PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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WHO representatives (World Health Organization 1999). The charter highlights the
specific and wide-ranging impacts of transport activities and infrastructures on human
health. The spirit and approach in the Charter aims at effectively integrating existing
efforts into future action plans. 14
5.4 EU Discourses on Sustainable Urban Development
Sustainable development cannot be achieved without a major focus on cities. This
is particularly true for Europe and North America, where already over three-fourths, or
76 percent, of the population live in urbanized areas. This figure is expected to rise to
83.5 percent by the year 2030 (UNFPT 2001). About one in five Europeans lives in a
conurbation larger than a quarter million inhabitants (CEC 1997:4). In 2000, almost half
of the world's population lived in cities, and by 2030 this percentage is expected to
increase to over 60 percent (UNFPA 2001). 15
Responding to this challenge, the EU has
begun to more explicitly voice its own urban strategies in recent years. Of course, there
is no single one working definition of urban sustainability within the EU. As
everywhere, there is a great variety of definitions. Yet the following review of key EU
statements on urban sustainability demonstrates how much transport and land-use issues
14 A first annex provides up-to-date scientific evidence on key issues (e.g. the quantifiable positive effects
of cycling and walking and the enormous social costs of motorized transport from accidents, noise and
pollution). A second annex then provides a detailed overview of existing relevant international actions,
differentiating between legally binding documents (e.g. the Convention on Transboundary Air Pollution)
and non-binding efforts and declarations. Also see http://www.euro.who.int/transport
15 Although 90 percent of this growth is likely to be in less developed countries, mature economies in
industrialized countries likewise have to contend with the challenge of making their settlement structures
more sustainable. However, the frequently presumed positive relationship between urban compactness and
sustainability remains controversial even in the recent literature on the subject, especially when it comes to
discussing the sustainability aspects of dense and crowded developing country cities in comparison to
developed country cities with more dispersed settlement structures (see e.g. Jenks 2000, Burgess 2000).
Richardson et al. (2000:32) correctly note that discussions on the application of sustainability in an urban
context have been inconsistent and often been limited to non-automobile dependence and ecological
footprint discussions.