Projects: Circular Cities

Circular research at UCL is split across three main themes

Circular economy

Focussed on the creation of circular economic systems and circular business models

Circular built environment

Focussed on circular construction, adaptive infrastructure, circular water and energy systems

Circular cities

Focussed on the design, planning and governance of ecologically regenerative, and adaptive cities

	Going circular: unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition – RSA Expo This research is a joint collaboration between TU delft and UCL . It aims to understand how a circular transition will impact on regions and cities. It seeks to determine the spatial, geopolitical and social implications of circular transitions in regions and cities. It investigates the governance and policy challenges created by a circular transition. It seeks to develop a more regenerative understanding of circularity to understand how circular city-regions might emerge. It also assesses how progress towards such a transition might be measured. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk publicationS Williams, J. van Buren, E., van den Berghe, K and Dabrowski, M. (2023) Going circular: unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition, RSA Book (Forthcoming)
	The Dynamic and Evolving Linkages and Processes that Characterise the Governance and Planning of Urban Circularity in Shrinking Cities With the abundance of vacant land, shrinking cities provide a fertile ground for the development of urban circularity. Meanwhile, urban circular activities can be an important, yet unexplored asset in tackling shrinkage. However, in shrinking cities, a wide spectrum of coalitions and the actual interplay of power, normative settings, and different actors’ interests generate specific traditions and cultures which lead to a hegemony of certain narratives about the nature of urban problems, their causes, and possible solutions. The central issue of transitioning to urban circularity in shrinking contexts, therefore, concerns the efforts to involve a huge variety of stakeholders and to align their expectations and ambitions. Consequently, the question of how different actors come together and work to deliver the transformation of an urban ecosystem of a shrinking city needs to be put under further scrutiny. On that account, this research aims to examine the dynamic and evolving linkages and processes that characterise the governance and planning of urban circularity in shrinking cities. Contact: marjan.marjanovic@ucl.ac.uk
	Going Circular – Addressing the climate change emergency The research aims to determine the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from transitioning to a circular development pathway in cities . The circular development pathway integrates resource looping (e.g. grey-water and infrastructure recycling, energy recovery); urban adaptation (flexible infrastructure, spaces, self-organising communities); and ecological regeneration (the restoration of urban ecosystem services), to enable the city-region to co-evolve with societal needs, whilst reducing its ecological footprint and GHG emissions (through sequestration, energy recovery, localising resource flows, reducing waste going to landfill, etc). It will produce methodologies and tools which can be used by cities to calculate the emissions savings they can make from adopting this approach. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk
	Building Back Better: Towards Circular Development Post-COVID This research explores two questions: How the impacts of COVID-19 on our cities might be addressed by adopting a circular development pathway. How the Circular Experiments have survived or failed during the pandemic and why. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk and rendy.aditya.21@ucl.ac.uk PUBLICATIONS Williams, J (January 2021) Towards Circular Urban Development Post-COVID: CIODB Policy Briefing, CIOB Think Tank, Barcelona: Spain. Williams, J (2023) After COVID: a circular recovery in European cities, in The Future of Liveable Cities, Springer. (Forthcoming)
	A Comparison of Circular Strategies Across European Cities This research examines the different strategies for delivering circular development, drawing on examples from four European cities: Amsterdam, London, Paris and Stockholm. It explores these different development pathways and levers for transformation. Finally, it focuses on the challenges to implementation faced by urban actors. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk Publications Williams, J (2021) Circular Cities: a revolution in urban sustainability, Routledge: London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429490613 Williams, J (2019) The Circular Regeneration of a Seaport. Sustainability, 11(12), 3424; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123424
	Circular Transitions: London Circular Experiments This study sought to: Map a range of circular experiments across London. Identify the mechanisms and levers for scaling-up these experiments. Explore the circular transformation in a placed-based circular living lab in London. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk and m.josefine.hintz@gmail.com Publications Williams, J and Hintz, M (2023) Catalysing a circular transition in Brixton, Transitions in Circular Economy, Routledge Handbook. (Forthcoming)
	Circular cities: strategies, challenges and knowledge gaps This project seeks to define a circular city. It investigates the strategies for delivery and how these complement or conflict with one another. It identifies the challenges – cultural, economic, political, regulatory, institutional, physical and informational – facing the implementation of circular strategies. Finally it explores the knowledge gaps and begins to develop a future research agenda. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk Publications Williams, J., 2019. Circular cities. Urban Studies, 56(13), pp.2746-2762. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018806133
	Adaptable Suburbs: a study of the relationship between networks of human activity and the changing form of urban and suburban centres through time This project is a study of how small-scale centres of social and economic activity are shaped by the way in which physical and social networks change their form through time. Due to their frequently being below the policy radar, there is a clear gap in knowledge about how smaller centres form part of the large-scale spatial/social network. Our collective expertise allows us test a novel proposition about how centres of socio-economic activity emerge through time, for which existing theoretical models of centre-periphery or fringe-belt do not seem adequate. We will address the question of how local self-organisation, design interventions and functional changes have an impact on large-scale network of connections. Our research will provide the evidence for targeted funding in the UK suburbs that "are required for preventative action to halt further decline in the suburbs and to avoid the need for major expenditure in the future". At a time of great social and economic flux characterised by new communications technologies and radically changing patterns of work, living and consumption, suburban centres are critical to an urgently needed re-evaluation of how to plan for the future growth of our older cities. EPSRC reference: EP/I001212/1 Key people Prof Victor Buchli Dr Ashley Dhanani Dr Claire Ellul Dr Sam Griffiths Prof Muki Haklay Prof Laura Vaughan
	Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) is a five-year Wellcome Trust funded project that will deliver key global research on the systems that connect urban development and population health. Starting in 2018, CUSSH is working with thirteen partner organisations across four continents to help cities develop in ways which improve population health and environmental sustainability. In each of six cities London (UK), Rennes (France), Kisumu and Nairobi (Kenya), and Beijing and Ningbo (China) its work will focus both on local priorities and city-scale actions aligned with planetary health. Through our close partnerships with local organisations, CUSSH will learn how policy decisions to achieve health and sustainability goals can be improved and accelerated. Key people Professor Michael Davies (CUSSH Programme Director) Professor Paul Wilkinson (CUSSH Scientific Director) Full list of CUSSH researchers
	Food for Urban Lives and Locality (FULL) Food for Urban Lives and Localities (FULL) focuses on the role of digital technology and social adaptation in assuring food security and how community initiatives, and municipalities have responded. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed large cities worldwide to unprecedented challenges. It has also strained access to food among vulnerable urban groups such as older people, people with disabilities or underlying health conditions, single parents, low-income households, ethnic minorities, and migrants. Hence, FULL aims to comparatively analyse urban community responses to prepare Sweden and other countries better for similar events that challenge local access to food. This research looks at five cities: Stockholm, Seoul, Sydney, London, and Wuhan, taking account of various levels of COVID-19 responses and urban form typologies. The international research team, including leading scholars from social policy and urban studies, will collect data through conventional means and tap into a range of online data sources using combined analytical methods. Key people Dr Catalina Turcu
	Low Carbon Action in Ordinary Cities LO-ACT is looking at the 'ordinary actions' taken by citizens to improve everyday life whilst tackling climate change. The project examines specific examples of climate change actions and policies to find out how ideas, materials, technologies, and expertise can be transferred across urban contexts. The objectives are to: 1. Understand the local actions in a global context and how they shape the ordinary cities; 2. Explain the transferability potential of social, technological and institutional innovations; 3. Study the impact of local actions on citizens; 4. Create a research toolbox to engage with the messy, the unusual and the change in-the-making. Reimagine the theories on climate change politics. Key people Dr Cassidy Johnson Dr Vanesa Castan Broto
	Adaptation to climate change in cities: Looking at Dhaka from the built environment perspective This research seeks, firstly, to understand how the impacts of climate change in Bangladesh are going to affect the urban poor in Dhaka and secondly, to address plans for adaptation at the local (neighbourhood level) that will address vulnerability. The research looks at impacts from a vulnerability perspective; understanding who and what is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and climate vulnerability as well as what can be done to address these vulnerabilities. The emphasis is on physical environment and the aspects contributing to adaptation in built environment. Key people Prof Adriana Allen Prof Cassidy Johnson

