Circular Economy Inspires the Design of Smart Cities Towards Contributing to SDG-11 Sustainable Cities & Communities

This paper focuses on the issue of the circular economy in the context of SDG-11 Sustainable Cities & Communities as one of the main goals of today's society. Introducing smart cities, considering the sustainability challenges that cities will face shortly and the recent technological developments that will enable them to become "smart". Under the general context of sustainable development, the circular economy is becoming an important part of providing resources to future generations, based on intra-generational and inter-generational solidarity. A smart city can be understood as a sustainable city, a city that performs well economically, administratively, environmentally, and housing-wise. This paper aims to identify some important measures that are recommended to advance this vision. It also aims to highlight the potential social and economic benefits and challenges of urban circular development; it also supplies initial evidence of the synergistic benefits created through combining the design and economic development and linking the two approaches together rather than applying them separately.

For too long, humanity has taken a linear approach towards resource consumption, a major challenge for sustainability, where demand for products and services is increasing all over the time because of the increase in population, and the increase in the manufacturing process, which is causing many problems to the planet, and exhausting its resources and this include, air pollution, increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, depletion of soil fertility and deforestation.

A circular economy has to be implemented in cities, for some reasons, the main one is that industrialization and urbanization are deteriorating our planet and the environment, so we need to find a solution for that. Moreover, there are poor regulations and gaps already taking place due to the increased demand for energy, and the usage of resources, where the government of the countries needs to put some restrictions and limitations on that too.

Changes in production methods and some aspects like education, regulations, and technology could be achieved if CE was seen as an overall development plan for the targeted cities. Adding to this, the application of CE will help in saving resources and will help in generating alternative energy sources. The circular economy can be applied to all sectors of the economy, where it is very successful in different countries and sectors, such as the food industry, the textile industry, the chemical industry, and wastewater management.