Per capita ALO as m<sup>2</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> and PMF as kg particulates <10 μm yr<sup>−1</sup> are shown on the left
Benjamin Goldstein
Morten Birkved
Maj-Britt Quitzau
Michael Hauschild
10.6084/m9.figshare.1011770.v1
https://iop.figshare.com/articles/figure/_Per_capita_ALO_as_m_sup_2_sup_yr_sup_1_sup_and_PMF_as_kg_particulates_lt_10_m_yr_sup_1_sup_are_show/1011770
<p><strong>Figure 5.</strong> Per capita ALO as m<sup>2</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> and PMF as kg particulates <10 μm yr<sup>−1</sup> are shown on the left. Local air pollution issues in Beijing and Cape Town are disproportionately high relative to the amount of economic activity, particularly when the IP per unit of economic activity is taken into account as shown on the right. Wealthier cities show a tendency to minimize air pollution while the exported environmental pressure of ALO increases with the wealth of the residents.</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Cities now consume resources and produce waste in amounts that are incommensurate with the populations they contain. Quantifying and benchmarking the environmental impacts of cities is essential if urbanization of the world's growing population is to occur sustainably. Urban metabolism (UM) is a promising assessment form in that it provides the annual sum material and energy inputs, and the resultant emissions of the emergent infrastructural needs of a city's sociotechnical subsystems. By fusing UM and life cycle assessment (UM–LCA) this study advances the ability to quantify environmental impacts of cities by modeling pressures embedded in the flows upstream (entering) and downstream (leaving) of the actual urban systems studied, and by introducing an advanced suite of indicators. Applied to five global cities, the developed UM–LCA model provided enhanced quantification of mass and energy flows through cities over earlier UM methods. The hybrid model approach also enabled the dominant sources of a city's different environmental footprints to be identified, making UM–LCA a novel and potentially powerful tool for policy makers in developing and monitoring urban development policies. Combining outputs with socioeconomic data hinted at how these forces influenced the footprints of the case cities, with wealthier ones more associated with personal consumption related impacts and poorer ones more affected by local burdens from archaic infrastructure.</p>
2013-07-26 00:00:00
impact
energy flows
UM methods
sum material
development policies
policy makers
assessment form
ip
ALO increases
air pollution
Abstract Cities
model approach
life cycle assessment
energy inputs
kg particulates
Local air pollution issues
modeling pressures
Cape Town
Wealthier cities show
study advances
Urban metabolism
case cities
pmf
sociotechnical subsystems
Environmental Science