energy demand (black) (in percent) as a function of energy demand density classes in W/m2 for Western Europe (left panel) and
Eastern Europe (right panel). Only 21% (Western Europe) and 34% (Eastern Europe) of energy demand is below an energy demand density of 1 W/m2 amenable to full provision by
locally available renewable energy ows. The high energy densities of cities require vast energy hinterlands that can be 100200 times larger than the territorial footprint of cities
proper requiring long-distance transport of renewable energies. Source: IIASA calculations commissioned by Chapter 18.
1349
Chapter 18
Table 18.14 | Global exposure equivalents to particulate emissions. Note, in

particular, the continued dominance in developing countries of indoor air pollution
from traditional biomass cook stoves compared to the urban outdoor air pollution
exposure.
Concentrations (g/m3)
Group of
Nations
Exposures (GEE)a
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Total
Urban
100
70
<1
Rural
60
40
<1
Urban
255
278
19
26
Rural
551
93
62
67
87
13
100
Developed
Developing
Total
a GEE = Global Exposure Equivalent

Source: adapted from Smith, 1993.
electricity demand in Western Europe, and 23% of the total electricity

demand in the region). 637 TWh (99.8%) of that solar PV potential is
below a maximum energy supply density of 0.5 W/m2, and 563 TWh
(88.2%) below a energy supply density level of 0.2 W/m2 (Scholz, 2011).
Renewable energy supply densities in urban areas are therefore maximum in the range of 0.2 to 0.5 W/m2 which are thus between 2 to 5
percent of characteristic urban energy demand densities of 10 W/m2.
18.4.2.3
Pollution Densities
A corollary of energy densities is that of pollution density. High population density also leads to high exposure25 density to pollution risks.
However, at least for traditional air pollutants such as particulates, urban
pollution exposures also need to be seen in context, as only approximately one-third of the global pollution exposure is urban, whereas
two-thirds are rural, because of the dominance in global particulate
pollution exposure of indoor air pollution in rural households of developing countries (Table 18.14 and Chapter 4). Smith (1993) developed
the concept of global exposure equivalent (GEE), which represents a
renormalized index of the global summation of pollution exposure (pollution concentration times population exposed) calculated for a range
of human environments. According to Smith (1993), global human
exposure to traditional pollutants is dominated by indoor air pollution
in rural and urban households in developing countries as a result of the
continued use of traditional biomass for cooking.
For more modern forms of pollution (sulfur and nitrogen oxides (SOx
and NOx) and ozone (O3)), the corresponding GEEs have not been
25 Exposure risk: product of population pollution level exposure time of population

to pollution.
1350
calculated, but it is highly likely that the respective role of indoor versus outdoor air pollution as the main source of a populations pollution
exposure risk is reversed; that is outdoor air pollution and urban settings comprise the dominant form of pollution exposure. As an example, consider emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2). The hotspot of sulfur
emissions and pollution, which has for decades been the black triangle (the coal-rich border area of Poland, the Czech Republic, and East
Germany) in Europe, was remediated by successful European sulfuremission reduction policies. The current sulfur-emission hotspot is now
in China (Figure 18.15), where high elevated levels of sulfur emissions
particularly affect the urban populations and triggered policy responses
(see also Section 18.5.5 below).
From an environmental perspective high urban energy demand and
the resulting pollution densities hold two important implications.
First, energy use usually involves heat losses at well above ambient temperatures and high densities of urban energy use also imply
high densities of urban waste-heat releases. These combined with the
(high) thermal mass of buildings in densely built-up urban land give
rise to the urban heat island effect (see below) in which urban mean
temperatures are several degrees higher than those of surrounding
hinterlands.
Second, fuel choice becomes of paramount importance: pollutionintensive fuels (biomass or coal) used at the high demand densities
of urban areas quickly result in unacceptably high levels of pollution
concentration (such as the London killer smog of 1952 or the current air-quality situation in many cities, especially in the developing
world). Even low-pollution fuels, such as natural gas, can quickly overwhelm the pollution dissipative capacity of urban environments. So,
high energy-demand density requires zero-emission fuels: electricity
and perhaps, in the long run, hydrogen.
18.4.2.4
Urban Heat Island Effects
Formation of urban heat islands

Urban heat islands describe the frequently observed pattern of urban air
temperatures that exceed those of neighboring, more rural areas. In temperature maps, which delineate neighborhoods of similar temperature
with contour lines (isotemperatures), urban areas stand out as islands
that form heat domes. For example, Figure 18.16 shows these for Tokyo,
the city for which most literature on the heat island effect is available.
Urban temperatures typically peak some hours after midday, but the
absolute temperature difference against rural areas can be even larger
during the night under cloud-free conditions. Heat islands are facilitated
in climatic situations of low air movement. Wind otherwise disperses
temperature plumes. Heat islands are similar to air-pollution concentrations and they can be enhanced by local topography and climate patterns that prevent mixing of the boundary layer. In terms of average
temperature difference, urban areas are often 13C warmer than the
Chapter 18
Tg SO2 x million people

3.3
Hong Kong
1.9
3.4
Shanghai
0.3
2.1
1.8
Beijing
1.4
1.7
0.6
Figure 18.15 | Human exposure to sulfur emissions (population emissions in million x Tg SO2, z-axis) in China (2000), based on an analysis of gridded socioeconomic and
emission data. (Units on x, and y-axis refer to geographical longitude and latitude). Note the high pollution exposure in major urban areas of China. Source: IPCC RCP scenario
database (IIASA, 2010).
Figure 18.16 | Sensible (left) and latent (right) anthropogenic heat26 emission in Tokyo (W/m2). Source: Ichinose, 2008.
surrounding air, and at individual locations in calm and clear nights temperature differences can exceed 12C (Klysik and Fortuniak, 1999). With
increasing energy use, the extent of urban heat island effects increases
(Figure 18.17), which results in local warming.
26 Sensible heat ux: air is heated directly by the heated ground surface. Latent heat
ux: evaporation from wet ground surface or from cooling towers settled on top of
buildings and evapotranspiration from vegetation. This type of energy exchange does
not change air temperature. Its energy is consumed in the phase change from water
to moisture.
Heat islands are, among other factors, caused by urban energy use
through anthropogenic heat release. Without planning or intervention
strategies there is a risk of maladaptation feedbacks, in which heat
island countermeasures trigger increasing energy use, which amplify
1351
Chapter 18
Also, the availability of cooling water for thermal or industrial plants can
be reduced as water bodies warm up.
A range of factors contribute to the formation of urban heat islands
and their relative contribution varies among urban areas (Seto and
Shepherd, 2009):
a)
The geographic context defines the natural radiation balance

across seasons, temperature, precipitation patterns, topography,
and exposure to prevailing wind patterns. In humid climate
regions, the natural vegetation is often forest dominated. Urban
surface-temperature variation is then, at least partly, moderated
by the latent-heat transfer through evapotranspiration of adjacent vegetation (Oke, 1987). Parks with water bodies and extensive vegetation cover reduce heat island formation. In more arid
climate regions with low vegetation cover, daily temperature
variation is more pronounced and heat island formation is more
likely.
b)
The replacement of natural vegetation with artificial surface materials for buildings, squares, and transport infrastructure results in
more incoming radiation being stored during daytime, particularly
if materials are dark, such as bitumen and asphalt. The albedo
changes and differences in specific heat capacity of construction
material result in more incoming energy being accumulated in surface material during daytime, which is later emitted as infrared
radiation (Taha, 1997). Thermal insulation of buildings can reduce
their specific heat capacity drastically.
c)
Urbanization modifies the local hydrology. Natural groundwater

recharge is typically prevented by the extensive use of impermeable surface materials. Rain gutters, drainage systems, sewers, and
canals channel precipitation rapidly away to avert urban flooding.
Additionally, the extraction of water from local wells and for construction projects often lowers water tables, which results in lower
water availability for the remaining vegetation, and consequently
lower evapotranspiration and associated cooling through latent
heat transfer.
d)
Also, structural characteristics of the urban form (Weng et al., 2004)

affect the efficiency of heat loss through radiation and convection.
Narrow street canyons with a limited sky view prevent heat loss
through direct radiation upward. The urban layout and orientation
of street corridors in relation to prevailing wind patterns affect the
efficiency of heat transfer through convection and boundary layer
mixing. These factors can be addressed through planning regulations. In Germany, for example, the concept of urban ventilation
pathways (Luftleitbahnen) aims to maintain radial corridors of cold
winds to reach urban centers.
e)
The metropolitan area size (extent) amplifies the magnitude of the

urban heat island effect. For some rapidly growing urban areas,
Figure 18.17 | Estimated urban heat island intensity in large Asian cities. Source:
Kataoka et al., 2009.
Figure 18.18 | Daily electric power demand and maximum temperature in Tokyo,
June to August 1998. Source: Kikegawa et al., 2003.
the heat island (Figure 18.18). The increasing use of air-conditioning

equipment in buildings and automobiles (which dump waste heat
into the atmosphere) are one such example (Kikegawa et al., 2003;
Crutzen, 2004).
Urban heat islands also affect the energy system directly. Elevated environmental temperatures reduce the efficiency of thermal power plants.
1352
Chapter 18
such as Los Angeles or Kobe, a continuous increase in urban heat

island temperature of up to 0.5C/decade occurred over the past
60 years. This trend is partly amplified by changes in energy-use
patterns (Bhm, 1998) and needs to be compared against general
trends of global surface temperature warming of about 0.7C over
the past century (Oke, 2006; IPCC, 2007; Kataoka et al., 2009) (see
Figure 18.17).
f)
As energy demand is concentrated particularly in urban centers, the consequential release of anthropogenic heat is similarly
dense in these areas. Industrial and service-sector activity, residential housing, and transport functions are typically clustered in
close proximity. Electricity use and combustion processes in buildings and vehicles, for heating and cooling, lighting, or motion, all
result in vast quantities of waste heat being released (Rosenfeld
et al., 1995). To a small extent, the metabolic activity of biological
body functions of the human population also contributes to this.27
Global average estimates attribute a resulting climate forcing of
about 0.028 W/m2 to anthropogenic heat release (technical and
biogenic). In North America and Europe these figures are estimated
to be higher, at +0.39 and +0.68 W/m2, respectively (Flanner, 2009).
For the Ruhr area in Germany, average anthropogenic heat-related
forcing values of 20 W/m2 were calculated by Block et al. (2004). At
higher spatial and temporal resolution, the values are much larger,
often between 20 and 100 W/m2. Numerical simulations for heat
discharge of individual neighborhoods in the Tokyo metropolitan
region, for example, indicate radiative forcing values of up to 700
W/m2 during the day and in summer time (Dhakal et al., 2003).
However, urban heat islands do not always increase urban energy
demand. In higher latitudes the resulting reduction in heating
demand in winter can more than compensate the additional cooling energy demand in summer. Integrated climate-energy system
models increasingly aim to capture such effects (Kanda, 2006;
Oleson et al., 2010).
Mitigation
Strategies for heat-island mitigation include behavioral and technological solutions. They can provide various co-benefits, including energy
savings, peak-load reduction, air-quality improvements, and beneficial
health, psychological, and socioeconomic effects.
glass windows, with modified transmission properties of heat and light

on demand. Albedo changes and the use of reflective paint and surface material on roofs and transport infrastructure is another particularly cost-effective mechanism to reduce heat absorption in urban areas.
Improving the insulation of the building stock to prevent the warming
and storage of solar influx in material of high specific heat capacity,
such as concrete, is another measure, just like the expansion of shading
structures (vegetation or textile) in general. The shading of parking lots,
for example, not only provides thermal comfort, but also reduces emission of volatile organic compounds (significant precursors of low-level
O3 formation) from parked vehicles.
Active cooling via enhanced evapotranspiration can be induced through
ponds or fountains, green roofs, and tree planting, or through the generation of artificial mist (microdroplets of water) to create local cooling
clouds. In preparation for urban heat waves, the city of London considered the need to prepare cooling shelters for vulnerable or elderly
population, as the typical UK housing stock is not equipped with airconditioning (City of London, 2007).
Changing the timing of activity patterns to avoid the hottest hours of
the day was a traditional response to hot climates. In peak-load management programs some of this rationale is revived. Operators of office
space in New York City are given price incentives to start air-conditioning in the early hours of the day to reduce demand during peak hours
of electricity demand (Bloomberg, 2007). While the primary motivation
was to reduce peak power demand in a grid of constrained capacity,
this measure also reduces the peak in waste-heat emission in the early
afternoon hours. While probably not the most suitable for dense, highrise developments like Manhattan, solar cooling devices that provide a
maximum cooling output at periods of peaking outdoor temperatures
appear to be suitable for low-density cities.
In 2005, the Japanese environmental ministry started a campaign titled
Cool biz to restrain the use of air-conditioning units to an indoor temperature of 28C. The campaign aimed to loosen the strict dress code
of full-suit, tie, and long-sleeved shirts for office workers during the hot
season (June 1 to September 30) and promoted a more heat-tolerant
dress code of short-sleeved shirts without ties (Pedersen, 2007).
18.4.3
Building design and layout allow solar gains of houses in summer to be
minimized and increased passive gains during winter (e.g., in Passivhaus
designs). Reduction in cooling demand can also be achieved through
the use of deciduous vegetation for shading (including vertical greening
of facades) or the application of mechanical shades, shutters, or smart
27 Assuming about 100 W of biological energy use per person and maximum population
densities of 40,000/km2 in some cities in developing countries, this factor can contribute up to 4 W/m2 additional forcing. Typical urban population densities are lower.
Supply Constraints, including Reliability

and Security
Cities depend on extended energy networks and failures can occur on

a regional and national scale. On August 14, 2003, a cascading outage
of transmission and generation facilities in the North American Eastern
Interconnection resulted in a blackout of most of New York State as
well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada.
On September 23, 2003, nearly four million customers lost power in
eastern Denmark and southern Sweden following a cascading outage that struck Scandinavia. Days later, a cascading outage between
1353
Italy and the rest of central Europe left most of Italy in darkness on
September 28. These major blackouts are among the worst powersystem failures in the past few decades. They had a profound effect on
power-system philosophy because these networks were some of the
worlds most sophisticated power-generation distribution systems. In
particular, the US failure was promoted by an early underlying failure
in software used to control networks, which meant the scale of the
emerging problem was recognized too late to protect the cascading
failure.
Energy efficiency and resilience are not coincidental outcomes. Thus, a
low-energy settlement might be even more sensitive to disruptions in
supply than a settlement with some slack in its energy system. A dense
city with no power for its elevators may be in a worse state than a
low-density urban settlement without power. Renewable power sources
based on wind or solar alter the reliability profile. As they are of a
much smaller unit size, they do not induce major dropouts, as happens
when a large nuclear power station needs to come offline very rapidly.
Conversely, the variability in available power they supply may require
them to be shadowed by a rapid-response plant. They may also exacerbate failure cascades because of switching out for self-protection when
the power system is stressed heavily.
The increasing dependency on power even for simple clerical work, let
alone for critical functions like hospitals, means that stand-by power
supplies could be an increasing feature in urban systems. One suggestion (Patterson, 2009) is that it is possible for the local distributed power
generation to become dominant and the national distribution systems
only handle back-up. This is already effectively the case for dwellings
that use microgenerators for power and heat. Another suggestion is that
more sophisticated metering and tariffs could incentivize the extension
of demand-side load management from large facilities of interruptible
supply at the microscale. In line with the efficiency-resilience argument it is expected that vulnerability to societal interruption is higher
in countries with generally very secure supplies in which the economy
has sought an equilibrium that assumes secure power supplies than in
countries with frequent brownouts and blackouts in which the economy
has adjusted to coping with the risk.
The winter of 2008/2009 in Europe showed the vulnerability of gassupply networks to urban areas. Gas can be stored both in the mains
and in dedicated storage facilities, but gas is currently supplied directly
to consumers and power generation, and so indirectly to mass-transit
systems. Thus, a failure of supply pressure has wide implications. Coastal
cities can increase their robustness with liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, but LNG is a world-trade product and may come at a high price in
a regional emergency.
Liberalization of gas and electricity market pressures gives the lowest
prices to consumers, but the effect is to incentivize producers to sweat
their existing assets (e.g., Drukker, 2000). It may then become necessary
to introduce further complexity into tariffs to incentivize investment and
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Chapter 18
reflect the value to the consumer of lost load. Undercapitalization of

energy networks, many of which were built in the 1960s, remains a real
risk over the next 20 years in developed world systems.
Possibly the greatest vulnerability in an urban context is the supply of
transport fuels. The weakness of the low-density settlement is its complete dependence on oil at a density below around 3040 persons/ha
(Levinson and Kumar, 1997). There are ways to save oil quickly (IEA,
2005), largely based on increasing load factors, but there is a mounting
recognition of the advantages of diversifying the transport energy vector away from oil.
18.5
Urban Public and Private Sector

Opportunities and Responses
18.5.1
Introduction
18.5.1.1
Concepts of Sustainable Cities and Designs
The term sustainable city dates from the 1990s. The term sustainable development is usually dated from the World Commission on
Environment and Development Report (WCED, 1987), which devotes
a chapter to the urban challenge. The WCED concern was principally
about issues of the urban poor in rapidly growing large cities of the
South. The term sustainable development is now used more frequently
in the narrower context of the need to protect the environment that
underpins social and economic capital. For this reason the term sustainable cities is more often associated with civic initiatives in cities
of the North, addressing what is perceived as the unsustainable impact
of their citizens lifestyles, especially the generation of large volumes of
waste and GHG emissions. It is largely coincident with the earlier idea
of an ecocity. Ecocities essentially try to contain their ecological
footprint (Andersson, 2006; Jabareen, 2006; Kenworthy, 2006; Pickett
et al., 2008). This focus means that some projects are not always more
broadly sustainable, especially as economic units.
Attempts to achieve an optimal sustainable urban system in new settlements invariably resorts to some form of spatial organization. This may
be provided by a city authority, but it could equally be the covenants
imposed by a land developer. The intention is to gain from bringing the
various strands of urban activity together into a more integrated whole.
For example, reducing urban traffic noise through less need to travel by
automobile and the use of quiet road surfaces or electric vehicles enables
citizens to keep windows open in summer. This provides the opportunity
to avoid mechanical ventilation by recovering the opportunity for natural ventilation. Sustainable urban configurations are often expressed
in terms of optimal residential densities linked to low-profile transport
networks. This fairly crude metric is often employed in zoning regulations.
The optimal configuration then seeks to avoid a very high density with
highly congested services and a very low density automobile-dependent
networks. This configuration is expected to induce a stronger sense of
Chapter 18
Table 18.21 | Classication of urban air-quality management capacity in Asian cities.

Capability Classification
Cities
Excellent I
Hong Kong, Singapore, Tapei, Tokyo
Excellent II
Bankgkok, Seoul, Shanghai
Good I
Beijing, Busan
Good II
New Delhi
Moderate I
Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kolkata, Metro Manila, Mumbai
Moderate II
Colombo
Limited I
Hanoi, Surabaya
Limited II
Dhaka, Kathmandu
Minimal
Source: Schwela et al., 2006.
and often there are serious ambiguities in emission volume and

sources data.
The need to adopt more stringent vehicle-emission standards is evident. The pace of adopting new emission standards in the face of
rapidly rising private transportation is very slow. In addition, a reasonable global harmonization of air-quality and technology standards is needed. Currently, decision makers are torn between the Euro
Standards and the USEPA standards, which affects technology choice
and fuel regimes differently.
also broaden the technology and financial resources available for

air-pollution control.
18.6
Summary and Conclusion
18.6.1
An Urbanizing World
The world is already predominantly urban, with the urban environment

housing more than 50% of global population and accounting for even
larger shares in economic and energy activities. Almost all future population growth of some three billion people to 2050 will be absorbed
by urban areas. This urban growth is the combined result of natural
increases in urban populations plus migration from rural to urban areas
such that the increase in rural population in many developing countries
will be overshadowed by population flows to the cities.
In contrast, rural populations globally will peak at around 2020 at a
level of 3.5 billion people and decline thereafter. This global result masks
heterogeneity in regional trends: whereas rural populations in Asia are
projected to decline rapidly after 2020, the African rural population will
continue to grow at least to 2040, before also declining.
Transport polices that affect urban mobility choices need to complement vehicle- and fuel-specific policy measures. In their absence, any
air-quality improvements are likely to be quickly overwhelmed by
continued motorized transport growth.
Patterns of urban population growth have been and will remain heterogeneous. Most of the growth will continue to occur in small- to mediumsized urban centers, which explains the remarkable robustness of the
distribution of city-size classes over time and across different regions.
Growth in small cities poses serious policy challenges, especially in the
developing world. In small cities, data and information to guide policy
are largely absent, local resources to tackle development challenges are
limited, and governance and institutional capacities are weak. Despite
much public attention, the contribution of megacities to global urbanpopulation growth will remain comparatively small.
Despite good policies on technology and fuel, inadequate emphasis

on inspection and maintenance of systems remains one of the
key challenges. Much of the existing air-pollution problems can
be addressed by simple implementation and stricter enforcement
of existing legislations, standards, and inspection and monitoring
regimes for air quality.
Shrinking cities in the developed world are an increasing phenomenon

in urban dynamics, and could continue as below-replacement fertility
levels outstrip increased longevity and so lead to declining populations
in almost all high-income countries (and potentially in low-income
countries in the long-term). The impacts of population contraction on
urbanization remain a major unknown.
For transboundary air-pollution issues, such as acid rain and black

carbon (emerging as key problems, particularly in Asia), regional
approaches and regimes are needed, but such regional coordination
emerges only very slowly in many world regions.
Cities of the future will have significantly older populations. Cities in

developing countries will approach the age structures already prevalent
in some cities of the industrialized world, with more elderly than young
residents. This urban aging effect is likely to be mitigated temporarily by
continued rural-urban migration as migrants comprise predominantly
younger and more enterprising age cohorts, both nationally and internationally. Conversely, this demographic pattern suggests that aging
will also be significant for rural settlements in low- and high-income
countries alike. Graying rural villages are probably the logical counterpoint of continued urbanization combined with a continued unfolding
of the demographic transition worldwide.
Introducing cleaner fuel more actively for motor vehicles, industries,

and power plants is necessary.
To harmonize many environmental issues within common policy

responses, estimation of the co-benefits of air-pollution management with respect to human health, urban energy system improvement, energy security, climate change mitigation, and ecosystems
in general is essential. In developing countries such a co-benefit
approach can help devise limited resources more efficiently, and
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18.6.2
Urban Energy Use
The urban share in current world-energy use varies as a function of system boundaries in terms of spatial scales (cities versus agglomerations),
energy-systems definition (final commercial, total final, and total primary energy), and the boundary drawn to account for embodied energy
in a citys goods and services, both imported and exported. The direct
transfer of national energy (or GHG emissions) reporting formats to the
urban scale is often referred to as a production approach, and contrasts to a consumption accounting approach that pro-rates associated energy uses (or GHG emissions) per unit of expenditure of urban
consumer expenditures, thus accounting for energy uses irrespective of
their form (direct or embodied energy) or location (within or outside a
citys administrative boundary). Both approaches provide valuable information and should be used as complementary tools to inform urban
policy decisions. However, to be useful, urban studies need to adhere
to much higher standards in terms of clarity and documentation of the
terminology, methodology, and underlying data used. To improve comparability, this assessment recommends specifically that all accounts
based on the consumption approach (which are data- and time-intensive to prepare, and so exist only for a very limited set of megacities)
be complemented by corresponding production-based energy accounts
(which are much simpler and easier to determine). To ensure reproducibility, this assessment also recommends explicitly that no urban GHGemission inventory be published without the underlying energy data
used in the assessment.
Available estimates of current urban energy use based on a production
approach (direct final energy use, or primary energy use, i.e., including
pro-rated upstream energy sector conversion losses) suggest that urban
energy use accounts for between 60% and 80% of global energy use.
Total energy use is therefore already predominantly urban. Mirroring
the growing importance of urban areas in demographic and economic
development, urban energy use will continue to grow further as a fraction of total global energy needs. This implies that energy sustainability
challenges need to be addressed and solved primarily by action in urban
settings.
There is great heterogeneity in urban energy-use patterns, especially
when manufacturing and transport energy uses are included. In many
developing countries, urban dwellers use substantially more energy than
their rural compatriots, which primarily reflects higher urban incomes.
Conversely, in many industrialized countries per capita urban final
energy use (i.e., based on a production-accounting approach) is often
substantially lower than the national average, which reflects the effects
of compact urban form, settlement types (multi- versus single-family
dwellings) and availability and/or practicability of public transport
infrastructure systems compared with those in the suburban or rural
sprawl. The few available data, however, suggest that urban energy use
in high-income countries is not substantially different from national
averages using a consumption-based accounting approach that also
includes energy embodied in imports. So, the effects of lowered direct
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Chapter 18
final energy use through a more service-oriented urban economy, urban

form and density, and resulting lower transport energy use are largely
compensated by higher embodied energy use associated with higher
urban incomes in high-income countries. For low-income countries,
available data are too sparse to allow a similar comparison. However,
it is highly likely that, because of the much higher income differential
between urban and rural populations in low-income countries, their
urban energy use is significantly higher on a per capita basis compared
to national averages in a consumption-based accounting framework as
well. Levels and structure (access to electricity, clean fuels for households, private motorized transport) of urban energy use in low-income
countries are therefore a powerful leading indicator of future developments to come with rising urbanization and income growth in the
developing world.
Drivers of urban energy use include geography and climate, resource
availability, socioeconomic characteristics, degree of integration into
the national and global economy (imports/exports), and urban form
and density. Not all of these can be influenced by local governance and
decision making. Priorities for urban energy and sustainability policies,
therefore, should focus where local decision making and funding also
provides the largest leverage effects: urban form and density (which are
important macrodeterminants of urban structures, activity patterns, and
hence energy use), the quality of the built environment (energy-efficient
buildings in particular), urban transport policy (particularly the promotion of energy efficient and eco-friendly public transport and nonmotorized mobility options), and improvements in urban energy systems
through cogeneration or waste-heat recycling schemes, where feasible.
Local action, however, also requires local capacities and responsibilities
in addressing urban energy and environmental problems, including a
mediating role among the multiple stakeholders characteristic of decentralized urban decision making.
Conversely, the promotion of local solar or wind renewables will, at
best, have a marginal impact on the overall energy use of larger cities
(typically <1%)39 because of the significant energy-density mismatch
between (high) urban energy use and (low) renewable energy flows
per unit land area available in urban areas. Smaller cities, however,
could provide more avenues to integrate renewable energy into urban
energy systems than large cities. Cities could also play an important role as consumers of renewable energies, creating niche market
impulses as well as potentially exerting leverage on the application of
sustainable social and ecological production criteria for their renewable energy suppliers.
Nonetheless, urban energy and climate policy should recognize that the
most productive local decisions and policies influence the efficiency of
urban energy use that is the demand side of the energy system, rather
than its supply side.
39 Important exceptions include utilization of urban wastes and, where available, geothermal resources, both of which are characterized by a high energy density.
Chapter 18
18.6.3
Facing the Challenges
18.6.3.2
18.6.3.1
Urban Poverty
Urban density and form are not only important determinants for the
functionality and quality of life in cities, but also for their energy use.
Historically, the diversity of activities and ensuing economic and social
opportunities that are the major forces of attraction to urban settings
were provided by high density and co-location (mixed land-uses) of a
diversity of activities that maximize the activity zone of urban dwellers
while minimizing transport needs. This urban history contrasts with decades of trends toward lower urban densities, which include widespread
urban sprawl, and even ex-urban developments.
Several hundred million urban dwellers in low- and middle-income

nations lack access to electricity and are unable to afford the cleaner,
safer fuels. Most are in low-income nations in southeast Asia and subSaharan Africa. In many low-income nations, more than half the urban
population still rely on charcoal, fuelwood, straw, dung, or wastes for
cooking, with significant adverse consequences for human health and
urban air quality. A large part of the poor urban population that lacks
clean fuels and electricity not only cannot afford these, but also faces
political or institutional obstacles to accessing them.
In many middle-income and all high-income nations, nearly all lowincome urban dwellers have legal electricity connections and access to
clean fuels. The shift to clean fuels and the availability of a reliable electricity supply bring many advantages in terms of health, convenience,
and time saved in accessing and using energy.
The costs of connection to an electricity grid and the use of electricity
can be beyond the reach of low-income groups, but innovations have
reduced these costs for instance, rising tariffs with low prices for lifeline electricity use, pay-as-you-use meters, and standard boards that
remove the need for individualized household wiring.
The constraints on supporting the shift to clean fuels and providing
all urban households with electricity are less to do with energy policy than with authorities handling of issues of informal settlements. A
large part of the population that lack clean energy and electricity live
in informal settlements. It is mostly in nations where this antagonistic
relationship between local government and the inhabitants of such settlements has changed, through widespread public support to upgrade
slums and squatters, that clean energy and electricity reaches urban
poor groups.
Housing, infrastructure, energy, and transport services are the key sustainability challenges to accommodate some three billion additional
urban dwellers in the decades to come, especially in low-income countries. Informal settlements will be one of the transitional forms of settlement for many of these new urban dwellers and will require a much
more proactive, anticipatory policy approach, especially with respect to
the location of informal settlements and subsequent infrastructure connections and upgrading programs.
Energy-wise, low-cost and fast implementation options will take precedence over grand new urban designs that require unrealistic capital
provision over long periods. In low-income countries access to clean
cooking fuels and electricity, as well as pro-poor transport policies,
which include safer use of roads by non-motorized modes (walking and
bicycling) and making public transport choices available (e.g., through
BRT systems) need to receive more attention.
Livable Cities: Urban Density and Form
It is widely agreed that there is no theoretical or practical argument for

defining a universal optimal form or density for a city. In theory (and
often also in practice) higher densities increase the economies of scope
(i.e., of activity variety) in a city. These are the main locational attractions of urban places in terms of potential number of jobs, breadth and
variety of specialized trades and economic activities, along with cultural
and many other attractions, usually summarized as positive agglomeration externalities that also extend to urban infrastructures (e.g., communication and transport networks). Conversely, higher densities can
entail negative externalities as well, such as congestion, high land prices
that limit the quality of residential living space for urban dwellers, or
environmental problems (noise, air pollution).
Nonetheless, empirical data strongly suggest that the net balance of
these positive and negative agglomeration externalities remained stable for extended periods of time, as illustrated by the remarkable stability of the rank-size distribution of cities (with dominating positive or
negative net agglomeration externalities the growth of the ensemble40
of larger cities should be above or below that of smaller cities, which is
not the case). The historical evolutionary processes that govern urban
growth have played out differently over time and space, which results
in path dependency. Cities that evolved along alternative pathways
have alternative density levels from high-density Asian (e.g., Tokyo,
Shanghai, Mumbai) and old European (e.g., London, Madrid, Warsaw)
to low density new frontier (e.g., Los Angeles, Brasilia, Melbourne)
pathways, each of which have different structural options available to
improve energy efficiency and optimize urban energy and transport systems in terms of sustainability criteria.
Despite this diversity, two important generalizations can be drawn. First,
the implications of urban density on the requirements of urban energy
systems are that they need to be basically pollution free, as otherwise
even relatively clean energy forms can quickly overwhelm the assimilative capacity of urban environments. This especially applies to the million,
decentralized energy end-use devices (stoves, heating systems, vehicles)
for which end-of-pipe pollution control is often not an option. Thus, in
40 Evidently, individual cities can forge ahead or fall behind the overall distributional
pattern of aggregate uniform urban growth rates as outlined by the rank-size rule.
1387
the long-term all end-use energy fuels consumed in urban areas need
to be of zero-emission quality, as exemplified by electricity or (eventually) hydrogen, with natural gas as the transitional fuel of choice in
urban areas. (Evidently, pollution levels also need to be minimized to the
maximum technologically feasible at the point of production of these
fuels.) This zero-emission requirement for urban energy transcends the
customary sustainability divide between fossil and renewable energies,
as even carbon-neutral biofuels when used by millions of automobiles
in an urban environment will produce unacceptable levels of NOx or O3
pollution.
Second, the literature and above discussion repeatedly has identified important size and density thresholds that are useful guides for
urban planning. The importance of these urban thresholds extends
to specialized urban infrastructures, such as underground (metro)
transport networks that are, as a rule, economically (in terms of
potential customers and users) not feasible below a threshold population size of less than one million. It also extends to energy (e.g.,
cogeneration-based district heating and cooling) and public transport
networks, whose feasibility (both for highly centralized and decentralized, distributed meso-grids) are framed by a robust gross41 density
threshold between 50 and 150 inhabitants/ha (500015,000 people/
km2). Such density levels of 50150 inhabitants/ha certainly do not
imply the need for high-rise buildings, as they can be achieved by
compact building structures and designs, both traditional and new,
including town or terraced houses, while still allowing for open public
(parks) or private (courtyard) spaces but they do preclude unlimited
(aboveground parking) spaces for private vehicles. Zoning and parking
regulation, combined with public transport policies and policies that
promote non-motorized transport modes and walkability thus constitute the essential building blocks of urban energy efficiency and sustainability policy packages.
18.6.3.3
Chapter 18
of individual transport when needed (as opposed to their preordained

use, despite congestion, simply because of a lack of alternatives) can be
reconciled with the prerogatives of an energy-efficient city. Conversely,
along the same sustainability metric, non-motorized mobility (walking
and bicycling) and public transport schemes that function well and have
high occupancy rates are the options of choice for urban mobility and
should receive corresponding priority.
Second, the fundamental interrelations between demand and supply
often create a vicious circle for urban transport planning: more automobiles lead to congestion, which improved urban road infrastructures
aim to alleviate. But more (road infrastructure) supply induces yet more
demand (individual mobility and land-use changes) in an ever-spiraling
rat race of supply following demand growth. A new public policy paradigm for urban transport needs to break this cycle of rebound effects
through integrated urban energy transport policies that deal with both
demand and supply.
The wide variation in urban transport choices observed in the modal
split across cities illustrates that urban mobility patterns are not ex ante
given, but rather result from deliberate choices of individuals and decision makers. Urban transport choices can be changed, if both a strong
determination for sustainable transport policy and a corresponding
wide public acceptance of the overall goals of such a policy exist. This
wider acceptance of the overarching goals is also required to implement
some individual measures (e.g., traffic calming, pricing schemes (for
roads and parking, etc.)) that often face lobbying opposition. Restrictive
measures that limit individual mobility by automobiles need to be complemented by proactive policies that enhance the attractiveness of nonmotorized and public transport choices, and soft policy measures (e.g.,
fees, tariffs) also need to be complemented by hard (i.e., infrastructural
investment) measures. The overriding goal is to turn the often automobile-dependent vicious policy cycle into a virtuous cycle that favors
non-motorized and public transport choices.
Mobile Cities: Urban Transport
First, on a sustainability metric there is a clear contradiction between

growing private motorized transport and growing energy use and pollution. This contradiction relates not primarily to the technological artifacts per se (automobiles or scooters), but rather to the organizational
form of their usage as privately owned vehicles with correspondingly
low occupancy rates (and thus high energy/emissions per unit service
delivered). Well-designed taxis or automobile-sharing schemes are
excellent examples that the (selective) use of automobiles as modes
One key measure in this context will be the progressive internalization of

external costs of motorized private transport along with the provision of
high-quality alternative public and non-motorized transport. Estimates
for Europe suggest that these external costs are at least in the order of
610 cents per passenger-km (see Table 18.16), which when fully internalized would double private motorized transport costs. Comparable
estimates for low-income countries are not available, but given their
generally much higher road-accident rates, external costs are likely to
be even larger. However, accompanying measures and strong leadership
will be needed to increase the political acceptability of this invariably
unpopular measure. Recent experiences with the introduction of road
prices and congestion charges in cities across a wide political spectrum
suggest that such policy approaches are both feasible and have the ability to alter urban transport behavior.
41 i.e. a minimum density level over the entire settlement area that comprises residential zones of higher density with low density green spaces.
Attractive public transport systems require a dense public transport network and a high service frequency with short intervals, which are only
Urban transport is a key policy concern, both for its high visibility (potential opposition to top-down policies) and its crucial importance to the
very functionality of cities. Two fundamental observations need to guide
urban transport policies.
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Chapter 18
feasible with a minimum threshold of urban density. A rule-of-thumb

goal might be to have only urban settlements within easy walking
(<500 m) access to a viable public transport service. Investments in
public transport systems need to find an appropriate balance between
improvements that are less capital intensive and faster to implement,
and radical solutions. BRT systems are, therefore, a much more attractive option for many cities in low-income countries than are capitalintensive subway systems, even though, in the long term, the latter offer
the possibility of higher passenger fluxes and greater energy efficiency.
Often there is no contradiction between incremental versus radical public transport policy options: for instance, BRT can also be considered as
a transitional infrastructure strategy to secure public transport rights of
way, which offer subsequent possibilities for infrastructure upgrades,
for example in putting light rail systems in BRT lanes. Many of the new
urban settlements being formed easily meet these density targets. The
policy issue is to exploit the advantages before lock-in into private
transportation takes hold.
18.6.3.4
Efcient Cities: Doing More with Less Energy
From all the major determinants of urban energy use climate, integration into the global economy, consumption patterns, quality of built
environment, urban form and density (including transport systems),
and urban energy systems and their integration only the final three
are amenable to an urban policymaking context and therefore should
receive priority.
Systemic characteristics of urban energy use are generally more important determinants of the efficiency of urban energy use than those of
individual consumers or of technological artifacts. For instance, the share
of high occupancy public and/or non-motorized transport modes in urban
mobility is a more important determinant of urban transport energy use
than the efficiency of the urban vehicle fleet (be it buses or hybrid automobiles). Denser, multifamily dwellings in compact settlement forms with
a corresponding higher share of nonautomobile mobility (even without
thermal retrofit) use less total energy than low-density, single-family
Passivhaus-standard (or even active, net energy generating) homes in
dispersed suburbs with two hybrid automobiles parked in the garage and
subsequently used for work commutes and daily family chores. Evidently,
urban policies need to address both systemic and individual characteristics in urban energy use, but their different long-term leverage effects
should structure policy attention and perseverance.
In terms of urban energy-demand management, the quality of the built
environment (buildings efficiency) and urban form and density that,
to a large degree, structure urban transport energy use are roughly of
equal importance. Also, energy-systems integration (cogeneration, heat
cascading) can give substantial efficiency gains, but ranks second after
buildings efficiency and urban form and density, and associated transport efficiency measures, as shown both by empirical cross-city comparisons and modeling studies reviewed in this chapter.
The potential for energy-efficiency improvements in urban areas remains

enormous, as indicated by corresponding urban exergy analyses that
suggest urban energy-use efficiency is generally less than 20% of the
thermodynamic efficiency frontier; this suggests an improvement potential of more than a factor five. Implementing efficiency improvements
(including systemic measures) should therefore receive highest priority. In the built environment, there is considerable inertia and irrational
behavior, given the relatively low or even negative cost of GHG abatement through refurbishment of buildings. There is therefore a strong
argument for prescription and regulation regarding building standards.
Conversely, the potential of supply-side measures within the immediate spatial and functional confines of urban systems is very limited,
especially for renewable energies. Locally harvested renewables can,
at best, provide 1% of the energy needs of a megacity and a few percentage points in smaller, low-density cities because of the mismatch
between (high) urban energy demand and (low) renewable energy
supply densities. Without ambitious efficiency gains, the corresponding
energy footprint of cities that import large-scale, centralized renewable energies (biofuels for electricity) will be vast and at risk of producing collateral damages caused by large-scale land conversions (e.g.,
soil carbon perturbations and albedo changes), and competition over
food and water. Given that all city systems are subject to uncertainty
and change, there is also a need for option-based design techniques
that allow for city growth and technological evolution, and that avoid
strongly path-dependent solutions and lock-in into urban energysupply systems based on current- or near-term renewable options that,
ultimately, will be superseded by third and fourth generation renewable supply technology systems. Improved urban energy-efficiency
leverages supply-side flexibility and resilience, and thus adds further
powerful arguments for strategies that focus on urban energy-efficiency improvements.
Finally, energy security is a re-emerging issue for many cities because
energy security declined over recent decades and security concerns need
to be integrated increasingly into urban energy policies and sustainability transition analysis. Better efficiency and improved energy systems
integration will also benefit urban energy security, although a further
assessment of energy security is beyond the scope of this urbanization
chapter (as dealt with in the energy security Chapter 5).
18.6.3.5
Clean Cities: Air Pollution
To a degree, the observed significant improvements in urban air quality caused by the elimination of traditional air pollutants, such as soot,
particles, and SO2, in cities of high-income countries are a powerful illustration that cities act as innovation centers and hubs for environmental
improvements that lead to a sustainability transition path.
The first signs of progress in these traditional air pollutants are evident in countries of lower income as well, and are illustrated by the
1389
recent decline in the emissions of some traditional pollutants in Asian

megacities. Nonetheless, an exceedingly high fraction of urban dwellers worldwide are still exposed to high levels of urban air pollution,
especially TSPs with fine particle emissions (PM-10s) continuing their
upward trend.
A wide portfolio of policy options is available, ranging from regulatory
instruments such as mandated fuel choice (smokeless zone regulations), air-pollution standards, regulation of large point-source emissions and vehicle exhaust standards, to market-based instruments (or
hybrid) approaches that incentivize technological change. An important feature of these regulatory or market-based approaches is dynamic
target setting to reflect changing technology options and to counter
the consequences of urban growth and potential consumer take-back
effects. The tested experiences in a diversity of settings from the United
Kingdom through California to New Delhi provide valuable lessons
for policy learning. However, an institutional locus on the exchange of
policy lessons and capacity building (including pollution monitoring),
particularly in small- and medium-sized cities in low-income countries,
remains sorely lacking.
Air pollution is also the area of urban environmental policy making where the most significant co-benefits of policies can be realized: improving access to clean cooking fuels, for example, improves
human health and lowers traditional pollutant emissions, and also
has (through reduced black carbon emissions) net global warming cobenefits. (See also Chapters 4 and 17 on illustrations of co-benefits).
Similarly, improved energy efficiency and public transport options (e.g.,
New Delhis transition to CNG buses) can also yield co-benefits on a
variety of fronts (lower energy and transport costs for the poor, cleaner
air, improved urban functionality) and should therefore be higher on
the policy agenda than more single-purpose policy measures (e.g.,
renewable portfolio standards for urban electricity supply). Examples
of the management of urban heat island effects also illustrate well
the potential significant co-benefits between mitigation and adaptation measures.
Realization of the significant potential co-benefits, however, requires
more holistic policy approaches that integrate urban land-use, transport, and energy policies with the more traditional air-pollution policy
frameworks. Cities in low-income countries, where the growth trends
of urbanization and air pollutants are the most pronounced (to the
extent that they will determine global trends), are also where institutional capacities and information needs are largest. These must be
improved to be able to reap the multiple co-benefits of more integrated
urban policies. A renewed effort to improve measurement and monitoring as well as planning and modeling of urban environmental quality,
with a particular focus on urban energy and urban transport policy, is
urgently needed. This needs to be coupled with the development of
institutional capacity for the design, implementation, and enforcement
of policies and plans.
1390
Chapter 18
18.6.4
Policy Leverages, Priorities, and Paradoxes
The highest impacts of urban policy decisions are in the areas where
policies can affect local decision making and prevent or unblock spatial
irreversibilities or technological lock-in, or to steer away from critical
thresholds.
Examples include preventing the further development of low-density,
suburban housing and of shopping malls, or promotion of the colocation of high energy supply and demand centers within a city that
enable cogeneration and waste-heat recycling for heating and cooling purposes (e.g., in business districts). Buildings energy-performance
standards are also a prime example of policy interventions that need to
be implemented as early as possible to reap long-term benefits in terms
of reduced energy use and improved urban environmental quality. New
technologies, like smaller micro- and mesogrids are particularly attractive options that are also suitable for deregulated market environments.
The literature on urban energy use, particularly with respect to transport, also identifies a critical threshold of between 50 and 150 inhabitants/ha below which public transport (or energy cogeneration) options
become economically infeasible, which thus leads to overproportional
increases in energy use (e.g., longer trips using private automobiles). To
avoid such critical thresholds being crossed should be a high priority for
urban administrations.
Given capital constraints, it is entirely unrealistic to expect grand
new urban ecodesigns to play any significant role in integrating
some three billion additional urban dwellers to 2050 into the physical,
economic, and social fabric of cities. Building cities for these three billion new urban citizens along the Masdar (Abu Dhabi) model would
require an investment to the tune of well above US$1000 trillion, or
some 20 years of current world GDP!42 The role of such new, daring
urban designs is less a template for development, but rather a learning laboratory to develop and test approaches, especially to low-cost
options for sustainable urban growth in low-income countries and to
retrofit and adapt existing urban structures and systems across the
globe.
To address urban energy sustainability challenges will also require a
new paradigm for drawing systems or ecosystems boundaries that
extend the traditional place-based approach (e.g., based on administrative boundaries or ecosystems such as regional watersheds or
air-quality districts). Sustainability criteria need to be defined on the
basis of the functional interdependence among different systems,
which are not necessarily in geographic proximity to each other.
42 This extreme estimate does not suggest that energy efcient cities are prohibitively
expensive. A wide range of measures in building retrots and low-cost new energy
efcient housing as well as in public transport policies can result in signicant reductions of energy use at modest investment levels. For estimations of the investment
needs of the GEA transition pathways, see Chapter 17.
Chapter 18
System analytical and extended LCA methods are increasingly available to address the question of the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of urban energy systems that almost exclusively rely
on imports. However, clear methodological guidelines and strategies
to overcome the formidable data challenges are needed, a responsibility that resides within the scientific community, but that requires
support and a dedicated long-term approach for funding and capacity
building.
A common characteristic of sustainable urban energy system options
and policies is that they are usually systemic: for example, the integration of land-use and urban transport planning that extends beyond traditional administrative boundaries; the increasing integration of urban
resource streams, including water, wastes, and energy, that can further
both resource (e.g., heat) recovery and improve environmental performance; or the reconfiguration of urban energy systems toward a higher
integration of supply and end-use (e.g., via micro- and mesogrids) that
enable step changes in efficiency, for example, through cogeneration
and energy cascading. This view of more integrated and more decentralized urban infrastructures also offers possibilities to improve the resilience and security of urban energy systems.
And yet this systemic perspective reveals a new kind of governance paradox. Whereas the largest policy leverages are from systemic approaches
and policy integration, these policies are also the most difficult to implement and require that policy fragmentation and uncoordinated, dispersed
decision making be overcome. This governance paradox is compounded
by weak institutional capacities, especially in small- to medium-sized cities
that are the backbone of urban growth, as well as by the legacies of market deregulation and privatization that have made integrated urban planning and energy, transport, and other infrastructural policy approaches
more difficult to design and yet more difficult to implement.
However, there are good reasons for (cautionary) optimism. Urban areas
will continue to act as innovation centers for experimentation and as diffusion nodes for the introduction of new systems and individual technological options (Bai et al., 2010) by providing critical niche market sizes
in the needed transition toward more sustainable urban energy systems.
The task ahead is to leverage fully this innovation potential of cities and to
scale-up successful experiments into transformative changes in energy systems. Individual and collective learning, transfer of knowledge, and sharing
experiences and information across cities and among stakeholders will, as
always, be key objectives to which this chapter hopes to contribute.
1391
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Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Reducing energy and material flows in cities

Helga Weisz1 and Julia K Steinberger2
In the decades to come, the majority of humans will live in urban
settings. Consequently, the role of cities in reducing socioeconomic material and energy flows is increasingly recognized.
We examine the recent literature on urban energy and material
use, and their reduction potential, focusing on three aspects:
the urban form, the urban building stock, and urban
consumption patterns. Although there is clear evidence of the
huge saving potential resulting from better urban form and
better building design, implementation remains an open issue.
Regarding urban consumption patterns, we point out that there
is increasing evidence that household income strongly
correlates with embodied energy and material use. This has
implications regarding how urban specific energy and material
flows should be measured, but might also lead to the insight
that technical fixes will eventually be offset by the income
effect. Although not the focus of this review, social inequalities
in using or having access to resources in cities are stressed as a
largely neglected dimension of the debate.
Addresses
1
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), P.O. Box 60 12
03, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
2
Vienna Institute of Social Ecology, IFF, University of Klagenfurt,
Schottenfeldgasse 29, A-1070 Vienna, Austria
Corresponding author: Weisz, Helga (weisz@pik-potsdam.de)
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2010, 2:185192

This review comes from a themed issue on Human settlements
and industrial systems
Edited by Karen C Seto and David Satterthwaite
Received 6 March 2010; Accepted 21 May 2010
Available online 4th July 2010
1877-3435/$ see front matter
# 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
DOI 10.1016/j.cosust.2010.05.010
Introduction
Globally, in the past hundred years, human population
increased fourfold while material and energy use
increased tenfold. At present humanity uses 500 ExaJoules of primary energy and extracts 60 billion tones of
raw materials annually [1,2]. However, huge inequalities
in per capita material and energy use pertain between
countries and world regions. The highest consuming 10%
of the world population uses 40% and 27% of the worlds
energy and materials respectively, and the richest 10%
accounts for 39% of the worlds GDP [3].
This scale as well as the ongoing dynamic of the socioeconomic material and energy throughput (social or
www.sciencedirect.com
industrial metabolism [4,5]) poses huge challenges for

society, including exhausting the best fossil fuel and ore
deposits, overuse of productive lands, extreme pressure
on biodiversity, and massive emissions of climate changing gases with potentially disastrous consequences [6].
Much of the research related to reducing material and
energy flows has been focusing on either the national
level, targeting at a decoupling of economic growth from
resource use or on the equipment (product) level, targeting at the potential for efficiency improvements.
Since the mid-1990s, however, the potential role of cities
in reducing societal material and energy throughput has
increasingly attracted the attention of researchers, governments, and international organizations. The past two
to three years have seen a surge in activities on urban
metabolism, urban energy use, sustainable cities, carbonneutral cities and so on. In 2008 humanity crossed a
historical landmark with half of the world population
living in urban areas. Urban areas are expected to absorb
increases in world population, adding approximately 3
billion urban dwellers by 2050 [7]. Clearly, sustainability
cannot be achieved without urban-specific considerations
and participation.
This review article summarizes important insights from
the literature about the specific role cities have or could
have in the future in reducing energy and material flows.
Although this seems to be a straightforward topic, some
important caveats are warranted.
(1) Lack of data: Despite the acknowledged importance
of cities for the overall volume of socio-economic
material and energy use, periodically available and
harmonized datasets are provided by statistical offices
almost exclusively for the national level. Therefore
any attempt to generalize patterns and trends of urban
specific resources use from the literature struggles
with incomplete or incommensurable data.
(2) No common definition: City and urban area denote
related but not equal phenomena and no common
international definitions of these terms exist.1
(3) Openness of cities: Cities are places of specialized
production, transformation and consumption rather
than resource extraction, and therefore they depend
on a hinterland as provider of resources, goods and
services. Increasingly this hinterland has a global
dimension. It is exactly this openness of cities with
For practical reasons we here use the terms city and urban area
interchangeable.
186 Human settlements and industrial systems
regard to material and energy flows which makes it

difficult to specify what the urban specific flows are
[8].
(4) Dematerialization versus securing access: The sustainability focus on decreasing resource use often ignores
that a huge part of the global urban population faces
the opposite challenge: that is how to get access to
sufficient material and energy resources to lead a
decent life [9]? UN Habitat estimates that around
800 million urban dwellers in low and middle income
countries do not have adequate access to basic energy
and material services [10]. Energy poverty is also a
real and present problem for the urban poor in highincome countries and in many former communist
states [11,12].
(5) Relevance of the urban scale: Which components of the
material and energy system are specific to urban
scales, as opposed to rural or national scales? Many
structural and technological factors are in principle
the same at national and urban scales, but their
relative importance can be very different.
In this review, we focus on cities as a specific form of
human settlements that is characterized by a high concentration of biophysical structures, inhabitants and
socio-economic activities along with a minimum size.
The plurality of factors known to influence urban
resource use and the diversity and incommensurability
of the published literature suggests narrowing the scope
to allow for a more differentiated discussion.
We here focus on three demand-side aspects that are
particularly important in cities: the urban form, the
characteristics of the building stock and urban consumption patterns. As a consequence, other important factors
are not discussed here. Among these are the challenges
and opportunities of urban energy and material supply
systems (not only requirements for concentrated, clean
energy carriers, but also opportunities for efficient networks, such as district heating, combined heat and power,
or smart electric grids including vehicles as storage) and
the socio-cultural implications of resource reducing
measures (as e.g. social tensions and insufficient privacy
in high density settlements [13]).
Aggregate material and energy flows:

evidence from urban metabolism studies
Since the pioneering article of Wolmann on the urban
metabolism of a hypothetical US city [14], and first
applications of this concept for Brussels [15] and Hong
Kong [16,17], the term urban metabolism is used to
denote quantitative accounts of the overall inputs and
outputs of materials and energy, and of special substances
such as nutrients and water to and from cities. The range
of overall material and energy flows varies greatly between cities. For example, domestic material consumption per capita has been estimated at 20.8 tons/cap*yr for
Lisbon [18], 18 for Singapore [19], 7.6 for Geneva [20],

and 5.0 for Paris [21]), 3.6 for London [22], and 3.3 for
Cape Town [23]. The large variation in urban material
consumption may be due to several factors: energy and
material flows at smaller geographic scales tend to exhibit
higher variability (see for instance the discussion about
the national intra-EU variability in domestic material
consumption [24]). The reason is that such territorial
approaches are significantly determined by the economic
structure within the territorial boundaries, which is
indeed more diverse on smaller scales. Partly incomplete
and incomparable datasets may also play a role. In this
respect particularly the Lisbon results should be interpreted with caution as the authors applied a new method
which is different from the one applied in all the other
studies.
The 2008 World Energy Outlook chapter dedicated to
cities represented a milestone in the recognition of urban
energy [25]. Urban energy use garners increasing attention,
partly in order to estimate and allocate urban greenhouse
gas emissions, the vast majority of which are due to
energy use [8,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,
49]. These studies deal with the problem posed by the
openness of cities by following either a production-based or
consumption-based approach. The production approach
accounts for the emissions produced and the energy and
materials used within the city boundaries. In contrast, the
consumption approach allocates all upstream energy and
material flows (i.e. all flows along the whole production
chain whether they took place inside or outside the territorial city boundary) to the goods and services consumed in
the city.2
Overall these studies provide clear evidence of the
importance of urban energy and material flows and of
the huge variability that exists between cities which
points to substantial reduction potentials. From a territorial production approach, the economic and industrial
activities are often the most important factor, for instance
if a city is a major harbor, airport hub or industrial center.
From a consumption perspective, the income level and
lifestyle of the urban inhabitants will clearly be more
decisive. These two complementary approaches thus
highlight two policy avenues: reduction in resource use
linked to economic production activities, and reduction
from changes in high-income lifestyles.
The role of urban form for transportation

energy requirements
Urban form, in particular density, has long been known to
play a decisive role in transportation energy requirements
[41]. Recent studies confirm that higher population
2
The same allocation problem also applies to countries and in fact the
term was created to denote inconsistencies of allocating CO2 emissions
to nation states [39]. See also [40].
Reducing energy and material flows in cities Weisz and Steinberger 187
densities correlate with lower transportation energy

requirements [29,42,33,35] but there is still debate
on the causal factors underlying the statistical correlations
(see [43] for a comprehensive review of this debate).
A number of authors emphasize the potential of choices
in urban form and spatial functions in mitigating the rise
in energy consumption of urbanizing Asia [4448].
Spatially-explicit studies at the suburban level for the
entirety of Australia and Toronto show that suburban
dwellers are much more dependent on private automobiles [49,27], leading to concerns regarding oil price
vulnerability of suburban populations [50]. An innovative spatially-explicit study conducted by Parshall and
co-workers focusing on transportation and building emissions from US counties found a threshold effect in per
capita urban transportation energy compared to more
rural counties [35].
In a scenario analysis Marshall estimated that for the US
alone an urban development that kept current average US
urban population densities constant (instead of continuing the current trend of reducing urban population
densities by 34% as was observed in the decade 1990
2000) in combination with efficiency improvements of the
car fleet of 1% annually could reduce urban automobile
related CO2 emissions by 18 Giga tones until 2054 [42].
Grazi and co-authors estimated for the Netherlands that
total transport-related CO2 emission are 47% lower in the
highest population density class as compared to the lowest, using an econometric model based on the correlates of
urban form and transportation, including travel distances
and modal choices [51]. Lankao found that per capita
transportation energy is elastic with income (i.e. has faster
than proportional increase) [52].
Overall the evidence from the literature suggests that a
robust correlation between urban population densities
and transportation energy requirements exists, but this
does not directly imply a causal relationship. Incentives,
such as the quality of public transit, and deterrents to
automobile use both play an important role, along with
the attractiveness of high density centers. Reducing the
car dependence of cities, is an important and feasible
strategy to reduce cities overall material and energy
flows, as has been demonstrated for a number of cities
[53], but it requires integrated and sophisticated urban
planning decisions [54,44].
Reducing material and energy requirements

for buildings
Buildings are the largest single sector in energy end use
world-wide [55,56]. Cities with their specific concentration of buildings face both unique opportunities and
trade-offs in reducing the energy and material flows
caused by constructing, maintaining, using and demolishing the building stock.
The operational energy demand of buildings is a function

of the climate, the quality of the building stock (and its
potential improvements), the urban form, and the floor
area demand for residential and commercial uses, which
itself is a function of income and location. Clearly climate
influences the demand for heating and cooling. However,
space heating energy use measures, normalized to heating
degree days and square meters living space, reveal substantial ranges between 14 Wh/m2/degree-day for
Australia and 70 Wh/m2/degree-day for the US in the
early 1970s, and between 17 (Australia) and 44 Wh/m2/
degree-day for Germany in the mid-1990s [57], indicating
the importance of other non-climate factors.
Among these the influence of building technology and
design is certainly important. The potential for reducing
the energy used for space heating is huge: a passive house
standard requires that energy use for space heating is no
more than 15 kWh/m2 floor area per year, for low energy
houses the corresponding number is around 50 kWh/m2,
whereas poor thermal insulation may cause energy use for
space heating of 200400 kWh/m2 in mid-European latitudes. Appropriate insulation together with other design
elements, such as shading, ventilation and orientation,
thus provides huge potentials for reducing energy
demand for heating and cooling [43].
There are trade-offs though. Higher income is known to
be correlated with higher per capita floor space [57], a
trend which sets off some of the efficiency gains achieved
by better building design. The temperature to which
inner spaces are heated or cooled also plays a role, and
is dependent on lifestyles or habits of the inhabitants.
High densities, which may be desirable for reducing
transportation, can limit the possibilities to implement
design measures for reducing heating energy use and pose
additional stresses on air quality.
The urban heat island effect is thought to reduce heating
demands but may increase cooling demands [58]. A
comparison of 100 US cities by Brown and co-authors
shows that overall building-related energy use decreases
with urban density [29], and the county-level mapping of
Parshall and co-authors also indicates lower buildingrelated emissions in urban areas even at higher
incomes [35].
Compared to the rich body of literature on operational
energy use, studies on the energy and materials required
to construct and maintain the buildings are rare. For the
residential building stock of six Australian cities, Troy
and co-authors show that the operational energy by far
exceeds embodied energy, but some caution is warranted
here as the operational energy included transportation in
this case [59]. An in-depth analysis of the life cycle
energy, material, GHG emissions and costs of a specific
single-family house in the US found that the use phase
accounted for more than 90% of the total energy consumption and that the implementation of various efficiency strategies could reduce those by more than 50%
[60].
Long-term simulations of the material life cycle of buildings have been conducted for the Netherlands, Norway,
the city of Trondheim, urban areas in the UK and Japan,
Germany as well as for urban and rural China
[61,62,63,64,65,66]. Using different methods such as
demand driven system dynamics models of the aggregated residential housing stock, or surveying and image
interpretation, these studies point to the so far largely
neglected potential of reducing the life cycle material
flows and surges in demolition wastes associated with the
material dynamic of the built urban environment. Fernandez examined the consumption of energy and
materials attributable to the rapid increase in Chinas
urban building stock. He pointed out that the pure size
and pace of Chinas urbanization has global implications
for resource use, thus making the large developing
countries decisive players to achieve overall material
and energy reductions [67].
Beyond city boundaries: reducing urban

household consumption
Figure 1
Direct and embodied energy of Australian households, source: [49], p. 97.
Figure 2
The consumption approach accounts for the resource use

caused by urban households directly on fuels and electricity, and indirectly on goods and services.
Technically such analysis is carried out using Environmentally-Extended InputOutput Models in combination with expenditure surveys which allow a
consistent allocation of the industrial energy use to the
final goods and services purchased by households of
different income brackets at the city or country level.
This method has been applied to urban households in
India [68,69], Australia [49,37], and Brazil [70].3
For Australian urban households Lenzen and co-workers
show that indirect energy consumption is of the same
order as direct energy use in high-income cities. If corrected for income, many cities may have lower energy use
and emissions than the national average [49,37]. Most
significantly the Australian results indicate that direct
household energy use has a tendency to saturate at higher
expenditure levels, whereas total energy consumption
(direct plus indirect) continues to rise with expenditure
(see Figure 1).
For Indian urban and rural households Pachauri found
similar proportions between direct and indirect household energy requirements. Her study not only confirms
3
It should be noted that the method has also been applied to
ecological footprint analysis, water use, emissions and wastes, although
mostly on the national scale.
Average per capita Indian household energy requirements by household

size group, source: [69], p. 1728.
earlier findings that household size is negatively correlated with per capita household energy use but also shows
explicitly that this applies to both direct and indirect
energy use, see Figure 2 [69].
Using a multivariate regression analysis to explain variations in per capita total (direct and indirect) household
energy use, Pachauri found that income by far was the
most important explaining variable. The expenditure
elasticity of total household energy amounted to 0.67
(implying that a 1% increase in per capita expenditure
Figure 3
Expenditure for direct and indirect energy requirements by income class (US$ PPP 1996) and indirect and direct energy requirements by income class
in Brazilian urban households, source: [70], p. 559.
results in a 0.67% higher per capita energy use) [30].

