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Operationalizing the Urban NEXUSTowards resource-efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regionsCase Studies

Content

03 The Urban NEXUS in Brief

04 Executive Summary

10 Studies

10 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Demonstrating the Urban NEXUS approach to link water, energy and food resources in schools

18 Nashik, India: Demonstrating the Urban NEXUS approach to optimize water, energy and land resources in peri-urban agriculture

28 Vancouver, Canada: Targeting Food Security: Vancouver’s Sustainable Regional Food System Strategy

36 Hannover, Germany: Hannover, Kronsberg: Scaling Up Integrated Planning with KUKA

42 Tianjin, China: Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City – where a bilateral institutional Nexus enables cutting-edge sustainable metropolitan development

50 eThekwini/Durban, South Africa: Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy

58 Lille, France: Lille Métropole Biogas Buses

64 Medellín, Colombia: The Integral Urban Development Project in Medellin: fighting crime through targeted urban interventions

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Operationalizing the Urban NEXUSTowards resource-efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regionsCase Studies

Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS, 2014, GIZ and ICLEI

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The Urban NEXUS project 2013–2014

was implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMZ to develop the “Operationalization of the NEXUS approach in cities and metropolitan regions”. The Urban NEXUS project included: a baseline study and report (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014), the identification and preparation of case studies and shorter case stories, and the design and implementation of action-oriented pilot projects supported by the German Development Cooperation.

Further reading: http://www2.gtz.de/urbanet/opencommunity/focus/urbannexus.asp

Operationalizing the Urban NEXUSTowards resource-efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions

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Operationalizing the Urban NEXUSTowards resource-efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regionsCase Story Series

Case Stories

The Urban NEXUS in Brief

Human civilization is facing increasingly urgent resource constraints that will require a dramatic optimization of the way we use and reuse resources in the future. Isolated “business as usual” solutions aimed at resource-efficiency in just one sector, miss out on crucial opportunities to efficiently resolve the pressing resource challenges of the 21st century.

Cities are bustling hubs of resource flows, consumption and production. This makes them the “nexus” where significant economic, social, political and ecological resource systems inter-link and compete. New approaches are needed to successfully manage the complexities of this urban “nexus”.

The “Urban NEXUS Approach” seeks out synergies and benefits from system integration in cities and metropolitan regions at the different scales of the built environment and its infrastructures; to integrate the city-region’s sup tions of local, regional, sub-national and national jurisdictions.

For that purpose, an Urban NEXUS solution is one that integrates two or more systems, services, policy or operational “silos”, jurisdictions or social behaviors, in order to achieve multiple urban policy objectives and to deliver greater benefits with equal or less resources. Urban NEXUS solutions typically involve a set of coordinated measures that span the fields of technology, policy, planning, finance, business models, institutional design, and communications – amounting to a new “solution set”. The Urban NEXUS approach is fundamentally a process of solution customization, and is therefore contingent on the valuable input from all relevant stakeholders.

As an institutional agenda, the Urban NEXUS approach encourages governments at all levels as well as international development organizations to review current resource governance mechanisms and institute fundamental reforms in institutional arrangements, policies, project development and finance guidelines, in order to significantly reduce isolated, uncoordinated and ultimately inefficient urban development approaches in the long term.

Urban NEXUS thinking also offers a potential framework for the achievement of ambitious global objectives on sustainable urban development, i.e. in the course of debating the New Urban Agenda at the Habitat III conference or the Sustainable Development Goals within the post-2015 Development Agenda.

The Urban NEXUS is an approach to the design of sustainable urban development solutions. The approach guides stakeholders to identify and pursue possible synergies between sectors, jurisdictions, and technical domains, so as to increase institutional performance, optimize resource management, and service quality.It counters traditional sectoral thinking, trade-offs, and divided responsibilities that often result in poorly coordinated investments, increased costs, and underutilized infrastructures and facilities. The ultimate goal of the Urban NEXUS approach is to accelerate access to services, and to increase service quality and the quality of life within our planetary boundaries. GIZ and ICLEI, 2014

The Urban NEXUS project 2013–2014 was funded by GIZ on behalf of BMZ to develop the “Operationalization of the NEXUS approach in cities and metropolitan regions”. The Urban NEXUS project included: a baseline study and report (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014), the identification and preparation of case studies and shorter case stories, and the design and implementation of action-oriented pilot projects supported by the German Development Cooperation. ICLEI, as implementing partner of the Urban NEXUS project, is responsible for the content of this Case Story.

Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS, 2014, GIZ and ICLEIOperationalizing the Urban NEXUS, 2014, GIZ and ICLEI

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Executive SummaryOperationalizing the Urban NEXUS:towards resource-efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions

Cities are where we must address both local and global resource constraintsPolicy makers at all levels and practitioners from across the public, private, philan-thropic and civil society sectors recognize that human civilization is facing increasingly urgent resource constraints. These will require a dramatic optimization of the way we use resources. Isolated “business as usual” solutions aimed at just one sector miss out on efficiently resolving these resource challenges of the 21st century – a century marked by an increasing demand for urban space and higher quality of life amidst rising costs of lifestyles and urban production, increasing risk and vulnerability, and declining investment and fiscal support for urban development.

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with seven out of ten of the 9.6 billion people on the planet projected to live in cities by 2050 (WHO, 2013). In addition to demographic growth, cities and metropolitan regions are dynamic centers of economic activity and vast resource flows. As such, cities and metropolitan regions comprise the world’s most complex “nexus” of social, political, economic and ecological systems.

The extent of rapid urbanization trends is translating into a growing and urgent demand for new or improved infrastructures, services and institutions capable of meet-ing the three-fold challenge of: 1) providing larger urban populations with access to basic services and vital resources, 2) sustaining continuous economic development, and 3) managing resources within our planetary limitations while addressing the challenges of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Attempts to satisfy the resource demands of growing urban areas and lifestyles has meant looking ever further afield for supplies – from metropolitan and rural hinter-lands, and increasingly at the regional and global level. Meanwhile, prevailing urban governance and management practices in which resources are managed in isolation by their respective sectoral departments (e.g. water, energy, agriculture), have resulted in wasteful trade-offs and increasing fragmentation of infrastructure, land-use and governance mechanisms at the city and metropolitan level. To sustainably govern these rural-urban linkages and resource inter-dependencies, it is now more recognized than ever that the way forward must be an integrated approach to development and resource management, both across sectors and across scales.

A growing number of cities from across the globe, such as Curitiba, Brazil, to Durban, South Africa, have boldly put this notion to practice by turning away from dis-inte-grated “silo” planning, to dramatically optimize synergies between sectors and manage trade-offs through innovative integrated and cost-effective planning, as well as collabo-rative decision-making and implementation.

The study “Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS” (GIZ/ICLEI) is founded on these pioneering experiences from cities all over the world that have recognized the crucial inter-linkages between sectors such as water, energy and food – now commonly under-stood as the “Water-Energy-Food security NEXUS”. Going beyond the Water- Energy-Food NEXUS, the examples in this study integrate a variety of strategic urban

An Urban NEXUS solution integrates two or more systems, services, policy or operational “silos”, jurisdictions or social behaviors.

What is the Urban NEXUS?

The Urban NEXUS is an approach to the design of sustainable urban development solutions. The approach guides stakeholders to identify and pursue possible synergies between sectors, jurisdictions, and technical domains, so as to increase institutional performance, optimize resource management, and service quality.It counters traditional sectoral thinking, trade-offs, and divided responsibilities that often result in poorly coordinated investments, increased costs, and underutilized infrastructures and facilities. The ultimate goal of the Urban NEXUS approach is to accelerate access to services, and to increase service quality and the quality of life within our planetary boundaries. GIZ and ICLEI, 2014

resource sectors and services ranging from combining sustainable urban transportation with inclusive housing and employment schemes, to coupling waste management with energy production, and sanitation solutions with social inclusion and biodiversity conservation.

Such innovative solutions have broken the barriers between sectors and stakeholders, and between institutions and levels of government involved in their conception and implementation.

Given the wealth of global examples to learn from, this study developed a transferrable and action-oriented methodology to operationalize such practices of organizational and resource optimization in urban and metropolitan regions. The study defines the “Urban NEXUS Approach” and a project development cycle (the Urban NEXUS Devel-opment Cycle) founded on successful real-world experiences, and it offers city makers a “how-to” framework for implementing integrated Urban NEXUS solutions.

Introducing the Urban NEXUS: a way to break “silos” and collaboratively

optimize urban resourcesThe Urban NEXUS seeks out opportunities for integration in cities and metropolitan regions at the different scales of the built environment and its infrastructures; integra-tion of the region’s supply chains and resource cycles; and of the policies and operations of local, regional, sub-national and national jurisdictions. For that purpose, an Urban NEXUS solution integrates two or more systems, services, policy or operational “silos”, jurisdictions or social behaviors, in order to achieve multiple urban policy objectives and to deliver greater benefits with equal or less resources. Urban NEXUS solutions typically involve a set of coordinated measures that range the areas of technology, policy, planning, finance, business models, institutional design, and communications - amounting to a “solution set”.

Although the process for identifying a prospect and designing a solution may be trans-ferable, Urban NEXUS solutions developed for one place may not be transferable to another. Therefore, the Urban NEXUS approach is fundamentally a process of solution customization, and depends on the valuable input from all relevant stakeholders.


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Figure 1: The Urban NEXUS Development Cycle is a process for translating integrated planning objectives into policies, projects, systems, and places.

As an institutional agenda, the Urban NEXUS approach urges governments at all levels and international development organizations to institute fundamental reforms in policies, institutional arrangements, as well as project development and finance guidelines in order to significantly reduce isolated, uncoordinated and ultimately inefficient urban development approaches. Anchoring the Urban NEXUS in institutions and institutional processes and thus ensuring long-term systemic reforms, strengthens integrated urban development in spite of intermittent, possibly conflicting political interests or political change.

Key strategy question: What process will be used to acceler-ate the preparation, testing, moni-toring & evaluation, and scaling of an Urban NEXUS solution?

Implementing the Urban NEXUS Approach

The Urban NEXUS Development CycleBuilding upon established concepts and practices of integrated planning, the Urban NEXUS Development Cycle provides a strategic design process for collaboratively integrated policy and planning objectives into feasible projects, technical solutions, and operations.

Examples given in this study show that the cities with the most successful practices in terms of development innovation have been the first to establish design processes, capacities and institutions to complement their planning schemes; thus designing more integrated solutions in collaboration with the public and private sector. To offer other city makers a framework for such a development innovation process, the following sub-sections outlines each stage of the Urban NEXUS Development Cycle Figure 1:

The Urban NEXUS Development Cycle (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014)

A. IDENTIFY The four primary Urban NEXUS Practice Objectives – increased systemic effective-ness, increased demand-driven suitability and customization, increased productive efficiency, and increased resilience and adaptive capacity – are identified and adapted locally. To achieve the strategic objectives, stakeholders then identify the local Urban NEXUS integration prospects. Prospects for building synergies can be found in five Areas of Integration:

Integration across Scales of the built environment, infrastructures, local and regional supply chains and resource cycles, and policies and operations of local, regional, sub-na-tional and national jurisdictions;

Integration of Systems of resource extraction and power generation, food cultivation, processing, manufacture, resource supply and waste management etc. by establishing cascades and cycles of resources between systems;

Integration of Services and Facilities to avoid the underutilization of valuable fixed assets by integrating services and facilities conventionally separated by sectoral functions;

Integration across Silos consolidating institutional interests and managerial and pro-fessional “silos” arising from the organization of urban areas and systems into separate jurisdictions, utilities, and departments; and finally

Integration of Social Relations and Behaviors to enable all stakeholders’ engagement in the above integration dimensions, and counter legacies of cultural, social, and politi-cal division.

B. INNOVATEThe identified stakeholders collaborate in a structured innovation process to develop a set of politically, institutionally, and economically viable measures in the Areas of Urban NEXUS Innovation spanning the range of law and policy, design and technology, delivery models and financing, communications and changing user behaviors, and institutional design and development.

C. DESIGN AND DELIVERThe design and delivery of the solution includes prototyping and piloting it in a real-world operating environment. This study included the implementation of two such pilot projects in Nashik, India and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These cities took first steps in implementing an Urban NEXUS approach in an exemplary way. In the lim-ited duration of the pilot projects, the Urban NEXUS brought together a wide range of stakeholders who had never before been sitting together at one table, thus generating new “institutional nexus”. They collaboratively designed and implemented innovative solutions and programs for optimizing water, energy and land resources in peri-ur-ban agricultural practices (Nashik), and improving the learning environment at two municipal schools while installing integrated energy efficient technologies, rainwater catchment and vertical food production systems (Dar es Salaam) to demonstrate the benefits of Urban NEXUS thinking to local communities and government officials.

D. COMMUNICATE AND CAPACITATE The three main areas of capacity building typically required to establish a new solution are: training operational staff on managing their parts of the solution; encouraging behavioral change and building required skills of beneficiaries; and enabling the rele-vant institutions to establish a systematic process for introducing and supporting it in new locations or facilities.

Key strategy question: What innovations, measures and reforms are required to enable the Urban NEXUS prospect?

Key strategy questions: Are there already locally established or piloted technical and operational solutions this project can build on and improve?Which system performance measures will be used to evaluate system-wide outcomes?

Key strategy questions: What capacities, skills and behaviors will be required to establish a new solution, and ensure that it is maximized? What will be the best channels for such communication and capacitation?

Key strategy questions: What are the targeted increases in organizational and resource produc-tivity? How will we measure Urban NEXUS success? And what are the prospects for productivity enhancing synergies and benefits that can be gained by integrating two or more of your operations or systems?

A. IDENTIFY

A.1 The Desired Performance ObjectivesA.2 Scope the Prospect A.3 The Stakeholders

A.4 Pre-Feasibility Review

A.5 Mandate

E. MAINSTREAM

E.1 Monitor & “Manage the Solution”

E.2 Evaluate E.3 Mainstream

the NEXUS Solutions

D. CAPACITATE &

COMMUNICATED.1 Institutions D.2 Knowledge

Management & DiffusionD.3 Benefits &

Behaviours

C. DESIGN & DELIVER

C.1 Technical Specifications

C.2 Assurance & User Acceptance

User Behaviors Law & Policy

Institutions

Design/Technology

B. INNOVATE

Urban NEXUS

Solution Elements

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Key strategy questions: Which performance outcomes would you like to see replicated and up-scaled?What were the main challenges to learn from and success factors to mainstream in existing and future initiatives?

E. UPSCALE and MAINSTREAM the Urban NEXUS. Mainstreaming in many cases is a matter of designating or creating an entity that specializes in the scaling of all the unique aspects of the given Urban NEXUS solution; an entity with the capacity to address location-specific problems and to “manage the solution” within different contexts.

Accelerating action and strategic cooperation towards Urban NEXUS solutions

The Urban NEXUS provides a necessary and crucial alternative to continuing with “business as usual” approaches to urban development, services and infrastructure. When decision makers actively counter sectoral thinking and divided responsibilities, they can encourage the collaborative development of the solutions urgently required in cities and metropolitan regions. In doing so, this will not only optimize the use of limited natural, financial, and human resources and institutional performance, it will improve resource productivity and quality of life.

For this purpose, this study inspires innovative actions towards local and regional NEXUS solutions and provides a framework for action with the Urban NEXUS Devel-opment Cycle for their collaborative design and implementation. However, there are tested and demonstrated factors for success for decision makers, civil society actors and international development cooperation agencies to apply:

Identify “hotspots”. When identifying priorities for Urban NEXUS projects, con-sider the areas, or ”hotspots”, where this approach would have the most multi-plier or ripple effects to maximize the reach and benefit of the initiative.

Bring all stakeholders around the same table by creating “Urban NEXUS Task Forces”. Urban NEXUS Task Forces created to oversee Urban NEXUS projects at the urban and regional level serve the purpose of linking relevant departments and levels of government together with other key stakeholders (experts, civil society, private business, NGOs and multi-lateral organizations). Urban NEXUS Task Forces are a simple way to kick-off, strengthen and sustain cross-depart-mental collaboration offering stakeholders a taste of “breaking the silos”. Even-tually, the goal is to institutionalize such multi-stakeholder collaboration.

Encourage all governmental authorities and stakeholders at all levels to be part of Urban NEXUS solutions, which should re-connect scales and optimize com-plex cross-boundary resource flows (e.g. river basin management).

Promote supportive framework conditions for Urban NEXUS solutions at all levels. Urban NEXUS projects regardless of their size and scope are embedded in regulatory and administrative frameworks. For example, national “silos” in regulation, public procurement, budgeting and accounting processes, etc., can hinder innovative integrated approaches and cross-departmental cooperation at the local level. Supportive national and decentralized frameworks regarding legislative mandates, financial support and incentives are therefore crucial for the up-scaling of successful local and regional Urban NEXUS initiatives.

What is the role of international development cooperation? The German Development Cooperation under the lead of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development have played a vital part in the initial develop-ment of the Urban NEXUS approach. For the future, the approach is intended to spread out to international and local partners in order to multiply implementation, assessment and learning experiences off the beaten track of mono-sectoral thinking. In doing so, the Urban NEXUS thinking offers a new perspective to the achievement of ambitious global objectives on sustainable urban development, i.e. in the course of debating the New Urban Agenda at the Habitat III conference or the Sustainable Development Goals within the post-2015 Development Agenda.

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Urban NEXUS Case Study

Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam, in context In Dar es Salaam, the decentralization process of development to create integrated plans, master plans and projects such as the Sustainable Dar es Salaam Project (SDP), have all made excellent strides in advancing city planning. Additionally, they indicate a need and urgency of innovative planning that is fully integrated. Despite such developments, Dar es Salam’s urban institutions, services and management approaches remain largely fragmented, resulting in a loss of opportunities and challenging trade-offs. These include the loss of rivers, wetlands and ecosystem services that reduce flooding in the rainy season, as communities have built informal homes, structures and settlements in these spaces, and the lack of waste management that further results in waste accumulation in drainage systems and remaining rivers.

• Currently, communities are reliant on water from standpipes and private vendors, whilst only 8% of houses have a direct connection to water, which is often only available for nine hours a day (Atkinson, 2013).

• Many parts of the city lack sufficient water for drinking, including schools.

• One third of the national population is undernourished.

• Energy supply from largely hydro-electric sources is intermittent and utilized by few, with the majority using wood fuel (charcoal and firewood) as a primary energy supply for cooking and heating.

• The cost of wood fuel is increasing, as the supply diminishes as a result of deforestation around the city.

