Metabolism of an Emerging Town in Ethiopia – The Case of Amdework

Marco Ranzato
Luisa Moretto
Ahmed Z. Khan
Preface
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This book reveals the geographical imprint of the urban metabolism of
Amdework, a remote rural settlement in Ethiopia. Amdework represents
a characteristic case study of an emerging town. Like many other such
settlements in Ethiopia, Amdework is bound to grow quickly, as national
policies control urbanization by distributing the growing population across
both major cities and the settlements spread throughout the country’s
large rural landscape. The book provides an account of this small town’s
metabolism just ahead of the anticipated changes that will substantially
transform its spatial, production, and consumption patterns. Viewed from
the perspective of current debates in urban metabolism and sustainable
urban development, Amdework presents a counter-case to most of the
common assumptions regarding urban metabolism popular these days
in Western countries. The town, and the livelihood of its inhabitants, still
depends mainly on the resources of its surrounding hinterland of valleys
and plateaus. Increasing urbanization, however, arriving along with urban
living standards and practices, risks undermining the long-standing balance
between the population of Amdework and the surrounding Dehana district.
Revealing the geographical imprint of Amdework’s metabolic processes
is about mapping and understanding the very nature of this balance, which
is crucial for any discussion of sustainable urban development in this
emerging town. Our narrative regarding the metabolism of Amdework
raises the question of whether securing the sustainability of the town, with
more circular production and consumption patterns supporting better living
conditions, is really a matter of technological progress—or whether it is, on
the contrary, a rhetorical issue and hence of marginal importance. In other
words, the metabolism portrayed here raises basic socio-ecological questions
which could help to expose certain claims concerning the environment
and the ways technology will save the world. In this way, it is relevant to
the discussion of both terms of the socio-natural binomial. As with any
description, the diagnosis presented in this book is not neutral. The narrative
of the geographical imprint of Amdework’s metabolism, although not
comprehensive, provides a basis from which to better focus the dilemma and
to further develop our understanding of the tensions between these elements.
This book is a result of research which took place within the
framework of the research project Local Capacity-Building for
Sustainable Urban Development of Small Regional Towns in Ethiopia:
The Case of Amdework and the Emerging Cities Integrated Planning
lab (ECIP Lab) launched by the same project. Funded by the Belgian
international cooperation institute ARES (Académie de Recherche et
d’Enseignement Supérieur), this ARES project involves the collaboration
of several research centers: Habiter, LoUIsE, and BATir at the Université
libre de Bruxelles, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech at the Université de
Liège, and the EiABC (Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building
Construction, and City Development) at the University of Addis Ababa.
Several young urban designers have contributed to the production
and editing of cartographic material: Bikila Merga and Israel Tesfu from
the EiABC, Elsa Bouillot and Matthieu Champougny from the Faculty
of Architecture La Cambre Horta, and Andrea Aragone from Latitude
Platform. Closely supervised by Marco Ranzato and, at a later stage,