NewsAugust2017

Unlicensed waste pickers in Shanghai play a critical role in keeping trash out of landfills by facilitating the recycling and reuse of tossed items, a recent report says.
And with the city’s waste sector “reaching a point of significant transition”, municipal leaders are moving to learn from trash pickers — and to bring them into the formal establishment. These insights come from Sustainability Insights: Shanghai’s Informal Waste Management, published in late June by Collective Responsibility, a strategic advisory firm based in China’s commercial capital.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/how-shanghai-aims-replicate-efficiencies-its-legions-trash-pickers

Bordeaux Agora - Biennial of Architecture, Planning and Design

From the 14 to 24 September 2017, Bordeaux, a city member of INTA, is holding it's Biennial of Architecture, Planning and Design, the Agora.
From its first edition in 2004, it has managed to be one of the main European Biennial, due to the unique identity it created. Focusing on urban planning, the event is gathering a wide audience and even more subjects, related to urban development. The debates are allowed by the great diversity in the fields it features: architecture and planning, of course, but also theater, art or political, as long as it bring something on the discussion on urban.
https://www.agorabordeaux.fr/

Creating a Smart City? Start With Your Entrepreneurs.

In the 1950s a movement took place not only here in Cleveland but all over the country: the exponential growth of suburbs. Cities across the country saw radical shifts in their population and work trends as many working families moved outside of the city limits.
Today, we are starting to see cities grow again. According to the United Nations World Cities 2016 report, urban areas are projected to house 60% of the global population by 2030. With the rise of city populations, there’s a growing need for cities to adapt and find ways to incorporate technology, to help those that are living there, and turn into smart cities.
In Cleveland, we have seen firsthand that entrepreneurs facilitate population and technological growth in our hometown.
http://meetingoftheminds.org/creating-a-smart-city-start-with-your-entrepreneurs-21970

Transportation and the Challenge of Future-Proofing Our Cities

To preserve their communities' economic and social wellbeing, leaders will need to manage an endless cycle of technological disruption.
Signs of the immense influence that digital technologies will have on transportation are growing more visible daily. Software-enabled mobility solutions such as Uber, Lyft and Waze are already dramatically changing the way we get around. These impacts, however, are still relatively small compared to what's coming with next generation technologies such as high-speed hyperloop, drones and, most important, driverless vehicles.
http://www.governing.com/blogs/view/gov-transportation-challenge-future-proofing-cities.html

3rd EcoMobility World Festival

Join us this October in Kaohsiung for the 3rd EcoMobility World Festival, which will transform the streets of the historic Hamasen neighborhood into a dedicated space for ecomobile lifestyle for a month. It will be a live demonstration of how cities can take a bold step to create a forward-thinking urban transportation culture through ecomobility.
The EcoMobility World Congress on 2-4 October, a highlight of the Festival, will bring together local government representatives and transportation experts to discuss a future for urban transport that is livable, shared and intelligent, just like Kaohsiung is demonstrating through the Festival.
http://www.ecomobilityfestival.org/registration-for-the-ecomobility-world-congress-2017/

The Rise of Smaller Smart Cities

Some of the most well-known smart city projects include important major cities in Europe and the US, such as London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Los Angeles or San Francisco. However, there are several reasons to conclude that smaller cities can employ smart technologies easier and more successfully.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/08/16/rise-smaller-smart-cities/

CNU 26 Savannah Call for Proposals

Congress for the New Urbanism, (CNU) is seeking session proposals for the CNU 26 Savannah Congress Program. You are invited to contribute proposals to help showcase the versatility and effectiveness of human-scaled design and excellent placemaking in building cities and towns that endure through the years, absorbing change and rising to the challenge of growth. Submissions will be accepted until September 25.
https://www.cnu.org/cnu26/call-for-proposals

Green living: encouraging investors to go retro

Making our homes greener and more energy efficient is crucial if Europe is to realise its environmental targets and ambitions. But securing financial fuel to retrofit existing properties is tough, with investors often wanting to inject their cash into projects that deliver relatively quick returns
Just because your home was built in the 1950s or 60s doesn’t mean it can’t be green. Retrofitting – the process of modernising properties using the latest technologies – can save energy and reduce CO2 emissions.
http://www.buildheat.eu/green-living-encouraging-investors-go-retro/

#EURegionsWeek 2017 - Regions and cities as agents of change for sustainable urban freight transport

In the session of the #EURegionsWeek 2017, local authorities with the support of the networks Polis and ERRIN will present the solutions implemented at their level to tackle urban freight transport issues.
Essential to the local economy, urban freight activities cause negative external effects that impact the quality of life and the attractiveness of cities and regions. To reduce these effects, local authorities are engaging with logistic companies and local businesses in order to come up with new strategies. This has led to a wide range of initiatives, including regulated delivery times, innovative logistics schemes, use of alternative freight vehicles.
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/opendays/od2005/fo/ViewWorkshop.do?doAction=viewWorkshop&previousDoAction=openFOSearch

WorkshopsDialog&workshopId=1e2754f05af7bd32015d0df9be4907f8&conferenceId=1e2754f05af7bd32015c9ad616ab000c

How will €10.5 billion worth of EU funding be replaced?