• Sanitation and waste is a major challenge in the city and is not considered to be a resource.

All of these sectors are regulated, serviced, developed and administered via separate “silos”. As a result, typical development projects even run by large finance institutions, banks and multilateral organizations apply development finance in singular sectoral developments that do not take into account the opportunities for resource efficiency through integrated approaches.

Utilizing the Urban NEXUS Development Cycle to realize integrated solutions in Kinondoni schools

Identifying Urban NEXUS Performance Objectives in Dar es Salaam

This project aimed to showcase a multi-departmental Urban NEXUS Development Cycle approach for the planning and implementation of school infrastructure and services to highlight efficiencies and cost savings. As a result, the project aims to showcase the opportunities and spin-offs created through an Urban NEXUS approach to link water, energy, urban agriculture and nutrition with waste, health and education for enhanced productivity and quality of life.

Urban NEXUS Definition

The Urban NEXUS is an approach to the design of sustainable urban development solutions. The approach guides stakeholders to identify and pursue possible synergies between sectors, jurisdictions, and technical domains, so as to increase institutional performance, optimize resource management, and service quality.

It counters traditional sectoral thinking, trade-offs, and divided responsibilities that often result in poorly coordinated investments, increased costs, and underutilized infrastructures and facilities. The ultimate goal of the Urban NEXUS approach is to accelerate access to services, and to increase service quality and the quality of life within our planetary boundaries.

ICLEI / GIZ 2014

Municipality workshop with local stakeholders

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Urban NEXUS Case Study August 2014 01

Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDemonstrating the Urban NEXUS approach to link water, energy and food resources in schools

Through cross-institutional collaboration, two schools in Dar es Salaam operationalized the Urban NEXUS approach as a new design process towards resource-efficient and productive service delivery. The project serves as an example of integrated solutions for optimizing energy, water and food to be scaled up throughout the metropolitan region.

AbstractBy generating cross-institutional collaboration for infrastructure systems and services at schools in the Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam, the Urban NEXUS pilot project harnessed opportunities to link water and sanitation, energy, food and waste, solutions which would have otherwise been missed with a singular development application. By piloting the approach in two adjacent primary schools, and applying the lessons learned to policy, regulation and practice to upscale across all schools (and other public spaces, clinics, municipal buildings etc.) in the city over time, a substantial impact on planning and service delivery in Dar es Salaam can be achieved.

The importance of integrated solutions in Dar es SalaamDar es Salaam, not unlike other rapidly developing metropolitan regions, contains a complex set of ecological, social, economic, political, administrative and institutional systems. The metropolitan region faces a multitude of risks and vulnerabilities:

i) scarcity of access to resources – particularly energy and water;

ii) a back-log of municipal services (e.g. transport, water, drainage and waste management);

iii) a burgeoning informal sector, high poverty and unemployment rates, in turn linked to malnutrition and health challenges; and

iv) an on-going need to create social and economic development, which simultaneously also provides opportunities that must be harnessed (e.g. a young entrepreneurial population).

In the face of a changing climate, new Urban NEXUS models of planning, implementation and design are required in order to reduce these risks, and to create a future productive and resilient city that can maintain its high contribution to local and national economic development.

Date 2013–2014Urban NEXUS Sectors

Water–Food–Energy–Education

Urban NEXUS Innovations

Institutions, Design and Technology, Communication and User Behaviors, Service Delivery Models

Scale Facility (two schools), Kinondoni District

Budget € 57,430

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Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 01, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 01, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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Identifying and Scoping Urban NEXUS prospects for integrated action at the Tandale Elimu and Hekima schools

Schools in compact, high density, and low income communities in Dar es Salaam often serve multiple functions as community gathering areas. These include acting as football fields or meeting points, as well as the potential to serve as disaster management meeting and relief areas when situated on high ground during localized flooding – a widespread challenge throughout the city. Schoolgoers in these communities often suffer from malnutrition which affects childhood development and school performance. School feeding programs provide an opportunity for innovation and re-integration to strengthen links to community beneficiation through increasing decentralized self-reliance connected to local services (e.g. food gardens). Schools are also ideal community hubs and spaces that can act as community education facilities for children and adults alike, by showcasing methodologies for increased resilience that can be replicated in homes, while boosting local economic development.

Kinondoni’s pioneering Urban NEXUS stakeholders

The project addresses Kinondoni’s challenges of improving

i) the school environment;

ii) the school feeding program and

iii) reliable access to water and energy efficiency. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, supported by the German Development Cooperation, managed the project and introduced the Urban NEXUS approach to a wide range of stakeholders.

Institutional administrative set-up in Dar es Salaam

The Local Government Act of 1982 served as the main guideline for urban authorities. Sustainable Dar es Salaam project was constructed in response to the 1990 master plan review as a framework for sustainable development in the city, providing opportunities for cross-sectorial work.

Dar es Salaam was decentralized in 2000, which established the Dar es Salaam City Council as a coordinating body for the three municipalities in the metropolitan region. It was mandated to cater to cross-municipality concerns, more specifically defined in Act No. 6 of 1999 s. 56. Planning guidelines are provided by the central government to the municipality and the district council. Funding on the other hand comes from both central government and district budget. The smallest entities in a city are the “Mtatt” which are similar to a ward.

The Urban NEXUS Development Cycle (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014)

The Urban NEXUS Development Cycle is a process for translating integrated planning objectives into Urban NEXUS policies, projects, systems, and places.The implementation of the present pilot project in Dar es Salaam focused on the first three steps, reaching the phase of Design and Deliver.

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Rainwater tank and vegetable gardens.

As schools are administered under local governments in Tanzania, the project received tremendous support from the Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC), the key implementing partner of the project, particularly from the directive of the Municipal Director. Aside from financial commitment, human resource capacity was allocated through the involvement of technical officers. The local implementing partner was the Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control Organisation (EEPCO), who worked closely with the municipality and community.

Accelerating Urban NEXUS action through community workshops

The Kinondoni Municipality (KMC) brought together a vast array of stakeholders via a community workshop to discuss Urban NEXUS opportunities and interventions. Participants included stakeholders who could serve as focal points to the wider community in partaking and mainstreaming the Urban NEXUS approach. Community members were represented by the school headmasters, faculty, Mtaa (see text box page 2) and religious leaders. Private sector organizations, university professors and NGOs also participated in workshops and project design.

Rather than bringing in a pre-conceived idea of what to implement, the project followed a process to facilitate the decision-making between numerous stakeholders. Initially, group discussions took place to brainstorm ideas for water, food, energy, sanitation, and ecologically oriented solutions. This helped to create broader visions for the schools. ICLEI and EEPCO then presented feasible options and ideas which could be implemented within the project budget. Following, stakeholders had the opportunity to vote for the solutions they most wanted. The decision was based on a majority vote in favor of solutions that could be implemented at both schools, rather than just one.

This kind of open, collaborative design process is new in Dar es Salaam, so much so, that it was the first time that a full stakeholder meeting was held at the KMC offices to discuss the financing and implementation of a development project. A series of questions related to the project and its ability to be up-scaled with similar initiatives were asked at the municipal workshops using a SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results) approach. This processes meant to facilitate changes in decision-making behavior and spending.

The school and municipality essentially defined the problems and solutions with assistance from the ICLEI and EEPCO teams. Ultimately, the project focused on improving

i) the school environment;

ii) the school feeding program and

iii) reliable access to water and energy.

All of these link either to current attempts to attain improvement in these areas, or to future plans. However, before the application of the Urban NEXUS methodology these were typically approached on a one-by-one basis with no spatial or temporal synergies across sectors, and little discussion of how to implement them all synergistically to reduce costs. The process of including stakeholders in the actual decisions of what the funding would be spent on was very new, as was the method of open discussion.

Breaking the “silos” in thinking and action

“Silo -thinking” refers to the mind-set and practice where an organization such as a municipality or a company is organized and works around the concept of individual functions, departments or sectors.

Entire resource systems often represent such “silos”, right from the natural resource base (e.g. ground water) to their separate facilities (municipal pumping facilities, distribution for irrigation), utilities (regional water company), and institutions (regional water protection board) that manage them, right up to separate national ministries that deal with them (e.g. the Ministry of Water Resources for ground water, or Ministry of Environment for wastewater and sewage).

Although sometimes very efficient within their own structures, the efficiency of overall operations is reduced by such fragmentation as information is not shared, co-benefits from collaboration and integrated actions are lost, and the cumulative benefits from combining budgets are not realized. “Silo cultures” encourage institutional introversion, competition or reduced morale to the detriment of a productive collective culture.GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS, GIZ Study

Urban NEXUS Partners in Kinondoni

The project was implemented in partnership with Engineer Mussa Natty, Municipal Director of Kinondoni Municipal Council, as well two of KMC staff members Mr Yohana Mgonja and the late Mr. Israel Mabiki. EEPCO was headed by the Project Manager, Mr Alfred Shayo.


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Pre-feasibility review

Ultimately, the vision for the school developed through the community workshop included a range of highly innovative and technologically intensive interventions that could not be implemented within the scope of this project. However, the ideas nonetheless guided the actual process of how to allocate the resources available in the current funding tranche.

Major challenges to the project, such as the limited budget and timeframe, were identified, which did not suit the ultimate objectives of implementing a full Urban NEXUS approach. This, however, was seen as an opportunity rather than a constraint and regarded as a real world challenge that would push innovation, collaboration and efficiencies. Additional challenges ranged from:

i) the lack of a secure perimeter wall;

ii) different utilization of the space between day and night/week-time and weekend/term-time and school holidays;

iii) lack of technologies available for purchase in Dar es Salaam; etc.

The final decisions on project spending resulted in the utilization of relatively common technologies but in an integrated manner designed to respond to multiple development challenges. Thus, an interlinked system composed of vertical food gardens, energy efficient technology, rainwater harvesting and waste reuse was sought to be implemented. The intervention aims to repurpose rainwater for urban agriculture that can provide nutritious food for the students, while minimizing flooding impacts and energy consumption. The establishment of vertical gardens also serves to showcase agricultural opportunities in densely populated areas.

ResultsThe project, whilst following the newly developed Urban NEXUS design process, also sought to pilot Urban NEXUS methodologies through experimenting with the design process in a very brief and limited resourced project. As a result the project reached the “Design and Deliver” phase in the Urban NEXUS Development Cycle, although the project team would iterate that ideally much more time should be spent on the “Innovate” phase (see also graph on page 3). The next phases of building institutional capacity, communicating benefits to change behaviors, and mainstreaming the solution will need to be carried forward by a team in Dar es Salaam, depending on the future availability of additional project resources.

Physical infrastructure improvements at the schools include:

i) improved fuel wood cookstove replacing an open cast fire and improved floor surfaces to ensure cleanliness (in only one school, the other school had an improved stove already);

ii) rainwater harvesting catchment system including 120m of guttering and two 10,000 liter rainwater tanks, tank stands and pumps (shared between both schools);

iii) minor renovation of existing leaking water supply system;

iv) two sets of drip irrigation pipes for watering gardens; and

v) two vertical food gardens (five sets of three meters wide rankings with four rows).

Institutions and policies

At the Ministerial level, water, energy and food supply fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI), Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFSC). The Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Company (DEWASCo) is responsible for the development of water and sanitation services.

There is a baseline of sectoral policies and plans from which to work that do bear relevance at the local government level in these sectors. Opportunities additionally exist in mainstreaming the National Adaptation Policy (NAP) in the Master Plan of the City and for specific technology and approaches that are supported in policy e.g. solar water pumps supported in the Energy Policy. However, it is clear that possible synergies between the legal and the policy framework should be explored in future NEXUS projects.

School children learning about the NEXUS using Resource Flashcards.

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Additional items include the construction of a school wall and gate to ensure security (the wall has doubled as an educational mural on sustainability, climate change and the Urban NEXUS approach); and preparation of the roofs for rainwater harvesting.

Physical savings of resources included a reduction in fuel wood utilization for cooking food; a reduction in the reliance on the municipal water system during the rainy seasons, an overall increase in water availability; an increased availability of vegetables for the school feeding program and the potential for income generation; and the utilization of organic waste from the local market.

School learning and education was facilitated via a school project that investigated the understanding of the origin of resources. This brought in the angle of the city as being part of a region.

Municipal capacity strengthening, awareness and involvement in the new Urban NEXUS approach was achieved through the project. The Urban NEXUS approach provide a unique opportunity to develop capacity and understanding in order to deliver efficient and resource saving approaches. This also involved integrating practices among different sectors within the municipality, as well as local external stakeholders who provided technical expertise in meeting the needs of the community.

A broad impact on the community was revealed by anecdotal evidence from local partners, who reported that community members are observing the changes. Many community members were passing by to look at the pilot projects and to ask questions about what they can do in their own homes. One further school has already hired service providers to install improved fuel wood cookstoves as done in the pilot project.

Within the duration of the pilot project no specific institutional reforms were yet identified. This may change, however, since an Urban NEXUS Task Force was initiated at the final stakeholder workshop to carry the results forward.

Lessons learnedFaced with the challenge of limited time and resources, the project offered opportunities for creative thinking and co-production of knowledge and solutions. In doing so the following resonated:

The Urban NEXUS project would have benefited from lengthier planning and design time. A longer project time span to include further stakeholder engagement and to bring together a holistic Urban NEXUS team would have resulted in further technological innovations and approaches. Site selections should form part of this stakeholder engagement process as should discussions of different technologies and solutions. This requires an open stakeholder approach, which tends to be time intensive, especially in the case of metropolitan regions with another layer of governance including neighboring municipalities as well as metropolitan authorities.

The Urban NEXUS requires a unique institutional set-up and an understanding of the complex linkages between the metropolitan and municipal bodies. This often means identifying gaps in practice in order to maximize pathways in sustaining the Urban NEXUS approach, through top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Training the school staff on using the improved cookstove.

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The proximity of the municipality in Dar es Salaam to its locality and its role in service delivery has great potential and should be capacitated to employ integrative approaches.

Showcasing on the ground experiences, such as school projects, demonstrates how sectors can work together. There are many further opportunities in Dar es Salaam to coordinate and link tiers of responsibilities for resource efficiency.

The value of stakeholder engagement to foster buy-in and behavioral change in coordinating different sectors and components of complex metropolitan systems highlights the need to consider the following:

z Secure a conducive environment. Additional resourcing for in-depth high level workshops that create space to focus (take stakeholders away from their municipal work place) are advised for future projects.

z Design simple but innovative tools to communicate with the community, especially where a language barrier is a concern: The project addressed this through the use of visual imagery, as well as experiential approaches (e.g. a Resource Walk around the school) and visioning exercises (e.g. the SOAR approach) that would allow the concepts to resonate with the intended beneficiaries.

z Commitment of local authorities in such an exercise is crucial. The support and knowledge of the local context provided by municipality partners proved to be helpful in executing stakeholder engagements.

The Urban NEXUS approach amounts to a social-institutional learning process. An Urban NEXUS Task Force composed of local actors from different sectors and expertise is required, guided by an openness to change and completely transform practices. The necessary patience and learning by doing together was developed allowing for a bottom up process.

Political champions that are willing to be open and take on the above are critical for success. Project ownership of the municipality offers key entry points in capacitybuilding, as it allowed for an intimate look at the project development and stakeholder engagement required for Nexus initiatives, as well as opportunities and potential challenges in its long-term implementation. For example it was identified that the newly formed NEXUS Task Force must be supported by the Mayor to become an effective agent of change.

Small projects can spark big change. As simple a project as this may seem, the Urban NEXUS pilot project has captured the attention of many councilors and thus inspired them to take on a similar role out in their wards and Mtaa’s.

Kinondoni Municipal Council Urban NEXUS Task Force.

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Budget and financesThe costs of the project were relatively modest for a pilot project of this nature. Although staff time and costs associated with meetings and workshops received the largest bulk of funding, resources for these activities are necessary in new planning and development approaches. Many of the costs associated with this type of project may already largely exist within typical municipal budgets. However, what sets this project apart are the long lasting benefits it provides to the community, the ability to derive additional benefits, possibly create income streams, institutional channels of collaboration, and to showcase and practice a new way of designing service delivery and development.

ReplicationMgonja Yahona: “For replication, having a champion is important. In addition, each municipality needs to have a proper environmental department.”

In order to enhance the success of replication in Dar es Salaam and in other municipalities in Tanzania and beyond, it is recommended to have the full support of a high level official such as a city/municipal director; someone who has oversight across departments and sectors and can issue directives to undertake a new methodology of planning. Whilst the Mayor’s approval is beneficial, it is more at the technical level where instructions are issued and followed.

Mussa Natty, Municipal Director: For replication his advice to other municipalities is to “Start doing it and keep on improving with each project. Don’t be afraid to try new things.” His philosophy for this project was “Let’s do something, let’s make development improvements!”

Acknowledgements z Authors: Sarah Birch and Irina Velasco (ICLEI Africa) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke and Lucy Price (ICLEI World Secretariat) z Interviewees: Mussa Natty (KMC), Mgonja Yohana (KMC), Alfred Shayo (EEPCO)

Sources z Atkinson, Adrian. Exploring Possibilities for Nexus Initiatives in Metropolitan Regions:

The Case of Dar es Salaam. 2013. z Dar es Salaam City Council. Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project. 2013.

Available at: http://www.dcc.go.tz/projects/dmdp.html z UNHabitat. The SCP Documentation Series, Volume 3. The Sustainable Dar es

Salaam Project 1992–1993. Available at: http://ww2.unhabitat.org/programmes/sustainablecities/documents/Dar%20es%20Salaam%20Final.pdf

On behalf of:

Key Contacts

Kinondoni Municipal CouncilEng. Mussa NattyMunicipal DirectorP.O. BOX 31902Dar es SalaamTel: +255 22 2170173Fax: +255 22 2172606E-mail: [email protected]: www.kinondonimc.go.tz

ICLEI World Secretariat (WS)Capacity CenterKaiser-Friedrich-Str. 753113 Bonn, GermanyTel. +49-228 / 97 62 99-00Fax +49-228 / 97 62 99-01Email: [email protected]/casestudies

The Urban NEXUS project 2013–2014 was funded by GIZ on behalf of BMZ to develop the “Operationalization of the NEXUS approach in cities and metropolitan regions”.

The Urban NEXUS project included: a baseline study and report (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014), the identification and preparation of case studies and shorter case stories, and the design and implementation of action-oriented pilot projects supported by the German Development Cooperation.

ICLEI, as implementing partner of the Urban NEXUS project, is responsible for the content of this Case Study.

