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• Published: 20 October 2022

A new urban narrative for sustainable development

• Michael Keith   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9448-2674 1 ,
• Eugenie Birch 2 ,
• Nicolas J. A. Buchoud 3 ,
• Maruxa Cardama 4 ,
• William Cobbett 5 ,
• Michael Cohen 6 ,
• Thomas Elmqvist   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4617-6197 7 ,
• Jessica Espey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5140-7463 8 ,
• Maarten Hajer 9 ,
• Gunnar Hartmann 10 ,
• Tadashi Matsumoto 11 ,
• Susan Parnell   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5702-1684 8 ,
• Aromar Revi 12 ,
• Debra C. Roberts 13 ,
• Emilia Saiz 14 ,
• Tim Schwanen 15 ,
• Karen C. Seto   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4928-2446 16 ,
• Raf Tuts 17 &
• Martin van der Pütten 18  

Nature Sustainability volume  6 ,  pages 115–117 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Our planet is rapidly urbanizing. Research has recognized the complexity of city-driven dynamics, but our political realities have yet to catch up. A new narrative of sustainable urban development must become central to global policymaking to help humanity respond to the most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Almost all growth of the human population this century will be accounted for by a growing number of city dwellers 1 . This demographic reality has elevated political attention to urban issues. Between 2012 and 2015, a dialogue on urban issues within the United Nations (UN) General Assembly resulted in the inclusion of a dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on cities and human settlements within the 2030 Agenda. SDG 11 committed national governments to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” 2 . This goal is of major significance. By including a commitment focused on cities within a nationally determined agenda, countries recognized both the importance of a place-based approach to development and the unique nature of the challenges facing urban communities of all shapes and sizes 3 .

Before 2015, cities and urban areas had been neglected, with their only forum for international dialogue the UN Conferences on Housing and Urban Development in 1976 and 1996 and the biennial World Urban Forum 4 . While these conferences helped focus collective attention on issues of urban poverty and infrastructure, they did not acknowledge the importance of cities as the drivers of economic growth and climate-resilient development 5 , 6 . The dedicated SDG gave urban practitioners, policymakers and local government representatives a formalized space in policy dialogues that acknowledged varied roles for local, national and multilateral actors in urban governance.

Beyond SDG 11, the commitment to localize the 2030 Agenda and “work closely on implementation [of the goals] with regional and local authorities” opened up opportunities for local governments to engage across the spectrum of national planning processes 2 . In 2016, the parallel but complementary Habitat III conference attempted to highlight further the urban imperative and while it did not succeed in gaining high-level international traction, it did provide a normative and operational framework for global urban policy 7 . Furthermore, in 2020, six international organizations (including the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank) agreed upon a harmonized definition of urban settlements, following a decades-long and hotly contested debate 8 .

Together these agreements have helped to shape a ‘Global Urban Agenda’, which has continued to gain ground among technical audiences, exemplified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s commitment to issue a Special Report on Cities and Climate Change in its 7th Assessment cycle and recent discussion of urban challenges in the reports of Working Groups II and III 6 , 9 . However, the turbulence of recent world events and the need for post-pandemic reconstruction is limiting the political and fiscal space for upscaling and even maintaining global urban deliberations. This is despite the fact that the pandemic revealed opportunities for more systemic interventions to reduce future pandemic and climate change risk in cities and towns 6 .

A close look at the outcomes of the major global macroeconomic and political meetings of the past decade, such as the G20 or G7, show that issues of urban development have been consistently undervalued in national discussions 10 . Cities and many subnational governments were on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the disproportionate burden they face was not acknowledged in the outcome statement from the extraordinary G20 summit on COVID-19 (ref. 11 ). This is in spite of evidence suggesting that most cities are financially ill-equipped to cope with post-pandemic challenges; “lower exports, a decline in tourism revenues and remittances, and an acute contraction of economic activities are translating into a precipitous drop in tax revenues” for local authorities, making it incredibly hard to cope with increased vulnerability and service demand 12 .

Furthermore, urban governance challenges were ignored in the Declaration from the 75th General Assembly of the UN in 2020, which specifically discussed the necessity for a reinvigoration of multilateralism to help deal with modern social, economic and environmental crises. The 2021 report of the UN Secretary General did shine some light on the role of local governments and call for the creation of an Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments to help Member States engage local government in recovery efforts, but this is not enough 13 .

