ABSTRACT
Post-industrial cities are characterized by their routine use of energy as a driving force for power production, transportation of goods, construction of buildings and infrastructure, and domestic comfort. Metabolism is a concept adopted from biology, which refers to the physiological processes within a living organism and describes the energy flow connected to the conversion of matter for reproduction. The major environmental problems and associated social costs of an urban ecosystem are related to the rapid increase of resource inputs for urban consumption and the disposal of construction waste, both of which are nuisances to urban dwellers. The analysis of urban metabolism has largely been dominated by quantification of material inflows and outflows. The material flows of urban metabolism can be measured in terms of the rate of mass input from the natural environment to outputs of residues from a city. The addition of energy flows in the analysis of socio-economic metabolism should go beyond the mere accounting of energy flows.