Further Reading

GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: towards resource efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions. Available at: www.iclei.org/urbannexus

This Case Study was elaborated for the Urban NEXUS project 2013–2014.

The ICLEI Case Study series is available at www.iclei.org/casestudies, and focuses on various types of urban sustainability activities of ICLEI Members and local governments that are part of ICLEI projects across the globe.

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments implementing sustainable development. ICLEI’s mission is to build and serve a worldwide movement of local governments to achieve tangible improvements in global sustainability with special focus on environmental conditions through cumulative local actions.

© GIZ and ICLEI August 2014

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ICLEI / GIZ 2014

Nashik, IndiaDemonstrating the Urban NEXUS approach to optimize water, energy, and land resources in peri-urban agriculture

The Nashik Municipal Corporation adopted an Urban NEXUS approach to improve resource productivity at the local and regional level in India and to avoid unintended consequences of narrow sectoral approaches leading to unsustainable resources utilization. The Urban NEXUS pilot project introduced the collaborative design and implementation of a set of innovative solutions and programs for optimizing water, energy, and land resources in peri-urban agricultural practices in Nashik.

AbstractIn order to improve the city’s resource management, ICLEI South Asia supported by the German Development Cooperation and the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), came together to implement pilot projects to demonstrate the Urban NEXUS approach. The pilot projects focused on the management and optimized utilization of energy and groundwater to limit the impacts of constrained resources on farmers and hence local food production. The Urban NEXUS innovation applies as much to the resource management as to the institutions and the community that shapes them. The successful implementation of pilot projects changed the mindset of institutions to favor cooperative and intersectoral planning approaches instead of traditionally “siloed” sectoral practices.

The challenge of water, energy and food management in Nashik, Maharashtra, IndiaAgriculture constitutes over 14% of Maharashtra’s Gross Domestic Product (Census 2011). Nashik is one of the most important agricultural hubs in the State, contributing a major share towards the GDP. Farming in the city is precariously dependent on groundwater as a supplement to the supply from irrigation canals. However, the groundwater and acquifers with limited storage capacity have been depleted in the past few years due to over-exploitation. State energy policies have led to highly subsidized electricity, in order to boost agricultural production. This has led to the wastage of both energy and water, negatively impacting both the environment and the economy of the state. As a result, agriculture, groundwater and energy are bound in a “nexus” of mutual dependance where the growth of one sector (agriculture) is dependent on the unsustainable consumption of other two sectors (groundwater and energy), so much so that even food security and livelihoods are threatened. The significant drivers underlying Nashik’s resource challenges are the siloed institutional departments in the city responsible for the diverse sectors and resources which manage them. Conventionally, resource planning and management in Nashik occurs in isolation with little to no involvement among relevant stakeholders, resulting in a disconnection between food, energy and water sectors, despite their complex and interlinked relationship.

Date Dec. 2013–2014Urban NEXUS Sectors

Water–Energy–Food


Design and Technology, Communication and Users Behaviors, Delivery Models, Institutions

Scale City-level

Budget EUR 137,200

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Fragmented approaches leading to system inefficiency in NashikThe Urban NEXUS project city, Nashik, is located in the north-western part of the state of Maharashtra. The city, also known as the ‘Backyard of Mumbai’ and the ‘Wine Capital of India’ contributes to the economy of the state through its vegetable and fruit supply to Mumbai and the rest of the globe. As an agro-intensive hub, the city consumes large amounts of pumped water (surface water as well as groundwater) for agriculture. Energy intensive groundwater pumping has led to a decreased water table, and along with it, increased energy consumption – a cycle which continues to prevail.

Additionally, land once allocated for agricultural use along Nashik’s periphery and within the city, has been sold for residential purposes, thus reducing land available for food production. However, the majority of purchased land is not put to use for years, resulting in a large amount of idle land in the city. Gravity-fed irrigation from river tributaries has also decreased as result of the shifts in land use. With the increased urbanization, the NMC is confronted with the new challenge of maintaining urban-rural interdependencies and trade-offs in terms of energy, land, and water consumption for agriculture and housing.

All three components of Urban NEXUS in Nashik – water, energy, and agriculture (food) – fall under the competencies of the State Governments in India. The land use plan is developed by the city’s town planning department while decisions regarding water supply for drinking and irrigation rest with the City Corporation and Irrigation Department. Traditionally, the three departments work in isolation and do not interact with each other before making any decision regarding resource uses. This fragmented approach has led to major inefficiencies.

Moving towards Integrated Resource Productivity Considering the strategic location and agricultural importance of Nashik, the proposed entry-point for the project was to bring the fallow or unutilized scrubland into urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) use. However, integrating private land into agricultural practices is complicated by the nature of its land ownership and the complex social and economic interrelations of its current use. Strategies to bring this land into agricultural purposes will require exploring legal prescriptions, financial incentives, and participatory site selection approaches which demand a long-term commitment by stakeholders and concerned departments. Promoting productive UPA practices allows for improved resource utilization in various ways, e.g. the re-use of treated wastewater for ferti-irrigation, reducing transportation needs and fuel consumption for agricultural produce, reducing the overall input costs for agriculture and others.

From the four wards initially selected as pilot areas, the stakeholders decided to choose Makhmalabad (Ward No. 6) for the first pilot project due to the intensive agricultural practices in the ward, and because of the large amount of its agricultural land undergoing transformation.

The stakeholder group decided that the solutions to this challenge need to start on a small scale in a single ward to demonstrate short-term gains which can be scaled up over time to change the forms of development across the city at large.

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Breaking the Silos: Forming the Stakeholder GroupUsually, most of India’s municipal and state institutions are divided into ‘silos’ separated by thematic and technical boundaries and diverse practices. In order to break the ice between different departments and institutions, a stakeholder group was formed for the Urban NEXUS project. The stakeholder group consisted of more than 30 representatives from departments and institutions across the various levels of governance, vertically (institutions at district and state level) and horizontally (different departments within the Nashik Municipal Corporation). The stakeholders represented departments and institutions that are primarily involved in decision-making processes regarding the water, energy, and food sectors.

The stakeholder group was formed with an aim of bringing together all the concerned officials from relevant departments on a common platform to initiate a dialogue and exchange with each other. For the first time, the departments came together to take decisions on the design and implementation of the Urban Nexus pilot project. The stakeholder group recognized the importance of urban and peri-urban agricultural practices and its associated benefits, and decided to demonstrate this with a set of solutions for optimizing water, energy and land resources in UPA in Nashik.

The stakeholder meeting facilitated the decision-making process between departments and created stronger alliances between all stakeholders for interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sectoral knowledge exchange. Bringing together all the decision makers involved was imperative for the success of the project because Urban NEXUS implementation involves political decisions and commitment, along with changes in institutional cultures. This requires a higher level of flexibility and cooperation across institutional boundaries.

Moving towards Resource Efficiency Considering the limited availability of time, funds, and an uncertainity about the results of the pilot projects, the stakeholder group decided to focus on improving resource productivity through implementing four pilot projects in the Makhmalabad area. All four pilot projects are interlinked and demonstrated a successful example of well-coordinated planning and synergy that is required for efficient urban interventions.

(i) Evaluating the Performance of Agricultural Pump Sets: Agriculture remains one of the major and most inefficient energy consuming sectors in Nashik and provides an immense opportunity to save energy through better technological and management techniques. There are approximately 643 registered wells and 129 registered bore wells in the Makhmalabad ward. Only 787 pump connections are legally registered in the ward area, although many more are likely to exist. The irrigation pump sets installed by the farmers are generally inefficient with operating efficiency level of 20% or less. Improper selection and installation of pumps, high-friction pipes, and the lack of proper maintenance are the main factors contributing to high energy consumption. With the decreased pump efficiency, farmers tend to use pumps for a longer duration, hence consuming more energy with relatively smaller output of water.

Inefficient water pumping also has an impact on global warming and climate change through higher greenhouse gas emissions. (According to IFPRI, 2009, when the efficiency of pumps is increased from 20% to 30%, there is a 50% decrease in the associated carbon emissions.)

Nashik’s Urban NEXUS Implementation Stakeholder Group

• Water Supply and Sewerage; Solid Waste Management; Environment; Town Planning Dept. Nashik Municipal Corporation (City level)

• Irrigation Department (District and State level)

• State Agriculture Department (State level)

• Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute (State level)

• Maharashtra Environmental Engineering Training and Research Academy (State level)

• Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (District level)

• Groundwater Survey & Development Agency (District Level)

• KK Wagh College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (Academic)

• Agriculture Produce Market Committee (District level)

The Pilot Area (Makhmalabad) in the city context

With this background, the Urban NEXUS stakeholder group decided to conduct a performance evaluation of agricultural pumps in the ward area with a view to implement the model in other areas of the city based on its success. The performance evaluation of pumps was followed by training and awareness-raising among farmers on the most appropriate selection of pumps, their operation and maintenance, and the economic gains from better energy efficiency resulting in lower utility bills.

(ii) Creating a Groundwater Recharging System: Groundwater has proven to be an invaluable source of irrigation in the area. However, the usage of inefficient pumps, highly subsidized electricity and lack of incentives has led to increased dependence on groundwater, thereby, resulting in a lower water table and risk to local water and food security. Moreover, acquifers in this geograpical region are primarily basaltic in origin with limited capacity. Furthermore, due to lack of awareness and incentives, local farmers have neglected the importance of groundwater recharge and rainwater harvesting. As a result, a high percentage of groundwater assessment blocks in the Nashik District have been classified as rapidly deteriorating, as semi-critical, critical, or overexploited areas. Recharging of groundwater helps in maintaining the water table at minimum depth, hence making water available during long dry season for irrigation purposes at a lesser rate of energy consumption. Realizing the importance of groundwater recharging, Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), along with the Groundwater Survey & Development Agency (GSDA), came forward with the suggestion to create potential groundwater recharging structure in the city at identified areas. Subsequently, NMC undertook a study for the entire city and identified four sites for constructing a groundwater recharging system. The limited funds available for the pilot project implementation have allowed for the installation of one recharging system in the city. However, there is a need to implement a groundwater recharging system in the entire city to meet the future water demands of the growing population. While NMC is interested to invest, support will be required in terms of technical guidance and capacity building for a successful upscaling of the initiative.

(iii) Mapping local Biogas Potential: The National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP), initiated in the 1980s, promoted family size biogas plants with the aim of replacing traditional fuels (wood and dung cakes) with cleaner and convenient low-cost fuel with additional benefits such as organic manure and improved sanitation. Realizing the potential of biogas, availability of huge cattle wealth, and subsidies under the NBMMP, farmers in Nashik installed biogas plants in the 1980s. However, with the passing of time, the cultural change from manually based agriculture to mechanized farming led to a reduction in the number of cattle, thereby reducing the raw material which is required for biogas production.

The Urban NEXUS stakeholder group recognized the importance of biogas and decided to map the current biogas production potential in the Makhmalabad ward


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area. Online maps with basic attributes were thus developed with information regarding the location, capacity and usage of all existing biogas plants in the ward area. The study included semi-structured interviews carried out at the houshold level, which revealed that only 11% of the installed biogas plants are currently functional. According to the analysis of data collected, nearly 52% of biogas plants are non-functional due to a lack of raw material. The rest are out of use due to various operation and maintenance issues.

Interestingly, all the biogas plants are toilet-linked, hence also providing a solution to sanitation issues. Further,

slurry from the bio-digester can be used for ferti-irrigation, thereby reducing the demand for fertilizer for farms. Inspite of these benefits, however, the community has resorted back to wood or dung cakes to meet its fuel requirements, thereby producing higher greenhouse gas emissions.

The Urban NEXUS stakeholders proposed to the Nashik Municipal Corporation to undertake a biogas mapping of the entire city, raise awareness, and leverage funds from national programs to meet the future fuel requirements at the household level and take astep towards environmental sustainability. Recently, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of the Government of India has released revised NBMMP guidelines under the 12th Five Year Plan for all the State Governments to install a targeted number of 650,000 biogas plants in the year 2014–2015. The guidelines provide central financial assistance for the installation of new biogas plants and the repairment of non-functional plants (see box page 9).

(iv) Promoting Agro-education among School Children: Since one main focus of the Urban NEXUS approach is to change the mindset of the community, awareness raising on the important issues of resource efficiency was sought by involving primary and secondary school students who were taken around farms and introduced to important rural-urban interlinkages as well as water conservation techniques and organic farming practices. A group of 35 students and their teachers were taken to an organic farming site, where

they were taught about soil erosion, tillage, and the negative impacts of pesticide usage. It is expected that the learnings adopted by the children will be passed on to their parents and society at large.

Since the visit, numerous municipal schools have requested that the Nashik Municipal Corporation may upscale and undertake similar activities regularly.

Stakeholder meeting and panel discussion in Nashik

Study tour with school children on a farm in Nashik

ResultsThe project implementation of the Urban NEXUS approach resulted in the adoption of basic measures in an integrated manner with the aim to address multiple issues in one go. Thus, an interlinked systemic approach included the installation of energy efficient pumps to reduce electricity consumption, groundwater recharging to maintain the water table, and the development of biogas to reduce a dependence on fossil fuels and energy inputs for agriculture in the ward area. The importance of resource efficiency was propagated to a wider public through the involvement of school children. The project implementation fed into the larger goal of promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture in Nashik to meet food security issues along with the minimization of required resource inputs such as energy, water, fertilizer, transportation fuel, and others.

During the project implementation, stakeholders have realized that further collaboration between them is required and that the Urban NEXUS approach has great potential to truly address and change the way institutions and society conceive its water usage, energy, and food production. While change is often slow to happen, initial results of understanding the Urban NEXUS approach can be demonstrated to motivate the community and institutions to adopt the change. After six months of project implementation the results are as follows:

The Urban NEXUS brought about improved inter-departmental coordination. The founding of an Urban NEXUS stakeholder group led to increased interaction among all concerned stakeholders and “ice breaking” between departments. This ensured a transparent and well-informed decision-making process regarding the design and implementation of the four main activity areas. The project was so successful that the stakeholders have since decided to form similar Urban NEXUS task forces to ensure the participation from all relevant departments in future activities.

Multi-level governance was achieved through the involvement of stakeholders from the district and state level. As mentioned, such a large array of insitutitions has never come together to make joint decisions regarding resource usage. The stakeholders realized that resource and ecosystem boundaries transcend administrative boundaries and hence require intensive coordination across actors and institutions.

Energy efficiency was improved by the replacement of inefficient pump sets with more efficient, right sized pumps and the installation of low-friction

Moving Towards Resource Efficiency: The Urban Nexus in Nashik


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valves and piping. The energy consumption for irrigation was thereby reduced by about 25–30%, translating into considerable savings in the longer run. Not only does the initiative lead to a lower energy use for water pumping, it also implies a higher food production per drop of water and thus an increased water use efficiency.

Resource efficiency is an important objective of the Urban NEXUS approach and was met through promoting the revival of non-functional biogas plants. Biogas plants can play an important role in reducing the dependency on traditional fuel sources such as wood, dung cakes and liquid petroleum gas for domestic purposes and hence reduce greenhouse gases being emitted into the environment. Slurry, a by-product which is very high in nutrient content, is used for ferti-irrigation, thus reducing the input cost of agriculture and promoting organic agriculture practices. Moreover, since most of the biogas plants are toilet-linked, issues of sanitation are addressed simultaneously.

Conservation of natural resources was achieved through groundwater recharging of the hard rock acquifers in the city. Part of the funds available under the project implementation were allocated as a seed for a groundwater recharging project undertaken by the Nashik Municipal Corporation. The total value of the project is estimated to be €73,200 Euros, which indeed is a considerable amount to be allocated from municipal budget.

Mitigation measures towards climate change were developed as more efficient groundwater pumping and biogas utilization for cooking purposes reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the environment. Groundwater recharging also serves as an adaptive mesaure to reduce the impacts of climate change by maintaining water table balance. Moreover, all these measures, after being tested for technical feasibility and implemented on a pilot basis, will feed into the detailed Sustainable Urban Habitat Action Plan (SUHAP) being prepared for Nashik City and will have the potential for replication on a larger scale in a phased manner.

Awareness raising of students from municipal schools helped in exposing them to practical applications of resource efficiency and organic farming while it also transmitted the message on a larger scale within the community.

Training and capacity building of local farmers helped in sensitizing them to the utilization of energy efficient pumps, adopting efficient irrigation techniques such as drip and sprinkler in order to save energy and water, and thereby propagating the idea of “more crop per drop”.

Community ownership of the project was achieved through a tripartite agreement between the farmers, the NMC and ICLEI South Asia where each individual farmer committed to undertake the operation and maintenance of new agriculture pumps to be installed over the next few years. According to local officials, this was also the first time in Nashik that the community realized its joint responsibility and took collective action. This is a clear positive indication of society realizing the importance of resource efficiency and simultaneously ensuring the sustainability of the project. Demonstration of the new punps to local farmers

Lessons LearnedThe project implementation provided critical learning experience of managing several institutions and simultaneously working together with different stakeholders as well as the local community. Some of the major challenges faced during project implementation include:

Bringing together multiple levels of governance requires considerable time. The Urban NEXUS stakeholder group consisted of representatives from different institutions at various levels – local, district, and state levels, as well as non-governmental organizations and academia. Significant time is required for coordinating with all the stakeholders to bring them together at one place at a time. A local official based in the city could facilitate this process to a great extent.

Limited time and human resources can shape an Urban NEXUS outcome. Surveys of agricultural pumps and biogas plants at the household level required a considerable amount of time and human resources. This was difficult to provide in a short-term project. Under projects with a similarly tight timeframe, an option to improve this process could be the hiring of an external consultant to carry out such an extensive survey and analysis.

Creating openness to the Urban NEXUS approach is crucial. Efficient resource usage depends on the cooperation of all departments that use the given resource or are related to its management. But since each institution is traditionally used to work in isolation, without considering the repercussions or possibilities of collaboration with other departments or actors, efforts were needed to engage them in fruitful discussions. However, after some initial one-on-one discussions all stakeholders could be engaged more meaningfully in making better informed and integrated decisions on issues affecting everyone.

Building trust with communities is a make or break factor. Interaction and building trust with the community is important for the successful implementation of projects on the ground. In order to generate a sense of ownership among the community towards the project, it was necessary to involve the local citizens (e.g. through the farmers and school children) and interact with them, so that they could better understand the benefits of the project.

