Urban environment
City Mayors reports urban environmental developments and examines the challenges faced by cities worldwide

Swiss and German cities dominate
ranking of best cities in the world
10 June 2008: Zurich, Vienna and Geneva are the best cities in the world as far as quality of live is concerned, says Mercer Consulting in a survey published in June 2008. Vancouver (Canada) and Auckland (New Zealand) are placed fourth and fifth respectively, followed by three German cities: Düsseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt. Tokyo, London and Madrid are all outside the top 25. Overall, Baghdad is, not surprisingly, the lowest ranking city in the survey. More

US and Canadian mayors work
together to protect Great Lakes
12 May 2008: There are five Great Lakes in northeastern US and southeastern Canada: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario. Together with the St. Lawrence River, which extends from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean, they contain 95 per cent of North America’s fresh water. However, the entire Great Lakes-St. Lawrence water system is under considerable stress, and mayors in the US and Canada are joining forces to try to ensure that this remarkable resource retains its value in the future. More

Pittsburgh and Los Angeles
the most polluted US cities
4 May 2008: Pittsburgh has replaced Los Angeles as the most polluted city in the US. The Pennsylvanian city with a population of some 335,000 heads the list of cities most polluted by particle pollution, a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols. Pittsburgh also ranks second on the list of cities with the most year-round particle pollution while Los Angeles again claims the first spot this year. More

Green policies are good for the
environment and public purses
27 April 2008: Local governments around the world are working to protect the environment. These green cities are aiming to reduce energy use and pollution in new and creative ways. Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change. They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs. And, cities that are leaders in this green movement set a good example to their citizens about the importance of environmental issues. More

A city’s ecological footprint bears
no comparison to its actual area
2 April 2008: The US city of Rochester, New York State, and its immediate suburbs occupy about 160,000 hectares, or the same land area as London, England. The difference is that Rochester’s urbanized core contains 735,000 residents versus 7.6 million in London. London, for its part, has less than two-thirds the population density of Tokyo. More

Dubai and Shanghai examples
of wasteful urban development
15 December 2007: The danger of treating climate change only as a man-made phenomenon that impacts nature’s systems is that it posits the problem in some distant remoteness and absolves all of us of immediate responsibility. The facts tell us that three-quarters of the carbon dioxide in the world, which is the biggest greenhouse gas, is emitted by cities. Dubai and Shanghai are models that ought to be avoided, as they are examples of environmentally wasteful urban development. More

Calcutta and Miami most at risk
from coastal flooding by 2070
6 December 2007: The impact of climate change and urban development could more than triple the number of people around the world exposed to coastal flooding by 2070, says a report by the OECD. Miami is the most exposed city today and will be for the foreseeable future. By 2070, eight of the most exposed cities will be in Asia. The most exposed city in terms of population will be Kolkata (Calcutta), while Miami will be most vulnerable in terms of infrastructure assets. More

US mayors avoid discussion
of negative effects of biofuels
14 August 2007: Mayors in the United States are among the strongest supporters of the biofuel industry. Ethanol and biodiesel, the primary biofuels today, are made from plant matter instead of petroleum. They can be blended with or directly substituted for gasoline and diesel. While other alternative power sources such as hydrogen and fuel cells require research breakthroughs and major modifications to vehicles, biofuels offer an immediate solution to energy and environmental concerns. More

16 cities around the world to
share $5 billion to go green
22 May 2007: It was a sparkling spring day when former US President Bill Clinton announced his foundation's new ‘Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program’ at the C-40 Large Cities Climate Summit of big city mayors, business leaders and environmental experts. Under the initial plan, 16 cities around the world will share $5 billion in private funds to help them go green with environmental upgrades that include the installation of more efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems, and architectural enhancements that would save enough energy to cover the costs.

