Building stocks represent an extensive reservoir of secondary resources. However, common bottom‐up characterization of these, often based on archetypal classification of buildings and their corresponding material intensity, are still not suitable to adequately inform circular economic strategies. Indeed, these approaches typically result in a loss of building‐specific details, and a building stock characterization in terms of material mass, for example, glass, rather than component, for example, window. To deliver this higher resolution of details, a scalable approach to urban stock characterization, that enables a bottom‐up estimation of building stocks at the building component level, is needed. In this paper, we present a framework to automate the characterization of urban stock. By using and combining a mobile‐sensing approach with computer vision, urban stocks can be captured as 3D surface maps allowing the identification and semantic classification of stock objects, components, and materials. We demonstrate the potential of this framework through a case study of a neighborhood in Sheffield, UK, by using a prototype workflow comprising a custom‐made mobile‐sensing platform and an existing suite of neural network models to calculate an estimate count of buildings external doors and windows. The prototype implementation of the framework achieves comparable total and building‐level component counts with those achieved through manual human counts. Such automated estimation of components enables an understanding of opportunities across the circular economic hierarchies and informs stakeholders across the supply chain to better prepare for the implementation of circular strategies including building refurbishments.

Cities and their growing resource demands threaten global resource security. This study identifies the hotspots of imports in cities to redirect resources to where they are most needed, based on the system overall resource effectiveness to maximise the use of all resources available. This paper develops a taxonomy of resource-use behaviour based on the clustering patterns of resource utilisation and conversion across interconnected urban systems. We find high tendencies of consumer-like behaviour in a multi-city system because tertiary sectors are concentrated in urban areas while the producing sectors are located outside and hence, results in high utilisation but low output. The clustering taxonomy emphasises that the absence of producers in the system causes cities to rely on the imported resources for growth. Cities can be resource-effective by having a more diversified industrial structure to extend the pathways of resource flows, closing the circularity gap between the suppliers and consumers.