Political will and commitment ensure that an Urban NEXUS project will take flight. Political commitment along with the support of the City Corporation is essential for any project implementation at the local level in India. To ensure successful implementation of the project, it was necessary to involve the political and administrative wings of the municipal corporation in all major decisions of the project. This will ensure their continuous support to the activities as well as provide critical practical local knowledge about implementation potentials and pitfalls in different places in the city.

Building awareness is a continuous process. Given the project’s limited timeframe, it was only possible to bring stakeholders together twice to give them a taste of collective decision making. The officials at the City Corporation lacked awareness and information on the Urban NEXUS approach to efficient resource management. Although the pilot project gave officials a first taste of the approach, further training and capacity building is required at all levels to be successful on a larger scale and to guarantee the long-term institutionalization of such reforms. Awareness raising and incentives for the efficient usage of resources can make communities more responsive to challenges.

Nashik’s experience with the Urban NEXUS approach put to words:

“The Nexus project was crucial for Nashik Municipal Corporation to address the challenges our city faces with an integrated approach. By moving at the same time towards water, food, and energy security, we have already managed to improve our resource productivity and system efficiency. The project has also helped us establish institutional linkages that were previously missing and create as well as build on synergies between different departments. We are leaving behind a centralized way of working and looking ahead towards a more integrated and resilient future."

Mr. Yatin Wagh

Mayor, Nashik Municipal Corporation


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Budget and FinancesThe Urban NEXUS project with its four main activity areas was implemented with modest funds under the Urban NEXUS project supported by the German Development Cooperation. Additionally, there were significant in-kind contributions from the NMC and other partners and institutions that ensured the success of the project:

• Recharging the groundwater table: Using the pilot project implementation funds as a seed, the NMC has invested an additional €73,200 for developing the groundwater recharging system in the city.

Experts from Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) supported the project through their technical expertise in the sector, e.g. by reviewing and providing suggestions to the NMC groundwater recharging proposal.

• Promoting agro-education among school children: The NMC, through its Department of Education, released circulars for municipal schools to involve their teachers in organizing students to participate in the educational tour.

KK Wagh Agricultural College of Engineering and Technology provided technical support and staff capacity for facilitating the entire tour for students. The college also gave permission to visit their agricultural farm for that purpose.

• Capacity building and training of farmers: Officials from the NMC were present during the capacity building and provided support in terms of time and staff. KK Wagh Agricultural College of Engineering and Technology provided technical support for facilitating capacity building and training program for farmers. Experts from the college also helped in finalizing contents of handouts for farmers and in translating them into the local language.

• Community engagement: The NMC signed the tripartite project agreement (agreement between community, NMC, and ICLEI SA) and agreed to monitor the functioning of irrigation pumps for the next five years. Presence of the Mayor during signing of the agreement provided a motivational boost to the community.

The citizens of the ward area of Makhmalabad supported the implementation of performance evaluations of agricultural pump efficiencies by providing us with relevant data information like electricity bills and by allowing auditing in their private farms. The project would not have been successful without their positive response.

Financial incentives for the installation of biogas plants/the revival of non-functional biogas plants:

The task of setting targets and disbursing funds for the promotion of biogas plants is coordinated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). State level targets are further specified at the district and block level.

A package of financial arrangements has been made under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (2014–15) by the Government of India.

Some of the means created to extend financial support include subsidies for the beneficiary, a turnkey fee for the biogas entrepreneurs or NGOs and a motivation fee for the motivator. Additionally, loans from several national and regional agriculture and rural development banks and co-operatives are also made available to the beneficiary.

Key Contacts

ICLEI South Asia Ritu ThakurSenior Project OfficerGround Floor, NSIC-STP Complex, NSIC Bhawan, Okhla Industrial EstateNew Delhi – 110020, IndiaMobile: +91 9871 257 695Tel: +91 11 41067220Fax: +91 11 41067221Email: [email protected]: southasia.iclei.org

ICLEI World Secretariat (WS)Capacity CenterKaiser-Friedrich-Str. 753113 Bonn, GermanyTel. +49 228 97 62 99-00Fax +49 228 97 62 99-01Email: [email protected]/casestudies

Acknowledgements z Authors: Ritu Thakur and Emani Kumar (ICLEI South Asia Secretariat) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke and Lucy Price (ICLEI World Secretariat)

Replication The Urban NEXUS pilot project has also served as a major input to the Sustainable Urban Habitat Action Plan (SUHAP) of Nashik that addresses both the issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The revised city development plan of Nashik will include these components of the SUHAP. The SUHAP is being developed by GIZ under its Indo-German Environment Partnership (IGEP) program in consonance with the Government of India’s National Mission on Sustainable Habitat.

The pilot project implementation has helped to reinforce the belief that an Urban NEXUS approach is not only essential for meeting future demands of growing population, but also for making well-informed decisions across sectors. The momentum achieved by the pilot project should be harnessed and scaled up to the entire city for larger benefits. The biogas mapping and revival of non-functional plants should be upscaled for the entire city through the leveraging of funds available under the recent NBMMP program of the Government of India (2014–2015).

Nashik Municipal Corporation, along with other involved stakeholders, has expressed their interest to replicate the project to the entire city with the help of external technical and financial support. Although the NMC is interested to invest in infrastructure improvements, it will still need support in terms of overseas development assistance to bridge institutional and thematic silos.

Further Reading z GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: towards resource efficient

and integrated cities and metropolitan regions. Available at: www.iclei.org/urbannexus

Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 02, Nashik, India


The Urban NEXUS project included: A baseline study and report (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014), the identification and preparation of case studies and shorter case stories, and the design and implementation of action-oriented pilot projects supported by the German Development Cooperation.


On behalf of:





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Vancouver, CanadaTargeting NEXUS food security: Vancouver‘s Regional Food System Strategy

The Regional Food System Strategy aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of the food system in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, now named Metro Vancouver. Through uniting rural and urban municipalities with multiple private stakeholders, synergies have been achieved to bring about increased local, equitable, and sustainable food practices.

Urban NEXUS Case Study August 2014 03AbstractThe globalization of food systems has made agri-food systems less sustainable. In response, the Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy seeks to address the challenges of contemporary global food systems through a multi-pronged strategy. The strategy is focused on actions at the regional level which will lead to a more localized, sustainable, resilient, and healthy food system while continuing to be embedded in the larger food system at the national and global scales. Given the multi-sectoral nature of food systems, a process was developed to involve a wide range of stakeholders: farmers, food processors, distributors and retailers, public health authorities, municipalities, provincial and federal government and their agencies as well as NGOs, community groups, and academia. The unique platform provided by Metro Vancouver helped to mobilize this approach, which would have otherwise been beyond the scope and capacity of some smaller municipal members to achieve.

The globalized food system: Resource pressures and the depletion of local marketsThe globalized food system has brought diverse cuisines into our homes. This has come at the cost of increased food waste, a larger carbon footprint of the agricultural sector and a depleted market for local produce – trends that exacerbate food security and energy efficiency. A study of the global agri-food systems estimates that 7.3 units of energy are used to produce one unit of food. In addition, a report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and World Resources Institute (WRI) in 2013 revealed that one third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems, with the characteristically long supply chains of global food systems being a major cause of wastage. This results in massive inefficiencies of food and energy consumption demands, which are set to further increase in the future.

Aware of the importance of fostering local and regional food security, the Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy seeks to address the challenges of contemporary global food systems, through a multi-pronged strategy that involves various levels of the metropolitan administration and a variety of private stakeholders.


Water–Food– Land Use


Institutions; Communications and User behavior

Scale RegionalBudget n/a

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The metropolitan region of Vancouver: At the forefront of regional and urban sustainabilityThe Greater Vancouver Regional District, with the coastal seaport city of Vancouver as its major urban center, is the third largest metropolitan area of Canada, situated in the southwest corner of the province of British Columbia. It is the most densely populated region in the province with 2,313,328 inhabitants (Canada Census, 2011), and is administered by the Greater Vancouver Regional District, better known as Metro Vancouver. Metro Vancouver acts as a political body and corporate entity operating under provincial legislation delivering regional services, planning, and political leadership on behalf of its 23 members. The multi-sectoral and sustainability-oriented approach of Metro Vancouver is institutionalized by the Board Strategic Plan adopted in early 2014, which lays out the priorities and long-term goals of the Metro Vancouver Board with regard to the regional management plans.

Sustainability is a key concept in the governance of Metro Vancouver and the city of Vancouver. The city recently won the 2013 World Green Building Council (WGBC) Government Leadership Award for Best Green Building Policy for its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, has long been a global hub for sustainable initiatives.

The Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI) of Metro Vancouver is an important force in the developmental activities in the region, and the Regional Food System Strategy is designed to support the existing British Columbia Agriculture Plan 2008 with its focus on local food and urban-rural interdependencies.

In 2002, Metro Vancouver formally positioned the concept of sustainability at the center of its operating and planning philosophy, a comprehensive plan known as the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI). This resulted in the adoption of a Sustainability Framework in 2008, which provides the imperatives and principles to implement and operationalize sustainability as the central tenet of Metro Vancouver. The metropolis redesigned its regional management plans related to drinking water, solid waste, liquid waste, air quality and greenhouse gases, regional growth, and regional parks, adopted in 2011. In addition, the need for action to contain urban growth and protect farmland in a region with a fast-growing population gave rise to Vancouver’s Food System Strategy.

Metro Vancouver

Metro Vancouver is a political body operating as a regional district, an administrative level of government, dating back to the 1960s, that is unique to the province of British Columbia in an effort to oversee the rapid expansion and resource extraction within the province, as well as to address urban fringe issues and those of rural areas which were increasingly becoming urban, with no municipalities of their own.

Metro Vancouver is also the regional district responsible for the governing of the metropolitan area of the City of Vancouver. In total the district comprises 23 members: 21 municipalities including the City of Vancouver, one treaty First nation and one electoral area. It represents the residents of its region under four




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separate legal entities: Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD), Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVS&DD), and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation (MVHC). The GVrD, GVWD, GVS&DD, and MVHC are each governed by a separate Board of Directors composed of elected representatives from the respective members who have chosen to participate in the provision of the service.

In collaboration with its members, Metro Vancouver has three broad roles: to provide core utility services (water, sewerage and drainage, solid waste management) to its members, to carry out planning and regulatory responsibilities related to the three utilities, as well as to develop and implement strategies related to issues of regional interest, and to serve as the main political forum for the discussion of significant community issues at the regional level.

The Urban NEXUS: A multi-stakeholder approach ensures suitable initiatives and actionsThe region of Metro Vancouver is endowed with ample agricultural lands, a biologically rich coastline, and a multitude of freshwater resources. The coexistence of dense urban areas and fertile rural lands within the region, and the platform given through the regional jurisdiction of Metro Vancouver, gave rise to the opportunity for a regional food and agriculture strategy. The developed strategic plan aims towards creating a healthy and sustainable food system, by utilizing interdependent synergies at the regional level.

The Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy (RFSS) is focused on actions at the regional level which will lead to a more localized, sustainable, resilient and healthy food system which continues to be embedded in the larger food system at the national and global scales. Given the multi-sectoral nature of food systems, a process was developed to involve a wide range of stakeholders: farmers, food processors, distributors and retailers, public health authorities, municipalities, provincial, and federal governments and their agencies as well as NGOs, community groups, and academia. The unique platform provided by Metro Vancouver led to the mobilization of this approach, which would have otherwise been beyond the scope and capacity of some smaller municipal members to achieve.

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Metro Vancouver about its Regional Food System Strategy:

“Recognizing that a sustainable, resilient and healthy food system meets the needs of the present generation and protects the ability of future residents to meet their needs, Metro Vancouver is committed to working with others to support and enhance the regional food system – to ensure economic prosperity and preserve our ecological legacy. This will require protecting and conserving the region’s rich farmland, supporting the local food sector, promoting healthier eating habits, reducing food waste and addressing inequities in food access.”

(Metro Vancouver, Sustainable Region Initiative 2002–2011: A Roadmap to Sustainability)

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Metro Vancouver’s Regional Food System Strategy is an adaptive program, designed to align with existing initiatives while implementing new activities. The strategy lists various initiatives to be undertaken by distinct stakeholders, ranging from the local, regional, and federal government. The institutional Nexus between public and private stakeholders enabled the Metro Vancouver Board to put together a tailored strategy, the primary goals of which are to:

z increase the capacity to produce more local food, z improve financial viability of local farmers and food processors, z encourage people to adopt healthier diets, z ensure a more equitable access to nutritious food z reduce waste in the food system, z and to protect the ecological health of the region and surrounding waters.

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Regional Food System Strategy


32 33

The Regional Food System Strategy is under the management of the Regional Planning and Agriculture Committee of Metro Vancouver. The next step for the RFSS, currently a detailed strategic plan, is to operationalize it via an action plan that focuses on the role of local governments in the implementation phase.

The several member municipalities of Metro Vancouver have been active in their participation in the RFSS. The City of Vancouver developed a Local Food System Strategy that identifies priorities and serves as framework strategy (see Box 2). Other municipalities, where agriculture is still an important economic and cultural sector (Surrey, Richmond, Delta, Township of Langley, Pitt Meadows, and Maple Ridge), have developed agriculture plans setting individual focus areas. Metro Vancouver also reached out to involve the provincial and federal governments to more effectively realize the objectives of the RFSS. Additionally, the intensive participation of the private sector and community groups during the formulation process of the RFSS has ensured their commitment to the plan.

Each of the stated goals of the RFSS are coupled with sample actions and clearly-defined performance measures to evaluate the success of each strategy. For instance, actions planned by the RFSS to achieve its goal of increasing the capacity of local food production includes, among others, the support of hatcheries to augment the low salmon count in the region and the establishment of incubator farms on Metro Vancouver land to provide new farmers with a site to start their business. In addition, Metro Vancouver sent a request to municipalities to develop zoning bylaws and guidelines for commercial urban agriculture while the metropolis collaborates with the Agricultural Land Commission to protect the existing agricultural land base. The performance measures for this goal include the total hectares of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), the land categorized as farm property and the proportion which is actively farmed, as well as demographics such as the average age of farmers in British Columbia.

Dairy Classroom: raising awareness about food production amongst the youngest members of society

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The Regional Food System Strategy is one among a suite of interconnected regional management plans developed around Metro Vancouver’s Sustainability Framework. Other regional management plans which intersect with the RFSS include the Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan, Integrated Liquid Waste and Resource Management Plan, Affordable Housing Strategy, Drinking Water Management Plan, Air Quality Management Plan, and the Parks and Greenways Plan. The different regional plans are consciously integrated with one another at the administrative level to break down artificial silos of management and create greater efficacy and efficiency through integrated action.

For instance, the Metro Vancouver Drinking Water Management Plan feeding into the Regional Food System Strategy results in support for the adoption of environmentally sustainable irrigation practices and technologies which will minimize the agricultural demand for water. In a similar manner, the promotion of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling as part of the Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan results not only in less wasted food and reduced waste from food packaging, but also fosters gleanings and food recovery activities to cut down waste at the production level as part of the RFSS.

Urban Nexus: Coordinated regional planning

The Regional Food System Strategy is embedded in the larger regional management strategy of Metro Vancouver. Coordination is required especially with the Regional Growth Strategy and the Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan, which include land use policies concerning the region’s agricultural land base as well as activities to improve the economic viability of farming.

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ResultsEarly implementation of the various regional management plans has begun. With regard to the RFSS, efforts have commenced towards measures such as containing growth and protecting agricultural lands, as well as advocating for a strong role and sufficient budget for the provincial Agricultural Land Commission and provincial support for local food.

Current initiatives at the municipal level are supported and taken into consideration for the proposal of further action towards achieving the objectives of the RFSS. For instance, the City of Vancouver facilitated the operation of farmers’ markets throughout the city through bylaws, reduced permit fees, and streamlined application processes.

The Ministry of Community and Rural Development reviewed farm tax policy to ensure a fair and equitable assessment system. Both actions work towards promoting financial viability of local farmers at different jurisdictional levels and were incorporated in the RFSS by the mediating platform of Metro Vancouver which then proposed the use of the tax system to encourage agricultural production on land in the ALR.

Lessons learnedThe importance of strong, regional institutions to connect municipalities and for the oversight of actions: The regional districts of British Columbia highlight the importance of appropriate institutions and administrative units. Metro Vancouver, with its regional-level jurisdiction, was able to envision greater synergies in the food system by linking urban and rural municipalities, which could not have been achieved by an individual municipality or local government.

Effective action through an applied inter-sectoral Nexus: The Metro Van-couver Regional Growth Strategy, of which the Regional Food System Strategy is a part, institutionalizes a cross-sectoral approach to sustainable development by consciously integrating the sustainable management plans for sectors which are normally dealt with independently, such as waste management, water and air management or food system management.

Efficient planning requires flexibility: The RFSS document makes use of ex-isting resources, institutions and legislation but is also designed to continually adapt to changing circumstances by deploying new strategies and initiatives.

A well-integrated administrative setup overseeing the regional management plans and clearly defined performance measures are key for effective progress. The Regional Food System Strategy alignes to a continued commitment to sustainable regional growth which appears to be strong indicators for the effective implementation of the RFSS.

ReplicationThrough its proposed initiatives at different administrative levels, the Regional Food System Strategy provides a blueprint for the governing institutions of oth-er regions and provinces in Canada and other countries to follow.

City of Vancouver Food Strategy

Adopted in January 2013, the Vancouver Food Strategy is a municipal-level strategic plan to create a just and sustainable food system for the city of Vancouver. Building on years of food systems initiatives by institutions such as the Vancouver Food Policy Council as well as grassroots community development groups, the strategy considers all aspects of the food system, from seed to table to compost heap and back.

In comparison to the Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy, the goals of the City of Vancouver’s Food Strategy are more conducive to the food system of a highly-urbanized, metropolitan area. These include the provision of access at the neighborhood level to healthy food and sustainable food waste disposal; the creation of opportunities that support green food sectors, technologies and social enterprise models such as measures toward urban farming; the advocacy for food issues of equitability and sustainability, and the involvement and empowerment of residents through community-based programs.

The performance of the Vancouver Food Strategy is based on an evaluation of the existing target in the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan – to increase city and neighborhood food assets by 50 per cent over 2010 levels by the year 2020.

On behalf of:

Budget and financesAs a strategic plan, the Regional Food System Strategy had no allotted budget for the period between 2011 (when it was adopted) and 2014. With the operationalization of the action plan, the RFSS will have an as-yet unspecified budget.