Cities are not the problem, but the
solution in the battle for biodiversity
3 May 2007: Disproportionate growth of the world's urban population could result in further loss of many forms of life on Earth, warn experts in the sciences of climate change and biodiversity. Nearly 200 years ago, London was the only city in the world with more than one million people. Today, across the globe, there are more than 400 cities of at least that size. More

Los Angeles remains
most polluted US city
1 May 2007: Los Angeles ranked as the most polluted US city in the nation for all categories in a new report, even though LA’s pollution levels have dropped during the past two years. Other cities ranking among the worst for smog include several in southern California, as well as large cities in Texas and on the east coast, including Houston, Dallas, New York, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia. Other cities on the lists of the worst for particle pollution include many in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, including Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. More

City mayors must innovate
where governments dither
17 April 2007: Tired of inaction by the federal government, American cities increasingly are taking the lead on national issues. Global warming is one example. When the Bush administration downplayed the scientific evidence in support of global warming, Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols called on American cities to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. So far, more than 150 have done so. Innovation by cities, of course, is not unique to America. Cities around the globe use their ingenuity to develop model solutions to nation-scale issues. More

EU carbon emission agreement will
strengthen concept of liveable cities
18 March 2007: The commitment by the European Union (EU) on 9 March 2007 to a binding target of a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 will affect all tiers of government as well as business. The implementation of regulations to make the necessary changes may well force the EU to recognise the critical role of cities and accede to their calls for more powers and resources. More

Water quality issues in the US wine
industry affect small communities
21 February 2007: Most of the 19,000 municipalities in the United States are small rural communities. Nearly 17,000 US municipalities have populations of less than 10,000, and over 9,300 have populations of less than 1,000. Over the past two decades, a growing number of these small cities has come to depend on the wine industry to revitalize and support their local economies. Wine production, in particular, is attractive to small city mayors because it is capital- and labor-intensive, attracting investment and creating jobs in agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure. More

No more freeways: Los Angeles is on the road
to become one of the greenest American cities
15 February 2007: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has made it one of his goals to transform his city into “the greenest big city in America”. Plagued with traffic problems and the worst air quality in the country, LA is more often equated with urban sprawl and asthma than a model of sustainability. But that transformation is exactly what Villaraigosa and Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley have in mind. More

Schools could save money and raise
educational standards by going green
10 February 2007: US cities signed up for climate change action, already having a robust and challenging relationship with school district boards in their areas, will be interested in the late 2006 report on the costs and impact on educational performance of sustainable buildings. More

Progress in the world’s cities will
decide the future of Planet Earth
13 January 2007: If global development priorities are not reassessed to account for massive urban poverty, well over half of the 1.1 billion people projected to join the world’s population between now and 2030 may live in under-serviced slums, says a report published in January 2007. Additionally, while cities cover only 0.4 per cent of the Earth’s surface, they generate the bulk of the world’s carbon emissions, making cities key to alleviating the climate crisis, notes the report. More

Scandinavian countries are first in
creating sustainable communities
7 November 2006: Sweden has a penchant for safety and cleanliness. Swedes invented the Volvo, one of the safest automobiles. Volvos are built to minimize harm to passengers during accidents, and they are built without toxic flame-retardants. Swedes invented the safety- match and dynamite too - much safer than the alternative it replaced, black powder. Recently, Sweden has become known for its innovations in sustainable development - safer development. More

Three locations in Russia are among
the world’s 10 most polluted places
24 October 2006: Chernobyl in the Ukraine, Linfen in China and Ranipet in India are among the ten most-polluted locations in the world, according to research carried out by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute. The top ten also includes three sites in Russia, one in Peru and one in Zambia. The biggest pollutants were heavy metals and long-lasting chemicals, say the authors of the research study. The World Bank estimates that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world were in China. More

Research suggests many coastal cities
will be flooded by the end of the century
London, Tokyo, Mumbai and New York, together with thousands of other communities around the world, could be flooded by the end of this century according to research published in March 2006. Two studies suggest that global warming has a much more dramatic effect on sea levels than previously thought. Ice sheets across both the Arctic and Antarctic could melt more quickly than expected this century, with Arctic summers by 2100 being as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago, when sea levels eventually rose up to six meters higher than today. More

