Perrotti, Daniela
[UCL]
(eng)
Urban Metabolism is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge which investigates drivers of resource demand in cities through the quantification of energy, materials, water, and nutrient flows. Cities are studied as open systems whose metabolism is the result of the interactions with other anthropogenic systems, and the natural environment. Recent interdisciplinary efforts have fostered methodological harmonization across the field and helped identify persisting challenges and novel frontiers for urban metabolism research to support the uptake of resilient practices across communities. Among the most significant areas of improvement still ahead, this paper focuses on the optimization of data mining processes in the compilation of urban resource datasets as well as the development of more agile data management strategies across science, policy, industry and community-led initiatives. Another key research frontier consists in exploring the potential for integrated resource management strategies to generate new urban “micronarratives” of the resilient communities of the past, present, and future. In this sense, I argue that the embodiment of new micronarratives into lived experiences is essential to foster resilience practices that can improve the management and governance of urban resource cycles. Finally, I conclude by showing that the urban public space can provide an ever-growing reservoir of techniques and tactics to experiment with ecologically and economically optimized cities and to raise awareness of the linkages and interdependence between natural cycles and socioeconomic flows.


Bibliographic reference |
Perrotti, Daniela. Studying the metabolism of resilient communities: urban practices, micronarratives, and their agency. In: Carta, M., Perbellini, M and Lara-Hernandez, J.A. (eds.), Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter, Springer : Dordrecht 2022, p.51-57 |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/242015 |