However, all other things being equal, energy use was
found to be 10% lower in urban than in rural areas. This is
explained by the high use of inefficient non-commercial
fuels in rural India in combination with fuel shifts in
Figure 4
urban areas towards modern energy forms, such as electricity and LPG [69].
Similar results were found in a study on energy requirements of urban households in Brazil. The authors found
that per capita household energy use (both direct and
indirect) is strongly dependent on income and an increasingly larger share of indirect energy use is observed in
higher income brackets, see Figure 3 [70].
The income dependent expenditure elasticity of energy
requirements was found to be above 1 for direct energy in
most income classes. The direct energy elasticity curve
peaks in the mid-income class at almost 1.1. and declines
with higher incomes to reach 0.9 in the highest income
class. In contrast, the elasticity curve for indirect energy
use rises linearly with income but stays below 1 in all
income classes (Figures 3 and 4).
Average expenditure elasticity of Brazilian household energy

requirements across income classes, source: [70], p. 560.
Overall these studies reveal compelling consistency in the

main findings, despite the considerable socio-economic
differences between Australian, Indian, and Brazilian
cities. This supports the criticism of Satterthwaite and
Dodman that urbanization per se may not be to blame for
high energy use and GHG emissions, but rather highincome lifestyle [9,32]. However, it is also well known
that urbanization most often accompanies increases in
income. Clearly more research is needed to capture the
causality between urbanization and income.
Conclusions and outlook

Recent research has come a long way in establishing
comparative methodologies for estimating energy and
greenhouse gas emissions at the urban level, but accounting methods still require more attention, in particular for
material flows.
Results from the consumption perspective suggest that
urbanization per se is not the main problem, but rather
high-income lifestyles which often accompany urbanization. Insights from the production perspective show that
cities can significantly lower material and energy flows
through efficient urban form and built environment.
Overall, evidence indicates that at equal incomes, the
urban type of human settlements is less resource intensive in terms of direct household energy use as compared
to rural types and significant reduction potentials can be
expected from better urban form, infrastructure and
building design.
Cities are not equal in terms of their layout, development
stage or economic basis. It would thus be most useful to
develop a typology of cities, which takes into account the
most important distinctions which determine the current
levels and trends in urban resource use and which constrain future reduction options. Our review suggests that
at least the following distinctions should be considered:
high versus low urbanization dynamics (India, China
vs. North America, Europe and parts of Africa);
income and industrialization levels;
history: recent automobile based (as e.g. most US
cities) or dating back to medieval times (e.g. many
European cities);
economic inequality and accompanying inequalities in
settlement rights;
the role and influence of current urban planning.
Indeed, North American car-based cities, old European
cities and rapidly expanding Asian cities face fundamentally different opportunities of redesigning the built
urban environment towards more efficient resource use.
A more generally applied consumption perspective, stratified by income, would render visible the contribution of
the high-income brackets for overall resources use (in
both urban and rural areas) while pointing out the necessity to provide the urban and rural poor with safe supplies
of energy and material goods to live a decent life.
Bringing analysis into practice is a notorious obstacle. In
the policy realm various and partly conflicting objectives
have to be considered, traditionally separated policy fields
need to be integrated and user-friendly information systems must be established [52,54,7177]. To this end,
comprehensive empirical results on the specific contributions of urban design and changing urban lifestyle
patterns would be desirable. Such empirical evidence
would also support the development of innovative

policies addressing consumption patterns to lower their
environmental impacts.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge funding from the project Sustainable Urban Metabolism in
Europe (SUME); European Communitys Seventh Framework Programme
FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement 212034. We are also very grateful to
Arnulf Gruebler, Xuemei Bai, Thomas Buttner, Shobhakar Dhakal, David
Satterthwaite, and other authors of the chapter Urbanization of the
forthcoming Global Energy Assessment (GEA) for their continued inspiration
and great discussion culture.
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Environmental Technology & Design;

the Concept of the Urban Metabolism (UM)
Prof.dr.ir. Arjan van Timmeren
TU Delft. Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
Department Urbanism, Chair Environmental Technology & Design

Abstract
The field of interest of the Environmental Technology and Design (ETD) chair concerns
the interaction of nature, people, technology and design towards sustainable solutions.
At different scales, however starting mainly from the perspective of the urban
dynamics and of emerging theories of complexity related to this. It includes a
renewed look on the urban metabolism and the role of environmental technology,
urban ecology and environment behavior focus for the field. Relevant aspects are the
continuing transformation, economic-technological innovation and changing tasks in
the public sector before, during and after design and construction of buildings and
cities. Scale-free thinking and permanent insight in ecological, spatial, technical and
social backgrounds are of vital importance. As the field concerns both integrated and
reciprocal problems, or better said: challenges and potentials.
The perspective presented in this paper anticipates on this. An accurate and
permanent way of operational development will occur as a type of place-making,
incorporating self-organization, network & systems thinking and parametric design. This
implies that plans are tied together with surrounding projects as a total concept
within a structure supporting flexible and continuous processes of change.

Sustainable Development and the road towards a dynamic equilibrium
Since to 1950s the subject of sustainability and the need to reduce global ecological
overshoot has been at the center of debate on all fronts: social, economic and
environmental. Defined as a process or transition strategy rather than an end in
itself, sustainability has not yet been identified with a unified theory or approach.
It is important to link sustainability aiming urban solutions, that address to continuing
transformation, economic-technical innovation and changing tasks in the public sector,
to the use(rs) with optional help of technology and design.
Sustainable development is a moving target: knowledge, technologies, and skills are
still being developed every day. In fact, sustainability often relies in the management
of transitionsa shift to doing things differentlythat tends to be specific to each
site, rather than a constant recipe or one size fits all type solution. This is why it is
necessary to bring the knowledge and innovations of environmental technology and
TU Delft ABE/U/ETD | The concept of the Urban Metabolism (UM) | prof.dr.ir. Arjan van Timmeren |
design and especially the role adaptation to change and complexity related to this.
For sustainable (urban) development is mainly depending on peoples mind.
One of the big debates in environmental urban development and design today
concerns policy and strategic responses. Both public and private sectors look for
operational strategies that can be implemented in the development and retrofit of
sustainable urban areas. As a result, powerful market players working together with
governments are emerging as the new leaders in this debate.
The different approaches can be classified according to the actors involved by the
motivations and incentives, and the various implementation scales from regional and
urban plans to building sites (Timmeren & Rling, 2007). One way of addressing the
complexity of the task at hand, often used these days, is through certification
standards. Certification programs can cover most of the aspects of urban (property-)
development, including setting targets for site decontamination, use of recycled
materials, brownfield redevelopment, provision of public transport, options to
discourage fossil transport use, energy consumption and efficiency in buildings, water
recycling and waste management. There is however a certain risk attached to this
development. Urban sustainability should be more: plans will have to be tied together
in an integrated approach with surrounding projects as a total concept within a
structure supporting flexible and continuous processes of change.
The make-ability of our environment is limited and we have to develop new patterns
of interaction with the environment including inevitable adaptations of our way of
living, working and recreation. Even to those who are thoroughly inured to warnings
of impending catastrophe, the World Banks report on climate change, Turn Down the
Heat (PICIRCA, 2012), is made for alarming reading. Looking at the consequences of
four degrees of global warming, a likely outcome under current trajectories, the Bank
concludes that the full scope of damage is almost impossible to project. Even so, it
states: The projected impacts on water availability, ecosystems, agriculture, and
human health could lead to large-scale displacement of populations and have
adverse consequences for human security and economic and trade systems.
Simultaneously, one of the biggest technological transformations ever is taking place,
viz., the fusion of the various geographical markets in the world into one dynamic,
complex organism. In this, roughly forty global cities are taking up a key position
within the global economy. They can be called the hubs of modern global
economy, characterized by denationalization (Sassen, 1991). Urban areas thus
become the milieu for the worlds economic engines, control centers and workforces.
After over a century of ignoring cities, the economics profession is beginning to
come around; today, Urban Economics is now seen more often a growth discipline.
Most of todays urban economic theorizing aims to explain the productivity
advantages of large cities, taking inspiration from Alfred Marshalls observations of
external economies of scale (Marshall, 1920). But todays dominant theories in Urban
Economics have a distinctly single-E focus, downplaying issues of social equity and
the natural environment. According to Glaeser (2011) cities can be defined as the
absence of physical space between people and companies. It is important to realize
that besides this single-E focus, to understand cities fully, the other two Es Equity
and the Environment must be addressed. Modern studies of interest group politics
(e.g. Bartels, 2002) demonstrate that socioeconomic inequality tends to bring about
unequal access to the channels of policymaking. Glaeser however tends towards the
view that urban poverty is a temporary condition through which destitute rural
migrants pass on their way to wellbeing. This goes of course in particular for
growing cities in developing countries.
The new Urban Economics focus of today identifies urban environments as greener
than suburban or rural areas; city dwellers use fewer physical resources and emit
fewer greenhouse gases per capita than their suburban or rural counterparts. But in
terms of human well-being, the quality of the urban environment matters as much as
cities overall environmental footprint (Timmeren, 2012; Enelow, 2012). Protection from
air pollution and issues like lead poisoning, access to parkland and healthy food are
rarely equitably distributed within cities, with poor people shortchanged on all counts.
Environmental injustice hurts everyone; more equitable distributions of environmental
benefits are good for all residents of urban areas, not just the disadvantaged (Ash
et al., 2010).
While it not being immediately apparent to the average citizen of the west, a
tectonic technological shift is causing a sea change as markets around the globe
that were once isolated by geography are beginning to fuse into a complex sociotechnical-economic organism. The modern globalized economy is defined by a few
global cities that have undergone a denationalization, whose urban ingenuity (i.e.
Infrastructure, services, economy and social values) is more alike than when
compared to other cities and towns found within national boundaries. Thus, urban
areas have become the milieu of our global economy, its control centers and its
workforce.
Consequently, the typical global city is much more complex and chaotic as a
growing number of spatial and virtual connections extend across traditional political
boundaries. Harmful environmental development schemes are exacerbated by our
chaotic, disruptive and aggressive spatial changes and will undoubtedly continue to
intensify in the coming next decades if we maintain our current business-as-usual
path. On closer examination, however, the global economy itself might be
characterized as a system of structural exploitation that creates hidden dependencies
on other parts of the world, forcing people to give up their rights to their own
resources. The counter reaction to this, which I support, is called localization. It is
sometimes feared that this counter reaction, so-called localization, will lead to all
kinds of negative aspects, such as repression, dependence and intolerance. On
closer examination, however, it is clear that the opposite is true: the global economy
is itself might be characterized as a system of structural exploitation that creates
hidden dependencies on other parts of the world, and forces people to give up their
rights to their own resources.
Towards an Urban Metabolism: Localization and Short Circuit Economies

The urban environments capacity to generate ecosystem services has been largely
overlooked. This will have to become an important starting point for the development
of changed focus in Urban Planning. This response to aforementioned processes of
globalization, localization, is not about isolating communities from other cultures, but
about creating a new, sustainable and equitable basis on which they can interact. In
this context, short circuit economies can be developed when community initiatives
are taken to release the imagination of those involved and enable them to take
further steps towards economic revitalization, stronger and healthier communities.
The transition from unsustainable cities to more sustainable and resilient cities must
gradually develop in an evolutionary way where todays open and global systems for
energy and materials will be complemented by what has been referred to as more
local and regional short circuit economies that facilitate local social cohesion as
well.
The development of short circuit economies has a potential to raise awareness and
creativity on a local level so that adaptive governance will be an important force in
the transition to sustainable pathways in cities. The aim of economic localization is
not to establish complete self-sufficiency at the village level. In fact, localization does
not mean everything being produced locally, nor does it mean an end to trade.
It simply means creating a better balance between local, regional, national and
international markets. It also means that large corporations/ governments should
cede more power to and communities, giving them more control over what is
produced, where, when and how, and that trading should be fair and to the benefit
of both parties. A very important result of more short circuit economies is that the
use of resources together with the problems arising from our life styles and
consumption patterns will be more transparent to people. Hence, the distance
between awareness and action can be decreased.
Building the urban-focused economy of the future based upon inclusion of social
equity, environmental justice and urban ecosystem services are as important as the
main questions stated in this research: the inclusion of prosperity and innovation
based upon interconnecting eMobility and energy generation and exchange based on
renewables. This requires looking at, not overall national trends, but the sub-national
performance of cities and metropolitan areas.
Today, cities in the advanced economies of North America and Western Europe may
dominate the various surveys that measure urban productivity (Colford, 2013) and
cultural magnetism, but, tomorrow, about 400 fast-growing cities in the developing
world will reshape the economic landscape. As the long-established but slowergrowing cities in developed nations, like for instance in the Netherlands, see their
relative influence wane, the surging cities of the developing world will be increasingly
ambitious competitors. The interesting thing however is that the vitality of
metropolitan regions is upending traditional national power structures: Mayors and
city planners often wield authority more effectively than gridlocked federal
governments (Brooks, 2013). Or as Katz and Bradley (2013) state: There really isn't
a national economy. There's a network of metropolitan economies where countries
talent, creativity and industry are concentrated. Holland (2012) calls this an
evolutionary transformation in citizenship that is now underway.
For large urban developments it is important to be aware of this, and to try to
focus its development on this principle, advancing a conception of sustainable urban
districts (Eco Districts) as a microcosm of society.
Well-known initiatives to improve their competitiveness in this respect are the World
Banks City-by-City help for (eco)development.
Analyzing urbanization through the
competitiveness lens is indispensable in designing effective pro-growth strategies. In

the accelerating global economy, building on the creativity thats concentrated within
competitive cities, creating green urban environments based on the before mentioned
triple E approach, offers the best chance of delivering transformative solutions
(Colford, 2013).
The concept and context of an Urban Metabolism (UM) approach

The metaphor of a city, or living environment, as a living organism with a collective
urban metabolism1 can be traced back for more than 150 years. More recently, the
concept of urban metabolism has been used as an analytical tool to understand
energetic and material exchanges between cities and the rest of the world (FischerKowalski, 2002). It is tangential to concepts of regenerative design (among others:
Tillman-Lyle, 1994), cradle to cradle (Braungart & McDonough, 2002) and the
emerging academic fields of industrial ecology (among others: Goklany, 2003; Bai,
2007) and biomimicry (Benyus, 1997). Basis is that ecology needs to be the
paradigm for technological advancement if global ecosystem health is to be restored.
Figure 1 Metabolism comparison between an animal cell and a human settlement.

In Biology, metabolism is the totality of biochemical reactions in a living thing. Metabolism is
differentiated into consumption of energy by breaking down sources into smaller units to release energy
(catabolism) and synthesis of complex molecules from smaller units by using energy (anabolism).
1
Figure 2 Metabolism comparison between a plant cell and a photosynthetic human settlement.
Metabolism is a precondition of life, along with homeostasis (regulation of the

internal environment), structural organization, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli,
and reproduction2. Though metabolism was at first used to describe living organisms,
pioneering ecologist Arthur Tansley expanded the term in 1935 to encompass the
material and energetic streams from the inorganic construction of settlements. Urban
metabolism here is a framework for modeling complex urban systems material and
energy streams as if the city were an ecosystem. This approach allows the dynamics
of cities (beyond traditional mobility and the relationship between built/(un)cultivated
environments) to be studied in relation to scarcity, carrying capacity and
conservation of mass and energy (Newman et al., 2009).
From this perspective, buildings, districts and entire regions as not only consumers
but also potentially significant contributors to essential energy and resource streams.
However, there is also a counter side to this approach: urban metabolism in a way
is opposed to traditional urban planning, in which social, cultural, political and
technical dimensions dominate over the biophysical dimension: hence, it synthesized
environmental and biological science into the urban planning discipline3.
More recently, many interpretations followed concerning the industrial ecology and
urban metabolism approach. Abel Woman, a sanitary engineer, originated the model
in his 1965 paper, The metabolism of cities, which he defined as, all the materials
and commodities needed to sustain a citys inhabitants at home, at work, and at
play. The three problems he identified are water supply, water pollution, and air
pollution. 45 years later, more problems are relevant, including energy supply and
nutrients. Important to mention is The changing metabolism of cities (Kennedy et
al., 2007), which updated the definition of urban metabolism to the sum total of the
technical and socio-economical processes that occur in cities, resulting in growth,

When applied to more that one organism, the biological object is an ecosystem in which different actors
(i.e. plants, animals, bacteria, fungi) interact to form a collective metabolism; thus assuming that a
community of organisms are systematically integrated in the same way as an individual organism.
2
For example, Karl Marx used metabolism to describe the material and energy exchange between nature
and society as a critique of industrialization (1883): he advocated that urban metabolism becomes a
power in itself (like capitalism), and will control society unless society is able to control it (Nelson, 2010).
3
production of energy, and elimination of waste. It introduces the essential

component of integration of both technical as well as social perspective. In practice,
the study of an urban metabolism involves an overall quantification of the inputs,
outputs and storage of energy, water, nutrients, materials and wastes for an urban
region (Kennedy et al., 2011). This however can be broadened with related flows
such as logistics, biota etc.
The urban metabolism provides comprehensive information about the health of a
city: energy efficiency, material cycling, waste management and effectiveness of
infrastructure. Some have suggested that the degree to which cities have circular as
opposed to linear metabolisms is a measure of their sustainability.
A society based on the principles of urban metabolism is predicated on the
symbiosis of tradition and renewal. The architects, urban planners and engineers
have a very important role toward the realization of a sustainable urban metabolism
within our towns and cities. Oftentimes those in the field usually come up with
solutions for singular problems with static forces.
Let it be known that this epoch is
now defunct. The importance of community building and self organization will be
paramount to creating a more self-reliant society that thinks globally but acts locally.
Apart from our buildings and infrastructure, resilience, adaptability and
transformability need to be incorporated into the modern idiom.
To explore this there is a focus on four angles that make urban metabolism
interesting for urban planners and designers.
1.
The infrastructures of the flows are (often neglected) design challenges in their
own right;
2.
Looking at flows produce ways of enhancing environmental performance and

making cities smarter;
3.
Potential smart planning instruments: they might be formative to cities in an

indirect way.
4.
People. In some of the world cities access to the flows, can make the difference
between life and death. In other cities they open the way to well-being. In mature
cities, smart arrangements of the flows can determine not only the quality of
living but also the climate for places of business for international corporations.
Urban metabolism, however, is not without its critics. It has been challenged by
certain social scientists because it neglects the sociological fact that humans are
malleable and conditioned by their social environment (Mc.Donald et al., 2007), not
the natural environment.
Human behavior is primarily influenced by societal norms
rather than immutable natural laws. From this perspective, planning cities as a
metaphor for a large biological entity is nave because human relationships with the
environment and other humans are more complicated.
Though sociological studies of urban metabolism have shown the irrationality of
societies in regards to essential streams (water, nutrients, etc.), there is one,
thankfully positive observation: human settlements are able to adapt to environmental

conditions. Unlike all other organisms humans are self aware of their actions and
can adjust behaviors accordingly. Reflexibility, or the use of critical intelligence and
commitment in an envirotechnical, aesthetic or sociopolitical way for the design of
environmental-technical and spatial processes, can be achieved in society through
the participation of users in the design, construction and management of the
environment.
Urban life has disassociated modern man from the nature. The western model of
society is based on a number of immutable dictums that are rarely thought about in
day to day activities: (1) there will always be an abundance of and access to food
(and choices there of); (2) water always comes out of the faucet; (3) the
infrastructures that provide us the goods and services (and the energy that they run
on) we need will always be there. As it has been clearly illustrated time and time
again, these assumptions cannot be guaranteed ad infinitum. Forced, top-down social
control in the form of an environmental technocracy/dictatorship is not a desirable
path for most. Instead, normal routines will have to change in order to create a
post-scarcity society. Personal responsibility, environmental awareness, critical
thinking, co-creation and communal well-being will be integral to the participation of
users in this process of development.
Within the research tradition of environmental technology, the attention for water
and energy saving has always been obvious, because of reduction in demand,
enhancement of efficiency and renewable sources since the second energy crisis (in
1973). Meanwhile, there is a strong segregation between the various participants, as
there is between the various disciplines, concerning solutions for matters including
generation of renewable energy (wind versus sun), sustainable water management
and the development of the necessary water concepts and waste/material
management.
In the first few years after this second energy crisis, the energy policy is also
strongly characterized by institutional fragmentation. Until now, most research
projects on environment related flows of energy, water, waste, nutrients and materials
do not make any attempt to rise above the compartmentalized policy domains.
Many well-meant initiatives stick in thematic and effect-oriented solutions without
reaching a certain degree of integration or added value of environmental measures.
The corresponding infrastructure is often restricted to transport infrastructure with its
own status, dominant parties involved and path-dependent policy. The relevant types
of physical infrastructure (present in the Netherlands) which are considered in regard
to the concept of Urban Metabolism, are as follows:
Water supply; water extraction and purification, drinking water supply network;
Wastewater treatment; sewer, wastewater treatment plants, recovery installations;
Solid waste management; solid waste collection, separation facilities, transportation

infrastructure, landfills, incineration facilities;
Energy supply; electricity generators, electricity grid, heat network, pipelines for
liquid or gaseous energy carriers;
Food supply; farms, nutrient supply, storage facilities;
Transportation; roads, bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure, canals,

public transportation.
The morphology of infrastructure is directly linked to the quality of urban

metabolism. The infrastructure present in the city will have significant repercussions
on the ecological footprint of the inhabitants, without any change in behavior. For
example, electricity consumed in the Netherlands is predominately from fossil fuel
while electricity consumed in Norway is predominately hydroelectric. Therefore, the
Ecological Footprint and similar Environmental Assessment qualities are determined
by the infrastructure providers, not by the consumers (Nelson, 2010). The shape of
the infrastructure changes the behavior of citizens, improving the quality of urban
metabolism. The density of cities has a relationship to the type of transportation
that is used. The location of the food supply, be it on another continent or in the
city, influences the metabolism of energy in transportation.
Implementation of the Urban Metabolism (UM) approach

Few people in society deny the necessity to preserve or enhance the environment
or our living surroundings, to distribute wealth and welfare, to offer all people scope
to develop themselves and more awareness (the equity principle within Sustainable
Development). However, the emphasis on the restriction of the environmental load
will soon lead to resistance. Public support is lacking at times when this has
consequences that cannot immediately be capitalized within the current economic
models. Most people like progress, fewer like changes Boisseleau stated (2004).
Therefore, the emphasis should be on conducting a transformation process, and
perhaps on expanding environmental space (Kristinsson et al., 1997).
Critical to the implementation of this option of expanding the environmental space,
or better: of integrated resource management in the urban living environment from
the perspective of UM, is knowledge dissemination of low exergy solutions including
strong feedback systems constructive feedback loops (Folke et al., 2004) between
the different physical scales (site, neighbourhood, city-region, et cetera).
The basis of my view to take the updated UM perspective as a guiding principle lies
in the interaction between integrated ecosystems and ecosystems in which the
created technical system performs: A sustainable built environment will not be
completely reached until the flows of materials can be closed and the cycle can be
managed and sustained without too many manoeuvres and losses of energy and
other materials4. At all times alternatives should be offered (so-called fallback
scenarios; especially important from the perspective of Resilience).

The urban environment is a high activity, densely populated area. These areas inevitable require lowentropy concentrated energy supply.
4
Also, there is a theoretical challenge to understand existing frameworks on essential

flows5 from the perspective of emerging theories of complexity and to come up with
a set of abstract dynamic models.
Meanwhile, reflexibility (which I define as the use of the users critical intelligence
and commitment in an environmental-technical, aesthetic and political or sociopolitical way for the design of environmental-technical and spatial processes) can be
achieved through the participation of users in the design, the construction and even
the management of the built environment or parts of it.
For this purpose it is of importance to be aware that experimentation, learning
knowledge generation, creativity and responsibility are common characteristics of all
lifestyles (Ryan et al., 2009; Florida, 2002). And as community wellbeing is linked to
participation in the process of development and in community activities, experimental
setups (preferably within so-called protected environments) should be a first step.
The aforementioned issue of participation goes beyond just social control6. It could
be seen as an attempt to hold users and occupants responsible for themselves, to
ask them to think for themselves. As the notion of social structures is rather vague
and does not allow for specifying groups or individuals, the term communities most
of the times is used7. The other, often dominant parties involved should realize that
the involvement of users and communities goes further than just the change itself
(design, construction/realization).
This alternative approach of place-making (Healey, 1997) is a balanced concept
which is interconnected with surrounding projects, in a structure that supports flexible
and continuous change processes, is open, and is continuously capable of absorbing
corrections through permanent reflection (and learning).
Within this approach the urban development of an area had better not follow the
ready-made plan, but should be embedded into a structure of flexible and
continuous processes of change (Timmeren, 1999). It should be open to corrections
and capable of continuously absorbing changes. Starting from the ambition of
sustainable development on the basis of UM, an integrated development of areas
assumes a simultaneous change in the material/physical, social and symbolic
domains. In this, the building and perseverance of relationships based on mutual

Like REAP (Rotterdam Energy Approach & Planning; Tillie et al., 2009), EPM (Energy Potential Mapping;
Dobbelsteen et al., 2011), Ecopolis strategy & S2N (Strategie van de twee netwerken; Tjallingii, 1996),
DPL (Duurzaamheids Profiel van een Locatie; IVAM, sd), Triple P (People, Planet, Profit /prosperity),
etcetera. But also new developed and operationalized political decision making approaches like TEEB (The
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity; UN, 2008), and for instance in the Netherlands MKBA
(Maatschappelijke Kosten-Baten Analyse; NICIS Instituut, sd), Kader Afweging Duurzame Ontwikkeling
(KADO) and Provinciale Structuur visies (PSV) attached to possibilities within the WRo (Dutch law on
Spatial planning).
5
In the field of sociology, described as the way people have learned to control each other and
themselves (Goudsblom, 1974).
6
Communities are the social and institutional components of the city. They include the formal and
informal, stable and ad hoc human associations that operate in an urban area: neighbourhoods, agencies,
organizations, enterprises, task forces, and the like. In sum, the communities act as the brain of the city,
directing its activities, responding to its needs, and learning from its experience. (Godschalk 2002).
7
10
trust between the participants is considered the social capital in the area.
Empowerment, co-creation and placemaking than are important concepts to include
(or at least consider).
Conditional concepts for the UM approach: Empowerment and Placemaking

Many of the large challenges we face can be categorized as wicked problems, i.e.
problems for which there is no common notion of what the problem is, and so there
is neither common understanding on the path towards a solution nor on what would
count as a solution. Moreover, it is also clear that the problems cannot be solved
by optimization of existing systems or add on type of solutions. Wicked problems in
cities require transitions of urban systems (as a whole) that will in general not solve
the problem but make it irrelevant as the transition leads to completely new modes
to fulfill existing functions.
Transition theory has been emerging in the last decade and is still a work in
progress. Historic studies of transitions show that imbalances are an important
factor in triggering transition processes. These can be caused by external
developments (tension), internal developments (stresses by gradual changes within
systems elements) or by newly emerging technologies that create competing options
to fulfill the function of the system (pressure) (Haan, 2010). These system conditions
might create a sense of urgency, which will accelerate the transition and lead to
more daring transition attempts.
Although most cities pride on their public life, one could state that they inhabit a
public realm that still pales beside what it could become. Many neighborhood streets
and most major avenues still can be considered hostile settings for pedestrians; too
many plazas outside major buildings are lifeless and cold; smaller parks, plazas, and
squares are poorly maintained; and local institutions such as schools and libraries
seldom enjoy the strong public presence they deserve. In this respect often the
quote We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us, (Winston Churchill8) has
been brought up. The built environment and its design (both on the scale of building
and outside environment) can be seen as a carrier of culture and a creator of
meaning, which establishes norms and behaviour in our society (Weisman, 2000). This
way of thinking of society requires that one sees the world and values hierarchies
within it, not as neutral or objective, but as social constructions that are based on
certain interests. Through this perspective, spatial design, be it at the scale of a
building or an urban environment is never constant but is constantly re-produced
through certain means based on certain values and ideas.
Winston Churchills speech in House of Commons on October 28, 1944 is often referred to as the
origin of this quote, but in the original version it goes: "We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our
dwellings shape us. However the first printed version is found in a Time Magazine article from 1960 which
provide the slightly different version "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
11
So one can speak of performativity in architecture and spatial organisation of

functions. What architecture is doing rather than just being, using the term
performativity in this context as discussed by Judith Butler (1990). Creating green
urban environments based on the UM and engaging citizens in more sustainable
lifestyles is one of the biggest challenges. In this, policies should address to people
as citizens rather than as consumers. It implies a new understanding of built
environment that focuses also on the immaterial aspects of design (the so-called
lateral Fundamental Needs), through its relation to urban and social life, besides of
that of the actual shapes: How temporal aspects play a role in the experience of the
city, as well as how activities including the human body can change the meaning of
spaces (Petescu, 2007).
The challenge for architects and urban designers and planners is to create
infrastructures and services that can become part of the fabric of city life. This will
not be achieved simply by applying concepts such as citizen-centric principles to the
design of smart city services. The more important question is who has the ability to
apply such approaches on behalf of all of the people within a city? The answer lies
in communities (Robinson, 2012; Dorst, 2005). It is only by enabling the co-creation
of new services by all of the stakeholders within city communities that a citizencentric approach can be systematically and universally enabled.
The policy than for an area development based on urban metabolism should try to
find a balance between government, business, communities and individuals that will
deliver the reform, fairness and change the built environment needs. The policy
agenda than should be based upon the following:
Giving communities more powers (localism and devolution); to encourage a more

organic agency response by encouraging higher levels of social learning
between individuals within their communities, to encourage a more collective
response to energy and climate issues.
Encouraging people to take an active role in their communities; empowering

through a greater sense of ownership, e.g. by encouraging more decentralized
energy generation, which could be owned and run by communities themselves.
Transfer of power from central government to local government; addressing

issues of trust in relation to the role of government and business. By a
continued devolvement of responsibility down to the local level might encourage
grass-roots politics around energy and climate issues (Fudge and Peters, 2013).
Supporting co-ops, mutual, charities and social enterprises (individual and

community entrepreneurship); support by governments of these groups in
realizing greater involvement in the running of public services.
Communicate real-time data (including use(r) feedback, government data); open

(transparent) data will help to empower individuals and communities and to
respond more specific to changes in circumstances, leading to a more custommade and effective approach.
12
Together with this focus of empowerment placemaking is a relevant tendency.

Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of
public spaces. Placemaking capitalizes on a local communitys assets, inspiration, and
potential, ultimately creating good public spaces that promote peoples health,
happiness, and well-being. It is both a process and a philosophy (Alexander, 1977),
but should also be seen as an overarching idea and a hands-on tool for improving
neighbourhood(s) (or even the city or region). The last few years there were
worldwide a variety of pushes for placemaking related to greyfields, docklands and
waterfronts (see for instance: http://www.pps.org), which built upon existing energies
while honing new techniques.
Resilience thinking and incorporating change in urban metabolisms

To work towards a sustainable future, a multitude of approaches are preached and
practiced. A resilience approach deals with sustainability in a non-direct way. From a
resilience perspective, spreading risk enhances a systems resilience. This was
concluded before as necessary, with respect to the Urban Metabolism approach.
These risks include not only the risk of depletion, but also of contaminating ones
own living environment. Here a resilience approach achieves the goals of sustainable
development via another route on a systemic level.
Facing the fact that the current way of dealing with our environment and resources
is not sustainable, from a resilience perspective this means that it now shows that
current human activities are not resilient to changes in its patterns of resource
consumption: we seem not to be able to cope with a lack of our primary resources.
Urban environments are currently highly dependent upon the built and natural
environments in their hinterlands, depending on networks of infrastructures for
people, information, water, materials, energy, and waste.
The growth and densification of these networks lead to a greater interdependency
between them, which increases their vulnerability due to potentially uncontrollable
cascading effects (Cohen and Havlin 2010). Within this context resilience and the
previous concepts of localization, short circuit economies, place making and
empowerment are important starting points. Resilience is a rich and complex concept.
It has roots in systems theory, and it has a variety of interpretations and
applications including for ecosystems management, disaster preparedness, and even
community planning (Medd and Marvin 2005). Resilience is defined as a measure of
the persistence of systems and their ability to absorb change and disturbance and
still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables (Holling,
1973). This definition originates from ecology and indicates that change and
disturbances is not countered, but instead is utilised to alter the system in such a
way that the system can cope next time similar changes or disturbances occur,
without losing its identity.
Resilience has three defining characteristics:
The amount of change the system can undergo and still retain the same controls
13
on function and structure.
The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.
The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation.
The citys innovative capacity is important for its ability to adapt and renew itself in
response to new future challenges. However, the resilience of a city not just depends
on its capacity to produce innovations. A citys ability to respond to new challenges
requires the ability to adapt itself, which does not necessarily require the
implementation of innovation.
Adaptive capacity is in part determined by the physical boundaries of the system.
However, systems are in general more able to respond to new conditions if the
systems components are more varied and the control of the system is executed at
the lowest level (Berkes et al., 2002). This implies that resilient cities should have:
Innovative capacity;
A dense and varied social fabric;
Decentralized control, and
Physical infrastructures that allow future adaptations.
Urban environments will never be finalized. As a complex self-organizing system the

city will always be changing. Within this on-going change one can identify long
periods of steady state during which the city is subject to small-scale disturbances
and short chaotic periods during which the city is subject to strong fluctuations;
often, the sequential accumulation of soft, hardly observed, urban perturbations lead
to dramatic effects. In the language of the complexity theory of Hakens (1983)
Synergetics, such an accumulating effect is termed 'control parameter'. From this
perspective a distinction can be made between "soft" urban disturbances that typify
cities during their steady state periods versus "hard" urban disturbances that typify
(and are often the cause of) the city in its chaotic periods.
Resilience thinking is starting to shape how urban planners in cities think about
updating antiquated infrastructure, much of which is robust in the face of normal
threats like equipment failures but as was demonstrated in the New York region
after the most recent so-called super storms, hurricane Sandy and Philippines
typhoon Haiyan fragile in the face of unanticipated shocks like flooding, pandemics,
terrorism or energy shortages. Combating those kinds of disruptions isnt just about
hard engineering, or building higher dikes, its about accommodating the waves. A
resilient system withstands change up until a certain point after which it will adapt to
the disturbance in such a way that it suffers the least damage as possible while
preventing future damage from the same disturbance. Such a dynamic equilibrium
allows for flexibility and for uncertainty. Within the resilience adaptive capacity is a
key attribute of any system. It partly determines the ability of a system to cope with
disturbances.
14
But at the same time resilience from the perspective of urban metabolism and
regenerative systems involves other aspects as well also need to use nature itself as
a form of backstop, or soft infrastructure.
And finally another issue plays a role: psychologists, sociologists and neuroscientists
are uncovering a wide array of factors that make you more or less resilient than the
person next to you: the reach of your social networks, the quality of your close
relationships, your access to resources, your genes and health, your beliefs and
habits of mind. These tools will have to find their way into wider circulation, as we
better prepare populations for the mental, and not just physical, dimensions of
disruption. Here, again community building will be of importance.
The scale(s) of Urban Metabolism

Regarding resilience and the ability of cities (and its buildings and infrastructures) to
adapt to change Downton (2009) distinguishes a number of propositions: first of all,
cultural change can be catalyzed by the creation of cultural fractals that display
essential characteristics of the preferred cultural condition. Second, an urban fractal
is a network that contains the essential characteristics of the larger network of the
city. Each fractal will possess nodes, or centers, and patterns of connectivity that
define its structure and organisation, and it will exhibit characteristics of community
associated with living processes. It is a particular type of cultural fractal. In this, and
with respect to the in the previous section concluded need for placemaking,
empowerment of citizens and inclusion and creation of communities, important goal
can be phrased as weaving characteristic and distinctive elements together in a
pattern that we recognize as a particular culture.
In this, culture is defined as a living system of human relationships that expresses
itself in language, arts, tool-making and social organisation, including politics and
economics. According to Downton (2009), if there is an identifiable smaller pattern
that displays the essential characteristics of the larger culture if it is self-similar to
the cultural whole it can be considered a cultural fractal, while the most complete
fractal representation of a civilization is urban.
An urban fractal is any part of the urban system that contains sufficient
characteristics of that system to represent the essence of that system in microcosm.
It is a conceptual tool that has scope and potential as both an analytical device for
understanding exactly what is the essence of sustainable cities and societies, and as
a synthesizing device for creating replicable models of the Urban Metabolism
approach. The urban fractal approach, in relation to UM, is also closely related to
the work of Richard Register concerning integral neighborhoods and ecological
demonstration projects (Register, 2006). The urban fractal concept fits well with
ideas of the distributed city, for instance, where power, water and resource
management systems are less centralized, with the technologies under more local
control. This implies also the inclusion of elements that at the moment are not
generally considered as part of the urban system, including nature, ecosystem
services, and urban agriculture.
15
A consequence is a necessary minimum size of the development area (Timmeren,

2006), to be able to achieve such a complete urban fractal. However, it is rare for
even the largest of conventional developments to contain sufficient characteristics
and services for it to function as a neighbourhood. Therefore integration with or into
existing and/or surrounding urban environments is such an important prerequisite.
Within the concept of urban metabolism for urban fractals or integral neighborhoods,
as explained before, it is important to be aware that for its resilience it should be
elaborated further into smaller pieces of urban development. In this the concept of
pocket neighborhoods by Chapin (2011) is relevant to include. Chapin regards to
essentially a few dwellings, typically 6 to 20, that are gathered around a commons.
He claims that with this simple concept he is giving name to a pattern innate to
human nature. Considering that every dwelling in a pocket neighbourhood looks onto
the green heart of a central commons of social and green space, it is easy to see
how this can be extrapolated to the larger scale of the neighbourhood, and how that
neighbourhood subsequently can constitute an urban fractal.
The analogy with a metabolism appears (Timmeren, 2013a): systems are similar to
those in a human body, where some processes are inherently centralized, while
others are inherently diffuse. In this way an approach to the urban morphology with
characteristics similar to that of ecosystems can be constituted. Although these
characteristics could not all be displayed completely (e.g. resource flows might only
be circular for some materials, not all) this parallels local ecosystem behaviour in
that although all resources are metabolized in ecosystems when viewed globally, the
process is only partial when viewed locally.
Innovative capacity and adaptive governance are not just transitional prerequisites for
urban metabolism, but basic characteristics of a resilient city (possibly consisting of
various UMs). Adaptive governance is reflexive in the sense that it recognizes that
every policy objective is a temporary one and that policies need continuous
adaptation.
A sustainable and resilient future for a city based on one or more (interconnected)
Urban Metabolisms is not the result of a single explorative journey but involves the
continuous ability to innovate and maintain the capacity for adaptive governance
processes to both hard and soft urban disturbances, and to do so by a
continuous change of its urban fractals and within these, its smaller components.
16
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19
Urban
Studies
http://usj.sagepub.com/
Three Challenges for the Compact City as a Sustainable Urban Form: Household
Consumption of Energy and Transport in Eight Residential Areas in the Greater Oslo
Region
Erling Holden and Ingrid T. Norland
Urban Stud 2005 42: 2145
DOI: 10.1080/00420980500332064
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Urban Studies, Vol. 42, No. 12, 2145 2166, November 2005
Three Challenges for the Compact City as a

Sustainable Urban Form: Household Consumption
of Energy and Transport in Eight Residential Areas
in the Greater Oslo Region
Erling Holden and Ingrid T. Norland
[Paper first received, August 2004; in final form, March 2005]
Summary. The results of a recent survey conducted in eight residential areas in the Greater
Oslo Region support the hypothesis that there is a connection between land use characteristics
and household consumption of energy and transport. Findings from the survey also lend great
support to the compact city as a sustainable urban form. However, three distinct findings
indicate that decentralised concentration could lead to even lower energy use in households:
while the extent of everyday travel decreases in densely populated areas, the central urban
areas represent the highest level of leisure-time travel by plane; the access to a private
garden limits the extent of leisure travel; and, the difference in energy use for housing
between single-family and multifamily housing is reduced in housing built after 1980,
indicating that the established conclusions on the most energy-efficient housing should be
questioned.
Introduction
The resource use and environmental impacts
of private household consumption are identified as key aspects of sustainable development. However, not every consumption
activity necessarily represents a problem. A
number of studies point towards three distinct
consumption categories as the major problem areas: housing, transport and food
(Hille, 1995; National Consumer Agency of
Denmark, 1996; Holden, 2001; Lorek and
Spangenberg, 2001; Aall and Norland,
2002). These three categories account for
as much as 80 per cent of the direct and
indirect environmental impacts caused by
households.1
Questions for research are related to how a

more sustainable consumption pattern could
be promoted. Based on the empirical results
of a recent research project in eight residential areas of the Greater Oslo Region (SusHomes), this article will focus on the
relationships between urban form (land use
characteristics) and household consumption
(energy use for housing and transport) and
will discuss the implications of our findings
for the established discourse on urban sustainable form.2
Within planning research, it is commonly
assumed that the design and location of residential areas have important consequences
for households consumption of energy for
Erling Holden is in the Western Norway Research Institute, PO Box 163, 6851 Sognal, Norway. Fax: 47 57 67 61 90. E-mail:
erling.holden@vestforsk.no. Ingrid T. Norland is with the Programme for Research and Documentation for a Sustainable Society
(ProSus), Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, PO Box 1116, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway. Fax:
47 22 85 87 90. E-mail: i.t.norland@prosus.uio.no.
0042-0980 Print=1360-063X Online=05=122145 22 # 2005 The Editors of Urban Studies
DOI: 10.1080=00420980500332064
2146
ERLING HOLDEN AND INGRID T. NORLAND
housing and transport. It is believed that physical planning and design make it possible to
achieve a more sustainable consumption
pattern. This view has received increased
attention since 1987 when
the sustainable development imperative . . .
revived a forgotten, or discredited idea: that
planning ought to be done, or can be done,
on a big scale (Breheny, 1996, p. 13).
According to Breheny (1996), the use of the
planning system seems to be a common solution for achieving major environmental
improvements and particularly for achieving
sustainable development.
However, according to Boarnet and Crane
(2001), this whole issue must be treated as a
hypothesis, rather than a fact and, therefore,
the relationship between travel patterns and
the built environment should be regarded
as a subject for research. While relating
energy use for housing to housing design is
a quite straightforward task (Nss, 1997),
studying the relationship between travel
and the built environment is a much more
complex matter. While most studies have
investigated how commuting is influenced
by urban form, some studies have given
attention to the correlation of everyday
non-work-related travel and urban form.
However, little attention has been paid to
the possible relationship between long
leisure-time travel by car and plane, and
the design and location of residential areas
within the city.
We have studied the relationships between
land use characteristics and four distinct consumption categories: energy use for heating
and operating the house; energy use for everyday travel; energy use for long leisure-time
travel by plane; and, energy use for long
leisure-time travel by car. Throughout this
paper we will refer to these four consumption
categories as household consumption. We
will discuss the implications of our empirical
findings for the theoretical stands of the
compact city and dispersed city, two
opposing viewpoints that present different
approaches to a sustainable urban form. Of
course, urban form is only one of many
possible explanatory factors for household

consumption. We will therefore explore the
possibility of isolating correlations between
land use characteristics and the consumption
patterns by way of multivariate regressions,
where other socioeconomic and attitudinal
factors are controlled for.
The article will also discuss the so-called
compensatory mechanism hypothesis, discussed by, for example, Vilhelmson (1990),
Nss (1997, 2005) and Holden (2001,
2004). This hypothesis suggests that people
who live in densely populated urban areas
(in flats in inner cities) and who have
limited need for everyday transport, tend to
undertake longer travel in their leisure time
as a compensation for limited access to
green/outdoor areas. If such compensatory
effects apply, this could have major consequences for physical planning practices: why
strive for urban planning practices that
reduce the need for everyday transport if it
results in more extensive travel during holidays and leisure time?
As in other countries, the perspectives of
the compact city discourse are being
adopted in policies for sustainable development in Norway, in national environmental
urban policies (MoE, 2002; Skjeggedal
et al., 2003). Also in the City of Oslo, arguments supporting new inner-city development
projects are increasingly based on this
approach to sustainable urban form. However,
the results of the SusHomes Project raise three
challenges to the compact city discourse and
we therefore call for a more nuanced debate
on sustainable urban form.
The SusHomes Project raised the following
questions. Do land use characteristics influence energy use for housing and everyday
transport and, if so, how? Is it possible to
identify a correlation between land use
characteristics and the residents long
leisure-time travel? How important is the
influence of land use characteristics compared
with the socioeconomic position and the
environmental attitude of individuals? What
do the answers to these questions imply for
urban sustainable development policies and
strategies?
THREE CHALLENGES FOR THE COMPACT CITY
This article is organised in four sections.

First, we outline the existing theoretical
discourses on sustainable urban form and
focus on the established perspectives on the
relationship between land use characteristics
and the consumption of energy and transport.
Secondly, we present the methodological
approach we used in the empirical study and
then the main results from the bivariate and
multivariate regression analyses. Thirdly,
three challenges for the compact city approach
are discussed; and then, finally, we outline the
possible theoretical and policy implications of
our findings.
Sustainable Urban Form
According to Breheny (1996), until the 1960s
planning was an important instrument for realising visionary ideas. Based on a long history,
planning provided credible answers about
how we should form our built environment
and subsequently our society. However,
beginning in the 1960s, the public lost
confidence in planners, and planners lost confidence in themselves (Breheny, 1996, p. 13).
But this did not last long. Following the
Brundtland Commission report of 1987, Our
Common Future (WCED, 1987), a new optimism about planning emerged. Since then, a
debate about the role of planning in promoting
sustainable development has been going on.
The crucial question is, according to
Breheny, which urban forms will most
effectively deliver the greatest environmental
protection? Or rather, what is sustainable
urban form?
Regarding sustainable urban form, three
important questions arise. First, is there
actually a connection between urban form
and sustainable development? Secondly, for
those who insist that such a connection
exists, what is sustainable urban form? And,
finally, how can a sustainable urban form be
achieved?
Does Planning Matter?
Even though planning seems to have regained
much of its legitimacy, there has been a lot of
2147
scepticism about and even rejection of the

very idea that planning has an important role
in promoting sustainable development. Most
profoundly, the dispute has been about
energy consumption and urban form. Does
changing urban forms tend to reduce the frequency and length of journeys, and hence
energy consumption?3
To this day, the disagreement persists and
the critiques against planning have many
different forms, including
Claims that engine technology, taxes on
gasoline and driving, and road pricing,
are more effective measures for reducing
energy consumption than urban planning
(Gordon and Richardson, 1989; Boarnet
and Crane, 2001).
The assertion that socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics of people are far
more important determinants of travel
behaviour than urban form. Critics taking
this position assert that the importance of
form is highly overestimated in empirical
studies (Stead et al., 2000).
Casting doubt on the assumption that
proximity to everyday services and workplace will contribute to reduced travel in a
highly mobile society (Owens, 1992;
Simmonds and Coombe, 2000).
That the relationship between non-work
travel, especially long leisure-time travel,
and urban form has been neglected
(Titheridge et al., 2000).
The assertion that travel preferences rather
than urban form influence travel behaviour: people live in city centres because
they prefer to travel less, and not that
they travel less because they live in city
centres
(the
self-selection
bias)
(Boarnet and Crane, 2001).
Even though these aspects should not be taken
lightly, there seems to be overwhelming
support in the literature for the idea that planning does matter in determining the level of
energy consumption in urban areas. This
view is based on both theory and empirical
studies.4 Thus planning, in our opinion, is an
important instrument for promoting sustainable development.
2148
What is Sustainable Urban Form?

