World Urban Forum

I believe that nowadays is sexy to call a city sustainable, but only few cities in the world would really deserve to use that term based on the genuine performance of their efforts.

Overall, most big cities are NOT Sustainable at all, they simply are very prosperous, allowing them to spend large sums of money in city branding adds with empty green message simply to attract more investment. It´s a pity do...!

It is very simple, does the city termed sustainable jeopardize the chances of future generations from making a living from the available resources? if yes, it is not a sustainable city, if no, then it is. however, i share your opinion that the term has become a cliche, rather than what it should be.

Yes, it is interesting how there are some buzz words which start losing their meaning after a while. Should there be a new term for what we are searching in cities?

I think the trend of sustainable is fading away and the tend for "Green" is picking up. In any case the basic ingredients for a sustainable or a green city are: streets for people, bike ways for bikes, and city centres for people to hang out. Green/Sustainable Cities need People Parks and not Car Parks.

P.S: Happy Birthday Piyush !

The word sustainability has become a catch phrase for political leaders to bamboozle all, but less is achieved in terms of city planning. Sustainable development should be a chain of successful development plans. That is, credible Physical development given birth to good social development which in turn springs into economy development , then the economy can sustain the city. It is a well known fact most cities are unsustainable, so the question is; how do we achieve sustainability in an unsustainable urban world of today? what is sustainable- is a defined implemented policy that will affect humans who are in the center of development.

The word sustainability has become a catch phrase for political leaders to bamboozle all, but less is achieved in terms of city planning. Sustainable development should be a chain of successful development plans. That is, credible Physical development given birth to good social development which in turn springs into economy development , then the economy can sustain the city. It is a well known fact most cities are unsustainable, so the question is; how do we achieve sustainability in an unsustainable urban world of today? what is sustainable- is a defined implemented policy that will affect humans who are in the center of development.

A very pertinent question. Sustainable seems to be one of the most used or abused word these days but yet to be practiced in its spirit.

Dear Kumar; u r correct Sustainable is not yet understood properly by people those manages cities. However, we need to move to make our Cities practice Sustainable tools that r god for community and environment.

Do you think that it has to do with the fact that normally it takes some time (years / decades?) to convert a term into something mainstream and then into generating actual impact? Probably sustainability is still "suffering" from being mainstream and should be starting to turn itself into implemented action. How can we catalyze that transformation?

I believe that the term Sustainable has been replaced with the term Green because the later is more vague and general. And most City Authorities ( along with many developers and even many community members) are looking for a quick fix rather than a profund transformation that could alter the apparent benefits of using their car as they please or other ammenities cuurently available in this era characterized by overconsumption of resources.

I sometimes wonder why mankind did not invent a meaningless term like sustainability before. It means this or that or something totally different - it depends on the view angle, the standpoint, it can be a superficial marketing trick or something very profound.

What today is labelled sustainable used to be common sense before. It is worthwhile looking at cities of the 19th century: they were sustainable in many aspects and hadn't Modernism with its Athen's Charter paved the way to an automobile dominated disintegrated urban fabric - we would probably be much further than we are nowadays.

Instead the whole world copies the western template as something to strive for. To understand what massive impact that has just have a look at a document that has just been published by the world bank:

http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/02/29/000333037_20120229230044/Rendered/PDF/672260PUB0EPI0067848B09780821389874.pdf

Amazing how much media hype a topic and the heading of sustainability can create that has so little real impact like the low carbon cities in China.

So my suggestion - let us not use the term sustainability anymore and name what we are really talking about and how what we propose has a positive impact for mankind.

Yes, also now it seems that the new buzz word is "low carbon"... probably it will have the same fate as "sustainable"?

Carlos, I have my doubts on that - I think that "sustainable" is likely to have more staying power than "low carbon". Sustainable development goes back right to the 1972 Stockholm Conference on environment and I think people do appreciate and acknowledge the three pillars: economic, social and environment underpinning the concept. I notice that in international debates the developing countries do embrace the three pillar concept because it enables them to talk about economic development, poverty alleviation, social equity in addition to environment only. There is a genuine fear that talk about "low carbon" and "green economy" will be at the expense of economic and social development.

Hi Cornie; u r right Sustainability will remain their for long as it is not just Sexy to use by all including environmentalist but also a catchy term used frequently now. Same time I think "low carbon" and "green economy" can be considered as roots of Sustainability. Having said that I still believes the term Sustainability is yet to be harvest properly !

Yes, I think the key issue that Piyush presented in this discussion is not so much about the definition of sustainability (which is definitely useful and adequate) but of the use that is being done by policymakers, etc. This is why I mention the "buzz word". Hopefully we will see how sustainability becomes truly implemented in various places additional to the term being used to define policies.

I understand the discussion will end today; so on my behalf I thank all for ur valuable comments and wish Carlos will take a proper note of it for the Forum; Thanks once again; Happy Weekend; Wish If I make it to WUF @ Naples in September, then we will meet each other otherwise i am reachable at piyush.rout@lgnet.in Thank You Very Much !

Hi Piyush, please note that the Forum continues until WUF!!! We look forward to everyone's continued discussions!

will continue part of the discussion; can new topic be added !

well Dr.Piyushi as urban planners we refer to a city as sustainable considering those infrastructure and facilities that that drives the city. also we say a city is sustainable if the infrastructures provided now are still in the same condition after 10yrs.

hi Kadiri James, infrastructure is one of the indicator but many often we need to look beyond infrastructure into lifestyle, livelihood, living environment, fooding and energy & water. only with urban planning need to change or accept innovation in managing our cities, sooner or latter.

A major problem could be found when the term Sustainable City has been used superficially as part of simple City Branding Policy, this typically has been quite common and also an accepted way to develop the economy or as strategy to urban regeneration projects that could ease the cons of living in big cities with environments of intolerable pollution, paralyzing traffic congestion, urban infrastructure deficiencies and population overload.

However, in most cases it has been quite evident to my experience that this policies directly avoid facing the obvious need reformulate the strategy as to deal with the real UNSUSTAINABLE story about Cities, their economy and its society. Yes, I am talking about addressing the pressing topics of: The decentralization of people, businesses, and jobs from the central city, or to address the critical role of neighborhoods in sustainable urban regeneration or the need to actively incorporate such communities and their needs into sustainable development policies and programs to preserve consistently the environmental health of the city