Category Archives: Urban Port

Amsterdam aims to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050

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 Energy transition and circular economy 

In 2015, the city of Amsterdam ordered a study to assess the impact of a transition to a circular economy. The findings confirmed the significant potential in terms of reducing pollution, creating jobs and promoting economic growth. Discussions with residents and the business community resulted in a strategy plan for the period 2020 to 2025. The Port will have a key role to play in the strategy, as we reported in our news on 16 April. For the City, the goal is to create a completely circular economy by 2050. With that in mind, a fourth phase was launched recently, and over 200 projects are in the pipeline for the year ahead.

➜ Cities Today ; Amsterdam Circular Economy Policy

Creating parks to tackle the tsunami risk

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 Climate change 

What can be done to resist the devastating power of tidal waves that can strike coastline and homes? According to a group of scientific experts, waterfront parks could offer a better solution than protective breakwaters. These landscaped parks are a more cost-efficient solution that will no doubt be of particular interest to less wealthy countries. They also help to preserve the natural environment, or at the very least to create a planned landscape that can also be turned into a promenade area.

➜ The Verge

Oslo: a guide to integrating the Port with the City more effectively

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 Culture and identity 

At the turn of the 20th century, a wealth of possibilities opened up for urban development both in and around the port of Oslo. A global plan was put together, to ensure the various facilities concerned were aesthetically coherent, whether in terms of signage, roads, the colour of cranes or silos, etc. The plan, created under the aegis of the city of Oslo, brought together the main stakeholders, including the Port itself, local businesses, and others. The aesthetic guidelines ensured a consistent appearance for the port promenade, which now runs along a 9 kilometre stretch of waterfront, while also helping to better integrate the active port.

➜ Port of Oslo

Post-Covid-19: asking the right questions

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 Governance 

Sharing and exchanging practical experience: this platform created by the Metropolis network brings together a number of initiatives of this kind, adopted by various international networks and organisations, including those we brought to your attention in our previous newsletters. Meanwhile, the UIA – International Union of Architects has launched an information hub that not only highlights the impact of the pandemic and measures to mitigate them, but also looks at the its implications for future city planning. The approach is similar to the online forum “Et demain on fait quoi?” (“What will we do in the future?”), which is being expanded and now includes around sixty contributions from planners, architects, sociologists, and others. The current crisis is focusing minds on issues that were already present, but it could provide an opportunity to renew them or explore new avenues, whether in terms of the economy and the balance between North and South, as highlighted by the IIED – International Institute for Environment and Development- , in terms of inequalities, or of course the choices possible for moving towards a fairer, more sustainable world, as hoped by Gaetan Siew (UN Habitat Special Envoy), Zaheer Allam and Carlos Moreno…

 

 

Covid-19: towards a more human city?

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 Climate change 

The World Economic Forum has its own platform providing information about the Covid-19 pandemic, but as reported in our previous newsletter, increasingly thoughts are turning to the post-Covid world and the future of our cities. For example, some are calling for city streets to be redesigned to create more space for cyclists and pedestrians. There were projects of this kind in place before the pandemic struck, and they could now be fast-tracked, as in Paris or San Diego. Others want to see a rethink of our offices and working environments. But looking ahead to the world after Covid also means assessing the different approaches that would enable our cities to generate new jobs, while refocusing on the issues posed by climate change. This is the target set by the task force of 11 mayors from the international network C40 Cities. The mayors represent 11 cities, almost of all which are major port cities! Finally, although there are fears surrounding the possible use of personal information to prevent a second pandemic wave. But new technologies and artificial intelligence also offer some exciting prospects. This leads into the debate about the challenges of the smart city, as raised by Gaetan Siew (UN Habitat special envoy) and Zaheer Allam, two experts whom you will have heard at our world conferences. For them, the current situation is an opportunity to redefine what we see as a better, smarter city, one built on more complex networks that are not just technology-based but human-centric.