This is a presentation I have given for a group of students, which are joining for a study trip to Copenhagen and Malmo. The study trip is focussing on innovative ideas and cases with show cases in the two cities around the three core topics of this excursion: 1. Urban Metabolism 2. Urban Food 3. Urban Climate. My presentation was a contribution to the topic "Urban Metabolism" and includes some of the ideas of our research group. The trip has been organized by RUW, a Wageningen foundation. RUW organizes activities about "green issues" These activities facilitate the exchange of knowledge and views between students, scientists, policymakers, industry and other relevant actors. By its activities, RUW contributes to a dynamic platform for everybody who wants to discuss, share and gain knowledge about green issues such as group discussions, lectures, debates and excursions.

1. 1
Cities: Centres of disaster or beacons of
hope?
Our urban problems and our urban solutions
Ingo Leusbrock

2. 2
Content
 The problems of cities
 The chances of cities
 Linear vs. circular metabolism
 How to achieve a circular metabolism? The USE
contribution:
● Framework, guidelines, decision support
● Integration and combination of technologies

3. 3
Cities and their resource demand

4. 4
Development of energy consumption in the
last 200 years
www.iea.org

5. 5
Peak Oil

6. 6
Phosphorus is a finite resource
..
Cordell et al, (2009), Global Environmental Change
2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
0
20
40
60
80
100
Year
Available P resources (%)
2% growth
2.5% growth
3% growth

7. 7
Metals
Gordon et al. (2006). PNAS 103(5): 1209-1214

8. 8
Water scarcity
Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013.
“Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington,
DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at
http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-global-maps-20.

9. 9
Current “Waste Management”

10. 10
Predictions for
2025
1.8 billion people
live in countries
with an absolute
water shortage
(UN, 2007)

11. 11
Pollution
Aluminum wastewater spill in Hungary
Deepwater Horizon oil spill,
Gulf of Mexico

12. 12
Air pollution

13. 13
Climate Change
 Temperature and climate changes
● Hotter, colder, less rain, more rain...
 More extreme weather events
 Changes in composition of the oceans
 Sea level rise

14. 14
Long-term prediction salination
of coastal areas
Licht blauwe kuststroken:
Regions with increased salination due
to sea level rise
Light blue areas

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17
Population growth und urbanization

18. 18
Urbanization

19. 19
Regional differences

20. 20
Global level of
urbanization
• 52 % in 2011
• 67 % in 2050
(United Nations, 2012)
stashpocket.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/nairo

21. 21
The consequences
©Wackernagel,Mathis

22. 22
Our footprintTon/person-year
~5000 years ~200 years
(Brunner and Rechberger, 2002)

23. 23
Current state of our urbanized world

24. 24
Cities: beacons of hope

25. 25
Cities: beacons of hope
 Density = solutions and potential
 Unused potential for supply, recovery and production
 Unused potential in terms of ambitious people
● Self-sufficiency as motivation
 Local technical / socio-technological solutions possible
● Balance between small scale / large scale and
centralized / decentralized solutions

26. 26
Our vision of future cities

27. 27
Circular metabolism
 Closed resource cycles
 Self-sufficient
 Sustainable
● Technical / Environmental
● Social
● Economical
 Synergy between humans and ecosystems

28. 28
How to achieve?
 Frameworks, Guidelines,
Decision Support tools
● Urban Harvest
● Cradle to Cradle
(C2C)
 Integration and
combination of
technologies
● Greenhouse Village
● Sneek I + II
● Malmo Western
Harbour

29. 29
Urban Harvest
 A framework to organize your ideas to improve water
cycles
 A tool to quantify and compare your different ideas for
water cycles
 A tool to quantify urban water flows in high temporal and
spatial resolution
“You cannot manage what you do not know”
External Input
Multisource
(e.g. rain)
Consumption
Cascading and reuse
Recycle and storage
Export of waste
Export of secondary
resources (e.g. nutrients)

30. 30
Elements of Urban Harvest
External Input
Multisource
(e.g. rain)
Consumption
Cascading and reuse
Recycle and storage
Export of waste
Export of secondary
resources (e.g. nutrients
Agudelo, C. M.; Mels, A. R.; Keesman, K. J.; Rijnaarts, H. H. M., The
urban harvest approach as an aid for sustainable urban resource
planning. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2012, 16, (6), 839-850.

