IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v16y2012i6p801-813.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Social‐Ecological‐Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Anu Ramaswami
  • Christopher Weible
  • Deborah Main
  • Tanya Heikkila
  • Saba Siddiki
  • Andrew Duvall
  • Andrew Pattison
  • Meghan Bernard

Abstract

Cities are embedded within larger‐scale engineered infrastructures (e.g., electric power, water supply, and transportation networks) that convey natural resources over large distances for use by people in cities. The sustainability of city systems therefore depends upon complex, cross‐scale interactions between the natural system, the transboundary engineered infrastructures, and the multiple social actors and institutions that govern these infrastructures. These elements, we argue, are best studied in an integrated manner using a novel social‐ecological‐infrastructural systems (SEIS) framework. In the biophysical subsystem, the SEIS framework integrates urban metabolism with life cycle assessment to articulate transboundary infrastructure supply chain water, energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission footprints of cities. These infrastructure footprints make visible multiple resources (water, energy, materials) used directly or indirectly (embodied) to support human activities in cities. They inform cross‐scale and cross‐infrastructure sector strategies for mitigating environmental pollution, public health risks and supply chain risks posed to cities. In the social subsystem, multiple theories drawn from the social sciences explore interactions between three actor categories—individual resource users, infrastructure designers and operators, and policy actors—who interact with each other and with infrastructures to shape cities toward sustainability outcomes. Linking of the two subsystems occurs by integrating concepts, theories, laws, and models across environmental sciences/climatology, infrastructure engineering, industrial ecology, architecture, urban planning, behavioral sciences, public health, and public affairs. Such integration identifies high‐impact leverage points in the urban SEIS. An interdisciplinary SEIS‐based curriculum on sustainable cities is described and evaluated for its efficacy in promoting systems thinking and interdisciplinary vocabulary development, both of which are measures of effective frameworks.

Suggested Citation

  • Anu Ramaswami & Christopher Weible & Deborah Main & Tanya Heikkila & Saba Siddiki & Andrew Duvall & Andrew Pattison & Meghan Bernard, 2012. "A Social‐Ecological‐Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(6), pages 801-813, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:16:y:2012:i:6:p:801-813
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00566.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00566.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00566.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bishawjit Mallick, 2019. "The Nexus between Socio-Ecological System, Livelihood Resilience, and Migration Decisions: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Marian R. Chertow & Thomas E. Graedel & Koichi S. Kanaoka & Jooyoung Park, 2020. "The Hawaiian Islands: Conceptualizing an Industrial Ecology Holarchic System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Robert Habans & Matthew Thomas Clement & Andrew Pattison, 2019. "Carbon emissions and climate policy support by local governments in California: a qualitative comparative analysis at the county level," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(3), pages 255-269, September.
    4. Magoua, Joseph Jonathan & Li, Nan, 2023. "The human factor in the disaster resilience modeling of critical infrastructure systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    5. Jessica Cook & Kate Oviatt & Deborah Main & Harpreet Kaur & John Brett, 2015. "Re-conceptualizing urban agriculture: an exploration of farming along the banks of the Yamuna River in Delhi, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 265-279, June.
    6. Clinton J. Andrews, 2020. "Toward a research agenda on climate‐related migration," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(2), pages 331-341, April.
    7. Lara P. Clark & Samuel Tabory & Kangkang Tong & Joseph L. Servadio & Kelsey Kappler & Corey Kewei Xu & Abiola S. Lawal & Peter Wiringa & Len Kne & Richard Feiock & Julian D. Marshall & Armistead Russe, 2022. "A data framework for assessing social inequality and equity in multi‐sector social, ecological, infrastructural urban systems: Focus on fine‐spatial scales," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(1), pages 145-163, February.
    8. Jinpeng Fu & Guirong Xiao & Lingling Guo & Chunyou Wu, 2018. "Measuring the Dynamic Efficiency of Regional Industrial Green Transformation in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, February.
    9. David N. Bristow & Eugene A. Mohareb, 2020. "From the urban metabolism to the urban immune system," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(2), pages 300-312, April.
    10. Yoonshin Kwak & Brian Deal & Grant Mosey, 2021. "Landscape Design toward Urban Resilience: Bridging Science and Physical Design Coupling Sociohydrological Modeling and Design Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-17, April.
    11. Federico Savini & Mendel Giezen, 2020. "Responsibility as a field: The circular economy of water, waste, and energy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(5), pages 866-884, August.
    12. Andrew Pattison & Mathew Thomas Clement & Robert Habans, 2022. "The uneven weight of carbon on policy: towards a framework for understanding how greenhouse gas inventories can inform equitable climate policy design," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(1), pages 81-90, March.
    13. Vanessa Armendáriz & Stefano Armenia & Alberto Stanislao Atzori, 2016. "Systemic Analysis of Food Supply and Distribution Systems in City-Region Systems—An Examination of FAO’s Policy Guidelines towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-19, December.
    14. Saskia Van Broekhoven & Anne Lorène Vernay, 2018. "Integrating Functions for a Sustainable Urban System: A Review of Multifunctional Land Use and Circular Urban Metabolism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, June.
    15. Willa Paterson & Richard Rushforth & Benjamin L. Ruddell & Megan Konar & Ikechukwu C. Ahams & Jorge Gironás & Ana Mijic & Alfonso Mejia, 2015. "Water Footprint of Cities: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-30, June.
    16. Xue Cheng & Wei Pan & Qingpu Zhang, 2019. "Antecedents of Knowledge Interaction in the Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research Team: A Mixed Research Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-23, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:16:y:2012:i:6:p:801-813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.