Urban-Nexus – Integrated Urban Management David Ludlow and Michael Buser UWE Sofia November 2011

 Urban-Nexus Objectives  Promote innovative problem-solving approaches to the complex and interrelated policy issues concerning sustainable urban development;  Increase awareness, knowledge exchange, cooperation and collaboration through structured dialogue; and  Further the Long-term Strategic Framework for Scientific Cooperation through the enabling and building of partnerships  Integrated Urban Management is an integration strand in the project focussed that aims to synthesise the structured dialogue outputs and other activities developed from the project thematic strands including:  Adapting to climate change  Health and quality of life  Sustainable land-use Urban-Nexus – Key Objectives

 Integrated Urban Management – multiple challenges  Drivers of change – global and local  finite resources and resource efficiency  climate change impacts and environmental vulnerability  demographic change and social cohesion  economic and financial crisis  Interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental challenges in urban context  Complex conditions for urban management  Barriers to sustainable urban development  Drivers of change– local impacts Integrated Urban Management

Drivers of Change - Local Impacts © 2011 urbanAPI Consortium Fraunhoferstraße Darmstadt

Benefits of integrated urban management  Achieve compliance with the existing environmental legislation efficiently and cost effectively  Improved coherence and cost-effectiveness of different policy measures  Improved reputation and "competitiveness" of the city (local authority)  Enhanced environmental awareness of citizens, local authority staff and stakeholders  Enhanced partnership and communication between the citizens and the leaders of the city, creating networks  Cost savings through reduced resources and utilities, improving economic competitiveness through cutting costs  Harmonisation of reporting responsibilities  Contribute to national and European objectives on the Environment and Europe2020 strategy to 'make Europe a more attractive place to work and invest'

Cyclic and Integrated Management

 Based on the experience from the Managing Urban Europe - 25 project Integrated urban management for the whole functional urban area consists of five major steps repeated in annual cycles:  Baseline review  baseline review documents the current environmental and administrative situation, legal requirements and political priorities  provides basis for later stages of the process including identification of the actions in the strategic programme  SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis has been found to be an appropriate means to assess the baseline administrative situation Managing Urban Europe

Cyclic and Integrated Management

 Target Setting - Preparation of the Strategic Programme and Action Plans  Strategic Programme developed to establish objectives and identify the priorities, initiatives and actions that are necessary in the short, medium and long term.  The programme should aim to build on an active participation of citizens, business, government and nongovernmental organizations  Political Commitment - Approval of the Strategic Programme  The Strategic Programme is an agreed document that aims to have widespread support and is an integral part of the strategic planning of the local authority  Experience shows that engaging all relevant local actors in the Programme's development can help avoid conflicts in implementing the Action Plan and the long term vision for the city Managing Urban Europe

Cyclic and Integrated Management

 Implementation of Action Plan, monitoring  Having approved the Strategic Programme, the next step is the implementation of the different measures and actions in an integrated way  Reporting and evaluation  Experience shows that on-going assessment of the effectiveness of the Action Plan is needed in relation to the strategic objectives for the city  Such assessments can lead to new measures being proposed or to a redefinition of existing actions  Projects have developed tools to assist local governments to measure and report on their environmental performance, thereby contributing to transparency in local governance Managing Urban Europe

 Develop an integrated problem-solving perspective on sustainable urban development focussed on:  Adapting to climate change  Health and quality of life  Sustainable land-use  Deliver structured dialogue synthesis papers focused on integrated urban management based on assessment of all relevant EU urban research  Engage with urban stakeholder communities in the development of a common understanding in respect of integrated urban management. Summary – Key Actions