v construction debris and municipal waste reduction, reuse, repurposing and recycling programmes, some of which may be located in regional hinterlands;
v water quality monitoring, supply, conservation and recycling and reuse programmes, as well as indoor air quality monitoring, integrated into new building codes and procurement requirements (Bilal et al. 2020);
v water, nutrients and energy recovery from buildings and larger municipal wastewater streams to offset nutrient demand in agriculture, minimize eutrophication of urban waterways and recover energy embedded in wastewater (Kakwani and Kalbar 2020; Qadir et al. 2020).
These transitional measures can reduce urban energy consumption and water use, improve access to clean water and sanitation, and improve water quality for people and nature, immediately jumpstarting reductions in building energy and water use.
Net-zero circular cities support public health by improving environmental quality. They provide livelihoods, opportunities for active, non-motorized travel, enhanced public transport infrastructure, local-regional access to healthy food, and reduce adverse health risks and exposures. Creating these cities will require sustained action, supported by grass- roots organizations and urban communities, national and subnational governments, organized labour, business, the academic sector and industry. Administrative boundaries in many urban regions may also need to be reconsidered, alongside the establishment of state and regional governance structures with the capacity to act (chapter 2). Doing so is not without limitations and challenges. Examples can be found in Portland in the United States, the Megalopolitan Area in central Mexico and Randstad in the Netherlands. Jurisdictional fragmentation in metropolitan regions can affect industrial investment decisions, while uniformity in building performance standards encourages widespread compliance. City and hinterland area economies based on circular economy principles could thus maximize environmental sustainability and also improve relations between the city and hinterlands in a mutually beneficial, non-extractive way.
The path towards near net-zero circular cities will certainly face challenges and require intelligent evolutionary transformational pathways (chapter 5). But this transformation is also an opportunity to make important additional changes, including remaking the urban physical fabric with new opportunities for adaptive reuse and building urban resilience and environmental sustainability (discussed further under the second dimension). This could be achieved through the design and redesign of the built environment, the establishment of circular economy facilities and activities in areas in need of economic development and investment, and by strengthening local networks with shorter communications and feedback loops that enhance resilience.
Training and education programmes for circular cities can enhance the lives of marginalized groups, including women, people of colour, people with disabilities, children and youth, religious minorities, indigenous people and immigrants
(hence supporting the third dimension). As such, this first dimension can help to ensure a just and equitable shift from a fossil fuel economy to one based on renewable energy, improved shelter, transport, food security and sovereignty, health, safety and sanitation in urban communities (especially poor communities, informal settlements and racialized or otherwise marginalized communities). This dimension of integrated urban action has the potential to empower cities as hubs for environmental sustainability and justice, but also to empower residents by encouraging proactive behaviour and critical thinking (Ghisellini, Cialani and Ulgiati 2016).
4.2.2 Dimension 2: Resilient and sustainable cities
The need to move people and goods around cities means even efficient cities will still use large energy flows. The second dimension considers cities whose physical form promotes energy-efficient transportation, such as cycling and walking, since urban design influences non-motorized mobility (Sarkar et al. 2015; Zhao et al. 2018; Zhao and Wan 2020). Under this dimension, public transportation options are fast, ubiquitous and public transit, shared mobility and private vehicles are all battery powered or fully electric, running on renewable energy (supporting the first dimension) (Majumder et al. 2019; Helgeson and Peter 2020). This is complemented by circular economy strategies that support the reduction of primary raw materials extraction through battery reuse and recycling (Baars, Domenech and Bleischwitz 2021). Urban design and land use prioritize access to everyday needs, avoiding long-distance travel. Making homes, work, school, shopping and recreation accessible helps cities to be denser, more efficient and more equitable. Urban neighbourhood and district designs can feature integrated energy, water and waste systems, as well as food security features, to create more sustainable urban forms. In addition, the ground level of cities (or urban ground plane) itself can also be reclaimed to overcome the current dominance of motor vehicles and free up land for walking, bicycling, and other uses including green space (see the UNEP Integrated Guidelines for Sustainable Neighbourhood Design for examples).
Sustainable and inclusive urban form involves creating clean, safe and attractive places that support vibrant street life, walking, cycling and public transit, affordable housing, small businesses and green infrastructure for flood protection, as well as heat, noise and air pollution mitigation, parks and urban habitat, and city farms. This dimension of integrated urban action counters current wasteful, unhealthy and inequitable patterns of development based on a building-by-building approach and where land is covered by roads that are primarily designed for cars and the associated infrastructure such as parking and gas stations. Instead, it promotes an urban development model based on systems and districts that help make housing healthier by improving indoor air quality and sanitation infrastructure. With the right measures in place (mostly to protect housing affordability and security of tenure), it can also improve affordability, reducing expenditure on heating, cooling and private cars. All this can free up resources – including time – for the creation of small green businesses, activities in green
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