From circular to sustainable: the implementation of circular economy in transport infrastructure projects in china and the Netherlands

Abstract

Implementing Circular Economy (CE) principles is often considered as a key contributor to greater sustainability in the construction sector. As a major kind of infrastructure, there is an urgent need for transport infrastructures to be circular and sustainable. This dissertation answers how to implement CE in transport infrastructure projects, with the aim to achieve sustainability by 1) exploring the material-asset relationship connecting the ability of circular strategies to realize sustainability through a bibliometric analysis and literature review; 2) investigating the real case in a CE-representative city, Jingmen in China; 3) using the Sectoral Innovation Systems (SIS) approach to assess CE in the infrastructure construction sector in both China and the Netherlands to discern how key functions of SIS are related to challenges to CE introduction on the one hand, and solution directions on the other; and 4) proposing an analytical/implementation framework containing specific-related aspects of CE in urban transport infrastructure projects based on current literature.