Liu, X (2025) From circular to sustainable: The implementation of circular economy in transport infrastructure projects in China and the Netherlands. PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, 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.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Hertogh, M J C M; de Jong, Martin and Schraven, D F J |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | circular economy; sustainability; transport infrastructure; china; netherlands; sectoral innovation systems |
| Index terms: | innovation system, China, construction sector, infrastructure construction, bibliometric analysis, transport infrastructure, Netherlands, literature review, strategy, implementation, dissertation, circular economy |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, research dissemination and communication, Geography, sustainable design, data analysis and analytics, business, research evaluation and metrics, industry analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, civil engineering, management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Sustainability, Procurement, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here