Connecting cities Building successes

This week, the overview of the favorite topics of urban practionners on the web 2.0 is completed by multisectoral websites which choose to deal with the sustainable city through a cross-cutting approach.

Sustainable planning of cities is – at its name indicates – the main topic of   SustainableCities.dk , a database -that aim to inspire politicians, architects, city planners, businesses, NGO’s and citizens to learn from each other and to collaborate with each other to transform the worlds less sustainable cities into the more sustainable cities of future.

It is not be confounded with Sustainablecitiesnet! Developed by The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, Sustainablecitiesnet seeks to identify and promote emerging technical, social and organizational innovations that could form part of future sustainable systems and presents itself as a “a portal to the future of cities” that are ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable. More specifically the website claims to be a ‘network and communication system to deliver information, to connect people and projects, to accelerate the city’s transformation across the world’ – large programme!

Finally the Sustainable Cities Collective,a moderated community for leaders of major metropolitan areas, urban planning and sustainability professionals, provides resources for all those who work in or are interested in urban planning, sustainable development and urban economics. Sustainable Cities Collective seeks to create a community where people can get involved and learn about the advances in how cities are becoming smarter and greener in the 21st century. For instance a recent article on ‘What London’s Cycle Hire Scheme Got Right (And What it Got Wrong)’ reviews a recently introduced policy in one of the major European cities.

Last but not least, This Big City is an essential source for articles exploring our increasingly urban world. With an awareness of global approaches, this big City strives to demonstrate the opportunity that cities present to a world struggling to achieve sustainability, taking a positive tone. There you can dream for instance about a romantic walk on the new urban oasis in New York, the High Line.

After this first overview, we invite you, in the coming months, we aim at providing more in depth look to specific articles dealing with the city in the complex blogosphere!

Ségolène Pruvot and Alexandra Solom
URBACT Webpartners