Bina, O. and Ricci, A. (2015) Building Scenarios for Sustainable Urbanisation: Balancing ‘Can’, ‘Need’, and ‘Want’, Urbanisation and Global Environmental Change, UGEC VIEWPOINTS, 30 July 2015 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
During one of the participatory workshops of a scenario-building exercise for China’s urbanisation in 2050 (Bina et al. 2015 (https://www.academia.edu/11375470/Bina\_O.\_Ricci\_A.\_and\_Giuffr%C3%A9\_G.\_2015\_Policy\_Mechanisms\_for\_Sustainability\_Exploring\_scenario\_and\_storyline\_building\_techniques\_for\_sustainable\_urbanisation\_\_the\_case\_of\_China\_in\_2050)), a participant asked: “why do we envisage such single trend here? Is there no option but to increase urbanisation?” In a country where urbanisation is an official pillar of its economic growth strategy, such a line of inquiry embodied almost infinite radicalism. It questioned the fundamental (and mainstream) goal of consumption-led growth (World Bank and DRC 2014 (http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/EAP/China/WEB-Urban-China.pdf)). And as such, it was largely – if not politely – ignored by the remaining participants. Discussing such an ultimate end did not seem relevant, or appropriate, given the task at hand.
Introduction ‘Green cities’ as urban models: contributing to new urban agendas, but how?
Town Planning Review, 2020
In this unprecedented era of increasing urbanization, and in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and other global development agreements and frameworks, we have reached a critical point in understanding that cities can be the source of solutions to, rather than the cause of, the challenges that our world is facing today. If well-planned and well-managed, urbanization can be a powerful tool for sustainable development for both developing and developed countries. Foreword to the New Urban Agenda, (UN HABITAT, 2017, p.IV, added emphases). The quote above taken from the foreword to the UN's New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted in 2016 epitomises how, in the 'urban century', there is an increasing recognition that the sustainable planning and development of cities is no longer solely a matter of local, regional and national concern. What happens in cities in the remainder of this century will impact more widely on a host of international and global agendas, notably those relating to 'green' challenges such as responding to the climate emergency, biodiversity, resource use, public health (e.g. addressing air pollution), and, promoting greater environmental justice. Reflecting this, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015, p.26), focuses on making 'cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable', whilst many of the other goals will require particular attention to how urban places develop if they are to be achieved. Part 1 of the NUA-The Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All emphasises in its title the social goal that sustainable cities and human settlements should be 'for all'. Part 2, the Quito Implementation Plan for the New Urban Agenda, also reflects the three dimensions of sustainability including promoting 'Environmentally sustainable and resilient urban development'. The signatories recognise that 'cities and human settlements face unprecedented threats from unsustainable consumption and production patterns, loss of biodiversity, pressure on ecosystems, pollution, natural and human-made disasters, and climate change and its related risks, undermining the efforts to end poverty in all its forms and dimensions and to achieve sustainable development' (UN HABITAT, 2017, p.18). The wider significance of what happens in cities is again emphasised with the document stating that: 'Given cities' demographic trends and their central role in the global economy, in the mitigation and adaptation efforts related to climate change, and in the use of resources and ecosystems, the way they are planned, financed, developed, built, governed and managed has a direct impact on sustainability and resilience well beyond urban boundaries'. Other UN initiatives such as the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (UN HABITAT, 2015, p.20) similarly state: 'Urban and territorial planning contributes to increased human security by strengthening environmental and socioeconomic resilience, enhancing mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change and improving the management of natural and environmental hazards and risks'
Transportation Research Procedia, 2016
Nearly 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas and this is set to grow over 2.5 billion people by 2050 (United Nations, 2014). In this context, the question is how to make cities contribute positively to the wellbeing of all their inhabitants and with economic, social and environmental sustainability. Due to increased complexity of their functionality and limitations imposed by the existing uncoordinated frameworks for designing and managing urban systems, cities are already facing great challenges such as resource scarcity, institutional barriers, narrow accounting frameworks, lock-in due to infrastructure, inequality, congestion, crime and diseases, which will only worsen with increased urbanization. As such, innovative tools for planning and engineering coordinated solutions to transform cities' systems are at the heart of sustainable living in the future. As part of the EPSRC programme grant Transforming the Engineering of Cities we are conducting research to understand precisely how to radically transform the way in which cities are engineered to move towards future cities that address current challenges and promote long-term well-being for society and the planet. After reviewing evidence of urban transformations, we identified that, in most cases, their starting point was a high level vision, usually defined by political leadership based on strong participatory processes, which constructed imaginaries that defined the main urban functions to be provided by the city and that underpinned all projects and policies in the short and long term. Because of the importance of setting such a vision our research aims to define a way of developing a vision of a future ideal city. Our approach identifies a methodology for defining the future city vision that is able to move beyond the all-too-common 'political wish list' and that enabled the vision to be defined as a result of a rigorous process. To develop this process we divided the work into two phases. The first phase included empirical work in Latin America, the UK and China and literature review of exemplary urban transformations. As a result, an initial preferable future vision, conceptualized as the 5-cities model was defined. The second phase included a series of 8 sectoral visioning workshops conducted over a period of 2 years in London and other UK cities. Each workshop is analysed to identify the high level principles for the preferable future city. This research findings underscore that transformative planning only can take place when social norms, people's behaviors and people's attitudes change. Urban life is created by everyone in cities, the municipality, citizens, owners, businesses, experts, individuals, communities; therefore, urban life can only be transformed
Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts
Jenna M Condie, Gintare Pociute-Sereikiene, Christopher John Chanco, Mukesh Gupta, PhD, POOJA SHETTY, Domenico Caprioli, Basak Tanulku, John Hughes, Aakriti Grover, Dakila Kim Padoga Yee, Gaurav Sikka, natalie rosales, Martina Winker, Mahin Al Nahian, Christopher Luederitz
Welcome to the book of blogs, a collection of diverse works from researchers across the globe who all have something important to say about the way in which our world is changing and how we can strive towards a more sustainable future. This book emerged from an International Social Science Council (ISSC) meeting in November 2014 of early career researchers, who gathered in Taiwan to discuss transitions to urban contexts from a social science perspective. The seminar involved weeklong discussions about sustainable urbanisation and the contribution of social science research to sustainable urban futures. Yet a week was not long enough to hear the diverse perspectives within the room, let alone incorporate the plethora of viewpoints beyond it. Within the ISSC discussions we concluded that one definition of sustainable urbanisation is not possible and that sustainable urbanisations are in play. The transitions to urban contexts taking place, and those that are anticipated within our futures, were characterised in terms of their plurality, diversity, fluidity, and change. This book embraces such uncertainty by welcoming dialogues, rather than a monologue, on the urbanisation processes taking place across the world and what to do about the places we build, and the impacts of human activity on the environment, health and climate.
Two decades into the 21st century, and the City, one of the most complex human artefacts, continues its transformation. Urbanization processes carry on in different ways and pace across the globe. Along with it, the complexity of urban problems increases and the public debate for their solutions intensifies, while the key urban questions remain classical: How do we imagine cities and urban development in the decades to come? And how do we make it happen?