The British Government has pledged to create a fund to replace the money local governments receive from the EU.
The UK’s Local Government Association (LGA) has published a report on the matter, ‘Beyond Brexit’, in which it provides in-depth analysis of the three potential funding scenarios for the future. The LGA would be interested in any views on the report by 5 September 2017.
http://www.ccre.org/en/actualites/view/3564

The Smart Cities Pavilion to be Epicenter of Events

In collaboration with Intelligent Transportation Systems Society of Canada (ITS Canada), the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) has announced five of the cities that will be featured in the “Smart Cities Pavilion.” This is a dedicated area displaying some of the best examples of infrastructure solutions from around the world at the 2017 ITS World Congress in Montréal, October 29–November 2. In addition to the host city, the confirmed cities to date include Columbus, Ohio; Singapore; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Christchurch, New Zealand.
http://erticonetwork.com/five-smart-cities-featured-2017-intelligent-transportation-society-world-congress/

Trump Administration Pulls Cities' Funding for Obamacare Enrollment

While Congress continues its negotiations to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Trump administration is taking steps that some say are an effort to weaken the law's impact.
"There's a clear pattern of the administration trying to undermine and sabotage the Affordable Care Act," Elizabeth Hagan, associate director of coverage initiatives for the liberal advocacy group Families USA, told the Associated Press. "It's not letting the law fail, it's making the law fail."
This month, the Trump administration ended contracts with two companies that helped people sign up for health insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces. The companies hired "navigators" in 18 cities to spread the word in the community -- at churches, libraries and sporting events -- and guide people through the often-complicated enrollment process.
http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-obamacare-enrollment-cities-trump-funding.html

How does the layout of a city affect its economic success?

How does the layout of a city affect its performance? And what are the opportunities and challenges of spatial evidence in policy? Centre for Cities discussed these issues at a recent roundtable with urban planning consultancy Space Syntax.
http://www.citymetric.com/fabric/how-does-layout-city-affect-its-economic-success-3160

JUST II project on the prevention of discrimination

Efus will submit in November the JUST II project, which will follow up on Just and Safer Cities for All (JUST, 2016-2017), in the framework of the “Rights, Equality and Citizenship” programme of the European Commission’s Directorate General Justice.
The priority of JUST II will be to support local authorities to effectively combat xenophobia, racism, homophobia and all other forms of discriminatory violence and intolerance in their territory.
https://efus.eu/en/topics/risks-forms-of-crime/hate-crime/public/14123/

Rethinking sustainable urban development paradigms

This year, the ECOCITY World Summit in Melbourne, Australia, served as a reminder that there is no such thing as a standardized model for sustainable urban development. A range of solutions and innovations are taking shape, but we need to dig deeper and rethink our approach.
http://www.iclei.org/details/article/rethinking-sustainable-urban-development-paradigms.html

When a Neighborhood Says No to Bike Share

A corporate sponsorship from Ford is giving the Bay Area’s bike share program a big boost. But not every community wants in.
Bike sharing is set to go big in the Bay Area: Breaking ground this summer, Ford GoBike will blow up San Francisco’s existing 700 bike pilot program into a 7,000 bike super-system that reaches across San Francisco, the East Bay, and San Jose.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/08/san-francisco-gobike-launch/532083/

The co-working revolution

What can cities do to create open workspaces where entrepreneurs can connect and grow jobs?
I first came across the notion of a co-working space in Sweden, probably about 12 years ago now. I remember agreeing with my colleague when she commented 'This will never take off; it's just a funky room with a shared kettle'.
http://urbact.eu/co-working-revolution

SUMPs-Up learning activities starting in September and October

The SUMP Learning Programme (SLP) comprises a series of activities to equip planning authorities in European cities with the skills and knowledge they need to develop and implement Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). Its activities are grounded in the concepts of peer-to-peer exchange, collaboration, and knowledge transfer.
http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/sumps-learning-activities-starting-september-and-october

The Importance of Cities Finding Their Cultural Match

Sometimes a person and a city just aren’t right for each other.
Shortly after I started working at Andersen Consulting in 1992, The New York Times ran an article that dubbed our company a “culture of clones.” I chose to take that as a compliment. One of the biggest competitive advantages our firm had was a strong, unified global culture that enabled people from countries all over the world to come together seamlessly into teams to get a job done.
http://www.governing.com/columns/eco-engines/gov-culture-cities.html

LowCVP Conference Highlights Need to Tackle City-Level Pollution and Climate Challenges

With road transport squarely in the spotlight as a key to tackling both air quality and climate challenges, the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership is launching a new multi-faceted work programme which aims to speed the transformation to cleaner vehicles and fuels.
The multi-stakeholder body announced its action plans for the next two years to a packed Annual Conference at London’s City Hall. The LowCVP brings its unique partnership approach to breaking down barriers and identifying the ‘individual brush strokes’ needed to complete the ‘big picture’ in terms of future mobility.
http://thinkingcities.com/lowcvp-conference-highlights-need-to-tackle-city-level-pollution-and-climate-challenges/

How M-Pesa is changing everyday life in Kenya

Mobile money has revolutionised the lives of many people in the Global South, most of all the ones living in difficult economic circumstances. The M-Pesa service in Kenya is one of these success stories. Judith Owigar describes how it helps making basic services like water and energy available to citizens.
http://www.urbanet.info/how-m-pesa-is-changing-everyday-life-in-kenya/

How will IoT improve our future?

With the imminent introduction of UK test-beds for 5G connectivity, it is apparent that networks are becoming more enhanced to meet the needs of tech savvy businesses throughout the world.
Proving that wireless technology is at its peak, with a large choice in terms of platforms and protocols, IoT systems can truly flourish and enhance the way we connect - both as individuals and as businesses. This Telegraph article explores the impact enhanced connectivity will have.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/ready-and-enabled/future-of-wireless-technology/

Metropolis World Congress unites decision-makers

Under the theme ‘Global Challenges: Major Cities in Action’, the XII Metropolis World Congress united, decision-makers from major cities around the world as well as public, institutional, academic, private and community stakeholders in Montréal, Canada in order to Showcase and acknowledge good urban practices from across the globe.
Mayors from around the world had arrived in Montreal for the Metropolis World Congress. It was the 12th edition of the conference that focused on how cities are tackling global issues such as climate change. The event included 140 mayors and around 1,000 delegates.
http://www.urbannewsdigest.in/?p=23200

How do you teach the New Urban Agenda?