Even among the supporters of planning, there
is a lively debate about which urban form and
land use characteristics actually promote a
more sustainable society. There are two
dominant and contradictory theories about
sustainable urban form: the compact city and
the dispersed city.
The main principle in the compact city
theory is high-density development close to
or within the city core with a mixture of
housing, workplaces and shops. This implies
densely and concentrated housing development, which favours semi-detached and
multifamily housing. Under this theory, development of residential housing areas on (or
beyond) the urban fringe, and single-family
housing in particular, are banned. Furthermore, central, high-density development
supports a number of other attributes that are
favourable to sustainable energy use: low
energy use for housing and everyday travel,
efficient remote heating systems, proximity
to a variety of workplaces and public and
private services, as well as a highly developed
public transport system.
The supporters of the compact city theory
(for example, Jacobs, 1961; Newman and
Kenworthy, 1989; CEC, 1990; Elkin et al.,
1991; Sherlock, 1991; Enwicht, 1992;
McLaren, 1992) believe that the compact
city has environmental and energy advantages, as well as social benefits. The list of
advantages is remarkably long, including a
better environment, affordable public transport, the potential for improving the social
mix and a higher quality of life (Frey, 1999).
However, the main justification for the
compact city is that it results in the least
energy-intensive activity pattern, thereby
helping us cope with the issues of global
warming. The supporters of the dispersed
city suggest the green cityi.e. a more open
type of urban structure, where buildings,
fields and other green areas form a mosaiclike pattern (Nss, 1997).
The list of arguments against the compact
city theory is even longer than the list in
support of it, and includes: that it rejects
suburban and semi-rural living, neglects rural

communities, affords less green and open
space, increases congestion and segregation,
reduces environmental quality and lessens the
power for making local decisions (Frey, 1999).
However, until fairly recently an international consensus favouring the compact
city as a sustainable development approach
has dominated the debate (Williams et al.,
2000a). Although there has always been considerable scepticism, the concept of the
compact city has been so dominant that it
seems inconceivable that anyone would
oppose the current tide of opinion towards
promoting greater sustainable development
and the compact city in particular (Smyth,
1996, p. 103).
In this context, it is not surprising that the
move towards the compact city is now
entrenched in policy throughout Europe
(Jenks et al., 1996, p. 275). Also in Norway,
resistance against the dominance of the
compact city has been modest (Skjeggedal
et al., 2003).
The disagreements between the compact
city and dispersed city discourses can to a
large extent be summarised as a debate about
two issues: which form affords the greater
energy efficiency; and, which aspects of sustainable development are more important?
The relationship between urban form and
energy efficiencyespecially energy use for
travelis at the core of the sustainable
urban form debate. During recent decades,
there have been a multitude of empirical
studies supporting the relative energy efficiency of the two urban forms. Boarnet and
Crane (2001) worked through this literature
and came to a rather surprising conclusion:
Very little is known regarding how the built
environment influences travel (Boarnet and
Crane, 2001, p. 4). Although these authors
were referring to the US, we find the same
scepticism in Europe. Williams et al.
(2000b, p. 355) conclude that a great deal
still needs to be learnt about the complexity
of different forms and their impacts. This
includes the relationship between urban
compactness and travel patterns. A possible
relationship between the built form and long

leisure-time travel by car and plane is a part
of this new knowledge that has to be learnt.
The possible impacts of urban forms are not
limited to travel behaviour. The built form also
influences social conditions, economic issues,
environmental quality and ecology within the
city (Williams et al., 2000b). All these
aspects are also important parts of the sustainable development concept and therefore can
be used as criteria for a discussion about
sustainable urban form. It should come as no
surprise that a study that has minimising
energy consumption as an overall goal, could
easily reach different conclusions from those
of a study that aims at using urban form to
reduce the number of people exposed to fine
particles or to promote social equity. In
the end, it will be necessary to balance these
impacts because sustainable urban form is ultimately about values (Buxton, 2000).
The dispute between the two camps has led
to the development of a number of middle positions, which try to combine the best aspects of
both the compact and the dispersed city discourses, while at the same time trying to
avoid the disadvantages of each. Among
such alternative middle positions are the
urban village (Newman and Kenworthy,
1999; Thompson-Fawcett, 2000), new urbanism,5 the sustainable urban matrix (Hasic,
2000), transit-oriented development (Boarnet
and Crane, 2001), smart growth (Stoel, 1999)
and decentralised concentration (Breheny,
1996; Hyer and Holden, 2003; Holden,
2004). These alternatives all try to combine
the energy efficiency gained from a compact
urban form with the broader quality-of-life
aspects gained from the dispersed city.
Still, whether a specific urban form will be
more energy efficient is an empirical question.
Therefore, this was the research question of our
empirical study in the Greater Oslo Region.
Land Use Characteristics and Household
Consumption
While the compact-versus-dispersed debate
represents the bigger picture, specific land
use characteristics constitute the basic
2149
principles that ultimately give the city its

form and lead to the different impacts mentioned above. Regarding energy use in
houses, Nss (1997) points to two land use
characteristics that, in addition to local
climate conditions, influence energy consumption for heating and operating houses:
type of housing and grouping of the houses.6
Even though climate conditions and grouping
of houses do influence energy use, these
factors to a large extent depend on local conditions and therefore will not be discussed
further here.
Regarding the relationship between type of
housing and energy use, both theoretical and
empirical studies show that single-family
housing is less efficient than multifamily
housing (Owens, 1992; Djupskas and
Nesbakken, 1995; Nss, 1997; Holden,
2001), while semi-detached houses fall in
between. However, the differences in energy
use between the three different types of
houses have decreased since 1980. While the
energy use per capita in single-family
housing is almost twice the energy use in multifamily housing in the overall housing stock,
single-family housing built during the past
two decades uses only 20 per cent more
energy per capita than multifamily housing
(Holden, 2001; Aall et al., 2003). If this
trend continues, it will become an important
factor in the debate about multifamily
housing (compact city) versus single-family
housing (dispersed city).7
When it comes to land use characteristics
that influence energy use for everyday
transport, Nss (1997) concludes that the following characteristics are favourable for reducing energy use per capita: high population
density for the city as a whole; high density
within each residential area; centralised settlement within cities and towns (i.e. higher
density in the inner part than on the fringe);
centralised workplace location; low parking
capacity at workplaces; decentralised concentration at the regional level; and, a high
population for each city.
Based on empirical evidence, Nss (1997)
claims that these characteristics are favourable in cities as different as Paris, London,
2150
New York, Melbourne, San Francisco, Copenhagen and Frederikshavn (Denmark). Furthermore, he claims that those studies rejecting the
influence of urban structural factors in
general, and the prospect of the compact city
in particular, all have three flaws in common
(Nss, 2005).
First, the conclusions of such studies stem
from model simulations where the results
might simply reflect that the assumption of
the model does not capture the actual influence of urban structure on travel behaviour.
Secondly, the apparent lack of any relationship between urban form and transport is
due to the absence from theoretical considerations of variables that could be expected to
exert the strongest influence on each other.
For example, some studies have focused on
trip frequency or travel time, while travel
distance and modal split represent the most
important variables regarding energy use.
Finally, in some studies, conclusions are
made about an absent or insignificant relationship between urban structure and travel, based
on a comparison of travel survey data from
cities of different sizes. However, according
to Nss, the number of inhabitants is hardly
a good indicator for testing whether urban
structure affects travel behaviour.
As an antithesis to Nss (and others)
compact city theory, there is a school of
thought amongst environmentalists that
the most sustainable way to live would be to
return to rural areas and local selfsufficiency, to reduce the importing of
goods and services from far-off lands, and
to commune more closely with nature
(Jenks et al., 1996, p. 170).
This theory challenges the compact city on
nearly all land use characteristics, thus promoting dispersed, low-density cities (Orrskog and
Snickars, 1992; Radberg, 1995; Troy, 1996).
Long-distance Leisure-time Travel:
Compensatory Travel?
Although housing location influences the
distances to different types of facilities and
the spatial location of most of these facilities
suggests that average travel distances will be

shortest for inner-city residents, this pattern
might be counteracted by certain compensatory mechanisms (Vilhelmson, 1990; Nss,
1997, 2005; Holden, 2001, 2004). For
example, high accessibility to different services might create an increased demand for
transport. Opting for a wider range of jobs,
shops and leisure activities, might establish
the need for more everyday travel.
An important question that arises from
looking at the wider issue of energy use and
greenhouse gas emissions is whether, for
certain income levels, reduced local everyday
travel will be compensated for by increased
long-distance leisure travel at other times. Is
it the case thatfor certain income levels
the sum of environmental vices is constant
and that households managing on a small
everyday amount of transport, create even
heavier environmental strain through, for
instance, weekend trips to a cottage or longdistance holiday trips by plane? In the professional debate, some (for example,
Kennedy, 1995) have claimed that people
living in high-density, inner-city areas will,
to a larger extent than their counterparts
living in low-density areas, travel out of
town on weekendsfor instance, to a
cottagein order to compensate for the lack
of access to a private garden. In addition to
this hypothesis of compensation, others,
including the Swedish mobility researcher
Vilhelmson (1990), have launched a hypothesis of opportunity which asserts that the time
and money people save due to shorterdistance daily travel, will probably be used
for long-distance leisure-time travel.
In order to get more knowledge about the
possible existence of compensatory travel
and also the connections between such travel
and land use characteristics, we have included
energy used for longer holiday and leisure
travel by plane and car as a consumption
category.
Methodology
In the projects first phase, we conducted
surveys in eight residential areas in the
Greater Oslo Region and used bivariate and

multiple regression analyses. Our purpose in
using multiple regressions is to learn more
about the relationship between several
independent or predictor variables, and a
dependent or criterion variable. In general,
multiple regression analysis allows the
researcher to ask (and hopefully answer) the
question, What is the best predictor of . . .?.
Correlations identified by initial bivariate
analysis might not represent real explanatory
relationships, since most phenomena result
from multiple causes. Multiple regression
analysis therefore enables us to integrate the
variation in several variables into the same
analysis and to isolate the effect of single
independent variables or influencing factors.
Unimportant factors can then be left out of
the overall interpretation of the results.
Figure 1 illustrates the possible causal
relationships between the physical and nonphysical characteristics of households and
the houses in which they live, and their consumption behaviour studied in this project.
Concerning research design, as our units of
analysis we have chosen households within a
limited number of residential areas within a
city region. In contrast to studies that base
their analysis on surveys of cities and city
2151
regions as a whole, this approach allows us

to control better for key contextual factors
such as local density, access to public
transport and socio-demographic characteristics, and thereby also the respondents
representation within each area. Eventually,
this enables us to discuss in more detail the
possible effects of different housing models,
locations and transport systems on household
consumption in an urban region.
The selection of residential areas is based
on a set of criteria representing key land use
characteristics and on more specific aspects
expected to represent possible causal factors
affecting consumption at the household
level: type of housing (single-family, row or
multifamily housing);8 housing density
(number of housing units per area unit);
location relative to the city centre; access to
public transport (distance to tram/subway
station); distance to local sub-centre; and,
local mix (to what extent the area is homogeneous with respect to type of housing
and/or mix of housing, business and services).
The first three factors are of course to some
extent interlinkeda residential areas
density is often linked to its location relative
to the city centre, while density is a reflection
of the type of housing.
Figure 1. Assumptions on causal relationships between characteristics of households and their houses,
behaviour, consumption and environmental demands.
2152
The Research Area

The Greater Oslo Region in this study includes
the City of Oslo and the Municipality of Brum,
which represent the geographical area within a
radius of approximately 15 km from the Oslo
city centre. About 608 000 people9 live in this
area of about 615 square km and where almost
two-thirds are protected natural areas outside
the urban zone. The urban zone represents the
most densely populated urban area in Norway
and it is part of the much larger Capital
Region with more than 1 million people.
The location and characteristics of the
residential areas within the region must be
understood in light of shifting planning and
urban development paradigms and trends over
time. While the city centre and nearby areas
are dominated by brick multifamily houses
mostly from the period 18701930 (for
example, Grunerlkka), the surroundings
include single-family housing areas from the
interwar years and onwards (such as Rykkinn
and Bjrndal), densely developed dormitory
towns from the 1950s to the 1970s on the
urban fringe (such as Holmlia and Hovseter)
and more recent urban development including
all sorts of housing within the existing urban
zone (for example, Silkestra). All in all, 59 per
cent of the population in this region live in multifamily houses, 22 per cent in row houses and 19
per cent in single-family houses.10
Concerning local mobility in the region,
about 250 000 cars pass daily into the (congestion) toll zone of the core urban area and
the Oslo public transport company (Oslo
Sporveier) registers about 435 000 passengers
each day (the public transport system includes
tram, subway and bus). This reflects the fact
that the city centre of Oslo is an important
working area in this region and that about
124 000 commute from the surrounding municipalities. On the other hand, about 54 per cent
of the 310 000 households of the region have 1
or more cars. Survey data from the City of
Oslo show also that 48.7 per cent of the city
population commute daily by car, while 30.5
per cent travel by public transport and the
remaining 20.8 per cent cycle or walk
(ECIP, 2003).
The eight residential areas in this study represent different reflections of the six criteria
presented above, as illustrated in Table 1.
The areas do also represent key features of
the general housing situation in the region.
The map (Figure 2) shows the location of
the areas within the Greater Oslo Region; six
of the areas lie within the City of Oslo,
while the remaining two are located in the
Municipality of Brum (Rykkinn and
Sandvika).
The survey was conducted in March April
2003 and questionnaires were sent to 2500
randomly sampled individuals above the age
of 17. With a response rate of 40 per cent,
we averaged 120 respondents per area.
While the questionnaire was sent to individuals within households, they responded on
questions regarding their own and the households consumption of energy and transport,
as well as family structure, income and
housing facilities.
Multiple Regression Analysis
The multiple regressions give us an insight
into the relationship between the different
physical housing situations (representing
different land use characteristics) and the
households consumption of energy and
transport, when taking into consideration
demographic, socioeconomic and attitudinal
factors. These three factors are therefore
brought into the analysis merely as control
factors. However, this approach is not sufficient for identifying causal mechanisms with
regard to the variables and the consumption
patterns. Another critical aspect of the multiple regression approach is the impossibility
of including two significant and correlating
independent variables within the same analysis. It is therefore difficult to point to the
most important factor. The findings of this
study will therefore be further explored
using more qualitative methods in the projects second phase.
The results presented in this article are
based on a multiple regression analysis of
the material as a whole. The starting-point of
the analysis is that possible explanatory
Criteria
Type of housing
Relative housing density
Relative location from
city centre
Relative distance to
tram/subway
Relative location from
local sub-centre
Local mix
Bjrndal
(1)
Grunerlkka
(2)
Holmlia
(3)
Hovseter
(4)
Rykkinn
(5)
Sandvika
(6)
Silkestra
(7)
Valerenga
(8)
Single-family/
row housing
Low
Distant
Multifamily
housing
High
Close
Multifamily/
row housing
High
Distant
Multifamily
housing
High
Medium
Row
housing
Low
Distant
Multifamily
housing
High
Distant
Row
housing
High
Medium
Mix
Medium
Close
Distant
Close
Close
Close
Distant
Close
Close
Distant
Distant
Close
Close
Medium
Close
Close
Close
Medium
Low
High
Low
Medium
Low
High
Low
Medium
Table 1. Key characteristics of the eight residential areas
2153
2154
Figure 2. Map of the Greater Oslo Region, including the eight residential areas of the study (see Table 1
for numbering). Scale: 1:400 000.
variables must be searched for at three different levels: the residential area; the household
level; and, the individual level. The dependent
variables of the analysis are
Consumption data (consumption of
energy for housing, everyday travel and
long leisure-time travel by plane and
car), from the questionnaire.
The independent variables (the possible
explanatory factors for the registered consumption data) are
Land use characteristics: physicalstructural characteristics of the house
(such as type of housing, size, access to
private garden), from the questionnaire;
and, physical-structural characteristics
of the residential areas (such as location,
density, local mix, access to public transport), from national/local data and map
sources.
Socioeconomic and demographic factors
of the household (such as family structure,
education, income, car ownership), from

the questionnaire; and
Registered attitudes and preferences of
the individual (that we assume might
influence the respondents consumption),
from the questionnaire.
The respondents attitudes and preferences,
in this case meaning their attitudes towards
the environmental consequences of the
increasing private consumption in Norwegian
households, are brought into the analysis in
two ways: by means of a Likert scale11
(Hellevik, 1991), based on the respondents
expression of agreement or disagreement
with statements (scale items) on consumption
of energy for housing and transport; and, by
the respondents registered membership in
one or more environmental organisations. A
weakness of the Likert scale approach,
however, is that the statements could be
difficult to characterise as solely positive or
negative in relation to the overall attitude
under consideration (Hellevik, 1991). In our
case, the given values are based on our own

evaluations. Therefore, the correlations
based on the index have to be interpreted
with some caution. Despite this, we find the
index useful due to its simple and illustrative
presentation of the respondents attitudes.
Energy Use in Residential Areas
Figure 3 shows the results from bivariate
analysis of empirical data on consumption of
energy for housing and transport in eight residential areas. The data indicate that there are
substantial differences in the average energy
use per capita between the eight residential
areas. Residents living in Bjrndal and
Rykkinn use the most energy, while residents
of Sandvika and Hovseter are the most
energy-efficient. The difference is approximately 25 per cent, while the remaining four
areas fall in between these extremes.
Taking a closer look at the areas, we find
interesting aspects for further analysis.
Bjrndal and Rykkinn are both dominated
by single-family and row housing, and are
low-density and distant from the city centre.
Even though the total energy used in each
area is fairly equal, the residents seem to
2155
use energy differently. Residents in Rykkinn

use substantially more energy for housing,
while residents in Bjrndal use more energy
for travel. The average resident in Sandvika
and Hovseter, which are densely populated
areas dominated by multifamily housing,
consumes less energy for both housing and
transport than the average resident in Bjrndal
and Rykkinn. However, Sandvika and
Hovseter differ from each other in their
respective distances to local sub-centre and
city centre.
Valerenga, Silkestra and Grunerlkka are
residential areas that are located either close
to or a moderate distance from the city
centre. Like Hovseter and Sandvika, they are
mostly dominated by high-density, multifamily housing, with proximity to a large variety
of public and private services. However, in
spite of their proximity to the city centre
they have a substantially higher energy use.
As can be seen from Figure 3, this is mainly
the result of higher energy use for long
leisure-time travel by plane (from now on,
travel by plane). This is especially the case
for Grunerlkka, which has both the shortest
distance to the city centre and the highest
energy consumption for travel by plane.
Figure 3. Annual household consumption per capita in eight residential areas in Greater Oslo Region.
Notes: N 445 (F 1.393; p 0.206).
2156
Holmlia is a residential area that is dominated by multifamily housing but also has a
considerable number of row houses. This
housing mix is reflected by the relatively
high energy use for housing. Holmlia is
distant from the city centre, which might be
one cause for its higher level of energy
consumption for everyday travel compared
with other densely populated areas closer to
the city centre.
The above findings indicate the existence of a
connection between land use characteristics
and the consumption of energy for housing
and transport. However, this initial analysis
does not take into account the possible differences in socioeconomic and demographic conditions between the residential areas. The
variation in energy use between areas could
easily be the result of differences in
income level, the household structure or the
employment rate. Initially, we expect these
non-physical characteristics to contribute to
the identified differences in energy use. In
order to study the isolated effects of both physical and non-physical characteristics (including
attitudinal factors), we have conducted a multivariate regression analysis for each of the four
consumption categories.
The Influence of Land Use Characteristics
The results of the multivariate regression
analyses are shown in Table 2. For each
consumption category, we have included a
number of land use characteristics, socioeconomic and socio-demographic contextual
factors, as well as attitudinal factors. In this
paper, we emphasise the statistical correlations between land use characteristics and
household consumption. This is not to say
that the other two independent variables are
unimportant, but they are here brought in as
controls to single out the specific effects
caused by the physical-structural conditions.
Regarding energy use for housing, four land
use characteristics have significant and isolated effects. First, the type of housing is
important. Controlling for other factors,
there are significant differences in energy
use between single-family housing, row
houses and multifamily housing. While

single-family housing represents the most
energy-inefficient alternative, multifamily
housing is the most energy-efficient. Of
second and third importance, respectively,
are the size and age of the housing. The
larger the house, the more energy is used per
household member. Similarly, residents of
older houses use more energy than residents
of newer ones. Finally, density matters. In
densely developed areas, residents use less
energy than do residents in areas with lowerdensity housing. This is mainly the result of
more efficient energy supply systemssuch
as remote heating systems based on heat
pumpsthan can be introduced in areas
with a large number of housing units per
area unit.
We find that two significant land use
characteristics, both related to distance,
affect energy used for everyday travel. First,
it seems that the distance to the city centre is
important. The longer the distance, the more
energy is used for transport. This result is in
line with other studies (for example, Nss,
1996, 2005). Secondly, the distance to the
local sub-centre correlates with the extent of
everyday travel. Thus, proximity to a
centrewith corresponding accessibility to
private and public servicesis favourable
regarding energy use. However, neither
density nor local mix has a significant effect
on the energy used for everyday travel.
Density and distance are, however, strongly
correlated, but it can be difficult to separate
their respective effects. Thus, high density
and high local mix must be combined with
proximity to a centre offering everyday services to bring about a reduction in energy
use for everyday travel.
In the leisure-time sphere, we find a very
different picture. Two factors have a significant effect on the energy used for travel by
plane: housing density and access to a
private garden. Higher-density housing corresponds to higher energy use for travel by
plane. Furthermore, access to a private
garden seems to reduce residents desire to
travel by plane in their leisure time. Access
to a private garden also influences energy
Table 2. Results from a multivariate regression analysis of the influence of various independent variables on annual household consumption per capita
Housinga
Independent variables
Significancej
Bi
24,783
0.000
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
22,306
0.003
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
33
31
n.i.
2193
0.000
0.000
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
22
0.684
n.i.
n.i.
802
102
n.i.
n.i.
213
213
n.i.
n.i.
5
108
0.585
0.001
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
233
0.037
n.i.
n.i.
2845
212
2103
0.002
0.285
0.725
21050
0.019
Socioeconomic and socio-demographic factors

Sex (male 0; female 1)
n.i.
Age (years)
21k
Education (up to upper secondary
n.i.
school 0; higher education 1)
Occupancy (have employment/
n.i.
student 0; otherwise 1)
Number of household members
22,944
Personal annual income (1000 NOK)
n.i.
Household annual income (1000 NOK)
21
Car ownership
n.i.
(yes 0; no 1)
0.968
0.000
0.278
n.i.
Bi
Significancej
Leisure travel by card
Bi
0.035
Significancej
Leisure travel by planec
309
249
575
0.032
0.074
0.374
0.000
0.134
n.i.
Bi
n.i.
211k
n.i.
Significancej
0.044
0.423
0.002
Land use characteristics

Single-family house/SFH (SFH 0;
otherwise 1)
Row house/RH (RH 0;
otherwise 1)
Size of house (square metres)
Age of house (years)
Access to garden yes 0; no 1)
Housing density in residential area
(housing/decare)
Local mixe
Distance from residence to the city
centre (km)
Distance from residence to local subcentre (km)
Everyday travelb
n.i.
n.i.
2
0.034
0.000
n.i.
21727
0.000
n.i.
2547
0.204
20
n.i.
1
2697
0.662
0.000
0.000
2157
(Table continued)
Housing
Independent variables
Bi
Discount ticketf (yes 0; no 1)

Access to holiday house (yes 0;
no 1)
n.i.
n.i.
n.i.
2205
17 103
0.778
0.000
0.425
44 630 (0.000)
591
Bi
Significancej
Leisure travel by planec

Bi
Significancej
Bi
Significancej
n.i.
140
0.690
n.i.
2415
0.000
0.030
n.i.
255
0.717
662
n.i.
0.016
29
280
0.778
0.856
n.i.
21 272
0.019
0.231
16 034 (0.000)
650
4 354
2 730
Leisure travel by card
0.000
0.095
10 040 (0.000)
778
1 712
0.000
0.168
19 737 (0.000)
743
Annual energy use for heating and operating the house. Respondents that have stated an annual energy use of firewood exceeding 43000 kWh have been left out. The effect of paying all or
part of the energy use in the house through the rent (which is not counted for) is controlled for by introducing energy rent as an independent variable (B 1.781, significance. 0.001).
b
Annual energy use for everyday travel. Energy use during the week of the survey multiplied by 47 weeks (excluding holidays). Respondents that have experienced an unusual travel
pattern during the week of the survey have been left out. Extremes ( 14 735 kWh per capita/year) are also left out.
c
Annual energy use for long-distance leisure-travel by plane. Extremes ( 20 846 kWh per capita/year) are left out.
d
Annual energy use for long-distance leisure-time travel by car. Extremes ( 5999 kWh/capita/year) are left out.
e
Percentage of developed area for housing within a residential area.
f
Special discount public transport tickets for multiple rides, such as flexi-cards, daily, weekly, monthly and annual passes.
g
Likert scale. Higher values indicated a positive attitude towards environmental issues.
h
Represent the basis alternative when all independent variables are given the value zero. However, in our analysis giving the value zero is meaningless for a number of independent
variablesfor example, age of household members, size of house or distance between the residence and the city centre. The figures constant is here reported, but cannot be given any
reasonable interpretation.
i
Non-standardised regression coefficient.
j
Two-sided p-value.
k
Average age of the adults in the household.
n.i. Not included as an independent variable for the given consumption category (either because of problems with high multicolinearity or lack of theoretical foundation).
Attitudinal factors
Environmental attitudeg
Membership of environmental NGO
(yes 0; no 1)
Constant h
Adjusted R 2
F (significance)
N
Significancej
Everyday travelb
2158
Table 2. Continued
a
use for long leisure-time travel by car.

Residents that have regular access to a
private garden spend less of their leisure
time travelling by car and consequently use
less energy for this purpose.
It is important to recognise that the above
relationships between density, access to a
private garden and travel by plane or car are
statistical correlations. They do not necessarily imply causation. More in-depth knowledge about the residents motives and
leisure-time preferences is needed to understand these relationships, and can only be
obtained by in-depth interviews, which we
will carry out in the projects second phase.
Three Challenges for the Compact City
The results from the above analysis of energy
use for housing and everyday travel strongly
support the compact city theory. Low energy
use correlates with high-density housing
located a short distance from a centre and
offering a range of private and public services.
There remains, however, a question about
size. Previous studies indicate that large
compact cities might counteract the advantages of compactness (Nss, 1997; Holden,
2004). Relatively small and compact cities
in a region, or compact villages within a
larger city, might be favourable compromises.
2159
Three aspects of our analysis challenge the

compact city theory and support the need to
nuance the existing debate on sustainable
urban form. We will elaborate on these
aspects in the following sections.
Challenge No. 1: Density and Long Leisuretime Travel by Plane
As we have shown, higher density housing in
the residential areas corresponds to higher
energy use for travel by plane. The relationship between everyday travel, travel by
plane and housing density is shown in
Figure 4.
Residents living in high-density areas use
far more energy than do others for travel by
plane. At the same time, they use less
energy than do others for everyday travel.
Residents in Grunerlkka and Valerenga fit
this picture well. These are the most densely
developed areas in our study, situated close
to the city centre. Compared with the residents
of the other areas, the residents here use far
more energy for travel by plane in their
leisure time. At the same time, they do not
use much energy for everyday transport. In
Rykkinn, we find the opposite situation, with
low-density housing located far from the city
centre. The travel behaviour of Rykkinn
residents is characterised by high energy use
Figure 4. Energy use for everyday travel/long leisure-time travel by plane and housing density.
2160
for everyday travel and an almost negligible

(compared with the high-density residential
areas) energy use for travel by plane. Thus,
this identified pattern might possibly support
the compensatory mechanism hypothesis
discussed above.
But there could be other possible explanations for this pattern. The residents in
Grunerlkka and Valerenga might simply
use for leisure travel the money they save by
using little energy in everyday travel.
However, high living expenses characterise
these two residential areas (especially
Grunerlkka) and the savings might also be
used for such expenses. Another possible
explanation might be that travel by plane is
an integral part of the urban lifestyle of
these residents. As already stressed, a more
thorough, qualitative-oriented analysis is
needed to understand the correlation
between travel by plane and living in areas
of high-density housing.
Challenge No. 2: Access to a Private Garden
and Leisure Travel
The second challenge for the compact city
theory is the apparent reduction in leisuretime travel when residents have access to a
private garden. When relevant socioeconomic and attitudinal factors are controlled
for, residents having access to a private
garden use on average 1000 fewer kWh
annually for long leisure-time travel by car
and plane than do residents without such
access.
This might not come as a surprise. It is
reasonable to expect that they spend time
in their garden, both for relaxation and
necessary gardening. However, the causal
mechanism is not evidentsuch residents
might not travel less due to their access to
a private garden, but rather they might
have a garden because they want to spend
time in such an environment. This is an
interesting issue for a qualitative follow-up
study.
The important point is that access to a
private recreation area seems to relate to a
reduction in leisure-time travel. The above
finding holds even for residents living in

flats. In other words, access to a private
garden reduces travel by residents of all
types of housing. This underlines the importance of available nearby recreation facilities,
even in areas of high-density housing.
Whether such facilities need to be private, or
whether collectively shared gardens create
the same correlations, are both interesting
questions for further investigation.
Challenge No. 3: The Reduced Effect of
Housing Type
The annual energy use for housing differs substantially with the type of housing. In our
empirical material, the per capita average
energy consumption for single-family
housing, row houses and multifamily
housing is approximately 12 000; 9000 and
8000 kWh, respectively. Thus, residents in
single-family housing use about 50 per cent
more energy than residents in multifamily
housing.
However, considering housing built after
1980, the picture changes. The difference in
per capita energy use between the three
types of housing is reduced, as can be seen
in Figure 5. The difference in energy consumption between single-family housing and
multifamily housing is reduced by 50 per
cent. This pattern is confirmed in a similar
study in the Greater Oslo Region (Aall et al.,
2003). Thus, there has been a significant
reduction in the energy use per capita in
single-family housing built after 1980
compared with housing built earlier. In our
study, this is reflected in the difference in
energy use between Rykkinn and Bjrndal.
In Bjrndal, 99 per cent of housing was built
after 1980, while the majority of housing in
Rykkinn was built in the period 196079.
Residents of Rykkinn consume per capita
approximately 3000 more kWh annually for
housing than do residents of Bjrndal.
We do not find a corresponding reduction in
energy use for row houses and multifamily
housing. Energy use per square metre in row
houses has been reduced by almost 30 kWh
annually over recent decades. In the same
2161
Figure 5. Annual energy use for housing as a function of housing type and the age of the house.
period, energy use per square metre in multifamily housing has increased.
Three factors explain this pattern. First, in
recent decades there has been, through
public information campaigns, an increased
focus on the reduction of energy use in
single-family housing. Households in singlefamily housing have caught up with more
energy-efficient households living in multifamily housing by investing in energy-saving
equipment. Secondly, recent public regulations on energy use in new buildings (such
as standards for insulation) have reduced
energy use for heating relative to the overall
energy consumption for housing. While in
older housing energy use for heating accounts
for approximately 60 70 per cent of total
energy use, in new housing it is 50 per cent,
and even less in low-energy housing. This
implies that the importance of housing type
is reduced. Finally, household size matters.
We found that in single-family housing built
after 1980, family size is larger than family
size in older single-family housing. This
also contributes to lower energy use per
household member, which can be seen in
Figure 5. At the same time, family size in
multifamily housing of all ages is about
the same. This tendency cannot necessarily
be regarded as a tribute to single-family
housing; rather, it is a possible consequence
of complex socio-demographic tendencies in
our society. Even so, it explains some of the
apparent harmonisation in energy use across

all types of housing.
Still, our material shows that living in multifamily housing is more favourable than
living in single-family housing as far as
energy consumption is concerned, as clearly
indicated in the multivariate regression analysis in Table 2. Our point is merely that the
difference in energy consumption between
the two types of housing has reduced in
recent decades. This phenomenon might
present a challenge to promoters of the
densely and concentrated urban form.
Theoretical Perspectives
Implications
and
Policy
First and foremost, our study supports the

hypothesis that there is a connection
between land use characteristics and household consumption of energy and transport.
This connection indicates that planning does
matter. Having said this, there remains a
lack of knowledge regarding the importance
of location preference. As Boarnet and
Crane (2001) underline, perhaps residents of
densely developed areas near or in the city
centre consume less energy for everyday
travel because they choose to live where
they do precisely because less travel is
required. However, the self-selection bias
does not seem to change the assumption that
urban form matters. Indeed, people who
2162
prefer to live in a way that encourages walking

and bicycling in everyday life, and discourages use of a car, are very good examples
of the importance of urban form. Their
reasons for living where they live, therefore,
are not an important issue.
Regarding the question of what constitutes
a sustainable urban form, our empirical
material points in several directions. Our
analysis of energy use for housing and
everyday travel supports the idea of the
compact city. There are, however, a number
of challenges that have to be considered.
The most important one is related to the
residents travel by plane. The housing
density of an area, which strongly correlates
with its proximity to the city centre, seems
to have opposite effects on energy use for
everyday travel and leisure-time travel.
While high-density living reduces energy use
for everyday travel, the opposite applies to
energy use for leisure-time travel. Highdensity living correlates with increased energy
use for travel by plane. This is clearly illustrated
by residents living in Grunerlkka and
Valerenga. Living close to the city centre,
these residents use far less energy for everyday
travel than people living in more remote areas
like Rykkinn and Bjrndal, while they use far
more energy for travel by plane.
This is not to say that high density causes
travel by plane. We do not suggest that
living in a densely developed residential area

triggers an immediate need to buy a plane
ticket. Rather, the relationship revealed by
our material indicates that high energy use
for travel by plane by residents of these
areas is a possible long-term indirect effect
of high-density living. Therefore, there
seems to be a limit for densification as we
have illustrated in Figure 6.
In Figure 6, we show the total energy use
per capita for housing and both everyday
and leisure-time travel as a function of
housing density in the eight residential areas.
Total energy use decreases as density
reaches a certain point, while the data indicate
that the total energy use increases at higher
density levels. This pattern is similar to a
pattern in the relationship between energy
use and city size found by a number of empirical studies of cities in Norway, Sweden and
England (Nss, 1997). According to these
studies, up to a certain point, energy use per
capita decreases as density increases, but
thereafter energy use starts to increase. Thus,
the advantages of mega-cities or extremedensity areas seem to be outweighed by the
advantages offered by more modest forms of
urban compactness.
Based on the analysis of energy use and the
different land use characteristics of the eight
residential areas, we can divide the areas
into three categories.
Figure 6. Annual energy use per capita for housing and transport as a function of housing density.
1. High-energy-consumption residential
areas. Here we find Rykkinn and
Bjrndalresidential areas that are dominated by low-density and single-family
housing located at the urban fringe. Additionally, these areas are located far from both a
local sub-centre and a tram/subway/railway
station.
2. Medium-energy-consumption residential
areas. Grunerlkka, Valerenga and Silkestra
fall into the medium category. Highdensity and mainly multifamily housing
characterise these areas, which are located
relatively close to the city centre with proximity to workplaces, public transport systems
and private and public services. Residents
use, however, a large amount of energy for
travel by plane.
3.
Low-energy-consumption
residential
areas. The residents with the lowest energy
consumption for housing and transport reside
in Sandvika and Hovseter. These areas are
dominated by high-density, multifamily
housing. They are located close to local subcentres that to a varying extent represent
proximity to workplaces, public transport
systems and private and public services.
Decentralised Concentration in the Greater
Oslo Region
As the categorisation in the previous section
showed, decentralised concentration within
cities having more than 500 000 inhabitants
could lead to lower energy use in householdsa conclusion that seems to be enjoying
widespread support (Breheny, 1992; Banister,
1992; Owens, 1992; Newman and Kenworthy,
2000; Buxton, 2000; Masnavi, 2000; Hyer
and Holden, 2001; Holden, 2004).
According to Breheny (1992), the concept
of decentralised concentration is based on sustainable development and urban form policies,
such as slowing down the decentralisation
process. At the same time, it is based on realising that extreme forms of the compact city are
unrealistic and are, moreover, undesirable.
Therefore, Breheny makes clear that various
2163
forms of decentralised concentration, based

around a single city or a group of towns,
might be appropriate. Furthermore, Breheny
emphasises that inner cities should be rejuvenated and public transport should be improved
both between and within towns. Thus,
people-intensive places (dwellings and
workplaces) and activities (public and
private services) should be developed around
public transport nodes, in his opinion. This
implies that mixed use must be encouraged
and zoning discouraged. Finally, Breheny
claims that urban (or regional) greening
should be encouraged and efficient remote
heating systems should be developed in new
and existing housing areas. Most of Brehenys
recommendations are in line with our empirical findings from the Greater Oslo Region.
What if these recommendations were to be
integrated in a policy that encourages decentralised concentration within the Greater Oslo
Region? Land use development of the kind
that characterises Sandvika and Hovseter
would be encouraged, whereas that which
characterises Rykkinn and Bjrndal would be
discouraged. Furthermore, the protected natural
areas outside the urban zone would be preserved.
New housing would, therefore, be located near
or within the existing urban zone. The development of very high-density areas would, however,
be avoided. Presumably, such a policy should be
applied to other large cities as well.
The soundness of the decentralised concentration concept is that it maximises advantages
and at the same time minimises disadvantages
offered by different versions of the compact
city. It offers on the one hand the advantages
of compaction. Data show that increased
densities lead to low energy use for both
housing and everyday travel. On the other
hand, decentralised concentration avoids the
disadvantages offered by extreme densities, as
typically can be found in the large, monolithic
compact city. Data show that extreme densities
statistically correlate with high energy use for
long-distance leisure-time travel.
However, the rationale for residents to
perform leisure-time travel is a subtle issue.
Whether high energy use for long-distance
leisure-time travel is due to the physical
2164
characteristics of the large, monolithic city, or

instead to the preferences of its residents
remains a question for further research.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
10.
11.
Notes
1.
9.
The environmental impact is here measured

in terms of the ecological footprint (Aall
and Norland, 2002), which is a tool for providing environmental impact assessments
and which collates a broad spectrum of
environmental consequences caused by the
consumption of three groups of resources:
energy, material and land. Lorek and
Spangenberg (2001) showed that environmental problems in Europe are allexcept
for those caused by high toxicity of small
volumes of substancescorrelated to the
consumption of these three groups of
resources.
Food is best treated separately, as it requires
different methodological approaches and
discussions.
The debate in the late 1980s between the
Australian researchers Newman and Kenworthy and the Americans Gordon and
Richardson, in the Journal of the American
Planning Association, illustrates this
(Breheny, 1992). Newman and Kenworthy
(1989) provided an analysis of the relationship between levels of petroleum consumption and various features of a number of
US and other world cities. They concluded
that substantial fuel savings were possible
by transforming low-density cities into
more compact structures. Gordon and
Richardson (1989) savaged this analysis,
rejecting both the logic and the arguments
used by Newman and Kenworthy.
For example, Banister (1992), Nss (1997,
2000, 2005), Newman and Kenworthy
(1999), Holden (2001, 2004), Hyer and
Holden (2003), Frey (1999), Newton
(2000), Buxton (2000) and Masnavi (2000).
See www.newurbanism.org.
In addition to these factors, energy use is
influenced by architectural and technical solutions (such as heat recovery, ventilation and
energy control systems) which are, however,
outside the scope of this study.
Nss regards the first five characteristics as
the most important and significant factors
that have strong support both in theory and
other empirical investigations. The importance of the last two factors is more uncertain.
Row housing includes semi-detached
houses. Multifamily housing includes all
kinds of blocks of flats.
A total of 507 000 in the City of Oslo and

101 000 in Brum Municipality.
Data are from the Population and Housing
Census 2001 (Statistics Norway) (http://
www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01
/fobhushold_en/).
In the Likert scale, the results are controlled for
fixed response sets: studies have identified
that respondents have a tendency to respond
solely positive/negative to all questions,
regardless of their content (Hellevik, 1991).
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How City Dwellers Affect

Their Resource Hinterland
A Spatial Impact Study of Australian
Households
Manfred Lenzen and Greg M. Peters
Keywords:
economic impact
environmental impact
household metabolism
industrial ecology
social impact
sustainable consumption

Manfred Lenzen
The University of Sydney
Centre for Integrated Sustainability
Analysis
School of Physics A28
NSW 2006, Australia
m.lenzen@physics.usyd.edu.au
www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au
Summary
This article links databases on household consumption, industrial production, economic turnover, employment, water use,
and greenhouse gas emissions into a spatially explicit model.
The causal sequence starts with households demanding a certain consumer basket. This demand requires production in
a complex supply-chain network of interdependent industry
sectors. Even though the household may be confined to a
particular geographical location, say a dwelling in a city, the
industries producing the indirect inputs for the commodities that the household demands will be dispersed all over
Australia and probably beyond. Industrial production represents local points of economic activity, employment, water
use, and emissions that have local economic, social, and environmental impacts. The consumer basket of a typical household is followed in Australias two largest citiesSydney and
Melbournealong its upstream supply chains and to numerous production sites within Australia. The spatial spread is described by means of a detailed regional interindustry model.
Through industry-specific emissions profiles, industrial production is then translated into local impacts. We show that annually a typical household is responsible for producing approximately 80 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, uses around
3 million liters of water, causes about A$140,000 to circulate
in the wider economy, and provides labor worth just under
three full-time employment-years. We also introduce maps
that visually demonstrate how a very localized household affects the environment across an entire continent. Our model
is unprecedented in its spatial and sectoral detail, at least for
Australia.

c 2009 by Yale University
DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00190.x
Volume 14, Number 1
www.blackwellpublishing.com/jie
73
Introduction
With environmental issues worldwide becoming more pressing and therefore more topical every year, an abundance of databases relate environmental variables to spatial entities. Examples
of such databases are maps that reflect the spatial
distribution of variables such as land use; species
density; emissions of toxic compounds to land,
air, and water; changes in mean temperatures;
rainfall; and water availability. In Australia, the
themes of climate change, land use, and water
management receive considerable attention because the country is, on the one hand, characterized by thin and poor topsoils as well as a dry
and unpredictable climate. On the other hand,
Australias agricultural industries are significant
exporters. In response to an increased need for
information supporting land and water management, national governmental agencies have produced, for example, the National Land and Water
Resources Audit (2008).
Although such reference works provide a valuable overview of environmental pressures across
an entire region at a given point in time, they
do not generally offer insight into the industries
that are responsible for these environmental pressures. In contrast, databases linking industry sectors with environmental informationsuch as
the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (AGO
2008) and the Australian Water Accounts (ABS
2006; Vardon et al. 2006)do not typically contain any spatial information.
One consequence of this situation for researchers working in the fields of industrial ecology and sustainable consumption is that widely
applied inputoutput analyses (IOAs) of consumption cannot be undertaken in spatial detail. With respect to Australia, this situation
has improved recently with the construction of
a multiregion inputoutput (MRIO) database
at the state level (Gallego and Lenzen 2009).
In addition, publications of an integrated regional database on land use (Australian Collaborative Land Use Mapping Program 2008) and spatially explicit Australian business registers (ABS
2007a), labor surveys (ABS 2008), and national
pollutant inventories (National Pollutant Inventory 2008) contain information on production
characteristics for statistical subdivisions (SSDs)
and statistical local areas (SLAs).
74
The main aim of this article is to demonstrate how combining an MRIO of Australia
with spatial databases on industrial production
can enable IOA-type modeling of impacts at a
detailed spatial disaggregation. Furthermore, we
show that because of its consistent treatment
of system boundaries, inputoutput modeling is
ideally suited for simultaneously quantifying environmental, social, and economic impacts across
upstream product life cycles and thus enables
valid comparisons and trade-offs across sustainability objectives.
In the following discussion, we describe how
consumption at one site causes economic, environmental, and social impacts at other locations
across Australia. In short, demand for an initial
bundle of commodities at a particular place drives
regional industries, which, in turn, engage in productive activity and exchange a wide range of intermediate commodities through a sectoral and
spatial network of intraregional and interregional
supply chains. Summing up all industrial activity
yields total levels of regional sectoral turnover
that can be translated into regional impacts. We
are thus able to add to the existing notions of carbon footprint and virtual water an economic
and social footprint measured in terms of turnover and employment, all at fine spatial detail.
This approach is much in line with innovations in life cycle assessment (LCA) over the
past decade, as researchers have moved to sitedependent and receptor-dependent impact assessment (Potting et al. 1998; Sadamichi and
Kato 2006). Examples of this phenomenon include the Japanese SAME (Spatial Area of
iMpact Equivalency) approach, which overlays
spatial emissions distributions with population
density distributions to arrive at a measure of vulnerability (Nansai 2005), and efforts in Europe
and North America to elaborate regional differences in the effect of eutrophying and acidifying emissions (Huijbregts et al. 2000; Bare et al.
2003).
The objective of the current analysis is to
apply MRIO modeling to enumerate the impacts of typical households in Australias two
main citiesSydney and Melbournein terms
of two environmental indicators (greenhouse gas
emissions and water use), one economic indicator (turnover), and one social indicator (employment). The remainder of the article is organized
as follows: The second section describes how we

couple our regional interindustry model to new
spatial databases. In the third section, the model
is applied to our two case studies. We first describe the results as totals across Australia and
then break down these amounts into spatial contributions. The final section draws conclusions
from these results.
Methodology
Generalized MRIO for Australia
Our MRIO is essentially a collation of regional
transaction tables {Tijrs } connecting supplying in-
dustries i in regions r with using industries j in

regions s. The systems basic architecture comprises diagonal interindustry blocks ({Tijrr }, intraregional transactions), and off-diagonal blocks
rs,r=s
}, interregional trade flows; see table 1).
({Tij
The table is complemented with intraregional
and interregional final demand {yirs } and primary inputs {v rsj } and imports {m sj }, used domestically (superscript d) or abroad (superscript f).
We formulate the regional model in basic prices
because these better complement physical factors in a generalized framework and also show
smaller fluctuations over time (Jensen et al. 1979,
section 5.2).
Table 1 Schematic of a regional inputoutput table

Domestic
intermediate
demand (S J)
+ Domestic final
demand (S L)
+ International
exports (1)
= Gross output
yid,rs
l : domestic final
demand from
sector i in region
r for destinations
l in region s
Domestic
intermediate
supply (R I)
Ti rsj : domestic
interindustry
transactions
from sector i in
region r to sector
j in region s
yif,r : international
exports of
sector i in
region r
Xir : gross state

output (GSO)
of sector i in
region r
+ Domestic
primary inputs
(R K)
vkld,rs : domestic
vkf,r : international
vkrsj : domestic
primary inputs of
primary inputs of
exports of
origin k in region
origin k in region
primary inputs
r into sector j in
r into domestic
of origin k in
region s
final demand of
region r
destination l in
region s
Vkr : gross state

product (GSP)
of origin k in
region r
+ International
imports (I)
m is j : international
imports from
foreign sector i
into domestic
sector j in
region s
m id,s
l : international
imports from
foreign sector i
into domestic
final demand of
destination l in
region s
m if : international
reexports of
international
imports from
foreign sector i
Mir : international
state imports
from foreign
sector i in
region r
= Gross input
X sj : gross state
input (GSI) into
sector j in
region s
Yls : gross state

expenditure
(GSE) of
destination l in
region s
E: international
state exports
Note: Indexes i and j are industries, r and s are regions; k = domestic primary input origins (wages and salaries,
gross operating surplus, net taxes on production, import duties); l = domestic final demand destinations (private and
government final consumption, gross fixed capital expenditure, changes in inventories); d = domestic; f = foreign.
Lenzen and Peters, How City Dwellers Affect Their Resource Hinterland
75
Our MRIO balances row and column sums

over industries i and primary input origins k, and
over industries j and final demand destinations l,
respectively, for a particular region r, yielding the
following grid (indexes i, j, k, and l and summation

signs i,j,k,l are omitted to enhance readability):
Intermediate demand
Intermediate demand
Region r
Regions s
Region r
Regions s
T rr

+ T sr
+v rr

+ v sr
Final demand
T rs
s =r
s =r
Final demand
Region r
Regions s

s =r
v rs
s =r
T +v +
sr
rr
+y f,r
= Xr
v d,rs
+v f,r
= Vr
+v d,rr

+ v d,sr

s =r

s =r
(1)
s =r
v sr + m r .
(2)
Inserting
y d,rr = Y r s =r y d,sr v d,rr

d,sr
d,r
m ; carrying out similar replaces =r v
ments for y f,r , v rr , and m r ; and arranging terms
finally yields the regional accounting identity
Y r + Tr + y d,r + vr + v d,r + E r
= V r + Mr ,
(3)
with net interstate interindustrial trade Tr =

rs
T sr ), net interstate expenditure
s (T
d,rs
d,r
y = s (y y d,sr ), net interstate primary

inputs into production vr = s (v rs v sr ),
and net interstate primary inputs into final de
mand v d,r = s (v d,rs v d,sr ). Summing equation (3) over regions r and adding re-exports
m if yields the classical National Accounting
Identity1
GNE + E = GDP + M1
(4)
The dimensions of the regional table estimated in this work are hence R = S = 8 regions,2
I = J = 344 industry sectors, K = 5 primary
76
y d,rs
+y d,rr
d,sr
+
y
+m d,r
= Yr
Gross inputs equal gross outputs, so that

T rs + y d,rr +
y d,rs + y f,r
s
Gross
output
Regions s
s =r
+m r
= Xr
Imports
Gross input
Exports
Region r
= Er
= Mr
input origins,3 and L = 7 final demand destinations4 (cf. table 1). The core transaction matrix T of the interindustry model hence contains
(8 344)2 = 27522 7.5 million data points.
The economic interindustry system is accompanied by matching physical data on greenhouse gas
emissions (AGO 2008), water use (ABS 2006),
employment (ABS 2008), and many more indicators (a total of 1,273)5 that are assembled in
a matrix Q, which matches the industry and regional classification of the interindustry transactions matrix T. For further details about this generalized MRIO, see work by Gallego and Lenzen
(2009) and Lenzen (2008).
The literature on subnational MRIOs provides
abundant evidence for the fact that the integration of physical and economic data at this spatial level is generally fraught with difficulties,
because physical and financial industry statistics
exist at different levels of industry sector detail.
Although greenhouse gas statistics may contain disaggregated information only on large fuel
users, such as electricity generators, metals manufacturing, and transport, water use statistics may
focus only on water-intensive industries, such as
rice and cotton growing, and financial and employment statistics may disaggregate service sectors with high turnover. To integrate physical
and monetary databases into one framework, in

past studies researchers have pursued a strategy
of finding the largest set of industries common
to all statistics. Those industries that are disaggregated in one data set but not in another have
to be aggregated. This procedure often leads to
a high degree of aggregation and a consequent
loss of detailed information. Instead, in this work
we disaggregate aggregated data sources by prorating or by other established nonsurvey methods, such as gravity models (Gallego and Lenzen
2009). As a result, our MRIOlike virtually every inputoutput tableis based partly on survey data (the more important entries measured
by data sources) and partly on nonsurvey data
(modeled by the MRIO matrix-balancing procedures; see Lenzen et al. 2009). The nonsurvey data are naturally more uncertain, but they
are also the less important entries. Under these
circumstances, even a large number of uncertain but small elements in an inputoutput table does not necessarily pose a problem. Hewings
and colleagues (1988) have shown conclusively
that such frequently occurring large uncertainties
hardly affect the magnitude of multipliers that
form the core of the results. Jensen and West
(1980) reported that a surprisingly large number
of smaller elements can even be removed before
output multipliers show a significant change.
These issues surrounding MRIO entry size and
reliability are summarized in the work of Jensen
(1980) on regional inputoutput tables, which
introduced the concept of holistic accuracy.
According to Jensen, partitive, or table, accuracy represents the conventional understanding
of a measure of the deviation of all estimated matrix elements from their true values, whereas
holistic, or operational, accuracy is concerned
with the representativeness of a table of the synergistic characteristics of a regional economy. In
this perspective, the accuracy of single elements
may be unimportant, as long as the results of
modeling exercises yield a realistic picture that
is consistent with the aims of the analyst or decision maker. This is exactly the case in this work.
We report multipliers and total impacts that are
relatively insensitive to partitive accuracy (see
work by Gallego and Lenzen [2009] and Lenzen
[2008] for further details).
A practical example may highlight the importance of working at the greatest possible level of
detail. Consider a model application concerned
with the embodied water passed on from wool
growing to wool-textiles manufacturing. Assume
that in water-data sources, wool growing and cotton growing are disaggregated and that cotton
uses much more water than sheep. Assume further that other applications of the model could
be about employment in manufacturing sectors
and that employment figures are only available
for agriculture as a whole. Assume finally that
in all data sources wool and cotton textiles are
aggregated in one textiles manufacturing sector
and that financial gross output exists at the disaggregated level for cotton growing. Our strategy
would be to
1. estimate employment for wool and cotton
by prorating aggregate employment in agriculture across subsectors according to gross
financial output;
2. split the textiles manufacturing sector into
two subsectors, called wool textiles and cotton; and
3. estimate gross financial output of wool and
cotton textiles and split all inputs into
the two textiles subsectors according to
gross financial output, except set to zero
the transactions wool into cotton textiles
and cotton into wool textiles.
Subsequent analyses of, for example, the effects on water use as a consequence of demand
shifts for wool and cotton textiles, would make
use of the fact that disaggregated water-use figures were available for both wool and cotton
growing, which are the main suppliers of wool
and cotton textiles, respectively. Even though all
other (e.g., financial, employment) quantities for
these subsectors are not based on specific data but
rather are prorated according to the gross output
proxy, this would not matter, because water use
is the quantity of interest. In summary, there is
no penalty for generating a large number of uncertain but small estimates in an interindustry
model as long as important (large) data items are
sufficiently accurate.
77
MRIO Analysis
A standard application of IOA is the evaluation of indirect emissions, water use, turnover,
and employmentor environmental, economic
and social footprints (see work by Lenzen [2001a]
for prior discussion in this journal and work by
Foran et al. [2005] for a review). Our MRIO
accomplishes this task at the regional level of
detail by calculating
a 2,752 2,752 direct requirement
coefficients matrix A = Tx1 from the
regional inputoutput table T and
diagonalized (2,752 2,752) gross state
output x ;
the 1,273 2,752 physical coefficients matrix q = Qx1 ;
the 2,752 2,752 Leontief inverse L =
(I A)1 ;
1,273 2,752 generalized multipliers m =
qL ; and
1,273 7 impacts Q = qLy on emissions,
water, turnover, and employment as a consequence of final demand y (2,752 7).
The multipliers m are interpreted as follows.
Let element q kir describe the impact k (emissions,
water, turnover, employment) caused by industry
sector i in region r. Let element L rsij describe the
gross output of industry sector i in region r necessary to satisfy final demand from industry sector k
in region s. Then (q #L)rskij = q kir L rsij is the impact
of final demand from industry sector j in region
s in terms of the quantity k caused by industry
sector i in region r.
Localizing Economic Impacts

and Environmental Burdens
Our inputoutput multipliers are calculated
at eight-state regional and 344-industry sectoral
detail. To achieve an increased spatial resolution
beyond the state and territory levels, we revert to
data on land use, pollutant emissions, economic
turnover, and employment from the Australian
Land Use Mapping Program, the National Pollutant Inventory, and the Australian Business Register. These data exist at a spatial detail of SLAs,
of which there are about 1,400 in the country.
78
We denote the quantity q of type k associated

with industry i in SLA rn of region r as Qrkin .
We then examine every MRIO output q kir L rsij
and ask which SLAs rn in region r actually host
industries of type i that report an impact of type
k. We then assume that emissions, water use,
turnover, and employment q kir L rsij associated with
industries i in region r are distributed across all
subregions rn of region r that host establishments
of industries i according to
Qr n
r s
(q #L)kijn = q kir L rsij ki r m .
Qki
(5)
In cases in which SLA-level data do not

existfor example, for water usewe use proxy
SLA data as weights, such as the area of irrigated
land (cf. Mavroulidou et al. [2004]). A number
of compelling arguments support equation (5):
Gross output Ly as a consequence of
final demand y is made up of numerous contributions, each representing
a single supply chain. Consider Ly =
[I A]1 y = [I + A + A2 + A3 + . . .]y,
which can be expanded into {Ly} =

j A j
k Ajk . ..
n Amn yn . In our
model, for example, for any final demand bundle {yn }, there are 2,752

one-step paths
originatn Amn yn
ing from a supplying industry of type
m, 2,7522 7.5 106 two-step paths

m Alm
n Amn yn originating from a
supplying industry of type l, and so on.
With such a large number of upstream
impact origins, it is statistically improbable
that indirect impacts are concentrated in
a few specific SLAs within a particular
Australian state, instead of distributed
homogeneously across all the states SLAs
that host industry .
Many industries appear only in a few
SLAs within each state, and our procedure
localizes these correctly. Examples for
such concentrated industries are iron-ore
mining in Western Australia, uranium
mining in South Australia and the
Northern Territory, and rice and cotton
growing in New South Wales. Further
industries that are characterized by a
well-defined and relatively high spatial concentration are the bauxitemining/aluminum-smelting-extrusion

process chain, the sugar-cane/molasses/rawsugar chain, steel making, and oil refining.
Some industries are spread widely across a
state but funnel their output through only
a few processing plants. An example is beef
cattle grazing; with the exception of in
the Northern Territory, the livestock stay
within the region and are collected at a
small number of abattoirs that provide the
meat for urban consumers. Hence, beef consumed anywhere in Australia stems from a
homogeneous mixture of beef cattle of the
state where the meat is consumed. Similarly, untreated milk is sourced only from
within each state but collected centrally
from a wide area of dairy farms before being further processed into treated milk and
other dairy products.
datathat is, by land use, employment, economic turnover, and pollutant emissions.
The analyst selecting a proxy for prorating is
faced with the problem of preferring false positives or false negatives. Consider the example of
prorating greenhouse gas emissions. In achieving
geographical distribution from states to SLAs by
proxies, the method may cause a false positive (an
emission allocated to an SLA where it does not
actually occur) or a false negative (no emissions
allocated to an SLA where they do occur).
Our approach to the use of proxies is based on
a high aversion to false negatives. We consider
that the user of any tool based on this method is
interested primarily in his or her own SLA, and
the possibility of an impact being missed would
generate less desirable policy outcomes than an
impact being allocated to a relatively pristine
location.
In this work, we have used the following
proxies:
All Australian regions feature an electricitydistribution network. South Australia (SA), Victoria (VIC), New South Wales (NSW), and
Queensland (QLD) are even linked into the socalled South-East grid. It is hence generally impossible to trace the electricity consumed by any
end-user to a specific power station in a particular
SLA. This argument extends to fossil-fuel mining and extraction operations. In general, QLD
consumers indirectly consume an equal share of
brown coal from all Victorian mining operations,
even though no brown coal is mined in QLD
itself.
Similar to the MRIO construction strategy described above, the localization of environmental,
social, and economic impacts is carried out at the
maximum level of spatial detailSLAs. A consequence of this strategy is that whenever data
are only available at the regional (state) level,
disaggregation into SLAs can only be achieved
through prorating according to proxy variables.
For example, in this work, greenhouse gas emissions and water use as calculated from the regional inputoutput model are only available by
state and by industry. Although turnover and
employment are directly available by SLA, we
distributed greenhouse gas emissions and water
use across SLAs according to SLA-based proxy
1. We have distributed water use by state and

by industry across SLAs according to the
location of irrigated agricultural areas by
SLA by industry.
2. We have distributed greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land-use change
by state by industry according to agricultural land use by SLA by industry. This procedure is particularly important for broadacre agriculture,6 for which land use is an
indicator of the distribution of the total
cattle and sheep herds in Australia, as well
as the amount of land clearing undertaken
to expand grazing areas.
3. We have distributed emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide
(SO2 ), nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), nonagriculture CH4
(methane), N2 O (nitrous oxide), and NOx
(nitrous oxides) by state by industry (on
the basis of the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventory [NGGI]) according to emissions
of CO, SO2 , total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), and NOx by SLA by industry (reported in the National Pollutant
Inventory [NPI]). Although these data
sets are nominally overlapping, they do
not cover exactly the same activities and
79
industries. Higher amounts in the NGGI

reflect the cutoff emission levels at which
the NPI requires establishments to report
their emissions. For example, half the CO
emissions in the NGGI come from the agricultural sector, but the NPI only includes
eight feedlots as sources in this sector.
Moreover, TMVOC and nitrogen oxides
are broader classes, including NMVOC
and CH4 , and N2 O and NOx , respectively.
In these cases, we used TVOC and nitrogen oxides to ensure broad distribution
and to avoid false negatives. Generally,
for additional proxies, we used quantities
for which, first, an emission type reported
by a state was associated predominantly
with one industry sector and, second, that
industry sector dominated other emission
types reported by SLA, which allowed it to
be used as a proxy.
4. We have distributed CO2 , sulfur hexafluoride (SF6 ), and hydrofluorocarbons
(HFCs) by state by industry according to
NPI proxy emissions, which are, first, associated predominantly with the main industry sector emitting the particular greenhouse gas and, second, emitted by a large
number of facilities in the main industry
sector. This third approach is needed when
(2) and (3) above are infeasible, in this case
because the compounds are not part of the
NPI at all.
5. There are some physical or environmental
data types for which none of these four
options is available. In these cases, the best
alternative may be to distribute, using as a
proxy the relative proportion of the SLA
population to the state population.
Computation
All MRIO quantities listed above were constructed from numerical recipes coded in FORTRAN90 as well as commercial optimization
software (ILOG 2007) and carried out on the
Altix Cluster of the Australian Partnership for
Advanced Computation (NCI 2009). The enumeration of the localization in equation (5) involves the computation of a five-dimensional
tensor (q #L)rkijn s . In our case, this tensor is 99%
80
sparse, so that, if enumerated simultaneously for

all 1,273 indicators, it would still result in 16 billion nonzero double-precision numbers and require 160 gigabytes (GB) of RAM. Because such
calculations are clearly impossible without access to high-performance computation, we have
restricted calculation runs to the four indicators reported here, which limits the tensor to
about 53 million nonzero double-precision numbers and requires 0.5 GB of RAM just for q#L
alone. Equation (5) was coded in Matlab using a
Tensor Toolbox (Bader and Kolda 2007), which
enabled efficient and fast algorithms with sparse
and factored tensors. Calculations were carried
out on an off-the-shelf laptop (dual-CPU 2.2 GHz
clock speed, 4 GB RAM).
Results
Overall Results
Two family archetypes were selected to represent typical high-income, inner-city-dwelling,
well-educated, possibly environmentally aware,
busy professionals with no children or only
one child (see table 2). Socioeconomic and
Table 2 Characteristics of the household groups

selected for Sydney and Melbourne
Average weekly
dispensable household
income (A$)
% persons under 18 years
Average no. persons in
the household
Tenure type (%
homeowners, with or
without a mortgage)
% employed persons in
household
House type (% persons
who live in a detached
house)
Education (% persons
with a degree)
% persons who travel to
work by car
Car ownership
(vehicles/household)
Sydney
Melbourne
1,174.20
1,067.89
24
2.7
24
2.7
69
74
75
73
72
82
43
44
68
80
1.41
1.57
Table 3 Total annual impacts per household for Sydney and Melbourne in terms of four indicators
Impacts
Sydney
Melbourne
Total
Greenhouse gas emissions (t)

