Eco2 Cities : Ecological Cities as Economic Cities

This book provides an overview of the
World Bank's Eco2 cities : ecological cities as
economic cities initiative. The objective of the Eco2 cities
initiative is to help cities in developing countries achieve
a greater degree of ecological and economic sustainability.
The book is divided into three parts. Part one describes the
Eco2 cities initiative framework. It describes the approach,
beginning with the background and rationale. Key challenges
are described, and lessons are drawn from cities that have
managed to turn these challenges into opportunities. A set
of four key principles is introduced. These principles are
the foundation upon which the initiative is built. They are:
(1) a city-based approach enabling local governments to lead
a development process that takes into account their specific
circumstances, including their local ecology; (2) an
expanded platform for collaborative design and decision
making that accomplishes sustained synergy by coordinating
and aligning the actions of key stakeholders; (3) a
one-system approach that enables cities to realize the
benefits of integration by planning, designing, and managing
the whole urban system; and (4) an investment framework that
values sustainability and resiliency by incorporating and
accounting for life-cycle analysis, the value of all capital
assets, and a broader scope for risk assessment in decision
making. Part two presents a city-based decision support
system that introduces core methods and tools to help cities
as they work toward applying some of the core elements and
stepping stones. Part two looks into methods for
collaborative design and decision making and methods to
create an effective long-term framework able to help align
policies and the actions of stakeholders. Part three
consists of the Field Reference Guide. The guide contains
background literature designed to support cities in
developing more in-depth insight and fluency with the issues
at two levels. It provides a city-by-city and
sector-by-sector lens on urban infrastructure. The next
section comprises a series of sector notes, each of which
explores sector-specific issues in urban development.