Driving Sustainable Development in Spanish Municipalities: The Circular City Index as an Open Data Tool for Policymakers in Spain

Abstract

In recent years, Spain has made commendable policy commitments to tackle climate change. However, the country ranks lower than other European nations regarding environmental policy and global environmental protection. Urban areas are particularly vulnerable to ecosystem disruptions, and without significant improvements, the situation will only exacerbate. Unfortunately, there is a lack of comprehensive and universal approaches to evaluating sustainable development challenges at city and municipal level. To address this gap, Italian researchers developed the Circular City Index (CCI), which measures urban circularity and green transition based on open data principles. However, the CCI has only been assessed on an Italian case study, and there is a need for universal methods in Spain. This thesis aims to fulfill this need.

This thesis reformulates and redefines the CCI for Spain and evaluates the level of preparedness of Spanish municipalities towards urban circularity and green transition by applying the index. The study uses a quantitative research design with a case study of 8,217 Spanish municipalities, identifying key socio-demographic and economic characteristics that impact municipal performance. The research demonstrates that the CCI is a valuable tool for policymakers to identify areas for improvement and develop policies to address sustainable development challenges in alignment with European targets.

The research findings indicate that population size is the primary socio-demographic characteristic impacting urban circularity, with larger municipalities generally being more prepared for green transition than smaller ones. This implies that policies encouraging population growth and urbanization could lead to better sustainable outcomes. This research aims to fill the current research gap regarding the lack of comprehensive and universal strategies to quantify and evaluate sustainable development challenges at the municipal level and offers insights to assist policymakers in defining policies to address these challenges. The thesis is fully reproducible, scalable, and built on open-source data, methodologies, and software.