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International Journal of Urban Sustainable

Development
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A review of the main challenges to urban

sustainability
a
Ramin Keivani
a
Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development , Oxford Brookes
University , Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
Published online: 25 May 2010.

To cite this article: Ramin Keivani (2010) A review of the main challenges to urban sustainability,
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 1:1-2, 5-16, DOI: 10.1080/19463131003704213

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 International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Vol. 1, Nos. 1–2, May–November 2009, 5–16

INTRODUCTION
TJUE

A review of the main challenges to urban sustainability

Ramin Keivani*
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development

Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus,
Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
Downloaded by [Professor Maria DAVILA NETO] at 14:09 26 July 2015

Considering the existential threat that global warming poses to humanity, the current focus on climate
change is undoubtedly justified. However, this should not overshadow the fact that sustainable develop-
ment does not only end with environmental concerns but also covers social and economic domains that
are mediated through physical spaces and built form. There are two-way interactions between these
domains with each having a reciprocal impact on the other. Based on the institutional and policy context,
these interactions can move us towards either a more virtuous circle of development with more equitable
growth, empowered communities, liveable spaces and reduced (or at least controlled) levels of pollution,
or the reverse. Consequently, in order to set the scene for the launch of the International Journal of Urban
Sustainable Development, I attempt to provide an overview of the main challenges emanating from each
domain for achieving urban sustainability and the contribution that the new journal can make to this
debate.
Keywords: sustainable urban development; urbanisation; urban growth; globalisation; governance;
environmental pollution; social development; economic viability; physical development

1. An urbanising world development, research shows that rural–urban migra-

The twenty-first century has been called the urban
century with more than half the world’s population
living in towns and cities. In the South, though, the
demographic shift to a majority urbanised state is
expected to be reached before 2020 (WUP 2005) and
in Africa not before 2030. The trend, however, is
clear with ‘the urban’ continuously outgrowing ‘the
rural’. In the next two decades, cities in the develop-
ing world will absorb 95% of urban growth (UN-
Habitat 2006). Moreover, the rapid rates of urbanisa-
tion have led to the growth of megacities of over 10
million in developing countries. In 1975, there were
three megacities in the world: Tokyo, New York and
Mexico City. In 2005, there were 20 such cities, 16
of which were located in the developing world
(WUP 2005).
In many countries, although there is a sentiment
for limiting urbanisation through, for example, rural
tion is unlikely to reduce through such activities and
ironically may even increase because of enabling
higher mobility of rural households. Fay and Opal
(2000) argued that the rate of urbanisation is not nec-
essarily related to economic growth in cities but that it
has an inverse relationship to the level of urbanisation
in a country, particularly in the African context.
Based on their analysis of 187 cities in 100 countries,
they have aptly described this process as urbanisation
without growth. Writing from a perspective critical of
orthodox neoliberal development, Atkinson (2004)
came to a similar conclusion noting that, in southern
countries as a whole, only around 10% of the people
entering the workforce find employment in the formal
sector. The vast majority of the urban populations in
these countries, therefore, are making a living through
various forms of informal employment – some of it
secure and well paid, most of it not.

*Email: rkeivani@brookes.ac.uk

ISSN 1946-3138 print/ISSN 1946-3146 online

© 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/19463131003704213
http://www.informaworld.com
 6 R. Keivani
2. Cities as engines of growth and development
Cities and towns are now recognised as pivotal for
development. Cities contribute up to 55% of gross
national product in low-income countries, 73% in
middle-income countries and 85% in high-income
countries (UN-Habitat 2006). In some cases, the
contribution of a single megacity, for example,
Sao Paulo or Bangkok, can be as high as 40% of
the gross national product while comprising only
10% of the population of their respective coun-
tries. The concentration of people and activities at
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high densities in cities enables resources to be
used more efficiently than in rural areas. They also
generate a disproportionate amount of revenue for
governments. The role of cities in the growth of
national economies is perhaps best illustrated in
China where urbanisation is an explicit govern-
ment policy for accelerated economic growth and
raising tens of millions of poor rural peasants out
of poverty. At the same time, local city govern-
ments have utilised the associated demand for
housing and property development to massively
boost their revenues through the sale of land use
rights to private developers (Cao and Keivani
2007).