Acknowledgements z Author: Chaitanya Kanuri (SciencesPo-ICLEI Capstone Project) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke, Lucy Price and Louisa Weiss (ICLEI World Secretariat)

Sources z Metro Vancouver, official website (accessed May 2014),

http://www.metrovancouver.org/

z Metro Vancouver, Regional Food Strategy, Supporting Document: http://www.metrovancouver.org/planning/development/AgricultureAndFood/Documents/RegionalFoodSystemStrategy.pdf

z Metro Vancouver (February 2011). Regional Food System Strategy. Accessible at: http://www.metrovancouver.org/planning/development/AgricultureAndFood/Pages/RegionalFoodSystemStrategy.aspx, accessed at July 2014

Further Reading z GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: Towards resource efficient


Key Contacts

Metro Vancouver Ann Rowan, Senior Policy Analyst Policy and Planning DepartmentMetro Vancouver, CanadaTel: +1-604-451-6669ann.rowan@ metrovancouver.org www.metrovancouver.org



The Urban NEXUS project included: A baseline study and report (GIZ and ICLEI, 2014), the identification and preparation of case studies and shorter case stories, and the design and implementation of action-oriented pilot projects supported by the German Development Cooperation.



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Hannover, GermanyKronsberg District: Scaling up integrated planning with KUKA

“Urban NEXUS” planning in Hannover transformed the City’s vision of the socially inclusive eco-district Kronsberg into a reality. The founding of the multi-stakeholder Kronsberg Environmental Liaison Agency, KUKA, was instrumental in catalyzing the district’s success. The coordinating body ensured intensive coordination, consultation, and training between the municipality, Expo-planners and future residents, to guarantee success in each phase of the project.

Urban NEXUS Case Study August 2014 04AbstractThe City of Hannover addressed its metropolitan challenges, including a lack of affordable housing, and social inclusion through the creation of the ecological district, Kronsberg. A key factor underlying the District’s success, was the City‘s integration of institutions, services, facilities, and social behaviors throughout the entirety of the planning, construction, and completion of the neighborhood. This was undertaken by founding the Kronsberg Environmental Liaison Agency, KUKA (Kronsberg-Umwelt-Kommunikations-Agentur GmbH). Today, the District of Kronsberg provides a unique example of how scaling up technologies and behavioral changes through consequent integrated planning practices for capacitating communications ensured a highly ecological, economical, and socially inclusive community for Hannover’s residents.

Hannover’s “Urban NEXUS” approach to housing and social inclusionWhen faced with a growing housing shortage in the early 1990s, the City of Hannover responded by using the World Expo 2000 as an opportunity to unveil a pioneering socially inclusive eco-district. In order to realize the ambitious undertaking in a limited time, the City called upon “Urban NEXUS” planning approaches to scale up technologies and communications through intensive cross-sectoral communication and public participation processes. Through the founding of the Kronsberg Environmental Liaison Agency, KUKA (Kronsberg-Umwelt-Kommunikations-Agentur GmbH), the City of Hannover was able to achieve numerous Urban NEXUS advantages through the integration of institutions, services and facilities, and social behaviors throughout the entirety of the planning, construction, and completion of the neighborhood.


Housing–Energy–Transport–Water–Waste–Soil

Urban NEXUS

Institutions; Communications and User Behavior, Design and Technology

Scale District (3,200 households)

Budget approx. €3.6 million EUR

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Kronsberg, Hannover, in contextHannover, Germany is the capital and economic center of the federal state of Lower Saxony. The city is home to 525,875 inhabitants (2012) and continues to grow. In the 1990s, population growth led to an increasing housing shortage, which placed particular strain on lower income and immigrant groups. In order to alleviate Hannover’s housing challenges, the City had planned to develop the formerly agricultural, greenfield area of the Kronsberg hill, a 1,200 hectare site South East of the city. However, the decision to host the 2000 World Exposition spurred a revision of the initial 1987 landscape plan. The pilot project was modified to align with the principles of Agenda 21 and the EXPO 2000 World Exposition vision “Humankind-Nature-Technology”. Kronsberg’s new plan included cutting-edge concepts for ecological optimization including energy, water, waste, soil-management, and mobility for a mixed-use, socially inclusive residential, and commercial community, from which others could learn.

Pioneering multi-stakeholder planning and develop-ment: organizing support groups for integrated action In 1992, following the decision to proceed with the planning of the Kronsberg district, the City of Hannover was aware that realizing the innovative district in time for the 2000 World EXPO would require a significant amount of simultaneous multi-sectoral organization and exchange between stakeholders – including investors, property developers, civil engineers, architects, construction firms, and civil society – from the start and through the completion of the project.

Consequently, the City began determining relevant managerial and coordinating bodies within the City administration. Key stakeholders identified by the City to oversee the project included the City of Hannover’s World Exposition Planning Group (within the City Construction Directorate), the Environmental Planning Group (under the Environment Directorate), and the Directorate of Health, Youth, and Social Services. Together, the three served as umbrella authorities responsible for the overall planning and implementation of Kronsberg’s ecological, economic, and social aims. Additionally, the Kronsberg Advisory Council (Kronsberg-Beirat) was enacted as an adviser to communicate recommendations to the City Council.

With Kronsberg’s administrative foundation intact, the City of Hannover began setting the course for integrated action. The City was aware that Kronsberg‘s heavily ambitious ecological standards required intensive support and training in order to succeed. For example, there would be no use designing for energy optimization, if builders were unaware of how to properly construct the district’s Low Energy Houses (LEH). Similarly, once built, such homes would be futile, if residents were not aware of how to optimize efficiencies while occupying them.

KUKA: ensuring quality through capacitating communication In 1997, realizing the need for onsite interdisciplinary skill-sets to transfer knowledge and awareness and to control the quality of each stage of the district’s development and implementation, the City of Hannover commissioned the

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Kronsberg Environmental Liaison Agency (KUKA), a unique coordinator and consultant between the municipality, Expo planners and future residents on the site.

KUKA’s responsibility was to serve as a locus of knowledge at every phase of the planning and implementation process, for City officials, urban planners, builders, future residents, and visitors alike. The majority of KUKA’s work consisted of raising awareness to translate the function and goals of Kronsberg’s environmental concepts in comprehensible and accessible ways. Thusly, KUKA’s primary responsibilities included:

z coordinating and monitoring the quality of the planning and building of the district;

z providing training and consultation services in the areas of waste, nutrition, energy, water, community work, soil, mobility and green area; and

z awareness-raising and communication among future residents, general public and EXPO visitors, media and scientific experts

In order to track and measure the success of their public relations and consultative initiatives, KUKA tested the effectiveness of a range of environmental communication approaches and academic studies through “Lernprojekt Kronsberg” (Learn Project Kronsberg), for future project application.

ResultsOutstanding quality control and consultation for builders and developers was realized though KUKA’s skilling. Prioritizing energy optimization was key to reaching the City’s target of reducing CO2 emissions within the district by 60% from increased efficiencies in heating, hot water and electricity. KUKA ensured the proactive communication of new construction methods through courses and a unique multi-stakeholder cooperation model. To aid the construction process,

KUKA's responsibilities

KUKA GmbH ,the Environ-mental Liasion Agency of Kronsberg, was co-funded by the City of Hannover and the 'Förderverein der KUKA e.V.' trust, a membership organi-zation established for the joint planning of the eco-district. Additional funding came from the German environmental foundation, 'Bundesstiftung Umwelt'.

The graph shows KUKA’s target groups and Nexus areas of intervention.

Water

WasteEnergy

Agriculture

District Center

Mobility

Countryside

Soil

EXPO Visitors, specialists, practitioners

public relations presentation

construction process stakeholders

environmental education skilling and qualification counsel-ling and information

services

residents

project development coordination

Kronsberg Environmental

Liaision Agency

the “Energy Project” along with a LEH standard was developed in coordination with KUKA’s five partners, the Energy and Environment Center (Energie- und Umweltzentrum am Deistere.V, EUZ), the Institute for Construction Research (Institute für Bauforschunge.V, IfB), Hannover Chamber of Craft Trades, Lowever Saxony Consumer Protection, and the Wolfenbüttel Technical Training Centre. Together, KUKA and the support groups offered everything from informational breakfast gatherings at the construction sites for planners, architects, and builders to skilling and qualification programs on topics like environmental construction and materials through workshops and excursions.

Awareness-raising and consultation among residents was paramount to Kronsberg’s sustainability. All residents received a “Kronsberg-Binder” upon arrival to the site with guiding tips to ensure sustainable behavior and information concerning energy and water saving programs. Additionally, KUKA regularly published a district magazine to showcase Kronsberg’s latest sustainable activities, from car-sharing schemes to subsidies for efficient appliances.

Additionally, KUKA conducted numerous informational events targeting renters, families, immigrant groups and children to inform and engage inhabitants, primarily in the KroKuS (“Kronsberg Kultur und Soziales”), an onsite community cultural info-center. KroKuS served as a base for KUKA to offer information and consulting services, such as energy counseling for residences, schools, and institutions.

By 2001, 90% of the Kronsberg community had used KUKA’s services and reported positively on the group’s involvement in the district. The majority of residents experienced working with KUKA through financial support via onsite subsidies (76%) and energy consultations (46%), while others engaged with the group through the informational events (33%) and general coaching for sustainable behavior.

Integrative planning and development strategy

z foundation of Kronsberg Design comittee

z realization of planning aims due to local legally binding plans

z local government support in all planning stages

z citizen participation through a planning ombudsman, public information work and the Kronsberg newsletter

z establishment of KUKU to support the entire project and present it to the public

Layout of the central Kronsberg district

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Additionally, the group successfully managed to foster a high level of acceptance of the ecological interventions implemented throughout the district. In 2001, the majority of residents believed they had a strong understanding of the district’s water (83%), energy (82%), waste management (59%), and mobility concepts (58%). Ultimately, 81% of survey respondents would move to Kronsberg again, if asked (Michelsen & Danner, 2003).

Intensive press and communications among EXPO visitors was achieved, due to the KroKuS information point, guided tours of the district and an intensive media campaign. Guided tours were provided in eight languages on the topics of urban planning and ecological optimization. In total, KUKA organized 700 guided tours for roughly 7,200 experts worldwide. Tours of the districts continued following KUKA’s disbandment by City employees and from 2000–013, 22,400 experts and students visited the site.

Lessons learned and scope for improvementKUKA’s onsite presence was a key factor in Kronsberg’s success. Due to the fact that KUKA assisted early on in the building process to ensure onsite skilling, quality assurance, and supported residents with facility and systems usage, the coordinating body had a strong and lasting impact on the district from its inception until after its completion.

KUKA’s limited 5-year funding was ultimately perceived as a short-term win. The consulting group had a crucial influence on the building and end-use of the district, however, sustainability is a long-term effort. New residents, who have since moved to the district, receive sustainable information at the KroKuS center from a City representative, though arguably not to the same degree.

KUKA’s efforts were heavily anchored in environmental initiatives which overlapped with social integration, including available subsidies and technologies for onsite housing, however the focus on social integration could have been intensified and expanded through strengthened institutional and grassroots cooperation between relevant stakeholders such as the Directorate of Health, Youth and Social Services.

Kronsberg cogeneration unit

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On behalf of:

ReplicationThe creation of a liaison committee such as KUKA is a highly replicable and recommended tool to integrate a broad spectrum of stakeholders into the planning, implementation, and end-use phases of any urban development project. Although KUKA’s creation and financial support was largely feasible due to the unique circumstances of the Hannover Expo, similar local authority coordination committees have experienced equal success, such as Freiburg’s sustainable eco-district coordinating body, Forum Vauban (see ICLEI Case Story 2014-28).

Budget and financesKUKA was the product of joint funding by the City of Hannover and the German Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), the Expo Company, and the European Union (Fig. 3). However, the DBU, the Expo Company, and the European Union provided the majority of the €3.6 million euro funding. To guarantee sufficient participatory communication and knowledge exchange between actors, the non-profit trust, “Förderverein der Kronsberg-Umwelt-Kommunikations-Agenture.e.V” and City of Hannover remained the primary shareholders responsible for financing its 5-year duration.

Acknowledgements z Author: Lucy Price (ICLEI World Secretariat) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke, Louisa Weiss (ICLEI World Secretariat) z Contributor: Maria Büchner, City of Hannover, Department for climate protection

Sources z Landeshauptstadt Hannover (2013), “Hannover-Kronsberg 15 years experience with

a sustainable model project.” Hannover: Landeshauptstadt Hannover. z Landeshauptstadt Hannover (2004), “Modell Kronsberg – Sustainable Building for the

Future.” Hannover: Landeshauptstadt Hannover. z Michelsen, D. G., & Danner, M. (2003), “Umweltkommunikation in der nachhaltigen

Stadtentwicklung Modellprojekt Kronsberg-Umwelt-Kommunikations-Agentur (KUKA) in Hannover-Kronsberg.” Lüneburg: Institut für Umweltkommunikation INFU.

Key Contacts

City of HannoverElisabeth Czorny Head of Environmental DepartmentLandeshauptstadt HannoverPrinzenstr. 430159 Hannover,GermanyTel.: +49 511 16845028Mail: [email protected]


Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 04, Hannover, Germany




Further Reading:GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: towards resource efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions. Available at: www.iclei.org/urbannexus

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Tianjin Eco-City is a model for innovative sustainable urban development through bilateral cooperation between China and Singapore. The institutional NEXUS between the governments and private consortia has resulted in a comprehensive Master Plan and Key Performance Indicators to ensure the Eco-City reaches its goals.

Tianjin, Eco-City, ChinaA bilateral institutional NEXUS for cutting-edge sustainable metropolitan development

AbstractThe Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, located 40 km outside the city of Tianjin, on the coast of the Bohai Sea in Northern China, is the second pioneering government-to-government project for sustainable urban development between Singapore and China. The Eco-City aims not only to offer the highest social, economic, and environmental quality of life to its residents, but also to serve as a hub for sustainable industry. The bilateral governmental cooperation has resulted in a NEXUS of managerial silos, systems, and scales for enhanced coordination and customization of the new Eco-City’s design and technologies. The outcome of the fruitful partnership includes an innovative Master Plan, a newly developed system of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and incentives to transform Tianjin Eco-City into a center for eco-innovation (Tianjin Eco City, 2012).

China’s and Singapore’s dual commitment to sustainable developmentAmidst both countries’ rapid urbanization, the Tianjin Eco-City project aims to differentiate itself as a high-profile green city, demonstrating Singapore’s and China’s commitment to sustainable growth, green building, and planning standards. Tianjin Eco-City was launched as an inter-governmental partnership between China and Singapore and involves the collaboration of private consortia from both countries, along with inter-ministerial working groups. Through integrated bilateral planning, both countries combined expertise and standards to create new benchmarks for sustainable urban development. The Eco-City will function as a laboratory for emerging eco-technologies and provide an arena for international companies to enter into the North Chinese market (SSTEC Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, 2011).


Water–Energy–Transport–Buildings

UrbanNEXUS Innovations

Institutions; Delivery Models, Design and Technology

Scale Metropolitan Region

Budget n/a

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National Animation Park, Tianjin Eco-City

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Tianjin Eco-City: Strategic partnerships for successful urban developmentChina is currently undergoing rapid urbanization with 64% of the population predicted to live in urban areas by 2020. The population within urban areas is forecasted to grow by 17.7 million people per year over the next 20 years (The World Bank, 2009). This presents major challenges for the country, especially in terms of resource efficiency and land use. In its 11th five-year plan, the Chinese government proclaimed to pursue “sound urbanization” through “resource conserving, environmentally friendly, economically efficient, and socially harmonious” urban development strategies (Green Prospects Asia, 2012).

The Tianjin Eco-City is located 40 km outside the city of Tianjin, on the coast of the Bohai Sea in northern China. This places the city on the cusp of the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA), a free market zone belonging to the greater Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA), China’s third largest economic powerhouse (SSTEC Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, 2011). The vast hinterland of urban areas, such as Beijing, Jilin, Lianoning or Shancong, the strong economic activity as well as increasing urbanization incited the governments of Singapore and China to build the Eco-City within this area. Tianjin Eco-City will provide a high quality of life for its residents and strengthen the area as a modern Eco-Business service hub for the entire North of China.

Setting the stage for integrated stakeholder actionThe Tianjin Eco-City project was initially proposed by then Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April 2007, following, a respective Framework Agreement was signed on November 18, 2007 (Tianjin Eco City, 2012). During the planning process of the Eco-City, priority was given to the integration of silos and scales, primarily at the government-to-government and the private sector levels. As a result, extensive institutional NEXUS collaboration to break down silos has occurred between China and Singapore to realize the project.

Cooperation at the government-to-government and private sector levels stands on four main organizational pillars (see Figure 1): strategic steering and oversight of the project is facilitated by the Joint Steering Committee (JSC), co-chaired with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Teo Chee Hean and Chinese Vice-Premier, Wang Quishan.

At the inter-ministerial level Singapore’s Ministry for National Development and the Chinese Ministry for Housing and Urban Rural Development form the Joint Working Committee (JWC), which supervises the implementation of the Eco-City project, together with the Tianjin Municipal Government (UNEP, 2013).

The Eco-City Administrative Committee (ECAC) constitutes the Chinese authority which governs all administrative functions in the Eco-City. Under the ECAC, six working-level sub-committees have been created with Singaporean agencies to facilitate collaboration in the areas of public housing, water management, urban planning, transport, environmental, and social development.




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The fourth pillar of the Eco-City’s development cooperation is comprised of the private sector. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co. (SSTEC) is composed of a Chinese Consortium of private investors led by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding and a Singaporean Consortium led by the Keppel Group, each holding a share of 50% in the corporation.

Together, the four levels of supervision and planning form an institutional NEXUS spanning from the governmental to the private sector level. The achieved integration of scales enhances economic spin-offs and learning processes.

Selecting the site: Transforming polluted land and water into an eco-hub The site selection for the future Eco-City was finalized following a thorough comparison of possible locations. The Chinese Government demanded the fulfillment of two criteria concerning the chosen project site: to develop the new city on non-arable land, as well as within a region suffering from water shortage challenges. Thusly, Tianjin Eco-City is built on a site that was formerly comprised of saltpans, barren land and polluted water bodies. The water bodies will be recovered and desalination of sea water will take place. In this sense, the project contributes to the ecological recovery of the area and successfully addresses issues of land shortage in China through the avoidance of agricultural land use (The World Bank, 2009).

Integrated urban planning through multi stakeholder involvementThe Tianjin Eco-City Master Plan was a multi-stakeholder effort, overseen by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and designed by the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute, and the Singapore planning team. The plan was influenced by the Singapore Neighborhood Concept and tailored to meet the local requirements of the Eco-City.

