Capital Cities and Urban Sustainability Advances in Urban Sustainability Series

Capital Cities and Urban Sustainability examines how capital cities use their unique hub resources to develop and disseminate innovative policy solutions to promote sustainability. Cities are taking a leading role in defining a sustainable future at a time when national, state, and regional governments in several countries do not provide sufficient leadership.

Capital cities stand out among cities as likely leading drivers in the effort to empower sustainable innovation as they provide a hub for connecting a variety of key constituencies. While acknowledging the successes capital cities have achieved, the international, multi-disciplinary contributors to this work discuss how there is room to do more and improve. The promotion of specific sustainability policies in crucial areas such as clean water provision, high tech innovation, public procurement contracting, and improving flood control in capital cities is examined through various global case studies. The examples range from relatively rich capital cities, such as Copenhagen, where the well-financed hub would be expected to succeed in generating sustainable policies, to poorer cities such as Phnom Penh, where such an optimistic outcome can seem less likely.

Part I: Theoretical Overview

1. Capital Cities as Innovators in Sustainability Policy and Practice

Robert W. Orttung

2. Capital Cities and Regions: A General Comparative Overview

Hal Wolman

3. Indicators for Measuring the Performance of Smart and Sustainable Capital Cities

Stanislav E. Shmelev and Irina A. Shmeleva

Part II: Case Studies

4. Moving the Capital to Promote Sustainability Innovations: Analyzing Cairo’s Future Plans

Sahar Attia and Costis Toregas

5. Stockholm: Where Sustainability Meets Technology

Anna Helm & Nicole Forsberg with Christina Johannsen

6. Using Public Procurement to Promote Sustainability in Copenhagen

Marta Andrecka and Alexandra Andhov

7. Innovations in Public Participation for Sustainability and Resilience in Hanoi

Linda J. Yarr and Nguyễn Ngọc Lyì

8. Delivering Clean Water in an African Capital

Jennifer Lessick

9. Phnom Penh, An Unsustainable Capital City

Anthony Gad Bigio

10. Conclusion: Missed Opportunities

Robert Orttung

Robert W. Orttung is Research Director at Sustainable GW and Research Professor at the Elliott School for International Affairs, the George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.