The economic role of cities has gained even
more significance in the current era of economic glo-
balisation (Keivani et al. 2001, Sassen 2001): they
serve as centres for finance and producer services;
they are areas of innovation and they are the power-
houses of manufacturing and consumer markets.
The new economic era may also be defined as
a global network of flows of people, ideas, finance
and goods (Castells 1996, Harris 2001). In this
new economy, cities are not only locations of
production and consumption but the junctions of
flows that facilitate global economic activities. In
other words, cities are where the work of globali-
sation gets done. This implies providing the neces-
sary physical infrastructure, human resources and
institutional framework that in turn have major
consequences on urban governance, resource
allocation and utilisation.
In addition to their economic function, cities
are also places of cultural and social interaction.
The critical density of people, that allows for
agglomeration economies, also provides greater
opportunities for reflexivity, information and
knowledge sharing, cultural exchanges and more
effective provision of services, particularly health
and education. All of these are essential elements
for social development, advancement of civil
society, well-being, cultural consolidation, change
and cosmopolitanism. Cities are also centres of
political power and administration. The closer
proximity to the seat of power, their higher concen-
tration and better articulation of their demands
through civil organisations have meant that in the
main urban citizens have greater opportunities for
influencing policy-making and setting developmen-
tal agendas at both local and national levels.
3. Globalisation
Economic globalisation has allowed for a new
international division of labour and territorial
specialisation based on existing and acquired
competitive advantages. We have witnessed rapid
de-industrialisation in many metropolitan cities in
the North and a parallel growth of higher value
corporate service, knowledge-based and creative
industries. In London, for example, between 1971
and 2003 the contribution of the manufacturing
sector to the city’s economy reduced from 25% of
total employment to about 6%, whereas the shares
of business and financial services increased from
16% to 33% (Harris 2006).
In this process, many cities of the South are
emerging as international business and industrial
nodes, attracting much of the relocated lower
value-added industries because of the comparative
advantage of their low labour costs and the devel-
opment of infrastructure and transport capacities
for supporting decentralised production and access
to the world markets (Sassen 2002, Keivani and
Mattingly 2007). At the same time, many such
cities are also rapidly developing their institutional,
infrastructure and human resource capacities to
maintain and improve their competitive position,
not only in respect of industrial foreign direct
 International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
investment but also to rise in the hierarchy of
international nodes of higher value-added func-
tions in corporate services, knowledge-based and
creative industries in their own right. The prime
examples are Singapore and Hong Kong who
shifted their economic base in successive phases
from the sweatshops of the 1960s to international
centres of the high tech and information technology
and regional headquarter and export service
centres of Asia as a whole (Macleod and McGee
1996, Ho and So 1997, Sim et al. 2003). Other
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emerging global hubs from Bangalore, to Bangkok
and Shanghai to Sao Paulo, are also following suit
with different degrees of success as regional hubs,
positioning themselves to achieve the same type of
global functions.
Globalisation is highly pervasive affecting not
only the large agglomerations but also many smaller
cities, towns and even villages and peri-urban
areas. Prime examples can be seen in the economic
restructuring in villages and small towns surround-
ing major metropolises. Leaf (2002), for example,
highlighted the transformation of agricultural
villages around Guangzhou in China and Hanoi in
Vietnam to either upper income residential estates
for the new middle classes or small-scale manu-
facturing centres feeding production in the core
urban areas. Other examples can be seen in the
impact of outsourcing activities particularly in
borderland areas of major economies/cities. Some
of the most prominent cases can perhaps be seen
along the Pearl River Delta in a process that was
described by Sit and Yang (1997) as Exo-urbani-
sation with rapid integration of small towns in the
global economy encompassing rural industrialisa-
tion, rapid migration and dramatic physical and
spatial transformations directly as a result of major
outsourcing investment primarily from Hong Kong.
