The Urban Guru Website


Cities of the World

01/05/2007 00:00

China, 3000 years of urbanization

There is an amazing correlation between the urbanization process and the historical evolution of the central-regional-local relationships in China.    The history of China, an immense country, is often described as a succession of order and chaos, of multiple kingdoms in permanent war...

—————

03/03/2007 00:00

Heated Debates on Water and Sanitation

According to the recent Human Development Report[1] the world faces a water crisis rooted in inequality and flawed water management policies.  More than 1 billion people are denied the right to clean water and 2.6 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.   Every year, according to the...

—————

01/03/2007 00:00

Three things we should know about slums

Slums are economically useful, a reflection of the urban social divide, and a bedrock of human resilience. They are not a market failure, but a market success…               Why Slums? According to UN-HABITAT slums represent one third of...

—————

01/12/2005 00:00

Two decades of Urban Management Programme

The UMP was initiated in 1986 at Istanbul, 10 years after the first Habitat conference, and a decade before Habitat II. Its launch marked an important step in the evolution of international thinking on urban development. In 1976, at Vancouver, the world discovered slums and squatter settlements,...

—————

01/06/2005 00:00

Spatial inequalities – the need for affirmative action

The concept of affirmative action was born in the 1960’s of the civil rights movement in the USA. Affirmative action policies have been implemented in many countries – particularly India, the United States and South Africa – to redress historical racial and sexual discrimination. In the United...

—————

01/12/2004 00:00

Planificacion urbana minimalista

Planificacion urbana asequible para todos los paises, Habitat Debate, 2004.   Spanish version of "Making City Planning Affordable".

—————

01/12/2004 00:00

Making city planning affordable to all countries

Conventional urban planning or master planning almost passed away in the mid 1980s, particularly in developing countries. Many reasons explain this not so sudden “death”: • In terms of process, urban plans were designed by bureaucrats and experts, generally ignoring political and social dynamics...

—————

01/09/2004 00:00

LDCs need sustainable urbanisation policies

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are the Least Urbanized Countries (LUCs). UN-HABITAT’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2001 clearly established the strong and positive correlation between urbanisation and the level of economic and social development. The poorest countries are generally the...

—————

01/03/2004 00:00

UN Cooperation with local authorities

Habitat Debate March 2004.pdf     This article was published on the occasion of the First Congress of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Paris, May 2004.

—————

01/04/2003 00:00

Challenge and Guarantee Funds for Slum-dwellers

Some simple ideas on how to finance slum upgrading and meet the MDG 7 target 11. Article in Habitat Debate, April 2003  pdf (479,2 kB) 

—————