Chapter Six, Cities As Eco-Technical Systems, p. 108-130

Chapter Six, Cities As Eco-Technical Systems, p. 108-130

1. cities have depleted the natural capital of their local & regional hinterland
2. large modern cities use natural resources on a global scale
3. * cities are centers of knowledge, culture & creativity
4. Aristotle: city could be thought of as a singular organism
5. Olmstead: cities are a social organism
6. Mumford: “organic growth of medieval cities”
7. modern cities are super-organisms!
8. Lynch: “urban ecosystem”: living species filter air, microclimate regulation, noise reduction, surface water drainage, nutrient retention, genetic diversity, pollination, seed disposal, insect pest regulation, recreational spaces & living soil for food gardens
9. Koyaanisqatsi, Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 visual poem about New York & Los Angeles
10. modern cities: eco-technical systems: multi-layered biological/technical systems
11. biology & technology meet in cities
12. import resources from elsewhere

Super-organism
1. complex living body with a great variety of interacting organs
2. roads/railways/waterways: arteries/veins
3. food markets: stomachs
4. garbage dumps, sewage dumps: digestive tracts
5. universities/libraries: brains
6. communication networks: nervous systems
7. parks/gardens: lungs

Key Factors
1. location near a concentration of resources
2. convenient river or coastal setting
3. transport connections with good access to markets
4. opportunities for manufacturing for local consumption & trade

Flows
1. flows of capital
2. flows of information
3. flows of technology
4. flows of organizational interactions
5. flows of images
6. flows of sounds and symbols

1. firms will congregate where there is a large market
2. high urban concentrations > congestion
3. affluent cities: information based economy, not manufacturing
4. cities are centers of production/consumerism
5. out-of-town shopping malls compete with in-city-malls

Food:
1. origins?
2. energy used in processing/transporting
3. carbon emissions

London, Tokyo, New York
1. food, spices, tea, coffee, timber were shipped long distances
2. production, transportation, and consumption have to be altered 

Ecological Footprints of cities
1. London’s footprint is 293x its surface area
2. a North American city with 650,000 people needs 30,000 square kilometers to meet its needs, an Indian city would need 2,800 kilometers
3. Everyone lived like a Londoner: 3 planets!
4. Los Angeles: 5 planets
5. 1996: 744 European cities consumed 25% of all fish
6. Amazon, Malaysia, Indonesia: deliberate forest clearing for land!
7. very little economic benefits go to the local people whose land is destroyed
8. Paragominas: boom town in Brazilian Amazon-200 sawmills, sawmill capital of the world!
9. 10 million settlers to Brazil despite gunmen, malaria, infertile soil and hostile world opinion
10. 1990s: $1 billion of timber, became a shameful symbol of violence & environmental devestation

Meat Eating Habit
1. the Chinese used to eat meat occasionally
2. Japanese styled marble beef is becoming popular
3. soybeans, maize, barley go to feed cows
4. 1 billion in rich countries eat a lot of meat
5. 1 billion in the poorest countries cannot eat meat
6. meat production requires large amounts of feed
7. more imports from US, Australia, and Brazil are required to produce meat
8. meat consumption endangers rain-forests
9. beef eating requires large quantities of grain

Game-plan
1. protect ecosystems
2. reduce carbon
3. carbon sequestration
4. plant new forests
5. store carbon in farmland
6. Australia: large potential for tree-planting

The Metabolism Of Cities
1. can we transform cities into less environmentally demanding/damaging places?
2. can we establish a relationship between cities & the planet that is sustainable?
3. can cities self-regulate & self limit wastes?
4. metabolism: sum of all biological, chemical & physical processes
5. linear model of production is not sustainable
6. waste can be a resource
7. efficient consumption of resources benefits local economy
8. reduced discharges of wastes reduces pollution

A Successful Web:
1. Power station for Kalundbourg
2. steam for Statoil refinery, Novo Nordisk & Novozymes
3. process steam > reduced oil consumption & water consumption by circulating water among partners
4. ash produced is recycled by construction/cement industries
5. Kalundborg symbiosis

Communication & Sustainability
1. internet improves communication flow
2. simulation/modeling can reinvent the city
3. cities must deliberately construct feedback loops with natural systems beyond their boundaries

Important Areas:
1. linear resource flows > circular resource flows
2. resource productivity
3. urban ecology
4. industrial ecology
5. how can these measures be implemented?