Para(city)mol

Para(city)mol The idea that earth is an organism has long existed, such as the lingual expression mother nature, and mother earth. Even deities personified earth, Gaia in the Greek mythology and Mat Zemlya in the Slavic. However, cities, which are only around ten thousand years old, have also been described as living organisms in their own right. An article published in the Economist (Jan 2010) titled “Life of Slime” shows how interconnected cities can be somehow resembled by living creatures like mould. It is therefore not surprising that Urban Metabolism, a term coined by Abel Wolman in 1965, tries to draw an analogy between the idea we have about the biology of organisms and urban structures. Opponents to this theory might reason that a city is not a finite entity, or that its parts do not work collectively to achieve balance for the whole. This is what the study of urban metabolism is about. It tries, in a way, to make the city behave as an organism by treating it like one. In order to understand how the parts can work collectively for a certain purpose, the inputs and outputs are first identified and then measured. Urban centres involve a huge flux of materials and energy coming in and mass residuals coming out, much larger and excessive than any other ecosystem. Dependence on natural resources, and their availability, draws a negative balance on the bill of materials for a city . Shortages can occur due to political instability or standoff, like gas shortages in Eastern Europe driven by Russia’s political interests. They can also occur because mother earth has no more milk in her breasts . As natural resources grow scarcer, it is getting more expensive to harness these materials, and even to move them around. Hence, industrial ecologists argue, a new approach should be taken to maintain the same urban standards of living – and keep the city alive. Improving on these standards of living, in terms of quality of air, water and noise, can also be done in the process, thus making urban nuclei a more pleasant, and healthier, experience.

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According to Dr. Christopher Kennedy of the University of Toronto, an ecosystem involving production of organic matter, via photosynthesis and consumption via respiration, is often expressed by ecologists in terms of energy. The same goes for cities. studies Cities’ scale is justified as their studies have a good resolution (accuracy of the data) while being less expensive than studies on household or neighbourhood scale. Ecologists argue that even more advantages may be brought at this level considering that “urban areas are expected to absorb not only all the population growth expected over the next four decades but also some of the rural population.” According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division”. Opposite to natural ecosystems, urban ecosystems are typically linear in nature. This is good news, but the idea is to make them circular rather than linear. “The comparison between cities and natural organisms is valid only in general terms, since there are many functions that they do not share: Reproduction , for example, or at least no one has created a model for that yet” argues André Ribeiro, a Ph.D student at MIT Portugal, a collaboration between the Instituto Superior Técnico and MIT. Measuring the energy cities produce, how efficient these production processes are, how materials are recycled and waste is disposed of gives a good idea about the materials and processes performed in a city – production, transport, heating... etc. This is made possible using optimised models and methods: Material Flow Analysis, the most applied tool, neoclassic econometric models, such as the Solow-Swan growth model for socioeconomic predictions and System Dynamics to predict the evolution of the system and its material flow over time. Technology plays a part in it too. Firstly it can make studies more accurate and less expensive as information-collecting gadgets and concepts such as RFIDs, smart-metering and “internet of things” get adopted. Second it allows for the application of sustainable systems to get closer to reality: New composite materials, improved efficiency electric generators, waste recycling techniques and the much hyped electric cars. Other

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schemes such as industrial symbiosis and transforming sewage into biogas have been proven to be feasible and rewarding , economically and environmentally. Eight industries in Kalungborg in Denmark are interconnected with networks to share their incoming material, output and residuals to cut down on costs and consumption of material and energy and in Sweden Goteborg’s public transport runs on biogas transformed from sewage waste. The question is: what is urban balance? Many share the idea of Herbert Girardet’s statement: “first and foremost, that [a city] powers itself entirely by means of renewable energy systems.” But is that possible? Currently green technology is still considerably more expensive compared to the wellestablished consumption model. Shifting industries and technology may mean laying off employees in these industries and the collapse of the whole production chain supporting them. In the light of a study that pokes into all aspects of living in a city, policy on its own is not enough. There should be a change in the social approach of consumption. One way of doing that is education. Extending the public transportation system and broadening the Kalungborg model to be achieved between cities are among the proposals. Mr Ribeiro is at the forefront of this, researching “Resilience through Industrial Symbiosis”. He explains that sustainable development is not the same as self-sustaining. So scientists are not trying to make a city produce all its needs. “We’re going to have to make this transition (into a green world) without losing a single point of comfort in our life.” Work is in progress within the MIT network in seven cities so far: Boston, Lima, Lisbon, Mexico City, Porto, San Francisco and Singapore. Copenhagen is a symbol in sustainability. It is still, however, very early to book a Zen trip to any urban city.

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