Urban metabolism and open data: Opportunities and challenges for urban resource efficiency

Cities are responsible for approximately three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Urban metabolism is a research field that studies resource use and pollution emissions of cities, which is reliant on an important process of data collection and analysis. Accessing reliable and recent data is one of the main challenges for urban metabolism studies as it can affect their accuracy and comparability to other cities. The emergence of Open Data at an urban level is an exceptional opportunity for the field. Nevertheless, Open Data also present a number of challenges before they are fully and more easily integrated in current studies. This chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges of using Open Data in urban metabolism studies and consequently to urban environmental policymaking.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Extraordinary governance to avoid extraordinary events

We are in the midst of a water crisis. Scarcity, pollution and flooding are some of today’s key challenges for sustainable urban development. The reasons are manifold. Preventive measures are put on the back burner, while reactive measures, siloed governance approaches and power struggles are daily business, resulting in ineffective governance. The crisis is hitting the most vulnerable urban populations the hardest and is, ultimately, a social equity issue. Against this background, we assess current water governance practice in order to identify key factors that can support social learning and enable just societal change. Taking Sweden as a critical case study, our findings highlight the potential of applying social learning theory and practice to support innovation and address the crisis. We present some key principles at three levels of resilience (socioeconomic, hazard and social–ecological), that should be considered when designing more comprehensive approaches, based on integrated learning and governance change. We conclude that an extraordinary governance approach is needed to support policy- and decision-makers in their efforts to reduce water-related risks and build resilience