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City Matters Bulletin

October 2007

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

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Education and Information Update

Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA)
Editor: David S. Sawicki, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Routledge is pleased to announce a new publishing partnership with the American Planning Association (APA). From 2008 Routledge will be publishing JAPA and Planning and Environmental Law.
For more than 70 years, the quarterly JAPA has published research, commentaries, and book reviews useful to practicing planners, policymakers, scholars, students, and citizens of urban, suburban, and rural areas. JAPA publishes only peer-reviewed, original research and analysis. It aspires to bring insight to planning the future, to air a variety of perspectives, to publish the highest quality work, and to engage readers. According to Impact Factor rankings from Journal Citation Reports in June 2006, JAPA is the 5th highest-ranked planning journal in the world.
If you would like further information about JAPA please visit www.informaworld.com/japa or for more information about the American Planning Association, please visit: www.planning.org
.

This course runs between the 19th and 24th November 2007 at the Institute for Housing Studies .
The course will provide the know-how, skills and inspiration to develop creative strategies that prepare your city for the future, as well as concrete ideas on how to make the strategies work in terms of politics, processes, participation and partnership.
The course is designed for city leaders, managers and policy advisors

Full information is available here

Latest News Summaries

Full stories can be seen at Urbanicity News

Mayors and local governments proudly STAND UP and SPEAK OUT for the Millennium Development Goals
On the eve of their second World Congress in Jeju, South Korea, UCLG is proud to join forces with the Millennium Campaign, the Global Call to Action against Poverty and a wide range of civil society actors in mobilizing millions of people to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Paris and the Clinton Foundation join forces to fight climate change
The Clinton Foundation and the City of Paris have both taken proactive initiatives on the critical issue of climate change.

Cities in LACS Poised to Set up Local Observatories
Significant progress has been made during the second phase of the Local Agenda for Peace and Security Research Project.

Most megacities should prepare for flooding caused by rising sea levels
Most of the world’s mega-cities should start planning for flooding caused by rising sea levels.

The Lisbon Treaty: "a progress for municipalities, regions and Europe"
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) welcomes the Lisbon Treaty as agreed by Europe's heads of states and government in the early hours of 19 October 2007.

Launch of UN Habitat's global report on human settlements 2007
This year the Global Report has being launched to coincide with World Habitat Day on 1 October 2007 whose theme this year is 'A Safe City is a Just City'.

Grand finale for World Habitat Day in Monterrey, Mexico
World Habitat Day 2007 closed in a grand finale on Friday in the Mexican city of Monterrey as part of the Universal Forum of Cultures.

US mayors want to curb the use of bottled water
A number of high-profile American mayors have joined a campaign to curb the use of bottled water.

Urban Crime affects half of residents in poor countries
Crime was increasing in the world's cities and now affected more than half of urban residents in developing countries, the UN agency for human settlements said in a report.

UN-HABITAT announces the 2007 Scroll of Honour Award Winners
As part of the celebrations to mark this year’s World Habitat Day, UNHABITAT Thursday announced the list of individuals and institutions it was honouring with the Habitat Scroll of Honour award for their commitment to promotion of human settlements.

Understanding Your Local Economy: A Resource Guide for Cities
A Resource Guide for Cities, that addresses the challenges of analysing local economic conditions and a city’s comparative and competitive advantages.

European governments embrace municipal wireless strategies to raise ‘modern government’ reputation
An independent survey across Europe’s government and IT community today revealed a commitment to deploying local government wireless networks.

City Diplomacy in Action: Conference in Barcelona and Montreal initiative for International Peace Day
An international conference focused on the Role of Local Governments in Peace building was held in Barcelona on 6-7 September 2006.

UN-Habitat encourages young people at global ICT for Youth forum
UN-HABITAT encouraged youth at the Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development in Geneva to come up with new information and communication solutions to help young people in cities.

Turkey plans to give cities greater freedom
After several failed attempts to pass through parliament local government reforms during its first term in office, the Turkish government, under Prime Minister Erdogan, is determined to achieve its aims before local elections scheduled for March 2009.

