Developing environmentally-sustainable cities has been identified as
one of society’s grand challenges in the coming decades. Already more
than half the world's people and 80% of those in developed nations live
in cities and urban areas. These vast urban populations consume a
majority of the world's resources, contribute to environmental
degradation locally, regionally and globally, and, simultaneously, are
also highly vulnerable to the consequent impacts of such changes, e.g.,
to climate change. At the same time, cities present crucial
opportunities for efficient use of resources and low impact ways of
life.
Yale University’s Journal of Industrial Ecology has published a
special issue on Sustainable Urban Systems in December 2012 edition
that focuses on the integration of engineered infrastructures, people,
and natural systems in the pursuit of sustainable cities. The special
issue generates new insights using the notion of “urban metabolism”—
like organisms, cities need energy, water, and nutrients, and they need
to dispose of the byproducts in ways that are sustainable over the long
run. By looking systematically at the resources that flow into and the
wastes and emissions that flow out of cities, a clearer picture emerges
of the contribution of cities to global warming, opportunities for
better management of waste electronics and storm-water, and the use and
fate of phosphorus — a resource that is both potentially scarce and
polluting. The special issue presents research on 11 cities in 6
countries including New York City, Delhi, Denver, Melbourne and
London.
“An integrated-understanding of the urban system and its
sustainability synergies and tradeoffs is a must in the unprecedented
era of urbanization,” said Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Associate Professor of
Asian Institute of Technology, who is one of the co-editors of the
special issue. “Asia, in particular, is at the forefront of economic
growth and its speed, scale, and size of urbanization has been
unprecedented. Knowledge on sustainable urban systems and reflecting
that in our actions is crucial to ensure sustainability of a city as
well as the whole world.”
“This is the urban century,” said Sir Peter Crane, Dean of the Yale
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, “and the integrative
perspective this issue provides is essential for the study of
sustainable urban systems.”
The Journal of Industrial Ecology is a bimonthly peer-reviewed
scientific journal, owned by Yale University, published by
Wiley-Blackwell and headquartered at the Yale School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies. It is the official journal of the International
Society for Industrial Ecology.
Chris Kennedy of the University of Toronto (Canada), Anu Ramaswami and
Larry Baker of the University of Minnesota (USA), and Shobhakar Dhakal
of the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) served as co-editors of
the special issue.
Articles of the special issue are available at:
http://jie.yale.edu/SUS (OR)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.2012.16.issue-6/issuetoc