The circular city is emerging as new concept and form of practice in sustainable urban development. This is a response to the complex and pressing challenges of urbanization, as highlighted in the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The concept of a “circular city” or “circular city-region” derives from the circular economy model applied in the spatial territorial dimension. It can be associated with the concept of a “self-sustainable” regenerative city, as stated in paragraph n.71 of the NUA. This paper aims to develop an extensive form of “screening” of circular economy actions in emerging circular cities, focusing on eight European historic port cities self-defined as “circular”. The analysis is carried out as a review of circular economy actions in the selected cities, and specifically aims to identify the key areas of implementation in which the investments in the circular economy are more oriented, as well as to analyze the spatial implications of the reuse of buildings and sites, proposing a set of criteria and indicators for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations and monitoring of circular cities. Results show that the built environment (including cultural heritage), energy and mobility, waste management, water management, industrial production (including plastics, textiles, and industry 4.0 and circular design), agri-food, and citizens and communities can be adopted as strategic areas of implementation of the circular city model in historic cities, highlighting a lack of indicators in some sectors and identifying a possible framework for “closed” urban metabolism evaluation from a life-cycle perspective, focusing on evaluation criteria and indicators in the (historic) built environment.

Cultural heritage (CH) is considered a key element of cities and regions’ identity anduniqueness, contributing to people's wellbeing and health, as well as jobs creation, environmentalregeneration and place attractiveness. The adaptive reuse of abandoned and underused CH can be asustainable strategy for heritage conservation, stimulating local development processes. However,heritage conservation needs large investments, while the resources available are scarce, and invest-ment projects are subject to high uncertainties. Therefore, a careful assessment of impacts is neededto orient and direct CH adaptive reuse projects towards sustainability. Recent studies approach theadaptive reuse of abandoned buildings and sites as an effective circular economy strategy, potentiallycontributing to climate objectives through environmental regeneration and the reduction of naturalresources consumption. However, evaluation tools to assess the impacts and orient adaptive reuseinterventions in the perspective of circularity are lacking. Through the analysis of 76 literature sourceson CH impacts, this article explores how indicators are currently used in CH research and practice asimpact assessment tools. More than 3500 indicators were retrieved and classified. Finally, this articleproposes a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the impacts of cultural heritage adaptivereuse in the perspective of the circular economy. The results show that, while some indicators areavailable, many circularity aspects are not considered in the current studies on CH impacts.

Cultural heritage is recognized as a key element for local sustainable development, contributing to the identity of territories and cultural diversity of local communities. The concept of “heritage community”, as expressed by the Faro Convention, can be enhanced in decision-making processes for the adaptive reuse and valorization of cultural heritage to build shared and sustainable development scenarios. Communities represent fundamental actors able to drive active reflection and implement the exercise of civic responsibility and (inter)cultural policies. This paper explores how local communities can have an active and effective role in the adaptive reuse and valorization of cultural heritage, through a field experimentation conducted within the Horizon 2020 project “CLIC—Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural heritage adaptive reuse” in the area of Rufoli, Salerno (Italy), in the perspective of the circular economy/circular city model. Starting from heritage mapping and key stakeholder’s engagement, a local working group was built, and processes of knowledge building, envisioning, and community engagement were activated. The results showed that building a heritage community can be an effective starting point for “circular” adaptive reuse of cultural heritage, stimulating not only its recovery but also community bonds, civic responsibility, and potential entrepreneurial activities for longer-term sustainable development.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide an overview and critical outlook of current evaluation tools for the implementation of the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach, focusing on the need of multidimensional / multistakeholder evaluation and impact assessment to turn heritage / landscape into a driver of sustainable development.Methodology/Approach: We analyse the definition of Historic Urban Landscape comparing the thoretical mandate to current tools / practices. Based on literature review and critical analysis of recent experiences, we identify indicators categories and evaluation methods that can be applied for a reacher cost-benefit analysis.Findings: Indicators and evaluation methods for multidmensional impact assessment of conservation / regeneration are not applied in HUL recent initiatives and guidelines. Evaluation tools can be developed and tested to inform decision-making processes and to turn the cultural value of heritage / landscape into a resource able to attract investments. A framework for HUL impact assessment can be structured including wellbeing indicators and stakeholders analysis.Research Limitation/implication: New hybrid tools are proposed, providing a possible toolkit for evaluation. However, it needs further testing and implementation.Originality/Value of paper: This paper contributes to bridging the gap between the theoretical approach of the Historic Urban Landscape and its operative practice. The HUL approach has been generally acquired in the theoretical research, but its implementation is still sporadic, and unframed into urban regeneration policies. Evaluation tools are not incorporated in the HUL practices. This paper aims to advance the existing knowledge on evaluation tools to make operational the HUL approach.

Decarbonizing the economy is one of the main ambitions for the European Union. The construction sector contributes to global warming, during all buildings life cycle phases. Greenhouse gas emissions are present in the whole process of construction, use/operation and dismissing/demolishing. The Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an evaluation approach to assess CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions during the whole life cycle of a building or product. The aim of this paper is to test the LCA methodology for the evaluation of environmental impacts of historic buildings, towards a circular economy approach in the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage. The case study is an abandoned monastery in Salerno, Italy. Results show that LCA can effectively inform the design phase of cultural heritage adaptive reuse, comparing different conservation and design alternatives.