San Francisco mayor looks to
Chicago for urban inspiration
15 August 2006: San Francisco politicians and civic leaders have found a surprising new source of inspiration: Chicago, the pragmatic Midwestern US city on the shore of Lake Michigan. They're drawn not to the classic symbols of old Chicago, such as Wrigley Field or the Art Institute, but to such vivid new landmarks as the Millennium Park, a 24.5-acre gathering place that attracts residents and tourists. They're captivated by the manicured streets and sidewalks that transformed once-gritty stretches of this city into urbane green paths. More

US mayors pledge to cut greenhouse gases
while Bush administration takes no action
Recognizing that global warming may fast be approaching the point of no return and that the world cannot wait for the US government to act, hundreds of US city mayors have pledged to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. By signing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, these mayors - representing some 44 million Americans - have committed their cities to meet or beat the US emissions reduction target in the Kyoto Protocol, despite the federal government's refusal to ratify that treaty. More

US cities to try 'smart growth'
to conform to Kyoto Protocol
More than 210 US mayors have signed up to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ initiative on taking local responsibility for carbon emissions in the absence of support for Kyoto from the current US federal government. Attention now turns to what they are doing to meet the challenge with limited powers and resources. Denver mayor John Hickenlooper told City Mayors at the recent 2006 New Partners for Smart Growth conference, held in his city: “In the US our federal government has shown no inclination to address this issue. As cities we are going to conform to the Kyoto protocol. Instead of top down in terms of our climate we perhaps need to tackle it from the bottom up.” More

Brazilian architect wins
the 2006 Pritzker Prize
Paulo Mendes da Rocha has been chosen as the 2006 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The 77-year old architect becomes the second laureate from Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer being the first, chosen in 1988. While few of his buildings were realized outside of Brazil, the lessons to be learned from his work, both as a practicing architect and a teacher, are universal. More

San Francisco Mayor proclaims
urban environmental movement
Mayors from around the globe took the historic step of signing the Urban Environmental Accords on 5 June 2005 in the rotunda of San Francisco City Hall in recognition of United Nations World Environment Day 2005. San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, said what we have accomplished here will change the world. “What we started here is only the beginning - the start of a new way of thinking about our earth, and the start of a new global environmental grassroots movement focused on cities,” the Mayor stressed. More

EIU survey:
Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna
named world’s most liveable cities
Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna are the world ‘best’ cities to live and visit according to a new survey the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Vancouver, on the Canadian Pacific coast, is credited with low crime, good infrastructure and virtually no threats of terrorist attacks. Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU survey on liveability said that in the current global political climate, it was no surprise that the most desirable destinations were those with a lower perceived threat of terrorism. More

Mercer survey:
The world’s best cities
are still in Switzerland
Zurich and Geneva are the best cities in the world as far as quality of live is concerned, says a new survey. Vancouver (Canada) is placed third, followed by Vienna (Austria), Auckland (New Zealand), Düsseldorf (Germany) and Frankfurt (Germany). Paris, London and Madrid are in the lower half of the top-50 table. Overall, Baghdad is not surprisingly the lowest ranking city in the survey. More

More than one billion people
call urban slums their home
At least one billion people live in slums, with the highest percentage of them found in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a new report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). At a press briefing, Anna K. Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT executive director, told City Mayors that at least 40 per cent of settlements in the world were classified as slums. More

New York, Portland and Chicago
are among the greenest US cities
It’s not easy being green – for a city, that is. It's tough enough to simply keep up with the endless trash, traffic and pollution generated by urban life. To actually get the better of it with good public transportation, smart recycling programs and the kind of well-kept streets, parks and playgrounds that make cities fun and healthy places to live, that’s the true challenge. Homestore, the American real estate portal, selected the ten greenest US cities. More

Seoul discovers that environmental
care can produce economic benefits
The restoration of Cheonggyecheon stream in the heart of the Korean capital Seoul means that South Korea, one of Asia’s most industry-driven nations, has started to demonstrate greater concern for the environment and nature. The rejuvenated stream also has a positive economic impact on the city, officials of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said. More

Conceived by an Italian saint, Brasilia
is the world’s most striking capital city
First conceived of in a ‘prophetic’ dream by Saint John Bosco of Italy, Brasília is the federal capital of the Latin American republic resembling its name. It was inaugurated in 1960 by President Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira and took only 41 months to construct. It is regarded as one of the most visually striking cities in the world on account of its Le Corbusier-inspired architecture by the renowned modernist Oscar Niemeyer and was planned by Lúcio Costa. It is a World Heritage Site. More

