**3. Life cycle-based solutions for sustainable cities**

Many of the problems that are established as critical in the context of urban areas are characterized as severe based on partial considerations of the full life cycle. They can be worse when accounted in their totality from a life cycle systems' perspective considering the downstream and upstream systems as well. Cities at the same time have a capacity of leverage in moving society at large in the right direction. Dematerialization of the urban infrastructure, exploring the area of integrated infrastructure and life cycle-based performance labeling are discussed as important elements of such opportunities. Capitalizing on such opportunities, however, demands a paradigm shift in the way cities do business.

#### **3.1. Dematerialization of urban infrastructure**

**2.3. Solid waste aspects of cities**

138 Sustainable Cities - Authenticity, Ambition and Dream

2014 to around 66 percent in 2050 [29].

**2.4. Energy aspects of city buildings and transport**

century [31].

able plans.

triggered by the infrastructures.

The solid waste problem has economic implications in many developed cities. In developing countries, the issue takes a multifaceted form as it affects the social, environmental, and shortterm and long-term economic advancements of urban areas. With increasing urbanization, the composition and quantity of waste is surpassing the already meager resource allocated to proper management of the waste in many cities of the developing world. According to the UN, the share of the world's population living in cities is expected to rise from 54 percent in

The rate of increase of volume of solid waste generation is higher than the rate of urbanization as established by a World Bank report from 2012 [30]. By 2025, the planet will have 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste, that is, 2.2 billion tons per year. This increase in solid waste, which is the single largest budget item in many municipalities, will create unprecedented stress in cities in many developing countries, which are already operating under capacity in properly managing their solid waste. If current trends continue, a badly needed global "peak waste" will not happen this

The heating, electricity, and fuel consumption of cities dominates the overall consumption of energy by society. Cities in the cold climate zones of the world specifically account for higher consumption of heat. The hottest regions of the world consume significantly high amounts of ventilation and air-conditioning energy. Decisions about the type and quantity of fuels used to deliver the relevant energy services often revolve around their energy intensity and impact intensity. Cities in different countries therefore have legislated to limit the amount of energy consumed by buildings. There has also been an increasing tendency of moving away from fossil fuel consumption in heating and electricity generation. Those in the cold climate regions will have to plan how their buildings and infrastructure will be heated during the long winter months of the year. The long-life time of buildings and the associated lock-in effect of the existing building stock require innovative approaches to redevelopment and urban renew-

As the power grid decarbonizes, many cities in the world will continue to deal with their transport fuel. The amount of fossil fuel consumed for transportation in cities across the world is still the dominant contributor in both energy consumption and associated emissions of different types. This can be attributed to the high-carbon fuels and the increased mobility and expanding urbanization-led infrastructure systems. The expansion of these systems contributes to increase in indirect consumptions of energy through increased economic activities

Measures aiming at energy efficiencies may not necessarily lead to the desired outcome of net reduction of energy and associated impact at the society level because of a potential rebound effect. Any extra money associated with energy efficiency when spent on previously Innovative designs can be sought to reduce the quantity of materials extracted, processed, and utilized without compromising the quality of the infrastructure. This reduction in the amount of materials is not limited to what is finally bounded in the urban form. A life cycle perspective provides the opportunity to take stock of the materials that are wasted upstream in the mining and quarry sites as well as the waste that should have been diverted from landfills in and around cities. The life cycle lens goes beyond the embodied material during the preuse construction phase. Services provided by and on urban infrastructure should also be dematerialized. Dematerialization is better seen as covering both a relative and absolute decoupling of resource consumption and associated environmental impact from economic growth. It is realized through concerted efforts of achieving significant increase in material and environmental efficiency. At the broadest level, urban areas around the world should be developed and operated with an additional type of decoupling in mind that decouples human well-being from economic growth and consumption through a set of measures that include reduction of excessive consumption levels. Decarbonization as a specific case of dematerialization is best applied in the form of decarbonizing the energy and transport systems, which are the top two contributors for greenhouse gases in cities around the world.

