Greenfield Cities Alliance Annual Convening

The event took place at The 10th World Urban Forum, Abu Dhabi, UAE on February 12th.

The annual convening of our Greenfield Cities Alliance was held as a side event at the World Urban Forum 10 discussing the challenges, opportunities, and innovations in new cities.

The creation of new master-planned cities is not a new development strategy – from Alexandria, to Brasilia, to Tianjin Eco City, they have been prioritized by ambitious groups throughout history. New cities are proving grounds for experimenting with new technologies, planning approaches, and economic strategies. They represent the desire to design new ways of living.

Constructing new cities from scratch presents unprecedented opportunities to learn from past mistakes and avoid the many environmental, social, and structural problems that increasingly plague cities. Builders of new cities have the ability to create new urban environments, to ‘hardwire’ cities with features that promote walkability and social inclusion, and reduce carbon emissions and the environmental impact of urban centers. Exchange among the key visionaries, partners and builders of the world’s most innovative new city projects will allow to ensure a successful next era of human progress.

This side event at the World Urban Forum 10 created a setting to share best practices and generate strategies that fuel new cities’ growth into inclusive, connected, healthy and vibrant communities. At the same time, the event helped increase the visibility of greenfield mega-developments and engage them as stakeholders within the global conversation on urbanization. The session was comprised of a panel discussion amongst experts and major actors on greenfield cities, about their specific opportunities and challenges. Each panelist spoke for a few minutes about their expertise or project. The group then discussed and debated together and the session ended with questions and answers from the audience.

Key objectives:

• Provided actionable steps for stakeholders to design, plan and build greenfield cities
• Featured new cities that are going the extra mile to provide clean energy and eco-friendly environments
• Connected the dots between global stakeholders to move on to implementation
• Established new quality of life metrics, from strategies for affordability, to civic participation, to engagement via digital services
• Discovered solutions for effective adaptation to climate change, and environmental protection policies and practices
• Explored the role of culture in new cities’ innovations, plans, and strategies
• Defined the synergies between frontier technologies in achieving sustainable urban development

Please contact Jennifer Lerus-Roulez, Events Director, at jennifer.lerus-roulez@newcities.org for more information.