The concept of urban metabolism helps to understand and analyse the way how (urban) societies use resources of the environmental system such as energy and land for maintaining and reproducing themselves. The SUME project analyses the impacts of existing urban forms on resource use and estimate the future potential to transform urban building and spatial structures in order to significantly reduce resource and energy consumption, thereby taking into account differences in urban development dynamics.
The project receives funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 and will be carried out over a period of three years (up to October 2011). It is led by the Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning (ÖIR) based in Vienna and comprises ten partners from Europe and China. Nordregio is involved as a partner that contributes with its expertise in particular to research topics such as "Future dynamics of urban development" and "Impact of (future) urban forms and structures on use of resources and energy".
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