Integrated Urban Metabolism Analysis Tool (IUMAT)

The determinant share of cities in global primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions highlights the importance of dissemination and development of reliable urban planning and policy tools. To reach sustainable urban development, having a comprehensive understanding of the concept of urban metabolism is critical. This work is the first step toward the development of an Integrated Urban Metabolism Analysis Tool (IUMAT) that seeks to consider all three social, economic and environmental capitals of an urban region in a multidisciplinary context. This tool is intended to provide a quantitative approach to assessing the sustainability indicators in a city. A literature review on the urban metabolism and urban-scale simulation tools is carried out to highlight the achievements as well as scientific gaps in the existing research, and to determine the objectives and functionalities that are expected from IUMAT.