Similarly, we can also note agricultural investment
in rural farms in Zambia and Mozambique by inves-
tors from Zimbabwe and South Africa or the devel-
opment of major rural eco-tourist destinations
attracting visitors from across the globe. Perhaps
even more dramatically, one can note recent large-
scale agricultural investments by the United Arab
Emirates in Sudan to ensure a measure of food
7
security in uncertain market conditions in the Per-
sian Gulf (Sudan Tribune 2008).
Other important considerations in relation to
the impact of globalisation on cities include large-
scale labour migration and remittances. This can
be domestic or international. The former is exem-
plified in the case of China and the latter can be
seen, for example, in labour migration from
Moldova to Russia and from the Philippines or
South Asia to the Middle East. What is important
here is not only the effect of large-scale in-migration
on destination towns and cities but also the effects
of out-migration on origin cities that in many
instances are largely reliant on remittances as a
major source of income and livelihood for the
remaining population. The latest World Bank data
for 2008 indicate that international remittances to
developing countries as a whole accounted for
$338 billion amounting to about 1.9% of GDP in
these countries (World Bank 2009a, 2009b).
4. But is it sustainable?
The fact that cities create wealth, enable global
economic functions and offer greater life opportu-
nities for their inhabitants does not negate the
challenges they pose for sustainable development.
(1) On the social front, cities are prone to huge
intra-urban social inequalities. In the North, this is
often manifested in terms of relative income
poverty, crime, the social exclusion of particular
sectors of society (migrants, youth, the unemployed,
and the disabled) and the challenge of engendering
more inclusive and responsive governance. In the
2005 Bristol Accord, the European Union placed
the development of sustainable communities at the
centre of its urban policy emphasising among
other things inclusivity, equity, fairness, good
governance, safety and accessibility (ODPM
2006, Colantonio 2007). All of these concerns also
apply in many cities of the South but they are also
faced with the far more severe context of relative
and absolute levels of poverty and exclusion.
There are almost a billion people living in slums in
cities throughout the developing world – one out
of every three city dwellers (UN-Habitat 2006).
 8 R. Keivani
The rate of growth of the world’s urban population
estimated at 2.24% is roughly equal to the rate of
growth of slums estimated at 2.22%. The same
figures for Sub-Saharan Africa are 4.58 and
4.53%. In sum, we are witnessing what Nicholas
You (2007) described as the urbanisation of
poverty where the urban population is just as
likely to suffer from malnutrition, disease and hun-
ger as their rural counterparts. To this we must add
highest prevalence of HIV among women, infant
mortality, sexual and general violence and crime.
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A major concern in many cities that also
accentuates economic inefficiency and the envi-
ronmental side effects of rapid urbanisation is the
often opaque, exclusive and unaccountable style
of urban governance and management leading to
skewed and elite decision-making. Relevant
factors that may be considered in such analysis
include historic and institutional factors and land
market processes that have created unequal urban
development patterns and hinder the creation of
more efficient, equitable and accessible systems.
Nevertheless, such social and societal problems
are being addressed in many cities at different levels
and by different institutions. Promising initiatives
can be identified in the recent shifts in slum upgrading
towards more integrated approaches. For example, in
Brazil, comprehensive slum upgrading programmes
link employment and income generation with phys-
ical redevelopment and the integration of slum
neighbourhoods into the city fabric.
(2) On the economic front many cities in both
the North and South are faced with severe chal-
lenges for sustainable economic growth. Cities in
the North are struggling with the after effects of
large-scale economic restructuring in a rapidly
globalising era that has seen loss of major indus-
tries and previous economic identities. Such cities
are striving to reinvent themselves by focussing on
one or more alternative sectors such as corporate
services, knowledge, creative, cultural and tourist-
based industries. Many have been successful in
turning around their main economic base (e.g.
Birmingham, Barcelona).
