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Urban Metabolism at UCL

Studies on urban metabolism focus on understanding ‘the urban’ through the supply, circulation and elimination of energy and resource flows on which the sustainability of cities and the everyday life practices of urban dwellers depend. This concept has influenced multiple strands of discipline-bounded work, each with a distinct understanding of what urban metabolism stands for.

Vanesa Castán Broto and Adriana Allen have led a short study at the UCL Environment Institute within the research theme of sustainable cities, to foster interdisciplinary dialogue around urban metabolism. The project included two strands of research: the first one, developed in collaboration with Andreas Eriksson, consisted of qualitative research to explore the perspectives of scholars in UCL who are engaged directly or indirectly with urban metabolism; the second one, developed in collaboration with Elizabeth Rappoport, consisted of an interdisciplinary literature review on the concept of urban metabolism.

Project outputs:

· Urban metabolism at UCL

· Interdisciplinary literature review on urban metabolism

For more information please visit the Urban Metabolism Project website here.


Further work

In 2012, the project will be followed up with the development of a film output from the interviews and an event to bring interdisciplinary researchers together. For more information or if you would like to participate please contact Vanesa Castán Broto or Adriana Allen at the Development and Planning Unit.