Environmental profile of the municipality of Madrid through the methodologies of Urban Metabolism and Life Cycle Analysis

Abstract Cities are important consumers of resources and producers of waste derived from the lifestyle and daily needs of their citizens, which is why they are considered the main actors responsible for the environmental impacts related to anthropogenic activities. The quantification of these impacts is fundamental for the definition of sustainable cities. In this work, a material flow accounting study combined with the Life Cycle Assessment approach is conducted for the municipality of Madrid, the most populated city of Spain. The findings of this study allow performing a sustainability diagnosis of a large city such as Madrid, identifying energy needs, food consumption and manufactures as environmental hotspots. In addressing the comprehensive analysis of available data, important constraints arise, such as access to data. To this end, not only the development of precise estimation tools to quantify these flows, but also greater transparency of data sources, are fundamental elements in the study of the sustainability indicators proposed in this paper. Therefore, the success of any proposed sustainability strategy depends on the involvement of policy-makers and citizens in the objectives and measures set, as well as on the access to information and training on sustainability as fundamental action line driven by local government.