UNU-IAS Working Paper No. 136
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNU-IAS Working Paper No. 136 Contributions of Material and Energy Flow Accounting to Urban Ecosystems Analysis: Case Study Singapore Niels B. Schulz July 2005 Abstract Sustainable development requires to stabilize the extraction of resources at levels that can be provided into the long term future and also reduce emissions to a degree that they don’t threaten the integrity of our planet’s life support systems. At the same time economic activity needs to flourish to meet development targets such as laid out in the millennium development goals. While the objectives of sustainability have been formulated at the global level it is challenging to define measure of progress more regionally. Since our population, our resource use and emissions are increasingly concentrated in urban centers we need a better understanding of their functioning. Material and energy flow accounts are suggested as a method to study variations in volume and composition of resource use among different societies. They enable to link the appropriation of ecosystem services for socioeconomic activity across various scales from the local to the global level. A first and preliminary material flow account for the overall throughput of resources and energy consumption for the urban economy of Singapore is presented, describing the city as an urban ecosystem with characteristic inputs and outputs. This paper has three components. 1) It documents changes in resource input and consumption over 40 years of economic growth and restructuring of Singapore. 2) For a recent year it balances material inputs and emissions. 3) It compares how the volume and composition of resource inputs into Singapore differs from other countries. Results show that the volume of traded material dominated direct material input (DMI) and exceeded domestic material consumption (DMC) throughout the time series. Per year the direct material input (DMI, excluding air and water) grew from about 10 tons per capita up to 75 tons in 2000, which is exceptionally high. Domestic material consumption (DMC) rose from values between 3- and 4- to more than 50 tons per capita between 1965 and 2000. In the most recent period more than 20 tons of material per capita was added each year to the physical infrastructure of the city of Singapore. In comparison to other socioeconomic systems, the consumption of biomass was exceptionally low. Fossil fuel consumption was very high and the use of construction minerals even higher, with considerable inter-annual variation. It is suggested that those features are characterizing the metabolic profile of a city during a phase of urban restructuring. While total GDP grew at a factor of 20 in the observed time period, so did material consumption. A trend of de-linking of resource throughput and economic growth (referred to as dematerialization) was not observed. Table of Content: 1. Introduction.................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Research Questions................................................................................................ 3 1.2. Background of the Concept ‘Urban Metabolism’.................................................. 4 1.2.1. Recent national and urban case studies ................................................................................. 5 1.2.2. Policy implications................................................................................................................. 5 1.3. Introducing the Case: Geographic Position and Economic Development of Singapore ....................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Material and Methods .................................................................................................. 14 2.1. Methods................................................................................................................ 15 2.1.1. Boundary definitions ............................................................................................................ 15 2.2. Material Flow Accounts....................................................................................... 18 2.2.1. Domestically extracted material........................................................................................... 18 2.2.2. Traded material.................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.3. Indicators ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.3. Energy Flow Accounts......................................................................................... 23 3. Results.......................................................................................................................... 24 3.1. Material Flows ..................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1. Domestic extraction of material ........................................................................................... 24 3.1.2. Trade .................................................................................................................................... 25 3.1.3. Extraction, trade and consumption ...................................................................................... 26 3.1.4. Time series analysis of inputs, comparison with economic trends ....................................... 28 3.2. Balancing Items and Outputs............................................................................... 29 3.2.1. Comparison with urban data on material flows................................................................... 32 3.2.2. Comparison with national MFA data................................................................................... 37 3.3. Energy.................................................................................................................. 40 3.3.1. Total primary energy supply and total final consumption by sector .................................... 40 4. Discussion.................................................................................................................... 43 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 46 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... 49 References, Literature Cited: ............................................................................................ 50 Appendix 1........................................................................................................................ 57 Land Reclamation in Singapore.................................................................................. 57 Background .................................................................................................................................... 57 Expansion Phase I 1967-1987........................................................................................................ 58 Expansion Phase II 1988-2003 ...................................................................................................... 59 International Reactions.................................................................................................................. 60 Singapore Maps, Overview and Land Use History ........................................................................ 62 1. Introduction The global trend of urbanization is ongoing. We are currently passing the point were half of the human population lives in cities and it is projected that over the coming 25 years the number of urban dwellers will grow by another 2 billion people due to migration and natural increase (UNSWPP 2004). Most of the urban growth will occur in low income countries. Worrying trends are increases in the urban-rural income discrepancy1, lagging rates of job creation and urban poverty. Concerns include the fragmentation of traditional social security networks, exposure to health risks from unsafe living and working conditions, lacking sanitation, exposure to air pollution and improper waste treatment (McGranahan et al 2001). The limited ability of low income countries to proactively address those problems makes urbanization a particular challenge for sustainable development. On the other hand cities offer potentials to effectively supply large segments of the population with basic needs such as health care, access to education and infrastructure. As centers of economic activity and consumers they provide opportunities of employment, economic investment and social mobility. They often are entry points into an increasingly denser network of market integration of the global economy. In a similar way that there is ambiguity about the social and economic consequences of urbanization, also the environmental impact of urban settlements has been subject to discussion. On the global level cities cover only 3% of the total land area. Considering that they accommodate half of the population they are an efficient form of settlement possibly enabling the conservation of natural ecosystems at other places. Their impact on the surrounding environment through resource depletion and emissions although clearly exceeds the immediate urban boundary: As centers of population cities rely on a hinterland of rural and extractive economies. They depend on