Milano Urban Mine: Towards a Material Resource Cadastre

Estimating the type and amount of material contained in the built environment is critical for optimal management of building material stocks and flows. Among the bottom-up approaches, the paper explores the use of the Material Intensity Coefficient (MIC) for different types of buildings inferred from cadastral data and other building indicators (e.g., type, age, and function). This approach offers high levels of detail, and the results are generally accurate. However, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so it is usually applied to small geographic areas. To overcome this limitation, we conducted a combined exercise between the urban planning and architectural technology courses at Politecnico di Milano, involving 48 students in fieldwork and producing original MIC estimates for the most recurring building types in a 4x4 km southwestern portion of the city of Milan. The results show that the period between 1957 and 1965 recorded the highest volume of building construction, and that material components are mainly concrete and hollow bricks, followed by clay bricks, clay tiles and glazed surfaces. The GIS model facilitates the visual understanding of the distribution of materials in the area and can be used to quickly estimate potential material flows out of demolition and renovation sites. However, greater automation is needed to speed up the process and reduce errors.