RT Report
T1 The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization
A1 United Nations Environment Programme, 
A2 Swilling, Mark
A2 Hajer, Maarten
A2 Baynes, Tim
A2 Bergesen, Joe
A2 Labbé, Françoise
A2 Musango, Josephine
A2 Ramaswami, Anu
A2 Robinson, Blake
A2 Salat, Serge
A2 Suh, Sangwon
A2 Currie, Paul
A2 Fang, Andrew
A2 Hanson, Aaron
A2 Kruit, Katja
A2 Reiner, Mark
A2 Smit, Suzanne
A2 Tabory, Samuel
K1 city
K1 urbanization
K1 sustainable consumption
K1 sustainable development
K1 population growth
K1 waste management
K1 urban management
K1 Sustainable Development Goals
K1 land use
K1 urban development
K1 green revolution
K1 energy efficiency
K1 transport
K1 China
K1 India
K1 United States
K1 urban planning
SN 978-92-807-3699-1
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/31623
UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/31623
NO The report presents the first assessment of the resources required at a global scale for the coming wave of urbanization. Using material flow analysis, the analysis of urban form and city organization, the assessment of the potential contribution of known sustainable technologies, as well as case study methodology, it reveals the possibility of an alternative, resource-efficient urban management strategy. The report identifies the proliferation of the sustainability-oriented ‘urban experiments’ as a basis for a new form of resource-efficient urbanism. This emergent mode of urban governance can be aligned with the potential of networks of knowledge-based economies that will change industrial activity in cities over the coming decades. The report seeks to address the complex interrelationships between (1) urban population growth and demographic change, (2) spatial change and development (with particular reference to (de-)densification), (3) infrastructure planning and development, and (4) resource flows into, through and out of urban systems, and consequently the complex interrelationships between cities and the wider ecosystems within which they are embedded. It presents urban resource flows as being key to understanding what it will take to promote a transition from resource-intensive urban metabolism towards alternatives that manage resources more carefully.
DS UN Environment Document Repository
RD Sep 17, 2026