The Approach
The aim of this step is to develop visions on climate resilient cities. A vision is based on a long-term perspective on the world — in this case we are focusing on 2050. In the process with the UNaLab Follower cities, three main activities took place in this step:
1) Visits to the Urban Living Labs and best practice sites in the front-runner cities, to inspire the follower cities with existing visions and plans
2) Future Telling research and definition of Drivers for Change involving external experts and thought leaders
3) Developing individual desired future scenarios in city vision workshops
The 5 Drivers for Change for climate and water resilient cities are prioritised by the follower cities on the basis of the relation to their specific contexts and ambitions. Together with the ambitions of step 1, and the inspiration from the front-runner cities, these are used to develop the desired future scenarios.
The desired future scenarios of the cities are created in a series of workshops held in each of the partner cities. These Vision Workshops consist of a 3-day programme in each city, and include sessions with policy-makers and stakeholders to develop a rich, contextual scenario for the city. Local stakeholders (companies, citizens, public and private organisations and knowledge institutes) are invited to take part in the workshops through the networks in the cities.
Three sessions are held. During the sessions, the participants interactively build a visualisation of the desired future scenario. In the first session the outline for the vision and the desired future scenario is developed. The main stakeholders work with the set ambition and the selected Drivers for Change to understand their impact on the city in 2050. Together, the participants define the main elements of the vision. Then, in the second session, a broad spectrum of stakeholders are invited to enrich the desired future scenario by making specific additions. Based on the outlined vision, they carry out a further in-depth exploration of the main elements of the vision. In the third session the project team translates the results into a description of the desired future scenario to complement the visualisation.
By clicking on the graphics below you can read more about the UNaLab follower city visions. Furthermore, you can find a video on the climate vision in the Observer City Hong Kong, presented in the frame of the UNaLab Buddy System Webinar Series.
City Visions
More Information
Drivers for Change
Five Drivers for Change were used to inspire the stakeholders during the vision workshops. They are the result of Future Telling Interviews with different Thought Leaders and can be found here.
Joint Vision Report
Learn more about the UNaLab cities and their vision development process in chapter 4 of the Joint Vision Report