The Expert Group Meeting “Urban planning best practices on Creating Harmonious Cities” was held in Rome, Italy, from 29 to 30th November 2007. The workshop which brought together experts representing local authorities, urban planning practitioners and professional associations of planners from all around the world, aimed at exchanging methodologies and experiences of urban planning as a tool that can create sustainable urbanisation, in other words “harmonious cities”. Participants were asked to present the impact of their planning approach on key criteria, which included inter alia: adaptation to climate change, vulnerability to disasters, housing conditions, urban poverty, conflict resolution and the creation of civic capital. Through very stimulating debates, a list of success criteria and innovative focuses for urban planning was drafted and presented as preliminary conclusions. The meeting not only contributed to the identification of interesting urban planning case studies to be included in the Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, which will focus on Revisiting Urban Planning, but prepared the ground for the substantive preparation of the Dialogue on “Spatially Harmonious Cities” to be held at World Urban Forum 4. |