Water use (ML)
Economic turnover (A$)
Employment (FTE)
77.4
2.3
130,549
2.85
91.3
3.4
150,735
2.90
Direct

Water use (ML)
Employment (FTE)
9.3
0.5
61,058
1.88
13.0
0.7
55,530
1.84
Indirect

Water use (ML)
Employment (FTE)
68.2
1.9
69,490
0.97
78.3
2.7
95,205
1.07
Note: t = tonnes; A$ = Australian dollars; one megaliter (ML) = 106 liters (L) 2.64 105 gallons (gal); FTE =
full-time equivalent.
demographic data on these family types were

taken from the Australian Household Expenditure Survey (ABS 2007b) and the Census (ABS
2007c). The families both belong to the upper
income brackets (household after tax income in
excess of A$50,000 per year). Both families own
a detached home, and in each family both adults
work full time and mostly use one and sometimes
two family cars to drive to work.
Note that differences between the impacts we
associate with the families in the two cities are
partially due to differences in their expenditure
patterns, as reported in the Household Expenditure Survey (ABS 2007b). Neither the two survey
samples nor our selection of families are representative for the city or the state. Therefore, the
following results must not be taken as a general
comparison.
Nationwide impacts in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions, water use, economic turnover, and
employment are summarized in table 3. The
households emit around 80 tonnes of greenhouse
gas, use around 3 million liters of water, cause
about A$140,000 to circulate in the wider economy, and provide labor and create jobs worth just
under three employment-years at full-time equivalent. The differences between the two households can be partly explained by the colder climate, higher rainfall (and corresponding fewer
water restrictions and more agricultural irriga-
tion), and more emissions-intensive brown-coal

use in VIC, compared to NSW. Impacts are both
direct and indirect, with indirect supply-chain
effects exceeding direct effects for all indicators
except employment. In other words, the families cause significantly more greenhouse gas emissions, use more water, and cause more money
to circulate around the wider economy through
their consumption of goods and services than
directly by driving cars, burning household gas,
running their water taps, or spending money at
the shops. This result highlights the importance
of indirect effects for decision making, be it at
the household level or at the government policy
level (Lenzen 2001b). The families provide more
employment directly than they create elsewhere
through their consumption, however.7
Direct emissions exclude those from electricity usage and air travel (because these are indirect emissions caused by the power plants and
airlines), but they include private car travel and
household-gas use. Direct water use is metered
water drawn from the household taps. Direct
turnover is the money spent by the household
members. Direct employment is the labor provided by the household members themselves.
Note again that the values in table 3 are not
representative citywide or statewide averages and
therefore cannot be used to conclude comparative performance of the cities.
81
Figure 1 Spatial distribution of greenhouse gases (tonnes CO2 -equivalents) emitted across Australia as a
consequence of consumption by a Sydney family. One tonne (t) = 103 kilograms (kg, SI) 1.102 short tons.
Spatial Results
The maps presented in the following distinguish 1,406 SLAs across the entire Australian
continent. The size of SLAs is determined by
their population. As a consequence, SLAs in the
arid interior of Australia are much larger than
inner-city SLAs.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Consumption by the Sydney family causes
greenhouse gases to be emitted all over Australia (see figure 1). Prominent contributions to
the households greenhouse footprint8 are emissions from large power plants in NSW, two
around Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, one
near Lake Macquarie, and two near Lithgow.
These power plants are all colocated with coal
deposits and energy-intensive industries. Our
Sydney household also draws indirectly on interstate power from the Latrobe SLA in VIC, from
QLD (Nanango, Banana, and Gladstone SLAs),
and (despite the absence of a direct power connection) the Collie SLA in Western Australia
82
(WA). Furthermore, significant emissions caused

by our Sydney household occur as follows:
in iron and steel semimanufacturing in Port
Kembla, south of Sydney;
through land clearing for and enteric fermentation in beef cattle in NSW (Carrathool, Balranald, Wentworth, Central
Darling, Brewarrina, Walgett, Gunnedah);
during oil refining at Kurnell on Botany Bay
and at Parramatta;
from softwood timber felled around Tumut,
Oberon, and Bombala, NSW;
through enteric fermentation in sheep for
wool in NSW (Bourke, Cobar);
during cement and lime production
(Wingecarribee, NSW, and Kalgoorlie,
WA); and
from natural gas operations near Roebourne
and Ashburton, WA.
Our Melbourne households carbon footprint
extends less beyond state borders (see figure 2).
This outcome is partly because VIC produces
Figure 2 Spatial distribution of greenhouse gases (tonnes CO2 -equivalents) emitted across Australia as a
consequence of consumption by a Melbourne family.
more electricity than it consumes, with the remainder being sent to SA and NSW. Moreover,
VIC includes a major part of the Murray-Darling
Basin, where most of Australias food, especially
dairy products, is produced. As a consequence,
VIC is relatively self-sufficient in terms of
emissions-intensive products. Major contributions to the familys greenhouse gas budget
are
electricity (Latrobe, VIC),

iron and steel (Wyndham, VIC),
natural gas (Rosedale, VIC),
beef cattle (Mildura, Swan Hill, and
Towong, VIC),
basic chemicals (Altona and Maribyrnong,
VIC),
oil refining (Corio and Altona, VIC),
air transport (Craigieburn, VIC),
softwood timber (Glenelg and Rosedale,
VIC),
cars (Broadmeadow, VIC),
natural gas (Roebourne and Ashburton,

WA), and
sugar (Maribyrnong, VIC).
Water Use
The water-use maps (see figures 3 and 4) show
water use points largely confined to the households resident state, which is a reflection of the
fact that irrigated agricultural commodities do
not extensively cross state boundaries. This is
especially true, for example, for untreated milk,
which appears in the Sydney households water
budget as produced around Bega, Taree, Wollondilly, and Singleton (all in NSW) and in
the Melbourne households budget as produced
around Loddon, Shepparton, Gannawarra, and
Campaspe (all VIC). Further important items are
fruit (Griffith and Leeton in NSW, and Mildura
and Swan Hill in VIC), rice (Griffith and Murrumbidgee in NSW), and vegetables (Hay, Narromine, and Cowra in NSW, and Casey and Baw
Baw in VIC).
83
Figure 3 Spatial distribution of water (ML) consumed across Australia as a consequence of consumption by
a Sydney family.
For the Sydney household, the top interstate water-use points are untreated milk (Loddon, Shepparton, Gannawarra, and Campaspe
in VIC) and grapes for wine (Mildura in VIC).
For the Melbourne household, the top interstate
water-use points are unginned cotton (Moree,
Narrabri, Walgett, and Warren in NSW), rice
(Griffith and Murrumbidgee in NSW), grapes for
wine (Gawler in SA), and beef cattle (Berrigan
in NSW, and Johnstone in QLD).
Economic Turnover
In contrast to the two environmental
indicatorsgreenhouse gas emissions and water useeconomic turnover consequences of
our households consumption occur much more
within the population centers and in very different sectors (see figures 5 and 6). The payment of
rents and mortgages for private dwellings creates
considerable turnover in the wealthy residential
areas of Inner Sydney and Melbourne; Woollahra, Ku-ring-gai, and North Sydney (NSW);
and St. Kilda, Brighton, and Caulfield (VIC).
84
Hotels, clubs, restaurants, and cafes (Inner Sydney and Marrickville, NSW, and Inner Melbourne and Prahran, VIC) also form a large
part of the households economic footprint. Further important components are large city retail
malls (Penrith, Rockdale, Marrickville, and Warringah, NSW, and Ringwood, Dandenong, and
Frankston, VIC), followed by banking, clothing, telecommunications, and other city-based
businesses.
Prominent agricultural producers are, for example, wine (Cessnock, NSW), poultry (Casey,
VIC), fish (Bega, NSW), and fresh meat (Melton,
VIC). These are rare and generally low-ranking
occurrences in the components list, however, and
this goes to show that although agricultural commodities generate substantial environmental and
resource impacts, they do not fetch high prices
and are hence not endowed with large monetary
turnovers.
Significant interstate turnover is generated,
for example, for trade advertisers in Flynn
(Australian Capital Territory [ACT]) and for
Figure 4 Spatial distribution of water (ML) consumed across Australia as a consequence of consumption by
a Melbourne family.
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers in Toodyay (WA).
Employment
The employment impacts of our households
consumption are distributed across a wide range
of mostly service industries, such as banking, market research, business management, medicine,
dentistry, optometry, clothing, retail trade, legal
services, hotels, clubs, restaurants, cafes, property
services, education, insurance, and community
services. Because these industries are mainly located in urban centers, the main employment
impacts also occur there (see figures 7 and 8).
Also, because these service industries often require personal interaction, there is very little interstate trade of service commodities and, hence,
very few interstate employment impacts. Needless to say, modern agricultural and resource industries are highly mechanized, so that these industries do not feature at all amongst the top
employment impacts.
Conclusions
This study models the indirect impacts that
occur as a consequence of the consumption of
households in terms of environmental, social, and
economic indicators at a high level of spatial detail across the Australian continent. The modeling framework is at present the most detailed
of its kind in Australia in terms of indicators,
industry sectors, and spatial entities. Such a spatially detailed model is perhaps most justified for
a large country, such as Australia, where regional
production regimes are vastly different due, for
example, to different climate zones.9 Our results
demonstrate that consumption by a household in
a particular city has emissions, water, monetary,
and employment consequences that spread across
the entire country.
Given that the focus of this work is on households, the most obvious policy application is in
providing information to the general public. In
this respect, our spatial model has already been
85
Figure 5 Spatial distribution of economic turnover (A$) stimulated across Australia as a consequence of
consumption by a Sydney family.
Figure 6 Spatial distribution of economic turnover (A$) stimulated across Australia as a consequence of
consumption by a Melbourne family.
86
Figure 7 Spatial distribution of employment (full-time equivalent) generated across Australia as a

consequence of consumption by a Sydney family.
Figure 8 Spatial distribution of employment (full-time equivalent) generated across Australia as a

consequence of consumption by a Melbourne family.
87
applied in the Australian Consumption Atlas

(Dey et al. 2007; see www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au/
research/index.shtml) and in a major exhibition
on climate change by the Australian Museum
(www.austmus.gov.au), among others. We hope
that such information will unveil the supplychain impacts that are hidden from the consumers view and thus bring about attitude and
lifestyle changes.
A second outlet of this information is in public
education through schools and universities. Similarly, the Centre for Integrated Sustainability
Analysis at the University of Sydney has been
working with state education departments to relate embodied emissions more to students personal lives and thus create better learning experiences (Lenzen and Smith 2000; Lenzen and
Murray 2001; Lenzen et al. 2002), and the design of more learning material is planned on the
basis of the results of the research documented
here.
Furthermore, the VIC state government has
used the spatial model to define and quantify
the states virtual water cycle (Lenzen 2008,
2009). This work was primarily aimed at enhancing the understanding of the link between
irrigationwater use and consumption by VICs
residents, at reinforcing the message that improved rural water management is not a problem for farmers alone to tackle, at shedding
light on the potential for significant watersaving leverage, and at affecting water use beyond the boundaries of the state over the longer
term.
Finally, the calculations demonstrated here
can equally be applied to companies, and maps
of the environmental, social, and economic footprints of individual firms can be created. An example of a corporate case studya large urban
water supplieris documented in work by Peters and colleagues (2008). On the basis of this
publication, the Australian water industry is using the spatial model to assess, benchmark, report on, and mitigate corporate environmental
impacts.
Future work will move in a variety of directions. First, we aim to combine water use
with water availability to identify scarcity issues brought about by regional trade. Second,
we are striving to include in the model pollu88
tants that have predominantly local impacts. Finally, we seek to integrate specific data for major trading partners and to trace impacts beyond
Australias borders by building an international
MRIO.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported partly by the
Australian Research Council (ARC) through its
Linkage Project LP0347812 and partly by Sydney Water Corporation. The National Computational Infrastructure facility in Canberra granted
runtime on their Altix Cluster. The authors
thank Margaret Kahn for continuing excellent
advice. We also thank Rowena Joske from the
Australian Conservation Foundation for help
with sourcing and screening data on household
expenditures and interstate trade. Christopher
Dey from the Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis, Owen Price from the University
of Wollongong, and Craig Davis from Sydney
Water Corporation produced the maps for this
article.
Notes
1. E = exports; GDP = gross domestic product;
GNE = gross national expenditure; M = imports.
2. Australian states and territories, referred to in this
study, are as follows: New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), Queensland (QLD), Western Australia
(WA), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS),
Northern Territory (NT), and Australian Capital
Territory (ACT).
3. Primary input origins include wages and salaries,
gross operating surplus, taxes on production, decreases in stocks, and imports.
4. Final demand destinations include household and
government final consumption, gross fixed capital
expenditure by private and public enterprises and
the government, increases in stocks, and exports.
5. www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au/research/Information
Sheets/ISATBLInfo6_v1.pdf.
6. Broadacre agriculture is large-scale farming, generally including cropping and stock, in which large
areas of land are used to farm a single crop.
7. The situation is reversed for low-income households, which create more jobs indirectly than they
contribute themselves.
8. Our figures go beyond the carbon footprint because
they include CH4 and N2 O.
9. Consider the suggestion of combining all European

countries into a continental inputoutput table,
with Portuguese and Norwegian agricultural sectors
aggregated.
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Experiences from a large-scale teacher development program. Canadian Journal of Environmental
Education 6: 3251.
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3545.
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Mavroulidou, M., S. J. Hughes, and E. E. Hellawell.
2004. A qualitative tool combining an interaction matrix and a GIS to map vulnerability to
traffic induced air pollution. Journal of Environmental Management 70: 283289.
Nansai, K. 2005. Site-dependent life-cycle analysis
by the SAME approach: Its concept, usefulness,
and application to the calculation of embodied
impact intensity by means of an input-output
analysis. Environmental Science & Technology
39(18): 73187328.
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Canberra, Australia: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
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90
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3137.
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About the Authors

Manfred Lenzen is a professor at the Centre
for Integrated Sustainability Analysis at the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Greg M.
Peters is a senior research fellow and senior lecturer at the Sustainability Assessment Program
at the University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia.
Sustainability
Cities and the Low Carbon Transition

By Harriet Bulkeley, Vanesa Castn Broto, Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin
The notion of a low carbon transition is beguilingly simple. We use too much of
the wrong sort of energy. We need to use the right sort of energy, and we need to
use less of it.
Cities in a climate changed

world
Responding to climate change is an ever

more pressing challenge. Over two decades
of international efforts to reach a common
agreement appear to have given way to a
more fragmented approach, where regional
coalitions, national governments, big business and communities seek to forge new
ways of acting to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and to adapt to climate impacts.
What is increasingly uniting these efforts,
however, is the belief in the need for a transition in our energy economies. At its heart,
the climate change challenge relates to how
we produce and consume energy in our
cars, in our planes, our offices, factories and
homes. As issues of energy security and energy scarcity join climate change on the list
of energy predicaments facing society in the
coming century, a range of unlikely bedfellows from the Chinese government to the
Transition Towns movement in the UK are
calling for a low carbon transition: a fundamental change in the way we provide energy
services.
At a first glance, the notion of
a low carbon transition is beguilingly simple.
We use too much of the wrong sort of energy. We need to use the right sort of energy,
and we need to use less of it. Getting from
here to there is, however, far more complex.
Questions arise about what forms
of energy we should actually use
is nuclear better than
wind, solar more viable
than tidal and so
on and so on
and of how
the
need
for energy
services varies between
24
The European Financial Review
and within different countries. Equally important are the processes of transition: what are
the mechanisms that can be used to affect
such a fundamental shift? Given the highly
embedded structure of energy systems, from
the grids that cover much of Europe and
North America, to forms of energy market,
and cultures of energy consumption, our energy worlds appear rather fixed.
Cities are central, we believe, to answering these questions. While the exact date at
which it occurs will always remain unknown,
it is thought that the worlds population is
already more urban than rural (UN-Habitat,
2010). Over the next few decades, this trend
is set to increase rapidly. For example, the
United Nations predicts that urbanization in China will grow rapidly, reaching
73 per cent, or 1.02 billion of urban dwellers,
in 2050 (Dhakal 2010: 73). In a recent essay,
Shobhakar Dhakal (2010: 73) argues that
the past three decades of government
policy in China have effectively created
a high carbon urban transition through
their efforts to increase urbanization and
economic growth. Little wonder then
that the International Energy
Agency suggest that some 70%
of global energyrelated green-
August - September 2011
house gas emissions come from cities (IEA,

2008). Looking forward to 2030, they predict
that some 80% of the increase in global annual energy demand above 2006 levels will
come from cities in non-OECD countries (IEA
2009). Recent analysis by the World Bank provides some insights into the underlying drivers of these trends (World Bank 2010; Figure
1). The cities which are contributing the most
to global greenhouse gas emissions are the
most populated and economically productive in the world. In total, the World Bank
calculates that when the emissions from the
largest 50 cities in the world are taken together, they produce a collective contribution
which is greater than any country apart from
the US and China (World Bank 2010). Looking at the emissions contribution per person,
those cities which are dependent on energy
intensive infrastructure whether this is in
terms of industrial production, car-based
transportation, or fossil fuel based forms
of heating come out on top (Figure 1). This
is also the case when we compare cities in
terms of their emissions per unit of production those most dependent on fossil fuels,
whether this is in the form of the coal fired
power stations of China or the diesel generators upon which African cities frequently
have to depend are ranked the highest.
While the uncertainties surrounding such
data mean that it is currently impossible to
assess cities performance with a high degree of accuracy, this kind of information
provides an indication of which processes
are driving high carbon energy systems,
and the challenges that achieving a low
carbon transition will need to address.
Strategic imperatives
Cities have, of course, long recognised their contribution

to climate change and their
potential to be part of the solution. Since the early 1990s,
cities have undertaken their
own actions and worked to-
Comparing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities

(World Bank 2010)1
Figure 1:
Total GHG
(MtCO2e)
Total GHG per capita

(MtCO2e/cap)
GHG per GDP

(ktCO2e/US$bn)
New York 196

Tokyo 174
Moscow 167
LA 159
Shanghai 148
Osaka 122
Beijing 110
Chicago 106
Tianjin 104
London 73
Bangkok 71
Miami 65
Moscow 15.4
St Petersburg 15.4
Los Angeles 13.0
Chicago 12.0
Miami 11.9
Philadelphia 11.9
Shanghai 11.7
Toronto 11.6
Dortmund 11.6
Tianjin 11.1
Bangkok 10.7
Beijing 10.1
Tianjin 2316
Beijing 1107
Shanghai 1063
St Petersburg 971
Moscow 922
Lagos 893 (total=27Mt)
Bangkok 799
Riyadh 726
Tehran 560
Wuhan 554
Kinshasa 598 (total=6Mt)
Istanbul 384
1. Figures in italics are derived from national estimates and should be treated with caution.
gether, through organisations like the Climate Alliance, ICLEIs Cities

for Climate Protection programme, and Energie-Cities, to develop
programmes and initiatives to tackle such issues as energy efficiency,
energy generation, transport and land use planning. Such initiatives
were usually undertaken by cities pioneering green forms of urban
development, and most often located in Europe and North America.
Examples include Portland, Oregon, Leicester, UK, and Heidelberg, in
Germany. There is a growing body of evidence of the progress, and
problems, with these early approaches (Bulkeley 2010). It suggests
that while individual measures may have been effective, particularly
within the municipalitys own estate, efforts have frequently been
hampered by a lack of capacity and by political tensions over the continuation of urban development as usual. In effect, addressing climate
change has remained outside of the core business of cities and urban
policies have failed, so far, to fundamentally reshape urban futures.
Our work, however, suggests that there is evidence of a shift in
urban thinking on climate change. Cities are taking a more strategic
approach to climate change, seeking to implement farther reaching
and systemic changes which go to the heart of the urban economy
(Bulkeley et al. 2010; Hodson and Marvin 2009, 2010; While et al.
2010). At the heart of these efforts have been attempts to redesign
and reconfigure the infrastructure networks through which energy
is produced and consumed in cities, and which shape their vulnerability to climate change. The provision and organisation of urban
infrastructures including energy, water, waste, shelter and mobility has in the past been perceived as unproblematic and taken for
granted as primarily engineering challenges and administrative issues (Graham and Marvin 2001). Recent analyses have called these
assumptions into question, demonstrating the critical role played by
infrastructures in urbanization and vice versa, and highlighting structural shifts taking place in the provision and use of urban networks.
Because of the critical role that such systems play in shaping resource
use and urban development, addressing climate change depends on
their fundamental transformation. In short, strategic intervention in
urban infrastructure networks will be central to any effort to achieve
a low carbon transition. Given that such systems are often delivered
through various forms of public and private partnership, and that
they connect with the daily lives of millions of people, any such solutions will need to go beyond the actions of local and national govern-
ments and will require the involvement of the private sector and of
communities.
The development of a more strategic approach to low carbon
urbanism has been particular marked in some of the worlds largest
cities. This approach is being developed through three, related, processes: strategic protection; self-reliant urbanism; and new networks
of global cities (Hodson and Marvin 2010). In terms of the strategic
protection of world cities, understanding the long term impacts and
implications of climate change for cities and their critical infrastructure requires new forms of impact assessment and forecasting at the
urban scale, which seek to combine climate change science and local knowledge to create robust analyses of future risks including sea
level rise, water shortages and heatwaves. This knowledge, in turn, is
informing public and private actors in cities about the levels of investment, protection and insurance that might be required to adapt to a
climate changed world, and, in some cases, to the development of alternative forms of adaptation which focus on increasing the resilience
of local communities.
A second feature of the strategic response of global cities is the
construction of more self-reliant urbanism. Whereas in the past cities
may have looked to expand the networks and resource flows that
sustain them, what is apparent about the move to address climate
change is that it is leading to a significant rethink about the continued viability of this model of urban development. As cities grapple
with the triple challenge of rising energy prices, energy security and
climate change, many are seeking to reduce energy use, develop their
own energy sources, and re-use wastes within the city, in order to
foster independence from national and international energy systems.
As with efforts targeted at the protection critical infrastructure, such
forms of low carbon energy autonomy require new forms of knowledge and new ways of working. To this end, cities have adopted a
third strategy, of developing new global networks through which to
share information, develop measurement and monitoring tools, and
lever additional resources.
A more strategic approach to low carbon

urbanism is being developed through
strategic protection; self-reliant urbanism; and new networks of global cities.
One example of the emergence of this more strategic approach
to addressing climate change can be found in London. In establishing the C40 Climate Change Leadership Group and setting itself ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, London has
been at the forefront of the recent engagement of global cities with
the climate change agenda. The 2008 Climate Change Action Plan
contained the goal to stabilise CO2 emissions in 2025 at 60 per cent
below 1990 levels, with steady progress towards this over the next 20
years (GLA 2007). The requirement to produce such a strategy, covering both mitigation and adaptation, was at the same time placed on a
statutory footing by the national government. Regarded as the Mayors top priority for reducing carbon emissions has been a concern to
enable a quarter of Londons energy supply to be moved off the grid
www.europeanfinancialreview.com
25
Sustainability
and on to local, decentralised systems by 2025, with more than half

of Londons energy being supplied in this way by 2050 (GLA 2007).
Despite the change in Londons political leadership in 2008, this has
given rise to The Decentralised Energy Masterplanning (DEMaP) Programme, whose ambition is to assist both public and private sector
in identifying Decentralised Energy (DE) opportunities in London in
order to meet the targets of decentralising supply (LDA 2011).
Experimental responses
Although these new pressures can be regarded as generic, the ways

in which cities are experiencing and responding to them are highly
diverse. Shaping this diversity are new social and technical experiments discrete projects intended to test the potential of new initiatives, trial ideas, and develop knowledge. Recent work by analysts
working in contexts as diverse as Stockholm and Durban, Shanghai
and Nottingham, finds evidence that cities are increasingly willing to
experiment with new ways of addressing climate change in the city
(Bulkeley et al. 2011). For many,
such experiments provide the
means through which efforts
to secure critical infrastructure
and ensure access to energy
and other resources are being
pursued. In other cases, experiments seek to frame the climate change issue in radically
different ways, offering alternative visions of what it might
mean to be a low carbon city.
Perhaps the most avowedly
experimental responses currently taking place at the urban
scale in response to climate
change are new low carbon cities. One of the most well known examples of this type of experimentation is that of Masdar City, in the
United Arab Emirates. For James Evans and Andy Karvonen (2010),
Masdar exemplifies a living laboratory: a space specifically designed
to capture the lessons of developing new technologies and ways of
living in real time. In their account of this case, they demonstrate the
twin roles that Masdar City plays as an experiment. On the one hand,
the city itself is conceptualised as a test-bed for a carbon-free lifestyle.
The idea is to combine vernacular Arabic principles and cutting-edge
energy efficiency strategies to create a real-life city with a negligible
impact on climate change (Evans and Karvonen 2010). On the other
hand, the city, developed by the UAE in partnership with MIT, provides a space within which to explicitly foster innovation and the development of the clean-tech sector.
Non-state actors may also undertake low carbon experiments. In
Bangalore, T-Zed (Towards Zero Carbon Development) is a project
that seeks to provide an alternative form of urban development, targeted at the higher income residents of the city who primarily work in
the IT and related sectors. The development was initiated by a private
company, BCIL (Biodiversity Conservation India) and like other private
developments in Bangalore has been built as a gated community in
26
The European Financial Review
August - September 2011
the outskirts of the city. It includes 16 single-family houses and 75

apartments and incorporates numerous social and technical innovations with the intention of reducing GHG emissions and increasing its self-sufficiency to reduce its dependence on the citys, often
unreliable and limited, resources (BCIL, nd). For example, the design
included measures to reduce the embodied energy of the building
(including the use of local materials), renewable energy generation,
energy efficient technologies (including air conditioning, refrigeration, and lighting), rainwater harvesting, as well as landscaping and
conservation. In addition to these technical forms of innovation, the
development seeks both to offer no compromise in lifestyle while
also engaging residents in a suite of low carbon practices, such as behavioural changes to reduce energy and water use, organic vegetable
gardening and community based activities.
There are however alternative means through which innovations
for addressing climate change are emerging in the urban arena. One
prominent example in the UK is the Transition Towns movement,
established in the small town
of Totnes, Devon, in 2006, and
which has since spread to over
300 communities in the UK as
well as to US, Australia, Japan
and Chile (Smith 2010). This
form of alternative urbanism is
also present in the emergence
of low impact developments
(LIDs) which as localized form
of ecodevelopment that critique consumerist capitalist
materialism, illustrating ways
of living with minimal income,
few possessions, limited employment and significantly reduced financial outgoings (Pickerill 2010: 179). While LIDs have been
most common in rural communities in the UK context, they are increasingly being undertaken in the urban context, albeit in a hybrid
form. For example, the BedZED housing development completed in
2002 in London, designed by Bill Dunster, was the first large-scale
(eighty-two homes) urban eco-development in Britain. ... it aimed to
be a zero fossil energy development producing as much energy
as it consumed, and using low-impact materials for construction,
sourced from within 35 miles of the site and encouraging its residents to its eco-design, residents are encouraged to adjust their lifestyle by joining a car club, use roof gardens ... and rent workspaces on
site (Pickerill 2010: 187). Translating such alternative principles of responding to climate change into the urban arena is not without their
challenges. As Amanda Smith explains in her analysis of the Transition
Town movement in Nottingham, the diverse range of communities
and interests in the urban arena has made the translation of the core
principles of resilience and self-sufficiency difficult to accomplish.
While the analysis here refers mostly to cities in developed and
emerging economies, there is growing interest in the low carbon
agenda in cities in developing economies, in part reflecting new concerns for the resilience of urban populations in the face of resource
and energy scarcity. Because comparatively little research has yet

been done in cities in developing countries, we have limited evidence
on which to assess how, why and with what effect experimentation is
emerging in these contexts. As the low carbon transition gathers pace
it will be important to investigate how urban authorities, businesses
and communities in these regions are able to gain from the potential
economic and environmental benefits of the low carbon transition,
whilst maintaining levels of development and access to resources that
are required to address the pressing challenges in these cities.
Which way now for a low carbon transition?
As these various examples suggest, recognising that cities are critical to any low carbon transition does not provide a single pathway
through which it can be achieved. It does, however, point to some
new starting points. First, it suggests that we cannot invent our way
towards a low carbon future without also engaging society (Bulkeley et al. 2010; Coutard and Rutherford 2010). The sorts of changes
that are required to urban infrastructure networks require not only
new technologies, but also new forms of investment, new practices
of energy use, and new ways of working between the public and the
private sector. Business models that may have worked for the provision of large, centralised infrastructure systems come under pressure
as new forms of decentralised energy provision take centre stage.
Relationships between governments and their citizens, in relation
to what sorts of energy service should be provided to whom and at
what cost, for example, come into question. Second, responding to
these challenges requires not only capacity at the urban level and a
proactive political climate, but also willingness to create new forms of
knowledge about cities and to operate beyond established practices
and ways of doing things (Aylett 2010, Hodson and Marvin 2010). It is
in this regard that the capacity to experiment and collaborate, to try
alternative ways of doing things and to accept some levels of failure,
may be particularly important. Third, bringing transition to the city
reminds us that what is at stake is not a simple choice between different paths to the future, but rather a complex and negotiated process.
We find that that a wide range of social interests are staking a claim
to speak for the city in undertaking or aspiring to undertake low carbon transitions. The field of such social interests is not an equitable
one, and particular coalitions are often able to mobilise financial, relational and knowledge resources through which they produce the
symbolic visions of what the low carbon future of the city should
become, shutting down the possibilities that things could be otherwise. Building resilient, low carbon, cities may, however, require a
different approach one that is flexible and open to alternative possibilities. Creating spaces in the city where diverse social interests can
articulate and experiment with their visions for the future is therefore
a pressing policy challenge.
Harriet Bulkeley, Vanesa Castn Broto, Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin are
co-editors of Cities and Low Carbon Transitions (Routledge, 2010).
About the authors
Harriet Bulkeley is Professor of Geography, Energy and Environment

and Deputy Director of the Durham Energy Institute, Durham Uni-
versity, UK. She is co-author of Cities and Climate Change (Routledge

2003) and Governing Climate Change (Routledge 2010). She currently
holds a Climate Change Leadership Fellowship, Urban Transitions: climate change, global cities and the transformation of socio-technical
systems from the Economic and Social Research Council.
Vanesa Castn Broto is a Lecturer in Urban Development Planning at the Development and Planning Unit in University College London (UCL). She holds an engineering doctorate from the University of
Surrey (UK) and a MSc. in environmental sociology from Wageningen
University (the Netherlands). She has published in a variety of academic journals in engineering, planning and environmental sciences.
Mike Hodson is Research Fellow at SURF, University of Salford.
Mike is the author of World Cities and Climate Change (with Simon
Marvin). His research interests focus on urban, regional and community transitions to low-carbon economies. Mike has developed projects funded by the European Commission, UK research councils, subnational government and through private consultancy.
Simon Marvin is Professor and Co-Director of SURF. Simon is a coauthor of six internationally leading books on cities and infrastructure.
His research addresses the changing relations between neighbourhoods, cities, regions and infrastructure networks in a period of resource constraint, institutional restructuring and climate change and
has been funded by the ESRC, EPSRC, international research foundations, the European Commission, commercial funders, and many
public agencies.
Bibliography
Aylett, A. (2010) Municipal bureaucracies and integrated urban transitions to a low carbon future,
Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) Cities and Low Carbon Transition, Abingdon, NY: Routledge, pp.142-158.
BCIL, nd, "BCIL: An overview", Ed B C I Limited (Bangalore)
Bulkeley, H. (2010) Cities and the governing of climate change, Annual Review of Environment
and Resources, 35
Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) (2010) Cities and Low Carbon Transition,
Abingdon, NY: Routledge, pp. 29-41.
Coutard, O. and Rutherford, J. (2010) The rise of post-network cities in Europe? Recombining infrastructural, ecological and urban transformation in low carbon transitions, Bulkeley, H., Castn
Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) Cities and Low Carbon Transition, Abingdon, NY: Routledge,
pp.107-125.
Dhakar, S. (2010) Urban energy transitions in Chinese cities, Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson,
M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) Cities and Low Carbon Transition, Abingdon, NY: Routledge, pp. 73-87.
Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2010) Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and
the epistemology of urban transitions, Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.)
Cities and Low Carbon Transition, Abingdon, NY: Routledge, pp. 126-141.
Graham, S. and S. Marvin (2001). Splintering Urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological
mobilities and the urban condition. London, Routledge.
GLA (2007) Action Today to Protect Tomorrow: the Mayors Climate Change Action Plan, Greater
London Authority, London, February
Hodson, M. and S. Marvin (2009). "'Urban Ecological Security': A New Urban Paradigm?" International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33(1): 193-215.
Hodson, M. and Marvin, S. (2010) World Cities and Climate Change: producing urban ecological
security, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.
IEA (2008). World Energy Outlook 2008. Paris, International Energy Agency.
IEA (2009) Cities, Towns and Renewable Energy: Yes in my Front Yard Paris, OECD/IEA
London Development Agency (2011) London Heat Map: About the project, http://www.londonheatmap.org.uk/Content/About.aspx (accessed July 2011)
Pickerill, J. (2010) Building liveable cities: urban Low Impact Development as low carbon solutions, Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) Cities and Low Carbon Transition,
Smith, A. (2010) Community-led urban transitions and resilience: performing Transition Towns in
a city, Bulkeley, H., Castn Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S. (Eds.) Cities and Low Carbon Transition,
UN-Habitat (2010) State of the World's Cities 2010/2011 - Cities for All: Bridging the Urban Divide,
Nairobi: UN-Habitat.
While, A., Jonas, A. and Gibbs, D. (2010). From sustainable development to carbon control: ecostate restructuring and the politics of urban and regional development, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35 (1) 7693.
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www.europeanfinancialreview.com
27
Progress in Planning 72 (2009) 151193

www.elsevier.com/locate/pplann
The planned city sweeps the poor away. . .: Urban planning

and 21st century urbanisation
Vanessa Watson *
School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
Abstract
In recent years, attention has been drawn to the fact that now more than half of the worlds population is urbanised, and the bulk
of these urban dwellers are living in the global South. Many of these Southern towns and cities are dealing with crises which are
compounded by rapid population growth, particularly in peri-urban areas; lack of access to shelter, infrastructure and services by
predominantly poor populations; weak local governments and serious environmental issues. There is also a realisation that newer
issues of climate change, resource and energy depletion, food insecurity and the current financial crisis will exacerbate present
difficult conditions. As ideas that either the market or communities could solve these urban issues appear increasingly
unrealistic, there have been suggestions for a stronger role for governments through reformed instruments of urban planning.
However, agencies (such as UN-Habitat) promoting this make the point that in many parts of the world current urban planning
systems are actually part of the problem: they serve to promote social and spatial exclusion, are anti-poor, and are doing little to
secure environmental sustainability. Urban planning, it is argued, therefore needs fundamental review if it is to play any meaningful
role in current urban issues.
This paper explores the idea that urban planning has served to exclude the poor, but that it might be possible to develop new
planning approaches and systems which address urban growth and the major environment and resource issues, and which are propoor. What is clearly evident is that over the last two to three decades, urban places in both the global North and South have changed
significantly: in terms of their economy, society, spatial structure and environments. Yet it appears that planning systems,
particularly in the global South, have changed very slowly and some hardly at all, with many approaches and systems reflecting
planning ideas from the global North simplistically transferred to Southern contexts through complex processes of colonialism and
globalisation. The persistence of older forms of planning in itself requires explanation. The paper briefly reviews newer approaches
to urban planning which have emerged in both the global North and South to see the extent to which they might, at the level of
principle, offer ideas for pro-poor and sustainable planning. The dangers of further inappropriate borrowing of ideas across
contexts are stressed. It concludes that there are some important shifts and new ideas, but no ready-made solutions for Southern
urban contexts.
# 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Urban planning; Urbanisation; Marginalisation; Informality; Master planning; Global South
Tibaijuka (2006).
* Tel.: +27 21 6502360; fax: +27 21 6502383.
E-mail address: Vanessa.Watson@uct.ac.za.
0305-9006/$ see front matter # 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.progress.2009.06.002
152
V. Watson / Progress in Planning 72 (2009) 151193
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 2. Urban settlements in the 21st century: Setting the context for urban planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2. Globalisation and cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.1. Labour markets and income changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.2. Urban government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.3. Civil society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.4. Urbanisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3. The environmental and natural resource challenge for planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4. Urban socio-spatial change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 3. Planning in the global North: Concerns of poverty and sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2. Emergence of urban planning in the global North: Master plans, development control and urban modernism. . .
3.3. Planning shifts in the global North and contemporary approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.1. Decision-making in planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.2. Forms of spatial planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.3. Planning, environment and sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.4. Land management and regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 4. Urban planning in the global South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2. Spread of urban planning ideas to the global South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3. Urban modernism as an ideal city form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.4. Zoning ordinances and building regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5. The dark side of planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 5. New planning approaches and ideas in the global South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2. Innovations in the institutional context of planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.1. Integrated development planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.2. Participatory budgeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.3. UN Urban Management Programme (UMP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.4. Strategic planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3. Regulatory aspects of urban planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.1. State intervention in the land market: The Brazilian Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS) . . . .
5.3.2. Urban land law and tenure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.3. Planning in the peri-urban areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.4. Planning in post-conflict and post-disaster areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2. On the problem of idea borrowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3. Assessment of recent shifts in planning and new planning ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Chapter 1. Introduction
In recent years, world attention has been drawn to
problems of urbanisation and urban settlements in the
global South.1 UN-Habitat has been at the forefront of
this campaign, using World Urban Forum meetings, the
Habitat Global Report series, and a range of programmes and interventions to highlight urban issues.
The World Urban Forum in Vancouver in June 2006 was
a particularly important event, as it called for a major
shift in global thinking about the future of Southern
cities. In the first place, there was recognition that by
2008, for the first time in history, the majority of the
worlds population will live in cities, and in future years
most of all new population growth will be in cities in the
global South. A second important insight was that the
rate and scale of this growth, coupled with impending
issues such as climate change and resource depletion,
posed massively serious problems in these towns and
cities and required specific intervention if large-scale
urban disaster was to be avoided. In a significant shift
away from the conventional wisdom that either the
market or local communities would ultimately
provide corrective mechanisms to urban problems,
UN-Habitat identified urban planning as a central tool
of governance, through which these major issues of
urban development will have to be addressed. In effect,
UN-Habitat was suggesting that urban planning should
be fundamentally reviewed to see if it was able to play a
role in addressing issues in rapidly growing and poor
cities.
UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka, in
an address to the 2006 World Planners Congress (held to
coincide with the World Urban Forum), gave an
indication of the kind of new role which planning
was expected to play. She pointed to the urbanisation of
poverty as the most important urban issue of the future,
as well as the need to address this as part of an
environmental sustainability agenda. But she also
pointed to planning as a factor which often tends to
increase social exclusion in cities, through anti-poor
measures and a belief that . . .in the planned city . . ..the
poor should at best be hidden or at worst swept away
Slater (2004) discusses the problem of categorisation of different

regions of the world and the implied binaries that are set up through
terms such as First World/Third World, West/Non-West, etc., which
ignore the extent of interpenetrations which have occurred. The
terms global South and global North, used here, do not overcome
this problem (and in particular beg the question about the place of the
East), but do offer a less pejorative reference to different parts of the
world.
153
(Tibaijuka, 2006: 5). She called on planning practitioners to develop a different approach to planning that
is pro-poor and inclusive, and that places the creation of
livelihoods at the centre of planning efforts.
This paper explores the extent to which the
profession and discipline of urban planning2 might be
capable of taking on the challenge posed in 2006 in
Vancouver: that of changing what is currently perceived
as its highly negative role in Southern cities, and
becoming a mechanism through which 21st century
urban issues of poverty, inequality, rapid growth and
environment, can be addressed. Significantly, this is
happening at a time when additional pressures might
reinforce a shift in direction for planning. Lovering
(2009: vi) argues that the 2008 global financial crisis has
upset the neoliberal model within which planning has
been conceptualised and practised for the last couple of
decades, to the extent that planning as we have known
it is at an end. The focus of planning on providing
private interests with public resources, he suggests,
will have to give way to demands that planning revert to
its earlier intentions: . . .protecting the needs of
ordinary people rather than privileged minorities, the
public rather than private interest, the future rather than
the present (Lovering, 2009: 4). This, of course, may
not apply to those parts of the world less affected by the
economic crisis (India, China), where traditional
planning approaches could continue unchallenged.
While the pressure on planning to recall certain of its
founding social and environmental goals might therefore be coming from various sources, and with
relevance to both global North and South, the focus
in this paper will be on that part of the world where the
bulk of the global urban population will in future be
residing, i.e. the global South. The aims of this paper are
to consider, firstly, what are the current dynamics which
are shaping urban settlements (particularly in poorer
parts of the world), to which a revised view of
planningin a post-neoliberal erawill have to
respond; secondly, how it has come about that planning
can stand accused of exacerbating poverty in Southern
cities (and if this is indeed the case); and thirdly,
whether there are innovative approaches to urban
planning (in any part of the world) which can be drawn
on to inform planning reform in contexts of rapid
growth and poverty. It cannot, of course, be assumed
that urban planning can solve these 21st century urban
issues. Their origins lie in political, economic and
The focus in this paper is on urban planning, which obviously

overlaps with rural, regional and national territorial planning.
154
environmental processes that are well beyond the scope

of even the most efficient and effective planning
systems and the most creative of ideas. At the same
time, it is argued here that urban planning can
potentially play a role (even if a limited one), and at
minimum it is important to draw attention to situations
where planning is being used to directly exacerbate
these problems.
A central argument in this paper will be that planning
in many parts of the global South has been strongly
informed by planning traditions which emerged in other
parts of the world (specifically in Western Europe and
the USA) in response to urban conditions very
particular to an earlier time and context. The situation
within which urban planning operates today is very
different to what it was when planning emerged as a
profession and function of government during the last
century; yet in a surprising number of Southern
countries, planning systems have changed little from
these early models. This is strange, given the
unprecedented nature and scale of change which has
been occurring in urban settlements and their governance systems across the globe, and the now widespread
recognition of the intractable problems of poverty,
inequality and environmental damage which are facing
cities (particularly, but not only, Southern cities) on a
scale not experienced before. There appears to be a
significant mismatch, therefore, between entrenched
urban planning systems and the current and future urban
issues which planning should be addressing.
But if the theory and practice of urban planning,
which in themselves mean very different things in
different parts of the world, are to be dusted off and
examined to see if they can play a positive role in
rapidly changing urban contexts, then it is important to
understand why, on the one hand, there are claims of
disillusionment with planning, while on the other,
planning systems have been surprisingly robust and
persistent. There are, after all, probably few places in
the world which do not have a policy and legal planning
framework, even if in some cities and towns it is used
partially, intermittently and opportunistically. It is
significant that modern town and regional planning
spread from its areas of origin to the rest of the world
through vehicles such as colonialism and the development agenda. Above all, master planning, as it was
known in some parts of the world, became inextricably
linked to the notion of urban modernisation. In many
parts of both the global North and South a particular set
of urban forms and urban layouts, and the legal tools to
deliver and enforce these, have become the standard and
accepted way of developing cities. For much of the 20th
century and up to the present time, the market, political

elites and growing middle-classes supported urban
modernism as it delivered profits in land to these groups
as well as a quality of life considered desirable. An
important consequence of this has been the economic
and spatial exclusion of those unable to take advantage
of land ownership and development.
Significantly, while forward plans which took the
form of old style master planning have been subject to
a growing critique in parts of the global North, with
arguments that they should be replaced with more
flexible and inclusive structure, strategic and growth
management plans, master planning has persisted to a
remarkable degree in many other parts of the world.
And even where the nature of the forward plans has
changed, the basic principles of the underlying
regulatory system, as well as a universal modernist
image of urban development, tend to remain. Clearly,
planning systems can be a two-edged sword and can
potentially be used as a tool to achieve good, but can just
as easily be used in ways which are regressive and
oppressive: to promote vested interests and political,
class, racial or ethnic domination. In less democratic
and less politically stable countries, in particular, master
planning has proved to be a useful tool for political and
economic elites to gain power and profit and, if
necessary, to deal with opponents through the intermittent enforcement of restrictive planning laws. In
considering whether or not planning can play the role
which certain international agencies would like it to
play, the inherently political nature of planning cannot
be underestimated.
The paper focuses firstly (Chapter 2) on the changing
urban context within which urban planning is expected
to operate.3 It reviews the ways in which changes in
economic, social and demographic factors are giving
rise to new socio-spatial forms and processes in urban
settlements, and the implications which these might
have for 21st century urban planning. It also considers
factors which are becoming of overriding importance to
planning: climate change and energy resource deple-
In this text I use the term planning to refer to intentional, and

value-driven, societal efforts to improve the built and natural environment. Planning is also (and not infrequently) initiated by groups
other than professional planners and governments (such as nongovernmental and community-based organisations, and business),
and the planning system frequently incorporates these sectors in
processes which are inevitably political. Urban planning (as well as
planning at other scales) is distinguished from other forms of planning
by its concern with space and place. Both planning processes and
planning outcomes are included in this definition.
tion. Chapter 3 considers the emergence of urban

planning during the last century in Europe and the USA,
and its close link to urban modernist ideas. The chapter
considers how planning has changed in this part of the
world and looks at some of the new approaches which
have emerged in recent times. Chapter 4 then turns to
planning in the global South. It briefly reviews the ways
in which planning ideas spread from their regions of
origin to all other parts of the world. Important here are
the ways in which older forms of planning, coupled with
urban modernist ideas, have proved highly resilient over
time. Chapter 4 asks why this should be a problem and
155
how persistent forms of planning are impacting on the

lives of those who live in poor and rapidly growing
urban areas. Innovative planning ideas have been
emerging in Southern contexts as well, and these may
have particular relevance for revised planning. Chapter
5 concludes with a return to the injunctions of Anna
Tibaijuka for pro-poor and environmentally sustainable
planning in contexts of rapid growth and poverty. This
chapter is a critical assessment of the role which
planning is playing in the global South and of the
potentials which lie in more recent innovative practices
and ideas.
156
Chapter 2. Urban settlements in the 21st

century: Setting the context for urban planning
2.1. Introduction
In every part of the world, the urban planning system
is strongly shaped and influenced by the context within
which it operates. Even though many countries,
particularly those of the global South, have formal
planning systems modelled on those from other parts of
the world, these systems are inserted into particular
institutional contexts and their ability to influence land
management in cities and towns is circumscribed by a
wide range of local, national and international forces.
Any consideration of the future of urban planning
therefore needs to take place within an understanding of
the factors which are shaping the socio-spatial aspects
of cities, and the institutional structures which attempt
to manage them. It also needs to recognise the
significant demographic and environmental challenges
which lie ahead and which will have to be factored into
planning systems.
The purpose of this chapter is to briefly review the
changing nature of urban settlements since the latter
part of the 20th century and the factors which are
driving these changes. This discussion is framed by the
understanding that such changes can never be attributed
only to wider structural forces, but that these forces
articulate in various ways with local histories, cultures
and environmental contexts, resulting in highly differentiated patterns of urban development and change
across the globe. The focus will be on cities of the global
South, but recognising the interconnected nature of
cities and regions in all parts of the world. The chapter
will first examine the overarching changes which have
occurred in the global economy since the 1970s, and
then the ways in which these impact on demographic,
socio-spatial and institutional change in cities and
towns in ways which are relevant to planning. It will
also highlight the key environmental issues which are of
relevance to planning.
2.2. Globalisation and cities
While there has been a great deal of debate on the
meaning of globalisation and the extent to which it
represents a break from previous forms of economic
organisation, there is reasonable consensus that from
the early 1970s there has been a . . .further strengthening and internationalization of capital using substantial
advances in communications and transport technology
(Marcuse, 2006: 362). This definition recognises the
decisive shift which has occurred in recent decades, as

well as the continuities which exist with previous forms
of international economic organisation. The 2008
global financial crisis has influenced the trends within
this system, but it is not yet clear if and how the form of
organisation will be affected.
2.2.1. Labour markets and income changes
New economic processes have had a major impact on
urban labour markets, which show a growing polarisation of occupational and income structures (and hence
growing income inequality) caused by growth in
producer services and decline in manufacturing. Urban
labour markets are also increasingly heterogeneous and
volatile, and urban residents are disproportionately
affected by international economic crises (National
Research Council, 2003: 7). Work by Hamnett (1994)
has shown that polarisation of urban labour markets is
particularly evident in cities which have experienced an
influx of low-skilled migrants. While some cities of the
global South have benefited from the transnational
migration of manufacturing plants, many have also
reported processes of de-industrialisation and hence the
phenomenon of income polarisation has been experienced more generally. This restructuring appears to be
true in the larger global cities of the world, but is
equally true in smaller urban centres and in those parts
of the world, largely in the global South, which have not
been subject to significant Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI). Phnom Penh, in Cambodia, for example, has
undergone dramatic social and spatial restructuring in
recent years despite low levels of FDI and little
industrial growth (Shatkin, 2006).
Recent writings on the topic of globalisation and
cities stress the point that, while there are few parts of
the world that have not felt the effects of these
processes, nonetheless there is a great deal of diversity
in terms of the nature of these impacts, with actual
outcomes strongly influenced by pre-existing local
conditions and local policies (Shatkin, 2007). The
dramatic increases in income inequality which result
from changing urban labour market structures are also
not inevitable: a number of East Asian cities have been
strongly influenced by the actions of developmental
states, which have channelled resources into urban
industrial growth and into public sector spending on
urban projects and programmes. In these cases, job and
income polarisation has been less dramatic. By contrast,
in some parts of the world international and national
policy interventions have exacerbated the effects of
globalisation. For example, many countries which were
subjected to International Monetary Fund structural
adjustment policies and the contraction of public sector

jobs have been even more severely affected.
One important effect of these economic and policy
processes on urban labour markets has been the rapid
growth in the informal sector,4 particularly in the
global South. The post-2008 financial crisis, which has
seen falling economic growth rates in most parts of the
world, is undoubtedly contributing further to the growth
of informal jobs. In Sao Paulo, between 1989 and 1999,
public sector employment shrank from 635,000 to
609,000, and salaried jobs declined from 3.4 to 2.9
million. At the same time the informal labour force
increased from 2.4 to 3.7 million, thus growing at 4%
per annum (National Research Council, 2003: 334). AlSayyad and Roy (2003) argue that these recent
economic trends have given rise to an exploding
informality in cities of the South, which is taking on
rather different forms than it has in the past. There
appear to be new processes of polarisation within the
informal economy, with informal entrepreneurs moving
into sectors abandoned by the public and formal private
sectors, but many as well swelling the ranks of
survivalist activities. In effect, informality (in terms
of forms of income generation, forms of settlement and
housing, and forms of negotiating life in the city) is
becoming a dominant mode of behaviour in large parts
of the worldin many urban centres it is now the norm
and no longer the exception (Al-Sayyad & Roy, 2003;
Roy, 2005).
There are strong regional variations here as well.
UN-Habitat figures for the late 1990s suggested that
informal employment as a percentage of non-agricultural employment was at 72% in Africa, 65% in Asia
and 51% in Latin America (Neto, 2007). In Africa,
some economies have grown in recent years, but so
have informal jobs. In some parts of Africa, economies
are now mostly informal, but most of these activities
are survival strategies in the realm of trade, providing
low and irregular incomes under very poor working
conditions. There are cases of micro-enterprises upscaling and becoming lucrative, but this is not the
norm.
Future urban planning, particularly (but not only) in
the global South, will therefore be taking place in a
context of ongoing inequality and poverty, and with
high or very high levels of informal economic activity, a
157
significant proportion of which is survivalist in form.

Currently, much urban development, particularly
informal economy and settlement, ignores the planning
system, especially when the latter is aimed at its control
and eradication. A central effect of planning is often to
raise the costs of informality and to shift it spatially,
without removing it: poor people cannot, after all,
simply disappear. New planning forms will need to
acknowledge and work to support informal activity in
both economic and residential spheres, if they are to
meet the requirement of being pro-poor.
2.2.2. Urban government
Formal urban planning systems are typically located
within the public sector, with local government usually
the most responsible tier.5 Within the last three or so
decades, and closely linked to processes of globalisation, there have been significant transformations in local
government in many parts of the world, making them
rather different settings from those within which
planning was originally conceived.
The most commonly recognised change in urban
administrative and political systems is from government to governance, which in the global North
represents a response to the growing complexity of
governing in a globalising and multi-scalar context, as
well as the involvement of a range of non-state actors in
the process of governing. In many parts of the global
South, however, urban administration remains highly
centralised and state-led. While this shift to governance
is usually cast as a positive one, there is now an
emerging argument that it may have its drawbacks:
Bulkeley and Kern (2006) indicate that it may be
insufficiently effective to deal with local climate
protection policy, and Swyngedouw (2005) argues that
forms of governance-beyond-the-state can be regarded
as Janus-faced when the democratic character of the
local sphere is eroded by the encroachment of market
forces that set the rules of the game. The latter has
been a feature of many cities in the global South,
showing a selective adoption of governance ideas.
In the global South, the concept of governance has
been strongly promoted as a policy measure, along
with decentralisation and democratisation, driven
largely by multi-lateral institutions, such as the World
Bank and UN agencies. Despite this pressure, actual
decentralisation, local democratisation and shared
governance have been uneven processes in the global
The term informal sector suggests an unsatisfactory division of

the economy between formal and informal activities. The two sectors are acknowledged to be highly integrated and interdependent and
the term informal sector is used here for convenience.
Although in many parts of the world urban planning is still carried

out, in practice, by national government agencies.
158
South and in many parts changes have been limited.

