Urban form, policy packaging and sustainable urban metabolism

Since the inception of modern urban planning in the early 20th century, numerous urban planning policies have been introduced that seek to steer urban form towards desired patterns. Some have explicitly focused on promoting energy efficient urban forms to reduce carbon emissions and contribute to sustainable urban metabolism. Despite the proliferation of such policies, ‘unsustainable’ trends, such as urban sprawl and long distance car-based commuting, continue and in some cases are worsening. In this paper, we aim to explore the limited success of a number of influential urban planning policies in Europe and North America in trying to steer urban form towards a more sustainable path. Our aim is to identify their potential common shortcomings and suggest a number of principles which may help formulating more effective policy packages for sustainable urban metabolism.