Resilient nexus transition of the urban material-energy-land-water metabolism by innovation on infrastructure symbiosis:a case in China

    There is no doubt that cities are the key concerns for sustainability. Emerging concerns on multiple environmental impacts on cities(e.g., climate change, water scarcity, resource efficiency) need to be addressed by... [ view full abstract ]

    There is no doubt that cities are the key concerns for sustainability. Emerging concerns on multiple environmental impacts on cities(e.g., climate change, water scarcity, resource efficiency) need to be addressed by various stakeholders to increase urban resilience. Urban ecology and infrastructure ecology approaches provide innovative way to systematically design the urban infrastructure system and offers holistic analytical tools tosupport better decision making from the system optimization perspective. This research aims to develop design and planning approach, holistic assessment and scenario evaluation model that can create a low-impact, climate-resilient nexus of urban infrastructure system and energy/materials/land/water metabolism.The main contents included, 1) The design framework on urban infrastructure symbiosis for a resilient urban material-energy-land-water use metabolism was proposed, which altered and reorganized the nexus of energy, resource, watermetabolism and urban land use, allowing one to consider the potential synergistic effects arising from infrastructural networking. 2) This paper further focused on developing assessment approaches for the impacts of climatechange on energy, resource, water and land use management in urban, the nexusof urban infrastructure and its impact on the urban metabolism (done by utilizingand integrating urban ecology and industrial ecology knowledge, databases andtools, like LCA, regional environmental IOA, material flow analysis, regional economic statistics, made spatially explicit with GIS); the related environmental footprints (by combining LCA and IOA); and spatially explicit scenario optimization tools (including land use optimization module under various metabolism scenarios, and Location (for infrastructures) optimizationmodule based on cost and environmental impacts minimization). The series of created assessment, scenario approaches enabled urban system to make a transition towards resilience to climate impacts while having at the same time low, sustainable footprints. 3) The above developed approach was further tested and verified with a case study in China's typical industrial and resource dependent cities, named Guiyang (simplified as GY). GY acted as China's national pilot for circular economy city, low-carbon economy city as well as ecological civilization construction, hence offered an idea laboratory for analysis and policies implications. Based on the updating and first hand data via newly local planning project, the urban metabolism model for material-energy-land-waternexus in GY was constructed for various scenarios analysis with 2012 set downas baseline year, including: a. business as usual (BAU) scenario, which urban infrastructure system was not synthesized; b. urban infrastructure symbiosis scenario based on the urban industrial symbiosis, and series of circular economy practices, such as energy infrastructures symbiosis, urban agriculturesymbiosis, regional smart recycling scenario, and waste to energy/nutrients scenario. The related environmental impacts and urban footprints were evaluated. The results revealed critical insights on how infrastructure symbiosis can forward the urban transition towards a sustainable and resilient city. Results also highlighted dramatic resource saving and footprints reduction that could be achieved mutually. This research will be critical for future urban planning policy making and shed a light on innovative eco-industrial development and urban transition in China.