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Urban metabolism of the informal city: Probing and measuring the ‘unmeasurable’ to monitor Sustainable Development Goal 11 indicators

Abstract:

African cities rely predominantly on the informal city for their growth, and much of the infrastructure remains within the boundaries of original colonial settlements or cannot keep up with unplanned expansion. Informality is dominant in public transport systems, water and food provision, energy generation and waste removal. Thus, analysing the flows of energy, water, food and waste is a difficult task as they are hard to track and quantify. However, finding ways to assess these flows is an important step to empower urban planners with relevant knowledge about how their cities function. This paper thus explores how urban metabolism can contribute to the assessment of the informal city to monitor progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 11 indicators. We achieved this through a critical literature review and the use of a case study based on the authors’ urban metabolism projects conducted in the African context. The results of the literature review show that urban metabolism research has transitioned from the first wave, namely intradisciplinary, to the second wave, integrated. Due to the call for inclusive urban metabolism assessments, a a third wave is emerging, co-designing with communities, and it promotes situated urban metabolism assessments that engage with local contexts. The case study projects demonstrate the potential to advance informal city metabolism assessments to monitor Sustainable Development Goal 11 indicators, in the third wave of urban metabolism research.