| Course information | |
|---|---|
| Period | Block 2 |
| Timeline | March |
| Number of ECTS | 5 ECTS |
| Coordinator | Dr Alberto Gianoli |
| Lecturers | Dr Alberto Gianoli and Prof. Dr. Dr. Lasse Gerrits |
| Methodology | Lectures, seminars, workshops |
Course description
Circular economy has been receiving increasing attention worldwide as a way to overcome the current production and consumption model based on continuous growth and increasing resource throughput. The module on the transition to circular urban economy explores the interaction between transition theory and circularity, providing both theoretical and practical insights. The module also delves into the paradoxes faced during the transition to circular economy (e.g. rebound effect with increased efficiency leading to increased consumption, conflict between economic growth and sustainability, balancing short-term and long-term goals), and the different potential tensions such as technological (e.g. scalability, technological lock-ins), economic (e.g. market acceptance, business model innovation), social and cultural challenges (e.g. behavioural change, customer buy-in).
The module begins by introducing the core concepts of the circular economy, its historical evolution, and the rationale for shifting from linear to circular systems. It explores the theoretical underpinnings of socio-technical transitions to understand how systemic change unfolds across different scales and actors. This sets the stage for engaging with critical perspectives on the circular economy, examining its limitations and contested assumptions. The module specifically focuses on circular economy in the urban built environment, where material intensity, long asset lifecycles, and systemic lock-ins pose both unique challenges and opportunities. The module also incorporates complex systems thinking, including feedback loops, non-linearity, emergence, and adaptive behaviour. This theoretical foundation supports the introduction of complex systems dynamics modelling. Dynamic models will be used to simulate circular economy scenarios, explore trade-offs, and assess policy impacts.
Complex systems dynamic modelling offers several key advantages when applied to circularity, particularly because it captures the feedback structures and temporal evolution of socio-environmental systems. Circular economy transitions are not linear or static as they involve changes in technologies, behaviours, policies, and infrastructures over time. These shifts produce feedback loops and path dependencies that traditional static models or equilibrium-based approaches struggle to address. The approach has the ability to integrate diverse variables like physical material flows, economic costs and revenues, externalities, behavioural dynamics and regulatory constraints, within one unified framework. Complex systems dynamic modelling uses a set of interconnected elements, namely stocks, flows, and auxiliary variables, all of which interact through mathematical relationships, typically in the form of difference or differential equations. Stocks are the key state variables in a system as they represent quantities that accumulate or deplete over time. In the context of circularity, stocks could include the total amount of materials in use in an economy, waste stored in landfills or environmental assets like the concentration of COâ‚‚ in the atmosphere. Stocks embody the past history of the system and provide the inertia that makes change gradual rather than instantaneous. Flows are the rates at which stocks change. They represent the movement of materials, energy or information into or out of stocks.
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
- Critically explain and contextualize the theoretical foundations of circular economy, particularly in relation to complex urban systems.
- Apply complex systems dynamic modelling tools to represent, simulate, and explore circular economy scenarios in the built environment.
- Analyse systemic interactions and transition dynamics in circular urban economies using complex systems thinking (e.g., feedback loops, non-linearity, path dependency, lock-ins).
- Critically evaluate the structure, assumptions, parameter choices, and simulation outputs of Vensim-based system dynamics models representing circular urban economy transitions, assessing their validity, limitations, sensitivity, and policy relevance.
- Design and develop a coherent Vensim system dynamics model of a circular economy challenge in the urban built environment, integrating stocks, flows, feedback loops, and behavioural or policy variables to simulate alternative transition scenarios and inform strategic decision-making.
Course content & structure
- 1. and 2. Transitions to circular economy: theory and empirics (Alberto Gianoli)
- 3. and 4. Introduction to complex systems dynamic modelling software (Alberto Gianoli)
- 5. and 6. Principles of complex systems (Lasse Gerrits)
- 7. and 8. Deep dives (seminars on different topics e.g. measuring circularity, circular business models, circularity and water, circularity and built environment, circularity and spatial planning)
- 9. to 14. Circular economy modelling workshops (Alberto Gianoli)