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City Matters Bulletin

December 2007

Welcome to the December edition of City Matters, brought to you by Urbanicity in partnership with UN Habitat Best Practices and Local Leadership.

May we take this opportunity to wish you a happy festive season and the very best for 2008!

• Education and Information Update  
• Latest news summaries
• Conference news

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Education and Information Update

Routledge launches Journal of Urbanism and Urban Research & Practice
Routledge Journals is proud to announce the launch of their new journal Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability.

The Journal of Urbanism will focus on human settlement and its relation to the idea of sustainability, social justice and cultural understanding. The content will focus on Urban Regeneration, New Urbanism, European Urbanism, Landscape Urbanism, Urban Sustainability, Smart Growth, Livable Communities, Transit-Orientated Development, Walkable Communities and more.

To find out more about Journal of Urbanism go to: www.informaworld.com/RJOU

Routledge Journals and the European Urban Research Association (EURA) are proud to announce the launch of their new journal Urban Research & Practice for 2008.

Urban Research & Practice will provide a systematic description of urban issues, urban developments and urban policy and implementation. It will seek to explain variations in urban policies or urban governance and will analyse and evaluate the effects of these polices and processes. It will also look at the European-wide factors that impact on urban areas, urban policies and urban governance.

To find out more about Urban Research and Practice go to: www.informaworld.com/RURP

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Latest News Headlines

Full stories can be seen at Urbanicity News

Second edition of the “Rome Millennium Cities Prize
The Chair of the UCLG MDGs Committee, the city of Rome has just launched the second edition of the “Millenium Cites Prize.

Rapid urbanisation closely linked to climate change
UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka told the United Nations Climate Change Conference on Wednesday it was no coincidence that climate change had emerged at the forefront of international debate at the same time, and virtually at the same pace, as the world becomes urbanised.
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World Mayors and Local Governments Climate Protection Agreement launched in Bali
With the eyes of the world on the climate change negotiations in Bali, local governments and world mayors have launched a global agreement to address the challenge of climate change, and to address the opportunities.

New York City subway lines to be given separate management teams
New York City Transit (NYCT), the authority that runs the city’s subway railway, announced an overhaul of the system to make it more responsive to travellers’ needs.

Local councils’ status and role recognised by UK government
The UK Government and the country's Local Government Association (LGA) have signed an historic constitutional concordat to recognise for the first time local councils' status and role in law.

Air quality directive: CEMR calls for more flexibility
The air quality directive adopted by the European Parliament on 11 December sets an adequate basis for taking measures and limiting levels of dust particles in the air, however local and regional government wished more flexibility.to implement the new legislation.

A world record: 2000 m² of solar panels for Genk's city hall!
The municipality of Genk (Belgium) has installed 2000 m² of solar panels on the roof of its town hall, making it the biggest ever solar panels installation on a public building.

RESPIRO Guidance Officially Launched
Freiburg, 11 December 2007 - After several months of intensive preparation, the European Responsibility in Procurement (RESPIRO) Guides were officially launched on the 3 December 2007 at the RESPIRO Conference on Socially Responsible Procurement in the City of Lille, France.

Local and regional government welcome signature of the Treaty of Lisbon
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) welcomes the Treaty of Lisbon, formally signed by the Heads of State and Government of the European Union, on 13 December 2007.

Growing Up in Cities - Johannesburg
The Johannesburg location of Growing Up in Cities has been one of the most active project sites, as it has sought to influence urban policy related to squatter camp children and their families and inner-city children by encouraging participatory research and the development of policies that are responsive to the realities of children's lives and young people's own ideas and aspirations.

Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up
China teeters on the edge of a water crisis. The country has five times the population of the United States, but less water, with the bulk of that supply in the south.

Local Authorities highlight their indispensable role in the new partnership policy between the European Union and Africa
Local authorities express their view that the growing role played by local governments in democratic governance and development cooperation is further recognised in the Joint African-European Union Strategy that will be adopted in the Lisbon Summit, the 8th and 9th December.

Assisting local authorities in Iraq
UN-HABITAT and six United Nations agencies have teamed up with the Government of Iraq to launch a new initiative aimed at boosting the capacities of local authorities to carry through development plans in partnership with the private sector and local communites.

All Seattle city employees to be provided with free travel passes
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels plans to provide all city employees free bus passes by 2009 to encourage them to switch from private to public transport.

Green paper on climate change: CEMR calls for a more integrated and coherent approach
The EU policies should reflect the issue of adaptation to climate change in a more integrated and coherent manner.