As cities boom around the world, so will the number of people who study them. With the ranks of university urbanism, planning, architecture and design programmes swelling, especially with students from some of the rapidly urbanizing corners of the world, new teaching points might be in order.
That was the conclusion of Roberto Rocco, assistant professor in the Department of Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Recently at TU Delft, as it’s known, Rocco convened a conversation to ask whether last year’s voluntary global agreement on urbanization could offer lessons for the classroom. The agenda was finalized in Quito at the Habitat III conference.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/how-do-you-teach-new-urban-agenda

Why enhancing public urban spaces matters for Karachi

Public spaces such as streets, open spaces, parks, and public buildings are a big part of cities that are often overlooked. Inadequate, poorly designed, or privatized public spaces often generate exclusion and marginalization and degrades the livability of the urban environment. That is why the importance of public spaces are now embedded within the Sustainable Development Goals.
In dense built-up cities like Karachi, Pakistan, public spaces are even more important. These are areas of respite and recreation from the stress of city life. They are also social and cultural spaces where livelihoods and businesses are conducted, especially for the urban poor.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/why-enhancing-public-urban-spaces-matters-karachi

‘Tourism kills neighbourhoods’: how do we save cities from the city break?

Historic cities are buckling under the pressure. Could targeting repeat visitors be one way to make tourism less of a burden on people who live there year-round
Not all tourists count getting drunk before noon and desecrating a local monument or two as top priority for a break away, but those that do have come to represent the masses in the cities where they let loose.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/04/tourism-kills-neighbourhoods-save-city-break

European Green Capital Awards: 2020 competition now open for entries

Cities can become prestigious winners and role models in the European Commission’s European Green Capital Award 2020 for larger cities, and the European Green Leaf Awards 2019 for smaller cities. Both competitions are now open for entries.
http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1456/45/European-Green-Capital-Awards-2020-competition-now-open-for-entries

The Urban Resilience Summit lecture videos

This week, nearly 500 urban resilience leaders from cities around the world, including 80 Chief Resilience Officers, are gathering in New York City to share ideas and innovations from their cities, collaborate on new solutions, explore New York as a living laboratory for urban resilience, and to together chart the course of the movement. Here is the programme and links to video lectures (from 100ResilientCities)
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/25/urban-resilience-summit-lecture-videos/

Looking back on the 6th Urban Poverty Partnership meeting

The Partnership on Urban Poverty (UPP), one of the pilot Partnerships launched in the Urban Agenda process, convened for the sixth time on 29 June 2017. The meeting’s objective was to discuss, finalise and endorse the revised draft Action Plan.
Building upon the April 2017 meeting that had taken place in Kortrijk (BE), the partners discussed the concrete actions developed by the working groups and synthesised in one draft Action Plan. These revolve around four priority areas: the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods, child poverty, homelessness, and the vulnerability of Roma people.
https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/urban-poverty/looking-back-6th-urban-poverty-partnership-meeting-2930-june-2017-brussels

Circular economy: another buzzword or your city’s future?

In times of decreasing resources and growing responsibilities, many cities and regions are understandably skeptical towards what seems to be yet another buzzword. However, a transition to a circular economy is both a necessity and an opportunity, with the potential to offer long-lasting economic, environmental and social benefits.
What is circular economy? How can cities and regions support this transition? And, perhaps most importantly, where to start? Read on to find answers that are based on the experience of the European Territorial Cooperation programmes and the projects they support.
http://urbact.eu/circular-economy-another-buzzword-or-your-city%E2%80%99s-future

3 ways cities can save cultural spaces

In London, night owls bemoan the loss of 50 percent of the city’s nightclubs. In Hong Kong, bibliophiles fret about the city’s disappearing bookstores. And in New York, theatre lovers worry about “off-Broadway” playhouses succumbing to rising rents.
As booming cities around the world grow more and more expensive, cultural establishments like these — as well as live music venues, dance studios and art galleries — are facing a squeeze. That’s certainly the case in Seattle, the fastest growing big city in the U.?S., where the ever-growing headquarters of Amazon.com and investment from mainland China are pushing up rents and making it harder for cultural venues to survive.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/3-ways-cities-can-save-cultural-spaces

A garden bridge that works: how Seoul succeeded where London failed

Seoul’s ambitious Skygarden revives a disused elevated 1970s highway with 24,000 plants – and is open to all, 24 hours a day
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The ambitious mayor of a big city backs a project to put a garden on a bridge. A celebrated designer is appointed and seductive images released. It gets compared to the High Line in New York – that urban phenomenon envied as much by rival cities as the Eiffel Tower once was. It provokes controversy.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/19/seoul-skygarden-south-korea-london-garden-bridge

How Much Can Cities Do About Walkability?

A lot of what fosters it is out of their control, but a little audacity goes a long way.
Among the many pieces of wisdom in Jane Jacobs’ 1961 masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one stands out a half-century later as a near-universal urban planning truth. It’s the idea that healthy communities are built on the face-to-face contact of their residents. Routine daily meetings of neighbors on the sidewalk foster public safety and social cohesion. “Lowly, unpurposeful and random as they may appear,” Jacobs wrote, “sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city’s wealth of public life may grow.”
http://www.governing.com/columns/assessments/gov-walkable-cities-chicago-brattleboro.html

The Urban Agenda for the EU launches public feedback

Through the Public Feedback you are invited to provide your views on the draft actions proposed in the Background Papers by the Partnerships. This feedback will be used by the Partnerships for the preparation of the final Action Plan. All interested stakeholders (e.g. institutions and authorities, academies and research centres, companies, NGOs, experts and citizens…) are invited to contribute by sharing their knowledge and commenting the actions developed by the Partnerships. Participation is open to all. Participants will find all relevant information on Futurium, including the Background Paper, the Public Feedbacks with their corresponding links and all news and updates related to the Urban Agenda for the EU. The Action Plans will be officially presented and discussed in October.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/28/urban-agenda-eu-launches-public-feedback/

To solve the housing crisis, we should give councils freedom to borrow

The government has this week launched a £54m package aimed at helping local authorities make the most out of their surplus land for housing. This includes a £45m ‘land release fund’, through which cities will bid for cash to remediate sites for residential projects, and to build any extra infrastructure required to unlock awkward or remote sites.
The new announcement will also see an extra £9m made by One Public Estate, a partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Cabinet Office which offers funding and support for councils to “deliver ambitious property-focused programmes”.
http://www.citymetric.com/politics/solve-housing-crisis-we-should-give-councils-freedom-borrow-3228

