S0505 Sustainable Cities

At the beginning of the third millennium, over 60% of the world\'s population lives in cities. By the year 2025, three quarters, or some 5 billion people, will reside in urban centers. In 135 metropolises, the number of residents will exceed 4 million.\r\n

This process of rapid urbanization poses a series of acute problems that affect the lives of all residents: growing unemployment and personal and social insecurity (e.g. growing crime rates), declining housing conditions, deteriorating urban infrastructures and social services (health, education, etc.), budget deficits, shortages of open space, a diminishing quality of life and of the environment (air and water pollution and other environmental hazards), difficulties in ensuring spatial mobility (transportation problems), uncontrolled urban sprawl, etc.

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Many urban researchers believe that the decentralization of political decision-making (i.e. local authorities should have more say in decisions that affect the city) and public participation (i.e. citizens should have more say in decisions that affect their lives) are essential in resolving these predicaments.

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These premises were adopted by more than 170 nations at the \'World Summit\' (Rio, 1992) as part of the issues that should be addressed in protecting the environment and promoting social and economic development. They are part of the summit\'s final declaration, \'Agenda 21\', and they were reemphasized in the second summit ten years later (Johannesburg, 2002).

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Since the Rio world summit, a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations have engaged in defining, analyzing and disseminating the principles and practices of \'Local Agenda 21\' – a blueprint for urban transformation toward sustainable cities that strives to address urban problems comprehensively.

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Hundreds of cities worldwide have formulated and adopted strategies to promote sustainable development. The empowerment of municipal authorities and civil society are important elements of these strategies. Non-governmental organizations such as ICLEI provide logistic support and professional training to local officials, and assist in the dissemination of information and networking between these cities.

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In this course we will examine the concept of sustainable development in its global, national and urban context. We will analyze how selected cities have implemented principles of sustainable development, how successful they have been, and what difficulties remain to be resolved.

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The course is based on lectures, brief oral presentations by students, and in-class discussions.

\r\nRequirements: participation in class discussions, oral presentation, preparation of an essay based on the presentation. The choice of the cities to be discussed in your presentations and essays is yours. You may want to study your home city, Venice, or any other city that interests you.