“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 further work on the concept of Metabolic Impact Assessment (MIA) to make it operational and readily applicable as a new, innovative and far-reaching planning policy instrument, able to improve the metabolic efficiency of our cities.

The project is expected to provide professionals in the local authorities with a new tool for metabolic impact assessment that can be effectively incorporated in the SEA procedures and composed of a set of models that are user friendly and that are efficient in terms of data collection. MIA is expected to produce both strategic and operational results. At a strategic level, this project, and the dissemination of its results, is expected to generate discussion on the different forms of environmental assessment and on the formulation of integrated views for our cities and metropolitan areas. At an operational level, the project is expected to produce knowledge on the most effective ways to evaluate urban plans and projects in particular in the cities of Lisbon and Porto.