Limited capacity, resources and data at the local level
have further hindered decentralisation. During the
1980s, a mainly economic perspective dominated
policy prescriptions, with World Bank-IMF sponsored
structural adjustment programmes providing the
framework for public sector change across the global
South. The principal ideas were privatisation, deregulation and decentralisation. By the end of the 1980s,
however, key World Bank officials had accepted that
good governance was the key issue and, by 1997, the
shift was firmly entrenched when the Banks World
Development Report emphasised the importance of
strong and effective institutions, rather than rolling
back the state, as in the past.
From the late 1990s, good governance has become
the mantra for development in the South and planning
has been supported to the extent that it promoted this
ideal. The term has come to mean different things,
however. The World Bank, for example, has been
associated with a mainly administrative and managerialist interpretation of good governance, whilst
agencies such as the UNDP have emphasised democratic practice and human and civil rights. In the global
South, as elsewhere, there is a tension between the
participative and technocratic dimensions of new
approaches to governance, as well as between
participative and representative democracy. The participatory budgeting processes in Latin American cities
have demonstrated this well.
These shifts have had profound implications for
urban planning, which has often been cast as a relic of
the old welfare state model and as an obstacle to
economic development and market freedom. In a
context in which the power of governments to direct
urban development has diminished with the retreat of
Keynsian economics, and in which the new central
actors in urban development are real estate investors and
developers, whose activities are often linked to
economic boosterism, planning has found itself to be
unpopular and marginalised. It has also found itself at
the heart of contradictory pressures on local government
to promote urban economic competitiveness on the one
hand, while on the other dealing with the fall-out from
globalisation in the form of growing social exclusion,
poverty, unemployment and rapid population growth,
often in a context of unfunded mandates and severe
local government capacity constraints (Beall, 2002).
The post-2008 financial crisis, a loss of faith in
unregulated markets, and a possibly stronger role for
governments (Lovering, 2009) may revive support for
state-led planning yet again.
The past shift, from planners as the sole agents

responsible for managing land and urban development
(under a Keynsian mandate) to a situation in which they
are just one of a range of players in shaping the city,
often left planners confused as to their roles and
responsibilities. In addition, urban planning at local
government level also had to face challenges from new
shifts in the scale of urban decision-making. As the
wider economic role of urban centres and their
governments came adrift from their geographically
bounded administrative role, so decision-making about
urban futures has re-scaled and introduced ideas of
multi-level and collaborative governance (Brenner,
1999). The idea of urban decision-making framed by
the concept of city-regions6 has become more
common, putting further new demands on urban
planners.
Generally, traditional urban planning has been
reliant on the existence of stable, effective and
accountable local government, as well as a strong civil
society, in order to play a positive role. While only
certain regions in the global North may achieve these
qualities, in relative terms large parts of the global South
do not (Devas, 2001). Under such conditions, traditional
urban planning will continue to be ineffective, or
alternatively will be used in opportunistic ways (such as
for the eviction of the poor as part of land-grabs) by
those with political and economic power.
2.2.3. Civil society
Communities have been increasingly unwilling to
passively accept the decisions of politicians and
technocrats that impact on their living environments.
In turn, planners have come to recognise that planning
implementation is more likely to be effective if it can
secure community support, or at least passive
agreement. The notion of public participation in
planning has developed considerably over time, with
a plethora of methods and techniques put forward to
deliver consensus. However, the possibility that
planning can be conducted in a participatory way is
largely conditioned by broader statecivil society
relations and the extent to which democracy is accepted
and upheld. This is highly uneven across the globe, and
in some countries is not part of the planning system at
all. Even where participatory planning is accepted, and
where civil society can be drawn into planning
6
Noting that this idea has a long pedigree in planning, and particularly in the work of Geddes, Mumford, Abercrombie and the
Regional Planning Association.
processes, it is recognised that global economic and

social change has in turn impacted on civil society in
different ways, and has often made the ideal of
participatory planning far harder to achieve. Certainly,
the assumption by some planning theorists of a stable
and relatively homogenous civil society with a common
worldview, able to debate planning alternatives and
reach sustained consensus, has been challenged more
generally and particularly in the context of Sub-Saharan
Africa (Watson, 2002, 2006).
In cities in both the global North and South, societal
divisions have been increasing partly because of
growing income and employment inequalities, which
have intersected with ethnicity and identity in various
ways, and possibly as well due to international
migration streams and the growth of ethnic minority
groups in cities. Thus assumptions in the 1960s that
cultural minorities would eventually assimilate gave
way in the 1990s to the acceptance (in the planning
literature at least) of multiculturalism (Sandercock,
1998) in cities and ideas about ways in which planners
could engage with cultural difference.
Across the globe, the nature and strength of civil
society is highly uneven. What is often identified as a
broad trend towards national democratic political
systems cannot always be equated with strong civil
society. Older political logics do not simply disappear
because authoritarian regimes have been challenged.
From a wide-ranging review of the literature on social
movements in developing countries, Walton (1998)
finds evidence to support such conclusions. Despite the
growth of social movements and moves to democratisation, he suggests that participation is still mediated more
typically by patronclient relations, rather than by
popular activism. In the context of parts of Africa, De
Boeck (1996: 93) makes the point that understood
dichotomies such as state/society or legal/illegal no
longer capture reality. In an increasingly exotic,
complex and chaotic world that seems to announce the
end of social life and the societal fabric as most of us
know it, the state is but one (often weaker) locus of
authority, along with traditional chiefs, warlords and
mafias. Definitions of legal and illegal constantly shift,
depending on which groups are exerting power at the
time.
Even in contexts that are less chaotic than these,
researchers point to the extent to which urban crime and
violence have brought about a decline in social cohesion
and an increase in conflict and insecurity (National
Research Council, 2003). Growth in violent crime, often
supported by increasingly organised and well-networked drug and arms syndicates and fuelled by
159
growing poverty and inequality, have eroded the

possibilities of building social capital in poorer
communities. Causal factors are clearly complex:
writing in the context of Brazil, Holston (2009)
suggests that the process of democratisation itself has
destabilised society in specific ways that have entailed
particular forms of violence and crime. Conducting
participatory planning in situations such as these can be
extremely difficult.
Finally, there has been a tendency in the planning
literature to assume a one-dimensional view of civil
society and the role it might play in planning initiatives.
The ideal of strong community-based organisations,
willing to meet late into the night debating planning
ideas, may be achievable in certain parts of the world,
but civil society does not always lend itself to this kind
of activity. In Africa, the Middle East and much of Asia,
Bayat (2004: 85) argues, . . .social networks which
extend beyond kinship and ethnicity remain largely
casual, unstructured and paternalistic. Resistance tends
to take the form here of quiet encroachment, rather
than forming community organisations (although there
can be spectacular exceptions, and in India the NGO
sector is active but often middle-class based). In many
parts of the world as well, Davis (2004) argues, civil
society is being inspired more by popular religious
movements (Islamist, and Christian or Pentecostal) than
by organised demands for better infrastructure or
shelter, given that efforts to secure the latter have so
often failed.
2.2.4. Urbanisation
Cities and towns in all parts of the world are very
different places to what they were when planning first
emerged as a professionover a hundred years ago.
And while the 20th century as a whole was a time of
major urban transformation, the last few decades,
coinciding with the global restructuring of economy and
society, have seen new and particular impacts on urban
growth and change. Two important points have been
debated in the literature on cities and globalisation:
firstly, which cities have been affected, and secondly,
how important global processes themselves have been.
Marcuse (2006: 366) argues that every urban centre
in the world is impacted in some way by processes of
globalisation, but these forces are not the dominant
determining factor shaping all cities and explaining all
new patterns, and that globalisation does not affect all
parts of any city equally. Rather the nature of cities and
towns is affected by a combination of broader global,
national and regional processes, which have interacted
in very specific ways with local urban histories, policies
160
and struggles. It is common, moreover, that globalisation acts to intensify already existing patterns and
trends, rather than imposing entirely new urban forms.
For example, the racial divisions put in place in South
African cities under apartheid have been exacerbated in
the post-democracy period as the country has opened up
to the global economy, although now taking the form of
class rather than racial divides (Turok & Watson, 2001):
the outcome is that South African towns and cities are
now more spatially divided and fragmented than they
have ever been.
An important point emerging from this debate is that
the negative effects of globalisation on urban space are
not entirely inevitable, and that, given strong state
policies and planning at both national and local level,
these effects can be countered. In a comparison of the
impacts of globalisation on cities under market-centred
and state-centred political systems, Hill and Kim (2006)
show that neither Tokyo nor Seoul conforms to the
world city model: there are relatively smaller income
disparities, less socio-spatial polarisation, and the
maintenance of a domestic manufacturing sector in
both the Asian cities, largely due to the nature of state
intervention and the particular national developmental
models followed in these countries.
In most parts of the world, however, either for
ideological reasons or for lack of capacity, governments
have done little to mediate the effects of globalisation
on their economies and cities. Devas (2001) notes that
none of the nine Southern cities in his study had a clear
poverty policy. Hence planners have been faced with
rapidly changing urban conditions, the sources of which
lie well beyond their control. Two aspects of change
have been important here: rapid urban growth and urban
socio-spatial change. But while these two areas of
change have to a greater or lesser degree affected most
urban places, the nature of these impacts has been
highly varied.
In relation to rapid growth, the 2003 UN-Habitat
report: The challenge of the slums, as well as the World
Urban Forum of 2006, played an important role in
drawing attention to what has been termed a global
demographic transition. While the period 19501975
saw population growth more or less evenly divided
between the urban and rural areas of the world, the
period since has seen the balance tipped dramatically in
favour of urban growth. In 2008, for the first time in
history, more than half of the worlds population lived in
cities, and by 2050 this will be 70%. Significantly,
however, the bulk of this growth will be taking place in
the global South and East. Currently, 73% of the worlds
population lives in developing regions and by 2050
this figure could have risen to 83%. A rapidly growing

proportion of this population will be urban: in 1950,
18% of the population of poor countries lived in cities
and towns, but by 2050 this will have risen to 67%.7
This transition is presenting urban management and
planning with issues which have never been faced
before. Urban growth will be rapid, less so in Latin
America, which is already highly urbanised, but very
much so in Africa and Asia, which are currently less
urbanised. Further, certain cities will attain sizes which
have not been experienced before: new megacities of
over eight million and hypercities of over 20 million are
predicted. The bulk of new urban growth, however, is
predicted to occur in smaller settlements8 of 100,000
250,000, which have absorbed much of the rural labourpower made redundant by post-1979 market reforms
(Davis, 2004) and the continuing adverse terms of world
trade in the agricultural sector. While megacities
present management problems of their own, it is the
smaller cities which suffer particularly from a lack of
planning and services to cope with growth.
Compounding all of the above, this rapid urban
growth is taking place in those parts of the world where
governments are least prepared to provide urban
infrastructure, and urban residents are least able to
pay for such services or cope with natural disasters. It is
these parts of the world where the highest levels of
poverty and unemployment are to be found. The
inevitable result has been the rapid growth of urban
informal settlements and deteriorated shelter conditions. The 2003 UN-Habitat Report claimed that 32% of
the worlds urban population (924 million people in
2001) live in such areas on extremely low incomes, and
are directly affected by both environmental disasters
and social crises. The fact that some of the most densely
settled poorer parts of the world are also in coastal zones
and will thus be subject to sea-level rise with climate
change, adds a further dimension to this.
The issue of urbanising poverty is particularly severe
in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, given that the bulk
of urbanisation is taking place under different global
economic conditions to those that prevailed in Latin
America and even in much of Asia. Here urbanisation is
occurring for the most part in the absence of
industrialisation and under much lower rates of
economic growth: in effect urbanisation has been
Figures from United Nations (2008), Table 2.1.

This is not the case everywhere. Beauchemin and Bocquier (2004)
show that secondary towns in West Africa are hardly growing, as
people migrate to larger settlements.
8
decoupled from industrialisation. Urban growth rates

are also more rapid here than elsewhere (19902000:
Africa 4.1%; Asia 3.3%; Latin America 2,3%).9 But
they are due primarily to natural increase rather than
ruralurban migration: 75% of urban growth is from this
source, compared to 50% in Asia in the 1980s
(Beauchemin & Bocquier, 2004). The inevitable
consequences have been that urban poverty and
unemployment are extreme, living conditions are
particularly bad, and survival is supported predominantly by the informal sector, which tends in many parts
to be survivalist rather than entrepreneurial.
Intensified economic competition, Simone (2000)
suggests, means that economic and political processes
of all kinds become open for negotiation and
informalisation. Networks with the state become
particularly valuable, both in negotiating preferential
access to resources and in avoiding control and
regulation, with the result that, increasingly, ..public
institutions are seen not as public but the domain of
specific interest groups, and indeed they become
sites for private accumulation and advantage
(Simone, 2000: 7). The relationship between state
and citizens, and between formal and informal actors,
thus becomes under-codified and under-regulated,
dependent on complex processes of alliance-making
and deal-breaking, and particularly resistant to
reconfiguring through policy instruments and external
interventions.
A significant feature of urbanisation in Africa and
Asia is the strong urbanrural ties which still exist, and
which keep many people in motion between urban and
rural bases. Research in Africa shows that this strategy
of spatially stretching the household (Spiegel, Watson,
& Wilkinson, 1996) functions as an economic and
social safety-net, allowing access to constantly shifting
economic opportunities, as well as maintaining kinship
and other networks. One implication of this phenomenon is that conceptualising cities and towns as selfcontained entities which can be planned and managed
accordingly becomes obviously questionable; another is
that the commitment of people to particular urban
locales (and what happens in them) becomes more
tenuous. As Simone (1999) suggests, connections
between social and physical space become progressively disjoined, and frameworks for identity formation
and networks are spread across regions and nations,
rather than being rooted in specific locations.
Figures from Roberts (2006).
161
2.3. The environmental and natural resource

challenge for planning
The 1987 Brundtland Commission and its report
(Our common future), which called for development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs, placed the issue of sustainable development at
the core of urban policy and planning concerns. The
concept of sustainable development in turn gave rise to
the green agenda in planning and the subsequent
development of governance methodologies such as
Agenda 21.
Throughout the 1990s, planning grappled with the
problem of integrating the issue of sustainable development into planning agendas, and in many parts of the
world this has still not been satisfactorily achieved:
planning and environmental management often operate
in different government silos and with different policy
and legal frameworks. Increasingly, as well, there are
conflicts between the green agenda (environmental
concerns), the brown agenda (urban development) and
the red agenda (issues of environmental justice).
Planning potentially stands at the intersection of these
conflicts (Allen & You, 2002).
The most important environmental issue now is
climate change. The authoritative Stern report (Treasury, 2006: vi) on the economics of climate change
concludes that it will:
. . .affect the basic elements of life for people around
the worldaccess to water, food production, health
and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people
could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal
flooding as the world warms.
Moreover, it will be the poorest countries and people
who are most vulnerable to this threat and who will
suffer the earliest and the most. This has important
implications for the work of urban planning: steering
settlement away from flood-prone coastal and riverine
areas and those subject to mud-slides; protecting forest,
agricultural and wilderness areas and promoting new
ones; and developing and enforcing local climate
protection measures.
A second major environmental concern is oil
depletion. The global use of oil as an energy source
has both promoted and permitted urbanisation, and its
easy availability has allowed the emergence of low
density and sprawling urban formssuburbiadependent on vehicle transport. Beyond this, however, the
entire global economy rests on the possibility of moving
both people and goods quickly, cheaply and over long
162
distances. An oil-based economy and climate change

are linked: vehicle and aircraft emissions contribute
significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and hence
global temperature rise.
While there has been much debate about the issue of
peak oil, some current positions predict that this will
be reached in 2010,10 and it is unlikely that we will be
able to replace it with an equivalent form of energy. As
energy costs begin to rise with dwindling supplies, the
impacts on cities, on urban life more generally, and on
the economy, will be profound. Responding to a post-oil
era in the form of public-transport and pedestrian-based
movement systems, more compact and integrated cities,
and more localised food and production systems
(reducing the ecological footprint of cities), present
new imperatives for planning.
While climate change and oil depletion will
fundamentally change the nature of life on this planet,
the current nature and scale of urbanisation and city
growth are also causing a multitude of environmental
impacts which are of central concern to planning. The
report to UN-Habitat on Current issues and trends in
urban safety (Pelling, 2005) provides a comprehensive
review of these threats and impacts. Pelling makes the
point that cities are inherently risk-prone, due to the
concentrated nature of settlement and the interdependent nature of the human and infrastructural systems
that make them up. Cities cause negative environmental
impacts, through consumption of natural assets (trees
for fuel, ground water, sand and gravel) and the
overexploitation of natural services (water systems and
air as sinks for sewerage or industrial waste), and they
modify the environment and generate new hazards,
including deforestation and slope instability within and
surrounding cities, encouraging landslides and flash
flooding. Inevitably, it is poorer and more vulnerable
groups, in poorer regions of the world, which feel the
effects of these processes: for example in Manila,
informal settlements at risk to coastal flooding make up
35% of the population; in Bogota, 60% of the
population live on steep slopes subject to landslides;
and in Calcutta, 66% of the population live in squatter
settlements at risk from flooding and cyclones (Pelling,
2005; UN-Habitat, 2007).
2.4. Urban socio-spatial change
The issue of how global economic change in the last
few decades has impacted on socio-spatial change in
10
www.peakoil.net.
towns and cities has received much attention, along with

the qualification that both local and broader processes
have shaped these changes. In essence, however,
planners and urban managers have found themselves
confronted with new spatial forms and processes, the
drivers of which often lie outside the control of local
government and urban planning.
The nature of spatial change in cities has been
captured well in Healeys (2000) conceptualisation of a
shift from uniplex to multiplex cities. She describes
a shift from cities as relatively self-contained and
focused on a central node or CBD (central business
district), with radial transport systems feeding coherent
community neighbourhoods, to multiplex cities: this
emphasises the dynamic and relational nature of cities,
the complex interactions between cities and their
inhabitants and their regional and global settings, and
the emergence of multi-nodal, mixed use places where
movement patterns and economic linkages are complex
and multi-directional. Movement patterns have become
far more complex and extended, and administrative
boundaries of urban areas far less meaningful in terms
of defining the spatial extent of social and economic
relations. The term megalopolis has been used to
describe multi-city, multi-centred urban regions with a
high proportion of low density residential areas and
complex networks of economic specialisation to
facilitate the production and consumption of sophisticated products and services (Knox & Pinch, 2000).
Socio-spatial change seems to have taken place
primarily in the direction of the fragmentation,
separation and specialisation of functions and uses in
cities, with labour market polarisation (and hence
income inequality) reflected in major differences
between wealthier and poorer areas. Marcuse (2006)
contrasts up-market gentrified and suburban areas with
tenement zones, ethnic enclaves and ghettos; and areas
built for the advanced service and production sector,
and for luxury retail and entertainment, with older areas
of declining industry, sweatshops and informal businesses. While these spatial categories are not new,
Marcuse suggests that the degree of difference between
them is. These trends represent the playing out of
market forces in cities, and the logic of real estate and
land speculation, but are also a response to local policies
which have attempted to position cities globally and
attract new investment. Competitive city approaches
to urban policy aim to attract global investment, tourists
and a residential elite through up-market property
developments, waterfronts, convention centres and the
commodification of culture and heritage (Kipfer & Keil,
2002). However, such policies have also had to suppress
and contain the fall-out from profit-driven development:

surveillance of public spaces, policing and crimeprevention efforts, immigration control, and problems
of social and spatial exclusion. Work by Caldiera (2000)
in Brazil shows how fear has increased urban
fragmentation, as middle and upper income households
segregate themselves into gated and high-security
residential complexes.
These policies and trends have increased social and
spatial divisions in cities in wealthier regions, but these
divides are to be found (often more sharply) in cities in
poorer regions as well. Analysing spatial change in
Accra (Ghana) and in Mumbai (India), Grant and
Nijman (2006) show how in each city three separate
CBDs have emerged, for local, national and global
businesses, each differentially linked to the global
economy. In Cape Town in South Africa, apartheid had
created major socio-spatial divisions between wealthy
white residential and commercial areas and poor
African and coloured townships and informal settlements. In the post-apartheid years, even while local
plans and policies aimed to create integrated and
equitable urban areas, private investment in the service
sector and in up-market real estate avoided the poorer
areas (Turok & Watson, 2001). Local municipal efforts
to turn Cape Town into a world class city reinforced
these trends through investment in waterfront and
conference centre developments in the historically
wealthier parts of the city, and as a result Cape Town
today remains highly divided, socially and spatially.
In many poorer cities, spatial forms are being driven
by private-sector property developments and increased
rental markets, in response to which low-income
households are being pushed further out and into
marginal locations (on India see Dupont, 2007; Roy,
2009). In some parts of the world, new urban
(ruralopolitan) forms are emerging as the countryside
itself begins to urbanise, as in vast stretches of rural
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Egypt,
Rwanda and many other poorer countries (see Qadeer,
2004). As well, large cities spread out and incorporate
nearby towns leading to continuous belts of settlement
(such as the shanty-town corridor from Abidjan to
Ibadan, containing 70 million people and making up the
urban agglomeration of Lagossee Davis, 2004), and
as the poor seek a foothold in the urban areas primarily
on the urban edge. It is these sprawling urban
peripheries, almost entirely unserviced and unregulated,
that make up the bulk of informal settlement, and it is in
these areas that the most urban growth is taking place.
These kinds of areas are very costly to plan and service
in the conventional way, given the form of settlement,
163
and even if that capacity did exist, few could afford to pay
for such services. In fact, the attractiveness of these kinds
of locations for poor households is that they can avoid the
costs associated with formal and regulated systems of
urban land and service delivery. Because of this, however,
it is in these areas that environmental issues are
particularly critical, both in terms of the natural hazards
to which these settlements are exposed, and the
environmental damage that they cause. Roys (2009)
point is that (in Indian cities and more widely) these urban
forms do not simply indicate the failure of traditional
master plans to be implemented. Rather, planning
facilitates and promotes inequality and exclusion through
criminalising certain forms of informality (such as
informal settlements) and sanctioning others (developer
and middle-class driven property development and
speculation). Both may be in violation of the plan, but
those who have access to state power will prevail.
2.5. Conclusion
The purpose of this chapter has been to argue that
urban settlements are currently faced with a range of
urban socio-spatial and environmental issues and trends
which are relatively new, in the sense that most have
only emerged in the last 2030 years. Institutionalised
urban planning systems and practices, on the other
hand, tend to change very slowly and there is frequently
a major time lag between the emergence of issues and
the ability of governments and civil society to respond
to them (whether through planning or other mechanisms). Processes of global economic change have
worsened income inequality and poverty in many cities,
giving rise to growing job and residential informality
and resulting tensions between imperatives of survival
and of administration and regulation. This, together
with continued high urbanisation rates, now predominantly in cities of the South, has meant a growing
concentration of poor people in cities and increased
competition for land. This growth and concentration is
occurring, moreover, in contexts where local government capacity is weak, where corruption and clientelism in the planning system is frequent, and the ability to
manage growth and deliver services equitably is
lacking. Weak and fragmented civil societies are unable
to compensate for this.
Rapid urban growth and forces of economic change
have given rise to new urban forms, socio-spatial
fragmentation and divides in cities, and tensions in
government between the drive for global positioning in
cities and the demands to address socio-spatial
exclusion. In many Southern cities, the phenomenon
164
of informal, peri-urban areas is now a dominant one,

and these, along with spreading rural densification,
prove particularly resistant to planning and servicing.
These forms of urban growth, moreover, are susceptible
to environmental hazards and at the same time
contribute to the worsening environmental crisis. Few
places are in a position to cope well with the impacts of
impending climate change or oil depletion.
Hence, the context within which urban planning is
expected to function (in all parts of the world, but
particularly in cities in the global South) is very

different from that which characterised the emergence
of formal planning systems in the early 20th century. A
significant mismatch has emerged, between the
traditional role of planning as a means of land use
control within defined administrative boundaries, and
the nature, complexity and spatial reach of the
activities which use urban land. Planning systems
which lack wider support are also more easily used for
corrupt and opportunistic purposes.
Chapter 3. Planning in the global North:

Concerns of poverty and sustainability
165
3.2. Emergence of urban planning in the global

North: Master plans, development control and
urban modernism
3.1. Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to briefly review the
extent to which urban planning in the global North
has addressed the issues raised in the introductory
chapter: poverty, environment and urbanisation.
While not all of these issues are high on Northern
planning agendas (although they certainly should be),
the reason for considering them here is that planning
in that part of the world holds both potentials and
dangers for planning in Southern countries. There is
always the potential that positive planning approaches
in one part of the world will be of use in another (if
differences in context are correctly understood).
Certainly, the use of planning to address climate
change impacts is currently receiving a great deal of
attention in the North, and given the urgency and
global nature of this issue, ideas should be shared as
widely as possible. Planning ideas and approaches in
the global North have also had a negative effect on
Southern contexts in the past and will probably
continue to do so. There is a long history (as Chapter 4
will suggest) of imposition of Northern planning ideas
on Southern countries, as well as borrowing and
sharing of ideas with the intentions of promoting
concepts of urban improvement or just profit. Chapter
4 will argue that this flow of planning ideas and
practices (and, of course, their articulation with local
interests) has often resulted in the kind of planning
systems and approaches which now stand accused of
being anti-poor and unsustainable.
This chapter will argue that early 20th century
approaches to urban planning in the global North
had little concern for poverty11 and sustainability, and
were aimed at dealing with urbanisation in very
particular ways. Yet it was these approaches that
had a significant impact on planning in the global
South. While many of these older approaches have
persisted in the South, in the North there has been
extensive reform (as well as continuity). The latter
part of this chapter will consider these revisions and
innovations.
Modern town planning12 emerged in the industrialising world in the latter part of the 19th century as a very
direct response to concerns of rapid urbanisation,
unhealthy and polluted living conditions for the poor,
vanishing open green space, and threatened political
upheaval as a result. The concerns themselves were not
very different from those facing city managers and
planners in Southern cities today. What is significant is
the early forms of response to these issues, the spread of
these ideas to other contexts, and the ways in which they
have been operationalised for purposes often far
removed from their original intentions.
Visions of a better urban future put forward by
particular individuals (the founding fathers of planning) in the UK, in Europe and in the USA in the late
19th century were to shape the objectives and forms of
planning, which in turn showed remarkable resilience
through the 20th century. These visions can in turn be
traced to intellectual movements of the post-Enlightenment period. Huxley (2006), drawing on Foucaults
concept of governmentality, shows how notions of
governable spaces were used to construct the idea of a
causal relationship between spaces, environments, and
the conduct and deportment of bodies. Concerns to deal
with populations which were chaotic and uncontrolled,
which suffered from various forms of medical and
moral decay, or were in need of social and spiritual
development, gave rise to constructions of truths
(governmental rationalities) about how these could be
achieved through towns planned in particular ways.
Huxley (2006) uses the examples of plans for the
Model Town of Victoria (James Silk Buckingham in
1849)a forerunner of Howards Garden City, descriptions of the model town of Hygeia (Richardson, 1876),
and Patrick Geddes ideas at the end of the 19th
centurywhich drew on discourses of creative
evolution to develop his profoundly influential ideas
about settlements and placeas examples of these
spatial rationalities.
Broadly, there was an ambition to produce urban
populations which would lead ordered and disciplined
12
11
This was not necessarily always the case, as in early regionalism

and the example of the Tennessee Valley Authority project.
Urban planning itself has a much longer history and has occurred
in many different parts of the world. Intervention in cities which can
be described as physical design also took place through the 17th and
18th centuries. But it is generally accepted that what is known as
modern town planning has its roots in Enlightenment philosophies,
and in the industrial revolution in advanced capitalist countries.
166
lives in healthy environments, and which would develop

and improve, both physically and spiritually. Some of
these urban visions sought to constrain urbanisation or
to divert it to new locations away from the larger cities.
Ways of achieving these aims were strongly influenced
by the time and place within which they were
formulated. Hence, early British town planning was
responding to radical and utopian socialist ideas of the
time and a nostalgic longing for the village life of
medieval England. One of the most influential planning
forms of the time, Ebenezer Howards Garden City,
represented an attempt to recreate this village life
through bringing green back into towns made up of
winding roads and separate cottage residences, through
strict separation of land uses, and through controlling
the size and growth of the town. The objectives here
were two-fold: socialthe re-creation of a traditional
way of life, which was essentially anti-urban but was
seen as preferable to the chaos of the industrial city;
and aestheticbringing the beauty of the countryside
into the towns, in the interests of both physical and
spiritual health (Hall, 1988; Taylor, 1998).
In other countries where the idea of planning
emerged to counter the horrors of the industrial city,
different normative visions prevailed. In France, the
ideas of architect Le Corbusier in the 1920s and 1930s
established the ideal of the modernist city,13 which
came to be highly influential internationally and still
shapes planning in many parts of the world (e.g. new
cities in China). Le Corbusier, notes Hall (1988), held
that society should be highly regulated and controlled,
and this was to be achieved through an ideal city form,
which was neat, ordered and efficient. Slums, narrow
streets and mixed use areas should be demolished and
replaced with efficient transportation corridors, residences in the form of tower blocks with open space
flowing between them, and land uses separated into
mono-functional zones.
In the United States, early 20th century visions of the
ideal city were different again. Architect Frank Lloyd
Wrights counter to the problems of industrialising New
York took the form of low-density, dispersed cities with
each family on its own small farm, but using the modern
technologies of the time (such as the car) to access other
urban functions. Other elements of American urban
idealism were drawn from Europe: Le Corbusian
modernism inspired skyscraper development and the
City Beautiful Movement drew on the boulevards and

promenades of the great European capitals. The
political agenda underlying these ideas should not be
lost: for the middle classes . . .the planners first aim
was to eliminate the breeding places of disease, moral
depravity, discontent and socialism (Hall, 1988: 176).
These urban visions, over time, shaped particular
planning systems and practices in Western Europe and
the USA. Taylor (1998) points to the post-war view of
planning in the UK as an exercise in the physical
planning and design of human settlements. While it
responded to social, economic and political matters, and
was assumed to be able to positively influence themin
line with early urban reformersit was essentially seen
as a technical activity, exercised by government. Its
reformist ambitions were captured in abstract maps,
also termed master, blueprint14 or layout plans. These
showed a detailed view of the built form of a city (an
ideal end-state), which would be attained once the
regulatory mechanisms introduced into government had
ensured that the population and its activities had been
distributed in the proper way. While planning was seen
as a technical activity, its reformist origins helped to
portray it as a normative task, driven by particular
values, which embodied the ideal living environment
and which, it was held (by planners), reflected the
public good.
The primary legal tool through which master plans
were implemented was the development control system
or zoning scheme, which originated in Germany and
spread across the USA and Europe in the early part of
the 20th century. In the USA, it was declared a general
police power in 1926, and by 1929, 754 communities
had adopted zoning ordinances (Hall, 1988). In the UK,
the important 1932 Town and Country Planning Act
carried forward ideas of master planning (layout
planning was the term generally used in the UK) and
development control, and provided a model for much
colonial planning. These ideas were also reflected in
European planning of the time, where, Taylor (1998)
argues, the concept of detailed land use zoning and
master plans has been even more resilient.
Land use zoning usually carried with it a particular
view of urban form (in keeping with the visions of the
early planners), and was enthusiastically adopted by
urban middle and commercial classes, who were able to
use it as a way of maintaining property prices and
13
The Charter of Athens, initiated in 1928 and later strongly
influenced by Le Corbusier, was an important document (by 1944)
in terms of establishing modernist urban principles.
14
The term blue-print is borrowed from architecture and refers to
the final and fully detailed design that an architect would produce for a
building.
preventing the invasion of less desirable, lower

income residents, ethnic minorities and traders. At the
time it was noted that the supposed public good
objective of planning had been turned into a tool by
the wealthy to protect their property values and to
exclude the poor. A highly significant aspect of zoning
through control of land rights, however, is that it is
based on a particular model of land tenure: the private
ownership of land. It was this requirement which
impacted most significantly on those parts of the world
where private ownership was not an indigenous form
of land tenure.
In considering the wider impact of plannings
development in Europe and the USA, the form of
plans (detailed, static master plans or comprehensive
plans), their method of production (technocratic, topdown) and their legal tools (primarily zoning) comprise
one part of the picture. Particularly important as well
were the physical/spatial urban and architectural forms
which these plans carried with them, and the ideal of a
good city which they represented. Clearly apparent in
these urban forms are the (often intertwined) visions of
the founding fathers of planning, and the normative
values which inspired them: aesthetics (order, harmony,
formality and symmetry); efficiency (functional specialisation of areas and movement, and free flow of
traffic); and modernisation (slum removal, vertical
building, connectivity, open space).
Modernist urban projects carried with them the
spatial logics of the earlier urban reform period and
assumptions that these particular urban forms could
create ordered, healthy and efficient societies, able to
carry forward the modern age. They reveal an
intertwining of a faith in (British) pre-industrial and
village-based urban forms, with a radical new Le
Corbusian vision of the city as a machine for living,
and a largely US-inspired ambition of each family on
their own piece of land: a possible forerunner of
suburbia. These visions also varied in terms of their
attitudes to urban life: from a highly urban-centred
vision of a future modern world in Le Corbusiers ideas,
to an almost anti-urban stance in the American ideas,
and to something in betweenthe town in the
countryin the British Garden Cities idea. Through
the 20th century, in almost every part of the world, these
ideas combined in various ways to shape new towns and
urban renewal projects which emphasised open green
space, vertical building, free-flowing traffic routes,
super-blocks, peripheral suburbs and a strict separation
of land uses.
In relation to the concerns which originally inspired
planning intervention, urbanisation was seen to be a
167
process that should be contained, diverted (to new

locations) or accommodated, but in highly regulated
urban areas and forms. Attitudes to large cities in the
global North were ambivalent throughout much of the
20th century (Gilbert, 1976; Richardson, 1976), and
planning for rapid urban growth was not a central
planning issue. Urban poverty, certainly present in
Northern cities, was addressed through the planning
system by attempts to remove its visual evidence: urban
renewal and slum clearance programmes, and relocation of the poor to new housing projects and estates.
Informal economic activity was confined to the
occasional street-market. Environment was considered
in narrow and instrumental terms: the creation of open
green space (parks and parkways) for human recreation,
aesthetic pleasure and health.
3.3. Planning shifts in the global North and
contemporary approaches
Planning practice and theory in the global North
shifted significantly post-1950s, although there were
strong continuities as well. This section briefly
identifies the most important new aspects of planning
in this part of the world, as these ideas and practices in
planning could potentially yield principles and insights
which are of relevance beyond this region. Innovation
has taken place in the following areas: planning
processes and decision-making (shifts towards more
participatory, democratic and integrated processes,
involving wider groupings within and beyond the
state); forms of spatial planning (towards strategic
planning at a range of scales); linking planning and
environment (new concerns of environmental sustainability, climate change and resource depletion); and
some new directions in land use management. There
are, as well, overlaps and tensions between these new
directions.
3.3.1. Decision-making in planning
In the field of planning theory this has been the
dominant (although not exclusive) area of interest, at
least since the late 1960s. In much of the global North
there is now acceptance in principle that planning
processes should be transparent, participatory and
inclusive. Interestingly, the issue of participation in
planning and development has also been a central issue
of theoretical and practical debate in the global South,
but primarily in a different set of literatures: that of
development theory. Unfortunately there has been little
connection between planning and development theories
in these debates.
168
Planning theorists (e.g. Healey, 1997) have argued

that collaborative planning, implying a sharing of
knowledge and cooperation between stakeholders or
partners, should result in better plans and policies which
are better implemented.15 In practice, of course, the
extent to which this actually happens is highly uneven
and there has been tension between social democracy
and market capitalism in many of these regions, and
between centralisation of decision-making (particularly
around environmental matters) and more decentralised
and inclusive processes.
Democratising decision-making in planning should
open up avenues for poor urban dwellers and other
marginalised groups (women, the aged) to counter plans
and policies which increase their disadvantage, and to
promote pro-poor planning ideas. An important precondition for this to occur is a strong democratic
political system which encourages public debate, and
political representatives who promote such ideas. But
the extent to which this occurs in the global North is
highly uneven and complex. In the UK, the new 2004
planning legislation (Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act) aimed to put community engagement at the
heart of planning practice (Brownhill & Carpenter,
2007: 621). However, what now seems to be in place is
not, Brownhill and Carpenter (2007) argue, a new form
of open and participatory governance, but rather an
uneasy coexistence of different modes of governance,
which may be in tension with each other. These
tensions, they suggest, are between the aims of national
target setting and local flexibility, between constructing
categories of the public and the complexity of social
diversity, and between hierarchical modes of governance and more open participatory forms. Greater
transparency in relation to these conflicts, as well as
a deeper understanding of how and why groups
participate, will be required.
A further aspect of decision-making, which has
gained attention in the global North, and which in many
ways is a pre-condition for addressing the central
planning issues discussed here, is the integration of
sectoral ideas and actions in institutional settings.
Recent new UK planning legislation (the Planning and
Compulsory Purchase Act of 2004) has tried to turn the
local government system into a developmental, rather
than just control-oriented, one. It aims to:
15
There is an extensive literature in this field, which will not be dealt

with here.
. . .put planning at the centre of the spatial

development process, not just as a regulator of land
and property uses, but as a proactive and strategic
coordinator of all policy and actions that influence
spatial development; and to do this in the interests of
more sustainable development (Nadin, 2007: 43).
There is also recognition that achieving environmental sustainability will require sectoral interests to
work together and cut across traditional disciplinary and
professional boundaries. While these are important
developments, the values which drive planning work
have not been made explicit: the direction of development seems to be left largely to the community and the
market, and quite how social inclusion and responses to
impending environmental and resource crises will be
managed, is not clear.
3.3.2. Forms of spatial planning
There have been important shifts in the global North
away from comprehensive master plans and towards
strategic spatial plans. Potentially they meet the
requirements in this part of the world for a form of
urban planning which is responsive to strong civil
society (and business) demands for involvement in
government and planning (the governance issue); can
co-ordinate and integrate economic, infrastructural and
social policies in space in the interests of a citys global
economic positioning; can be used to address resource
protection and environmental issues, as well as on
heritage and quality of place issues; and are
implementation-focused. This approach to planning
could be situated within a wider discourse of city
visioning and City Development Strategies (CDSs) with
origins in the global North, but which has since spread
to many other parts of the world, particularly through
the efforts of the World Bank-linked organisation
Cities Alliance. Strategic spatial plans are often an
element within a CDS.
Strategic spatial plans are directive, long range
plans, which consist of frameworks and principles and
broad spatial ideas rather than detailed spatial plans
(although they may set the framework for detailed local
plans and projects). They do not address every part of a
citybeing strategic means focusing only on those
aspects or areas that are important to overall plan
objectives, which in Western Europe are usually
sustainable development and spatial quality (Albrechts,
2001). Strategic spatial planning addresses many of the
problems of old-style master planning, although much
will depend on the actual ethics and values which the
plan promotes (whether or not it promotes and enforces
sustainable, inclusive cities), the extent to which the

long-term vision is shared by all (and not simply
dominant groups or individuals), the extent to which a
stable and enduring consensus on the plan can be
achieved, and the assumptions about the role and nature
of space and spatial planning within the plans (Healey,
2004).
Usually the strategic plan will provide guidance for
urban projects (state- or partnership-led), which in the
context of Europe are often brownfield urban
regeneration projects and/or infrastructural (particularly
transport or communications) projects. There have been
criticisms that, at least in the UK, this project-driven
approach has allowed the revival of the master plan, but
now in the form of market-led rather than state-led
plans, with the architect and developer primarily in
charge (Giddings & Hopwood, 2006). A variant of
strategic spatial planning considered successful is the
Barcelona model. Here a city-wide strategic plan
promoted a compact urban form, and provided a
framework for a set of local urban projects which had a
strong urban design component. However, some have
seen this approach to strategic planning as largely
corporate planning around economic development
goals (the global positioning of Barcelona) with certain
social and environmental objectives attached (Marshall,
2000). Commentators on the approach (Borja &
Castells, 1997) argue for a closer connection between
strategic spatial plans (which replace master plans) and
large-scale, multifunctional, urban projects. But there is
doubt that this will deal with the problem of elite
capture of these processes, and hence fear that it may
worsen urban inequalities. This is almost inevitable
under a prevailing neoliberal ideology in Europe and
very likely in developing countries, with their more
unequal and volatile political processes. It has been
argued that the linking of these plans and projects to a
strong, progressive urban politics is the only way to
counter this danger (Marshall, 2000).
3.3.3. Planning, environment and sustainability
Concerns with environmental sustainability and,
more recently, climate change and resource depletion,
have been a fundamental source of new ideas and
approaches in urban planning. Importantly, there has
been a shift from viewing nature in cities as simply
green open space, to a greater appreciation of the
interrelationships between natural resources and human
impacts at the city scale (the urban metabolism and
ecological footprint concepts) and to an understanding
of the impact of cities on climate and resources globally.
From the late 1990s, the notion of sustainable
169
development required that environmental issues were

addressed at the same time as economic and social
issues, and urban planning was viewed as having a
central role to play in achieving this.
From the 1970s, new urban forms were promoted
which responded to environmental concerns (Breheny,
1992) as well as to a desire to plan urban areas with a
greater sense of place and identity. At the city-wide
scale, the compact city approach (Jenks & Burgess,
2000) argued for medium to high built densities,
enabling efficient public transport and thresholds to
support concentrations of economic activity, services
and facilities. Mixed use environments and good public
open spaces are important, particularly as places for
small and informal businesses. Urban containment
policies are common, often implemented through the
demarcation of a growth boundary or urban edge, which
will protect natural resources beyond the urban area and
encourage densification inside it. Aspects of this
approachparticularly public transport, mixed use
areas and spaces for informal businessesare supportive of the urban poor (in that they can reduce transport
costs and support job creation). Urban edges, on the
other hand, are likely to limit the supply of urban land
and could raise land prices for the poor. They are also
difficult to implement where there are extended
peripheries of informal settlement around urban centres,
and under these circumstances they can serve to
marginalise the poor.
More recent developments of these ideas have
explored how they can be guided by spatial planning
which focuses on city-wide infrastructure (rather than,
as previously, the production of master plans which
assumed that infrastructure investments would follow
planned settlement) (Todes, 2009). The trend towards
the privatisation of urban infrastructure in situations
where local authorities have been unable to meet
demand, has further promoted the fragmentation and
sprawl of urban areas, and has emphasised the need for
planning to focus on ways to influence these larger
elements of urban infrastructure (transport and wastewater being the main ones).16 The approach is to have
an urban infrastructure plan at the heart of a strategic
spatial plan, with the form of infrastructure encouraging
more compact and public transport-based urban
development.
The New Urbanism approach, or Smart Growth (or
urban villages in the UK), reflects many of the spatial
principles of the compact city and the sustainable city
16
See Angel (2008) on transport infrastructure in peri-urban areas.
170
approaches, but at the scale of the local neighbourhood.

This position (Grant, 2006) promotes local areas with
fine-grained mixed use, mixed housing types, compact
form, an attractive public realm, pedestrian-friendly
streetscapes, defined centres and edges and varying
transport options. Facilities (such as health, libraries,
retail and government services) cluster around key
public transport facilities and intersections to maximise
convenience. These spatial forms have been strongly
promoted in the USA, and have been implemented in
the form of neighbourhoods such as Celebration Town
and Seaside. While the planning objectives of this
approach are sound, there is a danger that in practice
they can become elite enclaves which exclude a mix of
incomes and cultures.
More recently, addressing climate change has become
the most important environmental issue. The important
role which cities play in influencing this change has
raised hopes that urban planning can be a mechanism for
changing urban impacts.17 International agreements and
targets have proved to be major drivers of local action, but
increasingly local initiatives are a source of innovation,
with shifts to governance regimes reflecting a role for
groupings beyond the state. Cities themselves are also
increasingly involved in transnational and subnational
networks18 representing a form of environmental
governance (Bulkeley & Bestill, 2005).
Planning has woken up late to the issue, and much
input to date has come from sector specialists and
environment professions. Most urban plans do not
explicitly address the issue of adaptation to climate
change (Bestill & Bulkeley, 2007), and many local
measures are voluntary and not yet implemented. The
main planning innovations in this area are probably still
to come. However, many of the ideas about environmentally sustainable urban forms from the post1980s period (compact city ideas and new urbanism)
do fit with the climate change agenda, and there is
agreement that changing urban form in these directions
can be a major factor in promoting climate mitigation.
Often, however, the problem lies at the level of the
zoning or land use management schemes, and building
regulations, which are less easy to change, particularly
where private property interests are threatened.
17
See UN-Habitat statement that urban planning had become
increasingly important in managing climate change because well
planned cities provide a better foundation for sustainable development
than unplanned cities (7/5/07, Bonn) www.unhabitat.org accessed 15
May 2009.
18
For example, the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, Climate
Alliance, and ICLEI.
3.3.4. Land management and regulation

In many parts of the global North there have been
shifts away from older rigid zoning schemes and
newer, more flexible measures have been introduced,
which could potentially be used to address issues of
rapid urban growth, poverty and environment. As
with the innovations in other aspects of planning, they
cannot be considered out of context, and their success
may well be dependent on locally specific institutional, political, economic and cultural factors.
Private property ownership and market-driven land
processes, as well as local governments with good
management capacity, are the usual pre-conditions for
these innovations.
In the USA there has been a strong trend towards
CICs (common interest communities) or CIDs
(common interest developments), such that in the
50 largest cities over half of all new housing is built in
this form (Ben-Joseph, 2005). These are developerbuilt residential developments under collective
ownership and governance. They also allow for a
de facto deregulation of municipal sub-division
and zoning regulations and the use of different and
more flexible designs and layouts. Ben-Joseph (2005)
notes that in the USA these developments are not
always gated villages (72% do not have security
systems), are no longer the preserve just of the
wealthy, and respond to group needs for privacy and
identity. Counter-arguments (Davis, 1990) point to
the way in which this form of development spatially
fragments cities and erodes public space and social
integration.
Other shifts away from the standard zoning approach
are to be found in approaches such as Performance
Zoning (regulating the impacts of development, such as
noise, visual intrusion, etc., rather than the use itself);
development managed through design-based codes, as
is often the case in new urbanist developments and
transit-oriented developments; and incentives and
disincentives in development rights (developers may
be required to make contributions to public space or
facilities in return for more favourable development
rights; development and building requirements may be
relaxed in order to attract economic development to
particular areas; development rights can be transferred
from one site in the city to another: TDR or Transfer of
Development Rights).
Land readjustment is a specifically Japanese contribution to innovative regulatory planning (Friedmann,
2005a: 186; Sorensen, 2002). Used in urban fringe
areas, it is a method of pooling ownership of all land in
a project area, installing urban facilities, and then
dividing the land into urban plots. In Japan, landowners

must contribute a portion of their land for public use or
to be sold for public revenue.
There is also a growing interest in developing land
laws which can capture rising urban land values (via
property and capital gains taxes) by governments for
redistributive purposes (Smolka & Amborski, 2000).
Value capture is not only seen as an effective way to
link directive planning and land use regulations, but it
also serves to control land use, finance urban infrastructure and generate additional revenue at the local
level. One positive outcome of urbanisation and urban
growth is that it increases urban land values, and this
potential needs to be socially harvested rather than only
benefiting the private sector.
3.4. Conclusion
This chapter has considered the extent to which new
planning approaches and ideas in the global North
171
might have addressed the issues which will, in future

years, be facing the bulk of the global urban population:
rapid urbanisation, poverty and environment. Environment (and particularly responding to climate change)
has become a dominant urban issue in the global North,
yet planning ideas have not progressed far beyond the
compact city and new urbanism ideas of the late 1980s.
Shifts in planning towards more participatory and
community-based approaches, attempts to integrate
planning decision-making with other functional policy
arenas, and more strategic, flexible and implementation-oriented plans, are potentially important in dealing
with rapid urban growth and marginalisation. More
innovative forms of land use management show that
there are ways to move beyond rigid zoning schemes
and building codes in ways which can allow for higher
dwelling densities and mixed uses. The final chapter
will return to these ideas and consider the extent to
which they may be useful in addressing major urban
issues in the global South.
172
Chapter 4. Urban planning in the global South

4.1. Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to return to the
suggestion that the planned city sweeps the poor
away. It is of course impossible to offer evidencebased conclusions on this: the planning system is just
one of a range of complex and interlinked factors in
Southern urban areas which influence poverty and
unsustainable development, and it is unlikely that
planning is the dominant factor. The extent to which
planning has played a positive or negative role also
undoubtedly varies greatly across the global South,
and it would be wrong to attempt to generalise about
the impact of planning (Friedmann, 2005a). Nonetheless, there is a significant volume of literature
which argues that urban planning in many parts of the
global South fails to address the primary urban issues
of the 21st century and, further, that in some regions it
is directly implicated in worsening poverty and the
environment. There have been two aspects to these
arguments. The first has been that planning in the
global South has been largely shaped by planning
ideas from the global North, and imposed or
borrowed ideas are ill-suited to Southern contexts.
The second set of arguments focuses on how these
planning systems articulate with local political,
economic and cultural factors and are abused or
misused in the process. This chapter reviews the
arguments from these two positions.
4.2. Spread of urban planning ideas to the
global South
In many parts of the world, planning systems are in
place which have been imposed or borrowed from
elsewhere. In some cases, these foreign ideas have
not changed significantly since the time they were
imported. Planning systems and urban forms are
inevitably based on particular assumptions about the
time and place for which they were designed, but these
assumptions often do not hold in other parts of the
world and thus these systems and ideas are often
inappropriate (and now often dated) in the context
to which they have been transplanted. Frequently,
as well, these imported ideas have been drawn on
for reasons of political, ethnic or racial domination
and exclusion, rather than in the interests of good
planning.
At the risk of some generalisation, it could be said
that master planning and urban modernism spread to
almost every part of the capitalist world in the first part

of the 20th century.19 Master planning also spread to
those parts of the world under socialism at the time, but
was accompanied in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc
countries by a different urban vision: socialist realism
(Strobel, 2003). In the latter part of the 20th century,
master planning and urban modernism have persisted in
many parts of the world and particularly in the global
South.
There are different ways of understanding the spread
of planning ideas. Ward (2002) offers a typology of the
transfer of planning ideas, along dimensions of
authoritarianism, contestation and consensus (in short:
imposition); and synthesis, selection, and uncritical
reception (borrowing). He argues that the nature of the
power relationship between exporting and importing
country is a major determining factor, with colonialism
and conquest giving rise to the imposition of foreign
planning systems, while a more equal relationship
between countries sees planning ideas transported
through other means: travelling planning consultants,
politicians or other influential people, or scholarly
articles and books. This process of diffusion was never
smooth or simple: the ideas themselves were often
varied and contested, and they articulated in different
ways with the contexts to which they were imported.
Tait and Jensen (2007: 107) respond to the
increasingly frequent transfer across the globe of urban
development models which . . .do not reflect the spatial
complexities of the places in which they are applied
and are often seen to fail. They argue that to understand
this process requires an understanding of the relationships between representations of space and the material
practices which create space, and they use actornetwork theory to explain this translation of ideas
from one context to another. As opposed to the concept
of diffusion (which suggests that the idea itself is
responsible for its movement), they focus on the range
of actors and actions which move ideas. Translation is
not just a linguistic process, they suggest, but one which
can alter the idea itself and the social and natural world
associated with it. Actors, actions and the intermediaries (which in actor-network theory can be texts,
technical objects, embodied practices and money)
through which translation occurs, must all be taken
into account. In the context of trying to understand
19
Although it is necessary to recognise the counter-culture of

development planning, as initiated by Otto Koenigsberger in both
India and Africa, indicating that there were practitioners who were
dubious about how much the conventional wisdom would achieve.
travelling planning ideas, the authors suggest that ideas

are . . .articulated within discourses that represent
particular notions of space and place, and which carry
certain rationalities and normative assumptions about
social life in the sites of the materialization of these
ideas (Tait & Jensen, 2007: 114). This framework
opens up a fertile area for researching the long history
and many instances of travelling planning ideas. It also
leaves open the possibility that translation is not always
a simple act of domination (of one part of the world by
another), and that complex patterns of collusion and
interaction accompany the process; moreover, the
outcomes cannot be pre-judged. The section below,
however, does no more than briefly review the
geographical spread of imported ideas.
Colonialism was a very direct vehicle for the spatial
translation of planning systems, particularly in those
parts of the world under colonial rule when planning
was ascendant. In these contexts, planning of urban
settlements was frequently bound up with the modernising and civilising mission of colonial authorities,
but also with the control of urbanisation processes and
of the urbanising population. On the African continent,
this diffusion occurred mainly through British, German,
French and Portuguese influence, using their homegrown instruments of master planning, zoning, building
regulations and the urban models of the timegarden
cities, neighbourhood units and Radburn layouts, and
later urban modernism. Most colonial and later postcolonial governments also initiated a process of land
commodification within the liberal tradition of private
property rights, with the state maintaining control over
the full exercise of these rights, including aspects falling
under planning and zoning ordinances.
Significantly, however, imported planning systems
were not applied equally to all sectors of the urban
population. For example, towns in Cameroon (Njoh,
2003) and in other colonised territories in SubSaharan Africa (Njoh, 1999), were usually zoned into
low-density residential areas for Europeans (these
areas had privately owned large plots, were well
serviced and were subject to European-style layouts
and building codes); medium-density residential
areas for African civil servants (with modest services,
some private ownership, and the enforcement of
building standards); and high-density residential
areas (for the indigenous population, who were
mostly involved in the informal sector), with little
public infrastructure, and few or no building controls.
Spatially the low-density European areas were set at a
distance from the African and Asian areas, ostensibly
for health reasons.
173
Many African countries still have planning legislation based on British or European planning laws from
the 1930s or 1940s, which has been revised only
marginally. Post-colonial governments tended to reinforce and entrench colonial spatial plans and land
management tools, sometimes in even more rigid form
than colonial governments (Njoh, 2003). Enforcing
freehold title for land and doing away with indigenous
and communal forms of tenure was a necessary basis for
state land management, but also a source of state
revenue and often a political tool to reward supporters.
Frequently, post-colonial political elites who promoted
these tenure reforms were strongly supported in this by
former colonial governments, foreign experts and
international policy agencies: in 1950 the UN passed
a resolution on land reform, contending that informal
and customary land tenures inhibited economic growth.
In Cameroon, for example, 1974 legislation required
people to apply for a land certificate for private land
ownership. Yet the procedures were complex and
expensive and seldom took less than seven years to
complete. Few people applied, yet in 1989 the
certificate became the only recognised proof of land
ownership and all other customary or informal rights to
land were nullified (Njoh, 2003). Controls over land
were also extended to housing in the post-colonial
period. Accompanying the master plans were (and
mostly still are) zoning ordinances, which stipulated
building standards and materials for housing, as well as
tenure requirements. Without an official building
permit, an approved building plan and land title, a
house in Cameroon is regarded as informal (Njoh, 2003:
142). Yet securing these is a long and expensive process,
which most poor people cannot understand or afford.
Inevitably, the bulk of housing in African cities is
classed as informal.
Important and capital cities in Africa have often
been the subject of grand master planning under
colonial rule, sometimes involving prominent international planners or architects. Remarkably, in many
cases, these plans remain relatively unchanged and
some are still in force. The guiding vision in these
plans has been that of urban modernism, based on
assumptions that it has always been simply a matter of
time before African countries catch up economically
and culturally with the West, producing cities
governed by strong, stable municipalities and occupied by households who are car-owning, formally
employed, relatively well-off, and with urban lifestyles similar to those of European or American
urbanites. As Chapter 1 has indicated, nothing could
be further from reality.
174
Planning in the sub-continent of India has had strong

parallels with the African experience, given the
common factor of British colonial rule. Limited health
and safety measures at the start of the 20th century gave
way to master planning and zoning ordinances,
introduced under British rule but persisting in postcolonial times. Ansari (2004) notes that some 2,000
Indian cities now have master plans, all displaying the
problems which caused countries such as the UK to shift
away from this approach, and yet the main task of
municipal planning departments is to produce more
such plans. A well-documented master plan imposition
was that for Chandigarh, produced by Le Corbusier,
which demonstrated . . .a preoccupation with visual
forms, symbolism, imagery and aesthetics rather than
the basic problems of the Indian population (Hall,
1988: 214).
In Latin American cities as well, past colonial links
played a role in transferring European planning ideas to
this part of the world, but more general intellectual
exchange reinforced this. Thus, Buenos Aires developed strong links with French planners, architects and
city administrators, and French experts were hired to
prepare local plans. The 1925 master plan and zoning
scheme was prepared by French architects, and the 1937
plan by Le Corbusier (Novick, 2003). The Brazilian
capital of Brasilia was planned by a local architect
(1960) who was also a local pioneer of the modern
architectural movement and strongly influenced by Le
Corbusier. Master planning has been used widely in
Latin America, as elsewhere, and it is only recently that
there have been shifts away from this or attempts to use
master plans in different ways.
In a different pattern again, cities in East and Southeast Asia (with the exception of Singapore and Hong
Kong) have largely done without institutionalised
planning systems (Logan, 2001). Local governments
in these countries have been weak and cities have been
shaped by national economic development policies and
rampant market forces. National governments have
invested in large productive urban infrastructure
projects (e.g. airports and freeways) but have made
almost no effort to attend to welfare needs or
environmental issues, or to rationalise spatial development and land release. However, a number of countries
in this part of the world bear the imprint of earlier
planning transplants. Professionals following American
City Beautiful ideas drew up plans for the redevelopment of Manila very early in the 20th century, and the
hill-town of Baguio was planned as a miniature
Washington. Shanghai plans also drew on Washington,
as did other larger Chinese cities (Freestone, 2007).
Japan, during the same period, used Western planning

ideas very selectively and adapted them to local needs,
but experimented directly with imposed master planning and Western urban forms in what were then its own
colonies of Taiwan, Korea, China and Manchuria (Hein,
2003).
In other parts of the world again, institutionalised
urban planning came much later, but followed familiar
patterns when it did. Planning was virtually absent from
China under Mao, but was formally rehabilitated with
the City Planning Act of 1989, which set up a
comprehensive urban planning system based on the
production of master plans to guide the growth of
Chinas burgeoning new cities (Friedmann, 2005a,b).
Some of these master plans appear to have drawn on
certain of the more recent lessons from Western spatial
planningthey are concerned with implementation as
well as plans and with aspects of cities beyond the
physical. The urban forms which accompany them,
largely urban modernism, also incorporate (in some
cases) new ideas about sustainable environments.
The next sections consider how urban modernism,
master planning and land regulations disadvantage the
poor.
4.3. Urban modernism as an ideal city form
It is not inevitable that master planning should be
used to impose the modernist city ideal (as the Eastern
Bloc countries demonstrated with socialist realism, as
many European cities have demonstrated with compact,
low rise urbanist forms, and as towns planned in the
new urbanism style show now), but there has been a
strong tendency for this to occur, and in some countries
(e.g. Chinese cities) it is happening currently. In many
parts of the world, urban modernism has been
associated with being modern, with development, and
with catching up with the West, and has thus been
attractive to governments and elites who wish to be
viewed in this way. The aggressive promotion of these
forms by developers, consultants and international
agencies has also played an important role.
In brief, urban modernism involves all or some of the
following urban characteristics:20
Prioritisation of the aesthetic appearance of cities:
modern cities are spacious, uncluttered, efficient,
ordered, green, offer grand viewsparticularly of
20
The previous chapter noted that in the global North, where these
ideas emerged in the early 20th century, there has been some movement away from these urban forms.
state and civic buildingsare clean, and do not

contain poor people or informal activities.
High-rise buildings, with low plot coverage and large
setbacks, releasing large amounts of open green
space between them, following the superblock
concept.
Dominance of free-flowing vehicular movement
routes (rather than rail), organisation of traffic into
a hierarchy of routes, and separation of pedestrian
routes from vehicle routes. High car ownership is
assumed.
Routes, particularly higher order ones, are wide, with
large road reserves and setbacks (for future expansion); there are limited intersections with lower order
routes, and limited or no vehicle access to functions
located along them.
Separation of land use functions (using zoning
regulations) into areas for residence, community
facilities, commerce, retail and industry. Shopping
occurs in malls surrounded by parking. It is assumed
that most people travel from home to work, shops, etc.
by car.
Spatial organisation of these different functional areas
into separate cells, taking access off higher order
movement routes, and often surrounded by buffers
of open green space.
Different residential densities for different income
groups, often organised into neighbourhood units.
For wealthier familieslow densities, usually organised as one house per plot, with full infrastructural
services provided.
The most obvious problem with urban modernism is

