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A framework for the urban eco-metabolism model - Linking metabolicA framework for the urban eco-metabolism model - Linking metabolic processes to spatial patterns Wen Liu a, b, Andrew C. Chang c, Weiping Chen b, *, Weiqi Zhou b, Qi Feng a a Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China b State Key Laboratory for Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China c Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, United States a b s t r a c t Rapid urbanization disordered the urban metabolism, pressed the contradiction between resources supply and demand, and caused urban environment deterioration. Urban metabolism provides important insights into the characterization of material and energy flows and the relationships between anthropogenic urban activities and natural processes. However, linking socio-economic and ecologic models, and tracking the time-dependent distribution and configuration of material and energy flows across the entire city are imperatively needed in urban metabolism model development. In this study, the points, lines and areas concepts were introduced to connect the urban landscape patterns and ecometabolic processes. A framework developed to simplify the urban landscape as areas, and use points and lines to depict the eco-metabolic processes in space. In application, a model framework of urban water metabolism was used as an example to analyze the natural hydrological processes and social water metabolism in an urban ecosystem. Water balance of a community was calculated by the model. The total input and output of the community’s water metabolism was 50189.6 m3 and 47343.5 m3 respectively.
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