We have a lot of experience of living in cities and towns...
Uruk, an ancient city located in present day Iraq situated about 250km south of Baghdad, is one of the world's oldest cities. It may have been home to some 60,000 people back in 4900BC and it is thought to have endured up to the 5th century AD. That's a long time for a city to exist.
For several thousand years, cities and towns have served as cradles of innovation and advancement in knowledge, economic prosperity and health. They have protected us and also borne witness to significant human suffering and pain.
In the year 1800 it is estimated that three per cent of the global population – 30 million of a global population at the time of 1 billion – lived an urban life. Fast forward over two hundred years later, and over half the world’s population – that's more than 4 billion of us – live in urban areas. By 2050 it is projected that perhaps 7 out of 10 people will live in cities and towns. Whilst some might shrink in size, others will grow and new ones will emerge.
There are always things we can do to improve our cities and towns
Many cities and towns are not as good as they should, and could be. Why is this?
What do we want our cities and towns around the world to look like next year, and by 2030, 2040 and 2050? How do we make them prosperous, peaceful and delightful places to thrive in? The next 25 years to 2050 represent about 0.3% of the time in which we have inhabited urban areas. Do we have a powerful and compelling vision for what we want to achieve with our cities and towns - one that doesn't just talk about "the long term" but which also gives us change and better places now?
Everyone deserves a say in how to improve cities and towns
To agree what's required to make cities and towns better, we should first start with a blank sheet. On this sheet we can write down the things we agree matter to us - as a Vision. Everyone should be involved in shaping this Vision for how our cities and towns are to evolve, with short-term practical actions that deliver benefits now and also build towards long-term thriving, green and resilient urban places. Ideas on how everyone can be involved in the way forward are described in the Meaningful involvement section.
How our cities and towns evolve in the short term and over the long term depends on actions we agree to take together, with a shared mindset to give everyone the chance to lead good lives and to care for each other and nature.
Creating a Vision to describe this path is not about writing down and speaking about lofty goals that are too far away to mean anything real or tangible. A compelling Vision provides impetus for good short-term action that makes a difference today, tomorrow, this year and in the years ahead.
An example of a 10-point Charter to support an urban Vision, which use the Urban 2.0 principles and the Urban 2.0 system, is described below.
This example Charter fits on one page - the longer a Charter is, the less memorable it is for people.
Comments and feedback to help improve this Charter are appreciated (it is put forward as a "Work in Progress"). If you would like a document version (in Word or PowerPoint), please get in touch.
The prosperity and the development of our city / town is shaped and defined by the people who live and work here.
Our Vision is driven by the citizens of our communities and our businesses. Everyone of all ages is involved in ideas and action. At agreed points in time we renew our thinking with "a blank sheet". This is done to retain a freshness and a vitality to our policy, planning and design, which is discussed in the places where our communities and our businesses gather, not just at Town Hall. We work together to agree our priorities and how to knit together short-term actions to achieve long-term improvements for everyone and for nature.
Citizens and businesses help to shape our public services, including public transport and streets management, infrastructure and amenities, health services, education and community support of all types. Resources for public services are prioritised, and key indicators for the resourcing split are used to monitor effectiveness and to tackle under-performance or stresses.
Citizens and businesses help make our environment greener and healthier - which we monitor in various ways. Greenery and water spaces are integrated in our urban policy, planning and design, from small spaces to large ones. Nature in the public realm is a priority. The performance of buildings and infrastructure is measured against key indicators for efficiency, sustainability and resilience. We strive to make our local neighbourhoods beautiful and connected to each other and our urban centre.
We focus on ensuring that where people live is well connected to good local services and our urban centre, without needing a car to get to these services (except for those with mobility restrictions).
Walking, cycling and other "active mobility" is central to our streets planning and design. Changing streets takes time, and we tackle change incrementally. We are working to ensure neighbourhoods are walkable and cycling-friendly. Public transport is prioritised over private car use, with regular services in place to provide people with efficient travel choices that are better than using a car.