Creating a new urban narrative

To prevent political backsliding and to keep the spotlight on how to govern complex urban dynamics, urban stakeholders need to organize themselves into a coherent epistemic community, with clear political messaging. New bridges need to be built, such as with long-term investors, both public and private, to avoid the risks of geopolitical fragmentation. During the period 2012–2015, the urban community demonstrated unprecedented coordination, mobilizing in support of an Urban SDG and orchestrating a related campaign (#UrbanSDG), as well as establishing a Global Taskforce: a common platform for local and regional government associations. Now, halfway through the SDG project, this community needs to regroup, reignite these platforms and call for a renewed focus on urban and place-based development, with clear ambitions for the next 5–10 years.

First, this community needs to coalesce around a new narrative of what urban sustainable development really is, building on recent literature that foregrounds complexity and systems thinking. Complexity in urban environments has a long academic tradition, with inputs from biology, computational sciences and physics, among others 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 . Complexity theory has also spawned new models and planning tools, which are increasingly being used by cities and their service operators to better understand spatial organization and governance systems 18 . The fact that urban planning embraces complexity head on makes it a highly practical and pertinent approach to implement a global, interdependent and complex sustainable development agenda.

Second, the new narrative needs to address emergent challenges; for instance, the necessity to foster resilient and equitable social systems rather than focusing only on economic development, better integrating the climate change, health and well-being, and biodiversity agendas, and ensuring disaster-resilient infrastructure 6 , 19 . Urban inequality also constitutes a series of pressing challenges, including the inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as healthcare coverage, but also socio-economic inequalities in housing and labour markets and differentiated climate vulnerabilities 20 . It is crucial to respond to the failure of existing urban development models that have resulted in unplanned, informal urban expansion in many cities in the Global South.

Third, this community needs to engage meaningfully with policy experts and social scientists who are immersed in the complex architecture of the international governance system and can help place key messages at the top of political agendas 21 . Engaging at this level is essential to garner political commitment and to help change power dynamics within countries that might otherwise be reluctant to empower local government leaders. It is clear from the limited attention to local and regional government in international dialogues that current modes of engagement (for example, via the Major Groups to the UN) are insufficient. Similarly, the vast reservoir of expertise that exists in the field of south–south cooperation too often remains untapped. Urban stakeholders need to capitalize on the techniques that proved so effective during the SDG deliberations and focus on delivering unified, concise messaging, framed in ways that resonate with political decision-makers and communicated by partners who can access the various organs of the international system.

But it is not just about smarter lobbying. We need to embrace a new and changing political geography, which, alongside global governance hubs such as New York or Geneva, or Washington DC, includes regional fora such as the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) or the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), major macroeconomic fora such as the G20, and regional unions, such as the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and others 22 . According to the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, these regional entities must play a key role in helping countries to achieve their sustainable development objectives, acting as ‘think-tanks’ and hubs for regional partnership 23 . Engaging with countries in their own regional context is particularly important to address the regionalized nature of urban concerns and governance.

Cities as sites of international decision-making

The struggle to secure a global focus on cities began nearly a decade ago and culminated in a commitment to localization, place-based development and a dedicated Urban SDG. Since then, the world has been torn asunder and the focus on cities as sites of sustainable development action has eroded. Given the complexity of sustainable development, a place-based approach to development is imperative.

Urban stakeholders need to once again come together and articulate a coherent narrative that can be used to galvanize attention to cities as key international decision-making spaces. Yet, the lessons of the past decade — from financial, economic, health and environmental crises — show that urban stakeholders need to join forces at a wider scale than ever before. It is not just about looking back to the epic narrative of SDG 11. Recoupling urbanization with social progress, and within planetary boundaries, depends on our shared ability to articulate these interconnections, to galvanize attention and to create a larger political space for cities as key sites of international decision-making.

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Acknowledgements

This piece emerged from a workshop sponsored by UKRI’s PEAK Urban programme, grant reference ES/P011055/1.