Architect of hard-edged designs
awarded the 2005 Pritzker Prize
Thom Mayne, the Californian architect known for his uncompromising designs, has been awarded the 2005 Pritzker Prize, the world’s most prestigious architectural award. Mr Mayne founded his firm Morphosis in 1972 to surpass the bounds of traditional forms and materials, while also working to carve out a territory beyond the limits of modernism and postmodernism. When told the news, he said his first reaction was shock. "When you run a cultural and artistic practice, as we do, instead of just a business, you never know where it's going to lead." The prize carries with it a $100,000 grant. More

British government explores new ideas
to strengthen sustainable communities
A fresh initiative to encourage English cities to consider introducing an executive mayor structure was announced at the British Government’s Sustainable Communities summit in Manchester at the beginning of February 2005. The conference also heard from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who emphasized the importance of schools in creating healthy neighbourhoods and London Mayor Ken Livingstone who spoke of the need to build affordable housing for key workers. More

America’s wildlife under attack
from rapid urban development
The rapid consumption of land in the fastest-growing large US metropolitan areas could threaten the survival of nearly one out of every three imperiled species. In at least three dozen rapidly-growing counties found mostly in the South and West of the US, open space on non-federal lands is being lost so quickly that essential wildlife habitat will be mostly gone within the next two decades, unless development patterns are altered. More

Urban poor increasingly made homeless
in India’s drive for more ‘beautiful’ cities
When Mumbai (Bombay) Municipal Corporation evicted pavement dwellers in 1981, a journalist came forward to file a public interest petition to protect the rights of the pavement dwellers. After five years in 1986, the case became a landmark judgment that maintained that the Right to Life included the Right to Livelihood. As livelihood of the poor depends directly on where they live, this was a verdict in favour of pavement dwellers. More

Scientists say mangrove forests
can reduce impact of tsunamis
Dense mangrove forests growing along the coasts of tropical and sub-tropical countries can help reduce the devastating impact of tsunamis and coastal storms by absorbing some of the waves' energy, say scientists. When the tsunami struck India's southern state of Tamil Nadu on 26 December 2004, for example, areas in Pichavaram and Muthupet with dense mangroves suffered fewer human casualties and less damage to property compared to areas without mangroves. More

Urban population is growing
by one million people a week
The world’s urban population will grow from 2.86 billion in 2000 to 4.98 billion by 2030, of which high-income countries will account for only 28 million out of the expected increase of 2.12 billion. The world’s annual urban growth rate is projected at 1.8 per cent in contrast to the rural growth rate of 0.1 per cent and about 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities. More

By 2030 the US will have re-built
almost half its built environment
In 2030, about half of the buildings in which Americans live, work, and shop will have been built after 2000. Most US states and metropolitan areas have some idea as to the amount of growth they expect over the next several decades, based on estimates of projected demographic, household, market and industry trends. These estimates form the foundation of public policies and are vital for use in goal setting, planning, and implementation of a variety of growth and development strategies. More

Satellite identifies big cities
as major pollution sources
The urban areas of Europe, North and South America as well as Asia are some the world’s major producers of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution. Other significant polluters are the coal-fired power stations of South Africa and bio-mass burning in other parts of the African continent. Heavily used shipping lanes such as the Red Sea also contribute significantly to the earth’s man-made pollution. More

Mayor of Paris selects design
for regeneration of Les Halles
The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has announced a vast new initiative at the heart of Paris - Les Halles - which will revolutionise the life of the centre of the city and which is part of his ambitious plans to change the face of Paris. Les Halles are named after the market founded 1183, when King Philippe II Auguste enlarged the previous marketplace in Paris and covered it, making a series of halls. More

Slow Cities movement offers
alternative to global mediocrity
The century that saw the acceleration of the pace of human life beyond anything people of previous centuries could have imagined did not end without also seeing, just before its close, the creation of a movement in which some people choose to deliberately preserve and cultivate the values they consider threatened by the insistence on doing everything ever more quickly: the Slow Cities movement. More

