Undertaking Urban Metabolism analysis in a data poor context: the metabolism of housing construction materials in Amdework - a small town in Ethiopia

Urban Metabolism, a tool used to map and quantify flows and stocks within and across urban boundaries, has become an important tool in recent urban studies. It shows the relative position of a town (its sub-system) on the sustainability continuum. However, the approach faces critical bottlenecks, particularly, in developing countries, because of lack of data and standardised methodologies. This research, by employing a bottom-up data generating technique that relies on lots of conversions and estimations, analyses the metabolism of materials used in the construction of residential housing in a small town in Ethiopia. The result indicates that the vast majority of inputs used in the construction are sourced locally. However, there are certain worrisome trends challenging sustainability in the sub-system. Furthermore, findings of the metabolic analyses have been extrapolated to the national-level to understand implications flows and sourcing of inputs have on the sustainability of low-income housing in the future.