The circular economy is embedded into how we function. It includes how we consume goods, products and services including energy, water, fuel, food, technology, textiles and others. We reduce what we consume, we reuse before we recycle and we minimise waste in all our activities. We support local producers and we focus on "local to local" connections with others around the world in a meaningful and direct way. We use key indicators to monitor our circular economy progress.
When we identify opportunities for change that require investment, we create compelling investment cases for investors (of all types) which focus on meaningful value. We agree meaningful targets and benefits to measure, which connect from our local level to the international level.
Quantifiable and responsible action to adapt to climate change and to take mitigating action to address this change is core to our resilience action, including appropriate ways to fund climate-related initiatives and key indicators to measure against.
We focus on action to avoid disasters. We do this by understanding our vulnerability and exposure to hazards (flooding, storms, wildfires, heatwaves, drought and others), and agreeing our risk tolerance, key indicators to measure against and action to achieve resilience within our means and resources.
Everyone is involved in the governance of what we do, and the governing authority is transparent with its plans and management. Citizens of all ages and businesses are involved in setting and monitoring the key indicators with thresholds that we use to measure our performance against. If thresholds are reached for any indicators we take action to address them in an appropriate way.
Cities and towns change over time. We need to work with what currently exists, adapt some areas, and create new features and improvements in others. The scale of what a city or a town sets out to achieve over the short term and for the long term depends on the vision and ambition of its leaders, and the tone they set - which requires active involvement of citizens of all ages, and businesses, in how to keep moving forwards.
Good policy supported by good governance is key. Do city and town leaders settle for the status quo with small, incremental changes, or can they aim for something more ambitious - to drive meaningful and transformational change achieved with everyone's input? Just because things have been done in a city or town in certain way for a long time does not mean these ways are how they should continue today and in the future.
Involve people in developing the Vision
A Vision that is developed by the people who live and work in a city or a town needs to be compelling, realistic, and connected to meaningful short and long-term actions and targets that can be monitored and reviewed against, following a Plan-Do-Check-Act mantra.
Once a Vision is in place, it can be supported by a diagnostic assessment, to agree where we are today and to think through where we want the urban system to be in future.
Are cities and towns mapping out a roadmap to achieve a Vision that is led by citizens and businesses and which shows short-term actions mapped to long-term advancement? Advice from experts in various fields can help - AFTER involving citizens and businesses, not before.
Look at what exists already, and see if it helps
You may find value in reviewing Visions created by other cities and towns (and perhaps discussing with them how theirs was created and how they monitor it).
Global level examples of how to improve urban environments might help as well.
For example:
Involving everyone in developing good urban places
City and town strategies and plans should be developed by everyone. Plans should not be developed first by a planning team and then made available to everyone for feedback - that approach is back to front, and to make matters worse, many of these current feedback loops are too complicated. Small changes all add up, too. Rather than posting densely worded notices on street lamps or sending people letters, engage citizens properly in how small changes are proposed to contribute to the Vision in locations such as Urban Future Centres.
Urban strategies and plans that get developed in the right way can be connected to the SDGs. They can also be connected to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Don't make it hard for citizens and businesses to find city / town plans. Get out and see people where they live and gather to discuss ideas. If it helps, use methods such as The Doughnut Model for discussions. When your citizens and businesspeople make the time to discuss things, how will you keep them in the loop, and perhaps reward them in some way for their time?
Sharing lessons and approaches that work
City and municipal authorities are busy, but can they cooperate with each other regularly, locally and internationally, to share approaches and lessons learned?
Imagine the power of sharing specific strategies and masterplans developed for cities and towns around the world. They could be captured in a secure global database, with the identified quantifiable actions and initiatives (along with Investment Cases) tracked and monitored globally, and linked to the SDGs and the Sendai Framework.
This could be where a Sustainable Development Network and a City to City (and Town) Connections may help.
Perhaps a Global Urban Centre under a Sustainable Development Network could support active and real-time cross-city and town sharing. By working together on specific details, we can all improve. A "finders service" offered by a Global Urban Centre could link cities and towns with each other to hold structured "peer assist" learning events, in-person and online.
Please get in touch if you have any questions about Urban 2.0 or if you would like any information.