A Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems

dc.contributor.authorRamaswami, Anu
dc.contributor.authorWeible, Christopher
dc.contributor.authorMain, Deborah
dc.contributor.authorHeikkila, Tanya
dc.contributor.authorSiddiki, Saba
dc.contributor.authorDuvall, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorPattison, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorBernard, Meghan
dc.date.accessioned2015-09-25T22:28:33Z
dc.date.available2015-09-25T22:28:33Z
dc.date.issued2012-12-01
dc.description.abstractCities are embedded within larger-scale engineered infrastructures (e.g., electric power, water supply, and transportation networks) that convey natural resources over large distances for use by people in cities. The sustainability of city systems therefore depends upon complex, cross-scale interactions between the natural system, the transboundary engineered infrastructures, and the multiple social actors and institutions that govern these infrastructures. These elements, we argue, are best studied in an integrated manner using a novel social-ecological-infrastructural systems (SEIS) framework. In the biophysical subsystem, the SEIS framework integrates urban metabolism with life cycle assessment to articulate transboundary infrastructure supply chain water, energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission footprints of cities. These infrastructure footprints make visible multiple resources (water, energy, materials) used directly or indirectly (embodied) to support human activities in cities. They inform cross-scale and cross-infrastructure sector strategies for mitigating environmental pollution, public health risks and supply chain risks posed to cities. In the social subsystem, multiple theories drawn from the social sciences explore interactions between three actor categories—individual resource users, infrastructure designers and operators, and policy actors—who interact with each other and with infrastructures to shape cities toward sustainability outcomes. Linking of the two subsystems occurs by integrating concepts, theories, laws, and models across environmental sciences/climatology, infrastructure engineering, industrial ecology, architecture, urban planning, behavioral sciences, public health, and public affairs. Such integration identifies high-impact leverage points in the urban SEIS. An interdisciplinary SEIS-based curriculum on sustainable cities is described and evaluated for its efficacy in promoting systems thinking and interdisciplinary vocabulary development, both of which are measures of effective frameworks.en_US
dc.identifier.citationRamaswami, A., Weible, C., Main, D., Heikkila, T., Siddiki, S., Duvall, A., … Bernard, M. (2012). A Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 16(6), 801–813. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00566.xen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00566.x
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1805/7056
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherWileyen_US
dc.subjectIndustrial ecologyen_US
dc.subjectUrban systemsen_US
dc.subjectInfrastructureen_US
dc.titleA Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systemsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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