Tools for Implementing and Monitoring Circularity in the Built Environment

Dear Colleagues,

The circular economy (CE) is a topical subject in addressing a more sustainable built environment, considering worldwide resource shortage and ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Facing multiple fragmented approaches towards applying the CE concepts to the built environment elements and value chains, there is a continuous need for investigating new perspectives towards developing more consistent models and frameworks with a multicriteria approach for built environment existing and future stocks on multiple scales, from materials and components through individual buildings and other structures to urban scale and cities. This Special Issue is devoted to expanding and enhancing knowledge by exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in the fields of circularity application, assessment and monitorisation in the built environment from a whole lifecycle perspective. CE design support tools, benchmarking standards, assessment and monitoring indicators, methods and frameworks dealing with multiple CE-promoted strategies (including design for adaptability, design for disassembly, design for change and reversible design, among others) and renowned sustainability frameworks are particularly welcome in this Special Issue. Meanwhile, submissions are prompted to identify opportunities and address multiple barriers to market uptake, stakeholder participation, value chain management and technical limitations (e.g., materials recovery and adaptive reuse of existing stock). Furthermore, the potential consideration of Industry 4.0 principles of introducing automation and information technologies to guarantee efficient yet effective processes is highly encouraged. In this regard, potential authors are invited to investigate new methods of using information and requirement digitalisation and building information modelling (BIM) to develop innovative management models and automated indicators and tools promoting enhanced circularity implementation in the built environment. Both theoretical/analytical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive review and survey papers, materials and processes.

Dr. Rand Askar is assistant guest editor to Main GE for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Luís Bragança
Dr. Rand Askar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• circular economy in the built environment
• existing and new stock
• assessment and monitoring
• CE integration into sustainability frameworks
• design support tools
• circularity indicators
• management models
• barriers and opportunities
• digitalisation and automation