City-Level Decoupling-Full Report

City-Level Decoupling: Urban resource flows and the governance of infrastructure transitions

eco-developments are creating relative self-reliance from resource flows at the scale of a new (and often premium) enclave. Many metropolitan initiatives are promoting citywide changes in urban infrastructure in order to develop low carbon or ’sustainable' cities. The diversity of initiatives provides an opportunity to compare the relationships between different scales (at the landscape, regime and niche levels) and the related impacts of decoupling. Integrated eco-developments that aim to build greater self-reliance also need to retain links to existing infrastructures. So, in the case of a more self-reliant development, who becomes the infrastructure provider of last resort if internal systems fail or break down? What happens to complex wastes that cannot be recycled or reused within a development and what about the wider implication for offsite transport infrastructures? A sustainable city that exports its unsustainability to other locations cannot be considered sustainable from a multi-level perspective. Nor, for that matter, can a city become more sustainable by exporting or marginalising to the peri-urban periphery those who are unable to meet the

at other levels. This type of research can build understanding of existing systems, the degree of flexibility and autonomy in developing new configurations and the issues involved in up-scaling and accelerating decoupling. 7.2 The scale of the city and how to conceptualise its boundaries Difficult issues are involved in the boundaries and the scale at which resource flows are considered. Cities have multiple infrastructures and resource flows that have national and international reach. Research to build understanding of these flows can inform policies on how these can be acted upon at the city scale. The differences between approaches that rebundle infrastructures and resource flows at the scale of new buildings or districts can be compared with others that seek to develop a metropolitan vision for a reconfigured infrastructure and its wider relations with global systems. For example, many of the

© Shutterstock

81