Melbourne’s newest park
wins urban design award
The Royal Australia Institute of Architects (RAIA) conferred its 2004 urban design award to Melbourne’s newest park, Birrarung Marr. Birrarung Marr was the city's first new major parkland in more than 100 years when it opened in January 2002. ‘Birrarung’ means ‘river of mists’ in the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people who originally inhabited the area, while ‘Marr’ equates with the side of the river. More

Australian local government
sorely needs more resources
Australian local government is undergoing rapid change accompanied by significant problems. Only 30 years ago, local government councils were dominated by motifs originating in the nineteenth century: “rates, roads and rubbish” were the main concerns. In the past 20 years, however, while by no means shedding responsibility for those fundamental tasks, it has had to shift its focus to “a range of new and emerging human services. Local government will have a baby capsule ready the day you’re born – and burial plot ready the day you die. And it will provide around a hundred different services to keep you happy in between”. More

South Korea announces
plans for new capital city
South Korea is following Brazil’s example by planning to build itself a new capital city. The government announced on 11 August 2004, that it had chosen a site of some 7,130 hectares in the Yeongi-Gongju region, 150 kilometres south-east of Seoul. A government spokesman told City Mayors that construction would start in 2007 and that by 2012 the first government departments would be operating in the new city. More

RIBA President calls for stronger
recognition of New Urbanism
A call from an outspoken leading British architect for urbanism to be recognised as a vocation in itself has shone a spotlight on the movement for New Urbanism.  The initiative by George Ferguson dictates a new approach to the planning of cities and calls for the various professions which play a part in the process of urban renewal to be bound by new institutions and a collective commitment to the better design of cities. More

A people’s park of international
importance in downtown Chicago
Chicago's Millennium Park project has become one of the most important millennium projects in the world. With an unprecedented combination of architecture, monumental sculpture and landscape design, the 24.5 acre Millennium Park includes the artistry of an unprecedented collection of world-renowned artists, architects, planners, landscape architects and designers including Frank Gehry, Anish Kapoor, Jaume Plensa and Kathryn Gustafson. More

British cities urged to look abroad
for ideas on more attractive parks
In 1843, England invented the public park. But now British cities look to other countries to improve the quality of their parks and public gardens. That’s the conclusion of a report published in July 2004. The report demonstrates how 11 cities from Melbourne and Minneapolis, to Curitiba in Brazil are improving their residents’ health, wealth and quality of life by investing in parks. In contrast, an estimated £1.3bn has been wiped off spending on UK parks since 1979. More

FCM report warns of erosion of
quality of life in Canadian cities
The quality of life in Canada’s cities is at risk, according to a report produced by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). It finds that, despite general improvements in rates of post-secondary education, employment growth and home-ownership, quality of life deteriorated for a growing number of people during the 1990s. In addition, improvements in income and poverty rates since 1996 have been offset by a growing income gap, housing affordability problems and changes to social programs. More

Nanjing sets out to protect
its east-west architecture
Riding their bicycles past it every day, Nanjing residents are very familiar with the complex of elegant, old two- and three-storey houses along Zhongshan Avenue, amid a forest of modern structures. They and other buildings completed after the First Opium War (1840-42) in the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, especially those built when Nanjing served as the national capital from 1912 to 1949, are an important and unique part of the architectural history of China. More

Rio de Janeiro to spend US$1 billion on
innovative slum improvement programme
Rio de Janeiro aims to invest a total of US$1 billion in its internationally acclaimed ‘Favela-Bairro’ neighbourhood improvement programme, Rio city leaders told City Mayors at a seminar held at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Washington headquarters in October 2003. Favela-Bairro is the name given to a programme that brings basic infrastructure as well as municipal and social services to favelas, Rio's urban squatter settlements. More

Southern German cities are
winning the battle for people
The all-time low number of births is having some unusual repercussions: Germany’s regional capitals are actually competing for people! Cities in the south and west of the country are doing well, whereas cities in the east and north are less fortunate. More