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Michael Keith

Penn Institute for Urban Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Eugenie Birch

Renaissance Urbaine, Global Solutions Initiative, Berlin, Germany

Nicolas J. A. Buchoud

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William Cobbett

Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment, The New School, New York, NY, USA

Michael Cohen

Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

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Jessica Espey & Susan Parnell

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Sustainable Urban Development Unit, OECD, Paris, France

Tadashi Matsumoto

Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore, India

Aromar Revi

Durban Municipal Government, Durban, South Africa

Debra C. Roberts

United Cities and Local Governments, Barcelona, Spain

Emilia Saiz

School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Tim Schwanen

Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

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Keith, M., Birch, E., Buchoud, N.J.A. et al. A new urban narrative for sustainable development. Nat Sustain 6 , 115–117 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00979-5

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Urban and Transit Planning

A Culmination of Selected Research Papers from IEREK Conferences on Urban Planning, Architecture and Green Urbanism, Italy and Netherlands (2017)

• Hocine Bougdah 0 ,
• Antonella Versaci 1 ,
• Adolf Sotoca 2 ,
• Ferdinando Trapani 3 ,
• Marco Migliore 4 ,
• Nancy Clark 5

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School of Architecture, UF College of Design, Construction & Planning, Gainesville, USA

• Provides clear approaches as to how urban design and architecture can be achieved
• Presents examples of the ways to raise transportation efficiency
• Showcases various case studies taken from diverse countries and cities

Part of the book series: Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation (ASTI)

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Table of contents (50 chapters)

Front matter, sustainability and the built environment, understanding streetscape design and temporary appropriation in latin american cities: the case of mexico city centre.

• J. A. Lara-Hernandez, Alessandro Melis, Silvio Caputo

The Innovative and Sustainable Streetscape Design Based on Community Participation in Surabaya, Indonesia

• Bambang Soemardiono, Murni Rachmawati

Ecological Urban Planning and Design Process with Strategic Planning Approach in Ünye City

• Emrehan ÖZCAN, Sanem ÖZEN TURAN

“Kharja” the Lung of the Traditional House—The Case of Makkah

• Faredah Mohsen Al-Murahhem

Building-Scaled Renovation: A BIM-Centered System Dynamics Modeling Approach

• L. Burneau, P. Michel, B. Vinot

The Impacts of Sustainable Practices on Affordable Housing Developments: Residents’ Perspectives

Industrial ecologies: manufacturing the post-industrial landscape, built environment assessment of a disaster resilient university: a case study of the university of santo tomas.

• Vinson Serrano, John Clemence Pinlac

Parametric Assessment for Achieving Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in Egypt’s New Urban Communities: Considering New Borg El-Arab City Urban Morphology and Openings’ Specifications

• Walaa El-Sayed Yoseph

Urban and Environmental Planning

Multi-functional urban greening: a policy review assessing the integration of urban agriculture into the urban planning system of punjab province, pakistan.

• Hafiz Syed Hamid Arshad, Jayant Kumar Routray

Key Components for Delineating an Efficient Urban Development in Historic Towns: Stakeholders’ Perception

• Thirumaran Kesavaperumal, Kiruthiga Kandasamy

Regional Resilience: An Urban Systems Approach

• M. van Aswegen, J. E. Drewes, E. van der Linde

Highway Expansion and Crime: Challenges on Urban Development for Sustainability

• J. Alexander Gómez, Errol Haarhoff, Emilio García

Transformations in Urban Mobility: A Smart Campus Proposal for Universidade Federal de Goias (Goiania/GO, Brazil)

• Maria Natalia Paulino Araujo Alcantara, Erika Cristine Kneib

Planning for a Redevelopment of a Traditional Urban Village of Kampong Bharu, Kuala Lumpur: A Challenge for a Sustainable Future

• Norsidah Ujang

Restructuring of Spatial Urban–Rural Linkages in the Syrian Coastal Region

• Tarek Rahmoun, Wan Min Zhao

A Framework for Defining Innovation Districts: Case Study from 22@ Barcelona

• Arnault Morisson

A volume of five parts, this book is a culmination of selected research papers from the second version of the international conferences on Urban Planning & Architectural Design for sustainable Development (UPADSD) and Urban Transit and Sustainable Networks (UTSN) of 2017 in Palermo and the first of the Resilient and Responsible Architecture and Urbanism Conference (RRAU) of 2018 in the Netherlands. This book, not only discusses environmental challenges of the world today, but also informs the reader of the new technologies, tools, and approaches used today for successful planning and development as well as new and upcoming ones. Chapters of this book provide in-depth debates on fields of environmental planning and management, transportation planning, renewable energy generation and sustainable urban land use. It addresses long-term issues as well as short-term issues of land use and transportation in different parts of the world in hopes of improving the quality of life. Topicswithin this book include: (1) Sustainability and the Built Environment (2) Urban and Environmental Planning (3) Sustainable Urban Land Use and Transportation (4) Energy Efficient Urban Areas & Renewable Energy Generation (5) Quality of Life & Environmental Management Systems. This book is a useful source for academics, researchers and practitioners seeking pioneering research in the field.

