Social-ecological-technical systems in urban planning for a circular economy: An opportunity for horizontal integration

Circular Economy (CE) is receiving interest worldwide as a way to overcome the currently dominating linear and wasteful production and consumption model of our environment. Currently the implementation of CE to practice is still in an early stage. As hubs of consumption and to a more limited part also production, metropolitan areas often are seen as crucial to achieve the transition towards a CE. Therefore it is necessary to find ways to integrate a CE based approach in urban planning practice. This paper reviews literature dealing with the concept of CE by making use of a framework for urban planning to evaluate integration of vertical and horizontal dimensions in CE literature. This paper reviews the scales of CE as regarding vertical integration, while for horizontal integration the sub-systems that need to be integrated are investigated. Thereafter, the framework is used to evaluate existing CE urban planning documents of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and surroundings. The paper aims to contribute to the comprehension of the concept of CE for the urban planning practice. This understanding enables urban planners to integrate CE in their work and aims to contribute to further accelerate the implementation of CE in metropolitan areas.