WRF Geneva 23-24 Oct 2019

23rd October 2019

Valeria Superti

Co-authors: Baur, I. , Binder, C.R.

Assessing the contribution of Circular Economy to Urban Sustainability: an analysis based on the use of indicators

Motivation 2

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How does the Circular Economy conceptually integrate and contribute to Urban Sustainability?

50% 80% 75% 80%

Critics to the Circular Economy: Terminology – Social aspects – Goals – Feasibility (link to Energy) (Blomsma & Brennan, 2017; Suárez-Eiroa et al., 2019 )

Methodology

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3

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(Schroeder et al., 2018; Moraga et al., 2019)

Data cleaning

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4

Link with the SDGs andSTEEP categories

Used in the cluster analysis

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2229 indicators 585 indicators

Number of doctors

Number of doctors

Number of hospitals

Number of hospitals

Number of doctors

Number of hospitals

Health

42 topics

Selected results – Unique indicators 5

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44 391

CE in urban systemsUS

150

«Unique» indicators

US

CE in urban systems

6

35

«Unique» topics

0,00

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

0,80

0,90

1,00

Urb

an s

oil

Tour

ism

Priv

ate

finan

ces

Con

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ivity

Con

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Frequency of presence across the indicator sets Threshold

Selected results –Core topics 6

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There are 7 categories that represent the core focus of CE in cities (frequency > 0.50)

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Selected results –Clustering 7

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2 main clusters at the top

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The indicator sets labelled CE_[#] refer to indicator sets that measure Circular Economy in urban systems.

The indicator sets labelled US_[#] refer to indicator sets that measure Urban Sustainability.

Conclusions 8

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• It is possible to identify core topics of the Circular Economy in urban systems, that are covered by the majority of sets.

• The concept of a CE in urban systems does not cover additional topics, in comparison to the concept of Urban Sustainability. Nevertheless, it offers a deeper analysis of some specific topics (44 “unique” indicators).

• A shared approach to measure CE in urban systems is still missing and highly needed.

• CE in urban systems has clearly a different focus with respect to US in terms of STEEP categories covered. For the latter, the CE in urban systems have a higher coverage of the technological and environmental aspects.

• Further research could analyze the type of indicator used (for example input, output indicators), in order to elicit additional similarities or differences.

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Questions? Suggestions?

9Thanks for your attention

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Back up

Bind

er

10

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Indicators 11

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Waas et al., 2014

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Sample 12

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Concept # of sets Years Average # of indicators

CE 20 2005-2019 23

US 41 2005-2019 43

• 61 indicator sets retrieved worldwide

• Focus only on sets explicitly focused on the urban scale

• Total number of indicators: 2229. 558 After analysis of the duplicates

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0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5Political

Environmental

EconomicTechnological

Social

Coverage of the STEEP categories

CE in cit ies US

Results 3/4 13

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0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3SDG1

SDG2

SDG3

SDG4

SDG5

SDG6

SDG7

SDG8SDG9SDG10

SDG11

SDG12

SDG13

SDG14

SDG15

SDG16

SDG17

Coverage of the SDGs

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Results 4/4 14

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CE_3Indicators for CharlotteCharlottemunicipality and Metabolic

CE_7 Rotterdam circularity scorecard Metabolic

CE_8 indicator framework for the evaluation of circular economy development in cities Development Research Center of the State Council. Li et al., 2010CE_13 Zuid Holland Metabolic

CE_14 City deal circular cities. The Netherlands

CE_6 The development of a circular city definition, indicator set, and index. J. Koehler, MSc

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