World AIDS Day: Local leadership committed to Stop AIDS
Barcelona, 1 December 2007: On the occasion of the 19th annual World AIDS Day, United Cities and Local Governments, the world’s largest local government organisation, reiterates its members’ commitment as active and essential participants in the efforts against AIDS.

CEMR policy committee renew political mandates - Michael Häupl re-elected CEMR president
The mayor and governor of Vienna Michael Häupl has been re-elected president of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) at CEMR's policy committee meeting in Stuttgart on 4 and 5 December 2007.

Urban Management Programme - CD ROM
After nearly two decades, the Urban Management Programme, which was operational from 1986 to 2006, has handed over to its partners at the regional, national and local levels.

Britt-Marie Lövgren: ''We need local action plans to ensure equality''
Opening Statement by Britt-Marie Lövgren on behalf of the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

First Announcement and Call for Abstracts 2008 World Water Week
The annual World Water Week in Stockholm promotes the exchange of views and experiences between the scientific, business, policy and civil society communities, thereby advancing the water, sanitation, environment, health, livelihood, poverty reduction and related agendas.

Municipalika 2008
The MUNICIPALIKA'2008 which is the 5th International Conference on "Good Urban Governance for Inclusive & Sustainable Cities" scheduled for 31st Jan to 2nd February 2008.

The Child Friendly Cities Initiative
What is a Child Friendly City? It is a city, or any local system of governance, committed to fulfilling children's rights.

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To read the full stories and more news, please visit www.urbanicity.org/news.asp

Conference Calendar

December

Home, City, Neighbourhood 2007

World Forum on Sustainable Mobility

Dynamic Cities Need Women

Built Environment in Developing Countries

January

EURAU 08

Media City 08

International Conference Think Deep

World Mobility Forum

Manufacturing Cities

Sustainable Transport and Mobility

Multiply Cities

February

Saving Places

Australian Congress for New Urbanism

New Partners for Smart Growth

World Conference on the Development of Cities

International Solar Cities Conference

Eco-Edge 2

Watercourses in Urban Areas

March

International City to City Seminar

Security of the Citizen and Disaster Management

European Ele-Drive Transportation Conference

Warwick Healthy Housing Conference

WACAP 2008

Cityscapes 2008

Seeking the City

Sustainable Communities

April

Intelligent Public Transport Systems

Metropolis 2008

CNU 2008

European Conference on Bicycle Transport and Networking

Airport Cities

Eco-City World Conference

TRA 2008

LISC Urban Forum

Small Urban Municipal Conference

For a full listing of forthcoming conferences, visit: www.urbanicity.org/events.asp

The latest edition of the 2008 Urbanicity Events Calendar is now online at:
www.urbanicity.org/08calendar.htm

To receive updates for this calendar, please register here

Conference News

Call for Papers - International Conference on Public Policy and Management

The Centre for Public Policy (CPP) was established to play the role of a ‘think tank’ on Public Policy backed by rigorous research and analysis. It conducts Fellowship and PG Programs, and short duration Programmes for senior civil servants to foster capacity building in Public Policy Management.

One of its major initiatives is its annual International Conference on Public Policy and Management. CPP will be holding its Third International Conference on August 3rd – 6th, 2008.

CPP invites research papers and policy papers of about 4000-6000 words on the following themes from interested scholars, and policy makers and administrators.

The Themes of this conference are:

1. Private Public Partnership, and
2. Urban Governance

PPP has gained currency in the context of the emerging economies failing to rise to the demands of growing economy for infrastructure and utilities. Similarly, the growth of urban conglomeration has been phenomenal in these countries and different countries are coping with it differently. It is time to take stock and look for underlying trends in these from different perspectives.

Public Policy covers a wide spectrum and CPP would like to invite authors to submit papers on related aspects of Public Policy which would enrich the conference.

Selected papers from the conference will be brought out as book. Interested authors are requested to send an abstract of around 200 words to CPP, IIM Bangalore, by Jan 7th , 2008.

The full conference brochure is available here.

Please check the website for further details: http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/cppconference/index.htm

Call for Abstracts Closed - IAMF and EET 2008

The call for abstracts is now closed and notification of the final programme will take place early in 2008. Registration is now open and can be found online at: http://www.ele-drive.com/registration.html

Take part in IAMF & EET-2008, an scientific and public event dedicated to the mobility of the future, to clean technologies and share your knowledge and ideas about the following subjects:

• Individual mobility of the future
• Electric cars
• Hybrid Motors
• Fuel Cells
• Biogas
• Bio-fuels
• Hydrogen engines

Call to Register – International Conference on Intelligent Public Transport Systems

With the topic "The Passenger Experience & Multi Modal Mobility", the IPTS Conference will bring together representatives of governments, related organisations and public transport operators, as well as industry experts from many countries in the world. This event will provide a platform to exchange ideas on multi modal mobility solutions and discuss strategies and initiatives in this field with a special focus on the passenger's needs and desires.