• City Planning
• Urban sustainability
• Regional Planning
• Environmental Planning
• Logistics Networks
• Urban Transportation
• Energy efficient cities
• landscape/regional and urban planning

Hocine Bougdah

Antonella Versaci

Adolf Sotoca

Ferdinando Trapani

Marco Migliore

School of Architecture, UF College of Design, Construction & Planning, Gainesville, USA

Nancy Clark

Hocine Bougdah  is a reader and subject area leader for Architectural Technology and the Environment in the School of Architecture, University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, UK. He has overall responsibility for the curriculum design, delivery and assessment of the subject area in the school at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. His research interests focus on the technological, ecological and human/cultural aspects of sustainable architecture. His current research projects are interested in two facets of sustainable design. The first one is looking at low energy, low cost, low impact solutions (Projects include; the experimental low energy house and the use of PV panels for both energy efficiency and visual impact in newly built and refurbished buildings). The second aspect of his current research looks at the role of users as participants in the design/communication processes and community driven projects with a view to streamline the process and empower communities to address climate change mitigation (projects include; community driven projects in the global south, the role of culture in informing the design of urban dwellings, the use of interactive communication in the design process as a way for participatory design/consultation) and or both through the supervision of a number of researchers (currently 4) working on topics aligned with his research interests. Dr Bougdah is actively involved in scholarly activities through his membership of various learned societies (ACADIA, AHRA, IEREK) and editorial/review boards for a number of journals and international conferences ( Journal of Islamic Architecture , Environmental Science and Sustainable Development , Sustainability , Architecture and Culture , Plos One ,..). Alongside his academic role, he runs a design/consultancy practice.

Adolf Sotoca  has a PhD Architectue and Urbanism. He is currently a Chair Professor in Architecture at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and a professor Serra Hunter at UPC_BarcelonaTECH of Spain. With clear passion for architecture, he enjoys sharing it with his students though his teachings of urban design studios and theory of architecture and urbanism for years. Professor Sotoca has been Visiting Professor at the Illinois School of Architecture (USA) and at CTU Krakow (Poland), as well as Guest Professor at NU Singapore, ETH Zürich, Berlage Institute Rotterdam, IUA di Venezia, Politecnico di Milano, TU Darmstadt and UAUIM Bucharest. He is also board member of several international institutions on Urbanism education, such as theInternational Forum of Urbanism and the European Postgraduate Master of Urbanism. His research interests currently lie on the regenerations of obsolete and declining residential areas and has taken the role of leading researcher on several EU projects. He is also co-founder and principal of CSAArquitectes, one of the leading offices on Urbanism in Barcelona which has received a number of prestigious prizes.

Ferdinando Trapani is an Architect and Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Polytechnic School of Palermo University (UNIPA), Italy. He received his Architecture Degree in 1986, his PhD in 1999 and became Researcher in Urban Planning in 2001. He is interested in the planning techniques for solving problems in urban & territorial regeneration and participation applications with ICT. Also, his research has been focused on the integration of spatial planning with economics and sustainable tourism in the relational way. He was member of the National Commission for Infrastructural Policies of the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica. As a result of his research, he is principal or co-principal investigator on more than 60 papers in several journals, more than 50 communications to international conferences, 2 books and more than 40 books chapters. Also, he was responsible for his Department of several European project in international partnerships regarding place based development policies. Currently, arch. Trapani is involved in the Erasmus Plus European project ‘Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscape’ as investigator of pilot case study, from 2015 is member of Regional Observatory of Landscape’s Quality, and an Editorial Board Member and reviewer for different international journals, an Editor for different books, member of an International Scientific Committee, a Chair of international conferences and an active member in different national associations.

