英文摘要 |
The metabolism of a city can be seen as the process of transforming all the materials and commodities for sustaining city's economic activity. The rapid urban growth has not only accelerated the material flows of urban metabolism; its linear pattern has also resulted in the adverse environmental effects. This paper attempts to apply urban metabolism concept to investigate Taipei area's urban sustainability due to urban construction. The material flows (sand and gravel, cement, asphalt, and construction waste) for constructing major urban engineering projects such as roads, bridge, MRT, flood prevention projects, storm drainage and sewerage pipes, and buildings are analyzed for Taipei metropolis during the past decade. As a result, the consumption of sand and gravel is approximately 90% of total construction material used, and the generation of construction waste in Taipei exceeds 30x 106 ton per annum. In order to evaluate the contributory value of material flows to the ecological economic system, emergy evaluation is incorporated in this research. A framework of indicators including categories of: (1) intensity of resource consumption; (2) inflow/outflow ratio; (3) urban livability; (4) efficiency of urban metabolism; and (5) emergy evaluation of urban metabolism is developed for measuring the effect of urban construction on Taipei's sustainability. The emergy value of construction materials in Taipei is equivalent to 46% of total emergy use. Although the livability in Taipei has improved but the significant amount of construction waste remains an important environmental issue. The recycling and reuse of construction waste can not only create circular pattern of urban metabolism but also is vital to the sustainable development of Taipei. |