UN HABITAT - 9th World Urban Forum, Kuala Lumpur - Applying the New Urban Agenda

Looking at best practice and pragmatic solutions to the pressures on our urban areas, and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda;

Following just 18 month after the ground breaking Habitat III event in Quito where the New Urban Agenda (NUA) was launched, the 9th World Urban Forum (WUF9) in Kuala Lumpur has just seen a gathering of over 22,000 attendees from 195 countries. By way of an update, the NUA was the outcome document from Habitat III which guides the work needed to manage urbanisation by a range of stakeholders be they nation states, city and regional leaders, international development funders, United Nations programmes or civil society, for the next 20 years. It sets out the groundwork for policies and approaches that will impact how our urban areas grow sustainably, so all communities can reach their potential.

All present at WUF9 were committed on sharing how they are implementing the NUA and how collaborative working, using appropriate data can be effective to create the most sustainable cities possible, by 2030.

Of course, many groups have the same goals and aspirations but what has been evident in KL has been the passion and practical approach illustrated by a mix of grass root organisations, a range of built environment professionals, the public sector and business sectors, all the way up to high level Government Ministers, from around the world.

From plenary sessions through to the multiple side and networking events, there has been a real thirst for exploring the very best solutions to some of the most the challenging issues facing ever expanding urban communities. These have covered all forms of infrastructure, from rail links, to automotive transport solutions, from water desalination systems to solar and biomass energy plants. In construction, modular build has been explored alongside retrofitted building systems and in terms of strategic approaches, the viability of sustainable land use policies has been discussed as part of a high level business assembly programme.

I was delighted to have presented to the Business Assembly on ‘public–private collaboration’ in terms of the most effective ways of undertaking consultation to ensure that public and private sector stakeholders can all feel empowered in effective and pragmatic policy and placemaking.

I also discussed social value and the ‘additionality’ some of the larger multi-disciplinary consultancies such as ARCADIS can bring to communities around the world. This is far more that ‘doing the right thing’. It’s the means of presenting measurable benefits over and above a professional service or role. Given austerity and funding restrictions, the ability to offer ‘additionality’ will become ever more important in both public and private sector contracts with commissioning parties wanting to make every pound, dollar, euro or yen go as far as possible.

Running through the week-long event was an acknowledgement that digital advances and the exponential rise in data analytics, will have a major impact on how we anticipate and then manage climate change, respond to economic pressures and address social behaviour, to ensure that effective land use policies can emerge, finance can be identified, and the most sustainable development created. Get this wrong and some cities will inevitably fail. Get it right and some will survive and others will thrive.  They will be the Future Cities where systems, services, governance and quality of life will reach the highest standards possible.

Utopia – maybe. But if we don’t strive for the best, and use the data that is already at our finger tips, we won’t achieve the best.

A number of organisations have already embarked on this journey and some highlighted their achievements to date at WUF9.

The use of geospatial tools and the sharing of open socioeconomic data by bodies such as parts of the UN, the World Bank, plus the work of visionaries including Prof Peter Head of Resilence Brokers, and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) based in Geneva, advocate open access to data.

GEO is an intergovernmental organisation working to improve the availability, access and use of Earth observations for the benefit society. It works to improve and coordinate global EO systems and promote broad, open data sharing to support, inter alia, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. All are fundamental platforms for emerging land use policy across the Globe.

Data is great – but one can drown under the weight of it. It is the practical use of data that is important. The work of Prof Head’s team shows what can be done when data is used for effective plan making to guide future development. Success is where all stakeholders public and private can see robust data being used openly as the basis for strong business and development strategies so successful innovation and investment is supported - as illustrated in a project in Accra, Ghana.

This concerned the ‘future proofing’ of the City where particular challenges and risks were identified. Inclusive development proposals were prepared and realistic financial models were developed. The goal was for the City to define its own vision of the future, and identify solutions to specific issues. The UK Department for International Development funded the modelling system at a city scale, based on a data-driven platform principally addressing water, sanitation and energy issues.

Various socio-demographic characteristics including gender, age, workforce status, and income levels were collated together with information on access to infrastructure, water pipelines and power grid connections.  

Workshops engaged all sectors. An expert technical working group was formed and the problems and proposed solutions were transparent. Existing data was accessed and a series of webinars held with technical solutions presented by global technical expertise from the UK, Netherlands, China and Ghana, using the data to hand. Tools for urban planning were explained and private sector perspectives were taken on board. Finance solutions for new infrastructure were then identified. An online network of over 100 individuals from government, private, academic and community sectors was bright together to help address the issues facing Accra.

Data analysis and monitoring took place over time. Changes in birth and death rates, immigration and emigration changes, and employment growth were all noted as these had direct implications for demands for water, energy, and waste treatment.  Economic and environmental costs including capital and operational expenditures and revenues collected from operating systems, together with environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, were also monitored.  

Critical to the success of the work was that Ministries with jurisdiction over the provision of goods and services were part of the discussions from the outset, and water and sanitation solutions were then presented together with investment plans.  

In summary, local and regional demographics, infrastructure and economic information were all used as the base for focused urban policies addressing energy and water resources. Long-term socio-economic scenarios were modelled and a bottom-up approach adopted so changes could be incorporated and responded to. The overall result was an agile and responsive system that was based on real time information with effective land use policy, supported by a wide range of stakeholders, feeling that they had contributed to the overall process.  

It might sound like common sense but sometimes that is the hardest thing to pursue. Ingrained, outdated governance models and inflexible systems can mean that an effective planning system and relevant land use policies are hard to put in place.  

The use of relevant data can make a massive difference to how we manage and plan for our cities of the future, wherever they are in the world. Forget the discriminatory ‘developed’ or ‘developing’ world designation – access to data and use of digital platforms are the key discernible classifications that matter now.  

WUF9 may have now concluded but given the speed of change, I am sure that by the time the Forum reconvenes in two year’s time in Abu Dhabi, advances will have taken place that may only be illustrations on a CADCAM system today – even the drawing board has had its day!

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith, Partner – Arcadis LLP, UK Head of Town Planning and Head of Social Value

February 2018