US cities abandon plans for urban WiFi networks
Only a few years ago it was predicted that WiFi networks would provide US municipalities with low-cost internet access.

Additional parking spaces draw more traffic into Helsinki’s centre
While most European capital cities are discouraging car use in their down town areas, Helsinki is drawing more motor traffic to its centre by providing additional parking spaces.

The world's most polluted municipalities
The Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental organization, in cooperation with Green Cross Switzerland has compiled a list of the ten most polluted places in the world..

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

Conference Calendar

November

Culture and the City

2007 Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction

Democracies Cities and Drugs

Safe Routes to School

Sustainable Communities 07

Permacity International Conference

Transport, Mobility and Regional Development

Municipal Infrastructure

Cross Border Territories

BUSTRIP Final Conference

Broadband Cities

UM/ULI Real Estate Forum

Housing in the Public Sector

Emergency Preparedness 2007

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

February

Saving Places

Australian Congress for New Urbanism

New Partners for Smart Growth

World Conference on the Development of Cities

International Solar Cities 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

Register now - World Forum on Sustainable Mobility
10-12 December 2007, Nantes, France

In France, the city of Nantes and the Pays de la Loire Region are backing the organisation of “Governance & mobility”, the 1st World Forum on Sustainable Mobility.

This Forum aims at providing a unique platform to carry out worldwide discussions between local authorities, experts and researchers specialised in the questions about mobility and citizens.

Join us in Nantes, France - 10, 11 & 12 december 2007- to participate and contribute to the 1st World Forum on Sustainable mobility.
Information and registration: www.governance-mobility.org.

Register Now – World Meeting for Participatory Democracy
10,11,12 December in France (Lyon)

The World Meeting on the theme “Participatory democracy from the local to the global level : for which development ?” sets out to highlight the infinite variety of experiences in participatory democracy throughout the world and discuss development issues. Using the great diversity of experiences the world over, the idea is to start mapping out areas of convergence, a common meaning to all these experiences that are developing and taking root.
The event is designed for citizens, young people, elected representatives, researchers, members of associations, unions or local communities and will enable participants to exchange ideas and interact on participatory democracy and development issues.
The full programme and registration are live at the conference website: http://www.democracy2007.rhonealpes.fr/?lang=en

Final Call for Papers – International Conference on Intelligent Public Transport Systems

Intertraffic Amsterdam proudly presents the opportunity to submit abstracts for academic and technical paper presentations and demonstrations for the public transport related conference on IPTS (Intelligent Public Transport Systems) from 2 to 3 April 2008 as innovative part of Intertraffic Amsterdam 2008 (1 – 4 April 2008).
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, providing a platform to exchange ideas on IPTS and discuss strategies and initiatives in this field with a special focus on the Passenger Experience.
You are invited to submit an abstract of 250 words for the IPTS Conference. Submission will end on 31 October 2007.
Please visit www.iptseurope.com for more information on the event and paper submission.

First announcement - 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

First announcement – 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/

First announcement – International Conference on Water and Urban Development Paradigms
15-19 September 2008, Belgium

Water is perhaps the world’s most valuable resource - clean water has even been touted as the ‘next oil’. Water has become a strategic (and shrinking) resource, a commodity; indeed, control of water has always been - and remains - a highly politicized affair. This proves as a major challenge as cities and urban areas are gaining an estimated 60 million people per year - over 1 million every week.
This international conference intends to bridge the gap between the disciplines of water management, ecology and the approaches of engineering, urban design and spatial planning.

Sessions will develop a series of themes, discussing the historical relationship between water systems and human settlements, and related management problems regarding urban floods, water use and water sanitation. In each session, presentations are invited on problem definition, technical and design-based solutions, but also on boundary conditions of exogenous, political or economical nature.
The full conference website is at: http://www.urbanwaterconference.be

First Announcement – 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 1st-4th July in Nantes, France, and will will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. More information will be available shortly.

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

Tel: Intl 64 9 3725115 Email: a.campbell@urbanicity.org Web: www.urbanicity.org