that it fails to accommodate the way of life of the
majority of inhabitants in rapidly growing, and largely
poor and informal cities, and thus directly contributes to
social and spatial marginalisation. One kind of
response, as in Brasilia21 and Chandigarh, has been
that an informal city has been excluded from the formal
city, and has simply grown up beside and beyond it. In
other cities the informal has occupied the formal city:
informal traders operate from the sidewalks and
medians of grand boulevards; informal shelters occupy
the green open spaces between tower blocks; in Dar es
Salaam the main road reserves have been turned into
huge linear markets; in Cairo the poor have occupied
21
Favelas were specifically excluded from Brasilia and provision

made for the poor in satellite towns which would be out of sight.
Social segregation was thus planned from the outset. Thus
. . .modernity is in effect cruelty (Williams, 2007).
175
rooftops and cemeteries; and in Lagos the freeways

carry traders, pedestrians, bus-stops and so on. Both
these kinds of occupations are problematic. In many
cities, modernisation projects involved the demolition
of mixed-use, older, historic areas that were well suited
to the accommodation of a largely poor and relatively
immobile population. These projects displaced small
traders and working class households, usually to
unfavourable peripheral locations; but, as importantly,
they represented a permanent reallocation of highly
accessible and desirable urban land from small traders
and manufacturers to large-scale, formal ones, and to
government. Where attempts to reoccupy these desirable areas by informal traders and settlers have
occurred, their presence is sometimes tolerated, sometimes depends on complex systems of bribes and
corrupt deals, and is sometimes met with official force
and eviction. This hardly provides a good business
environment for small entrepreneurs.
Other aspects of urban modernist planning reinforce
spatial and social exclusion, and inequality. Cities
planned on the assumption that the majority of residents
will own and travel by car become highly unequal. The
modernist city is usually spread out, due to low built
density developments and green buffers or wedges.
Low-income households, which have usually been
displaced to cheaper land on the urban periphery, thus
find themselves trapped in peripheral settlements or
having to pay high transport costs if they want to travel
to public facilities or economic opportunities. The
separation of land uses into zoned monofunctional areas
further generates large volumes of movement (as people
must move from one to the other to meet daily needs),
and, if residential zoning is enforced, leads to major
economic disadvantage for poorer people, who commonly use their dwelling as an economic unit as well.
The modernist city provides few good trading places for
informal sector operators, which today make up the bulk
of economic actors in cities of the South. Street traders
are usually viewed as undesirable in the planned parts of
Southern cities, particularly around shopping malls, and
are strictly controlled or excluded. Yet these are the
most profitable locations for street traders, as they offer
access to the purchasing power of a higher income
market.
Those who have promoted the compact city idea and
new urbanism (see previous chapter) have also
presented arguments that urban modernism is environmentally unsustainable. These urban forms generate
large amounts of vehicle movement, which is usually
car-based. Pedestrian movement is difficult and not
encouraged. Low densities increase the cost of
176
infrastructure and encourage urban sprawl, which can

erode natural resources on the urban edge. New ideas
about urban form, it is suggested, are both more
supportive of poor people and more environmentally
sustainable.
4.4. Zoning ordinances and building regulations
These aspects of planning also impact on the poor,
and in a study of nine cities in Africa, Asia and Latin
America, Devas (2001) found that most had planning
and building standards which were unsuited to lower
income earners. Zoning contains simultaneously an
urban welfare ideal and restrictive conditions with
hierarchical principles, both of which establish interand intra-class (and sometimes racial and ethnic)
differences. It therefore includes some and excludes
others. The application of zoning schemes and land use
regulations to residential areas under master planning
has required people to comply with particular forms of
land tenure, building regulations, building forms and
construction materials, usually embodying European
building technologies and imported materials (the kinds
of materials used for informal dwellings being
prohibited), and requirements for setbacks, minimum
plot sizes, coverage, on-site parking, etc. In many
colonial cities, zoning ordinances were imported
verbatim from the colonising power with little
subsequent change. Complying with these requirements
imposes significant costs and is usually complex and
time-consuming.
Njoh (2003: 143) describes how the process of
applying for a building permit in the town of Kumba in
Cameroon (used as a typical example) involves five
different government departments and a list of
documents, including a site plan, block plan, quantity
surveyors report, town planning permission, and proof
of land ownership. The application process rarely takes
less than a year to complete. The purpose of
regulations to promote health and safety and ensure
access (important for fire and ambulance services at
least) is supportable. However, in the case of Kumba,
72% of the population survives in the informal sector
(Njoh, 2003) and, therefore, on precarious and
unpredictable incomes. The possibility that people
living in such circumstances could comply with a
zoning ordinance designed for relatively wealthy
European towns is extremely unlikely. There are
two possible outcomes here. One is that the system is
strongly enforced and people who cannot afford to
comply with the zoning requirements are excluded to
areas where they can evade detectionwhich would
usually be an illegal informal settlement, probably in

the peri-urban areas. Alternatively, the municipality
may not have the capacity to enforce the ordinance, in
which case it will be ignored as simply unachievable.
A common pattern in many cities is that there are core
areas of economic and governmental significance,
which are protected and regulated, and the rest, which
are not.
In terms of the first alternative, inappropriate and
first world zoning ordinances are instrumental in
creating informal settlement and peri-urban sprawl,
which have highly negative impacts, on the people who
have to live under such conditions, on city functioning
and on the environment. In effect, people have to step
outside the law in order to secure land and shelter, due to
the elitist nature of urban land laws (Fernandes, 2003).
It could be argued, therefore, that city governments
themselves are producing social and spatial exclusion as
a result of the inappropriate laws and regulations which
they adopt.
In the second alternative, where the capacity for
enforcement in regulated areas does not exist, there may
as well be no controls at all, which puts such areas on
the same footing as an illegal informal settlement, again
with potentially negative social, health and environmental impacts. Under such circumstances, the poor
and vulnerable, particularly women, have no recourse at
all to the law and are open to exploitation and abuse. A
more likely scenario, however, is one of partial
reinforcement, which in turn opens the door to bribes
and corruption (Devas, 2001) in various forms, a
process which inevitably favours those with resources.
If urban regulations were supportive rather than
exclusive, more achievable by poor people, and
developed in consultation with communities, it may
also be easier to achieve compliance and hence basic
health and safety levels, and social protection of the
vulnerable.
4.5. The dark side of planning
There is a growing literature which suggests that the
negative impacts of urban modernism and planning
regulations on the poor are not just a result of wrongly
appropriated, misunderstood or inefficient planning
systems, but may in some cases be due to corrupt
manipulation or use of the system for political
domination. In these cases, it is of course abuse of
the planning system rather than the planning system
itself which is at fault.
Yiftachel and Yacobi (2003: 217218) argue that in
ethnocratic states, such as Israel, the withholding of
planning services is a deliberate tactic of political

exclusion:
. . .a common planning response is allowing, condoning and even facilitating urban informality.
Whole communities are thus left out of the planning
process, or overlooked by the content of urban
policies. Typically, such populations are mentioned
as a problem, but their undocumented, unlawful or
even fugitive existence, allows most authorities to
ignore them as having full planning rights to the
city. In other words, policy-makers define urban
informality as a method of indirectly containing the
ungovernable. The tactic is avoidance and distant
containment; but the result is the condemnation of
large communities to unserviced, deprived and
stigmatized urban fringes. Here lies a main feature
of the urban informality as a planning strategy: it
allows the urban elites to represent urban government as open, civil and democratic, while at the same
time, denying urban residents and workers basic
rights and services.
A related example of this failure by the state to see
certain populations is in China, where floating or
temporary populations are excluded from official
population statistics and have no rights to the city
(Friedmann, 2005a). Whereas the master plan for the
city of Shenzhen provides for four million people, in
fact the city contained seven million in the 2000 census,
with the floating population expected to return to rural
towns.
Planning legislation and master planning has also
been used (opportunistically) time and time again
across the globe as a justification for evictions and land
grabs. The recent COHRE Report (COHRE, 2006: 59)
records 4.2 million people in all parts of the world
evicted from their homes between 2003 and 2006; in
China an estimated 3.7 million people have been evicted
in the last decade to make way for new cities, including
400,000 in Beijing to make way for the 2008 Olympics.
Most frequently the argument used is that shelters or
occupations of buildings are illegal in terms of planning
law and therefore people can be forcibly removed. As
frequently, the real motive behind these lies elsewhere:
in objectives of political, ethnic, racial or class
domination and control, or the pursuit of profit.
In Africa, a particularly high profile eviction occurred
in Zimbabwe in 2005 under the Town and Country
Planning Act of 1976 (Chapter 29:12), which authorises
the state to demolish structures and evict people.
Operation Murambatsvina (also termed Restore Order,
177
Cleanup, and Drive out the Rubbish) targeted vendors

structures, informal businesses and homes labelled as
illegal by the government. Conservative estimates were
that 700,000 people were evicted from their homes and
2.3 million people were affected in other ways. No
compensation was paid or alternative homes offered
(Berrisford & Kihato, 2006).
In Nigeria, large-scale forced evictions are justified
in terms of urban development plans, the beautification
of cities, privatisation, and cleaning up criminals
(COHRE, 2006). A noteworthy planning-related eviction process is currently taking place as part of the
implementation of the 1979 master plan for Abuja,
where extensive informal settlements house a growing
indigenous population, as well as people employed in
Abuja but unable to find housing. By 2006, 800,000
people had been evicted from land that was zoned for
other purposes under the Master Plan, and in some
cases this land has been allocated to private developers.
Evicted non-indigenes have been offered access to
500 m2 plots at some distance from the city, but this
requires a payment of US $2,612 and the building of a
house based on certain planning standards within two
years, or rights to the plot are lost (COHRE, 2006).
Writing on the failure of planning in Indian cities,
Roy (2009) argues that informality should not just be
associated with the poor, but that Indias planning
regime itself has been informalised. One aspect of this
informality is the ambiguous and ever-changing nature
of what is legal and what is illegal. For example,
although most of Delhi violates some or other planning
law, parts of it are designated illegal and due for
demolition, and other parts are declared legal and are
protected and formalised. The wealthy (and politically
powerful) fall into the latter category. A second aspect
of this informality of the planning regime occurs
through the withholding of regulation from certain parts
of the city (in particular, the peri-urban areas), which
allows the state considerable territorial flexibility to
alter land use and acquire land for urban and industrial
development. The state, argues Roy (2009: 81), actively
uses informality as an instrument of authority and
accumulation. Planning therefore cannot solve the
crisis of urbanisation, as it is deeply implicated in the
production of this crisis.
4.6. Conclusion
This chapter has considered the impacts of master
planning, given that it has persisted in many parts of the
world, and particularly in the global South. Criticisms
which have been levelled at this form of planning are
178
that the urban forms which it has usually promoted

(urban modernism) are entirely in conflict with urban
populations which are largely poor and survive in the
informal sector. Urban modernism thus frequently
contributes to poverty and marginalisation in urban
areas, and, moreover, it promotes environmentally
unsustainable urban environments. Further, the static,
end-state form of master plans is completely at odds
with cities, which are growing and changing, in largely
unpredictable ways, probably faster now than at any
other time in history. Master plans usually have the
ability to control but not to promote: the forward plans
may present grand visions, but the land use regulations
which accompany them are often not suitable mechanisms for implementing them. Finally, master planning
emphasises the product of planning but not the process,
hence there may be little local buy-in and plans are
unlikely to be institutionally embedded.
The land use regulations which accompany master
plans usually demand standards of construction and
forms of land use which are unachievable and

inappropriate for the poor in cities, which make up
the bulk of urban populations in the global South.
Hence, high levels of illegality (of buildings and land
use) in many cities are a direct result of inappropriate
planning and zoning standards, not of criminally
minded citizens. Such standards are directly responsible for spatial and social marginalisation. These
zoning ordinances, which require high standards, are
difficult to enforce where governments lack capacity,
often leaving people with no controls or protection
at all. And finally, master plans and zoning are
being used in many parts of the world as an excuse
for forced evictions, political control, and collusion
with private-sector-driven urban development projects, all usually at the expense of the poor and
minority groups. For all these reasons, it is understandable that older but persistent approaches to
planning are now in question, and stand accused of
being anti-poor.
Chapter 5. New planning approaches and ideas

in the global South
5.1. Introduction
Chapter 4 argued that in many parts of the global
South, planning systems are based on models adopted
from Northern contexts which have persisted over the
last decades, despite the fact that cities have changed
significantly. For many urban areas, therefore, there is
now a considerable gap between the main urban issues
of the 21st century and the extent to which planners and
planning systems might be able to respond to these
problems. However, in some parts of the global South
planning innovation has taken place. In some cases this
has happened as a result of programmes introduced by
Northern-based development agencies; in other cases
they may be responses to trends and innovations in
Northern regions (Chapter 3); some new approaches
appear to be responses to particular issues in Southern
cities. There can of course be no guarantee that new and
apparently positive planning innovations will not also
be misappropriated and abused for political and
economic gain (in any part of the world).
This chapter reviews the main planning innovations
in regions of the global South, as well as any
assessments of their implementation. Chapter 6 will
draw on these ideas, as well as those from the global
North, to return to UN-Habitats call for major planning
shifts to address urbanisation, poverty and environment.
It is not easy to classify these new ideas and approaches.
The first cluster addresses aspects of the institutional
context of planning; and the second looks at some
innovations in the regulatory and legal aspects of
planning.
5.2. Innovations in the institutional context
of planning
These ideas deal with the broader (local government)
context in which planning occurs, and consider how to
better integrate planning institutionally and make it
more responsive to civil society.
5.2.1. Integrated development planning
The need to make local government developmental,
and to better link line function departments (including
planning) through strategic action plans, is a concern
worldwide. South Africa, since democracy in 1994, has
moved to introduce a form of urban management and
planning in municipalities which is intended to integrate
the actions of line function departments and the
179
different spheres of government,22 including spatial

planning, and links these to budgeting and to
implementation. The process is termed Integrated
Development Planning (IDP), and is backed up by
national legislation. Although the IDP has a peculiarly
South African genealogy, it was also shaped within the
emergent international discourse on governance, planning and urban management (Parnell & Pieterse, 2002),
and there appear to be elements in common with the
new UK approach to urban management and planning,
although it was introduced ahead of this process. A
significant difference with the new UK planning system,
however, is that in terms of the IDP the co-ordinating
and integrating mechanism is the budget and not the
spatial plan. There also appear to be elements in
common with the idea of City Development Strategies
(Cities Alliance), although South African cities tend to
be adopting both CDSs as long-term urban visions and
shorter-term (five years) IDPs.
The IDP is a medium-term municipal plan linked to a
five-year political cycle, although aspects of the plan,
including the vision (sometimes in the form of a CDS)
and the spatial development framework, have a longerterm horizon. The IDP managers office in each
municipality is charged with the task of needs
assessment, vision development, and aligning the plans
and projects of each line function department to the
vision. The urban planning system consists of Spatial
Development Frameworks (SDFs) and a still unreformed land use management system. The SDF has the
weaker role of spatially co-ordinating these sectoral
plans, as in the UK, rather than spatial goals feeding into
these other plans (Vigar & Healey, 1999). Spatially
harmonised projects are then supposed to direct the
budget.
Over time the managerialist and technocratic
dimensions of policy-making and planning have come
to dominate, and participation remains only rhetorically
important. Despite the emphasis given to good
governance, the everyday reality in many municipalities
is of patronage in appointments and tendering,
institutional conflict, poor delivery records, and
financial crisis. Many municipalities, particularly those
outside the metropolitan areas, do not have the capacity
to fulfill their basic functions (Harrison, Todes, &
Watson, 2008).
There is a general consensus that the idea of IDPs is
positive, and certainly an advance on previous forms of
22
South Africa has three autonomous spheres rather than tiers of

government.
180
urban management. There is an important recognition

that it will take a long time for municipalities to get
accustomed to this very different way of operating, and
that efforts must be sustained. So far (eight years in to
the experiment) there are modest successes (Harrison,
Todes & Watson, 2008) but still many problems. Line
function departments, including planning departments,
still operate in isolation from each other, with the IDP
attempting to integrate the products of these functions
but not their processes. Integration is therefore not yet
institutionally embedded. The capital budget in many
places is still shaped by the relative power of these
departments and by the politicians of the day, rather
than by the norms of sustainability and equity. There are
very few linkages between the SDFs and the land use
management systemin many places the latter dates
from apartheid days, while the SDFs are new. There is
therefore a disjuncture between the zoning ordinances,
many of which promote urban modernism and social
exclusion, and the SDFs, which try and promote a
different urban form, but lack the tools to do so. There is
still no consensus at national level about how the land use
management system should operate and, in the vacuum,
individual provinces and cities have been attempting
their own partial reforms. Participation has come to be
seen as professional participationinvolving different
departments and levels of government rather than
citizens and stakeholders. In many cities the latter takes
very limited forms of participation, such as presenting the
results of the IDP for public comment.
The IDP has good intentions, not yet realised, but it
may still be too early to pass final judgement. What is
clear to date is that it is a complex and sophisticated
system and many municipalities, and particularly the
politicians, lack the capacity or motivation to understand and fully implement it. Given that South Africa is
a relatively well-resourced and governed Southern
country, this should provide a cautionary note regarding
simplistic borrowing of the approach in less wellresourced regions.
5.2.2. Participatory budgeting
A range of innovative approaches to participation in
planning and development has been tried out at the local
scale (Community action planning; Participatory
urban appraisal) in the global South, but at the city
scale one of the best known is Participatory budgeting
(PB), which first occurred in Porto Alegre in Brazil and
has since been attempted in many other parts of the
world. By 2006 it had been introduced in over 1,000
municipalities in Latin America and (in an unusual case
of reverse borrowing) in over 100 Western European
cities (Sintomer, Herzberg, & Rocke, 2008). Details

vary from city to city (Cabannes, 2004): in some cases
citizens individually participate and vote on the
municipal budget in thematic assemblies and in
neighbourhood and district meetings; in other cases
decision-making is carried out through delegates and
leaders of local organisations. Municipal Councils are
ultimately responsible for deciding on the budget, with
on average about 20% of the overall budget being
decided by PB. In some cities PB has been regulated and
institutionalised, but only in Peru does it have
constitutional and legal foundations. Without this, PB
is reliant on the willingness of the mayor to introduce it.
The relationship between PB and urban planning is
not a simple one. PB is usually a short-term exercise, as
opposed to long-term strategic and development
planning. PB decisions are also usually focused on
the community or local scale, compared to the city-wide
issues which planning needs to consider. Cabannes
(2004) describes how the two processes can interrelate.
In some Latin American cities PB takes place within the
framework provided by the longer-term strategic plan.
Here the members of the Council of the Participatory
Budget are also representatives of the Council of the
Urban Master Plan. In other cities PB precedes the
formulation of the strategic spatial plan and is intended
to inform it. There has been no explicit discussion of
how PB might inform the incorporation of environmental issues and climate change into longer-term
planning, but it would require the trade-off between
shorter-term and local priorities and longer-term and
possible city-wide climate mitigation and adaptation
actions.
Research shows that PB is not a simple solution which
can be imposed anywhere and is not a technical process
that can be detached from local political culture: an
important feature of recent participatory approaches is
that they are converging with concerns about democracy
and citizenship. The main preconditions for PB are:
grassroots democracy through open local assemblies;
social justice through a formula that allocates a larger
share of resources to the most disadvantaged districts;
and citizen control through an ongoing PB Council that
monitors implementation. Nonetheless, it has been
argued that PB has increased access by marginalised
groups to governmental processes, and in highly unequal
societies it does offer one avenue for the exercise of urban
rights (Souza, 2001).
5.2.3. UN Urban Management Programme (UMP)
Regarded as one of the largest global urban
programmes, it was started in 1986 by the Urban
Development Unit of the World Bank in partnership

with UNCHS (United Nations Centre for Human
Settlements) and funded by UNDP (United Nations
Development Programme). It functioned as a tripartite
collaboration between UN-Habitat, UNDP and the
World Bank. The programme has been involved in 120
cities in 57 countries, with the overall mission of
promoting socially and environmentally sustainable
human settlements and adequate shelter for all, and with
the objective of reducing urban poverty and social
exclusion. The Cities Alliance organisation also
emerged from this grouping.23 In 2006 UN-Habitat
disengaged from the programme and transferred the
work to local anchor institutions (UN-Habitat, 2005).
In common with other recent and innovative ideas in
planning, and particularly with the urban management
approach, it attempted to shift the concept of planning
and development to the whole of local government,
rather than belonging to one department; it attempted to
promote participatory processes in local government
decision-making (the city consultation), to promote
strategic thinking in planning, and to tie local
government plans to implementation through action
plans and budgets. The more recent City Development
Strategy (CDS), promoted particularly by Cities
Alliance, encourages local governments to produce
inter-sectoral and long-range visions and plans for
cities. One of the longest and deepest involvements of
the UMP has been with Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Comments on the success rate of this programme
have been mixed. While some argue that it has made a
major difference in terms of how local governments see
their role, and the role of planning, others have been
more critical. One of the originators of the programme
(Michael Cohen, former Chief of the Urban Development Division of the World Bank) concluded that it had
not had a major impact on the process of urbanisation in
developing countries (UN-Habitat, 2005: 5). Coordinator of the programme, Dinesh Mehta, noted that
the city consultations had aimed to change the way local
government did business, but this did not always
happen. Ambitious plans often had no investment
follow-up to make sure that they happened (UNHabitat, 2005: 6). The weakness of municipal finance
systems, a pre-requisite for implementation, has been a
major stumbling block.
23
Local Agenda 21 processes, which emerged from 1992 Earth

Summit Agreements, followed a similar direction to the Urban Management Programme, and were later linked to the Habitat urban
agenda (see Allen and You, 2002).
181
Werna (1995) notes that persistent urban problems

should not be seen as due to the failure of the UMP,
but rather due to the ongoing globalisation of the
economy, which has weakened nation states and
increased income inequalities and poverty. Decentralisation in this context has placed a major burden on
local government without the necessary powers and
finance, and this makes urban management very
difficult. Also pointing to broader obstacles, Rakodi
(2003) draws attention to the problematic assumption
that liberal democracies can work in all parts of the
South, and that expectations of what local governments will do may be misplaced. Few local governments, she argues, are prepared to actually take steps
to achieve equity and inclusiveness. Linked to this is
the likelihood that stakeholders in UMP processes will
promote their own specific and immediate interests,
with less concern for longer-term or city-scale issues,
and particularly less tangible issues such as climate
change.
But more basic problems were evident, certainly in
the Tanzanian cases. The UMP appeared to be
successfully changing one part of the planning
systemforward planningbut left untouched the
regulatory tools (the land use management system)
which form an important part of plan implementation.
The inherited land regulation systems were therefore
able to continue to entrench the inequalities which were
inherent in them. In effect, the UMP was setting up a
parallel planning system, requiring developers first to
apply to the local stakeholder committee for application
approval in terms of the strategic plan, and then to
submit it to the usual development control department
(Halla, 2002). While the real power lies with those
administering the land regulations, there appears to be
little advantage to developers to follow both processes,
and little chance of a strategic plan being implemented.
As Nnkya (2006) notes, there was no clear evidence to
suggest that the Dar es Salaam UMP process had been
fully institutionalised.
5.2.4. Strategic planning
A number of Southern countries have adopted
strategic planning (to replace master planning),
probably as a direct borrowing from strategic planning
ideas in the global North, or introduced it as part of
larger agency-driven programmes. In some cases these
strategic plans are part of broader institutional plans,
such as the Spatial Development Frameworks, which
are part of South Africas Integrated Development
Plans, or the spatial plans, which are part of the Urban
Management Programme.
182
A number of Latin American cities adopted the

strategic urban planning approach in the late 1990s, and
Steinberg (2005) documents and evaluates the more
successful or advanced cases of Cordoba, La Paz,
Trujillo and Havana. It is still relatively new in Latin
American countries, with many attempts seemingly
borrowed from the European experience as a result of
the involvement of the city of Barcelona, IHS in
Rotterdam and other think-tank agencies. Steinberg
(2005) notes the danger that a new strategic planning
process adopted by a city administration can be dropped
when a new political party or mayor comes into power,
because to continue it might be seen as giving
credibility to a political opposition (this was the case
in Cordoba, Bogota and Santiago). The fact that a plan
can be dropped, however, also suggests that neither
business nor civil society see it as sufficiently valuable
to demand its continuation. The Bolivian approach, of
introducing a national law (Law of the Municipalities
1999) requiring all municipalities to draw up an urban
plan based on the strategic-participatory method, is one
way of dealing with this, but does not prevent the
content of the plan changing with administrations.
Steinberg (2005) concludes that success depends on
political will, participation, technical capacity and the
institutionalisation of plan management. The social and
political processes of debating and agreeing on a plan
are as important as the plan itself. The very different
approach required by strategic planning inevitably
counters opposition: from politicians and officials who
use closed processes of decision-making and budgeting
to insert their own projects and further their own
political interests, and from planners who have to
abandon their comfortable role as the grand classical
planner and become more of a communicator and
facilitator. Also significant is the fact that the particular
urban form which appears to have accompanied
strategic planning in these cities (large transformational
projects) has raised tensions, in Bogota at least, between
a focus on these projects versus a focus on basic services
and accommodating informality. Undoubtedly, these
competing demands reflect different economic and
political interests, which may not be easy to reconcile in
participation processes.
5.3. Regulatory aspects of urban planning
The regulatory aspect of planning systems has often
been resistant to change, particularly in places where
private ownership of property is protected, and where
the land use management system allocates legal rights
of development. For this reason it has been much easier
to reform the directive or forward aspect of the planning

system than the land use management aspect. The latter
tends to lag behind the former, making implementation
of the spatial plan very difficult. The extension of the
regulatory system to new informal areas in rapidly
growing cities has also been a cause for concern. While
new areas of a city should benefit from the protection
and regulation of a planning system, the form of
regulation usually imposes costs and constraints on
informal areas, to the extent that livelihoods are eroded
and shelters may be destroyed. Some of the more
innovative approaches to land use management have
occurred in places where the state has been able to
intervene radically in the property market to promote
pro-poor policies; where new forms of tenure and land
use management have tried to bridge the gap between
conventional modernist systems and traditional
systems; and in situations which, due to conflict or
disaster, have required new low-key and flexible land
management systems to be introduced.
5.3.1. State intervention in the land market: The
Brazilian Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS)
Brazil has moved further than most countries in
terms of making the urban crisis a national priority. The
Movement for Urban Reform was successful in the
1980s in including two principles in the chapter on
Urban Policy in the 1988 Constitution, aiming at
democratising access to the city: the social function of
property, and popular participation in the definition and
administration of urban policies. With a shift in
government to the left, the Ministry of Cities was
established in 2001 to oversee this process. The term
urban reform has come to mean not just the reshaping
of space, but rather structural social reform, including a
spatial dimension, . . .the purpose of which is the
reform of the institutions regulating power and the
production of space (Souza, 2003: 192). However, the
planning tools of master plans and urban regulation
were left in place, giving a challenge to progressive
planners to use these in new ways. New master plans
are seen as different to the old ones, in that they are
bottom-up and participatory, oriented towards social
justice and aiming to counter the effects of land
speculation. Souza (2003: 194) states that while
conventional urban planning strives to achieve an ideal
city, from which illegality and informality are banned,
new urban planning deals with the existing city, to
develop tools to tackle these problems in a just and
democratic way.
One important new tool has been the Special Zones
of Social Interest (ZEIS), first attempted in Belo
Horizonte and Recife in the 1980s and in many favelas

since. The principle behind the ZEIS is that in Brazil
land ownership is a condition for access to many other
rights (justice, credit, real estate financing) and that the
right of all to land is the basis for the extension of
citizenship, and hence securing the right to the city. The
ZEIS is a legal instrument for land management, which
can be applied to areas with a public interest: existing
favelas and vacant public land, to both regularise land
access and protect against downraiding and speculation
which would dispossess the poor. As such, these zones
are created with the aim of interfering in the zoning of
cities, by incorporating territories that previously had
been outside the established norms (Lago, 2007).
The ZEIS are seen as a powerful instrument for
controlling and ordering the use of urban land and
interfering in the dynamics of the real estate market.
The ZEIS promote social housing through the protection of areas from speculation, they depreciate the
potential market value of vacant public land by fixing its
use for social housing, they set maximum standards of
plot sizes and prohibit land assembly, and they regulate
the owners right to gain income from this land. Thus,
the Urban Squatters Right (Usucapiao Urbano) gives
rights to land for housing which has been occupied for
over five years, in plots of not more than 250 m2 (Lago,
2007).
Debates about the ZEIS continue. Lago (2007)
questions whether they are creating second class urban
citizens, and whether it is possible to find coexistence
between equality and difference in cities, where
difference can be an expression of inferiority for the
poor. Essentially the ZEIS allow insertion into the city,
but not integration into society, as this would mean
acknowledgement of the poor as socially equal and as
holders of the same land rights as the wealthy. This
could only occur if the mechanisms for protection of the
poor could be used to control speculation in the city as a
whole.
5.3.2. Urban land law and tenure
This paper argues that the nature of a countrys urban
land law24 is the most critical aspect of urban planning.
24
Key issues are: the balance of development rights between property-owner/occupier and the state; the rights of third parties in relation
to proposed development; the conditions under which the state can
take property and/or development rights away from property-owners/
occupiers; the obligations of the state to consult/involve the public in
the making of plans which (a) establish spatial policy and/or (b)
indicate the allocation or disposition of development rights and/or (c)
indicate the means to implementation.
183
As forward plans of various kinds are sidelined by new

administrations or fashions, and as participatory
agreements run into conflict, it is the urban land law
which inevitably persists and which is the slowest and
hardest to change, usually because it allocates rights (to
more powerful groups in society or to the state) which
are long-lasting and strongly defended. Fernandes
(2003) has argued that the promotion of urban change
in fact depends on comprehensive reform of the legal
order affecting the regulation of property rights and the
overall process of urban land development, policy
making and management. Yet least attention has been
paid to this aspect of urban planning in the various
reforms and innovations discussed above. With the
growing stresses on urban environments from market
forces, increasing inequalities, environmental disasters,
climate change and oil depletion, urban land laws and
planning remain the central tool which can potentially
be used to address these issues.
An important obstacle to revising land law is the
dominant assumption (from classic liberal legalism)
that freehold is the highest and best form of property
ownership, and land use management systems and
infrastructure provision are invariably tied to this form
of tenure. This has allowed land to be regarded as a
commodity, rather than performing a social function,
with consequent speculation contributing to social
exclusion. Given the fact that between 25% and 70% of
the urban population in cities of the South live in
irregular settlements (Durand-Lassserve & Royston,
2002), and that the delivery and administration of
formally titled land (requiring a full cadastre and
registration system and the technical requirements of
mapping, surveying, registration and conveyancing), is
well beyond the capacity of many local governments,
there has been a call for alternative approaches to land
regularisation and tenure.25
In many parts of the world the land system is
fashioned on imported European models and is based on
assumptions from earlier times about the appearance of
cities and the role of the state in their management.
Indigenous tenure systems have often been far more
successful in delivering land and shelter for the urban
poor, yet they are regarded as undesirable and requiring
replacement. Research on informal land delivery
systems in five African countries (see Rakodi, 2006a)
used, as a starting hypothesis, the understanding that
these systems are successful due to their practical
25
See International Development Planning Review 28(2), 2006, for

the results of research in Africa which has considered this question.
184
attributes and social legitimacy. Moreover, where urban

property markets have come under pressure from rapid
development, traditional social institutions have
adjusted to accommodate these processes (although
as pressures increase they are also likely to break down).
Statesociety relations around land transactions sometimes conform to formal rules and laws, but sometimes
adopt informal ways of operating. Interactions can
therefore have variable outcomes: in some cases the
state can enforce compliance (through eviction or
demolition) and in other cases it can change to
accommodate informality. The research concludes
(Rakodi, 2006b) that new land management and tenure
systems are required, which draw on both current
informal land processes and formal state processes.
In similar vein, Mitlin (2008) argues that both the
state and low-income citizens address the task of
delivering urban land and services, but follow different
political and social processes, favouring different
interests and outcomes. The concept of co-production
refers to the joint production of land and services by
citizens and the state, with elements of the process
shared. Both sides have to play a role, she suggests, in
situations where the state does not have the capacity to
deliver or regulate on its own, and low-income citizens
cannot rely on their own resources or systems either.
Successful examples of co-production, however, all
indicate the importance of grassroots organisations
maintaining a degree of autonomy in the delivery
process. Their objective is to change relations with the
state, and the way in which the state works, as well as to
secure land and service delivery. Mitlins (2008: 356)
important addition to this conceptual framework is that
the operation of power cannot be ignored. Processes of
co-production strengthen collective consciousness and
provide an arena within which to challenge particular
modes of governmentality. Civil society comes to
occupy spaces of governmentality in its own right and
thus shifts policies and practices in directions which are
more accommodating of the urban poor.
5.3.3. Planning in the peri-urban areas
The bulk of rapid urban growth in Southern cities is
taking place in the peri-urban areas, as poor urban
dwellers look for a foothold in the cities and towns
where land is more easily available, where they can
escape the costs and threats of urban land regulations,
and where there is a possibility of combining urban and
rural livelihoods. The peri-urban interface is therefore
highly mixed in terms of uses and also highly dynamic
and unstable. But these are also the areas that are most
difficult to plan and service (due to jurisdictional
problems, mixed tenure systems and the scattered and

fragmented nature of settlement) and are areas where
the cost-recovery approach to public or formal private
sector infrastructure provision cannot work. Often these
areas exist in an administrative no-mans-land, outside
of municipal boundaries. At the same time, these are
areas where the threats to, and by, the natural
environment are greatest. Ideas about how to plan in
areas such as these may, therefore, contain useful ideas
relevant for sprawling and largely informal cities.
Allen (2003) argues that while peri-urban areas
present some of the most intractable problems for urban
planning, most planning systems operate with an urban
rural dichotomy which entirely ignores areas such as
these. She suggests that it is not possible to extrapolate
the planning approaches and tools applied in either
urban or rural areas to the peri-urban interface: they
require different planning approaches specific to these
conditions. Drawing on long-term, team research, she
argues for a combination of methods usually associated
with urban, rural and regional planning. Allen (2003)
argues for a strategic environmental planning and
management approach, working incrementally from
sub-regional to community levels to manage their
articulation at different stages of the process. At the
community level, other work (Kyessi, 2005) has shown
the value of an incremental approach to service
provision using community-based and informal service
providers, managed by local committees and with
technical advice from city administrations. Ideas
focusing on alternative land delivery systems (Section
5.3.2) are also of particular importance in interface
areas.
5.3.4. Planning in post-conflict and post-disaster
areas
Urban planning appears to have a new role to play in
re-establishing law and order (and usually a functioning
market) in post-conflict societies. These situations are
often instructive, as old systems may need to be swept
away and new approaches can be tested. Significantly,
however, post-conflict situations often have much in
common with prevailing conditions in many Southern
cities, particularly peri-urban and semi-urban areas,
where there is no clear authority and no established
public functions or systems. Planning principles in postconflict situations might, therefore, have wider applicability.
From the 1960s to the 1980s the standard approach to
relief in war-torn and post-conflict/disaster areas was a
linear one: reliefreconstructiondevelopment (Van
Horen, 2002). More recent positions argue for linking
relief to development (USAID) and introducing

development-oriented emergency aid (GTZ). The
UN-Habitat (2006) urban trialogues approach looks
to spatial planning to help reintegrate displaced
communities back into cities. In Somalia this implied
three levels of action: a spatial structure plan, strategic
projects and enabling conditions for development. The
role of the spatial structure plan was to provide an
integrative framework, so that shorter-term actions
could contribute to longer-term goals of development.
Strategic projects happened immediately, in parallel
with the longer-term plan, to make a visible difference
on the ground and to provide a way of integrating
sectoral aid and actions. Enabling conditions required
assistance to local government, infrastructure delivery
and reviewing the legal framework to ensure rights for
the poor.
The issue of land rights is a crucial one in these
situations, as this may have been a core reason for
conflict and there are often competing or overlapping
claims to land post-conflict. Augustinus and Barry
(2004) argue that the establishment of a land management system post-conflict is urgent, as it can help create
social and economic stability, forestall land grabs, deal
with returning displaced persons, and help restore the
functions of government. But they argue that the
conventional (technical) approach to establishing this
system, and the form of land rights delivered, are both
highly problematic. In a post-conflict situation the
cadastral system needs to be put in place, usually in
advance of national land and planning policy and urban
plans (which take much longer to develop), although
these systems should provide the broader goals which
inform the cadastral system. Also land claims may
require lengthy conflict resolution and restitution
processes before they can be finalised.
It is therefore important, argue Augustinus and Barry
(2004), that the process of defining the cadastre is
designed to cope with a highly fluid and changing
situation, as well as one where claims to land are largely
informal. This means that the first step is to adjudicate
local land claims through community-based processes.
Then, instead of moving directly to a (Torrens) titling
programme, to rather retain a deeds system, as the deed
is an affirmation of land rights but does not constitute
them, as a title does. Deeds provide evidence of rights in
land which can be later rebutted by other evidence,
which is crucial for restitution processes.
185
5.4. Conclusion
This chapter has reviewed innovative planning
initiatives and ideas in the global South. In some cases,
these represent applications of ideas tried in the global
North, but other ideas and approaches are responses to
particular conditions in Southern cities. In an unusual
case of reverse borrowing, participatory budgeting
(although wider than urban planning) was initiated in
Latin America and has been adopted by a number of
European cities. Responding to rapid urbanisation and
attempts to develop pro-poor urban policies and
strategies have been the primary areas of focus; how
to incorporate the issues of environmental sustainability
and climate change has received far less attention. The
long-standing tension between the green and brown
agendas in Southern cities still appears to be unresolved.
The chapter has drawn attention to the fact that
innovative ideas have tended to focus on how to change
the directive aspect of planning systems, and reforms
introduced by international development agencies have
tended to focus on this aspect of planning. As the Urban
Management Programme demonstrated, it was possible
to do this, but it left untouched the regulatory aspect of
planning systems, which is far more difficult to reform.
The danger has been that reformed directive planning
approaches function as an additional parallel system to
existing systems, are not institutionally embedded, and
are easily dropped when administrations or political
parties change. This indicates the importance of new
approaches which encompass both the directive and
regulatory aspects of planning systems, the linkage
between these systems, and the institutional embedding
of new ideas into the particular local culture of planning
and governance.
Of particular interest, therefore, are new approaches
which attempt to change the land use management
system in directions which can address rapid urbanisation and poverty. In practice, this has occurred where
normal market forces have been suspended, or
constrained: through state intervention in the case of
the ZEIS; or where disasters or conflict have required
emergency responses. Research into practice has also
highlighted ways in which formal and informal systems
of land and service delivery can work together to
produce new and hybrid approaches more appropriate to
the complexities of rapidly growing and poor urban
areas.
186
Chapter 6. Conclusion
6.1. Introduction
The purpose of this concluding chapter is to return to
the call for new forms of urban planning which can
address issues of urbanisation, poverty and sustainability, particularly in that part of the world where the
bulk of future urban growth will be concentrating (the
global South), and to consider, given the current trends
and patterns in these urban areas, whether there are
indications as to what these new approaches to planning
might be. Chapters 3 and 5 have reviewed innovative
aspects of urban planning in the global North and South,
respectively, to see what might be gleaned from these
initiatives or ideas. A central conclusion in this paper is
that planning in many urban areas in the global South
adheres to older and outdated approaches (in particular,
master planning and urban modernist built forms) and
that a significant gap has opened up between the current
realities and future challenges of 21st century towns and
cities, and the nature and use of prevailing planning
systems. The current global financial crisis is undoubtedly exacerbating this. Understanding new and innovative ideas is important, but the point has also been
made that the reason for this gap is very often not due
to a lack of understanding or capacity, but because the
planning system can be used for reasons of political
advantage, social exclusion, and profit, and there are
therefore vested interests in maintaining the status quo.
This paper has examined some of the newer and
more innovative approaches to planning in both the
global North and South, but not in order to promote the
simplistic borrowing of best practice ideas from one
part of the world to another. In fact a central argument in
this paper is that many (perhaps most) of the
inappropriate and exclusionary planning systems in
place in the global South have been imposed or
borrowed from very different contexts, usually
(although not always) from the global North. If planning
systems are in need of change, then it is important that
this mistake is not repeated. New ideas from various
parts of the world are reviewed here to see if they can
yield principles (not models) which are more generally
useful.
This chapter firstly considers further the question of
borrowing of ideas from one part of the world to
another. It then draws on both existing and innovative
forms of planning to highlight the directions in which
planning systems might need to go, if they are to be of
relevance to issues of urbanisation, poverty and
environment (including climate change). It is also
obvious that planning systems and planning professionals on their own can make very little difference to
these issues without certain broader conditions being in
place. The aim here is not to attempt to present
solutions to Tibaijukas (2006) call for a new approach
to planning in the global South, but rather to build on the
assessment of current and new approaches to indicate a
way forward for this task. The point has also been made
(above) that with regard to one of the most important
urban planning issuesresponding to climate change
work in the field has only just begun.
6.2. On the problem of idea borrowing
A central argument in this paper has been that the
dominance of universalist perspectives on planning
(master planning, urban modernism, etc.), which have
nonetheless been shaped by the particular worldviews
and geographical regions from within which they have
originated, have impoverished and limited planning
thinking and practice, and have left it open to
accusations of irrelevance and of directly worsening
urban poverty. These perspectives have shaped a
dominant and persistent planning rationality, which in
turn sets standards of normality regarding proper
living environments, the proper conduct of citizens,
acceptable ways of reaching consensus, notions of the
public good, and so on. This concept of normality is,
however, directly at odds with the reality of sociospatial dynamics and practices in cities and regions
which have been increasingly subjected to particular
global economic forces. These practices, which find
expression in informality, in dis-orderliness, in
violations of rules and regulations, come about as
people step outside of the law in order to provide
themselves with shelter and income. In doing so, they
render themselves even more vulnerable to political and
criminal threat than they might otherwise have been.
This international transfer of urban models is not
something of the past. Despite the frequency with which
imported models fail to achieve the success which their
proponents claim for them, processes of globalisation
facilitate an increasing scale and pace of best practice
dissemination and application (Tait & Jensen, 2007).
These authors argue that the particular representations
of space contained in the international translation of
planning and urban models help to understand how they
come to be regarded as potentially universal ideas. The
essentialist, Euclidean, view of space, based on the
assumption of space as abstract (as independent of the
objects that inhabit it), and as having a determining
effect on objects (spatial determinism), allows spatial
ideas to be seen as the same, regardless of location.

Actors concerned to promote the translation of an idea
from one part of the world to another need to argue that
origin and destination locations are similar, or that their
difference does not matter. A different, relational,
concept of space (space as dynamically created out of
the relations between objects), acknowledges the
uniqueness of location and hence place. This position
views space as a social construct, with meanings which
are likely to be diverse and contested. Developing
spatial strategies is therefore likely to be the outcome of
inherently political processes (Tait & Jensen, 2007:
115). In assessing how these two very different concepts
of space have been used in recent European strategic
spatial planning exercises, Healey (2004: 6465) sees a
relational understanding as important for capturing the
real, material experiences of people and firms. If
planning rules do not acknowledge these, she
suggests, there will be a constant struggle between
rules and the demands and needs of people, leading to a
decline in legitimacy of the planning system. A
relational understanding of space is also a more
accurate way of understanding current urban and
regional dynamics, leading to more effective ways of
promoting local capacities and values.
There is, therefore, no simple alternative approach
to planning or any urban model which can be
parachuted in to replace existing approaches,
wherever they may be problematic, or to address
new urban issues. The position taken here is that
planning practice is inevitably situated, taking place
in contexts with very particular and distinct sociospatial, economic and environmental characteristics. It
may be that actors in recipient environments change
new ideas and hybridise them so that they are usually
different from their original form (Tait & Jensen,
2007). But unless, in Southern cities, planning
approaches and practices are deeply embedded in
local institutional structures and cultures, and are
closely aligned to the tactics and strategies of survival
of poor urban populations, there is little chance that
they will make a positive difference. It will, anyway,
be extremely difficult to change existing planning
systems, and in particular the land rights and
mechanisms which underpin them, as these usually
support powerful economic and political interests. So
grafting on new institutional processes of forward
planning, or setting up ad hoc bodies (such as
tribunals) as a parallel to problematic development
control systems, is unlikely to change the status quo.
One way of thinking about the problem of planning
as anti-poor, is to see the relationship between the
187
requirements implied in planning and land use management systems, and the human requirements of survival
and making do under conditions of poverty and
inequality, as a conflict of rationalities (Watson, 2003,
2009). The forms and processes of land use, buildings,
activities and conduct required to meet conventional
master planning and urban modernist environments, are
simply incompatible with the fragile, fluid, improvised
and temporary practices (including informal and
illegal shelters, acquisition of water, energy, income
generation, mobilisation of networks) needed to survive
in poor environments (see Simone, 2004).26 This is not
to suggest that this conflict arises from some kind of
simple misunderstanding: it has its roots in global and
local economic and political processes which are
exploitative and which entrench inequality.
If planning is to shift in the direction of becoming
pro-poor and inclusive, a far better understanding will
be needed about the nature of this interface between
institutionalised systems of land management and
development and the survival strategies of the poor.
Some of this understanding is beginning to surface in
research on formal and informal forms of land tenure
and land management in Africa, and on practices of coproduction (see Section 5.3.2). It is at the interface
between what may sometimes be formal and informal
systems, or at other times public and private sectors, that
conflicts of rationality arisebetween politicised
technical and managerial efforts to direct human
conduct towards particular ends, and the messy and
complex reality of human efforts to survive and thrive.
Conflicts and divisions around economy, identity, race,
religion, etc. shape this reality. Significantly, the notion
of interface does not set up a questionable binary
between a will to order and something that escapes it
(Osborne & Rose, 1999). Rather, it is a site of struggle
in which engagement can take on diverse, unpredictable
and hybridised forms, having sometimes negative and
sometimes positive outcomes. It is at this site of struggle
(the interface), which is also highly contextually
specific, that the most interesting possibilities for
understanding and learning arise. Effective new ideas
about planning are most likely to arise from research
and reflective practice at this interface.
Important to an understanding of unpredictable
outcomes of engagement, is the view of planning as a
rationality of government, offering the possibility both
26
It is acknowledged that this is just one potential driver of change in
planning. Others are new environmental and resource challenges, and
new spatial and built forms of economic development in cities.
188
to achieve societal reform, on the one hand, and to

control and shape society to particular political and
economic ends, on the other. There has, therefore,
always been the potential for planning to be used by
political and economic elites to create and protect
property values, and to spatially marginalise those who
might threaten them. Colonial, ethnocratic and racist
states have used planning far more explicitly to achieve
segregation and control in urban areas. Planning and
power have therefore always been closely interlinked
and this relationship helps to explain much of what has,
and still does, happen in the name of planning.
6.3. Assessment of recent shifts in planning and
new planning ideas
This section will review the newer shifts in planning
which have taken place in various parts of the world
(Chapters 3 and 5), to consider, firstly, whether there are
trends towards planning becoming more responsive to
issues of rapid urban growth, urban poverty and
environmental sustainability; and secondly, whether
there are principles arising from these trends that might
be more generally applicable. With regard to the latter,
the point has been made strongly here that planning is
always contextually determined and that the most viable
innovations in any place will probably be found through
an understanding of how people and institutions in any
locale are positively dealing with urban issues. But
principles underlying approaches which appear to be
having a positive impact might be useful in other cities
and regions, particularly where there are contextual
similarities. In any transfer of ideas, the question always
needs to be asked: what are the assumptions (about
society, politics, economy, environment) which underlie
this approach and do they hold elsewhere?27
Decentralising and democratising the planning
process (and government more generally) have been
seen as measures which could allow poorer urban
dwellers to influence planning to be more pro-poor,
particularly where they are linked to broader processes
of democracy and citizenship. Frequently, this fails to
happen due to a number of factors: elite capture of
processes; failure to translate the outcomes of communicative processes into policies, plans and actions; and
weak and divided civil societies. Participatory budgeting (which influences planning, but is a much wider
process) appears to address many of the limitations of
27
Watson (2002) asks these questions in relation to the use of certain

normative planning theories in Africa.
conventional public participation exercises and as an

idea has spread rapidly in Latin America and even in
parts of the global North. At the level of principle, the
scale and nature of citizen involvement and linking this
to resources is a significant advance on previous
practices, and in many parts of the global South it would
represent an unprecedented innovation. However, many
attempts to follow the first Porto Alegre success have
served to show that it was dependent on a relatively
unique set of institutional and political circumstances,
which are not easily replicated.
A further process-related set of innovations in
planning has attempted to make it more developmental,
integrated (with other line function departments), and
strategic. Strategic spatial planning has strong Northern
origins, but is influencing Southern planning practices
as well; Integrated Development Planning (containing
spatial development frameworks) has been in place in
South Africa for some 10 years; and the UN-Habitat
Urban Management Programme attempted to shift
Southern local governments towards more sustainable,
developmental and implementation-oriented plans. In
principle, these represent positive shifts away from
control-oriented and comprehensive master planning,
and would potentially allow planning to become more
responsive to rapidly growing and poor urban conditions, and to address issues of environment. However,
all have left the regulatory and land use management
aspect of planning untouched, and it is this aspect of
planning which impacts on socio-spatial marginalisation and exclusion. It is these laws and requirements
which raise the cost of urban land development and
impose particular lifestyle and income requirements
which the poor cannot meet. They also usually represent
not only restrictions but also rights to the use of land in
particular ways, and changing them is likely to be
resisted by those who have a vested interest in
occupying or developing areas planned in this way.
The idea of the ZEIS in Brazilian cities has been one
of the few innovations which have attempted to
intervene in both urban land markets and the regulatory
aspects of planning to facilitate informal upgrade. In
principle, states which are prepared to intervene
strongly in urban areas in order to implement pro-poor
policies and sustainable development are to be
welcomed; all too often, however, they intervene for
less supportable reasons. Both pro-poor urban plans and
climate change actions will require strong and decisive
state intervention (with other partners) to make a
difference, given the nature and scale of urban crises.
Ideas on how to shift regulatory, land use management and tenure systems to become more flexible, more
minimalist, more directly linked to performance

aspects rather than land use aspects (which in turn is
more closely aligned with a relational concept of space),
and which incorporate positive aspects of everyday
forms of land use, are crucial if planning is going to play
a role in relation to rapid growth and poverty. It will be
equally important to find ways in which the land use
management system can be used to support climate
change measures, bearing in mind that these actions are
less likely to be flexible and minimalist. Rather than a
blanket approach to land use management, these
systems need to be able to combine flexibility and
inclusion, where it is needed, and at the same time retain
the ability to take firm and long-term action in relation
to environmental concerns.
The trend towards CICs and CIDs, especially in the
USA, seems unlikely to address the problems of
Southern cities, other than that it might allow wealthier
groups to remove themselves from the poor service
levels and administration common in these urban areas.
The principle of value capture, however, which has been
implemented in both Northern and Southern cities,
seems to have good potential to allow city governments28 to benefit from private sector-driven urban
projects. There is an assumption that funds from this
source can be equitably and transparently raised and redistributed by local governments, and some kind of
partnership oversight would need to be in place to
ensure that this occurs.
Finally, those approaches which have focused on
developing new urban forms (compact city ideas with
infrastructure-led spatial plans, and new urbanism)
yield important spatial principles, which address issues
of environment and climate change, and provide
alternatives to urban modernist spatial and urban forms.
These in turn could produce urban environments more
favourable for the poor. Their implementation is,
however, based on certain assumptions relating to the
institutional and socio-spatial context within which they
might occur. Firstly, they assume strong and wellcapacitated systems of local government and planning.
One highly successful implementation of the sustainable city idea in the global South (Curitiba, Brazil) has
shown the importance of strong local leadership and a
commitment to planning (Irazabal, 2005). Secondly,
they assume the availability of resources to implement
large-scale urban infrastructure projects: in many
poorer cities the lack of resources has forced a reliance
on private-sector investment (sometimes in the form of
28
In countries where urban land values are market driven.
189
partnerships) which can skew these projects towards

servicing of the wealthier parts of cities. Thirdly,
compact city ideas and growth boundaries assume the
ability to clearly define an urban edge to hold this
boundary: this is difficult in cases where there is an
extended informal urban periphery (Bebbington &
Bebbington, 2001). These spatial ideas hold considerable potential, at the level of principle, for addressing
issues of rapid urbanisation, poverty and environmental
sustainability. However, their application and implementation in Southern cities requires further work.
6.4. Conclusion
The new hope referred to in the Introduction to this
paper, that urban planning can be a central tool to
address urban issues in the global South, holds both
potentials and dangers. On the one hand, the renewed
attention to urban planning could give impetus to a
necessary review and reform of these systems and to a
search for new planning ideas; on the other hand, there
could be a misplaced faith in planning to address issues
the root causes of which lie in broader institutional,
political, socio-economic and environmental forces.
The danger here is that in the near future, if little or no
progress has been made on addressing urban issues,
planning will again be sidelined in favour of some new
perspective on urban development: perhaps some
revived form of neoliberalism. It is therefore important
not to lose sight of the fact that good and effective
planning can only really occur in a context where there
exist: a political system where the poor can make their
voice heard; a city government with some capacity to
deliver; and an appropriate regulatory framework
(Devas, 2001). Capacity to deliver is also dependent
on a reasonably functioning economy and a sufficient
flow of resources to implementing bodies. In the
absence of these, the effectiveness of any urban
management approaches will be diminished.
This paper has reviewed some of the main
innovations in urban planning in both the global North
and South, to assess the extent to which new ideas are
emerging which address the issues of rapid urban
growth, poverty and environmental sustainability, and
to consider the extent to which these ideas might have
relevance beyond the regions from which they have
emerged. It has concluded that a range of innovations
has emerged, which could certainly shift traditional
master planning and urban modernist forms (still the
dominant approach in many parts of the global South) in
the direction of addressing the main issues of 21st
century Southern cities. However, the implementation
190
of these ideas is often highly dependent on the particular

contexts from which they have arisen, and careful
thought would need to be given to how the useful
principles in these ideas could find expression in very
different contexts. The review of the international
spread of planning ideas here has shown that simplistic
transference of planning models (often facilitated by the
particular theoretical concept of space which underlies
them) can have highly negative impacts where they are
based on assumptions about context which do not hold
everywhere.
A further important insight from past attempts to
introduce new planning ideas is that it may well be
possible to shift institutions towards adopting new
decision-making processes (city development strategies, strategic planning processes, etc.), but these are
often introduced as a parallel system to existing and
entrenched processes, thus opening up various routes
for decisions which can be used opportunistically.
These new processes also usually leave untouched the
regulatory system governing access to, and use of, land
(this is often the most difficult aspect to change), thus
making the implementation of new planning ideas on
the ground very difficult. Alignment between the
directive aspects of planning and the regulatory aspects
is essential. Moreover, the adoption of these new
processes often depends on support from particular
urban coalitions, and once these shift or are replaced
then the processes themselves and the plans associated
with them can disappear as well (as in some of the
strategic planning processes in Latin America).
The review of newer planning approaches has also
indicated that there are no well developed answers to the
question of whether urban planning can become propoor and support rapid urban growth and environmental
sustainability. The point has been made that thinking
about the connection between urban planning and
climate change has only just begun (although there is a
longer and useful track record in the global North of
ideas on more sustainable urban forms). The question of
how urban planning can address informality (both jobs
and shelter) is also poorly developed (leaving aside the
important point that planning systems in some parts of
the world are well adapted to using informal processes
themselves and selectively responding to urban
informality in opportunistic ways). Given that Southern
cities have significant components of informality, the
issue of how to develop new urban planning processes
and laws which bridge the gap between the different
rationalities of formal and informal systems in cities,
is an important one. Research on tenure systems in
Africa is pointing in the right direction here, but
requires considerable development in relation to other

aspects of planning. In particular, the growth area of
peri-urbanism requires new ideas, not only on the issues
of land and planning, but on the full range of service and
infrastructure delivery.
Finally, the role of urban planning with regard to the
formal economy is an important counterpart to the
issues of both environment and informality. Unless the
planning system can be seen to be providing an efficient
and useful service for the private sector (directing
infrastructure to where it is needed, delivering
commercial land speedily), it will always be subjected
to attempts to bypass, subvert or corrupt it. The other
side of this coin, however, is that the planning system
must be firm enough to deal with the externalities of
private development (a current problem for many East
Asian cities) and to extract public financial gain
(betterment, value capture, exaction, development
taxes) where it is due. More of a challenge will be
shifting towns and cities away from urban goals and
visions that have to do with aesthetics, global
positioning, and ambitions of local elites to replicate
American or European lifestyles, to the far more
demanding objectives of achieving inclusive, equitable
and sustainable cities.
Acknowledgement
The paper is drawn from original work completed
by the author under contract with UN-Habitat for the
Global Report on Human Settlements 2009.
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Sustainable Development
Sust. Dev. 18, 194201 (2010)
Published online 1 July 2010 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/sd.489
Sustainability, Poverty and Municipal Services: the

