EEA Technical report No 23/2015 Urban sustainability issues — What is a resource-efficient city? ISSN 1725-2237 EEA Technical report No 23/2015 Urban sustainability issues — What is a resource-efficient city? Cover design: EEA Cover: © EEA Layout: EEA/Rosendahls Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other institutions of the European Union. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. Copyright notice © European Environment Agency, 2015 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015 ISBN 978-92-9213-710-6 ISSN 1725-2237 doi:10.2800/389017 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel.: +45 33 36 71 00 Web: eea.europa.eu Enquiries: eea.europa.eu/enquiries Contents Contents List of figures, tables and boxes ............................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 7 1 What is this report about? ................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Policy background ................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Urban areas are critical to achieving resource efficiency ................................................... 8 1.3 Resource efficiency as a step towards urban sustainability .............................................. 9 1.4 Three reports on resource-efficient cities ..........................................................................11 1.4.1 What is a resource-efficient city? .............................................................................11 1.4.2 Resource-efficient cities: good practice ..................................................................11 1.4.3 Enabling resource-efficient cities .............................................................................12 1.5 Scope of this report ...............................................................................................................12 2 The context .......................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 The urban age ........................................................................................................................13 2.1.1 Europe: a network of small and medium-sized cities ������������������������������������������14 2.1.2 Cities with no clear limits .........................................................................................14 2.2 The increasing global demand for resources ...................................................................16 2.2.1 The difference in consumption of resources between European countries ......17 2.2.2 Hidden flows ..............................................................................................................17 2.3 Major socio-economic changes ...........................................................................................18 2.3.1 The rise of consuming classes around the world �������������������������������������������������18 2.3.2 Changes in household structure .............................................................................18 2.3.3 Changes in the demand for housing ......................................................................18 2.4 The policy context .................................................................................................................19 2.4.1 EU strategy .................................................................................................................20 2.4.2 Sectoral and thematic EU policies ...........................................................................20 2.4.3 International policies .................................................................................................21 2.4.4 Urban policies are gaining in importance ...............................................................22 3 Cities as a living organism .................................................................................................. 23 3.1 Decoupling economic growth from resource use ............................................................23 3.2 Urban metabolism ................................................................................................................25 3.2.2 An open system .........................................................................................................25 Urban sustainability issues — What is a resource-efficient city? 3 Contents 3.2.3 The main factors ........................................................................................................26 3.2.4 Stocks shape the city in the long term ....................................................................26 3.2.5 Methods for analysing flows ...................................................................................27 3.3 The scale issue .......................................................................................................................29 3.4 Ecosystems as model ............................................................................................................30 3.4.1 The circular approach ..............................................................................................31 3.4.2 Changing the model .................................................................................................32 3.4.3 Emerging concepts ...................................................................................................35 4 Compactness for resource‑efficient cities ....................................................................... 37 4.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................37 4.2 Land as a finite resource ......................................................................................................37 4.2.1 Urban sprawl threatens services provided by land ..............................................37 4.2.2 Reuse of land ..............................................................................................................43 4.3 Urban forms and challenges ................................................................................................46 4.3.1 Cycles of the urban fabric .........................................................................................46 4.3.2 Spatial and temporal scales .....................................................................................49 4.4 From traditional to modern urban form ............................................................................50 4.5 The concept of urban compactness ...................................................................................51 4.5.1 Understanding compactness ...................................................................................51 4.5.2 Urban sprawl versus compactness .........................................................................52 4.5.3 Compactness and green infrastructure .................................................................56 3.5.4 Compactness and land use ......................................................................................62 4.5.5 Compactness and mobility .......................................................................................64 4.5.6 The causal loop of urban transport .........................................................................64 4.5.7 Compactness and water consumption ...................................................................68 4.5.8 Compactness and heating/cooling ..........................................................................70 4.5.9 Compactness and infrastructure costs ...................................................................70 4.5.10 Compactness and waste generation ......................................................................70 4.5.11 Trade-off .....................................................................................................................71 References ................................................................................................................................. 72 4 Urban sustainability issues — What is a resource-efficient city? List of figures, tables and boxes List of figures, tables and boxes List of figures Figure 1.1 The urban system ........................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 1.2 The links between the three reports on resource‑efficient cities ............................................. 12 Figure 2.1 The urban profile in Europe .......................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2.2 Relationship between different types of delineations (Paris and Sofia) .................................. 15 Figure 2.3 Domestic material consumption (DMC) split by category in the EU-27, 2011 ........................ 17 Figure 2.4 Average living space (m² per capita) in buildings (1996