Similar issues are also evident in cities of the
South. However, the scale is generally of a different
magnitude and is often complicated by severe
institutional weaknesses and the lack of material
and financial resources. Addressing severe levels
of income poverty through sustained policies for
local economic development and income-generat-
ing opportunities for low-income households is of
direct relevance to both social and environmental
development in cities of the South. The absence of
strategic economic vision, the lack of coordination
between different levels of government and com-
partmentalised sector-based policy-making not
only lead to duplication and wastage of resources
but can also entail conflicting objectives and inef-
fective policy interventions. Crucially as many
commentators have noted, the primary concern of
the poor is to earn a living rather than look after
the environment (Drakakis-Smith 1995, Werna
et al. 2009).
A related concern is that of municipal finance.
This is highly important not only to the municipal
investment in capital projects for supporting
economic activities but also to the provision of
essential city services, e.g. green space, garbage
collection, recycling, street lighting and to offer
social support activities, e.g. youth training and
community development. Important issues include
direct and indirect methods of raising municipal
revenues and ways of involving private and
community resources through both formal and
informal partnerships. Successful experiences
include new innovative schemes for better utilis-
ing corporate social responsibility initiatives and
participatory budgeting to better target what is
actually needed on the ground and to foster com-
munity ownership. The primary example of this is
perhaps seen in Porto Alegre that pioneered partic-
ipatory budgeting in 1989 and according to some
estimates it has now been adopted in over 1200
municipalities worldwide in both southern and
northern cities (Wikipedia 2010).
(3) On the environmental front, we are faced
with several different but related issues with differ-
ent degrees of influence in northern and southern
cities. First are the global concerns over the
release of greenhouse gases (GHG) and their
impact on the world climate. Cities are by far the
 International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
largest contributors to GHG emissions. They
consume 75% of the world’s resources and pro-
duce 80% of CO2 emissions (UN-Habitat 2005). It
is, therefore, at the city level that greatest efforts
must be concentrated to reduce GHG emissions
and tackle pressures of climate change. This
requires sociotechnical approaches at both macro-
and micro-levels encompassing innovative socio-
technical solutions, institutional frameworks and
shifting cultural attitudes for reducing energy
consumption, encouraging renewable energy
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production and changing consumption patterns
and lifestyles. The need for remediation measures
for reducing energy use and GHG emissions is
applicable to both northern and southern cities.
However, international obligations for GHG reduc-
tion, greater local social and political awareness
and higher resource and institutional capabilities
have placed the former in a stronger position to
develop and apply remediation policies. Neverthe-
less, this is a global problem that requires a global
solution. A recent study by Urge-Vorsatz and
Novikova (2008) indicated that the greatest
economic potential (at net negative costs) for
mitigating CO2 emissions in buildings lies in devel-
oping countries. This is because many of the low-
cost opportunities for CO2 abatement have already
been captured in the more developed economies
because of progressive policies in place or in the
pipeline. Greater remediation efforts are required in
cities of the South that also have direct social, eco-
nomic and health benefits for their citizens. Impor-
tant areas for consideration include optimal scales of
governance and the mix of policy instruments that
can and should be applied (economic, legal/standard
setting, combinations of legal and economic instru-
ments) for specified interventions. Additionally, we
also need to consider the capacity of actors to effec-
tively enforce the instruments of environmental pol-
icy. Finally, note must be taken of more critical
debates emphasising paradigmatic shifts from what
is considered to be the current dominant neoliberal
development model primarily based on continuous
growth and excessive consumption to more con-
trolled growth and community-focussed develop-
ment alternatives (Atkinson 2004, 2007).
9
The second issue is the negative impact of
climate change on living conditions as witnessed
in recent floods, heat waves and hurricanes in
Europe, the Caribbean and North America. To this
must be added earthquake and tsunami hazards
with their massive potential for exacting human
and physical costs as witnessed most recently in
Indonesia and Haiti with the virtual destruction of
entire cities and colossal loss of life. These have
necessitated adaptation measures for enabling
cities to cope better with destructive forces of an
increasingly volatile climate and other natural
hazards. Here it must be emphasised that the greatest
negative effects of environmental change and nat-
ural hazards are felt in the informal settlements of
the South that are often ill constructed, badly sited
and under-serviced and are particularly prone to
severe climatic and natural conditions (Wilbanks
et al. 2007).
