Towards Circular Sustainable Cities: Thoughts and Recommendations for Qatar

Abstract

Despite the ambitious national visions, Qatar is facing many challenges regarding the notion of sustainability. In this context, a considerable emphasis has been placed on the notion of Circular Economy (CE) to address suitability issues. Despite such an emphasis, the actual implementation of CE notions is still facing several obstacles present in, but not limited to, the Qatari context, such as heavy reliance on landfilling, water scarcity, and a heavy reliance on the oil and gas sectors. Our contention is that CE is an important factor in the sustainability equation and works towards meeting Qatar’s vision of becoming an environmentally sustainable country. by using a qualitative approach, predominantly adopting case study, document and content analysis, this paper explores the notion of CE and its implementation in light of the Qatar National Vision 2030. the challenges facing CE implementation, such as resources, qualified personnel, access to technology, and coordination between different areas of the economy, should be of prime importance for policymakers in Qatar. in order to ensure a sustainable circular city model in Qatar, the challenges related to CE implementation must be addressed accordingly. To this end, the paper suggests several policy recommendations, including the provision of adequate resources and personnel, the use of clean technology to improve the environmental quality of economic activities, in addition to the provision of adequate support and funding for the development of sustainable economic practices. These solutions will help to ensure sustainable economic development based on the concept of CE.

Keywords

Circular economy / Sustainable cities / Qatar / The Qatari National Vision 2030

Author Contributions

A.B. led the analysis of the case study, authored the results and conclusion sections, and developed the policy recommendations. S.B. was responsible for developing the literature review and research methodology. Both authors jointly contributed to the research design and the development of the theoretical framework. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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