Cities of Making (CoM)

Cities of Making (CoM) explores the future of urban based manufacturing in European cities in terms of technology, resources, place and application. Following years of decline and offshoring, European cities are being confronted by a range of issues simultaneously: firstly, manufacturing jobs have shifted quickly to services and have created large gaps in the employment market, concepts such as circular economy are being taken seriously by cities and finally new technology is emerging allowing industry to be quieter and more discrete. This may offer a raft of potential benefits, including jobs for sociodemographic groups most affected by unemployment, innovation, more efficient use of materials and urban resilience. Urban centres play an important role in nurturing new forms of green urban manufacturing, based on a clean, knowledge- and labour-intensive manufacturing sector.

Cities of Making has used a combination of strategic and action research resulting in concrete projects. Our ambition was to identify what works in supporting a resilient and innovative industrial base and to test those solutions in a real-world setting. The biggest questions we’ve touched include:

What technology/resources are suitable for 21st century urban industry?
Where can it be located in the city in terms of planning and spatial constraints?
How can we leverage the change?

We’ve learnt from experiences in London, Rotterdam and Brussels – each with a distinct industrial heritage. Through this project we have developed typologies, practices and policies focusing on public and private stakeholders to breathe new life into their manufacturing communities.

Going circular: unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition – RSA Expo

This research is a joint collaboration between TU delft and UCL . It aims to understand how a circular transition will impact on regions and cities. It seeks to determine the spatial, geopolitical and social implications of circular transitions in regions and cities. It investigates the governance and policy challenges created by a circular transition. It seeks to develop a more regenerative understanding of circularity to understand how circular city-regions might emerge. It also assesses how progress towards such a transition might be measured.

Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk

publicationS

Williams, J. van Buren, E., van den Berghe, K and Dabrowski, M. (2023) Going

The Dynamic and Evolving Linkages and Processes that Characterise the Governance and Planning of Urban Circularity in Shrinking Cities

With the abundance of vacant land, shrinking cities provide a fertile ground for the development of urban circularity. Meanwhile, urban circular activities can be an important, yet unexplored asset in tackling shrinkage. However, in shrinking cities, a wide spectrum of coalitions and the actual interplay of power, normative settings, and different actors’ interests generate specific traditions and cultures which lead to a hegemony of certain narratives about the nature of urban problems, their causes, and possible solutions. The central issue of transitioning to urban circularity in shrinking contexts, therefore, concerns the efforts to involve a huge variety of stakeholders and to align their expectations and ambitions. Consequently, the question of how different actors come together and work to deliver the transformation of an urban ecosystem of a shrinking city needs to be put under further scrutiny. On that account, this research aims to examine the dynamic and evolving linkages and processes that characterise the governance and planning of urban circularity in shrinking cities.