Other concerns relate to general environmental
pollution, resource management (particularly
water) and loss of agricultural land arising from
urbanisation, urban sprawl and industrial activi-
ties. This has some resonance in northern cities
but the main concerns lie in developing countries
primarily because of institutional inability to
implement regulations and manage natural
resources. For example, in China more than one
third of industrial wastewater and two thirds of
municipal wastewater is released into rivers with-
out any treatment (Wen 2005). This means that
60% of the country’s main rivers are now regarded
as unsuitable for human contact. At the same time,
many Chinese cities face severe air pollution with
some studies claiming that it claims some 300,000
lives prematurely (Wen 2005). A major considera-
tion here is examining capacities, priorities and
ways of implementing and institutionalising Local
Agenda 21.
To different degrees, most developing cities
are suffering from one or more environmental side
effects of rapid urbanisation and industrial growth.
In addition to the example of China, they can be
seen in the contamination of water tables in Curitiba
in Brazil because of rapid and unorganised urban
sprawl onto protected areas, the loss of agricultural
 10 R. Keivani
land around Egyptian cities estimated at a total of
1.4 million acres between 1952 and 2002 and
severe air pollution in Tehran that is described as
‘collective suicide’ and estimated to kill some
3600 people a month (El-Hefnawi 2005, Terradaily
2007).
Research also shows that although pollution
initially increases, with rising incomes and eco-
nomic development the actual rate of pollution
actually reduces and is eventually reversed as has
been noted in the reducing trends in the production
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of particulate air pollution during the 1990s in
Chinese cities, Mexico City and Cubatao in Brazil
that was once known as the valley of death
because of its severe industrial air pollution
(Wheeler 2000).
In addition there are also major successes in
terms of institutional interventions. For example,
the remarkable turnaround of Cubatao in Brazil is
largely due to the success in enforcing strict
pollution control measures on industrial dis-
charges. This has led to more than halving particle
discharges since the mid-1980s and for the city
authorities to be able to hold it up as a model not
only of environmental recovery but also of sustain-
able industrial development (Milliken 2000). In
terms of urban planning and city management, there
are many encouraging examples in the transport
sector including multi-modal-integrated transport
policies (e.g. Curitiba, Brazil) (Globalideasbank
2008), various forms of congestion charging or limit-
ing vehicular traffic in to central locations (e.g.
Singapore, Mexico City and also Tehran), replace-
ment of petrol/diesel fuel (e.g. for 60,000 auto rick-
shaws with compressed natural gas in Delhi).
Nevertheless, the Curitiba and Tehran examples
both highlight the ill-effects of partial approaches
to sustainable development and environmental
protection. The former whilst introducing exem-
plary transport policies in some areas is still facing
rapidly deteriorating sociospatial evolution and
environmental conditions in its periphery and the
latter is still choking in traffic fumes despite the
controlling traffic in central areas.
(4) Access to utilities and basic infrastructure.
In many southern cities, lack of access to basic
utilities is not only a major impediment to sustain-
able economic growth and productivity but also a
major cause of urban inequity and ill health
(Werna et al. 2009). Despite recent international
data that indicate that 95% of urban populations in
developing countries have access to drinking
water (World Health Organisation/UNICEF 2006),
such general figures hide extreme variations
across the developing world both at present and in
the future. For example, Brazilian, Mexican and
Chinese cities generally have a much higher level
of access than Indian and African cities. Overall,
however, researchers have noted that in low-
income cities of developing countries, only 50%
of households have water piped to their homes
(Arimah 2005). In many cases, therefore, access
can mean communal taps rather than actual house-
hold connections. In addition half or one-third of
those that are connected only get intermittent
access. In India, for example, a study of 35 urban
centres representing 15% of the urban population
of the country found that water was supplied on
average only seven hours per day (Nickson and
Franceys 2003).
