Towards sustainable cities: A multi-criteria assessment framework for studying urban metabolism

The thesis discusses the importance of sustainable urban management, considering the expected increase in urban populations to 70% by 2050. This growth will lead to greater land use and emissions, adversely affecting ecosystems and human health. Sustainable urban management should adopt a systemic perspective, viewing cities as socio-ecological systems with complex interactions between humans and nature. This involves shifting from traditional urban metabolism models to network models that reveal internal city processes. The theoretical framework combines Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology through network science. A bibliometric analysis of global literature on urban metabolism identified new research areas. The empirical part integrates environmental accounting and network science to assess environmental costs, efficiency, self-sufficiency, and sectoral impacts in urban systems, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 12. A case study in Vienna revealed that mining and agriculture receive little investment, with weaknesses in the urban metabolic system's hierarchy, particularly in wholesale, retail, and energy sectors. An emergy-based evaluation highlighted the larger environmental footprint of agricultural products. A multicriteria approach combining input-output and emergy accounting methods is suggested for a comprehensive understanding of socio-ecological interactions, addressing the limitations of single criteria approaches to urban metabolism.