| Damietta Spatial Profile (Egypt) | 2023 | This multi-level profile, based on a spatially oriented and cross-sectoral situational analysis of urban settlements hosting refugee populations, enables locals, stakeholders, and readers to develop a comprehensive spatial understanding of the current situation as a basis for evidence-based strategic planning for long-term urban development approaches and infrastructure investment planning. |
| UN-Habitat in Latin America and the Carribean | 2023 | |
| Crisis Resilient Urban Futures - The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities 2023 | 2023 | The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2023 entitled, Crisis Resilient Urban Futures, is a comprehensive analysis and assessment of sustainable urban development in the Asia and Pacific region at a time of great disruption and uncertainty resulting from multiple interlinked global crises in a post-pandemic era. This report aims to provide valuable insights into the spatial, economic, social, environmental and governance aspects of cities, offering holistic policy recommendations towards a sustainable urban recovery from these crises. Understanding the dynamics and characteristics of the region’s cities is crucial for national and local governments, businesses, local communities, researchers and urban planners. With this report, ESCAP and UN-Habitat continue their collaboration to provide an updated, reliable resource for decision-makers seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the trends, challenges and future opportunities within the Asia-Pacific cities landscape. The report builds on three previous editions in this series, each of which explored the key existing and emerging trends in urban development within the region. It continues the forward-looking perspective, capturing the transformative messages of the New Urban Agenda (2016) with the current edition setting a much-needed agenda for a sustainable urban recovery across the region. |
| Future Cities Advisory Outlook 2023: Digital Innovations Empower Urban Net-Zero Carbon Transition | 2023 | The “Future Cities Advisory Outlook 2023: Digital Innovations Empower Urban Net-Zero Carbon Transition” is the third flagship report of UN-Habitat China Future Cities Council. The report summarizes six main scenarios and a roadmap of digital solutions to achieve urban net-zero carbon, and collects 10 good practice cases from Chinese cities and enterprises. Meanwhile, it also calling for the urban net-zero carbon transition through the application of digital solutions. |
| Enabling Meaningful Public Participation in Spatial Planning Processes | 2023 | The Sustainable Development Goals and New Urban Agenda emphasize the need for inclusive and collaborative governance in spatial planning processes. Thus, rather than advocating for a technocratic and normative model of spatial planning based on standards and regulations, the Goals and the New Urban Agenda refer to spatial planning as a multi-stakeholder decision-making process during which participation is a key governance feature to reach sustainable development. This toolkit on Enabling Meaningful Public Participation in Spatial Planning Processes has demonstrated that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to public participation. The toolkit features a step-by-step process perspective on how to engage the public and civil society and has a series of mechanisms that can be adapted and aggregated in the form of policy mixes that can better suit the local context, the stage of the process and the available resources. More importantly, rather than using participation as a “symbolic gesture”, with little transformative impact on urban governance structures and systems, it is recommended to foster the empowerment and autonomy of social movements and local stakeholders and entrust citizens and residents with real decision-making powers. To ensure that all stakeholders, and most importantly priority groups, have the capacities and resources to participate in the whole planning process, the toolkit presents flexible legal, governance, fiscal, and digital tools that governments at all levels can mobilize to regulate the inclusive and effective nature of participation. Overall, rather than just presenting a mere list of tools to follow, this toolkit will provide support for policymakers in mainstreaming meaningful participation when designing planning processes. The implementation of the participatory mechanisms presented here will also assist public institutions to reposition technicians and spatial planners as facilitators of processes of consensus building and collective territorial intelligence construction. Furthermore, the case studies in the text boxes provide insights into the challenges and opportunities of possible solutions for which these urban practitioners can pursue. |
| UN-Habitat Iraq Newsletter – April 2023 (Arabic) | 2023 | UN-Habitat Iraq April 2023 Newsletter: Provides an update on UN-Habitat’s activities in Iraq as well as relevant policy and advocacy topics. |
| Rural Revitalization Under the Net-Zero Carbon Goal, Dinghai, Zhoushan, China | 2023 | The “Rural Revitalization Under the Net-Zero Carbon Goal, Dinghai, Zhoushan, China” is a practice report under the cooperation of UN-Habitat, Zhoushan Municipal Government and Tongji University. The Dinghai District has pioneered net-zero carbon rural revitalization efforts. This report thoroughly evaluates their planning and development initiatives through a comprehensive investigation and presents exemplary cases to provide a low-carbon solution for rural areas in island regions. |
| Benchmarking Case Studies on Planning Laws in Five Countries: Morocco, Netherlands, South Africa, Republic of Korea, and The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | 2023 | Through this international benchmarking case study on planning laws in five countries (Morocco, Netherlands, South Africa, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), UN-Habitat has assessed the impact of these urban laws on sustainable urban development to provide a spectrum of regulatory models and schemes for the spatial planning legal reform in the Sultanate of Oman. These case studies reveal that planning legal framework should clearly define planning objectives for each level of planning which is part of sound policymaking to articulate the scope of the planning instrument as well as an opportunity to reflect the local needs and challenges. Additionally, for smooth implementation, planning laws should promote coordination between institutions at the national level with institutions at the regional and local levels for the planning, implementation, approval and oversight of development projects, plans and documents. Community engagement principles and mandatory requirements for public participation should be provided in planning legislation to provide binding obligations to be followed during the entire spatial planning process. Varied types of land ownership and the continuum of land rights should be promoted by legislation, considering cultural customs, including freehold, leasehold or customary ownership to promote greater security of tenure which will minimize the threat of forced evictions. Finally, the possibility to challenge planning decisions both through the appeal and judicial review mechanism should be provided in law including access to fair alternative dispute-resolution systems that allow individuals to avoid the burdens associated with traditional judicial systems, where possible. The publication also contains an Annex showcasing the case study of Catalonia, Spain which delineates how the land classification system, through municipal and detail plans, influence access to urban basic services and infrastructure as well as forming the basis for the grant of a building permit. |
| Baidoa City Strategy | 2023 | This document provides a City-Wide Strategy for Baidoa that defines a clear direction and provides a holistic vision of sustainable urban growth for the upcoming years. Furthermore, the City Extension Plan for Baidoa North defines a clear spatial development framework for the most critical area of the city, and proposes demonstration projects and fast-track infrastructure projects to prioritize the urgent interventions within Baidoa. The report provides a framework for crucial strategic scenarios and demonstration projects in line with National and State priorities. It serves as an entry point for other relevant actors, such as the humanitarian and development agencies, International NGO´s, local and national governments, as well as other stakeholders. This ensures that the scenarios and recommendations for Baidoa do not operate in isolation from other ongoing projects and interventions. |
| Vision, Scenario Building, and Action Plan for Al-Afrah Neighbourhood | 2023 | Following the spatial analytics done in the Irbid Spatial Profile and through a participatory approach, this report provides a practical example on neighbourhood planning. It is a blueprint on transforming evidence-based studies into financeable projects and translating the optimal scenario into an action plan, all of which help realize the formulated vision for the Al-Afrah neighbourhood. |