The completed city will consist of one axis, three high density centers and several districts spanning an area of 30 km² (see Figure 2). A green-blue Eco-Valley, 50 km wide and 12 km long, will run through the city, forming a “spine” for transit and recreation, easily accessible from all parts of the city (SSTEC, 2011).

Joint Steering Committee Deputy Prime Minister

Level

Joint Working Group Minister Level

Eco-CityAdministrative Level

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and

Development Co.

The mixed-use districts are divided into Eco-Cells of 400 m² with 2,500 dwelling units, each for approximately 8,000 residents. Six urban nodes will be spread throughout the city, serving as major functional zones for diverse activities. The city will furthermore be amended by three industrial areas, the Eco-Information Park, the Eco-Industrial Park and the Eco-Business Park (SSTEC Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, 2011).

The planning structure of Tianjin Eco-City encompasses the integration of transport and land use through a density index. High density development is only planned alongside major transport hubs, thus reducing commuting times and providing residents with an incentive to utilize public transport. The aim is to provide public transit options for 80% of the population within 800 m distance (The World Bank, 2009).

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)In order to measure the ecological, social, and economic performance of Tianjin Eco-City, a set of twenty-two quantitative and four qualitative KPIs were developed, the majority of which exceed prevailing national standards (see Figure 3). The quantitative KPIs, developed by Chinese and Singaporean experts and approved by the inter-ministerial Joint Working Committee, are grouped into four sub-categories: good natural environment, healthy balance in the man-made environment, good lifestyle habits and developing a dynamic and efficient economy. The four qualitative KPIs focus on ecology via green consumption and low-carbon activities, the adoption of innovative policies through regional cooperation and impacts, the preservation of cultural heritage, and the regional development of recycling industries (Tianjin Eco City, 2012).

The set of Key Performance Indicators developed for the Eco-City is based on prevailing international standards as well as those existing in both countries. Thus far, higher benchmarks have been chosen whenever feasible.

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Masterplan (right) and district planning structure (left) of the Tianjin Eco-City

A sustainable Masterplan

The Eco-City's 5 districts follow the Neighborhood Concept of Singapore which has been adapted to local needs. Eco-cells (about 400m x 400m) form the basic building blocks. Their size is based on what is considered as a comfortable walking distance. Each Eco-Cell can accommodate about 2,500 dwelling units (DUs) with approximately 8,000 residents. Four Eco-Cells together form an Eco-Community with about 9,000 DUs and 30,000 residents. Four or more Eco-Communities form an Eco-District.

Institutional NEXUS integration spanning from the governmental to the private sector level.


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Bi-lateral cooperation for the implementation of an Urban Nexus across institutions, scales and servicesIf the Eco-City succeeds in meeting its ambitious targets, it will serve as a successful example of Urban NEXUS integration of institutions, sectors and scales. The approach of country-to-country bilaterally coordinated planning is rare and opens up new dimensions for the exchange of experiences and the joint planning the setting of benchmarks.

The newly built Eco-City strives to be a locus of future eco-Technologies and thus prioritizes the promotion of green innovations. In the overall design process NEXUS opportunities were identified, such as a water-energy resource loop. In Tianjin Eco-City, wastewater is collected and goes through anaerobic biodigestion, which extracts methane gas that is then used as a source for energy production. The innovative system is the outcome of collaboration with the EU-China River basin Management Program which advises the Eco-City in water issues (Vince, 2012).

The deployment of Tianjin Eco-City’s laboratory of cutting-edge eco-technologies is heavily supported by private partners. For example, the company Philips has installed sound and motion sensitive lights in a public school. Additionally, the Swedish company envac AB designed a pneumatic waste collection system for installation in several districts and General Motors intends to test its next generation of driverless EN-V (Electric Network Vehicle) cars throughout the district (Vince, 2012).

Out of the total 30 km², a start-up area of 3 km² has been finalized, with approximately 10,000 residents living there (Kaiman, 2014; Whang, 2014). It has yet to be shown whether Tianjin Eco-City will succeed in attracting the residents and commercial activities needed to sustain it as a lively, productive city. However, official sources claim around 1,000 businesses have already registered at the Eco-City, bringing in a capital of 70 billion RMB, an equivalent of approximately US$ 11.5 billion (Liangbing, 2013). According to Ho Tong Yen, Chief Executive of the city’s master developer SSTEC, every month 400 housing units are sold (Kaiman, 2014).

Lessons LearnedTianjin Eco-City remains currently under development and only a small start-up area of about 3 km² has been realized. However, from this initial development, some lessons and major challenges already become apparent:

One of the major challenges will be to attract residents to live in the Eco-City. For this purpose, several incentives are given by the government such as reduced educational fees and housing subsidies (Kaiman, 2014).

Good transportation access from the outset is crucial for an initial and sustained life of a city. The metro line connecting the Eco-City to the rest of the Tianjin Binhai Area and other public transport facilities have yet to be finalized. The lacking connectivity to the major economic centers in the area might be a reason for the slow increase in residents. The metro line constitutes a crucial building block to fulfill the KPI aiming for 90% green transport trips occur through public and non-motorized transport.

Key Performance Indicators support city planning processes. However, thus far these mainly concern planning, rather than the effectiveness of institutional, administrative and contractual processes within the process. These should also be evaluated to ensure lessons are learned. This may include periodically reviewing the Masterplan (The World Bank, 2009).

The private sector involvement in the Eco-City project will be essential to enhancing the Eco-City’s commercial viability and the project’s potential for replication (Tianjin Eco City, 2012). The City has a strong potential to realize efficiency gains, if the institutional NEXUS is applied inter-sectorally and in a fruitful manner (The World Bank, 2009).

Further NEXUS potential of integrating water, energy, food and waste cycles could be explored in addition to the already implemented waste-to-energy scheme and water conservation strategies (The World Bank, 2009).

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Aerial view of the Tianjin Eco-City in 2011. Development and land recovery are still under way. The Eco-City is built on polluted land and water bodies that will be fully recovered.

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oKey Performance Indicators: 22 quantitaive and 4 qualitative Key Performence Indicators guide the Eco-City’s development process and ensure that the highest ecological standards are met.


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ReplicationThe Tianjin Eco-City project relies extensively on established government-to-government collaboration and broad private sector involvement from both countries. In order to realize a project of such scale, a similar dimension of cooperation and investment would be needed.

However, since the Eco-City is meant to function as model city for sustainable urban development and test site for emerging green technologies, single solutions will be replicable on other scales as well.

Ho Tong Yen, CEO of SSTEC, the master developer of the Tianjin Eco-City project, voiced his wish for the Eco-City to be seen as learning example for sustainable urban development and new eco technologies:

“I think that in time to come, this will be a model that many people will study, some cities will replicate certain aspects of the concept we have developed here. They may not replicate Eco-City in its whole but I think as long as some ideas are replicated elsewhere, then I think we would have made a very big contribution to sustainable development” (DAC & Cities, 2014).

Budget and financesEstimates of the total project costs are not available (The World Bank, 2009). However, DAC & Cities believe the total project will be worth an investment of 50 billion yuan (approximately US$ 9.7 billion) (DAC & Cities, 2014).

A Global Environmental Facility grant is provided from the World Bank which amounts to US$ 6.16 million. The grant is specifically designated to assist the City’s Administrative Committee in planning and regulating the Tianjin Eco-City project (The World Bank, 2010). In addition, “ie Singapore”, Singapore’s governmental agency for international economic development, launched an assistance program running from 2012–2017 worth US$ 9.5 million (approximately US$ 5 million) (i.e. Singapore, 2012).

Further investment will come in from Binhai New Area Public Utility providers such as Tianjin Binhai Mass Transit Development, responsible for the metro system.

SSTEC contributes with an initial investment of 4 billion yuan of the Singaporean Consortium. In addition, the land on which the Eco-City is constructed has been purchased from the Chinese government by the Chinese consortium. SSTEC will receive revenue from selling the land or renting property developed on the land (UNEP, 2013).





August 2014Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 05, Tianjin Eco-City, ChinaUrban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 05, Tianjin Eco-City, China Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 05, Tianjin, Eco-City, China

On behalf of:

Key Contacts

ICLEI East Asia Secretariat (EAS)14/F, Seoul Global Center Building,38 Jongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (110-110)Tel: +82-2-3789-0496 Fax: +82-2-3789-0497Email: [email protected] [email protected] www.iclei.org/eastasia


Acknowledgements z Author: Louisa Weiss, ICLEI World Secretariat z Editors: Lucy Price and Kathrine Brekke, ICLEI World Secretariat

Sources z DAC & Cities (2014), Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/

sustainable-cities/all-cases/master-plan/tianjin-a-model-eco-city-in-the-eastern-world

z Green Prospects Asia (2012), Retrieved May 05, 2014, from Tianjin Eco-city: Pragmatics rule in the world’s largest integrated sustainable city: http://www.greenprospectsasia.com/GPA_Reports/GGSR8(Tianjin)_070512.pdf

z ie Singapore (03/2012), Retrieved from http://www.iesingapore.gov.sg/Media-Centre/Media-Releases/2012/3/Joint-Release-S9-5-Million-assistance-to-help-Singapore-based-companies-gain-business-foothold

z Kaiman, J. (04/2014), The Guardian. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/apr/14/china-tianjin-eco-city-empty-hospitals-people?commentpage=1

z Liangbing, X. (10/2013), Worldcrunch. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.worldcrunch.com/impact-smarter-cities/big-dreams-and-ghost-town-fears-in-china-039-s-new-mega-eco-city/tianjin-eco-city-environment-pollution-sustainable/c15s13841/#.U01CU1WSzHV

z SSTEC Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (2012), Retrieved April 30, 2014, from Tainjin Eco-City: http://stc.dashilan.cn/en/index.aspx

z The World Bank (06/2010), Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/loans-credits/2010/07/22/china-sino-singapore-tainjin-eco-city-project

z Tianjin Eco City (2012), Tianjin Eco City – A Model for Sustainable Development. Retrieved 2014, from www.tianjinecocity.gov

z UNEP (03/2013), Retrieved April 30, 2014, from UNEP: http://www.unep.org/chinese/south-south-cooperation/case/casefiles.aspx?csno=114

z Vince, G. (05/2012), BBC Future. Retrieved April 2014, from Sustainable Cities on the rise: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120503-sustainable-cities-on-the-rise

z See also: http://www.tianjineco-city.com/planning/Planning.html






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Urban NEXUS Case Study August 2014 06AbstractConventional siloed approaches to waste management tend to focus on the disposal of waste as a singular and linear problem, often overlooking opportunities to link additional systems and services for enhanced resource efficiencies and co-benefits. The Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy represents a unique case of successfully integrated synergies between seemingly incompatible and pressing issues: waste management, electricity production, social equity, and environmental preservation. The following case study illuminates eThekwini’s process of harnessing multiple resources for enhanced integration and conservation in a successfully applied NEXUS of sectors and systems for the cascading of resources.

Conventional solid waste management versus innova-tive NEXUS approachesIn our rapidly urbanizing world, sustainable solid waste management constitutes a key challenge faced by cities in the 21st century. The level of solid waste production has already reached a record high and is projected to increase by 70% by 2025 (World Bank, 2012). In most countries landfilling is still the standard method of dealing with solid waste. However, if unmonitored, landfilling activities result in great harm to the environment and neighboring communities. Waste decomposition not only produces greenhouse gas emissions through the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter, toxic chemicals can also leach into the soil, which contaminates surface and ground water bodies (World Bank, 2012). Thus, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions to address the growing production of solid waste.

Panoramic View over the landfill and plant conservation area.

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Waste–Environemnt–Energy–Social



Scale Facility Project with Community Involvement

Budget 685.500 EUR (10 million ZAR)

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The eThekwini Municipality successfully limited human impact imposed on the environment through landfilling by creating a conservancy and a gas-to-energy plant inside the Mariannhill landfill. The initiative has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about landfills by seizing the opportunity to use them as a means to promote biodiversity and awareness, while reaping additional educational benefits for the community.

eThekwini, South AfricaNEXUS opportunities at the Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy Plant


eThekwini: A growing metropolis In December 2000, the name of the city of Durban was changed to eThekwini and it acquired the status of a Metropolitan Municipality, hence broadening its border and administrative authority. This administrative change was part of the larger national post-apartheid context of institutional re-organization, aimed at recognizing regional functional interdependencies and redistributing resources to address inequalities between the relatively wealthy centers and the poorer peripheries. In an attempt to address the issue of institutional fragmentation, a single democratically elected municipal council was created in 2000 (Marx and Charlton, 2003). The metropolis of eThekwini has an estimated population of 3,442,361 inhabitants (2011, Census). It is the second largest metropolitan area in South Africa after Johannesburg with an economy centered on the manufacturing and tourism sectors.

In 2010 alone, the eThekwini Metropolitan Area produced over 1.8 million tons of waste, 1.4 million of which were deposited in three different landfills (DSW, 2011). Acting upon an increasing concern for the area’s environmental sustainability, the national government set a target to reduce national GHG emissions by 30 million tons by 2015 (Winkler and Van Es, 2007).

Four in one: The case in which a landfill, community public space, conservancy and a power plant connect The planning and implementation of the Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy project was done in a two-fold manner: the first stage of the project entailed the construction of a landfill and a conservancy on the same site, followed by the second phase, the construction of the leachate treatment plant, and the gas-to-electricity power plant.

Aerial view of the Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy Plant.

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The first phase of the project is characterized by the integration of two distinctly different services and facilities: environmental conservation and waste management. In order to incorporate plant and species conservation activities onsite, one of the main components of the conservancy facilities is the Plant Rescue Unit, (PRUNIT) which ensures the immediate rehabilitation of land on closed landfill cells. The Plant Rescue Unit also monitors plant life within the entire landfill. When a cell is planned to open, the PRUNIT lists and relocates species into a similar environment. Upon the closing of a cell, the PRUNIT then ensures its complete rehabilitation. Typically in South Africa, the rehabilitation phase only intervenes after all the cells of the landfill fully close, which often happens decades after its opening. Therefore, at Mariannhill, rehabilitation is an on-going process, requiring iterative PRUNIT intervention.

The Red Data Species program monitors and controls endangered species present onsite via migration corridors and biological control systems. Following the requirements defined by the Conservancy’s authority, facilities were implemented to enable staff members to perform the monitoring of wildlife inside the conservancy. The staff lists and monitors species present in the conserved area, including over 150 species of birds. The Conservancy’s onsite education center, public walking trail, and its tours increases public awareness and facilitate behavioral change.

In the second phase of the project, aiming at generating power from emitted landfill gas, a gas-to-energy power plant was constructed. The plant construction is part of a wider GHG emission reduction policy, which encompasses the collection of methane gas at two additional landfills in Durban.

In order to treat the collected waste leachate, a leachate treatment plant has been built on the site. The leachate treatment plant treats up to 50 cubic meters of leachate per day, helping to safeguard against soil, and water contamination. The fully treated water is used for the irrigation of plants and to control landfill dust.

Urban NEXUS planning for integrated solutions

The Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy is the result of an institutional NEXUS and a high level of public participation. Precluding the Landfill Conservancy’s implementation, the Department of Solid Waste planned to build a third landfill in the city at the location of Mariannhill, however, the project was met with strong resistance from residents and non-governmental organizations.

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) was particularly active in fighting the project. In 1997, a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed and the Department of Solid Waste was granted the authorization to exploit the site despite public opposition.

Leachate treatment plant with plant rescue bed

Leachate TreatmentThe Mariannhill and Buffeldraai landfill sites have fully engineered and integrated leachate treatment plants, including engineered reedbeds, which treat between 50 and 200 m³/day of leachate respectively of varying biological strengths.

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In order to address popular concerns, the Solid Waste Department held a discussion with WESSA and commissioned a horticultural consultant to provide a project proposal to control the adverse consequences of waste management on the environment. Public consultation and collaboration between the DSW and WESSA helped reach a consensus among all parties involved and was key to realizing the project. The department of Solid Waste contemplated using landfill gas to electricity technology as early as 1994, yet the idea could not be concretized as it was not financially viable. The participation of South Africa in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), that has been created to finance projects aiming at reducing GHG emissions, was a turning point for the achievement of the gas-to-electricity plant.

A multi stakeholder effort leads the way

The Durban Solid Waste Department (DSW) initiated and oversaw the construction of both components of the project, the conservancy, and the gas-to-electricity plant. The DSW continues to own and operate the landfill site. Additionally, since the project’s implementation the Monitoring Committee has been assisting the DSW in monitoring the site. The Monitoring Committee is composed of volunteers representing various stakeholders including residents and environmental organizations. The DSW worked side-by-side with civil society, notably WESSA, to design the conservancy side of the project. In the words of Deputy Head of the Engineering at Durban Solid Waste, John Parkin, “heated discussions” characterized WESSA-DSW relations, at first. However, such exchanges formed the basis for greater cooperation. After much discussion, Ezemvelo Kwa-Zulu Natal Wildlife, the governmental organization responsible for conservancies in South Africa, eventually granted the Mariannhill Landfill the status of a conservancy.

The gas-to-electricity plant project additionally benefited from the involvement of public-private partnerships. The Mayor personally led the negotiations with the World Bank, the responsible partner for the partial financing of the project, concerning the CDM.

The electricity produced at the Mariannhill power plant is managed by eThekwini Electricity, the municipal utility responsible for distribution, which usually buys most of the electricity from the public utility Eksom (eThekwini Municipality, 2011). In effect, the Mariannhill power plant presents a promising alternative to South African thermal, coal-fired power plants.

Gas to Energy Plant

The Marianhill gas to electricity plant functions through a proven technology of feeding the landfill gas into purpose-built spark-ignition engines each with a 500 KW to 1MW electricity generation capacity. The plant has a power generation capacity of 1-2-MW.

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Onsite gas to electricity plant


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Visitors at a study tour around the landfill conservancy

Results and impacts of the project in the communityThe Mariannhill project has increased the City’s waste disposal capacity. The landfill receives roughly 450 tons of waste daily, which corresponds to about 15% of the eThekwini Municipality’s total daily waste production.

The project successfully controls environmental impacts of land filling. It avoids soil contamination and water pollution, which formerly heavily burdened the city’s sewage system.

The gas-to-electricity plant reduces GHG emissions. For the year 2012–2013, emissions were reduced by 33,851 tons of CO², while producing between 450,000 and 650,000 kWh of electricity per month, providing electricity for approximately 500 households (Impumelelo, 2007; Peter and Swilling, 2012).

