Sustainability is arguably the challenge of our time. There is growing recognition that our current development path is now threatening the natural systems upon which our civilisation ultimately depends. Sustainable urban development requires a new way of doing things – a way which reduces environmental impact while at the same time promoting widespread economic and social progress. The buildings and supporting infrastructure of our towns and cities contribute positively to people’s quality of life but often use materials, produce waste and release CO₂ significantly in excess of that which our land, water and climate can continue to accommodate. Many urban centres are still blighted by crime and poverty: poorly designed developments have negative effects on the health, welfare and economic prospects of communities.

Throughout the world urban decision-makers need robust and comprehensive metrics, models and tools to help them assess the extent to which their choices are leading to urban developments that address these issues and contribute positively to sustainable development – a fact recognised at the WCED, Rio and Rio +10 United Nations summits.

Conference aim

Following the outstanding success of our International Conference on Whole Life Urban Sustainability and its Assessment in Glasgow in 2007, we felt inspired to organise a follow-up conference.

This conference will bring together leading international researchers, professionals, tool developers, policy makers and other stakeholders who are involved in the ?eld of urban sustainability assessment to exchange ideas and knowledge on how to meet the assessment needs of urban decision-makers.

Themes

The conference themes are:

• Urban planning and design for sustainability
• Sustainable buildings: design, performance and assessment
• Quality of life in the urban environment
• Stakeholder participation
• Urban sustainability and the move to low carbon developments
• Measures, assessment theory, complexity and uncertainty

Conference organisers

SUE-MoT is a consortium of Dundee, Glasgow Caledonian, Loughborough and St Andrews Universities funded under the UK EPSRC’s Sustainable Urban Environment Programme to develop Metrics Models and Toolkits for Whole Life Sustainable Urban Development.

For more information see the Conference web site.