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not only the in- and outflows but also the exchanges with other systems. Disruptive elements, such as extreme climatic events, intense migration processes, or the effects of pandemics must enter into the metabolic analysis in order to provide adequate mechanisms of resilience and adaptation. These elements form a functionally essential part of urban systems, defining tools for describing the dynamics and processes at work in contemporary living environments. The metabolic approach to the city, however, cannot solve all issues relating to contemporary cities, where complexity and interactions are such as to require further analytical processes, with respect to which applying a single model, however multifaceted, would still not suffice. Extreme climate events Although the purpose of this book is not to take part in the international debate on the present global climate change, nor is it intended to establish the concomitant causes to be attributed to human development, what we can certainly agree is that the planet’s climate is changing, and cities are seriously threatened by this phenomenon2. Current forecasts, broadly shared by the international Numerous initiatives have been launched to address these issues such as: IHDP (International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change) Urbanisation Science Project, Diversitas Science Plan on Urbanisation, IUSSP (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population) Urbanisations and Health Working Group, U.S. National Academies’ Panel on Urban Population Dynamics, U.S. National Academies’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability’s Task Force on Rapid Urbanisation, UNESCO’s initiative on Urban Biospheres.
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