Planning Sustainable Cities

Global Report on Human Settlements 2009

Un-Habitat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134900787
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Planificación de ciudades y desarrollo urbano

Current urban planning systems are not equipped to deal with the major urban challenges of the twenty-first century, including effects of climate change, resource depletion and economic instability, plus continued rapid urbanization with its negative consequences such as poverty, slums and urban informality. These planning systems have also, to a large extent, failed to meaningfully involve and accommodate the ways of life of communities and other stakeholders in the planning of urban areas, thus contributing to the problems of spatial marginalization and exclusion. It is clear that urban planning needs to be reconsidered and revitalized for a sustainable urban future.

Planning Sustainable Cities reviews the major challenges currently facing cities and towns all over the world, the emergence and spread of modern urban planning and the effectiveness of current approaches. More importantly, it identifies innovative urban planning approaches and practices that are more responsive to current and future challenges of urbanization. The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date global assessment of human settlements conditions and trends. It is an essential reference for researchers, academics, public authorities and civil society organizations all over the world. Preceding issues of the report have addressed such topics as Cities in a Globalizing World, The Challenge of Slums, Financing Urban Shelter and Enhancing Urban Safety and Security.

PART I

CHALLENGES AND CONTEXT

CHAPTER 1

URBAN CHALLENGES AND THE NEED TO REVISIT URBAN PLANNING

Urban settlements in all parts of the world are being influenced by new and powerful forces that require governments to reconsider how they manage urban futures. Urban areas in both developed and developing countries will increasingly feel the effects of phenomena such as climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity and economic instability. These are all factors that will significantly reshape towns and cities in the century ahead and all of them need to be effectively addressed if cities are to be sustainable, that is, environmentally safe, economically productive and socially inclusive. Many developing countries, in addition, will continue to experience rapid rates of urbanization. With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas,¹ there is no doubt that the ‘urban agenda’ will increasingly become a priority for governments everywhere.

Since the earliest days of human settlement, people have consciously and collectively intervened in the nature and form of urban areas to achieve particular social, political or environmental objectives. This activity has been known as planning. Over the last century, urban planning² has become a discipline and profession in its own right, has become institutionalized as a practice of government as well as an activity of ordinary citizens and businesses, and has evolved as a complex set of ideas which guides both planning decisionmaking processes and urban outcomes. There are now important and highly contested debates on what forms of urban planning are best suited to dealing with the problems of sustainable development that urban settlements currently face, and will face in the future.

At certain times in the last century, planning has been seen as the activity that can solve many of the major problems of urban areas, while at other times it has been viewed as unnecessary and unwanted government interference in market forces, with the latter able to address urban problems far more effectively than governments. More recently, it has been argued that systems of urban planning in developing countries are also the cause of many urban problems, and that by setting unrealistic standards of land and urban development, and by encouraging inappropriate modernist urban forms, planning is promoting urban poverty and exclusion. This argument was strongly made at the joint meeting of the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum and the World Planners Congress in Vancouver in June 2006, where it was suggested that the profession of urban planning needs to be reviewed to see if it is able to play a role in addressing issues in rapidly growing and poor cities. To do this, however, governments, urban local authorities and planning practitioners have to develop a different approach that is pro-poor and inclusive, and that places the creation of livelihoods at the centre of planning efforts.

At certain times in the last century, planning has been seen as the activity that can solve many of the major problems of urban areas

This issue of the Global Report on Human Settlements considers the importance of urban planning as a significant management tool for dealing with the unprecedented challenges facing 21st-century cities and attaining the goals of sustainable urbanization (see Box 1.1). There is now a realization that the positive management of urban change cannot be left only to the market or governments. Governments, together with other important urban stakeholders, will have to jointly agree on the long-term objectives of urban change. These objectives will need to include ways of achieving socio-spatial equity, environmental sustainability and economic productivity in urban areas. But if planning is to play a role in addressing the major issues facing urban areas, then current approaches to planning in many parts of the world will have to change. A key conclusion to emerge from this Global Report is that while the forces impacting upon the growth and change of cities have changed dramatically, in many parts of the world planning systems have changed very little and are now frequent contributors to urban problems rather than functioning as tools for human and environmental improvement. However, this does not necessarily need to be the case: planning systems can be changed so that they are able to function as effective and efficient instruments of sustainable urban change. Given the enormity of the issues facing urban areas in the coming decades, there is no longer time for complacency: planning systems need to be evaluated and, if necessary, revised; the training and education of planners need to be re-examined; and examples of successful urban planning need to be found and shared worldwide.

This issue of the Global Report on Human Settlements considers urban planning as a significant management tool for dealing with the unprecedented challenges facing 21st-century cities

This introductory chapter outlines the main issues of concern and summarizes the contents of the rest of the Global Report. The chapter first sets out the key urban challenges of the 21st century that will shape a new role for urban planning. This in turn lays the basis for the question, in the third section, which asks if and how urban planning needs to change to address these new issues effectively. Section four considers the factors that have led to a revived interest in urban planning, and indicates the numerous positive roles which planning can play. This section provides examples of how planning has been used successfully to meet new challenges. The fifth section summarizes some of the most important new approaches to urban planning that have emerged in various parts of the world, while the sixth section offers a definition of urban planning and a set of normative principles against which current or new approaches might be tested. The seventh section summarizes the contents of the main chapters of the Global Report, and the final section concludes the chapter.

Box 1.1 The goals of sustainable urbanization

Environmentally sustainable urbanization requires that:

• greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and serious climate change mitigation and adaptation actions are implemented;

• urban sprawl is minimized and more compact towns and cities served by public transport are developed;

• non-renewable resources are sensibly used and conserved;

• renewable resources are not depleted;

• the energy used and the waste produced per unit of output or consumption is reduced;

• the waste produced is recycled or disposed of in ways that do not damage the wider environment; and

• the ecological footprint of towns and cities is reduced.

Only by dealing with urbanization within regional, national and even international planning and policy frameworks can these requirements be met.

Priorities and actions for economic sustainability of towns and cities should focus on local economic development, which entails developing the basic conditions needed for the efficient operation of economic enterprises, both large and small, formal and informal. These include:

• reliable in infrastructure and services, including water supply, waste management, transport, communications and energy supply;

• access to land or premises in appropriate locations with secure tenure;

• financial institutions and markets capable of mobilizing investment and credit;

• a healthy educated workforce with appropriate skills;

• a legal system which ensures competition, accountability and property rights;

• appropriate regulatory frameworks, which define and enforce non-discriminatory locally appropriate minimum standards for the provision of safe and healthy workplaces and the treatment and handling of wastes and emissions.

For several reasons, special attention needs to be given to supporting the urban informal sector, which is vital for a sustainable urban economy.

The social aspects of urbanization and economic development must be addressed as part of the sustainable urbanization agenda. The Habitat Agenda incorporates relevant principles, including the promotion of:

• equal access to and fair and equitable provision of services;

• social integration by prohibiting discrimination and offering opportunities and physical space to encourage positive interaction;

• gen...