Case of Cape Town, South Africa
Mark Swilling*
Sustainability Institute, School of Public Management and Planning, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch,
South Africa
ABSTRACT
Although many global policies refer to the need to reconcile growth, equity and sustainability, there is little that demonstrates what this entails, especially in fast growing developing countries. The sustainable cities literature focuses on environmental constraints, and
the institutional economics literature on governance. The aim of this paper is to provide a
conceptual synthesis that makes it possible to understand the complex dynamics of technological and institutional innovation. The evolution of Cape Towns strategies to deal with
post-apartheid inequalities within a context of severe resource constraints is reviewed.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Received 31 August 2009; Revised 11 February 2010; Accepted 9 March 2010
Keywords: sustainable urban development; sustainable resource use; sustainable cities; Cape Town; poverty; institutional change;
innovation
Introduction
IKE ALL POST-APARTHEID CITIES, AFTER 1994 CAPE TOWN FACED THE CHALLENGE OF OVERCOMING THE INEQUALITIES
of the apartheid era. A new non-racial Metropolitan Government was created to address development disparities (Haferburg and Obenbrugge, 2003; Jaglin, 2008; Smith and Hanson, 2003; Swilling, 2006;
Watson, 2002; Wilkinson, 2004).
Formerly segregated local authorities were amalgamated to ensure greater equity between rich and poor communities. Progressive municipal nance policies were introduced that remained consistent despite regular party
political changeovers (Jaglin, 2004; Smith and Hanson, 2003; Smith, 2004). However, these policies are now
coming up against complex natural resource limits, prompting new thinking about more sustainable ways of using
resources (Crane and Swilling, 2008; Swilling, 2006).
Although mainstream sustainable development discourse is replete with platitudes about the need for a balance
between growth, equity and the environment (United Nations Development Programme, 2007; United Nations,
2006), in reality there is little practical guidance in the academic literature for cities in fast growing highly unequal
middle developing countries. Except for signature cases like Curitiba and a recent Worldwatch Institute publication
(Schwartz, 2004; Worldwatch Institute, 2007), the sustainable cities literature is dominated by case studies from
developed economies where there is a capital and technological resource base for managing change without the
* Correspondence to: Professor Mark Swilling, Sustainability Institute, School of Public Management and Planning, Stellenbosch University,
Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa. E-mail: swilling@sun.ac.za
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Sustainability, Poverty and Municipal Services
195
challenge of also dealing with the fact that anything between 25 and 75% of the urban population lives just on or
below the poverty line.
The sustainable cities literature is also largely concerned with environmental and resource use issues (Beatley,
2000; Hardoy et al., 2003; Satterthwaite, 2001), with very little mention made of the nexus between sustainability
planning, institutional governance and municipal nance (for useful exceptions see Guy et al., 2001; Heynen et
al., 2006). If it is accepted that institutions are key to effective policy interventions, then we need to turn to institutional economics, which is all about the need for appropriate institutions to drive growth and poverty eradication
(Evans, 2005; Evans, unpublished; Hoff and Stiglitz, 2001; Rodrik et al., 2004). However, this literature, does not
adequately address sustainable resource use questions.
There is, of course, a small but growing literature seeking a more explicit meeting point between ecological
economics and institutional development, both generally (Boulding, 1991; Ekins, 2000; Fischer-Kowalski and
Haberl, 2007; Greenwood and Holt, 2008; Swilling, in press) and with respect to urban development in particular
(Guy et al., 2001; Heynen et al., 2006; Hodson and Marvin, 2009). This literature provides the conceptual framework for this paper. In essence, ecological economics (and, for that matter, the bulk of the sustainable cities literature) sees natural resource limits as the fundamental obstacle to future growth and development strategies. The
conclusion is either no growth (which is not an option for developing countries) or else the decoupling of rates of
growth from rates of resource consumption (often also referred to as dematerialization) (Behrens et al., 2007;
Bringezu et al., 2004; Gallopin, 2003).
The core hypothesis of this article is that job-creating growth can be stimulated by municipal interventions that
reinforce the decoupling of economic growth rates from the rate of consumption of energy, solid waste, water and
sanitation, especially in cities facing ecological threats to these resource ows managed using traditional technologies and service delivery systems. The case study of Cape Town demonstrates that even in a highly unequal developing country city, the early signs of a trend (admittedly reversible) towards this kind of decoupling are evident.
The policies and strategies that are required to reinforce this trend are also briey reviewed. The primary research
for this analysis was conducted by the Sustainability Institute (see www.sustainabilityinstitute.net) over the period
20059, with a strong focus on urban infrastructure services (energy, waste, water and sanitation), municipal
nance and resource ows (see Crane and Swilling, 2008; de Wit et al., 2008; de Wit and Swilling, 2008; Sustainability Institute and E-Systems, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c; Swilling, 2006).1
Socio-Economic Context
There are nearly 800 000 households in Cape Town, with a rapidly expanding population of around 3.5 million
people. Just over 50% of households are poor, 16% are wealthy elite, with a relatively small middle class comprising 31% of households. Despite many political changeovers in Cape Towns municipal government since 1994, a
constant theme of successive administrations has been the need to address the service backlogs in the poorer areas
of the city. As will be demonstrated below, R9.3 billion or 47% of the municipal budget was spent on capital
and operational expenditures for energy, water, waste and sewage (EWWS) services for 2007/8. This equates to
8% of the gross geographic product (GGP) of the Cape Town metropolitan economy.
Cape Towns economy grew at an average annual rate of more than 4% between 2000 and 2006, reaching a
high of 5.4% in 2004. The economy is increasingly orientated towards nancial and business services as well as
to wholesale and retail trade (including tourism). From 2000 to 2004, economic growth was mostly driven by
consumption, but a shift towards xed investment spending in areas such as construction, electricity, gas and
water, nance and business services and trade has stimulated growth since 2004 and was expected to continue
for a few years until the global nancial crash in October 2008.
Although unemployment statistics are not considered entirely reliable, there is some optimism that overall
unemployment until 2008 was declining, from 21% in September 2005 to 15% in September 2006. Signicantly,
this estimated drop in unemployment coincided with a period of low economic growth, which may signal that
1
Funding for this research was provided by the United Nations Foundation via the United Nations Development Programme, DANIDA, Isandla
Institute and the Sustainability Institute.
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underlying structural factors have started to be addressed. The post-recession recovery pattern may or may not
conrm this speculation. Absolute unemployment gures remain substantial though (almost 225 000 in 2006)
(City of Cape Town, 2006).
The core challenge that has faced ofcials since 1994 has been to nd scally viable ways to expand the EWWS
services into poorer areas while maintaining and operating the EWWS services for the city as a whole (City of Cape
Town, 2003; City of Cape Town, unpublished document; City of Cape Town, 2008; Jaglin, 2008). Since 2006
there has been a growing realization that development strategies need to address the question of sustainable
resource use. This has been recognized in government policy documents (City of Cape Town, 2008) as well as
academic literature (Clark et al., 2007; Crane and Swilling, 2008; Petrie and Ocran, 2007; Swilling, 2006). A 10%
saving on a R9.3 billion expenditure on EWWS services via efciency interventions would amount to a saving
equal to double the housing subsidy grant that Cape Town received from the national government in 2007/8.
Institutional Economics of Service Delivery Reform

Despite the backlogs and increased pressures on EWWS services, the citys budgeted expenditure on EWWS services has remained fairly constant at around half the total budget since the late 1990s (de Wit et al., 2008). A
rough estimate of the capital requirements for EWWS services is of the order of R2R2.3bn per annum over the
period 200610. This is considerably higher than the proposed R1.8 earmarked by the CCT for 2008/9 (de Wit
et al., 2008).
It is apparent that the city has become increasingly dependent on grants from National Government in recent
years. Grants have increased from below 10% of total revenue before 2005/6 to 22% (R3.8bn) in 2007/8.
Grants are dependent on the performance of the national economy, and over-dependence creates signicant
risks to the city in case of a national economic downturn and political changes.
Tariff increases are limited by several factors, most notably by the ination index applied to the so-called total
municipal account (TMA) (which is the total size of the budget), which is set by the national treasury. This has
the effect that the longer-term affordability of offering EWWS services is not well congured into the current
budgeting process and continues to fuel the need for cross-subsidies and dependency on government grants. What
is certain is that the future growth of Cape Town is entirely dependent on funding to extend EWWS services.
Services for All: from Uniformity to Contextual Diversity2

The large majority of Cape Towns households have access to basic services. By 2007 30 000 households still
lacked access to water, around 40 000 lacked access to sanitation and adequate solid waste services, and 98% of
households had access to electricity. Given that well over 100 000 households lived in shacks by 2007 (most of
whom had services), it follows that housing provision has lagged behind service provision. This has a lot to do
with the fact that infrastructure service planning and funding is a municipal responsibility, while nancing for
housing construction is a provincial government responsibility nanced from subsidies provided by national
government.
The tension between equity and cost recovery has bedeviled service provision policy in Cape Town since at least
1994. Whereas equity has been the focus of tariff policy (City of Cape Town, 2003), the different EWWS departments have aspired to retain nancial surpluses and achieve cost recovery.
Since 2000, tariff policy has signicantly benetted the poor: water tariffs have included a progressive ve step
structure that resulted in large consumers paying more per liter than small consumers; for sanitation the rst
4200 liters were provided free; solid waste was standardized at a 240 liter bin and the service was provided free
of charge to poorer households; and everyone had a free basic electricity allocation.
2
This section draws on research by Jaglin (2008) and enriched workshops and discussions with ofcials conducted during 2007/8 with ndings reported by de Wit et al. (2008).
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As for rates, the 2007/8 budget provided for properties with lower market values to pay a lower rate than higher
value properties. Finally, since 2003/4, tariff increases have taken into account the affordability levels of poor
households below ination increases for poor households (and in some cases even decreases) compensated for
by much higher increases for richer households.
To complement the progressive aims of rates and tariff policies, the general approach to services from the mid1990s onwards was that the levels and standards applied in the former white areas must be applied to all areas.
However, from 2005 onwards, municipal engineers and the consulting industry started issuing increasingly strong
warnings that cross-subsidization coupled to funding of service expansion to achieve uniform levels and standards
of service were undermining the operating budgets.
Unsurprisingly, the CCTs capacity to continue to nance urban service delivery depends heavily on whether
the economy can grow in a way that reduces the levels of unemployment, improves the incomes of the working
poor and increases the size of the middle class.
Could a sustainable resource use approach contribute to solutions to the imbroglios described above? The institutional economics of the negative feedback loops of Cape Towns service delivery system will more than likely be
exacerbated as the costs of water, sanitation, energy and solid waste are driven upwards as the nancial implications of regional resource constraints start to take effect. Unless the ecological economics of resource ows is taken
into account, the chances are that, despite the commitment to universal services approved in 2003, the poor will
lose out over the long run. What the ecological economics of sustainable resource use potentially offers is systemwide efciencies (doing more with less) and cost reductions at strategic points in the system (in particular the
capital costs for more appropriate technologies, and system-wide operating costs).
Ecological Economics of Resource Use in Cape Town

Cape Towns economic growth prospects are heavily dependent on whether its energy, waste, water and sanitation
infrastructures can provide the required, extended services in the context of increasingly costly resource ows. The
CCT Departments who manage EWWS services do their forward planning by correlating growth in demand for
their services to economic and population growth projections. The evidence, however, suggests that there is a
decoupling of resource consumption from economic and population growth in certain EWWS sectors. This has
major policy implications for capital budgets and operational expenditure.
In order to function, Cape Town depends on massive primary resource ows. It has been estimated that for the
period 19968 Cape Town consumed 365 million tons of raw materials per annum, and disposed 208 million
tons of wastes into local water, air and land sinks (Gasson, 2002, p. 5). The most signicant annual resource ows
through Cape Towns urban systems are as follows:3 electricity (at approximately 10 billion KW h in 2006/7); oil
(at 2 billion liters of crude oil for the year 2006/7); CO2 (at nearly 20 million tons for the year 2006/7, which is
nearly 7 tons per capita, lower than the national average of 9.8 t/capita/annum); water (at 247 million kl of water
per annum in 2006, or 82 kl per person); sewage (at 200 million kl of sewage for the year 2005/6, or 67 kl/capita/
annum; solid waste (at 2.5 million tons of solid waste in 2006/7) and building materials (at 6 million tons of
building materials per annum, with 1 million tons recycled and re-used again as inputs).
When compared with other cities in the developed world and many in the developing world, the resource ows
citied above per capita are some of the highest in the world. If one assumes that locational advantages for investors
are determined by the cost of doing business, then the inefciencies of Cape Towns infrastructure relative to
other cities means that the cost of doing business in Cape Town will inevitably be higher, in particular as resource
prices are pushed up by increasingly severe scarcities.
Cape Town experienced large year-on-year changes in the use of most services, most notably waste and energy
use, and most notably from 2003/4 onwards. This does not mean, however, that economic and population growth
necessarily translates into higher pressure on all EWWS services. When measured over the time period 20006,
3
These summary data are derived from the results of a set of research reports compiled by research teams managed by the present author
(de Wit et al., 2008; Sustainability Institute and E-Systems, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c). Supplementary data have been drawn from the work of
Gasson (2002)and Hansen (2010).
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stronger sensitivities to growth are apparent in energy use and solid waste generation, but lower sensitivities are
apparent for electricity use and inuent received at wastewater treatment plants. The percentage change in water
used per percentage change in economic and population growth is the most volatile, and even negative for ve
out of the ten years. An interesting disparity is that, although growth in energy use has strongly increased from
2004 to 2006, growth in electricity use has declined from a high year-on-year growth of 4.8% in 2001/2 to 2.1%
in 2006/7.
Unlike water and electricity use, where there has been absolute and relative decoupling over the past decade,
during the period 19982007 waste ows have grown at 7% per annum. More recent research based on updated
data reveals that, in response to the introduction of limited waste recycling by the CCT and the growing volumes
of building rubble recycled and reused by private sector operators since 2006/7, there is evidence of absolute
decoupling since then.
This analysis suggests that future projections of the demand for EWWS services cannot simply be generated via
the linear extrapolation of an economic growth or a population coefcient. The growth factors that are used for
projections by the city are as follows.
Electricity: 2.7% for 2007/8 and 3.5% thereafter (City of Cape Town, 2007). Water use: 3% pa unconstrained
demand (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, 2006). Solid waste: 7% (without waste minimization) (City
of Cape Town, unpublished document).
The growth factors referred to above are important projections, which provide strategic estimates of required
capital and operating expenditure on EWWS services. However, they are out of line with the actual rates of growth
of these resource-intensive services.
Towards a Synthesis
If it were possible to factor out the ecological economics of resource constraints, then Cape Towns challenge of
nancing the full inclusion of everyone into the citys service infrastructure would be articulated purely in terms
of the institutional economics of EWWS expenditures, governance arrangements (including private sector investments), economic growth and the size of the tax base. Instead, it has been argued that resource constraints must
be taken into account because if the technologies of service delivery remain the same, a severe blockage to future
economic growth is inevitable, with negative implications for the poor who will suffer the consequences of unemployment. The early signs of decoupling suggest that it may well be possible to do more with less this needs
to be factored into future planning and budgeting. Recent work by Hodson and Marvin, who analysed the activities
and aspirations of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, suggests that many cities are now identifying resource
constraints as the core focus of their institutional investment strategies, resulting in signicant and far-reaching
changes in their socio-technical systems (Hodson and Marvin, 2009).
This is, in effect, where ecological and institutional economics meets to provide a new point of departure for
urban theory and city governance. Specically, it will mean reconguring the technologies and governance of
EWWS services in order to manage resource ows through the city in ways that both enhance developmental
growth and restore eco-system services. Like the global cities that Hodson and Marvin discuss (2009), the following key infrastructure alternatives are already being considered by ofcials and high-level strategies that span the
public bureaucracies, inuential private consulting companies and universities.4
Water and sanitation. In 2007 the CCT adopted a radical new water demand management strategy, which if
properly and fully implemented over time could cut total water consumption by 50% against 1999 levels.
Energy. Nearly 50% of Cape Towns energy is derived from oil, primarily for transportation, with just on 30%
provided by electricity sourced from a mix of coal, nuclear, hydro- and solar power. The solutions lie in reducing
oil dependence to 25% by increasing the use of electried transport (trains, trams, electric vehicles) and busses,
4
Once again, these alternatives are drawn from the research reports compiled by the Sustainability Institute (2009; 2009a; 2009b) that have
already been cited and subsequent research by de Wit that was commissioned by the Sustainability Institute (de Wit and Nahman, 2009).
These reports thoroughly explore the various alternatives.
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and then implementing the Western Cape Provincial Governments proposal to install 7452 MW of renewable
energy power generation (wind, wave, solar, hydro-, solar thermal and pumped storage), which is substantially
more than the total supplied by coal (2600 MW) and nuclear (1800 MW).
Solid waste. Cape Town disposed of 2.9 million tons of waste in 2007, with only 0.4 million tons recycled.
During the course of 2009, the CCT put in place an Integrated Waste Management Bylaw that could result in
the recycled fraction increasing to a total of 1.2 million tons (41% of total). This would be achieved by getting
richer households to separate their waste at source, diverting most of the building rubble and compostable green
waste into recycling operations, and paying for waste in informal settlements and low-income suburbs.
Conclusion
By merging the insights from institutional economics and ecological economics, it has been possible to identify
the challenges and opportunities from a sustainable resource use perspective. There is evidence that without much
collective and concerted effort the rate of consumption of materials and energy (natural resources) in the Cape
Town metropolitan economy is starting to decouple from economic growth rates. Budgetary planning in the EWWS
sectors should no longer rely entirely on economic and population growth coefcients as a basis for forward projections for capital and operating expenditure. The decoupling trends that have been identied in all three sectors
do not appear to be temporary aberrations. It needs to be recognized that the continuation of unsustainable
resource use may well negatively affect economic growth and, therefore, unemployment reduction if municipal
infrastructure systems fail to be congured to do more with less. By enhancing the citys capacity to fully spend
the capital budgets of, in particular, the EWWS departments, substantial capital injections will be made into the
Cape Town metropolitan economy that will reinforce the kind of growth that has pro-poor effects and benets. If
these investments demonstrate in practice that a lot more can be done by reducing the material and energy ows
through the citys networked infrastructures, then it becomes possible to envisage employment-creating growth
taking place that is less constrained by municipal infrastructures. If this does happen, then a larger tax base is
created that can then be used for funding the improvement of operations, maintenance, refurbishment and
upgrade. By contrast, business as usual will mean nancial investments in infrastructures that will require more
and more resources at precisely the moment when these resources are becoming increasingly expensive as resource
constraints set in.
Acknowledgements
This paper draws on earlier research jointly conducted by the present author and Martin de Wit (see de Wit and Swilling, 2008;
Swilling and de Wit, in press).
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DOI: 10.1002/sd
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2005, volume 32, pages 47 ^ 66
DOI:10.1068/b31103
Improving governance arrangements in support of sustainable

cities
Ellen van Bueren, Ernst ten Heuvelhof
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5015,
2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; e-mail: ellenb@tbm.tudelft.nl, e.f.tenheuvelhof@tbm.tudelft.nl
Received 27 July 2003; in revised form 14 September 2004
Abstract. Governance to support sustainable development always seems to encounter the same
difficulties. The chances of successful governance increase when governance arrangements are better
tuned to the environment that it tries to change. However, a better fit leaves less room for change.
Governance arrangements supporting sustainable development are more prone to failure, as they aim
at changing that environment. Radical institutional change is at the core of sustainable development,
but without the help of external factors, such as major crises like the oil crisis in the 1970s, the sense
of urgency for such radical change is lacking, and incremental change seems to be the only road
available. The authors explore how governance arrangements deal with this recurring barrier to
institutional change. Their conclusion is that the more governance arrangements respect the institutional context in which they are used, the higher their quality. To speed up the incremental track, the
design of governance arrangements should include positive incentives for actors to cooperate.
Introduction: governance and institutional change

The relationship between governance and institutional change is a complicated one.
Governance arrangements aimed at institutional change meet resistance and are likely
to fail because, for example, the arrangements lack support from key stakeholders.
Recurring failure of policies and plans (for example, of the regulatory environmental
regimes and the normative blueprint planning from the 1960s and 1970s) have had their
impact on theories of public policy and planning, and these theories have increasingly
recognized the need to take the institutional context into account (Alexander, 1992).
The growing attention paid to the institutional context is reflected in the word governance, which is used nowadays to mean processes of policymaking and decisionmaking:
governance refers to the more cooperative processes of governing, policymaking, and
decisionmaking, so different from the old hierarchical model in which state authorities
exerted sovereign control over the groups and citizens that make up civil society (Mayntz,
2003). Governance emphasizes that policies are formulated and implemented in multiactor, networked environments, in which actors pursue different goals (Rhodes, 1997).
The relationships between actors in these networked environments are characterized by
interdependencies, and the actors need to cooperate to achieve their goals (De Bruijn
and ten Heuvelhof, 2000). The interactions amongst actors who aim to address a
policy problem take place in àrenas'virtual places where stakeholders interact and
exchange information, knowledge, and points of view, and in which they try to achieve
agreement on the way in which the policy problem should be addressed (Klijn and
Koppenjan, 2000).
The institutional context in which governance arrangements are formulated
and implemented thus consists of stable patterns of interaction amongst actors and
the rules by which these interactions take place. These rules can be of a formal or
informal character. Examples of formal rules are the constitution, contracts, legal
procedures, and regulations; examples of informal rules are traditions, behavioral
patterns, and social conventions. Institutions are shared by many actors and, by
48
E van Bueren, E ten Heuvelhof
their acting in accordance with institutions, the institutions are confirmed and
reconfirmed. Institutions are therefore often referred to as `the rules of the game'
(March and Olsen, 1989; Weimer, 1995). As in games, institutions influence decisionmaking to a large extent, but they do not determine the course and outcomes of the
game (Ostrom, 1990).
The great advantage of institutions is that they bring structure into chaos and they
make the world, including policy processes, more predictable; but at the same time, the
reliability and predictability of institutions make them difficult to change (Hendriks,
1999). Within a stable institutional environment, actors formulate the governance
arrangements by which they try to change some of the organizations, patterns, and
practices: actors try to change the institutional environment, an environment that is
resistant to change (Clay, 1994; Holm, 1995; Hood, 2002). From the point of view of
this institutional rigidity, contingent governance design is to be preferred: to a certain
degree, governance arrangements should match the institutional environment in which
they are to have effect. Otherwise, the chances that they will fail are high (see, for
example, Hajer, 1995; Weaver et al, 2000).
A complicating factor is that many of today's policy problems, such as sustainable
urban development, are ill structured. They consist of multiple dimensions and causeand-effect chains which are complex and difficult to determine unambiguously. The
problems are dealt with at different administrative levels, such as local, regional, and
national or international levels, and there are different issues at stake that receive
attention from actors from different networks. In sustainable urban development
processes, for example, the actors involved belong to networks formed around issues
such as housing, construction, planning, energy supply, and water management, and
the problem is addressed in multiple arenas in which actors from different networks
participate and in which the actors are guided by different rules for interaction. The
heterogeneous character of the institutional environment of complex policy problems,
with the multiple networks, interaction patterns, interdependencies, rules, arenas,
etc, makes contingent governance design a difficult task, which is likely to end in
highly incremental, piecemeal decisionmaking that will not result in groundbreaking
changes.
In the Netherlands policies for sustainable urban development, as developed in the
1990s, have been based on the concept of governance and contingent design (Glasbergen,
1995). The basic idea was that governance arrangements were more likely to be
successful when they were tuned to the environment, with its multiple actors and
institutions, in which they were supposed to have effect. From the 1989 National
Environmental Policy Plan (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment,
1999) onwards, governance arrangements were therefore formulated in close cooperation
with stakeholders, and institutional factors played an important role in governance
design. Fifteen years later it is interesting to see whether these governance arrangements have contributed to institutional change and what factors in the governance
design have contributed to the success or failure of these arrangements.
The quality of governance for sustainable urban development
In this paper we explore the complicated relationship between governance and institutional change within a rather elementary framework. The aim of the framework is that
it should be able to identify the institutional changes to which a governance arrangement has contributed, and the factors in the design of the arrangement that have
contributed to its success or failure.
The framework is constructed from different theories in governance, which evaluate
governance from a process point of view and not from a substantive point of view, as is
Improving governance arrangements in support of sustainable cities
49
usually done in classic, goal-rational evaluations (Alexander, 1996). The choice of

process criteria over substantive criteria can be explained by looking at the nature
of the sustainable development concept. It is of a contested and ambiguous character,
which implies that the concept consists of multiple issues and dimensions and that
there are always competing perceptions on how it should be advanced (Rittel and
Webber, 1973). This makes it impossible to prefer one set of substantive evaluation
criteria to any other. Evaluation of governance arrangements from such a substantive
point of view often leads to `dialogues of the deaf': endless debates in which people fail
to convince each other (Van Eeten, 1999). In addition, such analyses are not able to
deal with the dynamics of the social environment in which governance takes place
(De Bruijn and ten Heuvelhof, 2000).
In search of evaluative criteria, we therefore turn to theories that make use of
process criteria to evaluate governance. Theories on network management and process
management teach us that governance arrangements are successful when the different
stakeholders are satisfied with the course and outcomes of the policy process (Teisman,
1995). This satisfaction is an indication that the arrangement has offered stakeholders,
with their different and sometimes competing and conflicting perceptions, enough
room to participate and to articulate and exchange their points of view, knowledge,
and information (Klijn and Koppenjan, 2000). A second criterion for policy success
can be found in the patterns of interaction. Changed interaction patterns are an
indicator of institutional change: the interdependencies between actors have changed,
and this may also lead to changes in the problem-solving space (Klijn and Koppenjan,
2000; Teisman, 1995).
There are two questions, however, that cannot be addressed by process-based
evaluation criteria: how to distinguish sustainable from unsustainable outcomes; and
how to achieve sustainable outcomes. A process-based approach to governance design
and evaluation omits a substantive dimension for determining the sustainability of
decisionmaking. Also, an action perspective that could help actors to develop actions
by which they can advance their goals is absent. In theoretical debates about planning and decisionmaking, these flaws of a process approach to governance are
recognized and are considered similar to the flaws of classic, rational theories on
planning and decisionmaking: they are of a normative character and lack a descriptive and prescriptive dimension (Alexander, 1996; Blom-Hansen, 1997; Dowding,
1995; Marsh and Smith, 2001).
It is beyond the scope of this paper to solve this problem theoretically. As mentioned,
we are not the first to signal this gap in process-based theories, and we are not the first to
attempt to fill the gap. Most efforts in this direction aim at an integration of the
rational and the communicative paradigm on which rational, substantive theories and
process theories are, respectively, based (for example, Costanza et al, 2001; Rotmans
et al, 2000; Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993).
In this paper, we apply a more pragmatic approach. Instead of developing an
integrated theory, we use an analytical framework that incorporates substantive and
action dimensions, in addition to the process dimension for which we already have
identified two criteria. Especially useful to our exercise are theories that consider
planning and decisionmaking from a learning perspective (for example, Argyris and
Schon, 1978; Hall, 1993; Sabatier, 1987). Sustainable development, after all, can be
considered as an ongoing learning process, in which actors from different networks
and disciplinary backgrounds exchange perceptions; in these processes of interaction
they can learn from and with each other about the substance of the problem in
question and about the actions needed to address the problem.
50
From a learning perspective, governance arrangements can be deemed successful

when they have contributed to cognitive learning, the third criterion for our framework, when actors have collectively learned about the nature of sustainable urban
development when they have come to an improved and shared understanding of the
causes and effects underlying the policy problem. A fourth and final indicator for
governance success in the analytical framework, which represents the action dimension, is referred to as social learning ; this considers the extent to which actors have
learned about the actions that are needed to achieve sustainable urban development.
Together, these four factors help to nuance the results of a process evaluation of
governance arrangements that focus simply on a match or mismatch of the arrangement
with the institutional environment. These factors help to identify whether governance
arrangements have resulted in institutional change that has contributed to sustainable urban development, and what factors account for the success or failure of these
arrangements.
Methodology: qualitative case-study research
In this paper we analyze the extent to which two Netherlands governance arrangements have contributed to institutional change, and what factors have contributed
to the success or failure of these arrangements. The two governance arrangements,
each with two variants, were introduced in the 1990s to enhance sustainable urban
development.
The first is called the spatial contours arrangement and is concerned with restricting
urbanization of the countryside by drawing administrative borders, the so-called
`spatial contours', around the urban cores of municipalities. This instrument consists
of two subarrangements: red contours for `state-restricted areas', which are known
for their top-down character and which seem to ignore the decisionmaking powers of
decentralized governments in this field; and green contours for `provincially restricted
areas', in which the contours are the result of processes of interaction between
stakeholders.
The second case is that of the packages for sustainable building which contain lists
of dos and don'ts for sustainable building. The building sector was made responsible
for designing and adhering to these lists, minimizing government intervention as much
as possible. Also in this arrangement, two subarrangements can be identified. For the
construction of residential and nonresidential buildings, and for infrastructures, packages have been developed in which the wishes and demands of the potential users were
taken as the starting point. For urban planning, a package was developed based on an
idea of what sustainable urban planning should be about; the institutional context
within which these ideas should be realized was of lesser importance.
Both arrangements thus contain elements of traditional, rational approaches to
planning and policymaking and of modern governance. The two approaches are
theoretical constructions. In reality, governance arrangements are often inspired by
both approaches, being the result of substantive policy ambitions of politicians and
the wish to create support for these ambitions by offering stakeholders the opportunity
to participate in the process of formulating and implementing the policy goals and
means.
The cases in this paper were selected because they are governance arrangements for
the enhancement of sustainable urban development, and have been influenced by the
process approach that was very popular in the 1990s, but they contain more rational
elements as well. They are expected to provide images of how the governance
approach is capable of contributing to institutional change contributing to sustainable
51
urban development, and how these arrangements manage to combine rational with
communicative elements effectively.
Another reason for selecting these particular governance arrangements is of a more
practical nature: we have studied them for other research assignments, and we therefore
had much material available for the analyses that we wanted to performranging from
reports and documents to transcripts of interviews with key stakeholders. The results
from the individual studies of these cases have been discussed with representatives of
the key stakeholders involved.
In the following sections the arrangements are only briefly described, as they have
previously been documented at length.(1) Our emphasis here is on the analysis of the
arrangements. After the description of the arrangements, they are evaluated by the four
criteria of our framework. Each section ends with a table summarizing the analysis, and
our conclusions are to what extent the arrangement has contributed to institutional
change that enhances sustainable urban development.
Case 1: the spatial contours arrangement
Space is a scarce good in the Netherlands. In white papers on spatial planning, the
Netherlands government sets out the spatial planning policies for the coming five to
ten years. It is left to the provinces and the municipalities to implement these policies
in their provincial and municipal spatial plans. The 1993 white paper, the Vinex
Vierde Nota over de Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning
and the Environment, 1993) introduces policies to restrict urbanization of the countryside by concentrating new urban developments in or adjacent to already urbanized
areas. The goals of these policies are threefold: (1) to protect the spatial and ecological
values of the countryside; (2) to reduce the need for mobility; and (3) to improve
support for urban facilities. The spatial contour is a new instrument introduced in
the white paper to implement this policy. Other important instruments in this arrangement are nationally planned large-scale residential developments, the so-called Vinex
locations, indicated on a map in the white paper; and a municipal quota for housing
and business parks allocated by provincial governmentan instrument that already
existed. The spatial contours add a spatial dimension to this quota instrument; the
quota should be realized within the contours.
The spatial contours are an administrative version of medieval city walls: red lines
indicate the borders for urbanization. The contours have to be implemented by the
provincial governments by drawing red lines around the urbanized cores of the municipalities on the maps of their provincial spatial plans. They have to do this for all
municipalities that fall within the nationally restricted areas indicated on the map in
the white paper. The red lines have to be tight, leaving municipalities just enough room
for the dwellings and business parks allocated to them for the next ten to fifteen years.
The national inspectorate for spatial planning, an enforcement agency of the Ministry
of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, has to approve the provincial plans
of which these contours form part. Besides the `national' contours, the white paper also
indicates areas in which provincial governments should implement the contours. The
main difference from the national contours is that here the provinces are free to choose
the way they implement the contours, as long as they add a spatial dimension to their
urbanization policies.
(1) The
case study about the national packages for sustainable building is presented in Van Bueren
et al (2001) and in Van Bueren and Van Keeken (2000). The spatial contours case study is described
in detail in De Bruijn et al (1998) and in Van Bueren (1998).
52
Although simple in design, the spatial contour instrument led to highly polarized
debates during its implementation stage. Municipalities saw this instrument as an extra
form of intervention by higher authorities in a decentralized policy area. Moreover,
they were restricted in their own spatial developments in favor of the Vinex locations,
which were situated in large municipalities and whose commercial success depended on
there being sufficient demand for dwellings. Many of the municipalities confronted
with the contours consisted of small villages in the countryside that already faced a
housing shortage, which was forcing young people to move out of their home towns,
and declining support for facilities such as shops and public transport. Instead of
a debate on spatial quality, the drawing of the contours led to a dispute between
national, provincial, and municipal authorities about decisionmaking powers and the
problems of small villages that feared for their existence.
The provincial authorities were caught in the middle of these disputes. As implementers of the national policy, they had to deliver the contours in their provincial
plans. These had to be approved by the national inspectorate for spatial planning,
which is responsible for implementing national policies. Some provinces performed
their task to the letter and became deeply involved in instrumental debates with the
municipalities about the exact location of the red lines, sometimes even at the level of
individual dwellings and premises. Other provinces claimed that this was not their
concern, and they trusted the municipalities to make proposals for the contours. Some
provinces and municipalities refused to collaborate at all, claiming that this policy did not
contribute to the spatial quality of the urban environment; however, the Minister of
Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment finally forced them to comply.
The provincial contours offered more room for constructive debates about spatial
quality. Municipalities were allowed to draw the contours in collaboration with other
municipalities. In some cases, this led to detailed studies of the spatial quality of the
urban cores, their surroundings, and their future potential. Plans were developed that
were based on spatial quality, as intended by the governance arrangement. Although
the contours in these plans might not be as rigid and tight as expected, the plans took
account of the transition area between towns and countryside. Drawing the contours
from a regional point of view allowed solutions for the problems of small villages to be
sought on a regional level, which offered more opportunities than did problem solving
on an individual level.
We now analyze the success of the spatial contours arrangement for the four
variables in our framework.
Satisfactory policy outcomes
The national contours did not lead to satisfactory policy outcomes. Although the
contours were drawn on the provincial maps, it is not expected that they will contribute to the formal policy goals within the intended period of ten to fifteen years.
Many of the municipalities had already planned developments for housing and business parks, plans for which the legal procedures had already been started and which
could not be withdrawn. As a result, the contours could not be drawn as tightly as was
intended in the white paper. The contours are not likely to contribute to spatial and
ecological values in the countryside in the next few years. The contribution to the other
two policy goals can also be questioned. These policy goals were formulated from the
point of view of the Vinex locations and the municipalities where they are built. The
small municipalities point to the increasing dependence of their inhabitants on cars to
reach the facilities in the cities. The link with the support for urban facilities is rather
indirect, with many other interfering variables, and it is very difficult to claim any
contribution of the contours arrangement to this goal yet.
53
In some cases the provincial contours have led to more satisfying policy outcomes.
The provinces and municipalities had the freedom to implement the contours in such a way
that they reached the best trade-off between their own interests and the environmental
interests, that is, the ecological values of the landscape.
The spatial contours were presented and formulated from the point of view of the
large municipalities where the Vinex locations were planned, and not from the point of
view of the small municipalities that faced the restrictions resulting from the contours.
These small municipalities perceived the contours as a red border that threatened their
existence by diminishing the opportunities to build the new dwellings needed to
support facilities.
The provincial contours left more room for interpretation, which the provincial
and municipal authorities used to reframe the contours in line with their interests and
goals. The provincial contours acknowledged the authority of municipalities for their
spatial policies. Decentralizing the responsibility for drawing the contours made great
demands on the self-organizing capacities of local authorities. The interdependencies
between local authorities turned out to provide sufficient checks and balances to make
sure that the package deals were in line with the formal policy goals of the spatial and
housing policies.
Cognitive learning about the nature of sustainable development
In theory, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, which
issued the white paper, assumed that drawing the contours would lead to a debate
within municipalities about the values of the landscape in the urban cores and the
surroundings. This debate would not only form the basis for fixing the contours,
but would also provide incentives to reflect on the ways in which the space was used.
For instance, the land scarcity created by the contours would lead to a revitalization
of derelict places in urban cores rather than to the building of new residential areas in
the countryside.
However, these learning processes did not take place in the case of the national
contours, and the contours were discussed from a rather instrumentalist point of view.
Municipalities and provincial authorities, hardly willing to collaborate, were drawing
lines on the map without much reflection. There was no incentive to stimulate discussions about spatial and ecological qualities. Neither the white paper nor the ministry
provided criteria or guidelines for drawing the contours, even though municipal
and provincial authorities explicitly asked for guidelines. Furthermore, the spatial
contours were not clearly linked to other issues about spatial quality in the urban
environment, which had a prominent place on the political agenda at the time. There
was no learning process about spatial and ecological qualities. Instead, the municipalities questioned and contested the national contours and the policy goals they should
contribute to, sometimes in coalition with the provinces, and the contours became
nothing but red lines on maps. In addition, the contours were established for a period
of ten to fifteen years. Considering that the time span for local politicians is four years
at most, the contours offer many municipal governments enough space for urban
developments in the period that they are in office. They experience no incentive
to learn about spatial qualities or to use the space within the contours efficiently;
they assume that their successors will find ways to deal with the lack of space or will
succeed in obtaining more space.
The freedom offered by the provincial contours offered more opportunities for
cognitive learning processes. Municipalities, often in collaboration with other municipalities in the region, explored the present and potential ecological and spatial values
in the urban landscape and the surrounding countryside, as well as the way in which
54
a symbiosis between the two could be established or improved. In these cases the
contours were integrated into plans and developments, instead of being just red lines
on a map.
Changed patterns of interaction
The implementation of the contours depended on the collaboration of municipalities

and provinces. Legal procedures for spatial planning, in particular, require clear
coordination between the different government levels. Provincial and municipal authorities are free to develop spatial plans, as long as they do not interfere with the strategies
set out in the national white papers. The Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the
Environment has legal powers to force the provincial and municipal authorities to
implement national policies. In the case of the contours, the minister sometimes had
to threaten provinces with these powers.
However, especially in the Netherlands `polder model', in which policymaking is
based on negotiated consensus, the top-down character of the contours, which were
forced upon provincial and municipal authorities, was not greeted with enthusiasm: it
was felt to be another intervention by central and provincial government into their
decentralized decisionmaking powers. In some municipalities and provinces the contours initially resulted in the start of substantive debates in which connection was
sought with many other issues of land-use, housing, and urban planning, involving
interactions between different experts, municipal departments, and interest groups; but
these debates were aborted when the ministry emphasized that the contours should be
interpreted literally. After this proclamation, interactions continued along the same
lines, but on a very formal basis, characterized by a lack of trust on both sides. The
national government and some provincial governments assumed that, without strict
control, the municipalities would claim contours that were too wide. The municipal
governments and some provincial governments felt that the contours ignored and even
contributed to the problems which the small communities were facing. It was this
mutual mistrust in particular that started the self-fulfilling prophecy, and the actors
displayed the behavior that they expected of each other.
The drawing of the provincial contours resulted in changes in patterns of interaction on a regional scale. In order to determine the contours, neighboring municipalities
set up working groups in which they studied the existing and potential qualities in the
region with regard to a multitude of issues, such as landscape, ecological values, water
management, demographic developments, housing, transport, and facilities. The provincial contours became institutionally embedded in the intermunicipal cooperative
agreements that already existed, and they were laid down in the provincial spatial
plans; these changed patterns of interaction are likely to continue in the future.
Social learning about the implementation of sustainable development
As we have seen above, the national contours in particular led to strategic learning
processes in which municipalities tried to make the contours as wide as possible and
the provincial and national government tried to make them as narrow as possible.
Local authorities claimed that the red lines left them insufficient room to meet
demands for urban activities like housing, offices, and recreation. According to the
national spatial and housing policies, problems like these should be solved on a
regional level. Making the red lines the problem of individual local authorities, and
sometimes even of individual urban cores, enabled the municipalities to reframe the
debate on a local level. The debate was no longer about spatial quality. It was reframed
in terms of the survival of local communities, a debate in which municipalities put
much effort into claiming more space than was needed and into finding ways to avoid
the restrictions of the red contours.
Table 1. Explanation of the success or failure of the spatial contours arrangement.

Success
or failure
Case
Result
Explanation (match or mismatch

between governance arrangement and
institutional context)
Satisfactory
policy
outcomes
national
contours
nooutcomes
frustrating for all
actors
Arrangement ignores
decentralized decisionmaking powers;
autonomous developments (planning
procedures already started);
goals and interests of actors to be
governed.
provincial
contours
yesoutcomes
are satisfactory
to all actors
Arrangement
makes use of existing institutions and the
self-organizing capacity of regional
actors;
adds a new dimension to existing
interaction patterns;
offers actors to be governed
opportunities to couple contours with
other goals and interests;
relies on interdependencies preventing
misuse.
national
contours
nothe rigid
definition of
contours left
no room for
learning
Actors contest the policy theory on which

the arrangement was based. The policy
theory:
does not match competing policy theories,
adhered to by the actors to be governed;
lacks convincing, substantive arguments;
lacks explicit links with other policy
issues;
does not match the time span of local
politicians.
provincial
contours
yesactors have
learned about
present and
future spatial
qualities in their
region
Arrangement offers actors to be governed

opportunities to reframe the contours
and couple them to other goals, interests,
and decisionmaking processes.
national
contours
nointeractions
were restricted to
formal
interactions
Interactions were soon restricted to the

formal channels that already existed and
were characterized by distrust.
provincial
contours
yesspatial
quality has
become an issue
on the agenda of
regional arenas
Arrangement
has resulted in new arenas in which the
regional contours were discussed;
has been anchored in existing
institutional structures.
national
contours
nostrategic
learning by all
actors
Implementation arrangement is
characterized by
mistrust and denial of interdependencies;
instrumentalist approach to the contours
by all parties;
lack of incentives to comply with
arrangement;
making a collective problem a problem
of individual municipalities.
provincial
contours
yesroom for
package deals
Arrangement offers a wider problemsolving space, which enables the actors to

be governed to tune the implementation
of the contours to other policy issues.
Cognitive
learning about
the nature
of sustainable
urban
development
Changed
patterns of
interaction
Social learnabout implementation of

sustainable
urban
development
56
Social learning did take place in the case of the provincial contours. Implementing the
contours on a regional level made the area in which spatial and environmental qualities
should be established much larger. It enabled actors to seek win ^ win situations
between spatial qualities in the urban areas and the countryside. In some cases the
package deals were extended to other issues of local concern, which required coordination on a regional level. The regional approach of the contours offered opportunities to
deal with the contours in existing arenas in the region, which will also provide an arena
for implementing the policy goals of the contours in the future.
Summary and conclusions
Table 1 summarizes the successes and failures of the spatial contours, and the most
important institutional explanations. Based on this overview, the following conclusions
can be drawn about the contour arrangement. The most important question is, of
course, that of whether the arrangement contributed to sustainable institutional
change. For the national contour arrangement the answer is no. The process was
frustrating to all actors, and did not lead to any learning or changes in interactions;
the minister in office has proposed the complete abolition of the national contours
in the near future. The provincial contours present a more positive story. In the provinces
studied, sustainable institutional change took place: new and durable patterns of
interaction emerged, with an explicit focus on sustainable regional development.
The provincial contour arrangement succeeded in mobilizing regional forces that were
interested in sharing and developing knowledge about sustainable regional development,
whereas the national contour arrangement discouraged initiatives of municipalities in
this direction. The provincial contour arrangement offered provinces and municipalities the opportunity to mold the provincial contours to an arrangement in which policy
goals in adjacent fields could be integrated, and which could become part of the
existing institutional structures. The national contours did not offer this possibility of
matching the arrangement with the institutional context. Instead, the national contour
arrangement ignored the decentralization of powers with respect to local planningand
was contested because of this.
Case 2: the national packages for sustainable building
The Netherlands national packages for sustainable building are packages of measures containing dos and don'ts for sustainable building. The goals of the packages were twofold:
(1) to harmonize and disseminate the knowledge on sustainable building amongst all
actors in the building sector; and (2) to put an end to the diversity in the sustainable
building requirements formulated by municipalities, that is, the harmonization of decentralized policies (Ministry ofHousing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, 1995).
The idea for the packages was laid down in the 1995 white paper on sustainable
building by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (1995).
This white paper launched many policies and activities to put sustainable building on
the agenda of Netherlands policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and, of course, the
building sector. To create support and commitment for the ideas in the white paper, it
appealed to the self-organizing capacity of the building sector. Government intervention
and involvement were to be reduced to a minimum.
The building sector, whose interests were at stake in these packages, was happy to carry
out this task. The existing checklists formulated by the municipalities or environmental
organizations endangered their interests; the checklists tended to ban products and
practices without clear scientific evidence. There was also great variety in municipal
policies, which resulted in high interaction costs. The building sector had to negotiate
with each municipality separately about the local sustainable building policies.
57
The building sector used its existing institutional structures, such as networks,
organizations, and procedures, to set up the national packages. This resulted in
four national packagesone for each subsector. The packages were developed in a
relatively short time. The package for residential buildings was published in 1996
(SBR, 1996); for nonresidential buildings in 1998 (SBR, 1998); and for urban planning
(Nationaal Dubo Centrum, 1999) and for infrastructures in 1999 (CROW et al, 1999).
Each of the packages was developed by a platform consisting of umbrella organizations, private and public, within the building sector. The packages for residential and
nonresidential buildings, and for infrastructures, were developed within stronger
institutional structures than was the case for the package for urban planning. Urban
planning is a profession rather than a sector, and as such is not as strongly dominated
by industrial and commercial interests as are the building sectors: this resulted in
a package that differed from the other three.
The packages for residential and nonresidential buildings and for infrastructures are
widely known and used (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment,
1999). They have become a sort of a sustainable building standard in the Netherlands.
These packages have similar structures and have been developed in similar processes;
they are therefore grouped together in the following analysis. They present measures in
a simple and clear format; they use lifecycle analysis (LCA) as the scientific method
to prove the sustainability of measures; they classify the measures according to
the sustainability issues to which they contribute; and they give a cost indication
of the measures. Decisions within the platform (for example, about the proposal and
revision of measures) should be based on unanimity. The measures are presented
on paper and on CD-ROM; and the CD-ROM especially directs users quickly to the
measures that are relevant for the project they are working on. The package for urban
planning is well known, but not widely used. It is presented as a book, with lots of text
and pictures, and pays a lot of attention to the pros and cons of measures and the
interference between the measures.
The status of the packages is diffuse. Although initiated and approved of by the
Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, they were formulated by
the building sector. The packages are applied on a voluntary basis, although various
national, provincial, and local government organizations encourage the use of the
packages.
Determination of the success or failure of the national packages according to the
variables of the analytical framework gave the following results.
Satisfactory policy outcomes
The building sector has succeeded in harmonizing knowledge about sustainable building and in disseminating this knowledge amongst the target groups within a short
period of time. This outcome is satisfactory both for the ministry and for the building
sector. The packages for residential and nonresidential buildings and for infrastructures are widely known and used. The urban planning package is also widely known,
and the actors involved in formulating the package are also satisfied with the result.
However, this package is hardly used, despite special workshops on how to use it.
The building sector saved a lot of time by using existing institutional structures
to establish the packages. The interaction costs were limited to setting up a new arena
for interaction and designing decisionmaking rules, but it was possible to copy most of
these institutions from existing arenas and rules. The actors involved in setting up the
urban planning package could not fall back on existing institutions that were familiar to all.
The actors involved in setting up this package thus had to invest a lot of time and effort
in the development of an arena for interaction. The absence of strong institutionalized
58
structures was again felt when the urban planning package was ready for use: a natural
distribution chain was lacking. In addition, the incentive structure to use this package
was less strong than in the other three cases. Group pressure was lacking and by the
time it appeared, in 1999, sustainable building was less prominent on the political
agenda than it had been in 1996 and 1997 when the packages for residential buildings
and commercial buildings were published.
The package for infrastructure, which also appeared in 1999, was less troubled by
the lack of public and political attention as the target group consisted of actors who
were well organized and it was dominated by a number of large constructors and by
the Directorate-General of Public Works and Water Management the ministerial
department that is responsible for the construction, maintenance, and exploitation of
public works in the Netherlands and is the main principal in assigning projects in this
field.
Cognitive learning about the nature of sustainable development
The packages aimed to diffuse rather than to develop knowledge on sustainable

building. The cognitive learning processes were therefore confined to actors who were
unfamiliar with sustainable building. The unanimous decisionmaking rules resulted in a
preference for best practical means over best available means. The rules for revising
the measures discourage innovation. Only those sustainability measures that can be
expressed in an LCA score and in costs qualify for the packages. Revisions of measures
are therefore mostly incremental, such as a small increase in the required energy
performance of materials.
The packages do not stimulate users to learn about the effects on sustainability of
applying the measures from the packages. For example, in the first years of the package for residential buildings, a building was deemed sustainable if measures were
applied that added up to a certain surplus in costs, regardless of the environmental effects
accomplished by applying the measures. The feedback information presented in the
packages just helps users to determine what measures they have used and to what
sustainability issues each measure contributes. The packages do not tell users how to
assess the sustainability gains resulting from adopting a variety of measures from the
packages.
The urban planning package contains more information about interference with
other measures and about the environmental gains of the measures. However, it is
presented in an inaccessible way, without clear cost information, and, as a result,
most actors do not use the book at all.
The packages thus did not lead to cognitive learning about sustainable urban
development. The packages for residential and nonresidential buildings resulted in
instrumental use of the knowledge on which the measures in the packages was based,
whereas the lessons in the urban planning package were not accepted by its potential
users.
In the cases of the packages for residential and nonresidential buildings, this can
be ascribed to the use of the existing institutional structures to develop the packages.
Although the packages were developed in specially created arenas, interactions in
these arenas were dominated by the rules that dominate the other arenas in this
sector. These rules are strongly developed and have been established to serve interests
other than sustainable development. The Netherlands building sector is a very closed
sector, and its institutions take care of its financial well-being sometimes even to
the extent that building projects are allocated by the building sector itself instead
of the commissioning party, as turned out to be the case during a parliamentary
inquiry in 2002. The institutions are based on shared commercial interests, rather
59
than on shared interests in sustainable development. This has had effects on the
decisionmaking rules in the packages platforms. They are directed more towards
protecting commercial interests than towards supporting sustainable building.
LCA, for example, is a method that can be manipulated because the results depend
heavily on the assumptions used. The sustainability ambitions of the measures were
based on the extra costs compared with the use of traditional materials and practices,
without considering future benefits. And the requirement for unanimity of votes
made certain that only those measures which were acceptable to all, that is, those
measures with moderate sustainability ambitions which were easy to apply without
much disruption of the building process, were adopted.
The package for urban planning was also developed within an arena that was
especially created for this purpose but, unlike the arenas for the other packages,
this arena could not make use of strongly developed rules for interaction and
decisionmaking. This created the opportunity to focus strongly on sustainability
ambitions, instead of on the protection of interests, but it led to a lengthy process
in which not much attention was paid to the representation of interests and to
the needs and wishes of potential users. There were no clear criteria to decide
on the content of the package and the link with financial implications of the suggested measures was limited, whereas cost is a dominant factor in decisionmaking
in building projects.
The absence of existing institutions in the case of the urban planning package did
create the opportunity to focus on sustainable urban planning. However, when complete, the package could not command the same authority as the other packages, and a
distribution channel was lacking. Also, although there was no coordination with the
other packages, the urban planning package made use of the same jargonwords such
as `package' and `measures', words that were in contradiction with the professional
freedom of the urban planner who considers each assignment as a unique one to which
no blueprint applies. By presenting the many lessons on sustainable urban planning in
the form of a package with measures, the package could not count on the sympathy of
its potential users.
Changed patterns of interaction
The packages for residential and nonresidential buildings and for infrastructures were
developed in arenas that were specially created. However, existing patterns of interactions and interdependencies amongst actors in the building and construction sector
formed the basis for these arenas. The advantage of these new arenas was that they
offered actors the opportunity to focus the discussion on sustainable building and on
the design and implementation of the packages, and thus this did lead to some new
interactions that had not taken place before. For example, it created arenas in which
industry, research institutes, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations
could discuss sustainable building. Because only umbrella organizations were allowed
to participate, it also contributed to a further structuring of the industry: industries
that wanted to participate in the debate to protect their interests had to join one of the
participating organizations.
The creation of new arenas to develop the packages led to very goal-directed
processes in which new patterns of interaction were formed. However, the interactions
in these arenas were strongly influenced by the existing interdependencies amongst
actors. The strict rules for interaction and decisionmaking in the building and construction industry also dominated the interactions in the newly created arenas, and
commercial interests influenced decisionmaking heavily.
60
Table 2. Explanation of the success or failure of the national packages for sustainable building.
Success
or failure
Case
Result

Satisfactory
policy
outcomes
packages for
residential
and
nonresidential
buildings and
infrastructures
yespackages
created
sustainable
building
standards that
are widely used
Arrangement made use of existing

institutions to establish and distribute the
packages, which reduced the interaction
costs and led to fast decisionmaking
processes.
urban
planning
package
nono
harmonization
and dissemination of
knowledge
Arrangement required creation of a new

arena, but
this resulted in high interaction costs;
the arena still had to earn authority
among its members, and its products
were not easily accepted.
packages for
residential
and
nonresidential
buildings and
infrastructures
nodiffusion of
existing
knowledge, but
no development
of knowledge
Strict and unanimous decisionmaking

rules
created consensus on the state of the art
of sustainable building;
were procedures which had a weak link
with the policy content;
created high entry barriers for sustainable
building innovations, which are not based
on LCA;a
have led to the absence of feedback loops
within the packages, which would enable
the users to learn about sustainability.
urban
planning
package
yesactors
involved in
formulating the
package learned,
and the package
offers its readers
the same
opportunity
Open debate within the platform has led

to
low entry barriers for innovative ideas on
sustainable urban planning;
ambiguous criteria for admittance of dos
and don'ts;
attention to synergies and interferences
between dos and don'ts;
long decisionmaking process.
packages for
residential
and nonresidential
buildings and
infrastructures
yesbut these
interactions are
dominated by
existing rules and
interdependencies
Interactions were restricted to existing

networks and arenas
in which decisionmaking is dominated by
interests other than sustainable urban
development;
in which actors are not likely to be
confronted with new perceptions on
sustainable urban development.
urban
planning
package
nonew arena
was created but
durability of
arena is
questionable
The arena is a single-issue arena and its

existence is likely to depend on
the use of the packages;
the place of sustainable urban
development on the political agenda.
Cognitive
learning about
the nature of
sustainable
urban
development
Changed
patterns of
interaction
61
Table 2 (continued).
Success
or failure
Case
Result