The landfill has become an asset for the community. The project integrates local inhabitants in the management of the landfill conservancy through the Monitoring Committee. It increases social awareness about biodiversity and waste issues through weekly environmental lectures and regular visits from schools.

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Community members help to chop wood

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Community involvement

Community involvement is one of the key assets of the landfill conservancy. Community members are involved in activities such as woodlot management. Educational tours through all the facilities onsite are another means to involve local people and raise awareness amongst the population.

Lessons learnedThe success of the initiative lies in a conscious attempt to re-integrate segregated services, silos and systems with social and behavioral change. The project would have had a significantly different outcome, had it not been for the participation of extra-departmental experts, institutions and organizations at the early stages of the project’s development. The capacity to think “outside the box” aided the design of an innovative solution and enabled the community to revolutionize what would have been a single sector issue and approach, to encompass a multi-sectoral solution which ultimately added greater benefit to the community.

The project benefited from diverse sources of funding, allowing the Solid Waste Department to expand the project and incorporate new elements. The application to the World Bank funded Clean Development Mechanism was a key element for the financing of the project and the integration of the energy department.

The strength of the project was the DSW’s capacity to discuss challenges and opportunities with numerous stakeholders. Initially, the project was met with strong resistance from both local residents and environmental organizations. However, the project successfully integrated dissident voices into the design of the landfill to reach a win-win situation, satisfying all parties. The project kept its core function as a landfill depository, while eliciting additional positive effects on the environment, producing energy and enhancing social cohesion by providing the community with educational workshops, and a new open public space.

The Solid Waste department had to fight in order to make the project happen, consequently the project suffered from bureaucratic difficulties. Firstly, senior management and budget committees from the municipality were reluctant to adopt the project. Conventionally, large funds had been allocated for rehabilitation only upon a landfill’s closing. However, in the Mariannhill case, rehabilitation was an on-going process which implied shifting the funding model for landfill management. A second difficulty arose when the landfill sought to acquire the status of a conservancy. The Conservancies Authority, Ezemvelo Kwa-Zulu Natal Wildlife, initially believed the landfill could not become a conservancy. A great deal of discussion was needed to change this fundamental assumption. Only after it was acknowledged that the Mariannhill project was no different from an Industrial Conservancy, could the project be granted the title and the attached legal protection benefits of a conservancy. The absence of integration between silos would have considerably undermined the chances for a project of this nature to come to light.

Improving public, administrative and institutional awareness was crucial to the Mariannhill project’s success. According to Deputy Head of the Engineering at Durban Solid Waste, John Parkin, “people do not understand waste management and are therefore suspicious of anyone or anything related to the subject matter. One has to build the relationship and the trust by getting senior management to buy in and thus obtain their support. Find suitably qualified people that can contribute to the team effort”.


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Replication

The project is replicable, provided that the managing authority establishes strong and long-lasting cross-sectoral and inter-departmental partnerships. The participation of extra-departmental experts and stakeholders including a horticultural consultant and organizations are key factors to reaching a win-win agreement. Monitored through a natural, efficient and low-cost treatment system, the landfill does not cost more than a conventional landfill (Impumelelo, 2007). The project is a successful solution to problems linked to solid waste management, with positive and long-lasting effects on both the environment and the surrounding communities.

“Running a landfill as a conservancy requires a mindset change and is hard work but the rewards are well worth it for the environment and from the conflict perspective. It is far more stressful being under siege than working with all involved in achieving a common goal”, says John Parkin, Deputy Head of the Engineering at Durban Solid Waste.

Budget and finances

The Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy is one of the three landfills of the eThekwini municipality. The nearby gas-to-electricity power plant is part of a wider project whereby the three landfills are equipped with power plants. The total cost of the project including the three landfills is about R 148.5 million (US$ 14.15 million) for the eThekwini municipality until the landfills reach their full capacity (each has a lifespan of 21 years). The World Bank has additionally financed the project through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Overall, the municipality should make a net profit of R 56.9 million (US$ 562,292) through the CDM, which will contribute to finance the Mariannhill conservancy’s facilities (eThekwini municipality, 2006). The overall project costs no more than a conventional landfill (Impumelelo, 2007).

Red Data Species

The black headed dwarf chameleon is one of the red data species that is protected at the Marianhill Conservancy. Research on the species and a newly developed relocation protocol resulting in the successful preservation of the chameleon population has been approved by KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife.

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Key Contacts

City of eThekwini John Parkin Deputy Head: Plant and Engineering Cleansing and Solid Waste eThekwini Municipality, Durban, AfricaTel: +27 31 311 8820Email: [email protected]


Acknowledgements

z Shella Patrickson, ICLEI Africa z Author: Angèle Cauchois (Sciences Po-ICLEI Capstone Project) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke, Lucy Price and Louisa Weiss, ICLEI World Secretariat z Interviewees: John Parkin, Durban Solid Waste

Sources z Monitoring Committee (official website): http://landfillconservancies.com/ z eThekwini Municipality (official website): http://www.durban.gov.za/Pages/default.aspx z Marx, C. and Charlton, S. (2003), “The case of Durban, South Africa”.

UNDERSTANDING SLUMS: Case Studies for the Global Report on Human Settlements, UCL.

z http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Durban.pdf z Strachan L.J. and Couth B. (2003), “Landfill gas to electricity project”, DSW Unit z http://www1.durban.gov.za/durban/services/cleansing/recycling/har z “Sustainability Best Practice Portfolio 2005/6 – Special edition – Climate Change” from

the eThekwini Municipality http://www.durban.gov.za/City_Services/development_planning_management/environmental_planning_climate_protection/Publications/Documents/Sustainability%20Best%20Practice%20Climate%20Change.pdf

z “Integrated waste management plan for eThekwini Municipality”, Durban Solid Waste, August 2004, Document No. 2214/D0147

z http://www.durban.gov.za/Documents/CityServices/Cleansing%20and%20Solid%20Waste/Integrated_Waste_Management_Plan.pdf

z Impumelelo, 2007 “Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy”, Impumelelo Magazine, 2006–2007 http://impumelelo.org.za/media/publications/marianhill-landfill-conservancy

z “Project Summary Document: Durban Landfill-to-electricity”, Durban Solid Waste, 2004 http://www.kznenergy.org.za/download/projects/Durban_Landill-Gas_to_Electricity_22_Nov.pdf

z Winkler, H. and Van Es, D. (2007), “Energy efficiency and the CDM in South Africa: constraints and opportunities”, Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, Vol. 18 No 1, February 2007.

z Camaren, P. and Swilling, M. (2012), Sustainable, Resource Efficient Cities – Making It Happen!. UNEP. http://www.usp.br/fau/cursos/graduacao/arq_urbanismo/disciplinas/aut0221/Material_de_Apoio/Cidades/Sustainableresourceefficientcities.pdf




Further Reading:GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: towards resource efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions. Available at: www.iclei.org/urbannexus

Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 06, eThekwini, Durban

On behalf of:





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The metropolitan region of Lille has been a pioneer in sustainable waste-to-energy practices since the early 1990s and the initiative is still expanding. Today, the entire city fleet is fueled with biomethane produced from organic waste. At the same time, local agriculture benefits from organic fertilizers produced from the residues of the waste’s biodigestion. Lille metropolitan region stands as a best-practice example of successful sustainable resource management.

Lille Metropole, FranceWaste to fuel: biogas powered buses in Lille Metropole

AbstractIn 1994, the city of Lille deployed four “Biobuses”. Today, what was once an experiment has transformed into a fleet of 400 waste-to-energy buses running on biogas, which continues to thrive. A pioneer in sustainable development and renewable energies, the City has achieved seemingly unrelated policy objectives through the adoption of an integrated approach, consisting of targeted investments in multipurpose resources, systems and facilities. As a result, some 500,000 inhabitants’ organic wastes are turned into fuel for the City’s transport system, in turn mitigating climate change impacts and strengthening energy security.

The importance of waste as a resourceMore than 130 million tons of bio-waste are produced in Europe each year, 88 million of which originate from cities, a number expected to increase 10 percent by 2020. In the meantime, the world’s urban areas continue to be major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, largely from an over-reliance on fossil fuels, such as oil or natural gas for transport, which are harmful to air quality and the environment. To counteract this, biofuels, as opposed to conventional fossil fuels, increased in popularity over the last decades. However, many countries engaging in the production of biofuels have done so by using land originally designated to grow food crops, thus trading one security for another.

Since the early 1990s, the Lille Metropole biofuel experiment has faced no such tradeoffs, far from it. Through installing an Organic Valorization Center (a waste-to-energy plant) in the peripheral neighborhood of Sedequin, half of the city’s bio-wastes are turned into biomethane to fuel public buses. Residuals provide compost for agriculture, therefore contributing to strengthening food and energy security. In addition, pressure on the local landfill is reduced (and associated costs and hazards). The biogas bus experiment is not only an example of clean energy production and use, it also presents a strong case for integrated development, whereby formerly cumbersome waste is turned into valuable resources, positively impacting the society and the environment.

Date 1994–ongoingUrban NEXUS Sectors

Waste–Energy–Agriculture



Scale Metropolitan Region

Budget EUR 75 million

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Lille in contextThe Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine (LMCU) authority was created in 1967 following the 1966 law on urban communities, in order to cope with the administrative fragmentation of large agglomerations in France. Today the LMCU is responsible for the management of public transport, waste and sewage treatment services for all of the 85 communes which form the Lille Metropolitan area. Located in the Nord-pas-de-Calais region, near the Belgium border, the fourth largest agglomeration in France extends over 61,145 ha and hosts a population exceeding one million inhabitants.

Lille and its surroundings were formerly renowned for heavily polluting textile and brick industries. The environmental degradation that resulted from such activities, followed by the 1970s industrial crisis, incited the LMCU to confront the region’s issues with comprehensive urban development schemes. As a consequence, since the early 1990s, Lille Métropole has engaged in a new line of urban (re)development, with a strong political determination to adopt a holistic approach toward sustainability.

Reintegrating waste management and public transportation at the metropolitan level In 1990, the City of Lille installed a pilot scrubbing unit in Lille’s Marquette Water Treatment Plant to recover the surplus biogas produced by the digestion of sewage sludge, under the European Thermie program for innovation. As a result, 3000m³ per day of gas which was previously burned through the plant’s flares was converted into bio-methane per day and used to power four buses between 1994 and 2004.

Additionally, half of the bus fleet was replaced with natural gas vehicles (NGVs), as the 1999 Mobility Plan (the first in LMCU) facilitated the use of gas-powered vehicles for environmental reasons. Simultaneously, two recycling centers were set up to manage the growing waste generation.

As of 2005, biofuels only represented two percent of renewable energies in France. According to the European Commission, the methanization of all of the European Union’s organic wastes would supply one third of its transport

Lille's Organic Recovery Center

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Biowaste as energy source

In addition to the common biowaste tons visible in the picture, the Metropolitan Region of Lille equipped restaurants and hotels with macerators that collect and prepare gastronomical biowaste, that is then collected and brought to the gas to energy plant.

fuels. Exemplified by the Marquette experiment’s success, buses fuelled with waste-generated gas became a reality. As a consequence, LMCU scaled up the construction of an Organic Recovery Center (ORC) in order to foster synergies between more than four previously siloed sectors, namely waste, transport, agriculture, social inclusion, and health. Today, non-organic wastes are burned through the Energetic Recovery Center (ERC), a waste-to-energy facility.

As the coordinator of the Biofuel Cities European program Biogasmax which started in 2006, LMCU’s aim was to prove the technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness and resource efficiency potential of vehicles powered from waste methanization. In this context, the ORC was built in order to treat household wastes efficiently while ultimately reducing dependencies on external and scarce fossil fuel supplies. To bring the project to fruition, partnerships were contracted between LMCU and private companies, such as Transpole, Triselec, Carbiolane (Dalkia), and the primary natural gas utility Gazreseau Distribution France (GrDF); respectively in charge of transport, waste management, operating the ORC and ERC, and gas distribution network in the City. The first three companies are bound by a ‘public services delegation’ contract, in which Lille Metropole remains the major stakeholder and owns the material equipment. This way, LMCU remains the main coordinator of the metropolis development, fostering dialogue between experts, economic partners, mayors, and local territorial representatives of the civil society, especially as the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai was officially established in 2008 (the first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation).

LMCU’s initiative was therefore legally and financially supported by the EU, the French state and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, but would not have been made possible without the strong involvement of its citizens. Indeed, the LMCU’s engagement for sustainable development is based on over two decades worth of participatory mechanisms for democracy, translated into institutionalized organizations such as the Council for Development, regular forums and GrandsDebats, whereby the civil society is regularly consulted in the elaboration of the City’s development plans.

ResultsLille Métropole has thus far successfully coordinated diverse institutional levels, citizens’ expectations and private actors to implement a NEXUS approach to structural issues of siloed development, sectors and services in the City.

With a capacity of 108,000 tons per year, the ORC processes organic wastes from 550,000 inhabitants, resulting in the production of 4,111,000 m³/year of biogas (equivalent to 4,480,000 m³ of diesel).

Lille currently has three bus depots supplying biogas for the over 400 buses powered by a mix of natural gas and biogas. 25,000 households’ electricity consumption is generated and covered by the Energetic Recovery Center (Electricité de France, EDF, being legally bound to buy the generated electricity since 2006). In addition, 25,000–30,000 tons per year of compost are produced and reused for local agricultural purposes, reducing dependence on chemicals for local and regional farmers (60% of LMCU’s communes are rural).

Monitoring the project during Biogasmax has shown that biomethane was financially viable, with a cost equal to the current price of natural gas, however more stable.

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U In 2011, the ORC received authorization to release biomethane into the GrDF’s grid, in turn spurring the evolution of the national legislation to include renewable sources while solving safety issues linked to the storage of biogas. Due to national support of feed-in tariffs, Transpole, the agency in charge of the public transportation of Lille Métropole, is legally bound to purchase biogas generated by the ORC for its vehicles. As a result, not only public buses but also the waste collection fleet shifted from diesel to NGVs, with pure biomethane being used in waste collection trucks. In order to further optimize the transport of household waste in the metropolitan area, and to relieve traffic congestion on the A1 highway, organic wastes from the ERC to the ORC are transferred via waterway, saving 12,500 truck journeys peryear. The biomethane production unit from sewage sludge at the Marquette water treatment plant was also upgraded in 2013.

In terms of environmental benefits and climate change mitigation, the use of gas compared to oil reduces CO2 emissions by up to 96% since NGVs emit little to no particles. Nitrogen contamination of agricultural soil is reduced by 51% due to the use of bio-fertilizer produced in the ORC plant. The ORC and gas buses reintegrate waste management, energy and food security, while improving the life of city dwellers through cleaner air quality, noise reduction and efficient public transport systems. Awareness campaigns have successfully promoted these changes in terms of public health and well-being.

In result of numerous awareness campaigns in schools, canteens and offices, by 2008, all of Lille’s inhabitants were sorting their waste−an objective the EU requested its members to achieve by 2015.

Lessons learnedPolitical will can spark big changes. The “Biobuses” initiative was primarily the result of a strong political determination on LMCU’s side to adopt an integrated, comprehensive and smart development for its urban agglomeration. LMCU successfully acted as broker between citizens, mayors, entrepreneurs, and industry at the local and national level. The transformation of organic waste into biomethane for public transportation was a thoughtful choice which enabled the achievement of various policy outcomes through targeted investments. Through the institutional NEXUS between private and public stakeholders and the efficient re-use of wastes for energy, fuel, and fertilizer, the initiative reintegrates previously fragmented functions of the urban environment, ensuring the efficient and intensive use of available resources.

The various enterprises that emerged as a consequence of the initiative exemplify the potential of a profitable and yet sustainable economy, two notions often portrayed as irreconcilable in prevailing discourse. Through the applied technological innovation, Lille has managed to change its course from a formerly polluted, industrial center, to one of the most innovative cities in France and a leader in sustainable waste management and transport in Europe.

Both the vertical and horizontal collaboration of actors were a prerequisite for the smooth implementation of the project. The civil society was a crucial contributor as households, markets and catering industries were asked to sort their garbage in dual compartment bins for the direct collection of bio-wastes.

Pilot projects and national legislation to aid sustainable initiatives matter. The project first encountered reluctance from some actors especially at the

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national level as the legislation did not provide a proper framework to foster such activities. However, pilot projects (such as la Marquette) and support from independent organizations’ experts (ADEME) have helped to shift the country’s legislation to make similar initiatives possible.

ReplicationAs Lille’s biogas buses project shows, an institutional NEXUS can be achieved through political motivation, dialogue and awareness, to the service of a greater sustainability and resilience. The modes of dialogue and management of resources employed in Lille are replicable in other metropolitan regions, provided the metropolis has the legislation, political, and social will and adequate funds to execute them. The cascading of resources, which would have otherwise been wasted, lie at the core of Lille’s development strategy towards an optimized urban network. The transformation of waste to biomethane is also performed in other European cities, for example in Goteborg, Sweden or Bern, Switzerland, where biomethane is used in the natural gas grid.

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A busfleet running on biogas

With a capacity of 108,000 tons per year, the ORC processes organic wastes from 550,000 inhabitants, resulting in the production of 4,111,000 m³/year of biogas (equivalent to 4,480,000 m³ of diesel). Lille currently has three bus depots supplying biogas for over 400 buses powered by a mix of natural and biogas.

Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 07, Lille Metropolitan Region, France

On behalf of:

Budget and financesWithin the Biofuel Cities European framework, LMCU’s project of waste methanization for transportation is the largest in Europe. Building the ORC required upfront investments of approximately € 70 million. It was co-financed by the Regional Fund for Energy Management (€ 1.3 million), ADEME (€ 1 million) and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund, € 1 million). The annual maintenance is of € 3 million, and is operated by the contracting firm Carbiolane. Overall, returns on investments concerning the ORC, buses and depots are expected to take place in 30 years. Benefits are drawn from tax revenues, energy savings, and the selling of compost and biogas. Further, a gas-motorized bus costs € 35,000 euro less than a diesel motorized bus.