Marco Migliore is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace, Materials Engineering at University of Palermo, Italy. He received his Civil Engineering Degree with honor at University of Palermo in 1997 and his PhD in 2000. In 2000 was visiting researcher at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds (UK). He became researcher in 2000, associate professor in 2005. He teaches Transport System Theory, Transport Planning and Sustainable Mobility Policies, University of Palermo. He is member of the committee of the Doctorate in “Civil, Environmental, Materials Engineering”. He is currently the Coordinator of the Degree and of the Master Degree Course in Civil Engineering. He has carried out his scientific activity studying the supply and the demand transport models, for passengers and freights, and in particular the optimal design of the urban and regional transport network. He acts as frequent reviewer for high-impact scientific journals and he is an Editorial Board Member for an ISI international journal. He has participated in many prestigious conferences related to transport research topics. He has been responsible for 4 research projects related to transport planning, climate change and sustainable transport policies.

Antonella Versaci  is a researcher and assistant professor with more than 10 years of experience, at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the University “Kore” of Enna. She is responsible of the “Laboratory of Restoration of Architectural and Cultural Heritage” and teaches “Architectural Restoration” and “Laboratory of Architectural Restoration” within the Master of Architecture. She is also an associate researcher at the Institut Parisien de Recherche Architecture Urbanistique Société (IPRAUS), a research laboratory of the ENSAPB – National Superior School of Architecture of Paris-Belleville (UMR 3329 Ausser). Her research applies to the issues of safeguarding and conservation of historic buildings and landscape, with particular attention to cultural heritage spread across the territory and to the protection of historic centers, as well as to their survey, diagnosis, classification and valorization. Professor Versaci is the author of over 90 refereed publications.

Book Title : Urban and Transit Planning

Book Subtitle : A Culmination of Selected Research Papers from IEREK Conferences on Urban Planning, Architecture and Green Urbanism, Italy and Netherlands (2017)

Editors : Hocine Bougdah, Antonella Versaci, Adolf Sotoca, Ferdinando Trapani, Marco Migliore, Nancy Clark

Series Title : Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17308-1

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science , Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-17310-4 Published: 14 August 2020

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-17308-1 Published: 20 July 2019

Series ISSN : 2522-8714

Series E-ISSN : 2522-8722

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XII, 589

Number of Illustrations : 2 b/w illustrations, 397 illustrations in colour

Topics : Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning , Transportation Technology and Traffic Engineering , Sustainable Architecture/Green Buildings , Building Construction and Design , Urban Studies/Sociology , Sustainable Development

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The people's place in the city of bits and atoms

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March 6, 2024

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• Naroa Coretti Sánchez Research Assistant
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By Niall Patrick Walsh

The city of the 21st century represents a confluence of bits and atoms; an organism in its own right that relentlessly spawns information and data about itself, its people, and the invisible flows that support them. What is the relationship between humans and the city in this new condition? What is its future? To explore these questions, we speak with architect, TED founder, and father of information architecture Richard Saul Wurman, 2025 Venice Biennale curator Carlo Ratti, and MIT Media Lab researchers Naroa Coretti and Ainhoa Genua.

Understanding cities

In 1976, Richard Saul Wurman chaired the national AIA Convention in Philadelphia. Operating under the convention theme ‘The American City: The Architecture of Information,’ Wurman set out a vision for cities built upon the relationship between urbanism, information, and people.

“Wouldn’t a city – any city – be more useful and more fun if everybody knew what to do in it, and with it?” the conference brochure asked. “As architects, we know it takes more than good-looking buildings to make a city habitable and usable. It takes information: information about what spaces do as well as how they look; information that helps people articulate their needs and respond to change. That’s what Architecture of Information is all about.”

Almost fifty years later, in a recent conversation with Wurman, I returned to the 1976 brochure with a mission of exploring how prevailing approaches to urban planning have, or have not, lived up to Wurman’s vision. As someone whose lifelong pursuit of ‘understanding’ includes founding the TED conference, pioneering the field of Information Architecture, and formulating organizational theories such as LATCH and A-NOSE, it is perhaps no surprise that Wurman’s views on urbanism emphasize the potential for cities as places of learning and understanding.

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A discussion of the future of public transportation, with a highlight of the Autonomous Bicycle project led by PhD student Naroa Coretti.

Could self-driving bikes change how we use cities?

Kent Larson, head of the Media Lab’s City Science group, and PhD student Naroa Coretti Sánchez talk about the group's work and philosophy.

What is the MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project?

The MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project proposes that autonomous bicycles could serve as an alternative to current bike sharing models.

City Science team publishes two papers in Communications in Transportation Research

The two papers relate to project work from the City Science group around the impact of shared autonomous micro-mobility systems.