31. 31
The three steps of the Urban Harvest
Approach (UHA)
I. minimizing water demand
● water saving measures
II.maximizing water re-use and minimizing outputs
● cascading and recycling of used water streams
III.multi-sourcing of alternative water sources
● Rain
● Brackish and salt water, atmospheric water
 Baseline assessment as starting point
Agudelo, C. M.; Mels, A. R.; Keesman, K. J.; Rijnaarts, H. H. M., The
urban harvest approach as an aid for sustainable urban resource
planning. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2012, 16, (6), 839-850.

32. 32
Evaluation of the water cycle on city scale:
Baseline
Agudelo, C. M., Dynamic water resource management for achieving
self-sufficiency of cities of tomorrow. PhD thesis, Wageningen
University, Wageningen, 2012.

33. 33
Evaluation of the water cycle on city scale:
after water saving measures
Agudelo, C. M., Dynamic water resource management for achieving
self-sufficiency of cities of tomorrow. PhD thesis, Wageningen
University, Wageningen, 2012.

34. 34
Extension to energy cycles and temporal
variations
Lieberg, Karla; Improving energy self-sufficiency in building blocks
using the Urban Harvest Approach, MSc thesis, 2014

35. 35
Cradle to Cradle
 Design concept
 C2C principles
● Waste equals Food!
● Use current solar income!
● Celebrate Diversity!
http://epea-hamburg.org/en/content/nutrient-cycles

36. 36
Cradle to Cradle

37. 37
Industrial Ecology
 Industrial operations = natural systems within
constraints of local ecosystems and biosphere
● Dynamics and principles of ecosystems as guides in
design and management of industrial systems
● High energy and materials efficiencies in
production, use, recycling and service will generate
competitive advantage and economic benefits
● Network of exchanged resource streams

38. 38
Example of Industrial Ecology: Kalundborg,
Denmark

39. 39
Integration and combination of
technologies

40. 40
Greenhouse Village
 Combination of
New Sanitation,
Renewable Energy
and Storage and
Adv. Agriculture
www.zonneterp.nl

41. 41
Sneek, the Netherlands: New Sanitation
• Separation of (Waste)water streams at source
• First 32 (phase I), now (II) >200 households
• Vacuum toilets + kitchen grinders
• Benefits:
• Biogas
• Water saving
• Nutrient recovery

42. 42
42
Sneek I: 32 houses

43. 43
Sneek II: Neigbourhood level
• Example in Sneek, The Netherlands
• 230 households on vacuum toilets; greywater treatment;
grinded kitchen waste

44. 44
Prototype vacuum kitchen grinder

45. 45
Up-scaling Sneek I – Sneek II 250 houses

46. 46
Sneek process

47. 47
Beddington, London, UK

48. 48
Beddington, London, UK

49. 49
Western Harbor, Malmo, Sweden
 Western Harbor 175 ha
● Bo01 (the actual site) 25 ha
 Former shipyard and wharf area
● Closed during the mid-80’s
● Unemployment and urban degradation

50. 50
Applied technologies

51. 51
Urban System
Engineering
Grietje Zeeman
Grietje.zeeman@wur.nl
Ingo Leusbrock
Ingo.leusbrock@wur.nl
@leusbrocki
For more information:
http://bit.ly/1irbfr8
External Input
Multisource
Consump-
tion
Cascading and reuse
Recycle and storage
Waste
Export

52. 52
Capita Selecta Urban Environmental
Technology and Management ETE 50803
 Individual review paper (+/- 3000 words) on a topic of
their choice related to the introductory lecture and the
field visits.
 Use a specific field trip or multiple visits
 If in doubt, do not hesitate to discuss your topic with K.
Kujawa-Roeleveld before/after the study trip
● katarzyna.kujawa@wur.nl

53. 53
Capita Selecta Urban Environmental
Technology and Management ETE 50803
Paper structure
 Introduction to the topic
 Short literature review
 Description of experiences incl. on-site discussions from
the visit(s)
 Critical reflection and discussion (use also literature)
 Conclusion
 Reference list