Transdisciplinary resource monitoring is essential to prioritize circular economy strategies in cities

摘要: Among the many concepts involved in current urban transformations, the circular economy has become particularly prominent. Many cities have taken up the resource management discourse to design circular economy action plans, which aim to reduce urban environmental impacts while generating new jobs, socialwellbeingandroomforinnovation. Atthesame time, there is a sense that ‘circular economy concepts are more often celebrated than critiqued’(Geng et al 2019). Indeed, cities worldwide are committed to becoming more circular in their resource use, but whether or not their actions help them to reduce their environmental impacts is unclear. Without adequate monitoring tools and a basis for prioritizing, cities could be investing their limited organizational, financial and human capital on circular strategies that might not minimize the pressure on natural resources. In fact, academics have repeatedly pointed out the lack of a homogeneous monitoring framework for the circular economy (eg Helander et al 2019, Moraga et al 2019). Prioritizing strategies based on their environmental savings is thus no easy task for academics, let alone for decision-makers. It seems then reasonable that cities use the tools at hand to monitor progress of their strategies. Some of these tools stem from policy, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are internationally endorsed and come with their own indicator framework, with several goals targeting resource management (UN 2015). What can we learn from existing monitoring needs and suggested indicators to build robust prioritization frameworks? In this perspective, we posit that a more …