Comparison of different urban development strategy options to the urban metabolism optimal path

An urban metabolic optimization model of energy resources consumption and airborne pollution emissions is built up in this paper, and taken as a yardstick for the efficiency of the four different scenarios measures for urban development. Sensitivity Analysis is proposed to the emergy approach in order to explain the procedure and the obtained results for the selected case study of Beijing metabolic system in the year 2006. The solution to the urban optimization problem can be obtained using the optimal control theory as an analytical tool. In this case, the theory of optimal control gives a normative answer to the question how the utilization of the resources inputs and the environment has to be chosen to maximize inter-temporal welfare. The results imply that during the investigation period, steel and iron have the most significant correlation between global environment impact and local economic development, which results from rapid construction growth favored by the local government in Beijing based on the results of the optimization and the comparison with different options of Chinese resource restructuring strategy, the following ranking of strategic options can be derived: increasing energy efficiency, implementing greenhouse gas control and air pollution treatment after the end of major infrastructure construction.