FUTURE CITIES: EXPLORING CIRCULARITY FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN CITIES

In an era marked by rapid urbanization, the imperative of sustainability looms large for future cities. The growing global urban population portends increased resource demand, environmental stress, and socio-economic challenges, compelling a shift towards circularity. Circular principles, aimed at minimizing waste and optimizing resource use, embody a regenerative vision for urban spaces. While this concept gains traction worldwide, comprehensive studies simplifying its application are scarce. This research examines and diagnoses how Circularity can revolutionize urban sustainability, with objectives to evaluate circular economy models and analyses case studies and benefits. Employing an exploratory research design, this study drew data from secondary sources including case studies, literature reviews, and governmental documents. A systematic data collection process involved source identification, data extraction, and thematic analysis. Qualitative analysis yielded insights into circularity in sustainable urban cities. This study found that Circular economy concepts permeate urban planning, encompassing circular mobility, sustainable energy systems and circular design and architecture also, that Circular cities adopt principles like an enclosed circuit, diminished emissions, modular architecture, locality-focused logistics, and enhancement of natural systems to reshape their urban fabric. Also, Circular cities reap societal, economic, and environmental/health gains through improved living conditions, resource efficiency, job generation, reduced pollution, active transportation, and access to green spaces. This research presented in this paper contributes to understanding the transformative potential of circularity in future cities. Circular principles promise sustainable urban environments, bridging social, economic, and environmental dimensions to create thriving, resilient urban spaces.