Bearing in mind the continuing high rate of
urbanisation in developing countries, the situation
will be even more critical in the near future. It is,
for example, estimated that urban Africa will
require an 80% increase in the numbers connected
to main water networks to meet the millennium
development goal of halving the unserved popula-
tion by 2015 (Mukami Kariuki 2002). Clearly,
scaling up to the level indicated is a monumental
task in many developing countries because of the
lack of material, financial and human resources.
This becomes even more daunting when considering
that a large portion of the population in developing
cities live in informal and shanty settlements
where local authorities may in fact be barred
from providing utilities because of the illegal
status of the settlements or because of precarious
locations and unplanned layouts that make exten-
sion of services very difficult even if govern-
ments were willing to extend them (Nickson and
Franceys 2003). This is compounded by lax mon-
itoring and the enforcement of legislation itself,
 International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
leading to a vicious cycle of poverty, sociospatial
exclusion, irregular land use patterns and slum
formation in environmentally sensitive areas, and
subsequent costly slum-upgrading programmes.
Poor households often have to pay vendors
several times the unit price paid by connected
non-poor households to the utility (Gulyani et al.
2005). The situation with access to electricity,
sanitation and refuse collection is invariably
worse than that of water. These have major impli-
cations for social and economic development as
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well as exacerbating environmental pollution
because of usage of open ground or unlined pit
latrines for sanitation in some cities, or inade-
quate disposal of household and industrial refuse
(Werna et al. 2009).
Consequently, greater attention needs to be
paid to specific policy and technical approaches
that provide more immediate solutions that have
the potential for scaling up to make a tangible
impact on the situation of the low-income groups
in developing cities. For example, in their contri-
bution to this volume Christoph Lüthi et al. argue
for combining Household-Centred Environmental
Sanitation and Community-led Total Sanitation in
addressing the challenge of sanitation in a sustain-
able manner in urban and peri-urban areas. These are
seen to combine the benefits of both a community-
led and a structured planning approach leading to
behavioural change and multi-stakeholder involve-
ment necessary for providing more sustainable
solutions.
(5) Urban form and spatial development have
major consequences on the sustainable develop-
ment encompassing not only environmental issues
but also social and economic aspects. The concept
of compact city development aims to optimise
energy use, promote renewable energy sources,
provide integrated transport networks with a focus
on enhancing public transport and cycle routes,
change the culture of energy and resource con-
sumption and increase social inclusion (Jenks and
Jones 2010). Ultimately, such action would also
enhance economic productivity through better con-
nectivity and resource saving. These issues are as
relevant to northern cities as they are in the South.
11
An important consideration under this heading
is the impact of major urban development and
infrastructure projects initiated by both the public
and the private sectors with direct consequences
on all aspects of the sustainability paradigm, in
particular urban equity. These developments are
often foreign direct investment-driven and glo-
bally induced aimed at raising city competitive-
ness but have unforeseen and/or unaccounted
externalities. They often entail conflicting claims
to land and city resources between local inhabit-
ants and the actual or perceived requirements of
global capital. They can occur both in established
or peri-urban and in peripheral city areas. In
southern cities, however, they often impact on
informal low-income communities with precari-
ous tenure rights and income-generating opportu-
nities or peasant communities (Keivani and
Mattingly 2007, Werna et al. 2009). They can
lead to major social tensions, particularly as a
result of forced displacement with inadequate
social and financial compensation, sidelining of
local requirements and imposing elite govern-
ance practices. This can affect cities in both the
North and the South although the rate of develop-
ments and the scale of displacement in the latter
have tended to be much higher (Swyngedouw
et al. 2002, Keivani and Mattingly 2007, Werna
et al. 2009).
Nevertheless, they can also enhance the city
economy and have the potential for local eco-
nomic development benefitting the lower income
groups and small and medium local enterprises.
The key issue is to set in place the appropriate
institutional framework and governance mecha-
nisms for policy-making and implementation that
would allow for a more balanced and pro-poor
approach to urban spatial organisation, land use
and affordable housing optimising both global and
local developmental benefits.