#### **3.2. Assessment integration and integrated infrastructure**

Given existing building and infrastructure stock are here to stay for long, innovative technical and financial mechanisms are required to reuse old infrastructure systems and as last resort recycle materials from them. Repurposing should be a prioritized norm in renewal and redevelopment works of urban centers across the world. The task of repurposing will be increasingly huge with game-changing technical transformation globally. One good example is the large-scale introduction of autonomous vehicles. The need for our massive parking surface and above surface structures will be reduced significantly, and large part of these structures will be abandoned. It is, thus, time to rethink new purposes for them and redesign and redevelop them for a second life and beyond. New projects can be designed and implemented using advanced knowledge using our experience and by finding synergies between different urban forms. Best practices around the world should be emulated with focused attention to local contexts and variables. Urban decision-makers will benefit from twofold integration in relation to infrastructure systems in cities: integration of assessment aspects and integration potentials of infrastructure systems.

already a demonstration of integration of infrastructure systems through connecting material and energy flows of individual systems [33]. Connecting the waste management infrastructure with the transport system using fuels such as biogas produced from waste to power vehicles is one example. Or the use of waste-driven electricity to power transport systems could link the three infrastructure systems through material and energy flows. Advanced integration will be physical (e.g., surface) integration. The future which in many areas is already here holds promising technologies in terms of integrated infrastructure such as solar shingles and solar panel roads. The photovoltaic layered roads or pedestrian ways, for example, can increase the values of infrastructure by adding new functions or layering functions, which is the basis of life cycle assessment's focus on functions of product systems. Envisioning new vehicle technologies that can charge while driving wireless/wire free from the roads and even from other autonomously driven vehicles is not wild. These kinds of developments will, of course, require all kinds of new fiscal, regulatory, and social transformation to work effectively.

Life Cycle Insights for Creating Sustainable Cities http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81633 141

As cities and nations increasingly set greenhouse gases-focused goals and broader sustainability targets, there is a need for measuring, monitoring, and communicating performances and progresses made. Increased sustainability awareness of citizens and the demand for better options offered by cities and parts of cities to prospective residents would encourage the development of sustainability rated or certified infrastructures, districts, neighborhoods, and cities in the future. Assessments that can potentially support such ratings and certifications come in different shapes and sizes depending on the purpose, scope, and object of assessment. Life cycle assessment is about evaluating the environmental impacts of product systems such as buildings and infrastructure systems over their life cycle. Environmental impacts covered in a comprehensive life cycle assessment include climate change, ozone layer depletion, smog, eutrophication, acidification, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, biotic resource depletion, abiotic resource depletion, and fossil fuel depletion. Life cycle sustainability builds on life cycle

Metrics for monitoring and communicating supported by quantitative data are helpful. There is, however, a need for scrutinizing the quality of data, for example, by qualifying the assessment results and conclusions. More and better data collection from primary sources will be useful in addressing the kind of uncertainty associated with, for example, urban greenhouse

Verifiable and independently reviewed sustainability labeling and certification of buildings, neighborhoods, infrastructure systems, subcities, and cities has the potential of sending the right signals to the market and thereby fostering the expansion of best practices and stateof-the-art design, development, and management of the different levels of organization of our urban areas. The performance labeling of infrastructure systems and other elements of urban forms will benefit from the experience of working with the life cycle-based environmental product declarations (EPDs) in the building sector. Rules that set the principles and requirements to be followed in developing EPDs are set in product category rules (PCRs)

assessment to include life cycle costing and social life cycle assessment.

**3.3. Life cycle-based labeling and certification**

gases inventory [34].

Under the assessment integration, elaborating the concept of a comprehensive integrated assessment in relation to decision analysis of infrastructure development and management is important. Setting higher environmental, social, and economic standard on our cities requires the integration of decision-making related to urban infrastructure systems by looking at the triple bottom line as a more comprehensive platform for complementary consideration of the most important and relevant variables while avoiding double counting of the aspects informed by such variables. Understanding the sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) performance of current best practices of developing and managing the totality of urban infrastructure systems and how future technical and nontechnical changes influence the sustainability is crucial. Conventional practices focus either on only one aspect of the sustainability or on only one infrastructure at a time and/or only part of the life cycle of the infrastructure. Decisions based on such partial information and circumscribed knowledge should be replaced by more complete knowledge as an input to the decision analysis stage of the development and management of future infrastructure systems. A comprehensive account of relevant environmental, social, and economic aspects of our urban infrastructure provides municipalities and higher level of governments the opportunity to look at the opportunities, the synergies, and trade-offs associated with alternative development and operational decisions. Our understanding of the performance of the current best practices of developing and managing infrastructure systems from environmental, social, and economic perspective is weak. Even weaker is the level of knowledge we have around the changes in performance in the future with the introduction of technical and nontechnical shifts that can potentially happen in the next 10–30 years. Without an actionable knowledge regarding the current and future potential performance of our cities, we will fall short of getting it right in terms of what measures will be critical in containing the negative impacts of disruptions that affect infrastructure systems from a life cycle perspective. Integrated assessment provides the opportunity of identifying cobenefits and adverse side effects, which will otherwise lie outside conventional assessment lens (see, e.g., [32]).

