Daniel Otero Peña’s doctoral thesis develops a spatial and design-oriented approach to urban metabolism. It asks how the geography of resource flows can be connected with public-space networks, community practices and environmental vulnerability.

The dissertation combines three linked cases. Mexico City is used to develop GIS methods for mapping resource-efficiency patterns and vulnerable communities; Brussels is studied through alternative resource-governance systems and their spatial configurations; and Caracas provides a setting for synthesising the evidence into resource-sensitive and community-inclusive archetypes. The work combines quantitative indicators, field research, interviews, three-dimensional modelling and research by design.

Defended in August 2025, the thesis demonstrates how metabolism research can move from aggregate diagnosis to spatial intervention. It was supervised by Daniela Perrotti and Pierre Vanderstraeten and received recognition in the 2026 HERA doctoral-thesis programme for its systemic attention to resource accessibility, public space and environmental justice.