We are happy to announce that the Conference Programme is finalized.

Key Note speakers include:

• Jeroen Kok Managing Director TransLink Systems
• Ronald Prins City of Amsterdam
• Nicola Villa Global Head Connected Urban Development Cisco
• Todd A. Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute and member of Connected Urban Development team at MIT
• Peter Staelens European Passenger Federation

For more information on Pricing & Conditions and to Register, please visit the website at: www.iptseurope.com.

Call for Papers - REAL CORP 008: Mobility Nodes as Innovation Hubs
13th International Conference on Urban Planning in Information and Knowledge Society
May 19th -21st 2008, Vienna International Airport www.corp.at

Transport hubs are nerve centers of our modern mobile society and rapidly become economic centers - the new "Airport Cities" are remarkable examples. Where many people come together information and knowledge is shared and new ideas are created, and so airports, train stations, motorway rests become knowledge- and innovation hubs.
The international conference REAL CORP 008 focuses on these 21st-century-transport- and innovation-hubs that are exceptionally challenging for urban and transport planning, architecture and real estate development.
Some of the questions to be dealt with:

• How can the role of transport hubs as innovation hubs be improved?

• Which technologies ensure the reliable functioning of the hubs and what further improvement is needed?

• How can anticipatory planning ensure the sustainable development of those structures?

• How can unmeant spatial developments be avoided and environmental impacts be dealt with?

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The call for papers (reviewed und non-reviewed) is open, the deadlines are for REVIEWED PAPERS

• submission of abstracts until January 31st 2008
• full papers / draft until March 15th 2008
• print-ready papers until April 15th 2008

for NON-REVIEWED PAPERS

• submission of abstracts until February 29th 2008
• print-ready papers until March 31st 2008

Full information is available at www.corp.at

Call to Register – World Conference on the Development of Cities
13-16 February 2008, Porto Alegre, Brazil

The World Conference on the Development of Cities has the main purpose of gathering the diversity of democratic innovation and initiatives for the social change, which have been emerging in the last years, creating a collective thinking environment in order to discuss and present experiences, and allowing to approaching city development issues, such as a more organic and systemic development of the cities, and focusing four main subject matters:

1) The Right to the City (Local Policies on the Citizens Rights and Responsibilities);
2) Governance and Democracy in Cities (Innovative Management and Democratic Participation Experiences);
3) Local Development in Cities; and
4) Sustainability and Network-City. These broad subjects will develop into associated subjects, involving, among others, issues such as gender, poverty, youth, immigration, informal labor, environment and violence.
The event is addressed to public managers (city mayors, aldermen, and operators of public policies), university students and specialists, community, business and social leaderships of the democratic participation, focused on urban territorialities and turned to the initiation of a local development in the cities.
The Call for Papers is now open and full information is available at: http://www.cmdc2008.com.br/

2nd Call for Papers – International Conference on Water and Urban Development Paradigms
15-19 September 2008, Belgium

Following our previous communication regarding the 2008 UrbanWaterConference, which will be held in Leuven, Belgium from 15-19 September 2008, at the Catholic University Leuven, we would like to invite you to submit a paper for oral presentation or an abstract for poster presentation. You are kindly asked to submit a paper or abstract by e-mail to contact@urbanwaterconference.be by 30 January 2008. All papers will be reviewed and authors will be notified about acceptance of their paper by April 1, 2008. Kindly be informed that the deadline for the full paper submission is 15 May 2008. For detailed information about this conference (topics, committees, venue, registration) please visit the conference web site http://www.urbanwaterconference.be.

Conference website – World Forum on Human Rights
1-4 July 2008, Nantes, France

The dates for the 3rd World Forum on Human Rights have been announced - the Forum will take place from the 30th June to 1st July in Nantes, France, and will will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

The conference website is now available at: http://www.spidh.org/en/the-forum-2008/index.html .

City Matters Bulletin is published monthly by Urbanicity Ltd 72 Fairview Crescent, Waiheke, New Zealand in conjuction with UN Habitat Best Practices and Local Leadership