Adelaide Connected Places Project Brings Focus to Parks

The University of Adelaide leads the Australian Smart Cities Consortium, working with state and local government, industry and entrepreneurs, to improve the experiences of residents.
One area of focus is ‘smart parks’, as part of the Connected Places project. In the city of Prospect, new low-band WiFi and other technologies are being used to gather information about use of public spaces so they can be better managed, maintained, and provide what the public wants. Using non-camera based sensors to ensure privacy, the City is able to analyze how people use the parks at different times. The data also helps maintenance scheduling and event services planning.
http://smartcitiesconnect.org/adelaide-connected-places-project-brings-focus-to-parks/

Gigabit City Summit 2017 Twee-cap

The cities of the future will be reliant on high-speed broadband infrastructure, but getting to that point presents significant obstacles. Planning, financing, maintenance, management – city leaders will have to face all of these challenges and more in order to create the bedrock upon which future Smart Cities projects will be built.
To help leaders address the trials that the near future will hold, digital leadership nonprofit KC Digital Drive organized the Gigabit City Summit. Held annually in Kansas City, the three-day conference focuses on strategies for deploying high-speed fiber networks. Public and private sector luminaries gather to discuss challenges and use cases, all with the goal of improving services for communities in the most effective manner.
https://www.smartresilient.com/gigabit-city-summit-2017-twee-cap

Singapore’s plans for a car-lite future

Singapore is already considered one of the greatest cities to work and live in, due to its easy access to high-quality, efficient public transportation. Further efforts now attempt to establish the state as a “car-lite” nation by 2030, making public transport account for 75% of rush hour commutes.
Besides boosting the use of public transport, this new challenge will attract more business and further investments.
http://urbanizehub.com/singapore-car-lite-future/

Greener City Streets Aren't Just About Traffic. They're About Rainwater, Too.

As cities push to become more environmentally friendly, transportation planners are being asked to consider how both traffic and water flows through their streets.
When you think of city streets, chances are you think of them as a transportation network, carrying cars, buses, pedestrians and cyclists to their destinations.
But these vast stretches of pavement are also key components of cities’ stormwater networks. Streets cover about a third of the land in cities, and they account for half of the impervious surfaces in cities. Impervious surfaces don’t allow water to soak through them, which means they can alter the natural flow of rainwater. City streets collect, channel, pollute and sometimes even speed along water as it heads to the sewers.
http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-cities-green-streets-water-runoff-transportation.html

Driverless Cars Could Turn N.Y.C. Into A City Of Tiny Parks

What cities look like in the age of autonomous cars? For starters, we’ll have a lot more street space.
When the driverless car revolution arrives, how will it transform the city–and what can we do to prepare for it now?
For the New York-based architecture and urban design firm FXFOWLE, that means redesigning the street space that’s currently occupied by parked cars. The firm’s design concept, Public Square, imagines a future where the edges of city streets are reclaimed as public space. The proposal recently won the Driverless Future Challenge–a competition run by Blank Space and the city of New York, focused on the urban implications of autonomous cars.
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90133435/driverless-cars-could-turn-n-y-c-into-a-city-of-tiny-parks

Renewable Energy Transition Strategies

Are you working to advance urban energy initiatives? Then you might be interested in a brand new online course offered by SFU's Faculty of Environment and supported by our team.
Renewable Energy Transition Strategies: Practical Innovations for Urban Areas is a cutting edge and 30-hour program beginning October 2017 that can be undertaken from any part of the world. It's aimed at professionals working in local and regional governments, researchers, and members of civil society and the private sector.
The curriculum, built around ten different modules, covers topics ranging from building energy efficiency to transportation to policy to community engagement and beyond.
http://www.sfu.ca/fenv/professional-programs/renewable-energy-transition-online-course/modules.html

“Smart” bench gathers data to help urban planners meet public’s needs

It seems that there is a “smart” version of every basic object nowadays, but an intriguing one for landscape designers who design public spaces is the smart bench.
One example of these smart benches can be found in Anita Stroud Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bench attracts many visitors thanks to a pair of USB ports connected to a solar-powered console, suddenly becoming a godsend for those who have a dead or dying phone.
But this feature isn’t really what makes this bench smart. Built in beneath the solar panel is a Wi-Fi enabled sensor that is able to register anyone who walks within 150 feet of the bench with a Wi-Fi enabled mobile device as a unique visitor to the park.
http://www.totallandscapecare.com/landscaping-blog/smart-bench/

Great idea: Public housing that engages the city

Public housing in the form of complete or partial neighborhoods started with HOPE VI and became standard practice, impacting the lives of people in cities and towns across America.
In celebration of the 25th Congress for the New Urbanism, Public Square is running the series 25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism. These ideas have been shaped by new urbanists and continue to influence cities, towns, and suburbs. The series is meant to inspire and challenge those working toward complete communities in the next quarter century.
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2017/07/27/great-idea-public-housing-engages-city

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Challenges are Creating Smart Cities

Cities have been around for thousands of years, so urbanization is hardly a new phenomenon — but it’s happening now at an unprecedented pace.
In 1950 about 30 percent of the world’s population lived in cities, a number that shot up to nearly 55 percent by 2016 and is expected to hit 60 percent by 2030, according to United Nations statistics. This dramatic growth brings challenges on a variety of fronts, transforming “smart cities” from a catchy phrase into a critical endeavor.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/21/research-horizons-magazine-interdisciplinary-approaches-urban-challenges-creating-smart-cities/

Construction begins on the World’s First Vertical Forest City

Liuzhou Forest City in the mountainous region of Guangxi, China has begun its construction. The new ground-up city, which has been designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, will accommodate up to 30,000 people in a master plan of environmentally efficient structures covered top-to-bottom in plants and trees.
The forest city will consist of all of the essential typologies of the modern city, including offices, houses, hotels, hospitals and schools, housed within a 175-hectare site near the Liujiang River. Employing the firm’s signature vertical forest system, the facades of each building will be covered in plant life with a total 40,000 trees and nearly one million plants from over 100 species specified.
http://www.urbannewsdigest.in/?p=23172

Cities: Good or evil?

