A critical review on circular and regenerative urban areas

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) has gained relevance as a new economic-environmental paradigm. Despite their key role in this model, managing cities towards CE has taken different meanings, approaches, concepts and methods. Therefore, this study aims to clarify circularity approaches to urban areas, by identifying main trends and exploring potential organization into a framework for policymakers and urban managers. We first conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand limits and divergences when spatially expressing circularity. Four approaches covering different possibilities regarding circularity in urban areas stood out: (i) specific flows within a circular city; (ii) flows integration for resource looping; (iii) planning the transition from linear to circular cities; and (iv) concepts of circular or regenerative urban areas. We then hypothesized that one of these concepts, the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) approach, embraces the multiplicity of quantitative and qualitative requisites needed for developing circular urban areas. Our contribution, in the second part of the paper, organizes the requisites and indicators raised during the SLR according to the C2C principles into a draft framework to enable optimization and integration of different flows with human activities to various urban and socioeconomic contexts.