In addition, rapid and dynamic urban growth in
developing cities often leads to new patterns of
agglomeration in peri-urban areas with their own
unique social and economic challenges, opportuni-
ties and developmental priorities. The problem is
compounded by the massive growth of gated
 12 R. Keivani
communities for the middle and higher income
groups that often impinge on peripheral land occu-
pied by poor slum dwellers and peri-urban farm-
ing communities and create particular problems of
social exclusion and lack of fit within the broader
urban fabric. A particularly severe example of this
can be seen in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos
Aires where Thuillier (2005) noted that there are
about 350 gated communities, covering 300 km2
of land, and hosting approximately 50,000 per-
manent residents. However, similar development
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patterns can be observed across a range of cities in
the South including China and India in the past
decade (Leaf 2002, Cao and Keivani 2007,
Keivani and Mattingly 2007).
An important consideration for more equita-
ble spatial development in the new locations as
well as the more established parts of cities relates
to upgrading existing informal settlements, pro-
viding more secure tenure/entitlement and
enhancing low-income access to land and infra-
structure resources for housing and income gen-
eration activities. This can involve innovative
sociotechnical approaches that can seek to pro-
vide both supportive institutional frameworks
(e.g. different tenure arrangements to support
asset consolidation and innovative and inclusive
governance and partnership vehicles involving a
range of actors) and financial and technical sup-
port for a range of measures including physical
upgrading and redevelopment, innovative and
low-cost engineering solutions and green refur-
bishment/adaptation encompassing both energy-
saving measures and affordable renewable
energy technology.
(6) Multi-level governance and institutional
development. Throughout the previous discussion,
urban governance and institutional capacity are
highlighted as essential requirements for address-
ing the main challenges for urban sustainability.
Governance refers to the process of delivering
government through the inclusion of non-government
actors (Jones and Evans 2006, Werna et al. 2009).
From a multi-level governance perspective, import-
ant considerations are (i) the competence and
coordination between the vertical levels of
government and (ii) horizontal levels of govern-
ance both in terms of transnational and intra-city
linkages and patterns of governance between dif-
ferent city government structures as well as power
relations and networked interaction between dif-
ferent public, private and community actors in
decision making and policy setting at local and
metropolitan levels and the way that they feed into
higher levels of decision-making (McGuirk 2000,
Rakodi 2004a, 2004b, Corfee-Morlot et al. 2009).
The former, subsidiarity, is crucially important for
ensuring effective urban management. For example,
the resurgence of metropolitan governance institu-
tions in Western Europe in the 1990s can be seen
not only as instruments of regional competitiveness
but also to enable a more comprehensive response
to alleviate the negative side effects of localist
urban entrepreneurialism and local regulatory
downgrading of the neo-liberalising political
environment of the 1980s (Brenner 2003). The lat-
ter, on the contrary, is critical for ensuring an
inclusive, responsive and accountable governance
process that is not only important for social consider-
ations but also can have direct positive effects for
improving economic and environmental impacts
of urban development.
Any discussion of governance must consider
the impact of strategic planning for enabling flexi-
ble responses to uncertain urban futures particu-
larly in the context of economic globalisation and
climate change. This approach has been adopted in
the cities of the North at least since the early 1980s
in their efforts to reinvent themselves in the face
of severe economic crisis and loss of their more
traditional industries. This has led to a prolifera-
tion of various medium- and long-term economic
and development strategies at both metropolitan
and city district levels. Partly based on this experi-
ence and recognition of the multi-faceted prob-
lems of economic and physical growth in cities,
since 1998 the World Bank and later the Cities
Alliance have advocated the adoption of city
development strategies (CDSs) in developing
countries as a way of providing a holistic strategic
approach for addressing the main perceived chal-
lenges. The stated objectives of a CDS are
 International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
• enhancing city economies,
• reducing poverty,
• protecting the environment,
• enhancing local revenue-raising capacity
and city financial management.
