Metabolism of Cities
  • About

    About Us

    • Our Story
    • Mission & Values
    • Team
    • Task Forces
    • Services

    Connect With Us

    • ContributeJoin Us
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
  • Community

    Research

    • Projects
    • Theses
    • ContributeAdd Research
    • People

    Updates

    • Events
    • News
  • Resources

    Getting Started

    • About Urban Metabolism
    • Starter Kit

    Multimedia

    • Photos
    • Videos

    Publications

    • Library
    • Journals
    • ContributeAdd Publication

    Data

    • Datasets
    • Data Visualisations

    Tools

    • Online Material Flow Analysis Tool (OMAT)
    • MOOC
  • Cities

    MultipliCity - Data Portals

    • Introduction
    • Video
    • Add DataContribute
    • Data Collection Events
    • Development Roadmap
    • Datasets

    Existing Data Portals

    • Prototype: Cape Town, South Africa
    • Prototype: The Hague, Netherlands
    • Prototype: Beijing, China
    • Overview page

    Upcoming Data Portals

    • Apeldoorn, Netherlands Coming soon
    • Bødo, Norway Coming soon
    • Brussels, Belgium Coming soon
    • Høje Taastrup, Denmark Coming soon
    • Mikkeli, Finland Coming soon
    • Porto, Portugal Coming soon
    • Sevilla, Spain Coming soon
    • Toronto, Canada Coming soon
    • Your city?
    • Orange Theme
    • Blue Theme
    • Metabolism of Cities
    • Metabolism of Islands

Theses

  1. Community
  2. Theses
  3. The drivers of the urban metabolism

The drivers of the urban metabolism

Summary

The materials and the energy flowing through a city satisfy human needs and their flows are driven by the demand generated by the activities which serve to satisfy these needs. The aim of this project is to understand the how the practices in which these activities are embedded are formed, reproduced and changed through history and how they differ depending on the context. By linking elements of the theory of social change, sociotechnological change and industrial ecology, a model is developed of how practices are formed in an interconnected individual, social and technological world, and which can potentially explain the patterns and trajectories observed in the formation of practices. Such a systemic understanding of the drivers of the urban metabolism should shed light on the origin of different metabolic patterns across cities and time. Such knowledge could be of use for policy intervention, by facilitating the intervention at the cause, rather than at the level of the symptom, and by identifying interrelations which might interfere with the implementation of any intervention.

Status

In progress

Target completion date

7/2020

Back to list

Details

Researcher(s)
Franziska Meinherz
Supervisor(s)
Claudia R. Binder
E-mail
franziska.meinherz@epfl.ch
Institution
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Contribute

Do you see any errors or do you know of any missing information?

  • Contact us
  • Add your own project

Latest news

Reflections on the first Actionable Science for Urban Sustainability (un)conference (AScUS) 2020
June 23, 2020

Read more

Do you have data on resource flows?

Share data

We can use your help

Join us

Metabolism of Cities

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Our source code is available on
Gitlab

Contact us

Follow Us

Metabolism of Islands

Visit our twin site:
Metabolism of Islands