For the person who has already searched for documents on urban sustainable development in Europe in the web’s jungle and has spent hours identifying which document was the most useful to their purposes, here is some good news!
The URBACT Programme and the European Urban Knowledge Platform (EUKN) have commonly decided to facilitate the access to each-other database of documents and resources by inserting a direct search tool in their websites, which also offers the possibility to browse the other website.
Why would one look there and not simply on Google, Bing or any other general search engine?
The advantage, when one search on URBACT website or on EUKN, is that a first selection has already been made. These websites are about European cities and about urban policies. The results coming out will then be more relevant to urban practitioners than generalist information.
Let’s try it on and test it
I searched for ‘Electric Cars’ as a test.
The main difference with general search engines in my opinion is that one does not find generalist press articles, advertisements for electric cars or information on innovation in electric cars production processes. Instead, one is redirected towards case studies from cities, examples of policies, and analysis on urban theory about the use of electric cars to improve air quality!
In a few words: with less clicks one can access easily tools that can be useful to better understand the urban policy topic one is interested in.
This search engine does not pretend to be the main gate to urban knowledge on the web, but it is a first – and very useful – common step to help urban practitioners to find inspiration, information and ideas from other European cities!
Your turn now! Check this out and tell us what you think!
- Search EUKN Website on URBACT! – URBACT Website
- Search URBACT Website on EUKN! – EUKN Website