By 2009 more than 200 CDSs had been formu-
lated and applied in different cities across the
world with different degrees of success. Some
commentators have argued that CDSs and stra-
Downloaded by [Professor Maria DAVILA NETO] at 14:09 26 July 2015
tegic planning aimed at strengthening economic
competitiveness are local applications of the
‘Washington consensus’ and the neoliberal
growth paradigm that will reinforce historical
patterns of social and spatial exclusion. On the
contrary, a more positive and pragmatic view
argues that unless city managers have a strategic
understanding of the weaknesses, strength and
potentials of their cities and where they fit within
the broader national and regional economies they
cannot really take effective action to address
their shortcomings. From this perspective CDSs
and strategic urban planning, therefore, do have a
role to play and are essential for providing such a
strategic perspective that can then guide follow-
up actions.
5. Concluding remarks
In this discussion, I have tried to set out the main
challenges that we face in terms of urban sustain-
ability. What it highlights is the multi-faceted
nature of the sustainability debate in towns and
cities where large concentrations of people and
activities have created a myriad of complex
social and economic challenges with often severe
environmental consequences including the great-
est contribution to atmospheric, water and
ground pollution. This is exacerbated in the
South by rapid and continuing urbanisation and
the relocation of manufacturing and heavy indus-
tries to emerging industrial hubs that have com-
paratively limited resources for monitoring
pollution and for providing jobs, incomes and
livelihoods.
13
Yet cities also provide the greatest promise and
potential for addressing many of these challenges.
The same concentrations of people that underlie
the challenges also provide the agglomeration
economies for more efficient use of resources and
provision of services and the space for greater
innovation and productivity. In the current time of
rapid global integration, both the threats and
opportunities for achieving more sustainable cities
have increased. On the one hand, for example, we
are prone to risks associated with increased global
economic volatilities, conflicts between local
needs and global capital requirements in terms of
access to city resources and public investment,
increased risk of social and cultural alienation and
rapid rise in energy use and pollution as a result of
continuing global economic expansion. On the
other hand, economic globalisation can also
enhance city economic performance with addi-
tional opportunities for employment and local eco-
nomic development. The degree to which local
population and poorer groups can benefit from
these changes largely depends on governance and
decision-making that can manage the process to
maximise local benefits and provide a better bal-
ance between global and local priorities. In addi-
tion, despite the seeming failure of the 2009
Copenhagen Summit in setting new legally bind-
ing targets on GHG reductions, global and
regional environmental governance structures are
being developed. As Adrian Atkinson has noted in
his contribution to this issue of IJUSD, the success
of such governance structures is largely dependent
on the courage of the political leaders and their
ability to face up to what is required to control and
reverse global warming. Such governance struc-
tures provide the basis for high-level policy debate
on the subject that can have a real impact at the
local level, e.g. Rio and Kyoto agreements on CO2
reduction targets. The degree to which the targets
are likely to be met universally is subject to
debate. Nevertheless, they have slowed CO2 emis-
sions in the countries that ratified the agreement,
providing the institutional framework for develop-
ing and implementing effective and binding anti-
pollution measures at the local level.
 14 R. Keivani
Considering the complexity and range of issues
at hand, it is not surprising that in her contribution
to this issue, Katie Williams notes that while the
discourse itself is relatively mature there is still a
lack of consensus on precise conceptualisations.
Indeed, according to some accounts there are over
200 different definitions of sustainable develop-
ment (Parkin 2000). Consequently, Williams identi-
fies two main challenges that should underpin
future research: (i) understanding ‘what the sus-
tainable city is’ and (ii) ‘how to bring about sus-
Downloaded by [Professor Maria DAVILA NETO] at 14:09 26 July 2015
tainable urban development’. These challenges
necessitate the understanding of different per-
spectives on urban sustainability that may help in
breaking out of the ‘silo mentality’ of the disci-
plines that are involved in urban development.
This is critical for moving towards greater con-
sensus on basic definitions and developing more
effective policy and sociotechnical solutions to
specific problems. Wider dissemination of the
debates across the disciplines will also help
achieve cultural shifts among academic, practi-
tioner and public stakeholder groups that can be
major drivers for more radical paradigmatic
shifts.
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