Social learning
about
implementation
of sustainable
urban
development
packages for
residential
and
nonresidential
buildings and
infrastructures
noespecially
strategic learning
by actors
The decisionmaking rules reward

instrumental use of the packages and
strategic learning.
urban
planning
package
yesthe package
offers lessons on
this in theory,
but these lessons
are not applied
Package pays attention to fitting

sustainable urban planning into existing
decisionmaking processes, but lacks a
clear connection with some important
existing decisionmaking criteria, such as
the financial implications of sustainable
urban planning; its holistic approach
makes it difficult for actors to implement.
a LCAlifecycle
analysis.
Although interaction patterns have changed, the assumption that continuation of these
interactions provides opportunities for learning is not valid in this case. The high entry
barriers and the strict decisionmaking rules within the arenas reduce the chance of
innovative ideas or perceptions on sustainable building gaining ground in these platforms.
In 2004, the arenas in which the packages are updated and revised still exist, but the
changes are of an incremental nature, aimed at a piecemeal tightening of the measures and
at improving the usability of the packages by adding new functionalities in the software.
The package on sustainable urban planning led to the creation of an entirely new
arena that did not come out of existing structures. Actors participated out of interest
in the issue of sustainable urban planning, and because they felt they could make a
contribution to the issue. Only the umbrella organizations, such as the association of
town and country planners and the association of architects, felt the need to participate
because of the interests that they represented. Together, the participating actors had to
determine the scope and goal of the package and the measures it would contain. There
were no clear rules for decisionmaking. Actors who did not support the idea of such
a package with measures for sustainable urban planning did not participate, and the
actors who did participate, like the associations mentioned, did not have the power to
ensure that the package was used nor could they provide incentives to members to use
the package. In the case of the urban planning package new interactions were created,
but these interactions were not institutionalized. After the creation of the package the
interactions did not continue.
Interactions between the arenas in which the different packages were developed and
revised were limited to cases of double membership of some of the participants. The
content and format of only two of the packagesfor residential and for nonresidential
buildingswere tuned to each other to some degree. This was because the developments
of these packages were prepared by the same consultancy firm and the negotiations were
chaired by the same research institute. Coupling between the substance and format with
the other packages was restricted to the accidental participation of the same actor in more
than one arena. The result is that the packages, each addressing different spatial scales,
do not present a coherent vision on sustainable urban development, and some of the
measures in the different packages are even in contradiction with each other.
62
Social learning about implementing sustainable urban development
Actors especially learned strategically. They used the opportunity to frame the sustainable
development concept in accordance with their interests. On the level of the development of the packages, they learned how to get their product or process a `sustainability'
label. On the level of the implementation of the packages, they learned how to give
their building project a `sustainable' label with a minimum of cost and effort. Incentives to future learning processes about sustainable urban development were limited.
Because of the procedure for revision of the packages, changes in the packages
will only be incremental, that is, measures will be modified, added, or removed. The
decisionmaking rules thus reward strategic behavior.
The improvements in the user interface of the packages are especially aimed at
making it easier to integrate the measures in the planning process. However, the result
is that users are even less aware of the rationale behind the measures, and they are
stimulated to use the packages in an instrumental way, without much reflection.
A lack of coordination between the packages is also seen in the implementation
of the measures. The lack of coordination between the measures in the different packages
prevents integrated design of the urban environment. There is no identification of
interference among the measures or contradictions between the packages.
The package for urban planning pays more attention to social learning. Specific
chapters are dedicated to the integration of the package in urban planning processes.
However, these learning processes remain theoretical because of the limited number of
users of the package.
Summary and conclusions
Table 2 summarizes the analysis of the national packages for sustainable building.
Based on this overview, we can answer the question of whether the arrangement has
resulted in institutional changes that contribute to sustainable urban development. At
first sight, one would be inclined to answer this question positively for the packages for
residential and nonresidential buildings and for infrastructures. After all, the packages
have resulted in the creation of new arenas that still form a place to exchange perceptions on sustainable building in the different sectors, and the packages are widely used
in building practice. On second sight, however, the new arenas have not led to any
change in the interdependencies amongst actors in these sectors. Also, the packages
have not led to a greater knowledge of sustainable building amongst their users, and
the institutionalization of the packages in building practice seems to block rather than
stimulate innovation in this field.
What seems to have happened is that the building sector has successfully captured the
concept of sustainable development into packages that they consider to be acceptable. By
making the packages highly contingent to the institutional context in which they are
supposed to have effect the arrangement managed to get the support from the actors
whose behavior it aimed to change, but the changes were of such an incremental and
incidental nature that there were no resulting institutional changes to facilitate further
developments in the field of sustainable building and sustainable urban development.
Also, the package for sustainable urban planning did not result in institutional change.
Although actors involved in developing the package succeeded in developing knowledge
on sustainable urban planning, they did not succeed in disseminating this knowledge.
They overtly focused on the content of the package, emphasizing the importance of
the message that they wanted to bring, and they did not pay much attention to the
audience and its characteristics, such as the strong professional codes that make urban
planners insusceptible to lessons in the form of generally applicable principles and
measures.
63
Conclusions
The case studies clearly show the dilemma central to this issue: the tension between
governance and institutional change. With the national contours, central government
aimed for radical changes by pursuing a strategy in which substantive views on how
municipalities can contribute to sustainable urban development were forced upon
stakeholders, thereby ignoring existing patterns of interactions and interdependencies
between actors. Instead of sustainable urban development, this strategy contributed
to strategic actor behavior and undesirable outcomes. The provincial contours resulted
in more positive conclusions: by giving stakeholders the opportunity to tune the
meaning and form of the arrangement to their own goals, interests, and institutions,
the contours came to be based on a mixture of substantive and process criteria.
The national packages for sustainable building followed a contingent approach,
leaving the design and implementation of the governance arrangement to the building
sector. In the case of the packages developed for subsectors which are characterized by
strong institutional structures, the results are arrangements that outstandingly achieved
the formal policy goals, but which failed to contribute to learning processes about
sustainable urban development. Institutional change did take place, but the changes
make only a limited contribution to sustainable urban development. With the urban
planning package, actors participating in the development of the package aimed for
more radical changes, but ignored the institutional environment in which these changes
should materialize and the package could not realize its ambitions.
The cases show two recurring strategies in governance design that explain the
success or failure of the governance arrangements. The first concerns making use of
existing institutional structures. To improve the institutional fit of the arrangement with
its environment, it is important that actors or stakeholders in this institutional environment have the opportunity to tune the arrangement to this environment. After all,
they know best what this environment looks like and what rules and relationships
should be respected. In addition, this contributes to the efficiency of the arrangement
by saving on the costs required to establish new patterns of interactions and rules
for decisionmaking, and to the effectiveness of the arrangement by making the actors
responsible for the arrangement produced.
The second strategy accounting for the success or failure of governance arrangements is the extent to which actors have the opportunity to reframe the arrangements.
Reframing the arrangement provides actors with the opportunity to couple the policy
goals to their own goals and interests, and to tune the arrangement to other decisionmaking processes. In this way, use can be made of the interdependent relationships
between actors; actors often depend on each other on multiple issues, in multiple
policy arenas, and at multiple moments in time, which gives them the opportunity to
create package deals and thus transform zero-sum games into win ^ win situations.
In combination, these strategies can contribute to the success of governance
arrangements. But even when governance arrangements are designed according to
these strategies, they are likely to lead to incremental rather than radical changes.
For example, the arrangement of the packages for residential and nonresidential
buildings and for infrastructures followed a strategy aimed at an institutional match
and which gave actors the opportunity to reframe the arrangement.
Of the case studies in this paper, that of the provincial contours arrangement
seems to offer the best mix of these strategies. Provinces force municipalities to draw
contours, but leave the organization and actual framing of the contours to the municipalities themselves. The municipalities, who in many cases already cooperated with
other municipalities in their region on other issues of regional concern, used these
arenas to discuss and draw the contours. This allowed the municipalities to present the
64
contours as part of an integrated plan which addressed the problems of the region from
several points of view, such as spatial planning, ecological development, and housing.
This forced the municipalities to set the priorities for the sustainable development of
their region themselves, and reduced the risks that they would make excessive claims
on one of the issues addressed in the plan. By making the contours part of the
integrated plan, the municipalities also committed themselves to continued interactions, decisionmaking, and innovation on this point, which increases the chances
of more radical changes in the long term.
The inclusion of incentives in the design of governance arrangements may increase
the likelihood of more radical institutional change resulting from the arrangement.
In the case of the provincial contours, the following incentives were part of the design.
(a) Reward compliance, that is, on the issue of the contours or on another issue.
(b) Benchmark the proposals of the regions. Some of the plans were presented and
promoted by the provincial authorities as `best practice'.
(c) Safeguard continuation of the development and implementation of the contours by
coupling them to other decisionmaking processes.
(d) Stimulate innovative ideas on the contours. This reduces the risk that spatial
quality, the value promoted by the contour arrangement, will be exchanged for other
values to which the contours are coupled.
(e) Put pressure on the decisionmaking process. The municipalities were free to
suggest plans for the contours themselves within a limited amount of time. If they
exceeded this time limit, the provincial authorities would draw the contours for the
municipalities.
Together, strategies and incentives such as those mentioned in this section are able
to keep alive the learning processes about sustainable urban development initiated by
governance arrangements. They can do so without ending as satisfactory processes
with unsustainable outcomes, or in dialogues of the deaf, in which parties involved
all claim to pursue sustainable, but different, goals, resulting in unsatisfying and
stagnated decisionmaking processes.
To conclude, there is one incentive in the provincial contour arrangement that we
have not mentioned: the presence of the national contour arrangement. It is possible
that the rigid red contour regime might have provided a strong incentive for actors to
develop and implement the provincial contours as intended by national government
and to refrain from strategic behaviour. The potential threat, where strategic behavior
by municipalities falling under the provincial contour arrangement could be `punished'
for strategic behavior by making their land part of the national contour arrangement,
perhaps created a strong incentive for actors to cooperate.
This brings us back to policy practice in which governance design is often based
on a mixture of substantive, rational, theories of planning and decisionmaking and
of communicative, process-oriented theories. The contour arrangement shows that a
combined design may contribute to sustainable institutional change. It would be
worthwhile to explore the potential of such a strategy in future empirical research,
especially because the strategy seems to answer the needs of policymakers who want to
aim for substantive, ambitious, goals while respecting the institutional environment
as wella combination that is also increasingly asked for by citizens, who call for
visionary politicians who take their needs into account.
Acknowledgement. This publication is the result of work carried out at the Delft Center for
Sustainable Urban Areas.
65
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2005 a Pion publication printed in Great Britain
Environment and Planning A 2007, volume 39, pages 2733 ^2753
DOI:10.1068/a38269
Modes of governing municipal waste
Harriet Bulkeley, Matt Watson
Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, England;
e-mail: H.A.Bulkeley@durham.ac.uk; Matt.Watson@durham.ac.uk
Ray Hudson
Wolfson Research Institute, University of Durham, Queen's Campus, University Boulevard,

Thornaby, Stockton on Tees TS17 6BH, England; e-mail: Ray.Hudson@durham.ac.uk
Received 18 July 2005; in revised form 17 February 2006; published online 3 July 2007
Abstract. From recent debates on governance and governmentality, two key analytical imperatives
arise: the need to engage simultaneously with the structures and processes of governing, and the need
to recognise the plurality and multiplicity of governing sites and activities. In seeking to address these
imperatives, we develop an analytical approach, the modes of governing approach, which engages with
the rationalities, agencies, institutional relations, and technologies of governing that coalesce around
particular objectives and entities to be governed. Drawing on the example of municipal waste
management, we illustrate how this framework can illuminate the dynamic and multiple nature of
governing, and outline the key modes of governing which currently shape the policy and practice
of municipal waste.
Introduction
As the ``territorial order of modern government'' implodes (Hajer, 2003, page 183),
scholars of public policy are forced to confront not only how policy is made and
implemented, but also the political arenas, institutional arrangements, and networks
within which such processes take place. Reflecting the challenges this presents to social
and political sciences, concepts of governance have been increasingly deployed and
debated, opening up new perspectives on the institutions and structures of governing
(Jessop, 1997; Jordan, 2001; Kooiman, 2003; MacLeod and Goodwin, 1999; Pierre and
Peters, 2000; Rhodes, 1996). In this paper, we build upon this to offer an alternative
analytical framework for considering the processes of governing, one which draws on
literature of governance and governmentality to analyse the multiple modes through
which governing takes place.
In developing this framework, we draw on research conducted over the period
November 2003 ^ October 2005 which examined the changing UK waste policy landscape and the processes and practices of governing waste in the North East of England.
The research involved the analysis of UK and regional waste policy documents and
approximately fifty interviews with national and regional policy makers; three detailed
case studies in Newcastle City, Durham County, and Stockton Borough Councils
involving analysis of the development of municipal waste policy through documentary
analysis, semistructured interviews, and workshops; and the study of six different
`waste practices'including furniture reuse, cloth nappy promotion, kerbside box
schemes, home composting, the use of civic amenity sites, and a children's education
campaignthrough interviews with public and professional practitioners, and participant observation.(1) Through this research, we found existing frameworks for
considering environmental governance wanting, both in relation to their engagement
(1) Details of the `Governing sustainable waste management' project and its findings can be found
via http://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchprojects/.
2734
H Bulkeley, M Watson, R Hudson
with the processes through which governing occurs and in providing a means through
which to consider the relations between policy and practice.
In the first part of the paper we examine the literature on governance, metagovernance, modes of governance, and governmentality and derive two key analytical
imperatives for developing research in this area: the need to engage simultaneously
with the structures and processes of governing, and the need to recognise the plurality
and multiplicity of governing sites and activities. In seeking to address these imperatives, we develop an analytical approach, the modes of governing approach, which
engages with the rationalities, agencies, institutional relations, and technologies of
governing that coalesce around particular objectives and entities to be governed.
In the second part of the paper, we consider how the modes of governing framework
can be used to illuminate the policies and practices of governing municipal waste. We
argue that a `diversion' mode, bearing the hallmarks of advanced liberal government
(Dean, 1999), has come to dominate municipal waste policy in England. However,
this mode is simultaneously unravelling as it encounters particular places and seeks
to enrol households and individuals in ever more complex waste practices. At the
same time, alternative modes of governing, notably those based on the objective of
eco-efficiency or seeing waste as a resource, are also important in shaping municipal
waste policy, opening up new possibilities for defining waste and the nature of
sustainability. (2)
In this paper our aim is to develop an analytical framework which can capture the
dynamic and multiple nature of governing, attending to its forms and processes, and
the ways in which policy and everyday practice are structured, mediated, and evolve.
We use the case of municipal waste policy in the UK as illustrative, and in conclusion
consider how such an approach might be developed within the arena of environmental
politics and policy more broadly.
Governance and governmentality
In the wake of a growing consensus that ideas of the nation-state as a single site of
political power, as a unified and discrete entity, and as territorially sovereign in the
traditional Westphalian sense are to be rejected, debate is growing over how governing
can be conceptualised. Broadly defined as the means for `àuthoritatively allocating
resources and exercising control and co-ordination'' (Rhodes 1996, page 653) or as
``purposive acts of `steering' a society or polity'' (Lowndes, 2001, page 1961), the
term `governing' implies a focus on how collective action is organised and conducted.
For some, the state has been all but replaced in the shift from `government'
to `governance' (Rhodes, 1996), while, for others, governing continues to take place
ìn the shadow of hierarchy' (Scharpf, 1994, in Whitehead, 2003, page 8). However,
neither account adequately addresses the complexities of how authority is attained,
maintained, and exercised, with the practice of governing. In this section, we review
the governance debate, examine those approaches which have sought to engage with
a plurality of governance modes, and consider how the concept of governmentality
might be employed in order to overcome the limitations of governance approaches
and to enable an analysis which recognises the plurality of modes of governing.
(2) The
sustainability of different forms of municipal waste management is a contested issue,

reflecting a ``fundamental dislocation between competing interpretations of what it means for
development to be sustainable'' (Owens and Cowell, 2002, page 25). In this paper we highlight
how different modes of governing subscribe to different interpretations of the sustainability of
municipal waste management.
2735
The governance turn
Given the popularity of the term and its deployment in a range of different fields, a
diversity of interpretations of `governance' is to be expected. It is possible to identify
three readings of governance around which arguments have coalesced. In the first, and
broadest, interpretation of governance, it is seen to incorporate a diversity of governing
processes, including those associated with the state (hierarchy), coordination and
cooperation among social and political actors, as well as self-governing mechanisms
(Kooiman, 2003). Governance is simply used to ``refer to the modes and practices of
the mobilisation and organisation of collective action'' (Coafee and Healy, 2003,
page 1979). Governance is here a catchall term, conceived as `the instituted process'
that is created by and serves to guide processes of governing (Lowndes, 2001,
page 1961). In contrast to this broad approach, the second reading of governance
is associated with one particular form of governing and institutional arrangement,
that of steering and coordination through networks or partnerships between (state
and) nonstate actors (Borzel, 1998, page 260; Haahr, 2004, page 210; Kohler-Koch,
1999; Schout and Jordan, 2003; Skogstad, 2003). Here, governance is seen as a means
of governing which necessarily involves nonstate actors, acting either in self-governing
networks or in partnership with state bodies, and is defined in opposition to hierarchical forms of authority associated with the processes and institutions of government.
The possibility therefore arises of `governing without government' (Rhodes, 1996). A
third reading of governance is as a multilevel phenomenon, taking as its starting point
the shifts which are occuring in the role and functions of the nation-state, upwards to
international and transnational organisations and institutions, downwards to cities and
regions, and outwards to nonstate actors (MacLeod and Goodwin, 1999). Originally
conceived as a basis for the analysis of transitions within processes of decision making
within the European Union (EU) (Hooghe and Marks, 1996; Jordan, 2001), the concept
has since been extended to different political arenas
Despite the popularity of the term, a critique of the value of governance as ``both
an analytical category... and an empirical shift'' (Whitehead, 2003, page 6) has arisen.
At the heart of such criticisms are concerns that the focus of the governance literature
has been on identifying and describing new institutional arrangements, rather than on
explaining ``how and why these structures are being produced'', while at the same time
the emphasis `òn transition and change within political and economic relations'' has
been questioned (Whitehead, 2003, page 6; see also Davies, 2002). Moreover, there
is significant potential for analytical confusion across and within different governance
interpretations. Certainly, engagements with the concepts of governance have shifted
attention away from the nation-state as the sole location of (political) authority and
have opened up analysis of the arena of governing to multiple actors and across
multiple domains. However, seeking to identify (multilevel) governance as analytically
distinct from government, or interpreting all forms of political relation as governance,
obscures an understanding of how governing takes place.
Governance in the plural
Rather than reject governance concepts, some authors have sought to counter critiques
by engaging with the plural means through which governance is structured and
deployed. One such approach is that based on the concept of `metagovernance',
derived from the work of Jessop and colleagues (Jessop, 2002; 2003; Uitermark,
2005; Whitehead, 2003). Building on previous concerns with the market, hierarchy,
and network, Jessop identifies four forms of governance, ``the anarchy of market, the
hierarchy of command, the hetarchy of self-organisation, and solidarity based on
relatively unconditional social commitments'' (2003, page 228). For Jessop, the state
2736
plays a key role in processes of metahetarchy, organising the conditions for network
governance, and metagovernance, ``rearticulating and callibrating different modes
of governance'' (2002, page 241). The new institutional arrangements and forms of
interdependency which characterise governance are, in this account, created by the
(central) state as a means of pursuing its own ends, and are only partially autonomous
from the exercise of hierarchical power. One casualty of this approach is the possibility
for analytically engaging with the multiple sites through which state power is exercised.
Despite the relational and multiscalar nature of much of the work conducted in this
tradition, Uitermark (2005, page 138) suggests that the focus of the metagovernance
approach on state strategy means that ``the relation between developments on different
spatial scales ... has not been properly dealt with''. Such an account, by itself, could not
help to explain the multiple ways in which subnational governments have, for example,
been involved in the definition and pursuit of sustainable development, frequently
either independently of, or in direct confrontation with, central state strategies.
A second, and growing, body of work is concerned more explicitly with analysing
the `modes of governance' which constitute (European) polities (Borzel et al, 2005;
Risse, 2004; Tenbensel, 2005; Trieb et al, 2005). There is, however, little consensus on
what a mode of governance entails. For somebuilding on the work of Rhodes (1997),
Jessop (2002), and Kooiman (2003), amongst others modes of governance signify
different institutional arrangements ``the `hierarchies, markets and something else'
approach'' (Tenbensel, 2005, page 268). For others, the distinguishing characteristics
are the `modes of steering' involved, considered broadly as hierarchical (command and
control) or nonhierarchical (through the use of positive incentives or persuasion)
(Borzel et al, 2005; Risse, 2004), or in more narrow terms as the policy instruments
deployed for governance (Trieb et al, 2005). Some authors seek to integrate more than
one dimension in the analysis of modes of governance the structure (defined in terms
of the actors involved) and process (mode of steering) (Borzel et al, 2005, pages 4 ^ 6;
see also Risse, 2004)while others suggest that the analysis should focus only on one
dimension to retain analytical clarity (Trieb et al, 2005). While across these accounts
there is a degree of confusion as to what a mode of governance entails, they draw
attention to the multiplicity of modes through which governance is accomplished.
However, the lack of coherence and the relatively narrow interpretation of the process
of governance and how it is practised limit the utility of these approaches for our
purposes. We suggest that the concept of governmentality, with its recognition of
the relational nature of power and the multiple ways in which it is enacted, offers
an alternative basis from which to conceptualise the nature of governing.
Governmentality and the processes of governing
The notion of governmentality was coined by Foucault to capture the ``rationality of

government'' (Gordon, 1991, page 3). In its most generic sense, government was
defined by Foucault as the ``conduct of conduct'' that is `à form of activity aiming
to shape, guide, or affect the conduct of some person or persons'' (page 2). Rather
than focusing on particular institutional arrangements, in analysing government neoFoucauldian theorists are concerned with ``the `how' of government, on the specific
mechanisms, techniques, and procedures which political authorities deploy to realise
and enact their programmes'' (MacKinnon, 2000, page 295; see also Dean, 1999).
Government is seen as an `ìnherently problematising activity'' (MacKinnon, 2000,
page 296)seeking new problems to address and solutions to find. Governmental
rationalities serve to define both the objects (what should be governed) and the nature
(how they should be governed) of governmentin effect, rendering reality governable
through the collecting and framing of knowledge. In seeking to respond to the
2737
`` `problematics' of its subject matter'', government is programmatic, attempting to

organise institutional spaces and the conduct of actors in line with specific aims and
objectives (Raco and Imrie, 2000, page 2190). Governmental rationalities therefore
serve both to identify the goals of government and to entrain other actors into working
towards these goalsfor example, through policies, programmes, and strategies.
Governmental technologies ``both make rationalities `visible' and permit their
extension through time and space'' (Murdoch, 2000, page 505). Key features of such
technologies (sometimes referred to as techniques, instruments, or mechanisms) are
that they are mobile, stable, and capable of aggregation, so that they allow governing
to take place àt a distance' from governing agencies (MacKinnon, 2000; Murdoch,
2000; Uitermark, 2005). Some parallels may be drawn between the concepts of `modes
of steering' and governmental technologies; however, the latter can be seen as encompassing both policy instruments (regulation, market mechanisms, benchmarking, etc)
and material infrastructures (particular instruments, forms of service delivery, and
so on), while the former are usually conceived in more general and abstract terms. In
advanced liberal government, two particular forms of governmental technology have
become critical for mobilising self-governing capacities and for promoting conduct
in line with governmental rationalities and programmes (Dean, 1999; Haahr, 2004;
Raco and Imrie, 2000). First, there are technologies of performance, which seek to
delimit relevant expertise and entrain local action to governmental programmes;
typical examples include targets, monitoring, audit processes, and so on. Second,
there are technologies of agency, which seek to invoke particular subjects and their
participation in processes of governing, and include different forms of participation
and partnership, as well as infrastructures and materials through which action is
created and sustained. Through these technologies, governmental rationalities are
propagated and disseminated. However, a key feature of the governmentality literature
is the emphasis that governmental technologies do not merely reflect any given rationality, but are central to actively defining ``the domains which are to be governed''
(Murdoch, 2000, page 513). Forms of political authority and subjectivity are not determined outside of the particular rationalities and technologies of government, but are
actively created and mobilised through this process (Raco, 2003). This analytical focus
draws attention to the regimes of practice, our `òrganised ways of doing things'' (Dean,
1999, page 17), through which rationalities, technologies, authorities, and subjectivities
are created and sustained (pages 30 ^ 33), and to questions concerning ``how we govern
and are governed within different regimes, and the conditions under which such
regimes emerge, continue to operate and are transformed'' (page 23, emphasis in the
original). The analysis of governmentalities demands that attention be paid to how
problems are defined, ``the type of governing authority or agency, the various forms of
knowledge and the various techniques which are employed [technologies], and the
governed entity and the way it is conceived'' (Haahr, 2004, page 211) within the regimes
of practice which take shape around particular forms of governmental rationality.
This focus on the practice of government means that, in distinction from governance approaches, analyses of governmentality are concerned less with institutional
arrangements and forms, and more with how governing takes place. However, there are
grounds for caution. First, despite the concern of Foucault with the microphysics of
power, the emphasis in contemporary governmentality accounts on coherent mentalities
of rule and programmes of conduct can appear to circumscribe ``the capacities of
subjects to challenge, contest and modify their contexts of governance'' (Raco, 2003,
page 91). A second, and related, concern is that governmentality theorists tend to
neglect the question of `government from below', and the ways in which regimes of
practice and programmes of government are resisted and translated by different agents
2738
(Herbert-Cheshire, 2003, page 458). This means that, third, while ``neo-Foucauldian
theory provides a framework for examining how governmental programmes and technologies are received and experienced by sub-national institutions'' (MacKinnon, 2000,
page 311), to date little analytical attention has been directed to the geographical
variation in government, and the ways in which institutional structures, routinised
practices, and, significantly in the case of environmental issues, infrastructural networks
mediate regimes of practice. Fourth, in an approach which prioritises network relations,
there has been little consideration of the potential multiscalar nature of governmentalities (Uitermark, 2005) and of the possibilities for multiple centres of calculation.
Collectively, such criticisms suggest that governmentality approaches can appear to
lack the space for the development of alternative, and critical, politics, and for change
in dominant government rationalities (Raco, 2003, page 77).
Emerging analytical imperatives
Some authors have sought to integrate these different bodies of conceptual work,
in order to analyse practices of policy making and implementation (MacKinnon,
2000; Uitermark, 2005). Despite differences in some of the theoretical assumptions
underpinning concepts of governance and governmentality, they share common starting
pointsfor example, in seeking to unpack homogenous treatments of the state,
in stressing the importance of network forms of coordination, and in identifying the
nature of the contemporary liberal state (Uitermark, 2005, page 147). We suggest that
an approach which draws items from across this literature has the potential to address
two analytical imperatives for understanding the nature of contemporary processes
of governing. First, it provides a means of understanding the forms and processes of
governing which goes beyond either/or categories and engages with the coevolution
of the structures and means of governing. Here, governmentality can be seen to be
contributing to an understanding of how the strategic selectivity of the state takes
place, specifying the ``precise mechanisms which give state authorities the reach and
capability to monitor and steer the activities of local institutions'' (MacKinnon, 2000,
page 311). In turn, the relatively aspatial accounts of governmentality can be enriched
through those governance perspectives which draw attention to the institutional
contexts within which governmental rationalities and technologies are deployed, translated, resisted, and recast (Uitermark, 2005, page 148), and specifically by the focus
of metagovernance on the key role played by certain forms of authority in selecting
and mobilising particular forms of power ^ knowledge.
Second, accounts of metagovernance, modes of governance, and governmentality
point to the need to engage with the multiple means through which governing is enacted.
The emerging work on `multiple modes of governance' is explicit in this recognition.
At the same time, government, in the Foucauldian sense, `ìs an undertaking conducted
in the plural. There is a plurality of governing agencies and authorities, of aspects of
behaviour to be governed, or norms invoked, of purposes sought, and of effects,
outcomes and consequences'' (Dean, 1999, cited in Bryant, 2002, page 268). This multiplicity is figured both in terms of competing rationalities (Murdoch, 2000, page 510)
and in the coexistence, overlap, intersection, and fragmentation of, and contestation
between, regimes of practice (Dean, 1999, page 21). As Bryant (2002, page 273)
suggests, this results in `à number of regimes of practice which criss-cross both conventionally understood state/civil society divisions and each other.'' The ``multiple regimes
of governmentality'', which Foucault identifies, might then serve `às the rubric for an
analysis of a range of distinct modes of pluralization of modern government'' (Gordon,
1991, page 36, emphasis in original). Here, the analytical task is to understand the
multiple ways in which governing takes place around particular objects, and within
2739
which state and nonstate subjects are variously involved (Bulkeley et al, 2005; Cowell
and Murdoch, 1999; Jessop, 1997; Jordan et al, 2003). These important insights suggest
that an approach which focuses on governance alone can not capture the elements of
multiplicity with which analysts of contemporary polities should be concerned. Instead,
we suggest that an alternative analytical framework, one focused on modes of governing, can provide a means of examining policy landscapes which brings these key
dynamics into view.
A modes of governing approach
The twin imperatives emerging from debates on governance and governmentalityto
combine an understanding of the forms and processes of governing, and to recognise
the multiplicity of modes through which they are established and exercised suggest
that a new analytical framework for understanding the nature of governing is needed.
Our contention is that a modes of governing approach offers this potential.
In our approach, a mode of governing is a set of governmental technologies
deployed through particular institutional relations through which agents seek to act
on the world/other people in order to attain distinctive objectives in line with particular kinds of governmental rationality. Each mode is defined in terms of its objectives,
and its components include: a governmental rationality, and associated objectives and
programmes (policies); governing agencies; institutional relations between the agencies
involved; technologies of governing; and the entities, in human and nonhuman terms,
which are governed (table 1). Modes do not exist as discrete entities defined by hard
and fast boundaries. Rather, an analytical approach which seeks to differentiate modes
is a means of constructively engaging with the constellation of different components
of governing which gives a mode its coherence and significance.
We suggest that this constellation is dynamic. The power and authority of governing agencies which share a particular governmental rationality are configured
through institutional relations. These in turn provide the means through which
governmental technologies are deployed to govern particular entities. At the same
time, governmental technologies can act to reshape governmental rationalities
through their material and cultural durability, and by exposing the limited reach of
such rationalities acting àt a distance'. As Murdoch (2000, page 508) contends,
``these techniques of government only work in [a] prescriptive fashion if they succeed
in keeping the complexities of space at bay. They work best if their passage from the
national to the local is unhindered.'' Once they are ``more robustly situated in particular
spatial contexts'', he argues, such technologies might ``lose their power to configure''
the action of those entities which are to be governed. The active resistance of particular
entities, or the failure of governmental technologies to reach into everyday practices
and routines, can therefore lead to shifts in governmental rationalities, in turn reconfiguring the agencies and institutional relations involved in governing processes. A mode
of governing is therefore at once a form, or structure, for governing, and a process, and
this dynamic can lead to the disintegration and formation of modes. Multiple modes
are found in any one policy area as different constellations of actors, rationalities,
technologies, institutional relations, and entities are brought together as problems are
defined and solutions sought. Below, we develop this approach in substantive terms in
relation to the case of municipal waste policy, where we argue that the concomitant
development of different governing modes is creating a fractured landscape of policy
and practice and only limited progress towards sustainability.
Mode
2740
Table 1. Multiple modes of governing municipal waste.

Components
institutional
relations
governmental technologies
(examples)
governed entities
Disposal
Economic efficiency
Public health
Environmental efficiency
Local authorities
Regulator
Devolved
hierachy
Dustbins
Weekly collections
Landfill sites
Contracts
Best Practicable Environmental
Option assessment
Municipal waste
Ratepayers
Diversion
Reducing the (global)

environmental impact
of landfill (EU Landfill
Directive 1999 Waste
Strategy 2000)
European Union
DEFRA
Local authorities
Multilevel
Strongly
hierarchical
Performance targets and auditing

New policy instruments
Funding mechanisms and criteria
Education campaigns
Successively lower
government tiers
Individuals as passive citizens
Differentiated waste streams
Ecoefficiency
Reducing the
environmental impacts
of waste; recovering value
(waste hierarchy; meeting
targets)
Local authorities,
waste contractors,
community-waste-sector
organisations
Heterarchy
Networks
Kerbside collections
New technologies
Reuse and reduction practices
(eg nappies, compost)
Individuals as active citizens

Differentiated waste streams
Waste as
resource
Reducing the
environmental impacts
of waste; social and
economic benefits
Nongovernmental
organisations and
networks
Solidarity
Community
Provision of alternative
infrastructures and
collections
Individuals as community
members
Waste as a resource
governmental rationality
governing agencies
(policies and programmes)
N:/pdf-prep/
2741
Governing municipal waste

Various commentators have outlined the rapid pace of institutional and policy change
within the arena of municipal waste in the UK over the past decade (Bulkeley et al,
2005; COSU, 2002; Davoudi, 2000; Davoudi and Evans, 2004; Entwistle, 1999;
Eunomia and Hummel, 2002; Gandy, 1994; Petts, 2001; Smith et al, 2004). The churning of institutional relationships, policy goals, and mechanismsprimarily in response
to EU directiveshas had a profound effect on the definition of the problem of, and
responsibility for, the 7% of UK waste which is classified as `municipal'. (3) Here, we
draw on our research based in the North East of England to examine how, and with
what effect, these shifts in the form and process of governing have taken place.
Through this discussion, we illustrate how the modes of governing approach provides
a framework for analysis, capturing the relations between different components of
governing and providing a means by which to think through the dynamics of governing
waste and the multiple means through which this is achieved. Our analysis suggests
that, as waste is problematised as an arena for advanced liberal government, existing
modes of governing are transformed while new modes of governing are created.
The resulting landscape of waste governing includes four coexisting modes: disposal,
diversion, eco-efficiency, and waste as resource (table 1). In the following sections,
we examine how the traditional disposal mode of governing waste has given way to
a newly dominant diversion mode, which in turn is leading to the development of a
new eco-efficiency mode and to the enrolment of existing forms of managing waste
as resource to wider public purpose.
The problematisation of disposal and the emergence of diversion
For over a century, municipal waste management in the UK was the province of
relatively autonomous local authorities concerned with the most economically efficient
means of collecting and disposing of waste. In this disposal mode of governing,
authority lay primarily within the local state, and in particular with waste disposal
authorities, and was informed by rationalities of service delivery, economic efficiency,
and, insofar as they existed, meeting health and environmental regulations (Darier,
1996; Gandy, 1994). Institutional relations were relatively straightforward inasmuch as
they were devolved to local authorities with some oversight from the regulator, and
involved a degree of coordination between different authorities. The governmental
technologies which sustained and supported this mode of governing were largely
infrastructuralthe wheelie bin, the local tip, and the landfill site. Waste was treated
as something to be disposed of and householders seen as ratepayers doing little more
than paying for a service and putting their bin out on the appropriate day.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, this mode of governing became subject to
problematisation. First, far-reaching changes wrought by the central state on the
structure and purpose of local government both changed the institutional structures
within which authority for waste management was created and deployed, and served to
undermine the service delivery rationality of waste policy. Second, as environmental
issues moved up public and political agendas, the regulation of waste disposal became
subject to tighter scrutiny and the remit of authorities external to local government.
Third, waste services were contracted out, either to private companies or to localauthority-owned, but àrms-length', waste disposal companies (Davoudi, 2000), creating
new institutional relations between different governing agencies in this mode of governing. With the increasing priority given to the rationality of environmental efficiency and
(3) Municipal
waste includes all waste for which local authorities have designated responsibility.
Approximately 89% of it is household waste; the remainder includes street litter, waste taken to
council recycling or disposal facilities, and waste from municipal sites.
2742
new institutional arrangements came new governmental technologies, in the form of

long-term contracts, binding local authorities and their contractual partners into agreements which frequently last for twenty years or more; the goal of achieving the Best
Practicable Environmental Option for the disposal of waste; and in 1996 the introduction of the Landfill Tax. Such technologies began to bind local authorities to each other
through horizontal processes of comparison and through the intervention of national
government governing at a distance through regulatory and financial mechanisms.
Despite the problematisation of waste policy in this manner, the disposal mode
remained relatively coherent during the 1990s. In the main, the new governmental
rationalities, agencies, institutional arrangements, and technologies which had begun
to take root had not, as yet, challenged the core goal of waste policy in terms of the
most efficient disposal of waste. This was witnessed by the failure of successive central
government targets for increases in the levels of recycling to have any visible effect and
a persistently high level of landfilling. In some places, however, the changing constellation of waste governing, together with local shortages of landfill space, began to
produce new approaches, including, for example, the development by local authorities
of strategies for recycling waste, or for generating local energy from waste incinerators,
independently of national government (Gray, 1997; Petts, 2001).
The introduction of the EU Landfill Directive 1999 (1999/31/EC) gave impetus to
the emergence of a new, diversion mode of governing municipal waste in the UK
(table 1). It was this directive which served to provide a new underlying objective for
waste management (the diversion of waste from landfill), to solidify a new governmental rationality based on the notion of sustainability, and to provide new governing
technologies. Rather than waste being conceptualised as something to be rid of in
as economically efficient a way as possible, the objective is to manage the risks
of waste on watercourses and on the global atmosphere by diverting biodegradable waste from landfill to other means of disposal or recycling. While the waste is
iterated through the `waste hierarchy' which suggests that the management of waste
should first seek to reduce the volume of waste produced, to reuse resources, and to
recover value (through recycling, composting, or producing energy from waste)
before disposal the primary concern is with reducing pollution, and hence the
diversion mode essentially pays only lip service to the higher levels of the hierarchy.
To achieve this end, mandatory targets for nation-states to divert waste from landfill
were introduced. In the UK, these targets are to reduce the volume of biodegradable
municipal waste sent to landfill to 75% of the 1995 level produced by 2010, 50%
by 2013, and 35% by 2020.
The targets imposed by the EU provided the basis for Waste Strategy 2000 for
England and Wales (DETR, 2000). This strategy provided the opportunity for the
development and implementation of new governmental technologies of performance.
First, European targets were translated into national targetsto recycle or compost at
least 25% of household waste by 2005, at least 30% by 2010, and at least 33% by 2015
and in turn into individualised progressive statutory performance targets for recycling
and composting for different local authorities, as well as performance indicators
for the diversion of waste from landfill and recovery from waste (table 2). Second,
the strategy laid the groundwork for the introduction of new legislation capping the
amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill and for the introduction of the Landfill
Allowance Trading Scheme. Under this scheme, local authorities are granted an allowance for the disposal of biodegradable waste in landfill, so that those which do not
fill this quota have permits to sell while those who go over their allowance need to
buy quotas or have a financial penalty imposed. Accompanying these two primary
technologies of performance has been a raft of other governmental technologies (table 2).
Title
Policy
developments
Policy
initiatives
Date
Description
Waste Strategy (DETR)
2000
Waste Strategy 2000 includes national targets to recycle or compost at least 25% of
household waste by 2005, at least 30% by 2010, and at least 33% by 2015. It articulates the
principles of proximate disposal and self-sufficiency at a regional level, and promotes
adherence to the waste hierarchy.
Waste Not Want Not

[Cabinet Office Strategy
Unit (COSU)]
2002
Published by the COSU in 2002, this report focused in particular on the barriers to
achieving EU and UK targets for landfill diversion and on the additional measures needed
to support achievement of landfill directive targets.
Municipal Waste
Management Strategies
2001
Encouraged in guidance for local authorities since 2001; joint strategies were made
compulsory in 2004 in two-tier areas to facilitate the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme
(LATS).
Waste Strategy Review
2005 06
Progress review of Waste Strategy 2000 across all waste streams in the light of progress in
the UK and the development of EU policy.
Planning Policy Guidance

1999
10: Planning and Waste
Management (DETR, 1998)
Sets the planning guidance for the location and development of waste facilities. Currently
under review with the ODPM and DEFRA in response to criticism that the structure of
waste policy is too disjointed.
Waste Implementation
Programme
2003
Provides support for local authorities (such as national and regional advisory groups,
briefing notes, best practice, calculation tools); waste research (such as market
development, sustainable consumption, decision support tools); a national data strategy.
Jointly delivered with WRAP.
Waste Resources and

Action Programme
(WRAP)
2003
WRAP is a not-for-profit company supported by funding from DEFRA, the DTI, and
the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established
to promote sustainable waste management by creating stable and efficient markets
for recycled materials and products, but has recently extended its responsibilities to
waste-minimisation initiatives.
2743
Responsible for: a waste-minimisation programme (nappies, compost, industry); promoting

waste awareness (national advertising campaign, local communications, and awareness
support); technical support through the Recycling and Organics Technical Advisory Team;
developing commercial tools (such as market information); providing training courses;
advising on greener procurement.
Table 2. National policy interventions for municipal waste management 2000 ^ 05.
Title
Legislation
Policy
instruments
Date
2004
Description
Sets the maximum amount of biodegradable municipal waste which can be sent to landfill
and establishes the LATS. Established Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy as
compulsory in two-tier authorities, and strengthened the power of direction for counties
over their districts' waste collection activities.
Household Waste Recycling 2003

Act
Establishes compulsory kerbside collection of two recyclable materials by 2010.
Best Value Performance

Indicators
Statutory performance standards for recycling and composting are complemented with nine
further performance indicators relating to waste, including proportions of waste sent for
recovery and landfill, for which targets are set locally with reference to national policy
goals.
Statutory Performance
Targets
Targets for recycling and composting waste for each local authority, determined by past
performance (less challenging targets are set in areas with historically low rates of
recycling). Typically, the targets set for individual local authorities involve a doubling of
1998/99 recycling rates by 2003/04, with subsequent targets set for 2005/06 and anticipating
further progressive targets to 2020.
Landfill Allowance Trading

Scheme
Local authorities are granted an allocation of permits for disposal of biodegradable

municipal waste to landfill, and allowed to trade and bank permits to facilitate
economically efficient landfill diversion practices.
The Waste Minimisation

and Recycling Fund
(Challenge Fund)
2001 06
Competitively allocated funding scheme for local authorities; funding has been provided
primarily for the establishment or extension of kerbside collection of dry recyclables or
green waste.
WRAP
2001
Funding for waste-minimisation initiatives (for example, home composting, nappies,

communication, and education). Competitively allocated. Local schemes are carried out
in conjunction with national WRAP initiatives.
Technology Research and

Innovation Fund
2003 04
Waste Implementation Programme funding for research into new technologies.

Competitively allocated.
Funding
schemes
Waste and Emissions

Trading Act
2744
Table 2 (continued)
Title
Funding
schemes
Date
Description
Demonstrator Programme
2003
Waste Implementation Programme funding for demonstration of new technologies.

Two rounds allocated in 2003/04, and further rounds expected in 2005/06.
Regional Support Fund
2004
Waste Implementation Programme funding for research projects in different regions.
Waste Performance and

Efficiency Grant
2005
Local authorities will receive 45 million in 2005/06, 105 million in 2006/07, and 110
million in 2007/08. In 2005/06, 40 million will be allocated directly to local authorities and
the remainder to a pilot project (see below). The allocation of finance is based on
population, commuters, and day visitors, and relative waste operatives wage costs in each
local authority area. From 2006/07, DEFRA has expressed a preference to allocate funding
in two-tier areas to a partnership of authorities.
Pilot study of local

authority households
incentives for waste
management
2005 06
5 million available for pilot projects to evaluate the costs and benefits of different types
of incentive schemes for reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting (though not home
compost bins).
Waste Private Finance

Initiative (PFI) projects
2003
In the 2002 Spending Review, 355 million was allocated for waste infrastructure over the
period 2003/04 2005/06, while an additional 275 million PFI credits were allocated in
the 2004 Spending Review for the period 2006/07 2007/08.
Table 2 (continued)
2745
2746
New sources of funding have been fundamental in technically enacting the dominant
rationality of the diversion mode. Awards under one such initiative, the Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund (WMRF), were largely devoted to the roll out of kerbside
recyclables collection, involving the provision of dedicated containers to households, the
deployment of new dedicated vehicles and collection teams, as well as local publicity.
Another priority under the fund was the upgrading of civic amenity sites to `household
waste recycling facilities', through infrastructural provision enabling the separation
of waste. The WMRF has therefore been a governing technology in itself, through which
central government has enrolled local authorities to effect changes to waste infrastructure.
As infrastructural technologies are likewise shiftedfrom single bins and local tips to
green boxes, blue bags, kerbside recycling collections, household waste recycling facilities,
and so onthe entities to be governed are recast. Far from being passive, households are
transfigured into active citizens, needing to fulfil their civic responsibilities for the sorting
and recycling of waste (Darier, 1996), while waste itself is unbundled from a lumpen mass
into constituent components of differentiated values.
As Murdoch (2000) suggests, governmental technologies not only are reflective of
particular rationalities, but constitute the domains to be governed. Through these
processes, multiple governing agenciesat the EU, national, and local-authority
levelshave been created through which waste collection and its separation into
different streams, with different destinations, are being conducted. The hierarchical,
multilevel nature of the institutional relations through which this mode of governing
is constituted and worked in turn means that agents are constructed as both subjects to
be governed (national governments governed by the EU, local authorities by national
governments, and households by local authorities), and authorities which should
entrain others into their governmental network (national governments over local
authorities, and local authorities over other local actors).
As this mode of governing has emerged, it has become the subject for its own
problematisation from central government (COSU, 2002). Concern has focused upon
whether, in conditions of growing waste volumes, the national targets will be met.(4)
In response, governmental technologies which specifically seek to divert biodegradable
material from landfill have been deployed with increasing fervour (table 2), including
new policy initiatives, instruments, targets, indicators, and incentives. The use of
targets, financial incentives, and performance measures as governmental technologies
is a central feature of advanced liberal government. As Raco and Imrie (2000,
page 2198) suggest, ``discourses of monitoring, appraisal, performance targets, and
feedback mechanisms have come to dominate and structure the actions of local players.''
The constant and immutable character of numeric indicators of performance (such
as tonnes of waste recycled) allows governing agencies both to define the object to be
governed, and to compare, evaluate, reward, and sanction agents, effectively enabling
`governing at a distance' to take place. In relation to municipal waste, as elsewhere, the
achievement of targets, in this case for recycling, composting, and the diversion of
biodegradable waste from landfill, becomes the basis of governing, so that the conduct
of government is self-reflexive. However, as Murdoch (2000, page 508) contends, governmental technologies are not all encompassing and, in encountering the geographies
of particular places, they can lose their ability to govern at a distance, leading to the
potential unravelling of any one mode of governing.
(4) In 2003/04, 19% of municipal waste in England was recycled or composted (DEFRA, 2005a).
This slightly exceeds the statutory target of 17% by 2003/04; this represents a significant increase
from 6% in 1995, but leaves substantial ground to be made up to meet the national target of 25%
by 2005/06.
2747
These technologies of government, and in particular the pursuit of statutory

targets, have been very effective in enrolling local authorities into the objective of
diverting waste from landfill, through the introduction of new waste management
infrastructures and practices. As the targets and diversion quotas become the objects
to be governed locally, the original governmental rationale of a concern with the
global environmental implications of waste management is deflected to the narrower
preoccupation with the diversion of waste from landfill. This, in turn, has the potential
to create perverse effects, through, for example, the shipping of recyclable waste
transnationally. However, our research also shows that the attempt to govern waste at
a distance has not been straightforward. As Murdoch (2000) suggests, the technologies
of targets and infrastructures do become `bogged down' in particular local contexts,
where they lose power to entrain actors into particular rationalities and actions. The
problems of governing at a distance are mostly clearly manifest in two ways.
First, those local authorities with historically high levels of landfilling, who have
not been successful in winning competitive bidding rounds for funding can find
themselves in a negative spiral of not being able to meet targets, suffering financial penaltiesthrough landfill tax, fines, and needing to buy permits under LATS
(the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme) which further constrain the authority
from creating the means through which to divert waste away from landfill. In essence,
here the top-down technologies of performance have not been accompanied by changes
in the technologies of agency, and in practice the governmental rationalities of the
disposal mode of governing remain dominant. Second, even where local authorities
have managed to align the different technologies of the diversion mode in a favourable
way, whether they can entrain the entities which need to be governed households and
different waste streamsis far from certain. Waste continues to grow, and, despite the
proliferation of kerbside collections, composting initiatives, and so on, many citizens
appear `hard to reach' or reluctant to participate in new waste practices. As Darier
(1996, page 77) argues, ``the shift toward a waste management system based on reduction, re-use and recycling requires the learning of a totally new procedure affecting the
daily actions of the entire population'', and the successful spread of a particular
governmentality requires that populations voluntarily take up such measures. In order
to affect these changes, some local governments in the UK are beginning to experiment
with new technologies of performance based on restricting the collection of unsorted
household wastefor example, reducing the size of dustbins or the frequency of
collectionor to introduce financial incentives and penalties to shape household
behaviour. Despite its dominance, the diversion mode of governing does not run
smoothly across space, but is reliant on the geographies of waste politics and practices
in particular places for its successful operation.
Alternative modes of governing
As the diversion mode of governing encounters the particularities of place and everyday practice, its coherence starts to unravel and new modes of governing start to
crystallise. With the introduction of the technologies of performance which characterise
the diversion mode, and in particular the achievement of targets, local authority actors
have become increasingly dependent on, but demanding of, private contractors, while
at the same time needing to engage with those community-sector organisations whose
experience with the waste management sector takes them beyond the back gates and
kerbsides where local authority waste relations with households tend to terminate. It is
at this relatively local level that a key alternative mode of governing, the eco-efficiency
mode, can be identified. The governing rationality in this mode is one of moving waste
management options up the waste hierarchy, though, in addition to the global premises
2748
of the diversion mode, local considerations in terms of the viability of different

waste management options, environmentally and socially also feature significantly.
Although the local authority remains a key governing agency, in terms of expertise
and knowledge of the domains to be governed it is dependent on the specialist
expertise offered both by private contractors and by community organisations. Institutional relations are, in this sense, networked and interdependent. Governmental
technologies include those which, extended from the diversion mode, reflect performance monitoring (such as the numbers of leaflets distributed, home composters
sold, people attending nappy fairs). However, technologies which enable and enforce
`àgency, involvement, deliberation, and the creation of partnerships'' (Haahr, 2004,
page 226) are also significant, including programmatic elements shaping institutional
actors, such as Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategies between different layers
of local authorities, joint bids for funding between cross-sectoral partners, and initiatives
undertaken in partnership aimed at shaping the practices of individuals for example,
education campaigns and leaflets, furniture reuse schemes, and nappy laundering
services.
Through these means, the eco-efficiency mode of governing is intimately tied to the
evolution of the diversion mode and its rationalities and technologies, and could
be seen as a means through which local authorities are seeking to enrol the expertise
of other agents in order to extend the governmental domains within which they can
intervene. Certainly, our research suggests that the presence of an active eco-efficiency
mode of governing is central to those local authorities who are achieving their performance targets and gaining reward. The key element at stake here is the institutional
relations among governing agencies in particular, between the local authority and the
contractor. While this is inevitably based on conventional contractual arrangements,
responding effectively to the fast-changing demands of the waste agenda in the context
of long-term contracts demands flexibility and a partnership approach between authority and contractor. Where the basic waste management contract puts an authority in
a relatively comfortable position in relation to the targets, authorities are better able
to engage in innovative forms of intervention. For example, Stockton Borough Council
(SBC) has achieved national recognition for its performance against central targets,
underpinned by a conventional contractual relationship based on a mass-burn energyfrom-waste plant. SBC has built on the infrastructural security provided by this
contract to develop partnerships which go beyond minimal contractual agreements,
including with its waste contractor, SITA, local businesses, and voluntary organisations. For example, partnership between SBC, SITA, and local furniture reuse charities
(FRADE and SFS) has enabled the establishment of a furniture reuse initiative at the
primary civic amenity site in the area. SBC has also established partnerships on an
international level, through initiating a network of five municipalities in the North Sea
region. The project Making Waste Work focuses on the development and exchange of
best practice among the partners in the areas of waste management systems, business
and employment opportunities in the waste sector, and public education and awareness. Critical to the workings of the eco-efficiency mode of governing are not only
alternative institutional relations, but the deployment of different forms of governmental technologies, including those which use ìnducement', such as financial incentives,
as well as those, such as joint working within the authority and with other partners,
which create ``generative power, the power to learn new practices and create new
capacities'' (Coafee and Healy, 2003, page 1982). The reach and effect of this mode of
governing is structured partly from abovein terms of access to resources from
central governmentpartly through the networks established in particular places,
and partly through encounters with the everyday practices of consuming and wasting
2749
at community and household levels, in turn creating geographical diversity in the

incidence and importance of this mode of governing.
Through working with community-sector partners, the eco-efficiency mode of
governing is beginning to engage with another, long-standing and relatively independent mode of governing based on seeing waste as a resource (see Luckin and Sharp,
2004). The rationality of this mode of governing has been to reframe objects conventionally seen as waste in terms of a resource. Historically, this is for social and
economic reasons but increasingly this rationality is derived from `stronger' versions
of sustainability in which the emphasis is on waste minimisation and the reuse of
materials. The governing agencies involved remain first and foremost in the community sector, and include a range of organisations from charity shops, furniture reuse,
and community composting projects, to informal networks of friends and relatives.
Institutional relations are ones of solidarity (Jessop, 2003, page 228) or community
(Tenbensel, 2005). Here, the governmental technologies employed are primarily ones
of agency rather than performance, seeking to sustain existing habits or change
practices through the provision of alternative waste infrastructures collections of
aluminium foil, clothing banks, charitable collections, home composting groups
and through mutual learning and support. Waste is not only a material resource, but
also one which provides opportunities for skills development and employment and an
entity to be governed through the mobilisation of communities working in collectives
and connected through national networks (such as the Community Composting
Network). Although the community mode of governing is less well developed in the
North East of England than in other parts of the UK (Luckin and Sharp, 2004), our
research suggests that tensions are emerging as the eco-efficiency mode seeks to engage
with organisations used to operating within the community mode, and, in particular,
over the introduction of technologies of performance which are largely absent from
this `bottom-up' mode of governing waste management.
From this analysis, we suggest that the diversion mode of governing is increasingly
dominant in shaping the municipal waste policy landscape. At the same time, as this
mode of governing takes shape, its ability to `govern at a distance' becomes restricted
by the complexities of particular places and the ways in which agents and materials fail
to comply with governmental logics, in turn reshaping the technologies and rationalities of waste management and providing the impetus for the crystallisation of new
modes of eco-efficiency and waste-as-resource governing.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have sought to address two key analytical imperatives which have
arisen in recent debates on governance and governmentalitythe need to engage
simultaneously with the structures and processes of governing, and the need to recognise the plurality and multiplicity of governing sites and activities. The analysis of the
multiple modes of governing through which municipal waste management is conducted
illuminates the potential insights offered by such an approach. It reveals a complex
picture of competing governmental objectives, practices, institutional arrangements,
and power dynamics. It demonstrates that, in any one sector of policy, multiple
means of conduct can be evident, intermeshed, and in conflict. The governing of
municipal waste mirrors other arenas of àdvanced liberal government', where governing takes place through the enrolment of actors in particular programmes through
the deployment of a range of governmental technologies, and where governing is
increasingly `reflexive' as it encounters ``processes that are deemed beyond governmental control'' (Dean, 1999, page 179). The rationality of the diversion mode that
reducing (biodegradable) waste sent to landfill should be the primary determinant
2750
of sustainability and its associated statutory targets, performance indicators, audit

processes, and funding mechanisms have served to reshape municipal waste policies.
As has been found in relation to urban economic policy, ``these disciplinary mechanisms are designed to encourage local authorities, partnerships, communities, and
other agencies to police themselves and implement the wider policy objectives of
the [government] without the latter `governing' in the traditional sense'' (Raco and
Imrie, 2000, page 2198). Nonetheless, `governing in the traditional sense', of regulation and sanction by central government over local authorities, is clearly present in
the waste sector, and the authority of the targets which are primarily determining
local waste policy decisions and actions lies in their statutory nature. Moreover, a
key governmental technology in reshaping local waste policies has been the use of
funding to galvanise and constrain local action, indicating both that resources are
critical in shaping processes of governing, and that traditional forms of hierarchical
power are central to the governing of municipal waste.
However, and critically, we have argued that, rather than assume that in any
policy sector it is possible to identify one centre of calculation and one dominant
governmentality, insights from the governance debates point to the multiple levels
and institutional arrangements through which governing takes place. The diversion
mode, while dominant in processes of change within local authority policies and
initiatives, is neither totalising nor divorced from other modes of governing in the
waste sector. First, many local authorities have so far not been incorporated into this
mode, and the disposal paradigm continues to dominate practice in many places in the
UK. Second, partly in order to service the requirements of the diversion mode, and
also as a result of local problematisations of waste issues, the eco-efficiency mode
of governing is creating different forms of subnational engagement with sustainable
development. While, in the first instance, the resulting public ^ private partnerships
might be seen as a technology of agency, as a means through which to meet targets
driven down by central government, our research suggests that, in some places, this
mode of governing is creatively redefining the rationality of municipal waste management away from focusing on targets to achieving more concrete, local, social, and
environmental objectives.
Although this remains the exception rather than the rule, it indicates that local
institutional arrangements, infrastructures, and actors are critical in mediating the
ways in which central government programmes are enacted and implemented, and
in defining what it is which will be governed. We suggest that, as waste has become
an arena for problematisation at European, national, and local levels, the deployment
of different rationalities and technologies for governing, across diverse institutional
and infrastructural landscapes, has led to variation in both the ways in which waste
is thought about and the means through which it is being incorporated into different
modes of governing. Perhaps most importantly, and in spite of the seeming dominance
of the diversion mode, modes of governing waste have as yet been unable to enter into
much of everyday household practice. While (some) citizens have changed their behaviour to the extent of separating waste for kerbside collections, there is significant
variation in rates of participation across the country and in neighbourhoods. Moreover, the challenge of reducing biodegradable waste going to landfill requires an
engagement with ever more complex webs of household practice, which to date have
been largely unchanged by the multiple forms of governing waste which are taking
place around them.
By drawing ideas from across bodies of work concerned with governance and
governmentality, the modes of governing approach we have developed here seeks
to provide an analytical framework which can at once engage with the forms and
2751
processes through which governing takes shape and recognise the multiple sites
through which governing takes place. We suggest that the modes of governing approach
provides a framework in which there is the conceptual space to conduct critical
analysis of the structures and practices through which authority is exercised, maintained, and contested; such a framework has relevance beyond the environmental
domain.
Acknowledgements. We wish to thank our colleagues Kye Askins and Paul Weaver for their
contributions to the project. The project team acknowledges the support of H J Banks and
Co. Ltd funders of the project through the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme, facilitated by Entrust.
We are also grateful for the support of the International Centre for Regional Regeneration and
Development, University of Durham. Finally, we wish to thank our many respondents for the
time and support they have given to the project.
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2 Three perspectives on environmental behaviour

2.1 The rational economic perspective

2.2 The psychological perspective

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Modeling urban-ecological systems will require special attention to uncertainty.

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Table 1. Urban models.

Land use and/or cover

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Clurkc etui, 1997

Zone space constraints

Zone space constraints

Putman, 1983; 199!

Zone space constraints

Zone space constraints

Zone space constraints

Zone space constraints

Zone space constraints

Landis and Zhang,

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Table 2. Environmental models.

Modeling the urban ecosystem

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Morris and Meyers,

Esser et al, 1994

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Technology _^| Population

Urban processes and

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5.4 Spatial and temporal dynamics

5.5 Feedback mechanisms

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Feedback. Representing feedback mechanisms in U E M s could improve substantially

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Brown M D, 1997, "Understanding urban interactions: .summary of a research workshop*', National

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

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e-supplement available on the JIE

Address correspondence to:

Volume 11, Number 2

Journal of Industrial Ecology

Journal of Industrial Ecology

long-term management. Understanding the

Previous Metabolism Studies

though most inputs to Torontos metabolism were

Kennedy, Cuddihy, and Engel-Yan, The Changing Metabolism of Cities

Journal of Industrial Ecology

Newcombe and colleagues 1978