Circular city: a methodological approach for sustainable districts and communities

The increasing complexity of urban growth strongly impacts both on the quality of urban environment and on the effectiveness of models for development, requiring innovative approaches to face the related challenges. The proposed position paper reports the methodological approach outlined within a trans-European research project. It aims at defining a systemic urban vision based on resource loops vision in a clustered perspective, overcoming the conventional separation between urban and peri-urban areas. The main scope is to drive a transition from a linear (“take-make-use-dispose”) to a circular approach, considering the whole city realm and aiming to close resource loops (in line with EU COM 614/2015, Closing the loop; EU COM 33/2017, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan and Urban Agenda Draft Action Plan on Circular Economy 09.02.2018) while generating new market opportunities and jobs, reducing resources import, decreasing impacts on environment and climate change. The methodology includes the following steps: increasing context understanding, identifying resource flows, using economic potential of existing resources, engaging communities in loops of proximity, facilitating entrepreneur and stakeholders in co-creation of circular economy processes. This paper explains the positioning of the research within the state of the art; it describes the applied methodology and related expected outcomes, defines the main related initiatives and implementation models. This study identifies Regenerative Corridors (RC) as potential effective drivers to overcome the conventional separation between urban, peri-urban and rural areas in the EU context, investigating their relations and identifying driving factors for a circular equalized development among these different urban zones. This paper reports also the impact indicators and the replication potential of the proposed systemic approach.