AUTHOR=Giannetti Biagio F. , Agostinho Feni , Almeida Cecília M. V. B. , Sevegnani Fábio TITLE=Conceptual Analysis on the Way Brazilian Cities Work: A Macroscope View JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Cities VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2020 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-cities/articles/10.3389/frsc.2020.00013 DOI=10.3389/frsc.2020.00013 ISSN=2624-9634 ABSTRACT=

Cities play a crucial role in the development of nations, since they concentrate diverse forms of energy and transform them into higher quality outputs. An alternative for assessing urban agglomerates is the use of the eMergy synthesis method and the Odum's macroscope, which allow understanding and quantifying the energy flows that drive the cities functioning. The macroscope is able to identify the dependence relationships between cities and their surrounding environment that provides energy and resources to be transformed into high-quality products and information. After two decades of developing studies related to urban systems under Odum's macroscope approach, the research team of Paulista University in Brazil acquired experience and maturity to write this conceptual analysis about how Brazilian cities work. Several cases are provided—including anabolic and catabolic pathways involved in the regulation of cities mechanisms—to sustain final insights on the way Brazilian cities work. The results show how these cities add to the development the country transforming low quality energy into higher quality outputs. Cases are discussed under the Odum's macroscope perspective providing understanding on the dependence among cities and their neighborhood and helping to plan for future development.