Seventy percent of the global population is expected to live in cities by 2050, occupying more land and generating more emissions. The effect of urban emissions reduces the capacity of natural ecosystems to function effectively while at the same time negatively impacting human health and well-being. Therefore, the sustainable management of urban areas is crucial for the long-term sustainability of the human economy. The management strategies should adopt a new systemic perspective that considers cities as socio-ecological systems characterised by complex human-nature interactions. This perspective is also based on the shift from the traditional “black box” urban metabolism models, accounting for the input of resources and output of wastes and products, to the network models capable of unfolding the internal metabolism of cities. The theoretical part of the work covers two interdisciplinary research fields: Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology, combined in a network science methodology . Firstly, the bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on urban metabolism was performed to identify the temporal developments and new areas for investigating the metabolism of the urban systems. In the empirical part, the environmental accounting and the multiple methods of network science methodology were integrated to estimate the environmental costs, metabolic efficiency and self-sufficiency, and impact of each sector in urban socio-ecological systems. The research corresponds to the 11th and 12th Sustainable Development Goals. It contributes to developing sustainable resource management strategies for Sustainable Cities and Communities by identifying inefficient or unsustainable resource consumption patterns. The first case study focused on estimating total emergy use in the Vienna Region. The results show that “mining” and “agriculture” are not prioritised in terms of investment by the Vienna Government. In addition, the ecological network analysis was applied to analyse the structural and functional attributes of Vienna’s urban metabolic system to identify weaknesses in the system's ecological hierarchy and relationships and the sectors behind these weaknesses. The results show that “wholesale and retail” and “energy” sectors are responsible for the low financial support to producers (agriculture and mining) by the tertiary industries. The other study found that the footprint of final products by “agriculture” became larger when an emergy-evaluated version of direct carbon emissions was used. A multicriteria approach integrating the input-output and the emergy accounting methods could be a valuable tool in investigating socio-ecological interactions, allowing a comprehensive understanding of environmental and socio-economic flows exchanged between industrial sectors and the environment. The integration of environmental accounting with the multiple methods of network science methodology allows for the investigation of internal metabolic pr

1. International PhD Programme/ UNESCO Chair
“Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development”
Towards sustainable cities: A multicriteria
assessment framework for studying urban metabolism
PhD student
Oleksandr Galychyn
PhD Cycle 34 – Year 2021
Supervisor
Prof. Pier Paolo Franzese
Tutor(s):
Prof. Brian Fath

2. Scientific Background
1. The social and ecological impacts generated by urbanization require the
integrated management of cities based on a sustainable supply of resources for
the long-term management of human economy.
2. This perspective is based on network models to study internal metabolic
processes in urban socio-ecological systems, complementing traditional “black
box” urban models.
“black box” urban model Network model

3. Goal and Research questions
1. How to develop a multicriteria framework to assess the environmental performance
and sustainability of urban systems?- Paper I and II
2. How to explore the functioning, organization, and complexity of city systems by
integrating biophysical, systems, and network methods?-Paper III and IV
Towards sustainable cities

4. PAPER I
Questions addressed in the paper
What are the temporal trends in research on urban metabolism?
What are the emerging areas of investigation in the research on urban metabolism?

5. Methodology
The temporal trend analysis was used to investigate the temporal development of the
scientific research on urban metabolism
A bibliometric network analysis was implemented to generate maps based on network data
of scientific publications displaying relationships among scientific journals, researchers,
countries, and keywords.

6. RESULTS
• The temporal trend analysis showed that research on urban metabolism has
grown exponentially over the last ten years
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Number
of
publications
Cumulative
Citation
Cumulative Citation Number of publications

7. • The analysis also revealed a shift of focus from environmental issues to environmental
accounting tools and socio-economic aspects of cities
Overlay visualization of the co-occurrence network map of keywords.
RESULTS

8. CONCLUSION
• In light of the importance of urban systems in achieving local and global
sustainability goals, it is expected that the scientific literature on urban metabolism
will continue increasing over the next years.
• The complex relationships between natural and socio-economic systems in cities,
could be explored through the development and application of multi-criteria
assessment frameworks to study urban metabolism.

9. PAPER I I
Questions addressed in the paper
 How to regionalize national economic supply and use tables using a supply-side commodity-by-industry model?
 ⋅How to estimate transformities of energy and monetary flows exchanged between industrial sectors and the
environment?
 ⋅How to construct the regional hybrid-unit emergy input-output table from regional economic and energy data?
 ⋅How to estimate the environmental support provided to urban socio-ecological systems?
A multi-criteria framework for assessing urban socio-ecological systems: The emergy
nexus of the urban economy and environment
Oleksandr Galychyn1*, B. D. Fath2, Izhar Hussain Shah 3, Elvira Buonocore 1, Pier Paolo Franzese1
1Laboratory of Ecodynamics and Sustainable Development, Department of Science and Technology, Parthenope University of
Naples, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, 80143, Naples.
2Council for Agricultural Research and Economics – Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria –
Forest Monitoring and Planning Research Unit (CREA–MPF), Trento (Italy).
Submitted to Journal of Cleaner Environmental Systems. In review.

