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
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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
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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
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Low Carbon Action in Ordinary CitiesLO-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
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Adaptation to climate change in cities: Looking at Dhaka from the built environment perspectiveThis 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
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Going circular: unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition – RSA Expo
![Going circular unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/circularity-hub/sites/circularity_hub/files/styles/small_image/public/going_circular_-_rsa_expo.png?itok=QSFoSAnN)
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.
Contact: marjan.marjanovic@ucl.ac.uk
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: 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.
Contact: marjan.marjanovic@ucl.ac.uk
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.
Contact: marjan.marjanovic@ucl.ac.uk