1. Circular Cities: Challenges and Opportunities Towards Their Transition to a Green, Smart and Circular Economy

    Vasilis Liogkas

    National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture, 106 82, Athens, Greece.

    Abstract:

    Cities cover 3% of the land on Earth, however with more than 70% of the population expected to live in urban areas by 2050 they drive almost three-quarters of GHG emissions. They account for two-thirds of global energy demand, consume 60-80% of natural resources and generate 50% of waste.

    Urban metabolism is becoming the most important indicator of measuring the sustainability of cities.

    Cities are on the front lines combatting major challenges, notably climate change, pandemics, integration of refugees, decarbonisation, air pollution, food security, energy poverty, waste/water management and putting in place circular economy. Cities are hubs of sustainable economic activity, community engagement, innovation.

    The policy choices local governments make today will determine the successful transition to greener, cleaner, smarter way of living and will offer new economic opportunities. Cities and regions can act as enablers of the transition, providing the conditions for the circular economy to happen in practice.

    This paper/presentation explores major urban challenges driven by climate change. It observes new human-centric urban trends and technologies shaping circular urban planning. It draws the main axes of integrated policies, collaborative governance and technology-powered solutions that cities can deploy to speed-up their transition to a green, smart and circular economy.

    Key words: governance; innovation; sustainability; technology; urban-metabolism.

    Pages: 25 – 32 | Full PDF Paper

  2. Public Perception of the Benefits of Mangroves in Qurayyat, Oman: Implications for their Sustainable Utilisation and Management

    Z Al-Afifi1, D Raffaelli2 and B Stewart3

    1. Senior lecturer, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Muscat, Oman.
    2. Professor, University of York, York, UK.
    3. Reader, University of York, York, UK.

    Abstract: The environment delivers a wide range of services that contribute to societal wellbeing, but their sustainable use is dependent on local utilisations, behaviours and perceptions of their benefits. This is particularly true for mangroves in Oman which are targeted to play a key role towards the country’s sustainability goals (100 million mangrove trees will be planted as part of Oman’s Blue project). This study examines the public perceptions of the value of the Qurayyat natural mangrove ecosystem for delivering both cultural services and the public’s current and future views of the site’s sustainable management. A participatory approach was used whereby locals were interviewed to elicit their views and preferences, including participatory mapping, with more open-ended questions to provide a high level of flexibility and space for the respondents to express their views as well as a snowball sampling technique to identify potential respondents. The results suggest that there has been a downward shift in the supply of provisioning services over time, and that mangroves are the second-most preferred landscape in Qurayyat where a broad variety of activities are practiced that are highly valued. Respondents were very willing to be involved in decision-making regarding the management of the ecosystem. Analysis of these preferences and behaviours can be fed into a human-centric approach to management plans for the site.

    Pages: 33 – 52 | Full PDF Paper