10. The case study of the Municipality of Vienna (Austria)
• Vienna region has the smallest area among
other regions ( 414.9 km2).
• Vienna region hosts a population of about
1.9 million (2020).
• This region generates about one quarter of
the national GDP, about 96 billion euros.

11. Methodology
HYBRID INPUT-OUTPUT
Analyze interdependence of
energy and non-energy
industries in urban economy.
REFLEXIVE METHOD
Analysis of entire supply
chain of each product to
estimate transformity values.
MATRIX INVERSION
An extension of hybrid input-
output analysis to estimate
transformity values.

12. Regional monetary and energy IO tables
• Supply-side commodity-by-industry input-output
and location quotient (LQ) approaches based on
value added and final energy consumption were used
to obtain the regional shares of monetary and energy
production (location quotients), respectively
• Then, these shares were applied to disaggregate
Vienna’s monetary and energy balance data.
Supply-side approach

13. Regional monetary and energy IO tables
• Consequently, the regional energy use
data were integrated with regional energy
supply data through the Leontief’s
“commodity by industry model”.
• This models used to estimate direct and
energy (monetary) requirement matrix,
which is then multiplied by total industrial
supply (or use) to build energy(
monetary) input-output tables
Commodity-by-industry accounting framework
Commodity Industry
Final
Demand
Total
Use
Commodity
Use
Matrix
Final
uses
Commodity
outputs
Industry
Make
Matrix
Industry
outputs
Energy
losses
Value
Added
Energy
losses
Value
Added
Imports Imports
Total
supply
Commodity
outputs
Industry
outputs

14. Development of emergy input-output model
• The matrix method was integrated with
reflexive method to overcome limitations
in computing transformity values.
• Regional monetary and energy input-
output tables were multiplied by their
respective transformity values and
summed to build the emergy input output
table. .
Limitations
Methods
Non-square matrices
(processes < quantities)
Non-unique solution
of transformities
Matrix Inversion Problem Ok
Reflexive Method Problem Problem
Matrix + Reflexive Ok Ok
Table 3 Limitations and extensions.

15. Hybrid-unit emergy input-output model
• The emergy input-output table was
combined with the monetary input-
output table based on hybrid-unit
input-output approach to build
hybrid-unit emergy IO model.
• This table id used to estimate the total
environmental support to each sector
of the Vienna’s socio-ecological
system.
Data in grey area are in emergy units (seJ) and data in white area
are in monetary units (€)
H-EIO
Consuming
sectors
Final
Consumers
Total
Use
Producing
sector
Intermediate
use
Final
use
Industry
outputs
Producing
sector
Intermediate
use
Final
use
Industry
outputs
Imports Imports
Value added
Value
added
Table 4 Hybrid-unit emergy input-output model

16. Total emergy consumption (seJ) by sector in Vienna
1. “Renewable energy” sector is
supported by a large emergy
consumption, confirming the
importance of renewable energy in the
context of Vienna’s regional economy.
1. The lowest emergy use of the “mining
and quarrying” sector shows that the
Vienna’s government focused on
improving circular economy strategies
and renewable energy production.
Results

17. Total emergy consumption (seJ) by sector in Vienna
1. “Agriculture, forestry, and fishing”
uses only slightly more emergy
compared to “mining and quarrying”
sector (1.03E+18 seJ), indicating that
this sector is similar in terms of
investments to “mining and quarrying”
sector.
2. Among the tertiary sectors, “public
administration and defence, social
security”, “transportation and storage”,
and “human health and social work
activities” are characterized by a high
emergy support, confirming a strong
policy commitment to provide high
quality social services oriented towards
smart cities and urban sustainability in
line with the Vienna’s development
strategy
Results

18. Conclusion
•Future strategies should consider applying supply-side and demand-side
interventions to continue improving the share of renewable energies while
promoting and supporting sectors with low emergy consumption (i.e.,
organic agriculture, mining and quarrying, transportation and storage).
•The investments into “agriculture, forestry, and fishing” sector should be
prioritized due to the role of this sector in renewable energy production and
its position in supply chain: acceptance of renewable energy into the system,
and its transfer in the production and supply of agricultural products (i.e.,
farm products) to all other sectors.

