Circular cities: the case of Singapore
Built Environment Project and Asset Management
ISSN: 2044-124X
Article publication date: 17 July 2020
Issue publication date: 4 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Circular economy (CE), as a new economic paradigm, has gained traction in recent years. Cities' role in driving CE forward has been perceived as being increasingly important to achieve sustainable development (SD). For this reason, there is an urgency to understand what a circular city is and how it might be composed. This research explores the ways in which the city-state of Singapore is transitioning to a CE.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review on CE and cities was carried out using a bibliometric review and a snowballing technique. This review was performed on academic and on non-academic papers.
Findings
This research has confirmed the lack of robust circular cities case studies. As Singapore has already begun its journey towards circularity, this article examines its current efforts and offers recommendations in the design and implementation of CE policies that may be valuable not just for Singapore but also for high-density and rapidly expanding cities around the world that require a new development pathway to emulate.
Originality/value
This manuscript is the first detailed, independent and comprehensive review of Singapore's approach to CE.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks to Leo Woods for proofreading the final version of the manuscript. The second author acknowledges PhD scholarship by CONACYT‐ Alianza FiiDEM.
Citation
Carrière, S., Weigend Rodríguez, R., Pey, P., Pomponi, F. and Ramakrishna, S. (2020), "Circular cities: the case of Singapore", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 491-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-12-2019-0137
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited