Gordon Feller's White Paper

All the 2006 Principal Voices are submitting a White Paper to the Web site explaining their views at length, as is Gordon Feller, who participated in the first 2006 debate, a discussion of urbanization in New Delhi.

Feller, CEO of the California-based Urban Age Institute think tank and editor-in-chief of Urban Age Magazine, argues that clever city leaders can learn from each other to help deal with the swift modern growth of urban areas.

Urban expansion is occurring on a staggering scale. It is estimated that the world's urban population will almost double in the next 25 years, with almost all of this growth occurring in developing countries.

Cities are on the front lines of nearly all the planet's key challenges -- environmental degradation, population growth stresses, energy shortages, transport and logistical bottlenecks, traffic congestion and public health breakdowns.

Despite this, some cities are doing much better than simply coping with the problems. Among the success stories are cities which have seen change arise from the bottom up, through grassroots community-based NGOs and, in other cases, with input from scientists who not only bring new technologies but also best practices borrowed from other cities.

One good example is Brazil's southern city of Curitiba, where civic leaders have made some very smart moves. They have pledged to learn from other cities' mistakes, empowered city agencies to work on problem-solving and created a new institute dedicated to coming up with innovative ideas.

The city also has a major bus rapid transit (BRT) network, operating almost as an above-ground subway with exclusive lanes and stations. The system, born out of necessity, is now being adopted by big and medium-sized cities throughout the world.

As Tim Campbell shows in his 2006 Urban Age study, "Learning Cities," Curitiba's cutting-edge approach illustrates a wider trend: city leaders are not waiting for their national governments, or anyone else, to offer up solutions. Instead, they are taking matters into their own hands, using their own problem-solving approaches and sharing what they learn with other city leaders.

Around the developing world, the rapid growth of cities is putting particular pressure on already overstretched infrastructures and a degraded environment.

In Asia, urban populations are expanding at about twice the speed of national averages. By 2030, the proportion of the continent's population living in cities is projected to reach one half, up from about a third currently.

The pace of city growth in Asia and the impact of this on environmental conditions has emerged as a major global issue. Institutions such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations' settlements agency, UN Habitat, are working to address, among other things, providing residents with clean air and water in these economically productive urban areas.

The majority of developing world cities face serious air pollution and a lack of adequate water supply and sanitation. At a time when, for the first time in human history, more than half of all people live in urban areas, ecological degradation is affecting livelihoods, lives and whole systems of government. For example, the economic impact of urban pollution, in terms of productivity losses and health costs, has been conservatively estimated at 1% to 5% of GDP.

There is no debate about the link between urban expansion and ecological crisis. There are a series of causes: inefficient transport systems that waste energy while encouraging the use of pollution-heavy vehicles; energy-inefficient building; neighborhood designs which reinforce economically unproductive patterns.

Breaking these links involves new city-wide policies. The good news is that city leaders around the world are adopting what they have learned from other urban areas and changing the way they operate water systems, organize public transit, promote greener housing, generate smarter jobs and produce renewable energy.

Although significant efforts are being made by many cities, there are still fewer examples of success than one might hope for. Based on past performance, two factors stand out as the main stumbling blocks.

First, if a municipality's governance and financial health is weak, so is its ability to provide the required infrastructure or services. Transfers from central or provincial governments continue to be the main funding sources for municipal bodies in situations where, for example, their abilities to raise their own resources or secure debt financing have been inadequate.

Secondly, past efforts to promote private sector participation in financing urban projects have generally fallen short of expectations. Private companies are often better suited to help cities respond to global pressures, for example in improving environmental standards and transport systems.

Any new "recipe" for urban success will have to center around finding ways for governments, economic and environmental authorities, and others in the development community to collaborate with the private sector.

What do you think?

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Where is the US in this trend for comprehensive learning strategies for economic, community and individual development? Older urban growth models from the industrial age will not translate very well into the present information age. Those cities and regions that can develop learning as a strategy for the future will have the capacity and the agility to move at the speed of change.

Developing countries have no alternative but to urbanize rural areas. Planned, eco-friendly urbanization is only solution.

I have to agree with your analysis, as any recipe for urban success will have to center around finding ways for governments, economic and environmental authorities and others in the development community to collaborate with the private sector.

Of course it is a difficult process, but it is certainly attainable with positive results.