Planning Sustainable Cities reviews recent urban planning practices and approaches, discusses constraints and conflicts therein, and identifies innovative approaches that are more responsive to current challenges of urbanization.

It notes that traditional approaches to urban planning (particularly in developing countries) have largely failed to promote equitable, efficient and sustainable human settlements and to address twenty-first century challenges, including rapid urbanization, shrinking cities and ageing, climate change and related disasters, urban sprawl and unplanned peri-urbanization, as well as urbanization of poverty and informality.

It concludes that new approaches to planning can only be meaningful, and have a greater chance of succeeding, if they effectively address all of these challenges, are participatory and inclusive, as well as linked to contextual socio-political processes.

This report documents many effective and equitable examples of sustainable urbanization that are helping to define a new role for urban planning.

إن نظم التخطيط الحضري المتبعة في الوقت الحاضر تفتقر للجاهزية اللازمة للتعامل مع أبرز التحديات الحضرية الناشئة في القرن الحادي والعشرين، بما في ذلك الآثار الناجمة عن ظاهرة تغير المناخ، واستنزاف الموارد، وحالة عدم الاستقرار الاقتصادي، وذلك إلى جانب الوتيرة السريعة لعمليات التحضر وما تنطوي عليه من تأثيرات سلبية كنشوء مظاهر الفقر، والأحياء الفقيرة، والمظاهر غير الرسمية في المناطق الحضرية. إضافة لذلك، فإن هذه النظم قد أخفقت إلى حد كبير في الإدراج الفعلي للأساليب المعيشية للمجتمعات الحضرية وغيرهم من أصحاب المصلحة ضمن عمليات تخطيط المناطق الحضرية، مما ساهم بالتالي في نشوء المشكلات المرتبطة بمظاهر التهميش والإقصاء العمراني. كما تتضح هنا ضرورة إعادة النظر في نظم التخطيط الحضري وتحفيزها لتحقيق المستقبل الحضري المستدام. ويطرح تقرير "تخطيط المدن المستدامة" أبرز التحديات الراهنة في كل من المدن والبلدات في جميع أنحاء العالم، بالإضافة للبحث في نشوء نظم التخطيط الحضري الحديثة وانتشارها، والنظر في مدى فعالية المنهجيات القائمة. والأهم من ذلك، فيتضمن هذا التقرير تحديداً لكل من المنهجيات والممارسات المبتكرة في مجال التخطيط الحضري والتي تشكل استجابة أكبر لكل من التحديات الراهنة والمستقبلية والمرتبطة بعمليات التحضر.

Current urban planning systems are not equipped to deal with the major urban challenges of the 21st century, including effects of climate change, resource depletion and economic instability, plus continued rapid urbanization with its negative consequences such as poverty, slums and urban informality. These planning systems have also, to a large extent, failed to meaningfully involve and accommodate the ways of life of communities and other stakeholders in the planning of urban areas, thus contributing to the problems of spatial marginalization and exclusion.

It is clear that urban planning needs to be reconsidered and revitalized for a sustainable urban future. planning Sustainable Cities reviews the major challenges currently facing cities and towns all over the world, the emergence and spreae of medern urban planning and the effectiveness of current approaches. More importantly, it identifies innovative urban planning approaches and practices that are more responsive to current and future challenges of urbanization.

Current urban planning systems are not equipped to deal with the major urban challenges of the 21st century, including effects of climate change, resource depletion and economic instability, plus continued rapid urbanization with its negative consequences such as poverty, slums and urban informality. These planning systems have also, to a large extent, failed to meaningfully involve and accommodate the ways of life of communities and other stakeholders in the planning of urban areas, thus contributing to the problems of spatial marginalization and exclusion. It is clear that urban planning needs to be reconsidered and revitalized for a sustainable urban future. Planning Sustainable Cities reviews the major challenges currently facing cities and towns all over the world, the emergence and spread of modern urban planning and the effectiveness of current approaches. More importantly, it identifies innovative urban planning approaches and practices that are more responsive to current and future challenges of urbanization.  

Enhancing Urban Safety and Security addresses three major threats to the safety and security of cities: crime and violence; insecurity of tenure and forced evictions; and natural and human-made disasters. It analyses worldwide trends with respect to each of these threats, paying particular attention to their underlying causes and impacts, as well as to the good policies and best practices that have been adopted at the city, national and international levels in order to address these threats.

The report adopts a human security perspective, concerned with the safety and security of people rather than of states, and highlights issues that can be addressed through appropriate urban policy, planning, design and governance.

Professor Yeh explores the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a Planning Support System for urban planning. Despite the growing popularity of participatory approaches in favour of computer generated planning models, he argues that GIS remains vital for facilitating informed discussion and decision making in urban planning.

As a computerized system for the storage, retrieval, visualization, analysis and modeling of spatial information, GIS greatly facilitates different stages of the urban planning process. The growing user friendliness, affordability and performance of GIS in recent times, he notes, has further enhanced its utility as an effective planning support system. He maintains that provided constraints in the use of GIS such as data availability and skill limitations can be overcome, GIS can provide excellent support for the planning of harmonious cities.

This publication, which focuses on security of tenure and forced evictions, is the second of three volumes of the Abridged Edition of the Global Report 2007.

The main purpose of this volume is to present, in summary form, the main findings of the Global Report 2007 on security of tenure and, on the basis of this, to suggest policy directions for enhancing security of tenure and reducing forced evictions within urban settlements.

This series of publications, "Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development Planning: A guide for Municipalities" is a consolidation of the materials initially developed as UN-HABITATs response to the specific requirements of the Balkan context.

The series has been suitably modified to be able to serve as a generic guideline for the training of urban planners in the area of urban strategic planning. This volume introduces different aspects of urban strategic planning.

This series of publications, “Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development Planning: A guide for Municipalities” is a consolidation of the materials initially developed as UN-HABITAT’s response to the specific requirements of the Balkan context .

The series has been suitably modified to be able to serve as a generic guideline for the training of urban planners in the area of urban strategic planning.