Towards the Ecological Transition: Urban Regeneration Models in the Circular Economy Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the challenge of sustainability is increasingly concentrated in cities, representing the favorite field to implement actions aimed at supporting the transition to a more human-centered and ecological development paradigm. The ecological conversion of our cities, proposed in many European and non-European documents (Agenda 2030, New Urban Agenda, European Green Deal, etc.), connects economic and environmental goals with social justice; thus, implementing a systemic approach placing the human-centered paradigm together with the ecological one.

This new approach requires novel implementation models and tools. In this perspective, today, the circular economy is emerging in most sectors as an effective model capable of making this approach operational, going beyond its reductive interpretation as the economy of reuse, recycling, and regeneration, and is configured as an economy not in conflict with the economy of man and nature, but as a co-evolutionary economy. In the spatial–territorial dimension, the circular economy model finds its “translation” in the circular city model, a model of urban regeneration capable of producing multidimensional benefits, that is, economic, environmental, and social–cultural benefits, at the same time. This city model is characterized by a system of relationships binding the different forms of capital (both tangible and intangible) in a systemic perspective, in which the urban regeneration processes become multipliers of relationships between people and between people and the context. In this perspective, urban metabolism is understood not only in quantitative terms (material flows, waste flows, etc.), but also in qualitative terms.

In order to ensure that new models of urban development are really useful to cities, the principles and theoretical criteria have to be supported by tools (assessment tools and business, governance and financing models), which, in turn, necessarily require a strong cultural base, the latter being necessary in order to develop and support shared and sustained initiatives from the bottom, in line with the humanization paradigm. In this context, the discipline of evaluation becomes fundamental, and helps not only to compare design alternatives already provided, but also to continuously produce, through a circular feedback and retroactive loops, new solutions aiming at a positive-sum game, in which all subjects gain benefits.

On the basis of the above, contributions from the scientific community are welcome regarding issues related to urban regeneration processes, with particular reference to:

• The circular city model;
• The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage;
• Sustainable and circular tourism;
• Innovative governance models;
• Innovative business models;
• Innovative financial models;
• Evaluation tools;
• Urban mobility.

The above topics are merely suggestions and are not binding, and other proposals addressing the above topic from different perspectives are welcome.

Dr. Francesca Nocca
Dr. Martina Bosone
Prof. Dr. Luigi Fusco Girard
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.