The urbanization process in large parts of the world requires an adequate urban development response. This might be found in the modern concept of sustainable urban (re)development, which adequately integrates spatial planning, socio-economic stimuli and ecological solutions. The study provides policy makers with insights and powerful examples of sustainable urban (re)development and of the underlying strategies. Based on numerous earlier exercises, relevant indicators and parameters are listed, clustered and incorporated into a framework that can be used to assess actual situations.
Six cities are selected and analysed: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Ottawa, Rotterdam, San Francisco and Vancouver. The main consideration to select these cities is that the project is part of a Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and the Netherlands. Another reason is that these cities are considered to be exemplary front runners with respect to sustainable urban development. The analyses of the cities are intended to obtain a better understanding of the effectiveness of sustainable urban development strategies in general and not to judge, rank or benchmark the cities in any way. The cities show interesting similarities and differences in their approaches as well as unique pilots, which are elaborated upon in the report.