Welcome to the URBACT Online Course on Digital Transition in Cities
In this module we give you a brief overview of the complexity of environmental challenges vis-à-vis urban and territorial policies and practice, and examples of key tech tools that support the effort to reduce environmental harm, carbon footprint and emissions caused by human activities.
In the video, we explain the leverage that tech can have in urban policies from energy saving and efficiency to clean transportation, from resources circularity and waste minimisation to the preservation of urban green and biodiverse ecosystems.
We share examples of how cities across Europe are finding ways to overcome environmental and climate change in the fields addressed by this module and two city cases with interviews with city practitioners complement the video overview.
Finally, we provide an activity that you can do on your own, to start measuring how your office, or city, is doing in the action for carbon neutrality.
The module, as the URBACT integrated-policy principle goes, is addressed to city practitioners and decision makers. It will help them to explore joint green-and-digital viable solutions to sustainable urban planning and development - especially in the fields of energy, waste, transport and other crucial urban topics.
With this module we hope to prompt more awareness of the cross-cutting nature of the twin transitions – digital and ecological – that have become fundamental components to consider and embed in all urban action planning for cities and practitioners.
Upon completion of this module participants should be able to:
- Recognise the leverage of some tech tools for climate action, environmental protection, and efficient use of resources
- Identify, assess and compare the main urban and territorial sectors affected by and affecting environmental challenges in their city
- Select and adapt ideas from city practice that are relevant to their context to develop basic urban action or transfer planning and implementation