“Modern urban infrastructure and their systems of operation are highly interdependent. They are formed of multiple connections, feedback and feedforward paths, and intricate branching where services or information are transferred across city sectors. This means that if one system fails, it can have cascading impacts on other systems. Climate change can compound these impacts significantly. Some systems may be directly affected by climate change events – such as roads during flooding. Other systems may be affected indirectly, such as the health sector and the financial sector if there are power outages. The interdependencies of city systems combined with climate impacts can lead to a ripple effect of disruptions. Understanding infrastructure interdependencies and critical failure points is therefore vital to achieving long- term climate resilience across a whole city.”
Category: Categories
Urban Girls Catalogue
The Urban Girls Catalogue is a guide in inclusive urban planning, a deep dive into the process behind#UrbanGirlsMovement and an encyclopedia of good examples that showcase how feminist and participatory urban planning can lead to improved living conditions for society at large.
These are the results from #UrbanGirlsMovement, where we have composed a catalogue featuring: Global good practices of feminist urban development (part II); the results from the pilot case #UrbanGirlsMovement Botkyrka (part III); lessons learned from the entire initiative (part IV), as well as guidelines and policy recommendations for implementing parties and local, regional, national and global policy-makers (part V). The aim of this catalogue is for you, the reader, to find the necessary arguments for challenging set norms in your specific urban development context.
Towards a Financing Mechanism for Slum Upgrading at Scale in Nairobi
In 2017, the County Government of Nairobi declared Mukuru to be a Special Planning Area (SPA), paving the way for the preparation of an integrated Local Physical Development Plan (LPDP) for this large informal settlement in collaboration with its residents and partner organizations.
The SPA covers Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kwa Reuben and Viwandani which together accommodate around 300,000 low-income residents, many of them living in extreme income poverty.
Implementing this ambitious integrated plan will require finance for a wide range of infrastructure services and affordable housing as well as complementary financial interventions to support micro- and small enterprises.
This publication sets out a financing mechanism for the envisaged upgrading investments in informal settlements in Nairobi, pejoratively called “slums”. Mobilizing the vast amounts of capital required will face critical challenges, with affordability and land tenure at the forefront.
An important aspect of this report is how the upgrading of Mukuru and other informal settlements in Nairobi could be linked to these institutional innovations which seek to deliver infrastructure services and affordable housing at scale.
International experience on slum upgrading finance is examined early in the report in order to draw out general trends that provide a useful backdrop for Nairobi. The cases of India, Morocco and Egypt are set out and a general approach to slum upgrading finance presented.
Cities leading the way
Cities are already leading the way with ambitious plans to accelerate action on climate change. With more political will, community support and collaboration, cities can make an even greater contribution to securing a climate safe future.
The seven cities showcased here report that the planning process is an opportunity to engage internal and external stakeholders on the level of ambition needed and the roles different players can take. Co-creating the vision for the city and collaborating on the development of solutions ensures stakeholders have ownership of the process, support the long-term vision and take action themselves.
While each city has taken a different approach to the style and structure of their climate action plan/s, all of them demonstrate ambition and accelerated delivery as core objectives. The approaches highlighted in this report are intended to inspire other cities across the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and beyond to follow suit and play their part in delivering the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Rather than attempt to summarise each city’s plan, the case studies presented in this report highlight a particular aspect that could be of interest to other cities.
Unlocking the Potential for Transformative Climate Adaptation in Cities
"Cities are increasingly integrating climate adaptation priorities into development policies and plans. However, there remains a gap in understanding how incremental urban adaptation solutions can lead to more transformative change over the long term. Transformative adaptation reorients urban climate actions around addressing entrenched equity and climate justice challenges. It focuses on systemic changes to development processes that improve people’s quality of life, enhance the social and economic vibrancy of cities, and ensure sustainable, resilient, and inclusive urban futures. This paper systematically reviews literature and case studies across the global North and South to assess the barriers and enablers to transformative climate adaptation, focusing on examples and evidence from a wide range of cities."
Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles
"The reciprocal and repetitive flow of people, goods and financial and environmental services (defining urban-rural linkages) between specific rural, peri-urban and urban locations are interdependent; they are the reality of socio-spatial arrangements, creating places with distinct yet interwoven, socially constructed identities. The benefits of investing in connective infrastructure and services, while building capacity for inclusive and functional territories linking urban and rural communities, are immense in all three areas of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. The goal of these Guiding Principles is to inform pragmatic strategies and propose a Framework for Action to build an enabling environment for more inclusive and functional urban-rural linkages. The Guiding Principles also provide a reference for revising national and subnational rural, urban and territorial policy frameworks."
Integration of shared mobility approaches in Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning
This document provides guidance on a specific topic related to Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP). It is based on the concept of SUMP, as outlined by the European Commission’s Urban Mobility Package1 and described in detail in the European SUMP Guidelines (second edition).
Numerous sharing concepts have emerged in recent years, which have been developing dynamically ever since. Some sharing concepts – esp. station-based car sharing – address alternatives to car ownership in order to reduce the space consumption, but others serve rather as an additional mobility option to get around: free floating car sharing and public bike rental systems, newer phenomena in the form of e-Scooter sharing and e-Moped sharing, on-demand mobility concepts (ride hailing and ride sharing) as well as the shared transport of goods (freight transport). The following brochure concentrates in particular on sharing services and the starting points for municipalities within a SUMP. It shows the steps in sustainable urban mobility planning when particular planning aspects must be taken into account while integrating sharing modes.
The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development,
In 2016, Member States decided that the report should be produced once every four years, to inform the quadrennial SDG review deliberations at the General Assembly, and that it should be written by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General. They mandated that the Group would consist of 15 experts representing a variety of backgrounds, scientific disciplines and institutions, ensuring geographical and gender balance.
The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development, is the first Global Sustainable Development Report prepared by the Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General. It does not produce new evidence; rather it capitalizes on existing knowledge across disciplines, through an “assessment of assessments”. It highlights state-of-the-art knowledge for transformations towards sustainable development and identifies concrete areas where rapid, transformational change is possible. The Report is not only a product but also a process for advancing collaboration among actors in science, Government, the private sector and civil society in all regions of the world towards identifying and realizing concrete pathways for transformation driven by evidence.
Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience
The report puts forward a bold vision for how to transform key economics systems, making them more resilient and productive. The Commission finds that climate adaptation can produce significant economic returns: the overall rate of return on investments in improved resilience is high, with benefit-cost ratios ranging from 2:1 to 10:1, and in some cases even higher.
The analysis specifically finds that investing $1.8 trillion globally in five areas from 2020 to 2030 could generate $7.1 trillion in total net benefits. The five areas of climate adaptation the report considers are: early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved dryland agriculture, mangrove protection, and investments in making water resources more resilient. These represent just a portion of the total investments needed and total benefits available.
Recent events have shown that climate change affects people everywhere. Furthermore, without action, millions of people will be pushed further into poverty, leading to increased conflict and instability.
Urban Migration: Strengthening Cooperation with Civil Society
"While migration is often seen as a national issue, and most of the mandate around immigration, refugees and asylum falls to the central government, it is often cities and local governments that have to directly deal and address the needs of newly arrived migrants, and the inclusion of long-term migrant residents. […] At the same time, civil society organizations (CSOs) have taken an increasingly important role in supporting migrants by undertaking initiatives that raise awareness, facilitate access to basic services, advocate for their rights and strengthen social inclusion. The role of CSOs as key partners for local authorities in the governance of migration and other urban governance issues is widely recognized, but it is not always clear how to articulate these partnerships and coordinate efforts while securing the autonomy of these organizations and avoiding potential tensions or conflicts of interest."
In June 2019, UCLG ́s Learning team coordinated a workshop and peer learning event focusing on “Building trust through strengthened cooperation: the role of civil society in the urban governance of migration” in Sfax, Tunisia. The workshop was part of the Mediterranean City to City Migration (MC2CM) project. In the process of the event some key learnings and recommendations have been worked out. The documentation includes case studies from Sfax, Tunisia; Malaga, Spain; Brital, Lebanon; Douala, Cameroon and Meknes, Morocco.