"MIA - Metabolic Impact Assessment: from concept to practice" brings together two separate research fields, Urban Metabolism (UM) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The main objective is to advance CITTA previous work on the concept of Metabolic Impact Assessment (MIA) (for more information, see SUME project) to make it operational and readily applicable as an innovative and far-reaching planning policy instrument. more...

Over the last years, there have been growing evidences, particularly in the most developed countries, of a certain disarticulation between the different forms of environmental assessment and the urban development processes taking place in cities and metropolitan areas. It has been argued that these urban areas cannot be the sum of different projects and that a comprehensive and holist view for these cities is needed. Against this background, the Metabolic Impact Assessment (MIA) methodology has been proposed in the context of the SUME project (Sustainable Urban Metabolism for Europe). Grounded on the urban metabolism concept, MIA is an innovative tool that offers this holistic view and that is able to estimate the impact of new planning proposals, such as urban plans and major urban development projects, on the existing metabolic performance of cities and metropolis. more...