Urban metabolism: Reflections about urban growth and energy use.

Abstract

The study of the impacts that different city models have on ecosystems is a marked trend in current reflections on urbanism. Based on this, alternative methods of energy metabolism analyses are suggested for the Latin American context. These methods are underpinned by a theoretical reflection about a contemporaneous metabolic dynamic from an international perspective, but emphasizing the context of the Colombian Caribbean as a case study. Diachronic comparative analyses of energy use, demographic behavior, and urbanization dynamics have determined that the areas with the largest increase in energy use are not necessarily the most industrialized areas of the territory under discussion. Similarly, it has been concluded that –although South America’s energy production mix has been recently diversified– pressures over the ecosystems have intensified due to the urban dynamics in this region of the continent.