Towards Urban Planning based on urban Metabolism: a new strategic approach for European Cities

Cities consume increasing amounts of water, materials and energy. Resource scarcity as much as environmental impacts require the international community to reduce the resource consumption and emission production, in order to ensure a more sustainable urban management, and to adapt urban areas to new global environmental conditions. In this perspective, the Horizon 2020 UrbanWINS project focuses on the definition and experimental implementation of Local Strategic Action Plans for urban waste prevention and management. This project is based on the idea of urban metabolism, which is defined since such scientific methodologies as the material and energy flow accounting, and the life cycle impact assessment of urban flows, and promotes the circular economy, i.e. reusing, recycling and adapting waste materials and disused products. In 8 European pilot municipalities, Albano Laziale and Pomezia (Rome, IT), Turin (IT), Cremona (IT), Bucharest (RO), Sabadell and Manresa (Barcelona, ES), and Leiria (PT), territorial quantitative and qualitative data are collected, environmental policies are analysed, discussion sessions within the public administration on municipal priority agenda are carried out, urban stakeholders’ agoras are activated, and Strategic Planning Frameworks are designed, in order to build the base on which prepare the Local Strategic Action Plans. Finally, a set of pilot actions will be implemented to test the methodology used in the redaction of the plans. More in detail, Urban Metabolism is used as an analytical framework to define and implement innovative urban strategies oriented to the waste prevention and management, and this paper presents the first achievements in the domain of urban strategic planning based on Urban Metabolism. The project is leaded by the Municipality of Cremona, is carried out by 27 European partners, and is targeted to other urban area in a European city network logic. After this end of the project each city will be able to embed the metabolic approach in urban policies.