A calculation of urban metabolism efficiency.

In this contribution we will introduce a new methodology for the construction of an index of urban efficiency. Indeed, the main aim of the implementation of the model developed in the framework of this research project is to give a suitable description and evaluation of the metabolism of a city. In the first part, we will briefly introduce the thermodynamic and ecological point of view used in this construction (section “Metabolic and thermodynamic point of view on cities”), its conceptual background based on the use of fuzzy logic methods (section “The indicator of urban efficiency”) and the empirical meaning of this index as a simulator of decision processes of experts (section “The empirical meaning of the indicator of urban efficiency”). The remaining parts are dedicated to the specific calculation of this index for the cities of Barcelona and Lugano (section “Construction of the European Urban Efficiency Index 2009”) and to the presentation of possible results and their practical uses (section “Preliminary results and conclusions”).