CityLoops Deliverable #4 is here - The Urban Circularity Assessment Method

🚧 Progress Update, Folks! 🚧

The latest deliverable for the EU Horizon 2020 Project CityLoops - D4.4 Urban Circularity Assessment (UCA) Method is now available on the CityLoops MoC website. So far, we have published deliverables D4.1, D4.2 and D4.3 which presented a literature review of various urban material flow and stock accounting methods, a database structure catering to these methods, and a sector-wide circularity assessment (SCA) method for the construction and biomass sectors specifically.

D4.4 presents the UCA method for urban policy makers and practitioners who are interested in measuring the material circularity of their city or municipality.

The UCA consists of three main parts: (1) (a) material flow and (b) stock accounting (MFSA), (2) indicators and (3) circular economy assessment.

The method accounts for the flow of biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals, and fossil energy carriers within the city boundaries for two points in time. It accounts for various lifecycle stages: extraction, processing, use, import, export, waste collection and treatment. A consistent mass balance helps monitor resource utilisation, waste, and recycling across the socio-economic system. It also accounts for the material stock of residential and non-residential buildings.

While that may sound complicated, it’s really not 🤓

The unique selling point of the developed method is ease-of-use for urban policy makers and practitioners while being scientifically robust. In fact, the method will now be applied by five CityLoops partner cities over the next 4 months, with their reports coming out on October 31, 2022.

What they need to do is collect and upload local data into a template provided by MoC. For data that isn’t available, Eurostat data can be used and D4.4 provides users with useful downscaling methods for data on higher spatial scales as well. The indicators are automatically calculated, allowing for more time for the analysis.

The method provides insight into the city’s resource requirements, its own domestic extraction and waste production & treatment activities and ascertains whether absolute reductions in resource consumption and waste generation are being achieved or not (and whether they are even feasible).

So what are you waiting for? Give it a read! 📖 And get in touch with us if you are interested in applying the UCA method as well: info @ metabolismofcities . org