Title: Urban sustainable environmental development patterns in modern cities

Authors: Konstantinos Kountouris, George Generalis, John Mylonakis

Addresses: AGROLAND SA 108 Piraeus str., 118 54, Athens, Greece. ' Mac Donald's SA 282 Kifisias str., 152 32, Athens, Greece. ' 10 Nikifirou str., Glyfada 166 75, Athens, Greece

Abstract: Planning urban development and applying policies which fall into line with the principals of sustainability, constitutes the main goal of the modern cities. The current study aims at analysing the policies and the tactics of two European medium sized city regions to apply a sustainable sound pattern of development. Both cities are located in industrialised areas: Bochum in the Valley of Ruhr in Germany and Modena in the region of Emilia-Romagna. Similarities can be detected such as the environmental threats and the common cultural and political context. The paper compares these cases and provides contrasts and similarities stemming from the two different developmental patterns. Both the analysis of each case individually and the comparison of the two cases demonstrate that only partial adherence to the environmental sustainability management model is to be observed. In addition, it seems that conditions favourable to innovative and cohesive socio-economic contexts do not explicitly imply environmental sustainable development.

Keywords: sustainable development; environmental state; socio-economic characteristics; urban management; urban policy; urban development planning; sustainability; Germany; Italy; environmental management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2005.007918

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2005 Vol.4 No.4, pp.395 - 411

Published online: 01 Oct 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article