Abstract
Cities will have a decisive role in reducing the consumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Various experiences of urban regeneration have exploited Information and Communication Technology (ICT) potentialities to optimize the management of complex systems and to encourage sustainable development models. This paper investigates the role of ICT technologies in favouring emerging design for Circular Economy (CE) in the urban context. The paper starts by defining the theoretical background and subsequently presents the goal and methodology of investigation. Through a scoping review, the authors identify case studies and analyse them within the Ellen MacArthur Foundation classification framework that splits the urban context into three urban systems: buildings, mobility and products. The research focuses on nine case studies where the ICT solutions were able to promote the principles of CE. The results show, on the one hand, how data management appears to be a central issue in the optimization of urban processes and, on the other hand, how the district scale is the most appropriate to test innovative solutions. This paper identifies physical and virtual infrastructures, stakeholders and tools for user engagement as key elements for the pursuit of CE adoption in the urban context.
Highlights
The results show the state of the art of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) technologies for Circular Economy (CE) in district contexts, the main areas of application and the key elements to design this kind of solution
This article offers an overview of the main experiences related to the development of ICT solutions in order to address the challenges of sustainable development within the urban fabric
Figures and information on the discussed case studies are mainly from grey literature and research reports while there are a few scientific papers focusing on CE at district level [37,104,107]
Summary
In the same years scholars belonging to different disciplines, economists, business people, activists and heads of state from all five continents collaborated in the Club of Rome [2]. In this approach input-output models compared industrial systems to natural ones. Such studies highlighted the scarcity of the planet’s resources and the catastrophic effects of an uncontrolled production of waste. The transition to new circular economic models could establish a new balance between the components of the anthropized ecosystem. Urban spaces are responsible for the consumption of 75% of natural resources, more than 50%
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