Logo des 49. Historikertags 2012 Ressourcen und Konflikte

49. Deutscher Historikertag 2012: Ressourcen - Konflikte

The contribution of material and energy flow analysis to the study uof urban resources

Referent/in: Sabine Barles (Paris)

Abstract:
The characterisation of socio-natural interactions, and especially of city-resources relationships, can be made through the notion of urban metabolism. Urban metabolism concerns the energy and material flows that are involved in the city, that allows its functioning, and that shapes and is shaped by the urban society. Some of these flows are considered as resources – for instance food or energy entering the city – and others as negative externalities – like various pollutants produced by the city. This classification itself can be questioned in an historical perspective.

A first step in the understanding of urban metabolism is the quantification of the related energy and material flows, on the basis of MEFA (Material-and-Energy-Flow-Analysis) or SFA (Substance-Flow-Analysis). A long-term study allows the description of the socio-ecological trajectory followed by a particular city, and the identification of trends, bifurcation, or transition. Such an approach gains accuracy if the origin and destination of the flows are identified, and the related environmental imprints calculated. We can then observe major changes in city-nature relationships.

Nevertheless, this kind of quantitative approach gives only a part of the whole picture. It is an invitation to look at the underlying processes that shape the trajectory. For instance, it is important to address questions such as what is considered as a resource at what time, what becomes a resource, and what is no more a resource, and why? Who organises the flows,  who decides and who suffers? Putting together these two methods (that is metabolism and history) can be considered as a contribution to urban environmental history.

The talk will briefly address these topics on the basis of empirical results concerning Paris and its resources from the 18th century onwards.

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