Urban Metabolism and Global Climate Change: An Overview

Urban centres are increasingly challenged by population increase and the resultant environmental concerns including the urban sprawl and climate change. Moreover, different patterns of urbanization contribute to the changing climate via differences in their urban metabolism represented by energy and matter. Urban metabolic studies in terms of energy and material inflows, outflows, and stocks can be associated with traditional evaluation techniques to help assess the magni-tude and potential effects of variety of environmental challenges the world is facing today. Further, urban centres are critical real-time observatories that indicate the impact of anthropogenic activities on global biogeochemical cycles. For example, urban processes have significant and lasting impacts on the global carbon budget. It has also been observed that the technology and infrastructure advancements have fuelled increase in urban inputs and outputs of material and energy. Therefore, more sustainable approaches need to be adopted in changing scenarios for urban planning, particularly for sustainable resource utilization and better waste manage-ment practices. Taking a lead from the systematic review from 1990 to 2023, the chapter provides research trend analysis on urban metabolism in the backdrop of changing climate. It discusses the sustainability in urban metabolism, sustainable urban planning, ecosystem services, and disaster resilience so as to provide an inter-disciplinary understanding of urban metabolism. The chapter identifies an urgent need to develop new methodological approaches for real-time and reliable evaluation of urban metabolism.