Metabolic depression in infrasystems: suggesting hibernation as a phase in large technical systems-development

Presentation @ 4S, Cleveland 2011. Björn Berglund - Environmental Technology and Management, Linköping University

Material Flow Analysis (MFA)

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Urban Mining

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Infrasystems constitute key secondary resource stocks since…

• ≈ 20% of the systems weight is disconnected • 5500 metric tonnes • Copper alone worth 5 million dollars • City of 130k inhabitants

1.  They are big 2.  They contain high-quality metals 3.  The concentration of metals is higher than in most ores 4.  They are underground, thus easily neglected

Quantitative study of Norrköping

Norrköping: Obsolete Town Gas Grid

Stagnation: Entire systems

Norrköping: Disconnected Private AC Cables

Atrophy: Parts of Systems

Norrköping: Disconnected Parts of District Heating Grid

Apoptosis: Pieces of systems

1.  Why are the parts and wholes of different urban infrasystems taken out of use?

2.  Why are they left in their underground location?

What dynamics lie behind these patterns?

Why are the parts and wholes of different urban infrasystems taken out of use?

Stagnation: Entire Systems

• System Decline – LTS theory Urban reasons: • City growth • Densification • Rezoning/Urban renewal • Mistimed investments • Industrial relocation

Networked reasons: • Changes in other infrasystems

System dynamics: • Larger capacity needs • Subsystem removal

Normal incidents: • End of a part’s life expectancy • Bad component performance • Smaller grid changes • Ordinary brekdowns

Networked incidents: • Water leaks • Dig works

Strategic reasons: • Redundancy • Back up

Atrophy: Parts of systems

Apoptosis: Pieces of systems

Why are they left in their underground location?

Stagnation: Entire Systems

Cost related reasons: • Expensive to dig and restore • Traffic disruptions are particularly costly = time pressure

Environmental reasons: • Law is teethless for the underground • Local environmental risks: (PCB, lead, oil and asbestos)

Subterranean messiness: • Infrasystem congestion • Insufficient documentation

Practice related reasons: • Outside line of business • Location near buildings

Atrophy: Parts of systems

Apoptosis: Pieces of systems

TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS:

• Material splintering is part of the waste logic of infrastructure in networked cities

• System flow optimization ≠ material flow optimization

• We suggest a set of metaphors to describe these infrasystem dynamics:

- Atrophy: wasting away of parts of systems

- Apoptosis: system cell death

• The heterogenous reasons behind the urban mine phenomena, uncover the sociotechnical nature of the networked city.

THANK YOU!

Email: bjorn.i.berglund@liu.se Homepage: iei.liu.se/envtech/om-oss/bjorn-berglund?l=en