In developing nations and emerging markets the rise of the city has been unprecedented in recent decades, and it is in these environments in particular that cities can often be viewed as breeding grounds for poverty and crime, as well as environmental and social degradation.
But in actual fact, they also present the most effective places to promote economic development, social well-being and equality.
The urbanisation of developing countries is occurring at a rate never seen before.
http://www.solomonstarnews.com/viewpoint/private-view/13124-cities-good-or-evil

The Power of the Platform in Smart Cities

The mission of a Smart City is outcomes-based digital transformation. Smart Cities focus on the outcomes of economic development, sustainability, and operational efficiencies using innovation, community engagement, and a connected ecosystem of partners to improve the quality of life for residents. Emerging technologies and technology innovation are key to producing these systemic outcomes; more specifically, Smart Cities must harness the data from smart devices, networks, cloud infrastructure, and applications and analytics to develop new insights as well as new products and services.
https://www.smartresilient.com/idc-technology-spotlight-power-platform-smart-cities

Transforming Barcelona by imagining the future

Our city can be the torchbearer of a fairer economy and a new, progressive urbanism.
The 21st century, it’s been said, won’t be the century of empires or states, but the century of cities. Large cities and metropolitan regions will be on the front line of responding to global phenomena like the tech revolution, climate change, inequalities and urban speculation.
In the past year, the population of Barcelona has grown by 3%. The employment rate is at its highest since 2009, and new businesses, exports and investments are also growing. Many of these changes are being actively supported by the municipal government. But the benefits aren’t always felt by the whole city.
https://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/transforming-barcelona-imagining-future

50 Real IoT success stories after ten years of experience in the market

With the aim to unveil its horizontal approach to the IoT market, Libelium has launched a new white paper to present 50 real smart projects deployed in 120 countries all over the world. The IoT company has summarized its most successful and appealing stories, developed with Libelium technology and its partners’ ecosystem, for the main verticals of the market. The white paper includes real IoT projects for environment care, water management, precision agriculture, smart cities, parking management, smart building, smart factory, logistics, retail and eHealth.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/20/libelium-white-paper-50-real-iot-success-stories-ten-years-experience-market/

One year on: Is the urban agenda a golden opportunity?

The Urban Agenda for the EU represents the first time cities have been offered a seat at the table of EU decision making. Yet, its emphasis on informal structures centred on collaboration, deliberately leaves open the question of what precisely this involvement should be.
EUROCITIES has been actively involved since the beginning via the 12 partnerships that are organised on different urban themes. The working method of the Urban Agenda for the EU revolves around recognition of the importance of the local level, the understanding that we have shared urban, and a multi-level governance approach that brings together different levels of government to find share solutions.
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/One-year-on-Is-the-urban-agenda-a-golden-opportunity-WSPO-AP9GHY

Workshop on the Silver Economy for cities and regions

How can the Silver Economy help towns and regions match the needs of their ageing population and support local businesses at the same time? If you are interested in this topic, sign up for the workshop on the issue which will take place on 10 October in Brussels, during the European Week of Regions and Cities.
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/workshop-silver-economy-during-european-week-regions-and-cities

Why Smart Cities Will Have to Get a Lot Smarter

In the future, smart cities will likely bring about many benefits, like less pollution and more efficient transportation systems. But they could also bring about many unintended consequences, according to a panel of speakers at Fortune’s recent Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo.
The group of experts from energy, transportation, government, finance, and other sectors gathered to debate the top-of-mind topic earlier this week. One of the most pressing questions that repeatedly came up was how to keep hackers from breaching increasingly digitized smart grid systems and transportation networks.
http://fortune.com/2017/07/20/smart-cities-will-have-to-get-smarter/

Join the IUC city-to-city cooperation programme

Cities in the Member States of the European Union who wish to exchange with a city facing similar challenges in another region of the world are encouraged to apply for the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) city-to-city cooperation programme on sustainable urban development.
The programme aims to foster links between EU cities (in particular those with more than 50,000 inhabitants) and those in Latin America and the Caribbean, India, Japan, North America, and Asia. Through the programme, local leaders will be able to connect and gain new perspectives on pressing sustainable development issues.
http://www.eumayors.eu/news_en.html?id_news=843

How can conflict-affected cities become better hosts to refugees?

Like many other developing countries, Afghanistan is urbanizing rapidly. Today, a quarter of the country’s over 30 million people live in urban areas, with many more moving to cities to find jobs and lead better lives.
Unlike many other places, though, cities in Afghanistan face an added, complex layer of challenge—conflict.
In Afghanistan, conflict is a major driver of migration into cities. Instability in large areas of the country is forcing refugees and internally displaced people into cities—particularly the capital city of Kabul. The thing is: Kabul doesn’t yet have adequate infrastructure and capacity to effectively host these “newcomers.”
http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/how-can-conflict-affected-cities-become-better-hosts-refugees-case-afghanistan

Why small cities can generate big ideas

In 1990 I moved to East Berlin. I’d rented a room around the corner, as I now know, from the research physicist Angela Merkel. The flat had no phone, so to make calls I had to walk 10 minutes to a phone booth in West Berlin. Later, I got a flat in the west with a shared toilet on the communal staircase and no shower. I soon learnt the codes of Berlin student conversation: “Where do you live? Do you have a shower? Maybe I could come round and shower at yours one day?”

https://www.ft.com/content/396e62c6-4b0a-11e7-919a-1e14ce4af89b

What refugees living in cities need

When Robert Hakiza fled an African war zone, he did what a majority of refugees do these days: He went to a city.
Hakiza left the Democratic Republic of the Congo nine years ago. He went to neighbouring Uganda, where he settled in the capital city of Kampala. At the time, there were about 40,000 refugees, mostly Congolese, living in Kampala. Today, there’s more than 100,000 refugees in a city of 1.5 million.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/what-refugees-living-cities-need

Ten Fold and the mobile house of the future

Have you ever wanted to move house…literally? Ten Fold Engineering offers you a portable house, ready to unfold and ready to use in just ten minutes. Tired of your new surroundings? You can relocate again, and again…and again. Prices start from £100,000 and the future housing potential of such a system is unlimited in such a fast-moving demanding world.
The Ten Fold initiative innovates by creating and designing various relocatable buildings and structures. Its enormous self-deploy mechanism generates various combinations of space and facilities and it works by using a hand-held battery-powered drill. Different designs have already been imagined in order to meet the needs and desires of the customers, but the process is fully reversible, whenever you feel the need for a change of scenery.
http://urbanizehub.com/ten-fold-mobile-house-future/

All cities welcome to the URBACT City Festival – register now!

