Circular Economy trifft urban-regionale Resilienz – Synergien für eine nachhaltig-anpassungsfähige Stadtentwicklung

Abstract

To provide the Circular Economy with better opportunities for integration into city-regional strategies, linkages with broader objectives of resilience are solicited. The concepts of Urban and Regional Resilience are also increasingly discussed in Germany, as an approach to future viability. They are expected to bolster the robustness, adaptability, and recovery capabilities of cities and regions in the face of multiple crises, connected to objectives of sustainable development. This article, on the one hand, shows in which respects a combined view of urban-regional resilience establishes a suitable framework for effectively embedding systemic approaches of the Circular Economy into city-regional contexts. On the other hand, it explains how, in turn, the resilient cushioning against environment- and economy-related risks can be more successful if elements of the Circular Economy are integrated. After conceptual considerations of the synergistic interdependencies of these process fields, the example of the City of Aachen serves to illustrate the appropriate combination of ‘Circular City’ and resilience-related objectives. It elucidates how important a focus on innovation is for such strategic approaches. Finally, recommendations are made for designing a resilient-circular urban economy.