19. PAPER III
Questions addressed in the paper
 How to integrate the use of emergy input–output tables and ecological network analysis to construct urban
metabolic network model?
 How to determine the status of system components using system-level analyses (flow and contribution analyses)?
 How to identify critical components responsible for the status (level of contribution exchange with other sectors)
and emergy consumption of the other sectors using pairwise control and utility analyses?
 What corrective measures targeted at each critical sector of the Vienna's metabolic system should be applied to
impove the overall efficiency and sustainability
Ecological network analysis of a metabolic urban system based on input–output
tables:Model development and case study for the city of Vienna
O. Galychyn1,*, B. D. Fath2,3, E. Buonocore1, P.P. Franzese1
1 International PhD Programme / UNESCO Chair “Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development”, Department of
Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
2 Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University, Maryland, USA.
3 Advancing Systems Analysis, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria
Submitted to Journal of Cleaner Production Letters. In review.

20. Methodology
ECOLOGICAL NETWORK
Method used to analyze a
structure and functions of
urban metabolic system.
INPUT-OUTPUT
Analyze interdependence of
industries in urban economy.
REFLEXIVE METHOD
Analysis of entire supply
chain of each product to
estimate transformity values.
MATRIX INVERSION
An extension of hybrid input-
output analysis to estimate
transformity values.

21. Network
model
of
Vienna
metabolic
system
The model of builds on balanced Vienna’s emergy input-output
table.
The model is used to perform ecological network analysis of
Vienna’s urban metabolic system
Ecological network model of Vienna’s metabolic system

22. Ecological network model of Vienna’s metabolic system
• Zi and Yi represent inputs from and to the external environment of the metabolic system, respectively.
• ‘Environment’ includes the natural environment within Vienna’s boundary and outside of the region
Sector Sector names
AGR Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
MIN Mining and quarrying
MAN Manufacturing
EC Electricity, gas, water supply, sewerage, waste,
and remediation services
CON Construction
WR Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor
vehicles
TS Transportation and storage
AC Accommodation and food service activities
INF Information and communication
FIN Financial and insurance activities
RA Real estate activities
OBS Professional, scientific, technical, administrative,
and support service activities
ADS Public administration and defence, compulsory
social security
ED Education
HS Human health and social work activities
ER Arts, entertainment, and recreation, repair of
household goods and other service

23. Ecological network analysis of Vienna’s metabolic system
Flow Analysis
Estimates flows and their transfer efficiencies
along all possible path lengths in urban
metabolic system
Contribution Analysis
Measures the total influence of each component
on all other components in the system, and vice
versa
Control Analysis
Measures dependence and control between each
pair of components
Utility Analysis
Assesses benefits and costs between each pair of
components in the system
ENA

24. Results: Critical sectors based status ( level of contribution
exchange with other sectors ) and emergy consumption
Producers (AGR and MIN)
Suppliers (AGR and MIN ) do not have enough indirect support (investments)
to satisfy demand of consuming sectors
Consumers (downstream)
Highest monetary
dependence in the
system (ADS, and HS )
Reliance on imported
products (TS and EC)
Low importance in the
system (WR and CON)
Sector Sector names
AGR Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
MIN Mining and quarrying
MAN Manufacturing
EC Electricity, gas, water supply, sewerage, waste,
and remediation services
CON Construction
WR Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor
vehicles
TS Transportation and storage
AC Accommodation and food service activities
INF Information and communication
FIN Financial and insurance activities
RA Real estate activities
OBS Professional, scientific, technical, administrative,
and support service activities
ADS Public administration and defence, social security
ED Education
HS Human health and social work activities
ER Arts, entertainment, and recreation, repair of
household goods and other service

25. Results: Sectors responsible for critical state of producers
(Agriculture and Mining)
Energy
• Competition for investments between
Agriculture and Energy sectors
contributed the most to the low deliver
ability of Agriculture sector to consuming
sectors.
Agriculture
•Low monetary (investments) and strong
energy dependence of Agriculture sector on
Mining and Energy sectors hindered
Agriculture’s production capacity
Mining
Wholesale and Retail
•Lack of monetary control of Wholesale and
Retail sector over Mining sector contributed
to the low energy delivery of the Mining
sector

26. Conclusion
To promote decentralized electricity generation options and direct
distribution channels to minimise the losses associated with energy
delivery to tertiary consumers and the payment from tertiary
industries reaching AGR and MIN sectors, respectively.
The combination of multi-criteria approach with costs of
ecological and socio-economic ENA constitutes an indispensable
tool for studying the total environmental costs of all indirect
interindustry exchanges among sectors in urban metabolic systems,
thereby providing support for city managers and policy makers to
guide resource consumption towards an efficient and sustainable
urban metabolic system.

