title: Ecological relationship analysis of the urban metabolic system of Beijing, China.
abstract: Cities can be modelled as giant organisms, with their own metabolic processes, and can therefore be studied using the same tools used for biological metabolic systems. The complicated distribution of compartments within these systems and the functional relationships among them define the system's network structure. Taking Beijing as an example, we divided the city's internal system into metabolic compartments, then used ecological network analysis to calculate a comprehensive utility matrix for the flows between compartments within Beijing's metabolic system from 1998 to 2007 and to identify the corresponding functional relationships among the system's compartments. Our results show how ecological network analysis, utility analysis, and relationship analysis can be used to discover the implied ecological relationships within a metabolic system, thereby providing insights into the system's internal metabolic processes. Such analyses provide scientific support for urban ecological management.
authors: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors: Shengsheng
authors: S
authors: Li
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Zhifeng
authors: Z
authors: Yang
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Liu
authors: Jinyun
authors: J
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014866:Waste Products / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014866:Waste Products