Urban 2.0 Principles

Seven common principles tend to be present when things work well in cities and towns. These seven principles are the foundation of Urban 2.0. They inform how to use the Urban 2.0 system and how to use the tools and techniques of Urban 2.0 to explore, identify, assess, select, implement and manage meaningful action to achieve meaningful benefits. They can also inform an urban Vision.

1. The right mindset to achieve good urban places comes first, and it has two points to it: (A) people deserve to live good lives, and (B) we must collectively design, maintain and monitor our urban places.

2. The right investment includes creating good Investment Cases to secure the right type of funding and investment from appropriate sources that can provide the best value to society, the economy and the environment. The right investment can focus on one urban place, or several places (as a connected approach). 

3. Good governance requires a political and economic vision to care for people and the planet. By being well-informed, accountable and transparent, good governance ensures investments and funds are in place and managed well, that the right actions are agreed and being worked on, and that meaningful social, environmental and economic benefits are agreed and monitored for success.

3. Systems thinking underpins the Urban 2.0 system, because it ensures everyone understands and appreciates that there are many interlinkages between the parts of an urban environment which need to be considered when we look at how to adapt and improve with scarce resources.

4. Meaningful involvement means that all groups of people - young and old, and with different backgrounds and interests - are properly involved in reviews of how we need to evolve (whilst noting that it may not be possible to fully satisfy everyone). For the people that oversee cities and towns, this means forward-thinking action and planning to make meaningful involvement happen.

5. Meaningful targets sees us agree where we are today and where we want to be in future, through assessing data and using an urban diagnostic, and setting targets with key indicators that are practical and acted on if agreed threshold limits for them are "reached" (indicators and their thresholds can change over time, as context changes). 

7. Meaningful benefits should be achieved in the near-term and long-term, and be monitored against key indicators to check whether activities and investments are having the intended impact for people, nature and the economy. Systems thinking is used to assess how outcomes and benefits are linked together, from the local level through to global-level frameworks and targets including the Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs), climate change mitigation and adaptation measures advised by the IPCC, the New Urban Agenda, the Humanitarian Agenda, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.