Page 15 - U4SSC: A guide to circular cities, June 2020

o Water infrastructure: This includes supply, sanitation and the management of clean waste and
surface waters, including irrigation, drainage and collection.
o Electrical energy infrastructure: This includes generation, transmission and distribution
infrastructures for various available energy sources (e.g. power plants, nuclear plants,
hydroelectric dams, solar installations, wind farms, bio-energy systems).
o Mobility infrastructure: Includes human and goods transportation and general mobility
infrastructures (e.g. roads, airports, railways, ports, promenades, bridges, pavements, footpaths,
bicycle paths).
o Green infrastructure: Is composed of natural elements present into the city in a structured
manner (e.g. parks, trees, horticultural areas such as gardens).

c) Digital Infrastructure: Digital infrastructure includes equipment and services needed for delivering
digital services (excluding the communications infrastructure), e.g. data centres, information
technology and data processing equipment and systems, cloud computing.

City resources: A resource is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a stock or supply of assets (e.g. money,
materials and staff) that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively.
Included in city resources are natural resources, human-related and human-owned resources, private
sector assets, and waste in a city.

a) Natural resources: They are materials or substances occurring in nature that can be exploited for
economic gain. Natural resources include abiotic resources, air, water, oil, wind resources, natural
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gas, iron and coal, land and soil; and biotic resources such as forests and fisheries. Resources can
be broadly classified upon their availability as renewable and non-renewable. They can also be
classified as actual and potential, based on their level of development and use.

b) Human-related/owned resources: They refer to inherent qualities of individuals such as skills and
knowledge. Human-owned resources are various household items, and other materials and goods
owned and used by individuals.

c) Private sector assets: They are tangible assets owned by private-sector organizations that are used
to produce products in the form of goods and services. Private sector assets include machinery,
warehouse items, company cars and various other tangible assets owned and used by the private
sector organizations.

d) Waste: it refers to anything that no longer has a use or purpose and needs to be collected, potentially
transported and discarded or disposed of. It includes municipal and industrial waste. Some examples
of waste are household trash, wastewater, hazardous waste (e.g. containing hazardous chemicals)
and radioactive waste (may require special processing and disposal).

City goods and services: City products include all products of economic sectors and industries in
the form of goods and services. In general, they can be categorized by different economic sectors or
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industries (e.g. by SIC – Standard Industrial Classification ) of a city.

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