Registration is open for the URBACT City Festival on 3-5 October 2017 (link is external), in Tallinn, Estonia! European cities of all sizes, apply now while places are still available – whether you are familiar with URBACT, or discovering this EU programme for the first time.
Under the headline “Good practice – Better Cities” the festival will bring hundreds of urban practitioners and city officials together to improve approaches in sustainable urban development.

http://urbact.eu/all-cities-welcome-urbact-city-festival-register-now

Three Generations of Evolving Smart Cities

During the last decade or so, as the notion of the Smart City became more and more popular, there is a transformation in how some cities manifest the concept. Overall, there seem to have been three distinct phases of how cities have embraced technology and development, moving from tech-company driven, to city government driven, to, finally, citizen driven. In this time, some cities moved from one phase to another linearly, while others have been stuck in one throughout their experiments with smart cities.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/19/three-generations-evolving-smart-cities/

'Junk play': urban adventure playgrounds hit by austerity

The oldest adventure playground in Britain is under threat after losing council funding. As public services across the country are cut, is this a sign that cities are becoming increasingly hostile to children?
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/19/junk-play-urban-adventure-playgrounds-austerity-london

London's first dockless hire bike scheme launches

Whilst Transport for London's Santander Cycles scheme is expanding to Brixton, making cycling easier and more accessible, private operators have launched dockless bikes in some boroughs without the councils being consulted beforehand.
http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1450/45/London-39-s-first-dockless-hire-bike-scheme-launches

In England, closing streets to cars so kids can play

Overweight children. Urban isolation. Neighbours who’ve never spoken to each other. These are the problems being tackled by a free grassroots project encouraging kids all over the England to play in the road.
In the Street Play scheme, groups of parents close residential streets to traffic so their children can come out and play for an hour or two. The parents involved say that it brings both them and their children into contact with people around them they’d otherwise never have known.
http://citiscope.org/partner/2017/england-closing-streets-cars-so-kids-can-play

#SmartCityTrends: Data needs a ‘banker'

Data needs accountability: here’s how it could happen! Fake news, “alternative facts” and filter bubbles – the data we consume and what we read and experience online shapes the way we view the world and the everyday decisions we make, big and small. If data is the new oil, why not start thinking about managing data in a professional way, as we already do for money, gold or stock options?*
https://www.smartscities.com/en/articles/data-needs-a-banker

PROSPECT - Peer-powered cities and regions has been launched!

The PROSPECT project had its kick off meeting last 5-6 of July in Brussels. A three years project bringing together 10 partners from across Europe, PROSPECT will develop a peer-to-peer learning program which will allow more than 180 local authorities, collaborating with their local energy agencies, to discuss and learn from each other on how to better finance the development of energy and climate project for buildings, mobility and lighting and more!
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/PROSPECT-Peer-powered-cities-and-regions-has-been-launched-WSPO-APEBBP

How Can Small Businesses Create Safer Communities?

A local coalition is training Oakland’s brick-and-mortar employees in everything from de-escalation tactics to emergency medical care.
Inside a community space in downtown Oakland, Kori Chen learned that a tampon can be used to staunch the blood from a gunshot entrance wound. He also learned about the rights he had at his disposal in case ICE ever tried to conduct a raid inside Red Bay Coffee, the café where Chen works as a director.
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/how-can-small-businesses-create-safer-communities/534426/

City managers debate governance of smart city strategies

On June 20, at the XII Metropolis World Congress in Montréal, Metropolis and UCLG Learning organized a peer-review session in which City Managers showcased the dealing conflicts between efficient collection and use of data versus privacy protection and prevention of data misuse.
Nowadays, Smart cities have been introduced in different cities world widely. To be a Smart city means gaining information through the use of technology to enable the development of efficient and effective services for citizens.
One of the distinctive phenomena is the open data or open information used as public goods. With the wide use of internet and World Wide Web, open data or open information has become an important tool for the government to create greater transparency and accountability, increase citizen engagement, and drive innovation and economic opportunities.
https://www.metropolis.org/news/2017/city-managers-session

The Age of Customer.gov

The Digital Communities Special Report, which appears twice a year in Government Technology magazine, offers in-depth coverage for local government leaders and technology professionals. The June 2017 report explores the idea that the tech that drives 311 can help government deliver an Amazon-like experience.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/18/age-customer-gov/

Chongqing, China: Revitalizing urban growth, sustainably

China is shifting its focus away from urban expansion toward regional revitalization and urban regeneration. Chongqing, a megacity in southwestern China, is exploring ways to regenerate urban growth and build resilient, livable, and sustainable communities.
What are Chongqing's plans? How will they affect the lives of the city's residents? Watch a video as World Bank Senior Director Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (@Ede_WBG) and Deputy Director Zhou Tao from the Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission discuss urban regeneration.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/chongqing-china-revitalizing-urban-growth-sustainably

The slow lane: Dutch app allows elderly to 'hack' traffic lights

With sensors and smartphones to make roads more flexible, Tilburg is addressing the question: how can a city become safer for less able residents?
The distance from Noud Rommen’s front door to the local shops is just 100 yards, but to get there, the 71-year-old with mobility problems must negotiate a six-lane dual carriageway with a notoriously short pedestrian crossing time.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/12/dutch-app-elderly-hack-pedestrian-crossings

The emerging landscape of urban living labs

There is a growing trend to involve citizens in city development to make urban areas more sustainable and livable. The urban living labs approach offers a way to foster new collaborative, trans-disciplinary ways of thinking in urban planning and development, and provides a real-world testing ground for urban innovation and transformation.
http://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/news/urban-living-labs-handbook/

African cities – the future of technology?

