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Shrinking cities examined from a shrinking scale – the impact of household and neighborhood heterogeneity on changes in material and energy consumption, ecosystem services and environmental impact
Citation:
Balogh, S., J. Bousquin, E. Melendez-Ackerman, C. Ortiz, T. Munoz-Erickson, A. Lugo, S. Yee, G. Garcia-Lopez, AND M. Perez-Lugo. Shrinking cities examined from a shrinking scale – the impact of household and neighborhood heterogeneity on changes in material and energy consumption, ecosystem services and environmental impact. U.S. Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) 9th Biennial Conference, St. Paul, MN, June 25 - 28, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
This paper expands on prior research on shrinking cities by examining the impacts of population loss on urban social-ecological systems at the household and neighborhood scales. The purpose of this is to unmask underlying differences in economic, cultural, and environmental behaviors and perceptions, and to examine the potential positive and negative impacts on environmental impacts and human well-being.
Description:
Urban populations continue to increase globally and cities have become the dominant human habitat. However, the growth of cities is not universal. Shrinking cities face decreased income, reduced property values, and decreased tax revenue. Fewer people per unit area creates inefficiencies and higher costs for infrastructure maintenance and the provision of public amenities. However, population losses and economic distress are not equal in all neighborhoods, and in fact are quite heterogeneously distributed across the landscape. Broader statements about the trajectory of a shrinking city may mask underlying differences in economic, cultural, and environmental impacts as well as the ability of some neighborhoods to be resilient and adaptive to economic changes as well as climate change and other environmental stressors. This paper examines the recent impact of population loss in neighborhoods in the Río Piedras watershed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the provision of ecosystem services, material and energy flows, and ecological impacts, using public data and data collected previously in two household surveys. Using scenarios, we estimate future population changes and their potential positive and negative impacts on the environment and human well-being in these neighborhoods.