Spatial Parameters for Circular Construction Hubs: Location Criteria for a Circular Built Environment

Abstract

Implementing a circular economy in cities has been proposed by policy makers as a potential solution for achieving sustainability in the construction sector. One strategy that has gained interest by both policy makers and companies is to develop “circular construction hubs”: locations that collect, store, and redistribute waste as secondary resources. However, there is limited literature taking a spatially explicit view, identifying the spatial parameters that could affect the locations of hubs both for now and in the future. This study therefore aims to categorize different types of circular hubs for the construction industry, collect spatial parameters required for finding suitable locations for each type of circular hub, and translate the spatial parameters into a list of data and spatial analysis methods that could be used to identify potential future locations. The study used the Netherlands as a case study, extracting spatial parameters from two sources: Dutch governmental policy documents on circular economy and spatial development and interviews with companies operating circular hubs. Four types of circular construction hubs were identified: urban mining hubs, industry hubs, local material banks, and craft centers. The spatial parameters were extracted for each type of hub from four perspectives: resources (such as material type, business model), accessibility (such as mode and scale of transportation), land use (such as plot size, land use), and socio-economic (such as labor availability). The parameters were then translated into a list of spatial data and analysis methods required to identify future locations of circular construction hubs.

Geographic Information Systems for Circular Cities and Regions

“…Speculative mapping or cartography is a tool to make the future or frontier visible for extracting potential resources (Noterman 2022). In the circularity context, this frontier could be possible locations of reclaimable secondary materials or circular infrastructure (Tsui et al 2023). Speculative mapping is often used in urban planning.…”

Spatial optimization of circular timber hubs

“…In the Netherlands, construction and demolition companies have responded to policy goals for a more circular built environment by starting circular construction hubs: facilities that collect, store, process, and redistribute construction waste to be reused as secondary construction materials 24,25 . The goal of this paper is to determine what spatial scale circular construction hubs should be operating at.…”

“…On one hand, small-scale hubs minimize transportation distances due to smaller service areas. On the other hand, large-scale hubs maximize supply and demand matchingthe larger the service area of a hub, the more likely there will be a match between a demolition site supplying secondary material and a construction site demanding it 25 . Spatial simulated annealing was used as an optimization algorithm to determine the optimal number and locations of circular timber hubs in the MRA for the study period of 2022-2026.…”

“…These variations, aligned with management studies, were not a research topic in this paper. For the calculation of cost / tCO2eq reduction, a number of assumptions were made based on existing studies on circular construction hubs 24,25 . Changing these assumptions could have an impact on the results.…”

“…The calculation of storage cost is expressed in equation (2). To calculate the storage area, we assumed that the average storage time of timber is six months 25 , and that secondary timber will only be stored if there is demand for it within the same service area. The building price, 382.51 euros per square meter, was based on data collected by Statistics Netherlands on building costs of halls, sheds, greenhouses, and stables 35 .…”