Cities

Cities are of outstanding importance in addressing climate change since they are not only the centre of economic and social initiatives, but also responsible for the majority of global energy consumption and for approximately 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Stakeholders at the city level thus face significant challenges, which are addressed by the European research project Post-Carbon Cities of Tomorrow (POCACITO). The POCACITO project facilitates the transition of cities to a sustainable or "post-carbon" economic and societal model in a global context. POCACITO uses a participatory approach that engages local stakeholders to create custom made transition strategies for ten case study cities. These strategies are then used to create a EU 2050 Roadmap, a stakeholder-driven guide towards the model "Post-Carbon City of Tomorrow" that merges climate, energy and social urban transitions. This booklet gives an overview of the POCACITO project, focussing on the methodology used and most importantly on the major findings, results and outcomes of the project.Read more

Innovative ways to manage the urban water cycle are required to deal with an ageing drinking and waste water infrastructure and new societal imperatives. This paper examines the influence of water governance in enabling transformations and technological innovation uptake in urban water management. A governance assessment framework is developed and applied in three case-studies, examining different scales and types of innovations used to tackle challenges in European urban water management. The methodology combines documentary analysis and interviews to reconstruct historical storylines of the shift in the water governance of urban water management for each site. The research provides detailed empirical observations on the factors conducive to innovation uptake at the local level. Critical governance factors such as commitment to compromise, the necessity to build political support, and the role of "entrepreneurs" and coalitions are highlighted. The paper also explores the role of discursive strategies and partnership design, as well as that of regulative, economic and communicative instruments, in creating barriers and opportunities to initiate and secure change. A number of recommendations targeted at innovators and water managers are presented in the conclusion.Read more