CSBC: uma estratégia para promover cidades sustentáveis

Abstract

Humanity is under an intense process of urbanization. By 2050 there will be an additional 2 billion people living in cities and expanding demand for natural resources and infrastructure. This trend occurs within a delicate process of climate change where the integrity of the biosphere is at high risk. The complexity of the urban environment and the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability require a systems view of life and make the promotion of sustainable cities a major challenge for academics, policymakers, public managers, entrepreneurs and urban leaders. Cities concentrate knowledge and innovation to generate the impact needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Knowledge-based urban development is a new paradigm for developing territories based on knowledge-based activities that result in a higher level of shared prosperity and quality of life for its inhabitants. The objective of this work is to propose a strategy to promote knowledge-based sustainable cities. The qualitative research carried out involves an integrative systematic review of the literature, with selected approaches to assess sustainable cities and the analysis of the strengths and limitations of their main models and initiatives, and the elaboration of a case study on the implementation of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative’s sustainability indicators in Florianopolis. The analysis of data collected from documents and participant observation in the Indicators Working Group of the Florianopolis Veracidade Network produced evidence to support the design of the proposed strategy. The Knowledge Based Sustainable City is a strategy composed of three interconnected axes: urban living labs as implementation drivers, knowledge-based urban development as a knowledge management integrated approach and capital systems as a value structure for the monitoring and evaluation of the city’s sustainability. The implementation of this strategy can be fostered by setting urban challenges to guide missions and mobilize actors to accelerate the sustainable urban transformation of cities.