Acknowledgements

z Author: Louise Cousyn (Master GLM, Sciences Po Paris) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke, Lucy Price, Louisa Weiss ICLEI World Secretariat

Sources z Official Website of Lille Metropole: www.lillemetropole.fr z Weyrauch, A. (12/2011), “Gérer les déchets autrement, l’exemple de Lille Métropole”,

Ceras – revue Projet n°324-325, accesible at: http://www.ceras-projet.com/index.php?id=5387)

z Biogasmax 2006/2010 synthesis report z Atee, club biogaz report (2011): Communauté urbaine Lille Metropole, centre de

valorisation organique, accessible at: http://atee.fr/sites/default/files/2011_fiche_lillemetropole_clubbiogaz.pdf)

z ADEME report (2010), “Etude de marché de la méthanization et des valorisation du biogaz”

z Direction des résidus urbains de Lille: Rapport annuel sur la qualité et le prix du service public d’éliminétion des déchets, année 2012

z Pierre HIRTZBERGER: Résidus Urbains, Production de biogaz-carburant pour une flotte de bus urbains au gaz: l’expérience de Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine.

Key Contacts

Metropolitan Region of Lille Mr. N. Glière City OfficialLille, FranceEmail: [email protected]://www.lillemetropole.fr/





Further Reading:

GIZ and ICLEI, 2014, Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS: towards resource efficient and integrated cities and metropolitan regions. Available at: www.iclei.org/urbannexus

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Medellín, once one of the most violent and socially fragmented places in the world, developed a strategy to strengthen social and economic cohesion within the City’s boundaries. The multi-stakeholder Integral Urban Project (PUI) initiative has reintegrated once fragmented neighborhoods into the city through scaled up infrastructure and services. Today, Medellín’s integrated urban renewal serves as a model of integrated planning and innovation in Latin America and throughout the globe.

Medellín, ColombiaThe Integral Urban Development Project: Fighting crime with urban interventions

AbstractIn the 1990s, Medellín was one of Latin America’s most dangerous cities (Vulliamy, 2013).The situation spurred the City of Medellín, together with a range of stakeholders including politicians, NGOs, academics, local community groups, and international organizations, to plan and implement selective urban interventions to improve the lives of inhabitants in the northeast area of the city. The Integral Urban Project (Proyectos Urbanos Integrales, PUI) initiative emerged in response to tackle deep rooted social and economic challenges, including marginalization, poverty, violence, and drug trafficking.

The Integral Urban Project identified strategic areas of the non-consolidated communes of the city and transformed them through an “urban acupuncture” approach, improving both social and physical infrastructure. These interventions reduced social segregation and violence while reintegrating the communes with the rest of the city. The areas of action included strengthening community participation, as well as the improvement of public spaces and housing conditions, community services, and facilities, along with provisions for enhanced environmental sustainability. Ultimately, the institutional Nexus created through the scalar integration of community working groups, municipal and national agencies, with academic institutions, and international development agencies was a key factor behind the PUI’s success.

Addressing social, economic and environmental sustainability with urban planning interventions The eradication of extreme poverty, promotion of environmental sustainability and the prevention of the formation of slums through safe and equitable housing schemes, represent the global problems which are key foci of the Millennium Development Goals. With these goals in mind, the objective of the City of Medellín was to implement a set of urban interventions within a master plan which embraced an integrated approach to development, and would be replicable in other urban areas with similar conditions.

Date 2004–2011UrbanNEXUS Sectors

Social and Building and Environment and Transport

UrbanNEXUS Innovations

Institutions; Communications and User Behavior

Scale City-wide (five districts, 650.000 people)

Budget US$ 500 million

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Medellín in context: Marginalization, violence and weak state interventionMedellín is Colombia’s second largest city, with more than 3.5 million inhabitants in the metropolitan region. The metropolis is located in a northern Valley of the Andes Mountains and is an important center for the region due to its commercial and industrial activities, as well as its academic and public institutions. Less than a decade ago, many parts of the city of Medellín experienced a lack of political support, resulting in deep social and economic segregation; a phenomenon that also manifested itself in the physical structure of the city. The insufficient presence of members of State led to poor living conditions characterized by social marginality and violence, particularly in the northeast communes.

The history of Medellín’s informal settlementsThe formation of the first informal settlements along the urban periphery, which now comprise the self-constructed communes in northeast Medellín, began in the 1940s and continued with the proliferation of new settlements in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1970 onwards, the economy stagnated and the formal sector was unable to absorb the incoming labor force. The social impact of this situation was signficant, and by the end of the 1980s, unemployment had risen to 13% of the labor force. Of this figure, more than 50% of the unemployed were concentrated in the low-income areas, particularly in the northeast of the city. From 1982 to 1990, the number of violent deaths occurring rose from four to fifteen per day. Among children under five years of age, 48% were underfed, 18.8% suffered severe malnutrition and school desertion stood at 48%. The local average income was US$ 83 dollars, compared to a national urban average of US$ 115 dollars.

Additionally, population densities in low income areas reached 500 inhabitants per hectare (UN Habitat, 2012). At the same time, social segregation, poverty,

Escalators and lifts improve the accessibility of hillside developments to the city center

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and marginalization rose, while continuous unplanned urbanization took place on the hillsides of the urban territory.

The 1990s marked a turning point for Medellín’s settlements. In 1996, the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements was signed at the HABITAT II Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements. The agreement established secure and hygenic shelters and settlements as a universal goal. As a product of this international push for equitable, safe housing, the first of the State’s integrated attempts at intervention in Medellín resulted in the widespread consolidation of basic services and facilities such as paved roads, collective equipment and street lighting in the area.

An example of these early interventions is the Integrated Slum Upgrading Program of Medellín, or Programa Integral de Mejoramiento de Barrios Subnormales en Medellín (PRIMED), a pilot project started in 1993 in cooperation with the Colombian and German Government, through the Ministry for Economic and Development Cooperation (BMZ), the German Development Bank (KfW), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The program lasted seven years before being closed in 2000 due to the lack of local political continuity. Nevertheless, the PRIMED pilot project managed to sketch the guidelines for a new approach to urban marginality through establishing a methodological structure, new management capacity and innovative institutional coordination; all of which would be reapplied later.

Starting in 2000, the City was repeatedly struck by a constant wave of protests, wherein civil society called for a dramatic transformation of Medellín’s insecure and socially fragmented conditions. The government’s awareness of the low quality of life and marginality that prevailed, along with the history of violence of the city and civic pressures, led to a renewed inter-institutional effort to confront the issue.

Medellín’s Integral Urban Project: Planning for holistic integration The planning and implementation of the first Integral Urban Development project was the result of a collaborative effort across multiple sectors (public, private, community, NGOs and international organizations) to address key issues in the poor neighborhoods. These included the reduction of violence and marginalization, the strengthening of communities, the improvement of public spaces, pedestrian mobility, formal housing, as well as the mitigation of environmental problems with an integrated approach. The integrated model of intervention of the PUI consisted of the development of high quality infrastructure, along with broad community participation to guarantee its sustainability. Specific objectives included the upgrading of local planning and urban development in the densely populated neighborhoods, the improvement of conditions of human development through education and health services, the identification of referential sites for citizen interaction, and improvement of urban equipment for the communities by supplying urban areas with centers for community activities. Transportation was also made a priority: the Metrocable cable-car system was installed to provide residents in previously under-serviced areas with an affordable transport option.

The formulation of the plan for Medellín’s Integral urban project was included in the local administration’s Development Plans from 2004–2007 and from 2008–2011.

The master plan of the project detailed physical, social, and institutional interventions necessary to improve the quality of life of inhabitants living in the most vulnerable areas of Medellín, which were identified as five different communes of the city. The methodology of implementation aimed to generate an institutional Urban Nexus between communities and governmental departments, as well as private and international agencies, to deliver concrete outcomes and ensure the sustainability of the project. At the methodological level, the master plan for the Integral Urban Project was developed in four phases (Laboratorio de Medellín, 2011):

1. Planning: via an analysis of the city to define the scope of intervention, this component incorporated municipal action, a model for the management of the project, and the signing of inter-administrative contracts.

2. Diagnosis and formulation: consisted of the definition of the master plan for the area. The diagnosis included identifying the problems around community life and their sources, as well as potential areas of opportunity for change. Subsequently, the contracts, actions, programs and projects were identified and articulated according to the required interventions. Following this, the information was systematized in order to include the priorities of the community. Project formulation involved the identification of actions for each component, the location of interventions, the budget, parameters for community participation, and a comprehensive implementation schedule.

3. Project development: consolidated the urban and architectural design, and determined the path for its management, socialization, and implementation.

4. Project delivery: involved the final delivery of the PUI to the responsible actors, such as the relevant authorities needed to implement and execute certain strategies to ensure continuity of the initiatives at the municipal level.

The PUI North-East was the first pilot project, and was implemented in Communes 1 and 2. The second PUI began in 2006 in Commune 13. Two years later, the project was implemented in the center-east (Communes 8 and 9). The fourth phase of implementation targeted the northwest Communes 5 and 6. The last PUI was executed in Commune 7, Iguana.

The creation of accessible, inclusive public spaces: an essential compontent of the PUIs

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Integrating actors: Linking the local to international scalesIn order to achieve these goals, the mayoral office of Medellín designated the autonomous municipal Company of Urban Development (Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano, short EDU) to serve as an umbrella authority to organize, advise, and consult an array of actors. EDU coordinated the design, planning and organization, management of information and resources, and oversaw the execution of PUIs projects. Specifically, EDU’s activities range from soil management, urban renewal, and real estate operation to design, innovation, and the execution of projects for integrated habitat transformation.

The PUI programs were put into action through the EDU’s coordinated efforts, with the support of several Colombian public and private agencies. Together, all these stakeholders cooperated to achieve an integrated urban management Nexus that addressed the improvement of urban spaces, health services, education, local economy, resource management, and environmental protection. Medellín’s Secretary of Public Works, the Secretary of Government, and the Secretary of Health were responsible for the improvement of physical infrastructure as well as public health and security. The EPM, EEVVM, and the Secretary of Environment for Medellín helped to improve the environment and the quality of life of the citizens through scaled up sanitation, communications, and waste management facilities.

The Secretaries of Education, Civic Culture, Social Development, as well as the ITM and the INDER worked together to provide programs to reduce school desertion, extend higher education, emphasize the value of life in order to reduce violence, promote human development, and foster economic and artistic innovation. Simultaneously, the Secretary of Social Welfare for Medellín and the ISVIMED developed social housing projects, such as the Shared Housing Model (Modelo de Vivienda Compartida, short MVC) to offer housing alternatives for families to overcome their vulnerability and extreme poverty conditions.

The international financial support for the PUIs originated from agencies such as the United Nations Habitat and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Spanish Development Cooperation Agency (AECI), and the French Agency for Development (AFD). The Agency of International Cooperation of Medellín (ACI) played a fundamental role in linking a range of international public and private entities with the PUIs for their financial support.

Beyond the social dimension of this project and the increased welfare of the population, the reintegration of the communes to the City’s economic center has benefited both the public and private financial outlook through the creation of new sources of income for the state through taxes, as well as new commercial opportunities for investors, including technology giant Hewlett-Packard.

ResultsSocial interventions included the strengthening of communitarian organizations through workshops and the training of community leaders, as well as regular open information sessions. It also involved the appointment of a managerial municipal committee and the formation of discussion tables, allowing the public, private, international, and academic sectors to convene, monitor, and assess cooperation and progress towards the program goals.

Physical interventions included the revitalization of public spaces and the construction of parks and squares. To promote pedestrian mobility, the transport

Smart Urban Infrastructure

(Physical) integration of the Communes by connecting them with the city center via an escalator system.

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system was extended, streets were improved and bridges, and escalators were constructed. In addition, programs for the improvement and construction of mixed-use buildings for residents dwelling in informal arrangements were promoted. Community services and amenities, such as public libraries, schools, police stations, internet cafes, and multifunctional community centers were created, and 14 business development centers (CEZEDOs) were constructed to serve as microfinance institutions: hubs for entrepreneurship and the cultivation of local economic sustainability.

The PUIs also attempted to mitigate environmental degradation through reforestation programs, construction of a wastewater system for the collection and treatment of water, controlled soil erosion, solid waste management, and restoration of the streams which feed into the City’s river network. In addition, the households located in zones of high hydrological risk were relocated to new residential areas. Campaigns for environmental awareness, sustainability, and risk prevention were launched.

With an eye towards the future, the PUIs have coincided with a shift in Medellín’s international reputation. It has long relinquished the title of the most violent city in the world and, with a 2013 homicide rate of 38.06% (per 100,000 inhabitants), is making inroads into shedding its violent reputation (Ortega, 2014).

Moving forwards, the City of Medellín has established a framework to maintain their positive momentum. The current administration (2012–2015) is committed to a Development Plan which is influenced by social urbanism and civic pedagogy, and they operate a platform that emphasizes equity and inclusion within the city. This commitment is evidenced by emblematic programs such the Metropolitan Green Belt, Articulated Life Units, and the Medellín River intervention.

Lessons learnedThe Metrocable both adds to the variety of transportation available for the population and increases mobility. There were, however, technical lim-itations: for example, designating the Metrocable as a mass-rapid-transit system overlooked the travel patterns and profile of specific users that live in the com-munes, such as merchants who cannot carry large packages in the gondolas.

The housing programs have benefited a large number of the population. However, the demand for housing within the ever growing urban population in Medellín remains unanswered and is contributing to the development of new informal settlements.

The importance of independent public agencies such as EDU and ACI, which maximized cooperation and coordination of the different institutions and stakeholders involved in providing services and facilities. Inter-institutional and scalar coordination have been the key to the PUI’s success.

Community participation reveals the real demands and needs of the popu-lation: by facilitating debates, participative budgets, neighborhood committees, and public consultations, an urban project can reflect practical necessities.

Facilitating tax collection, and the continuous revision of the cadaster were fundamental. It assured resources would be available for developing and im-plementing the infrastructure projects. At the same time, the transparent man-agement of the public resources through periodic public reports strengthened the citizens’ trust in the government. For instance, the display of the slogan “Your Taxes Are Invested Here” on all public works sent the message that public re-

The PUI programs were put into action with support from the following Colombian public and private agencies:

z Secretary of Public Works z Secretary of Education of

Medellín z Secretary of Social Welfare

of Medellín z Secretary of Health of

Medellín z Secretary of Government

of Medellín z Secretaries of Civic Culture

and of Social Development of Medellín

z Secretary of Environment of Medellín

z Company of Public Services (EPM)

z Empresas Varias de Medellín (EEVVM)

z Institute of Sport and Recreation of Medellín (INDER)

z Metropolitan Technological Institute (ITM)

z Social Housing and Shelter Institute of Medellín (ISVIMED)

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August 2014Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 08, Medellín, ColombiaUrban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 08, Medellín, Colombia

sources were used effectively. These strategies increased tax collection by 35% during the period from 2004 to 2007 (Laboratorio de Medellín, 2011: 77).

Social and transport infrastructure are necessary, but not a sufficient to completely solve the social and economic issues which prevail. The PUIs have not succeeded in entirely mitigating housing in risky locations, illegal con-struction, marginalization, and restrictions to mobility. Violence still persists, and Medellín remains among the 50 most violent cities in the world with 920 homicides committed per year (Ortega, 2014). However, the overall trend is positive, and the continuity of the urban project would enhance its long term impact. The current administration (2012–2015) has incorporated elements of the PUI into their Development Program, even though they represent a different political party than the two preceding administrations.

Replication The PUIs reveal the benefits of integrating relevant stakeholders into a transparent and trustworthy context, achieved through the agreement of political neutrality and the establishment of a shared manifesto. Following the first pilot project, the methodology of intervention applied in the northeastern zone of Medellín (diagnosis and formulation, management, design, architectural project, execution, and sustainability and appropriation) has empirically shown its replicability in four unique areas of the city. Moreover, the model has demonstrated its ability to be replicated – entirely or partially – in other areas experiencing similar conditions. For example, officers from Peru have visited the areas of intervention to bring back the methodology for use in their own cities. In particular, the Library Park España has served as a model to improve Lima’s library system (CLUES). The ACI has been a fundamental actor in establishing a route of cooperation between other cities of Latin America, including Lima, Quito, Cuenca, and Buenos Aires. This collaboration provides an inspirational example of “South to South cooper-ation”, and the value of transferring knowledge and experience.

Budget and FinancesThe PUIs were almost entirely funded by the City of Medellín, with the remainder of financial support granted by international agencies for specific projects. For instance, US$ 250 million were granted by the AFD for the construction of the tramway. From 2004 to 2011, total investment into the PUI reached US$ 500 million (CAF, 2011), and this has translated into a total of 125000 m² of public works, including the construction and restoration of 20 parks, the provision of adequate streets for pedestrians and vehicles, and the construction of public amenities and facilities such as the Library Park España (with the support of the Spanish Goverment), Santo Domingo School, the Granizal sports unit, and the CEDEZOs.

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Urban NEXUS Case Study 2014 - 08, Medellín, Colombia

On behalf of:

Key Contacts

City of Medellín Sonia Elisa Vélez Echeverri Agencia de Cooperación e Inversión de Medellín y el Área MetropolitanaTel: +(574) 3203430, Ext. 114Fax: + (574) 3203435Email: [email protected] 41 # 55-80 Plaza Mayor, ala norte. Oficina 303Medellín, AntioquiaColombia


Acknowledgements z Author: Victoria Guadalupe Vital Estrada (Sciences Po-ICLEI Capstone Project) z Editors: Kathrine Brekke, Lucy Price, Louisa Weiss, ICLEI World Secretariat z City contacts: Sonia Elisa Vélez Echeverri, Carolina Franco Bano, Agencia de

Cooperación e Inversión de Medellín y el Área Metropolitana

Sources z Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina (CAF), accessible at

http://desarrollourbano.caf.com/despliegue/casos?id=3147 z Hernández, Correa, Cesar A. (2006), “Proyecto Urbano Integral en la Zona

Nororiental de Medellín. Un modelo de transformación de ciudad”, I Congreso Internacional sobre Desarrollo Humano Madrid, accessible at http://www.reduniversitaria.es/ficheros/CesarHernandezCorrea.pdf

z Laboratorio de Medellín (2011), “Catálogo de diez prácticas vivas”, Alcaldía de Medellín, ISBN 978- 958-8493-92-3, accessible at http://www.acimedellin.org/Portals/0/documentos/MedellinLabEN.pdf

z Ortega, José, A. (2014), “Por tercer año consecutivo, San Pedro Sula es la ciudad más violenta del mundo”, Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia Penal A.C, accessible at http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/sala-de-prensa/941-por-tercer-ano-consecutivo-san-pedro-sula-es-la-ciudad-mas-violenta-del-mundo

z Holcim Foundation (2014), “Urban integration of an informal area”, accessible at http://www.holcimfoundation.org/Projects/urban-integration-of-an-informal-area-medellin

z UN Habitat, “Urban Subcentres for Citizen Life in the Low Income Areas of Medellin Colombia”, Practice Details






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