Integrating Urban Metabolism With Landscape Disciplines by Applying Technomass

Abstract

Urban metabolism provides a robust framework for analyzing urban development and its impacts. However, several conceptual and operational shortcomings have constrained the application of urban metabolism in understanding the overall urban processes, limiting the transfer of its potential benefits to design and planning. This article systematically analysed the rationale of the current urban metabolism models, focusing on four prevailing shortcomings from a transdisciplinary perspective: 1) utilizing an isolated state approach, which treats urban systems as isolated from other ecosystems; 2) ignoring internal processes within urban systems, known as the black box paradox; 3) employing a linear material approach that focuses on the path of single materials; and 4) overlooking the material productivity of urban systems, where energy and materials entering the system are used to reproduce the urban material structure and generate goods and tradable products. While these issues have been identified individually in existing scientific literature, there is a lack of holistic solutions. This article proposes an enhanced urban metabolism analytical approach-the ecosystem approach applying “technomass”-to address these shortcomings and provide practical solutions in landscape architecture and planning disciplines for sustainable urban development.