City-Level Decoupling-Full Report

systems, nutrients and water from sewage will not circulate through the urban system in the same way as in cities that have a formal networked sanitation system. Similarly, cities that are not hardwired with fibre-optic cables will not be populated by businesses that depend on high-speed,

them in the pursuit of sustainable resource management. 17 While a complete study of urban metabolism should include cultural, social, political and ethical issues 18 , the primary focus in this report is on flows of matter and energy from a resource use and social equity perspective.

low-cost connections to global information flows 24 hours a day.

Each infrastructure system is associated with a particular set of flows, as illustrated in Table 2.1. In this report, 'infrastructure' refers to primary networked infrastructures (energy, solid waste, transport/roads, water and sanitation) as they have evolved in developed country cities and most developing country cities. However, it is recognised that between 20% and 80% of the residents of cities in the developing world may not be legally connected to some networked infrastructure grids. But they are connected to informal services of various kinds (from informal sector water and energy vendors through to the ecosystem services supplied by rivers to access water and open ground used for defecation). 19 The greater the number of people who are not connected to networked infrastructure grids, the greater the quantity of material flows that remain unmanaged by these service

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The design, construction and operation of urban infrastructures to provide key services such as piped water, sanitation, waste removal and processing, electricity for light, warmth and productive activity, and mobility for people and goods, will directly determine how resources in the form of water, nutrients, materials and energy pass through the system, and in what manner. For example, in developing country cities that lack formal networked sanitation

delivery systems. The consequences of unmanaged material flows can often have negative environmental impacts, including pollution of water bodies, poor public health, uncollected solid waste, and so forth. However, the local community- managed projects can mitigate these negative impacts (see Orangi Pilot Project in the Annex). In other words, although the focus of this Report is on networked infrastructures, it is not presumed

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