News & Events

News, seminars, conferences and research activities

This page documents research outputs, seminars, conferences, doctoral milestones, awards and public dissemination.

News

Research milestones, publications, appointments and public engagement from the UrbanLab.

8 July 2026

Invited Keynote at the ISIE Socio-Economic Metabolism Conference

Daniela Perrotti delivered an invited keynote at the International Society for Industrial Ecology’s Socio-Economic Metabolism Conference at the University of Cambridge.

13 June 2026

Spatial Patterns of Urban and Suburban Electricity Consumption

Pramit Verma and collaborators published new research on energy-consumption clusters in Central Europe.

29 April 2026

European State of the Climate 2025 Released

Daniela Perrotti contributed as Lead Author of the “Policy and Action” section of the C3S–WMO European State of the Climate 2025 report.

9 April 2026

Urban Metabolism Translated into Nine Urban Archetypes

Daniel Otero Peña and Daniela Perrotti published a design catalogue translating metabolic evidence into nine resource-sensitive and community-inclusive urban archetypes.

2026

Daniela Perrotti Serves on the 2026 F.R.S.-FNRS Sustainability Commission

Daniela Perrotti serves on the F.R.S.-FNRS Sustainability scientific commission for the 2026 doctoral Grants and Fellowships call.

19 January 2026

Urban Metabolism and the Post-Growth City

Daniela Perrotti discussed urban metabolism and post-growth urbanism in the Postgrowth City Podcast.

2026

Daniela Perrotti Joins the Tema T Fellowship Programme

Daniela Perrotti was invited as a Visiting Professor in Urban and Regional Climate Transition at Linköping University, Sweden, within the Tema T Fellowship Programme.

August 2025

Daniel Otero Peña Completes His Doctoral Research

Daniel Otero Peña defended his doctoral thesis on the spatial dimension of urban metabolism on 28 August 2025.

27 May 2025

Post-Growth Landscape Studies and Contested Urban Ecologies

Daniela Perrotti contributed to a critical discussion of urban nature, political ecology and post-growth landscape studies.

February 26, 2025

Ursula-Crisy Cardenas-Mamani Defends Her Doctoral Thesis

Ursula-Crisy Cardenas-Mamani defended her doctoral thesis integrating urban metabolism, ecosystem services and dynamic modelling.

2024

CO-HABITAT Research Report Released

The CO-HABITAT research report was published as a 170-page cartographic and design investigation into animal-inclusive planning in the Brussels-Capital Region.

28 March 2022

Integrated Urban Metabolism and Ecosystem-Service Research

Announcement of major publications on ecosystem-service integration and the spatial dimensions of urban metabolism.

2025

aIST-nexus Research Programme

The F.R.S.-FNRS-supported programme began developing an interdisciplinary framework based on agency, information and spacetime, with its research report released in 2025.

Events

Conferences, seminars, invited lectures and scientific exchanges involving members of the Lab.

5–9 July 2027

Nature-Based Solutions and Materials for the Circular City

Polytechnic University of Milan

2 February 2026

Grassroots Metabolisms

University of Gothenburg

2026

Mapping Metabolic Imperialism in Nature-Based Transformations

POLLEN Political Ecology Network Conference

23 December 2025

Nature-Based Solutions for Decarbonising the Urban Metabolism

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

11 December 2025

Metabolic Imperialism by Design: Intra- and Inter-Species Ecological Unequal Exchange in the Making of Metropolitan Nature

University of Amsterdam — Urban Planning

10 December 2025

Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Metabolism Research

Leiden University — Institute of Environmental Sciences

1–4 July 2025

ISIE 2025 Scientific Committee and Special-Session Organisation

International Society for Industrial Ecology

24–27 June 2025

A Multispecies Ecological-Unequal-Exchange Framework for the Urban Metabolism

International Society for Ecological Economics / International Degrowth Conference

24–28 March 2025

Degrowing with Nonhumans in Cities: Multispecies Labour Alliances as Levers for Urban Degrowth Futures

American Association of Geographers

2025

Urban Biowaste and Construction Materials at SBE25

SBE25

27–30 August 2024

Conceptualising Agency across Industrial and Social Ecology

Royal Geographical Society with IBG

24–27 August 2024

ISIE Beijing 2024 Scientific Committee and Keynote-Session Chair

International Society for Industrial Ecology

14 June 2024

Modelling Urban Metabolism in Light of Agency

University of Louvain Urban Metabolism Lab

12–14 June 2024

World Sustainable Built Environment Conference

World Sustainable Built Environment Conference

20–22 March 2024

From Concepts and Models to Practice

AScUS 2024

2024

Identifying Metabolic Clusters in Belgian Cities

American Geophysical Union

14–17 December 2023

Urban Science and Sustainability Conference

Urban Science and Sustainability Conference

2–5 July 2023

International Conference on Industrial Ecology

International Society for Industrial Ecology

31 May 2023

Looking South: Urban-Metabolism-In-Formality

University of Louvain Urban Metabolism Lab

27 April 2023

Food-to-Waste / Waste-to-Food

University of Louvain Urban Metabolism Lab

2023

Landscape Architecture and Metabolic Approaches

International Federation of Landscape Architects

25 November 2022

Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research Conference

University of Louvain / interdisciplinary research conference

26 April 2021

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Water Challenges

Louvain4Water, University of Louvain

Awards and Distinctions

Selected distinctions and nominations connected to the Lab’s research and doctoral supervision.

Editorial Activities

Editorial leadership and scholarly publishing initiatives supporting interdisciplinary research exchange.

Cities are not closed systems

Their metabolism extends across territories, infrastructures, ecosystems and communities. Understanding these relationships is essential to creating urban environments that are more resource-sensitive, socially just and ecologically resilient.