Environmental Pollution 167 (2012) 184–185 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Environmental Pollution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol Letter to the Editor Comment on “The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design” by Kennedy et al. (2011) Dear Editor, and wastes for an urban region metabolism (Barles, 2010; Kennedy et al., 2011). In a recent article published in your journal “The Study of Third, we speculate the discrepancies above described stem Urban Metabolism and its Applications to Urban Planning and from the differences between the two disciplines in their intellec- Design ”(Kennedy et al., 2011), the authors stated that the concept tual foci. Urban sociologists focus on the human condition and of urban metabolism was conceived by Wolman in 1965, and are more interested in how and where urban settlements arose observed that its applications have been found primarily in urban and the factors that influenced their internal arrangement ecology (or industrial ecology in their terms). These raise several (McDonald and Patterson, 2007). Burgess, for example, subse- questions: Did Wolman actually coin the term? Has the term quently developed a concentric zone model to explain urban social been used in other disciplines than urban ecology? If so, what structures (Park et al., 1925). On the other hand, urban ecologists or are the major differences, if any, across disciplinary boundaries? in this case, industrial ecologists as Kennedy et al. (2011) named in And why? In this letter, we intend to briefly respond to these their article, focus primarily on the cycling of matter and energy questions. flows through the ecosystem, in particular on the interactions First, we found that the term urban metabolism was coined by among humans and their natural and built environments. Urban an urban sociologist long before Wolman. As early as in 1920s, carbon studies (e.g. Boston ULTRA-Ex), for example, tried to under- urban sociologists at the University of Chicago, such as Robert stand the processes of carbon flow in the urban areas. Park and Ernest Burgess, metaphorically applied biological Fourth, we see a need to integrate the two together. Researchers processes and concepts to the social world (McDonald and argued that bias in Western intellectual traditions isolated nature Patterson, 2007). In 1925, Burgess published an article titled “The and society (Alberti et al., 2003; Young, 2009). In the urban metab- Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project” in which olism case, although the measures of urban metabolism such as he used the term urban metabolism, with no formal definition, to land values have been widely employed in urban sociology, plan- analogize urban growth to the anabolic and catabolic process of ning, and transportation, the concept of urban metabolism has metabolism (Burgess, 1925). As such, urban growth can be inter- evaporated in much of the urban sociology literature because of preted as a resultant of organization and disorganization analogous a general lack of interests among urban sociologists in ecological to the anabolic and catabolic processes of metabolism in a living issues (McDonald and Patterson, 2007). On the other hand, the body, and measured by mobilityda change of movement in quantitative and accounting approach to urban metabolic studies response to a new stimulus or situation. Examples of mobility has been criticized negating the effect of stakeholders and objec- measures include, but are not limited to, the state of mutability of tives on the social dimension (Barles, 2010) despite a sustained the person, the number and kind of contacts or stimulations, and interest and a number of notable applications [e.g., (Newcombe land values (Burgess, 1925). et al., 1978; Baccini, 1997; Kennedy et al., 2007; Kennedy et al., Second, we found that there are discrepancies between urban 2009; Zhang et al., 2009)]. ecologists and urban sociologists in their use of urban metabo- We thus believe that an integrated or even unified concept of lism to analogize cities and urban regions. In contrast to the urban metabolism from both urban ecology and urban sociology way urban sociologists use the term, Wolman defined urban will benefit a better understanding of urban ecosystems. The metabolism as “all the materials and commodities needed to complex nature of urban ecology demands trans-disciplinary sustain a city’s inhabitants at home, at work, and at play” multi-perspectives studies to understand human dominated urban (Wolman, 1965). The term evolves and is further elaborated as ecosystems. It is argued that isolation of social systems from “the sum total of the technical and socio-economic processes ecological systems impeded meta-level analyses in urban ecology that occur in cities, resulting in growth, production of energy, to develop sustainable urban systems (Pickett et al., 1997; and elimination of waste” (Kennedy et al., 2007). This naturally Nijkamp and Pepping, 1998; Young, 2009). Redman and colleagues leads to the development of a quantitative and accounting have urged to integrate social science into long-term ecological approach in which urban metabolism is measured and quantified research (Redman et al., 2004). Urban ecologists have also realized as inputs, outputs, storages of energy, water, nutrients, materials, the needs to integrate social, health, and economic indicators into the urban metabolism framework (Kennedy et al., 2011). To formu- late a complete profile of urban metabolism, it is essential to DOI of original article: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.10.022. include the concepts and frameworks from urban sociology. 0269-7491/$ – see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2012.04.011 Letter to the Editor / Environmental Pollution 167 (2012) 184–185 185 Acknowledgments Newcombe, K., Kalma, J.D., et al., 1978. The metabolism of a city: the case of Hong Kong. Ambio 7 (1), 3–15. Nijkamp, P., Pepping, G., 1998. A meta-analytical evaluation of sustainable city Funding for this letter was provided by the Shanghai Key initiatives. Urban Studies 35 (9), 1481–1500. Lab for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration (No. Park, R., Burgess, E.W., et al., 1925. 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Springer US, Normal University, Shanghai 200062, PR China Boston, MA, 71–78 pp. Kennedy, C., Cuddihy, J., et al., 2007. The changing metabolism of cities. Journal of Industrial Ecology 11 (2), 43–59. * Corresponding author. Kennedy, C., Steinberger, J., et al., 2009. Greenhouse gas emissions from global E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L. Lin); cities. Environmental Science and Technology 43 (19), 7297–7302. Kennedy, C., Pincetl, S., et al., 2011. The study of urban metabolism and its applica- [email protected] (M. Liu); tions to urban planning and design. Environmental Pollution 159 (8–9), 1965– [email protected] (F. Luo); 1973. [email protected] (K. Wang); McDonald, G.W., Patterson, M.G., 2007. Bridging the divide in urban sustainability: from human exemptionalism to the new ecological paradigm. Urban Ecosys- [email protected] (Q. Zhang); tems 10 (2), 169–192. [email protected] (W.-N. Xiang).