Metabolic flows and infrastructure transitions

This project examines the prospects for reducing resource consumption and waste flows through the transformation of infrastructure networks in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). The need for such an assessment arises from the realisation that city-regions can no longer continue to grow while assuming unlimited resources. The study will involve tracking the throughput of water, energy, biomass (food and non-food), waste and if possible other materials in economic and human activities in the GCR, as well as analysing the infrastructure that conducts flows of these inputs and waste outputs into, around and out of the city-region. While government has previously commissioned investigations into the state of environment or the state of energy in the province or its parts, this study will – for the first time – provide an overall picture of total resource consumption and waste outputs, giving clear guidance on how to effect an infrastructure transition to increase efficiency and sustainability of the GCR.

The project has key policy relevance as it is expected to inform decision-making in both provincial and local government with respect to: addressing water, energy, biomass (food and non-food) and waste challenges; planning for bulk infrastructure transition; and formulating spatial plans that will shape the morphology of the city region. The study is of academic relevance both nationally and internationally as it will contribute to the theory and practice of metabolic flow assessment, especially at a city-region scale. In addition, the study will provide a different view on how to conceptualise the GCR through the lens of its resource ‘footprints’, and provide a basis for benchmarking it with other regions where such studies have been undertaken.

This is a 3-year project, with specific objectives spread throughout the project lifespan. In 2011/12, the project saw the development of a project proposal, followed by an exploratory investigation into the concept of urban metabolism and different methodological approaches for quantifying metabolic flows. The first year of work has also seen a number of scoping studies providing direction for data collection and initial quantitative analysis on specific flows. In 2012/13, the project aims to achieve the following:

Collection, loading and formatting of the required data for each component of a systems-dynamic model of metabolic flows in the GCR;
Preliminary quantitative estimation of metabolic flows for the GCR;
Contributes to a jointly co-ordinated Sustainability Institute, African Centre for Cities & GCRO book entitled “Sustainable urban transitions and governance”.

This project links to other GCRO’s projects including: Green Assets and Infrastructure, Modelling Urban Spatial Change in the GCR, Indicators and Benchmarks, and Conceptualising the Gauteng City-Region.

Timeframes

This is a three year project that started in 2011/2012 and will end in 2013/2014.

Key partners

The project is built in partnership with the Sustainability Institute (SI) and African Centre for Cities (ACC). Other partners include the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits, and the Departments of (i) Quality and Operations Management and (ii) Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies at UJ. GCRO is also establishing international partnership with the School of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Outputs in 2012/13

Three book chapters with the following titles:
- Conceptual foundations and approaches to urban metabolism assessment
- Towards assessing the metabolism of and infrastructure transitions in the Gauteng City-Region
- Head in the clouds? Reflections on managing storm-water as a resource in the Gauteng City-Region
MS Access / Excel database for metabolic flows
An integrated method’s statement analyzing challenges, and clarifying choices made and approaches taken in, the data collection process, published as a GCRO Occasional Paper