Compact cities. Social inclusiveness. Climate resilience. Urban development that emphasizes renewable energy and environmental protection. These are among the goals the United Nations wants to include in a visionary set of guidelines for “sustainable development of cities,” according to UN-Habitat.
More than 35 urban planning experts from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States huddled this week in Fukuoka, Japan to debate the details. Over two days of sessions they finalized the draft of the United Nations International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP).
The session was the third in a series that included 2013 meetings in Paris followed by a Medellín gathering last April in conjunction with the World Urban Forum (covered here by Citiscope). The guidelines are intended to be part of the UN’s Post-2015 Development Agenda and Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, set for 2016.