Urban Metabolism Sustainability Based on the Regenerative City Approach

Current cities are petropolises, where all key functions, including production, consumption, and transportation, are reliant on massive injections of oil and fossil fuels. These cities, characterized by a linear metabolism pattern increase disorder, resource waste, and pollution in other regions. Urban metabolism acts as a lens for measuring a city's human-natural function and it is a suitable method for evaluating the level of urban sustainability. The regenerative approach, by integrating the inputs and outputs of urban metabolism within a regenerative mindset, serves as a scientific foundation for identifying current environmental issues and revitalizing urban ecosystem health. This study aims to examine the use of generative city criteria in urban metabolism sustainability and their categorization, utilizing urban metabolism as a basis for assessing sustainability criteria. Essentially, this research aims to bridge the gap between regenerative principles and sustainability of urban metabolism.

This research adopts a mixed documentary and interpretive approach, utilizing relevant theoretical literature, studies conducted in the field, and a comparison of new approaches to explicate the concepts and indicators for measuring urban metabolism sustainability based on the regenerative city approach. Content analysis is employed as the research strategy, and data collection relies on library resources. Ultimately, a selective coding process is used to identify relationships between key concepts, conduct thematic synthesis, and address research questions, resulting in the presentation of final research indicators. Furthermore, a structural interpretive modeling is employed to categorize the indicators based on their importance and impact on the sustainability system.

Through content analysis of relevant texts and documents, sustainability components are derived based on four elements: water, energy, food, and materials. Regarding the water element, sustainability criteria for urban metabolism involve reducing production with high efficiency, minimizing waste, and promoting water recycling. For the food element, sustainability criteria emphasize reducing resource inputs, minimizing domestic consumption, and promoting food recycling. In the energy sector, sustainability criteria are influenced by regenerative factors, such as energy production based on ecosystem potential, renewable resources, and ecosystem resource restoration. In the materials sector, sustainability criteria, such as reducing production and promoting material recycling in alignment with regenerative principles, contribute to reducing the ecological footprint, preserving biodiversity, and ensuring resource sustainability. Additionally, indicators for assessing urban metabolism sustainability based on the regenerative city criteria are categorized into three levels, representing the importance and effectiveness of each indicator level in urban ecosystem sustainability.

This research aims to enhance understanding and insights into the role and significance of the regenerative approach in urban metabolism sustainability. What sets this study apart from other urban metabolism studies is the integration of urban metabolism gaps within the framework of regenerative thinking for comprehending sustainability in systems. The findings demonstrate that the influence of regenerative criteria on metabolism studies enhances the comprehension of sustainability journals through the intrinsic relations between the urban system and the extra-regional system. This circular pattern can significantly contribute to integrated land development, reducing resource consumption, minimizing reliance on unstable resources, and increasing dependence on ecological capital.