Eugene Mohareb
University of Reading
Eugene Mohareb is a Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Systems in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Reading. His research focuses on resource demands of cities, urban approaches for GHG mitigation, and urban transitions.
Countries in the developing world are rapidly urbanizing, with the share of national populations in least-developed countries expected to nearly double from 28.9% in 2010 to 49.5% in 2050. This urbanisation is expected to be coupled with improving incomes and, correspondingly, increasing resource demands. Data collection of urban metabolism (UM) flows within these emerging cities is currently scarce. Additionally, UM studies to date have mostly focused on large cities (greater than 1 million). If development patterns in emerging economies follow those in developed nations, it can be expected that substantial shares of urbanization will take place in cities below 1 million inhabitants. Further to this, insight is needed on the implications of urban economic structure and the effects this has on resource demands. Finally, an improved understanding of the evolution of the temporal dynamics of resource flows, especially during periods of economic instability, can further help urban decision-makers plan for resilience. This research examines three case study cities in the Copperbelt province of Zambia (a least developed nation), to explore some of these gaps in the literature.
Zambia has a resource-focused economy, particularly in its Copperbelt region; in 2013, mining and quarrying contributed 10% of national GDP (not including associated supporting sectors), with economic growth correlating with copper output. Three Copperbelt cities that have varying degrees of reliance on copper mining are explored; Chingola, Kitwe, and Ndola. Chingola is a mining-focused city, founded to service the KCM Nchanga mine (established 1927); Kitwe, Zambia's second largest city, is the Copperbelt's commercial hub, with various support sectors; finally, Ndola is the provincial capital, with associated government offices and public sector employment. The recent variation in copper prices, due to the commodity super cycle that peaked in 2011, provides an ideal case study for assessing changes in resource consumption related to price fluctuation. Data is collected from these three cities covering the period of 2005-2015, focusing on energy and water resources. A UM assessment of urban resource dynamics in cities within the Copperbelt region during periods of copper price volatility provides new insight on how to plan for urban development in an extractive-industry focused context.
In quantifying recent UM flows, it can be seen that total and transportation fuels consumption is currently much lower (7-16 GJ/cap, and 5-8 GJ/cap, respectively) than more developed cities such as London (75 and 17 GJ/cap) and Cape Town (27 and 18 GJ/cap). Meanwhile, water demand is comparable (95-115 m3/cap) to London (120 m3/cap). Looking at dynamics, residential building permits (a proxy of construction material consumption) in Chingola declined in years following a decline in copper price, though estimates for unpermitted development occurring in that time negate some of this decrease. Water demand shows a more stable pattern, with very mild increases in demand over the past 10 years. This provides new insight on both the scale and patterns of resource consumption in an emerging economy city.
• Industrial ecology in developing countries , • Food, energy, water, and nutrient material flows and footprints
