Bina, O., Balula, L., Ricci, A., Ma, Z. (2013) Sustainability dimension of urban infrastructure and services - URBACHINA State of the Art Report. Instituto de Ciências Sociais (ICS), Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (ISIS), and Renmin University of China (RENDA), February 2013. (original) (raw)

This first deliverable for WP4: Infrastructure and services for sustainable urbanization: trends and policy support mechanisms, has allowed us to review the state of the art for the WP core themes, drawing on a combination of scholarly and policy literature. Given the nature and objectives of WP4, we have sought to compare trends and challenges in China and in Europe, and identify policy implications that will inform the second part of the WP (support mechanisms for decision--‐making: indicators, paradigm shifts and scenarios). Today, there is no doubt that these two major world regions stand at very different stages of development and ‘urbanisation’ – an expression which we use to refer to a condition (the share of total population in cities), a planning process and a social process (whereby societies become more urban). However, we have shown here that these regions share more commonalities than differences, and that there is significant scope for joint research and collaboration in the search for pathways to sustainable urban futures.