27. PAPER IV
Questions addressed in the paper
 How to develop supply-extended and use-extended emergy footprint models?
 ⋅How to compare the results using supply-extended and use-extended designs?
Emergy assessment in Vienna, Austria:
A systems perspective comparing supply and use-extended footprint models
O. Galychyn1*, B. D. Fath2, D. Wiedenhofer3, E. Buonocore1, P.P. Franzese1
1 International PhD Programme / UNESCO Chair “Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development”, Department of
Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, (80143) Naples, Italy.
2 Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University, Maryland, USA
3Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. Austria
In preparation

28. Methods
MATRIX INVERSION
An extension of hybrid input-
output analysis to estimate
transformity values.
ENVIRONMENTAL INPUT-OUTPUT
An extension of input-input
analysis to assess environmental
impacts of economic activities

29. Territorial (or production-based) accounting
PBA attributes the direct CO2 emissions
to the industries where goods and
services are produced, regardless of final
destination of these commodities
Such activities generally include energy,
manufacturing, mining, transport,
industry and waste incineration
I-O Commodities
Final
Consumers
Sectors
Intermediate
use
Final
use
Supply-extension - energy extraction and
production induces CO2 emissions
I-O Commodities
Final
Consumers
Sectors
Intermediate
use
Final
use
Use-extension –direct energy consumption
by final users induces CO2 emissions

30. Environmentally extended input-output accounting framework
• Carbon and emergy footprints of final products and industries were estimated at the at entry point
into the urban economy (energy extraction) and at the final stage of the energy conversion chain
(energy use).
Consumption of commodities by industries Final consumption
Emissions from final energy use
Production of
commodities
by sector
1 2 … n
Households Government
Capital
formation
Exports Households Capital
formation
Exports
1 x11 x12 … x1n q1L q1G q1C q1M q1L q1C q1M
2 x11 x12 … x2n q2L q2G q2C q2M q2L q2C q2M
… … … … … … … … … … …
n xn1 xn2 … xnn qnL qnG qnC qnM qnL qnC qnM
Energy use (or
supply) by
sector
Categ
ory 1
pe11 pe12 … pe1n
Categ
ory 2
pe11 pe21 … pe2n
… … … … …
Categ
ory m
pem1 pem2 … pemn

31. Results: Footprints of final products
• Products of extractive industries (i.e., agricultural
products) and services become higher when
emergy-evaluated version of footprint is used
• The manufacturing products (i.e., chemical
products) became higher when traditional carbon
footprints are estimated
Carbon footprints (left) and emergy-based carbon footprints (right) for final goods and services, estimated from a
commodity-by-commodity IO model, showing the difference between the supply-extended (red) and the use-extended
model (blue), for Vienna 2015.

32. Results: Footprints disaggregated by final demand categories
Carbon and emergy footprints of final demand categories broken down by final products and aggregated by intermediate sector
categories, 2015; Carbon footprints are shown in the left bar (a) while emergy-based carbon footprints are shown in the right
bar(b)
• In general, we find that direct energy use of biofuels
by final demand categories (i.e., households) is far
less pronounced compared to the final consumption
by production (industries)
a) Carbon footprints of final demand categories b) Emergy footprints of final demand categories
• Exports category in emergy-evaluated use extension design
is a little larger compared to the supply-extended design (b)
due to the small direct emergy export of biofuels including
environmental costs of biofuel production, not of local
origin, by agricultural and energy source sectors allocated to
the final demand category of Exports.

33. Results: Consumption by source sector
Carbon footprints (left) and emergy-based carbon footprints (right) for source sectors, estimated from a commodity-
by-commodity IO model, showing the difference between the supply-extended (red) and the use-extended model
(blue), for Vienna 2015.
• Energy and mining sectors are not key emergy sources for Vienna Region due to the economic (i.e.,
transportation costs, ) and environmental concerns (i. e, circular economy and renewable energy
alternatives)

34. Because each emergy extension provides different type of
information, we recommend assembling emergy extensions from
the multi-scale nested MRIO tables to promote decision rooted in
environmental and economic stewardship and resource-efficient
cities.
The understanding of total environmental support to the production
and use activities in the economy will assist policy makers in
assessing implication of their decisions for the whole urban
economy and its global life-support system.
Conclusion

35. • This thesis contributed to developing multi-criteria assessment frameworks capable of exploring the
interplay of environment, economy, and resources taking place within urban socio-ecological system
by adopting an interdisciplinary and systems-based approach.
• The integration between environmental accounting with the multiple methods of network science
methodology proved to be useful to overcome shortcomings of single criteria approaches when
investigating internal problems and associated external environmental burden (resource
consumption and environmental pollution).
• Further research should be conducted obtain more disaggregated and multi-scale data on production
processes and consumption activities in cities to understand fully and to assess upstream and
downstream requirements of urban metabolic activities.
• More research should also focus on combining system-level indicators, reflecting system’s resource
efficiency and sustainability, with internal metabolism assessment to improve the state of the urban
socio-ecological systems and its development in terms of efficiency and stability
Main contributions of PhD research to the future work

36. Thank you for your
kind attention!