Mapping material stocks of buildings and mobility infrastructure in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2024

Understanding the size and spatial distribution of material stocks is crucial for sustainable resource management and climate change mitigation. This study presents high-resolution maps of buildings and mobility infrastructure stocks for the United Kingdom (UK) and the Republic of Ireland (IRL) at 10 m, combining satellite-based Earth observations, OpenStreetMaps, and material intensities research. Stocks in the UK and IRL amount to 19.8 Gigatons or 279 tons/cap, predominantly aggregate, concrete and bricks, as well as various metals and timber. Building stocks per capita are surprisingly similar across medium to high population density, with only the lowest population densities having substantially larger per capita stocks. Infrastructure stocks per capita decrease with higher population density. Interestingly, for a given building stock within an area, infrastructure stocks are substantially larger in IRL than in the UK. These maps can provide useful insights for sustainable urban planning and advancing a circular economy.

Sustainable resource use

Material stocks

Sustainability

Earth observation

Sentinel-2

Sentinel-1

Social metabolism

Infrastructure mapping

Författare

Dominik Wiedenhofer

Universität für Bodenkultur

Franz Schug

University of Wisconsin Madison

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Hannes Gauch

University of Cambridge

Maud Lanau

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Byggnadsteknologi

University of Sheffield

Michal P. Drewniok

University of Bath

University of Leeds

André Baumgart

Universität für Bodenkultur

Doris Virág

Universität für Bodenkultur

Harry Watt

University of Sheffield

André Cabrera Serrenho

University of Cambridge

Danielle Densley Tingley

University of Sheffield

H. Haberl

Universität für Bodenkultur

David Frantz

Universitat Trier

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

09213449 (ISSN) 18790658 (eISSN)

Vol. 206 107630

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2011)

Samhällsbyggnadsteknik

Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap

DOI

10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107630

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2025-01-09