Big cities in Africa foster an enormous technological potential. The continent currently has over 300 tech hubs in 93 cities, across 42 of its countries. Startups that accelerate Africa’s technological evolution, such as Andela, provide funding and support for a multitude of initiatives that might end up writing the future of technology.
According to Jeremy Johnson, the founder and CEO of Andela, the continent will emerge as a powerful and highly significant player on the tech scene. Technology and its future potential will be developed, and has already started emerging, in cities such as Nairobi, Lagos or Kampala. 10 years ago, Africa had an unimpressive and somewhat surprising number of 0 hubs, according to the 300 that exist today.
http://urbanizehub.com/african-cities-future-technology/

Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity for Older Persons in Cities

UN-Habitat cosponsored a side event at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently held at the UN-Headquarters in New York.
The event mainly focused on making sustainable development work at all ages, with a focus on eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity for older persons.
The side event participants included representatives of Member States, NGOs and UN agencies. Discussions centred on the situation of older persons in different contexts and explore ways of enhancing and mainstreaming ageing issues in support of SDG implementation and promote the rights of older persons, while developing sustainable partnerships.
https://unhabitat.org/eradicating-poverty-and-promoting-prosperity-for-older-persons-in-cities/

Lessons from five cities on urban food policy

Need a recipe for a successful urban food policy? A recent report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, has some ideas.
The report, “What makes urban food policy happen?”, features case studies from five cities on four continents. According to the authors, there are many nutrition-related challenges that municipalities around the world can tackle, from obesity to minimization of food waste. Even developed cities are plagued with food deserts where fast food and unhealthy snacks are the main choices available.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/lessons-five-cities-urban-food-policy

Paris launches trial of autonomous shuttle bus service

As of the beginning of July, a new driverless, electric shuttle bus service has been running in Paris. The trials are taking place in La Défense, Europe's largest business district.
Free of charge for all users, the service offers three different routes that serve the main areas of La Défense. Two of the routes will operate at 10 minute intervals at peak times during the week, whilst the third will run every 20 minutes at the weekends.
During the first three months of the trial, an operator will remain present in the vehicles. In the second phase, however, they will operate fully autonomously.
http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/paris-launches-trial-autonomous-shuttle-bus-service

Book: Smart Rules for Smart Cities

Contemporary cities cannot be thought of and defined as static systems, as they were in the past, with a few urban functions. New parameters must now be considered together to plan how to reach the desired urban smartness (energy, mobility, waste…). This research provides a new framework and tools an methodologies to measure the impact of Smart Cities.
https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/items/smart-rules-for-smart-cities

How Much Can Cities Do About Walkability?

Only 20 nations use 91% of global energy

A staggering 91% of the entire planet’s electricity is used by only 20 nations.
The disparity in energy usage is highlighted in new research published by GoCompare Energy, which shows despite there being 196 countries in the world, power output is not distributed evenly.
China consumes around 4,921 terawatt-hours (TWh) each year, followed by the US at 3,848TWh.
This accounts for 24% and 19% of global energy output respectively, far more than India, which placed third on the list with 5% of global usage.
https://www.energylivenews.com/2017/07/18/only-20-nations-use-91-of-global-energy/

How can we manage our ever-expanding cities?

Technological advancements from the IoT to digital energy may be the solution to managing population growth.
Urbanisation has been a geopolitical fact of life since the industrial revolution. As the centres of wealth creation switched from the fields to factories, so too those seeking employment upped sticks and settled in increasingly urbanised areas.
With the global population expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050 – by which time it is expected that 70pc of the world’s population will live in cities – managing urbanisation is a critical issue.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/social-innovation/managing-expansion-in-cities/

Connecting Palestinian cities for a more sustainable future

Cities expand in the blink of an eye, and with such rapid growth come corresponding issues. This is immediately apparent when you drive through a Palestinian city and observe the severe traffic problems. While such gridlock may be inconvenient for a person caught in it, it can be a severely damaging for many small business owners, whose shops become inaccessible due to the traffic build-up. Among the main contributing factors to this situation are the weak, under-capacitated urban planning practices in Palestine.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/connecting-palestinian-cities-more-sustainable-future

What characterises an ideal city, and how do we get there?

What do we envision the ideal city of the future to be like? How can we approach such an ideal in urban planning? According to Marco Dall’Orso, the (re)creation of urban environments needs to balance and integrate multiple strategies. Taking into account the quality of the socio-economic and built-natural environment, he develops a framework that can be used to analyse a city’s strengths, weaknesses, and possible trajectories for future development.
http://www.urbanet.info/ideal-city/

New Kensington starts smart city transformation counting trees

The city of New Kensington is beginning its smart city transformation by counting its trees. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Outdoor Corps is collecting the data since July 17 and will continue to do so until July 28.
The initiative is dubbed the Urban Tree Inventory, and will provide the city’s Shade Tree Commission with information that will ultimately help New Kensington plan the management of trees growing on city property and demonstrate the needs of the city when applications for grant funding are in order.
https://smartcitynews.global/new-kensington-starts-smart-city-transformation-counting-trees/

Linking People and Places: New ways of understanding spatial access in cities

A new study released by the International Transport Forum (ITF) examines how recent developments in measuring urban accessibility can be used to inform planning and operational decisions.
http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1452/45/Linking-People-and-Places-New-ways-of-understanding-spatial-access-in-cities

Does nature stand a chance in this urbanisation frenzy?

