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Defining and advancing a systems approach for sustainable cities
- Title
- Defining and advancing a systems approach for sustainable cities
- Author(s)
- Xuemei Bai
- Alyson Surveyer
- Thomas Elmqvist
- Franz W
- Burak Güneralp
- Susan Parnell
- Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard
- Paul Shrivastava
- José Gabriel
- Mark Stafford-Smith
- Jean-Patrick Toussaint
- Robert Webb
- Year
- 2016
- Type
- Journal Article
- Source
-
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2016.11.010
- Abstract
- The sustainable development of cities is increasingly recognized as crucial to meeting collectively agreed sustainability goals at local, regional and global scales, and more broadly to securing human well-being worldwide. The \{UN\} Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a goal on cities (Goal 11), with most other goals and targets have urban applications and multi scalar implications for their implementation. Further, the interdependencies — including synergies and trade-offs — among the various \{SDGs\} are greater in cities, presenting both challenges and opportunities. A systems approach is urgently needed in urban research and policy analysis, but such an approach rarely features in current analysis or urban decision-making for various reasons. This paper explores four questions: why a systems approach is necessary, what defines such an approach, why has this rarely been adopted in practice, and what can be done to promote its use. We argue that a systems approach can reveal unrecognized opportunities to maximize co-benefits and synergies, guide management of inevitable trade-offs, and therefore inform prioritisation and successful solutions. We present four key issues for the effective implementation of the \{SDGs\} and the New Urban Agenda, which emerged from \{UN\} Habitat \{III\} Conference, namely: (a) a radical redesign of the multilateral institutional setup on urban issues; (b) promoting regenerative culture, behaviour, and design; (c) exploring ways to finance a systems approach; and (d) a new and enhanced role for science in sustainable development. The latter issue could be addressed through Future Earth's Urban Knowledge-Action Network, which aims at co-designing and co-producing cutting-edge and actionable knowledge for sustainable cities bringing together researchers and urban decision-makers and practitioners.
- More Information
-
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2016.11.010
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