On integrated infrastructure, exploring how different levels and scales of physical integration, data integration, resource integration, management integration, and other forms of integration affects the overall performance of infrastructure systems is critical. In some cities, there is already a demonstration of integration of infrastructure systems through connecting material and energy flows of individual systems [33]. Connecting the waste management infrastructure with the transport system using fuels such as biogas produced from waste to power vehicles is one example. Or the use of waste-driven electricity to power transport systems could link the three infrastructure systems through material and energy flows. Advanced integration will be physical (e.g., surface) integration. The future which in many areas is already here holds promising technologies in terms of integrated infrastructure such as solar shingles and solar panel roads. The photovoltaic layered roads or pedestrian ways, for example, can increase the values of infrastructure by adding new functions or layering functions, which is the basis of life cycle assessment's focus on functions of product systems. Envisioning new vehicle technologies that can charge while driving wireless/wire free from the roads and even from other autonomously driven vehicles is not wild. These kinds of developments will, of course, require all kinds of new fiscal, regulatory, and social transformation to work effectively.

#### **3.3. Life cycle-based labeling and certification**

recycle materials from them. Repurposing should be a prioritized norm in renewal and redevelopment works of urban centers across the world. The task of repurposing will be increasingly huge with game-changing technical transformation globally. One good example is the large-scale introduction of autonomous vehicles. The need for our massive parking surface and above surface structures will be reduced significantly, and large part of these structures will be abandoned. It is, thus, time to rethink new purposes for them and redesign and redevelop them for a second life and beyond. New projects can be designed and implemented using advanced knowledge using our experience and by finding synergies between different urban forms. Best practices around the world should be emulated with focused attention to local contexts and variables. Urban decision-makers will benefit from twofold integration in relation to infrastructure systems in cities: integration of assessment aspects and integration

Under the assessment integration, elaborating the concept of a comprehensive integrated assessment in relation to decision analysis of infrastructure development and management is important. Setting higher environmental, social, and economic standard on our cities requires the integration of decision-making related to urban infrastructure systems by looking at the triple bottom line as a more comprehensive platform for complementary consideration of the most important and relevant variables while avoiding double counting of the aspects informed by such variables. Understanding the sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) performance of current best practices of developing and managing the totality of urban infrastructure systems and how future technical and nontechnical changes influence the sustainability is crucial. Conventional practices focus either on only one aspect of the sustainability or on only one infrastructure at a time and/or only part of the life cycle of the infrastructure. Decisions based on such partial information and circumscribed knowledge should be replaced by more complete knowledge as an input to the decision analysis stage of the development and management of future infrastructure systems. A comprehensive account of relevant environmental, social, and economic aspects of our urban infrastructure provides municipalities and higher level of governments the opportunity to look at the opportunities, the synergies, and trade-offs associated with alternative development and operational decisions. Our understanding of the performance of the current best practices of developing and managing infrastructure systems from environmental, social, and economic perspective is weak. Even weaker is the level of knowledge we have around the changes in performance in the future with the introduction of technical and nontechnical shifts that can potentially happen in the next 10–30 years. Without an actionable knowledge regarding the current and future potential performance of our cities, we will fall short of getting it right in terms of what measures will be critical in containing the negative impacts of disruptions that affect infrastructure systems from a life cycle perspective. Integrated assessment provides the opportunity of identifying cobenefits and adverse side effects, which will otherwise lie

On integrated infrastructure, exploring how different levels and scales of physical integration, data integration, resource integration, management integration, and other forms of integration affects the overall performance of infrastructure systems is critical. In some cities, there is

potentials of infrastructure systems.

140 Sustainable Cities - Authenticity, Ambition and Dream

outside conventional assessment lens (see, e.g., [32]).