In 2012, Hyderabad became the first Indian city to have a City Biodiversity Index (CBI), at least on paper. As an assessment tool, the Index is an invaluable tool for city authorities to monitor and evaluate biodiversity with a view to aid conservation efforts. Launched amid much fanfare to coincide with Hyderabad hosting the UN Convention on Biodiversity in 2012, the Index is now defunct. It has not been updated or used since its launch by Hyderabad’s civic bodies.
http://citizenmatters.in/steps-to-increase-biodiversity-in-indian-cities-4447

Oslo's car ban sounded simple enough. Then the backlash began

When Oslo decided to be the first European city to ban cars from its centre, businesses protested. So the city did the next best thing: it banned parking
One day late last summer, in Frogner, a central neighbourhood of Oslo, Nils Sandberg received a note.
“It simply stated that shortly, parking spaces in these streets would disappear and bicycle lanes would be built,” says Sandberg. He spoke to neighbours, and learned they had all received the same note. “This came as a total surprise and shock.”
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/13/oslo-ban-cars-backlash-parking

The Delhi Metro: How do you build a transport system for 26m people?

“Thou hath not played rugby until thou hath tried to get onto a Delhi Metro in rush hour,” a wise Yogi once said.
If you’ve never been on New Delhi’s Metro, your mind might conjure up the the conventional image of Indian trains: tawdry carriages, buckets of sweat, people hanging out of windows and the odd holy cow wandering around for good measure.
Well, no. The Delhi Metro is actually one of the most marvellously sophisticated, affordable, timely, and practical public transportation systems out there. On a 45C day in the Indian summer, many a traveller has shed tears of joy on entering the spacious, air-conditioned carriages.
http://www.citymetric.com/transport/delhi-metro-how-do-you-build-transport-system-26m-people-3203

What Inclusive Urban Development Can Look Like

Inclusive prosperity is the idea that the opportunity and benefits of economic growth should be widely shared by all segments of society. Most cities fall well short of that ideal. While urban areas continue to afford new opportunities to employees and businesses from all walks of life, they are increasingly split between wealthy, high-skill knowledge workers and low-paid service workers.
https://hbr.org/2017/07/what-inclusive-urban-development-can-look-like

New D.C. Lab Wants to Use Big Data to Shape City Policy

The city of Washington, D.C., sees your municipality’s chief data officer and will raise you a whole team of social scientists with backgrounds in data science, statistics and economics.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the new office Thursday, called (perhaps a little too cutely) The Lab @ DC, to “design policy and program interventions based on theory and evidence from academic research and administrative data; conduct high-quality evaluations to learn how well things work and how to improve government services; and foster a scientific community of practice, engagement and cooperation with experts and stakeholders,” according to a release from the her office. The initiative was made possible with a $3.2 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the team plans to tackle city policy on issues from police body cameras and 911 calls to rodent abatement.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/washington-dc-lab-big-data-shape-city-policy

Leading Cities in a World of Disruptive Innovation

This 2017 Global Cities report takes a look at the world’s leading cities as well as those that are likely to become more important on the global stage. It includes the Global Cities Index, which examines cities’ performance, and the Global Cities Outlook, which evaluates their potential. Together, the Index and Outlook present a unique lens on the world’s largest and most influential cities and those primed to make a strong impact.
http://www.urenio.org/2017/07/12/cities-2017-leaders-disruptive-innovation/

Save the date! First SUMPs-Up workshop in Torres Vedras, Portugal

The first SUMPs-Up workshop for mobility experts and local authorities will focus on national urban mobility programmes. The event will take place prior to the CIVITAS Forum Conference 2017 on 26 September in Torres Vedras, Portugal.
http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1453/45/Save-the-date-33-First-SUMPs-Up-workshop---national-urban-mobility-programmes-26-September-in-Torres-Vedras-Portugal

Finding Your Place in the Global Urban Movement to Fight Climate Change

For Pittsburgh, it’s a focus on improving air quality and creating renewable energy jobs. For Paris, it’s encouraging social mobility and reclaiming pedestrian areas. The common thread in these cities’ climate action plans is a commitment to pledges made by 197 parties in the landmark Paris Agreement.
“The only way to do right by Pittsburghers and Parisians is to abide by the principles of the Paris Agreement, which guarantees the future health and prosperity of both of our cities – and every other city in the world,” wrote Mayors William Peduto and Anne Hidalgo in The New York Times in response to President Donald Trump’s rationale for pulling the United States out of the pact.
http://thecityfix.com/blog/finding-your-place-in-the-global-urban-movement-to-fight-climate-change-ani-dasgupta/

The Future is Coming: Cities Readiness Rating

PwC in Russia presents its special preliminary release of the survey, The Future is Coming: Cities Readiness Rating, which rates major cities and urban agglomerations on their capacity to adopt new technologies.
As part of the survey, we have analysed the readiness of the world’s largest cities to respond to disruptive innovations and to adopt technology-driven solutions across a variety of social sectors, including healthcare, education, security, tourism and culture, transportation, the economy, utilities, urban development and citizen engagement. City readiness was assessed across several parameters, such as technology readiness; the strategies and regulations that support the adoption and use of new infrastructure; the availability of finished prototypes; and the social readiness of citizens to use new technologies.
http://www.pwc.ru/en/publications/cities-readiness-rating.html

Making Cities More Dense Always Sparks Resistance. Here’s How to Overcome It.

Urban density, done well, has all kinds of benefits. But it means telling the residents of an area that a bunch more people are moving in. And that always generates resistance, sentiment that has taken on the name NIMBY [Not In My Backyard]. Urbanist Brent Toderian, who has worked with numerous cities on densification projects, explains how he thinks about, and deals with, NIMBYs
https://www.vox.com/2017/6/20/15815490/toderian-nimbys

54th International Making Cities Livable Conference

Public places are the essential key to a livable city. Join the International Making Cities Livable Conference to share your achievements and learn from others how we can take back our streets and squares - and in the process, strengthen community, civic engagement, health, and equity. October 2 - 6 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
http://www.livablecities.org/conferences/54th-conference-santa-fe

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