Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Pacific \ Cities and urbanisation

In 2014, 54% of the global population was living in urban areas and this is predicted to rise to 66% by 2050. The characteristics of cities differ greatly across countries and regions of the Commonwealth and some issues facing large and megacities will differ from those faced by secondary cities and towns and across the Commonwealth, the degree of urbanisation varies significantly. Whilst 38.1% of the population of the Commonwealth lived in urban settlements in 2014, Commonwealth Europe is 82% urban and Commonwealth South-East Asia 78% with Commonwealth Africa 41%, Commonwealth South Asia 33% and the Commonwealth Pacific Islands 18% urban. Achievement of SDG 11 will require cities to actively address the key dimensions of sustainable development – the economy, the society and the environment and to be inclusive, and proactive to ensure safety of all citizens. Subthemes includes urbanisation and migration, urban planning, informal settlements, formal and informal urban economy, disaster risk reduction and emergency planning, safety and security in cities, and smart cities and ICT.

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Capital cities and urban sustainability

Capital Cities and Urban Sustainability examines how capital cities use their unique hub resources to develop and disseminate innovative policy solutions to promote sustainability. Cities are taking a leading role in defining a sustainable future at a time when national, state, and regional governments in several countries do not provide sufficient leadership. Capital cities stand out among cities as likely leading drivers in the effort to empower sustainable innovation as they provide a hub for connecting a variety of key constituencies. While acknowledging the successes capital cities have achieved, the international, multi-disciplinary contributors to this work discuss how there is room to do more and improve. The promotion of specific sustainability policies in crucial areas such as clean water provision, high tech innovation, public procurement contracting, and improving flood control in capital cities is examined through various global case studies. The examples range from relatively rich capital cities, such as Copenhagen, where the well-financed hub would be expected to succeed in generating sustainable policies, to poorer cities such as Phnom Penh, where such an optimistic outcome can seem less likely.

Author: Robert W Orttung Publisher: Routledge Publication year: 2019


Place Based Approach to plan for Resilient Cities: a local government perspective

Local government have a pivotal role in city planning. However, meeting the conflicting priorities such as plan for urbanization, promote economic prosperity, ensure environmental sustainability besides creating safe, vibrant and liveable places, create major challenges for local administration. While rapid urbanization continue to displace people from their local places, the frequency of disaster events at the local scale and increasing disaster risks place unique challenges on people and their places. This emphasises the need for local government to understand the local places and invest in planning for cities that improve resilience and enhance human connectivity to their places. Meeting these multidimensional needs in local spaces require embedding local and scientific knowledge, past experiences and community expectation to plan and design cities that also deliver multiple social outcomes. Both place-based approach to city planning and creating disaster resilient cities have gathered momentum, however, they continue to occur in isolation. Maximizing these multiple social, environmental and economic outcomes, emphasize the need to align both resilience principles for sustainable urbanization and place based approach planning concepts to plan for places for people. Drawing from these principles and organizational change theory, a conceptual framework is proposed that provide a new lens for local government to plan for place based resilient cities. This place based approach for resilient cities framework incorporates the thinking for change as a dynamic process across the time scales and by understanding the relationship between people and their place. The model proposed is in an Australian context, yet has significant implication for communities at all levels when planning for places for people.

Author: Anumitra V. Mirti Chand Publisher: Procedia Engineering Publication year: 2018


Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition and Democratic Reform

This book is about the role that ideas, institutions, and actors play in structuring how we govern cities and, more specifically, what projects or paths are taken. Global changes require that we rethink governance and urban policy, and that we do so through the dual lens of theory and practice.

Author: Jill Simone Gross , Robin Hambleton Publisher: Palgrave Publication year: 2007


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