Sustainable neighborhoods
© 2011 Ruedi Walti
In the latter half of the past century, urban sprawl and functional specialization of urban areas have led to inefficient land-use, an increase in socio-cultural disparities, and harm to the environment.
In the context of a national program on sustainable neighborhoods, the Federal Office for the Environment (OFEN) and the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE ) have made it a national priority to reverse these trends, beginning at the neighborhood scale. Prof. Emmanuel Rey was commissioned to write a report on the conceptual, methodological, and operational challenges involved in building sustainable neighborhoods, which he presented at the Forum for Sustainable Development in Bern. The report further outlines methods developed to evaluate the sustainability of such projects, and introduces an online tool (Sustainable Neighborhoods by Sméo) to assist communities in planning such projects.