As cities and nations increasingly set greenhouse gases-focused goals and broader sustainability targets, there is a need for measuring, monitoring, and communicating performances and progresses made. Increased sustainability awareness of citizens and the demand for better options offered by cities and parts of cities to prospective residents would encourage the development of sustainability rated or certified infrastructures, districts, neighborhoods, and cities in the future. Assessments that can potentially support such ratings and certifications come in different shapes and sizes depending on the purpose, scope, and object of assessment. Life cycle assessment is about evaluating the environmental impacts of product systems such as buildings and infrastructure systems over their life cycle. Environmental impacts covered in a comprehensive life cycle assessment include climate change, ozone layer depletion, smog, eutrophication, acidification, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, biotic resource depletion, abiotic resource depletion, and fossil fuel depletion. Life cycle sustainability builds on life cycle assessment to include life cycle costing and social life cycle assessment.

Metrics for monitoring and communicating supported by quantitative data are helpful. There is, however, a need for scrutinizing the quality of data, for example, by qualifying the assessment results and conclusions. More and better data collection from primary sources will be useful in addressing the kind of uncertainty associated with, for example, urban greenhouse gases inventory [34].

Verifiable and independently reviewed sustainability labeling and certification of buildings, neighborhoods, infrastructure systems, subcities, and cities has the potential of sending the right signals to the market and thereby fostering the expansion of best practices and stateof-the-art design, development, and management of the different levels of organization of our urban areas. The performance labeling of infrastructure systems and other elements of urban forms will benefit from the experience of working with the life cycle-based environmental product declarations (EPDs) in the building sector. Rules that set the principles and requirements to be followed in developing EPDs are set in product category rules (PCRs) established through deliberative and participatory processes involving different stakeholders including relevant industrial associations. Both PCRs and EPDs as a basis for verification, comparison, and evidence-based monitoring are developed as living documents and are updated from time to time to capture new data and knowledge, new technology, and new requirements.

leads to city-wide net sustainability. The premise is that urban development options and pathways with triple bottom line performance numbers within the boundary conditions have higher chance of broader management and public buy-ins than those that lie outside the space boundary conditions. Research is required on how to establish the lower and upper boundaries of space in view of creating the triple bottom line feasibility considering policy, market

Life Cycle Insights for Creating Sustainable Cities http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81633 143

Under social conditions are the sustainability-relevant behaviors of residents and barriers associated with product-related and lifestyle and culture-oriented practices. These include behaviors that lead to decrease or increase in energy and water consumption, recycling and composting waste, and supporting wildlife in gardens; travel behavior and car ownership; social participation; and the use of local services, businesses, and facilities [9]. Under economic conditions are city activities that lead to a per capita income level that allows a sustainable level of consumption and a rate of job creation that agrees with the rate of increase in labor force. The environmental conditions allude to a requirement that relevant per capita, per dollar, and per spatial area impact metrics are within a globally threshold that does not undermine the sustainability of human life. One relevant global threshold, for example, is an annual per capita greenhouse gases emissions limit calculated globally as the maximum

Life cycle sustainability assessment can be used to conduct baseline analysis, for example, on the natural resource extraction, energy, and impact intensity of materials and energy use in the current best practice of construction, operation, and decommissioning of infrastructure systems and other physical elements that affect the urban form in different ways. It can also be used to appraise future changes focusing on the life cycle performance of technical and nontechnical changes that affect the amount and type of material and energy utilization at the different stages of the life cycle of the urban infrastructure system. The appraisal process should be informed by social and economic criteria embedded in screening and prioritization tools. Integrated life cycle sustainability assessment covering the social feasibility, economic feasibility, and environmental feasibility serves as a basis for ensuring better political feasibil-

The future of our cities can be better shaped by more data-driven and evidence-based participatory decision-making. The three tools that make up the life cycle sustainability assessment framework are data intensive. The critical challenges of conducting the assessment are, thus, related to access to quality data. This problem gets more serious when we account for different scenarios of future technical and nontechnical changes and try to model them. Fulfilling the data requirements involves data collection, database development, and interfacing with existing data sources. We are in an era where huge amount of data resides and continues to pile up in the public and corporate realm. Data mining, access to relevant data, and presenting the data in a digestible format are part of the challenge. In the context of life cycle sustainability assessment, data sources include primary sources from cities

threshold to avoid unprecedented disasters due to climate change.

forces, and consumer perspectives.

ity in city councils around the world.

**4.2. Life cycle data access and quality**
