The increasing rate of urbanization along with its socio-environmental impact are major global challenges. Therefore, there is a need to assess the boundaries to growth for the future development of cities by the inclusion of the assessment of the environmental carrying capacity (ECC) into spatial management. The purpose is to assess the resource dependence of a given entity. ECC is usually assessed based on indicators such as the ecological footprint (EF) and biocapacity (BC). EF is a measure of the biologically productive areas demanded by human consumption and waste production. Such areas include the space needed for regenerating food and fibers as well as sequestering the generated pollution, particularly CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels. BC reflects the biological regeneration potential of a given area to regenerate resources as well to absorb waste. The city level EF assessment has been applied to urban zones across the world, however, there is a noticeable lack of urban EF assessments in Central Eastern Europe. Therefore, the current research is a first estimate of the EF and BC for the city of Wrocław, Poland. This study estimates the Ecological Footprint of Food (EFF) through both a top-down assessment and a hybrid top-down/bottom-up assessment. Thus, this research verifies also if results from hybrid method could be comparable with top-down approach. The bottom-up component of the hybrid analysis calculated the carbon footprint of food using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The top-down result ofWrocław’s EFF were 1% greater than the hybrid EFF result, 0.974 and 0.963 gha per person respectively. The result indicated that the EFF exceeded the BC of the city of Wrocław 10-fold. Such assessment support efforts to increase resource efficiency and decrease the risk associated with resources—including food security. Therefore, there is a need to verify if a city is able to satisfy the resource needs of its inhabitants while maintaining the natural capital on which they depend intact. Original article at: https://doi.org/10.3390/resources7030052 © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI.
MULTIFILE
Urban logistics is vital to keep the urban fabric running, but affects liveability while operators also have to deal with shrinking space in which they have to conduct operations. Despite this, there is primarily a lot of focus on decarbonising logistics as well as on logistics concepts to improve the efficiency of urban logistics going into urban areas. In this study we address the spatial footprint of logistics and possibilities to reduce this on a neighbuorhood level. We develop a typology with different archetype neighbourhoods in which we estimate the logistics footprint per area with a decomposition in different logistics segments and number of vehicles towards the year 2035. Based upon that we propose interventions for stakeholders to jointly reduce the negative impact. This study sheds more light on the importance of area.
DOCUMENT
main spatial policy approaches to securing DHC through new developments in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
LINK
Cities all over the world are rethinking their mobility policies in light of environmental and quality of life objectives. As space is one of cities’ scarcest resources, mobility’s spatial footprint is increasingly scrutinized as externality to mitigate. Similar to passenger transport, goods transport is envisioned to shift towards efficient and zero emission mobilities. To achieve an urban logistics system that eliminates inefficiencies and fossil fuels, the logistics sector requires space to unload, cross-dock, consolidate and stock goods closer to their destinations. Such a ‘proximity logistics’ is however at odds with ‘logistics sprawl’, the historic outward migration pattern of logistics facilities. With policies and planning, cities can support the (re)integration of logistics facilities in urban areas to facilitate and enable the shift to an efficient urban logistics system. Logistics still being a largely neglected policy subject in many cities, knowledge on how to approach this (re)integration is hardly available. Therefore, we compare two pioneering cities: Rotterdam and Paris. Both cities have an established track record in advancing urban logistics policies and are spearheading the practice of planning for logistics. Based on interviews and policy analyses, we develop best practices on how to address the integration of urban logistics facilities for cities.
DOCUMENT
The dairy sector in the Netherlands aims for a 30% increase in efficiency and 30% carbon dioxide emission reduction compared to the reference year of 1990, and a 20% share of renewable energy, all by the year 2020. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) can play a substantial role in achieving these aims. However, results from this study indicate that the AD system is not fully optimized in combination with farming practices regarding sustainability. Therefore, the Industrial Symbiosis concept, combined with energy and environmental system analysis, Life Cycle Analysis and modeling is used to optimize a farm-scale AD system on four indicators of sustainability (i.e., energy efficiency, carbon footprint, environmental impacts and costs). Implemented in a theoretical case, where a cooperation of farms share biomass feedstocks, a symbiotic AD system can significantly lower external energy consumption by 72 to 92%, carbon footprint by 71 to 91%, environmental impacts by 68 to 89%, and yearly expenditures by 56 to 66% compared to a reference cooperation. The largest reductions and economic gains can be achieved when a surplus of manure is available for upgrading into organic fertilizer to replace fossil fertilizers. Applying the aforementioned symbiotic concept to the Dutch farming sector can help to achieve the stated goals indicated by the Dutch agricultural sector for the year 2020.
DOCUMENT
MULTIFILE
Decarbonisation of urban logistics is a pressing issue. About one third of the freight-related CO 2 emissions in the Netherlands relates to urban logistics, consisting of both vans and trucks. Although electrification is a feasible solution, delivery models that not only focus on reducing the carbon footprint, but also the spatial footprint are important. A one-to-one replacement of diesel vehicles with electric vehicles does not reduce urban logistics' spatial footprint in densifying cities nor the delivery vans' perceived nuisance. This paper examines the impact of alternative delivery models in the parcel- and home delivery segment in four future scenarios on CO 2 emissions, vehicle kilometres and number and type of vehicles used (2030). Analyses are based on data from three companies in a large metropolitan region in the Netherlands. The results show the impact of vehicles fleets electrification, transhipment in consolidation points and a network of pickup points. This study illustrates that developing alternative last mile networks can result in a decrease in vehicle (van) movements, and with that a serious decrease in emissions. The implications of the results on the carbon footprint, urban space usage and costs for companies are discussed.
LINK
DOCUMENT
DOCUMENT
