The compact, connected, resilient city
Build and renew neighbourhoods to UN-Habitat's five principles, with public transport and open space within a short walk of everyone, and plan, measure and report disaster risk against the Sendai Framework's targets.
Everything for this step
- Field guide
- Planning a settlement → 12 sections
- Builds
- None yet.
- Reference sheets
- None.
- Sciences it rests on
- Engineering · Earth sciences · Statistics
- Track
- Settlement and planning, level 7 of 7
Why this matters
A city's density and street pattern fix its transport, energy use and exposure to disaster for a century. UN-Habitat's five principles for sustainable neighbourhoods set the numbers: streets on at least 30 % of the land at 18 km per km², at least 15,000 people per km², at least 40 % of floor space in economic use, 20–50 % of homes affordable with no tenure over 50 %, and single-function blocks under 10 % of any neighbourhood (UN-Habitat). Single-function, low-density growth is what the principles exist to prevent: it brings congestion, segregation and car dependency.
The UN's development goals measure the result where people live: the share of residents within 500 m of a bus or tram stop or 1 km of rail or ferry (SDG 11.2.1), and within 400 m — five minutes' walk — of open public space (SDG 11.7.1).
The shape of it
- Give streets at least 30 % of the land at 18 km per km², and open public space at least 15–20 % (UN-Habitat).
- Build to at least 15,000 people per km², with at least 40 % of floor space for work and shops.
- Mix incomes and uses: 20–50 % of homes low-cost, no tenure over 50 %, single-function blocks under 10 %.
- Put public transport within 500 m of every home, or 1 km of a rail or ferry station (SDG 11.2.1).
- Put open public space within 400 m of every home (SDG 11.7.1).
- Map every hazard, and plan against the seven Sendai targets for 2030.
- Measure and publish each indicator by neighbourhood, every review.
Doing it, step by step
The summary above says what has to happen. This says how, with the numbers that decide whether it works.
1 · Give the streets their land and length
Principle 1: adequate space for streets and an efficient street network — at least 30 % of the land in streets and at least 18 km of street length per km² (UN-Habitat). In high-density mixed-use areas, UN-Habitat recommends at least 30 % of land for roads and parking and at least 15–20 % for open public space.
A dense network of short blocks shortens walks and spreads traffic; the arterial grid carries the buses and trunk mains.
2 · Build densely enough to support public transport
Principle 2: high density — at least 15,000 people per km², that is 150 people per hectare (UN-Habitat). Density is what makes frequent public transport, shops and services within walking distance pay.
UN-Habitat's catchments show what each mode needs: buses stop about every 200 m and serve a corridor about 800 m wide; light rail stops about every 600 m with a 1,000 m corridor; rail every 1,000 m or more with a corridor of 2,000 m or more.
3 · Mix uses and incomes
Principles 3–5 (UN-Habitat):
- Mixed land use: at least 40 % of floor space in any neighbourhood for economic use.
- Social mix: homes in different price ranges and tenures; 20–50 % of residential floor area for low-cost housing, and no single tenure type over 50 %.
- Limited land-use specialisation: single-function blocks under 10 % of any neighbourhood.
Only works that emit odour, noise, dust or major-accident risk are kept apart, by the separation distances of zoning.
4 · Put public transport within a short walk
SDG indicator 11.2.1 counts a resident as having convenient access to public transport when they live within a 500 m walk along the street network of a low-capacity stop (bus, tram) or 1 km of a high-capacity one (rail, metro, ferry) (UN Statistics).
Map every stop, draw those walking catchments along the streets, and count the residents outside them by neighbourhood. Extend routes or add stops where the gaps are largest.
5 · Put open public space within 400 metres
SDG indicator 11.7.1 uses a 400 m walking distance, about 5 minutes, along the street network as the threshold for access to open public space (UN Statistics). Parks, squares, playgrounds and linear open spaces along rivers all count.
Draw a 400 m service area round each open space, find the homes outside every one, and reserve or buy land there first; keep flood land as parks that can flood safely (zoning).
6 · Plan against the Sendai targets
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 sets seven global targets (UNDRR):
- Substantially reduce disaster mortality per 100,000 people in 2020–2030 compared with 2005–2015.
- Substantially reduce the number of people affected, on the same basis.
- Reduce direct economic loss relative to GDP by 2030.
- Substantially reduce damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, health and education among them.
- Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, by 2020.
- Substantially enhance international cooperation with developing countries.
- Substantially increase the availability of multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information.
For the city: map flood, heat, earthquake, landslide and wildfire hazard; keep homes and critical services off the worst ground; adopt a local risk-reduction strategy; and run an early-warning system that reaches every household.
7 · Measure, publish and review
Every target above is a number the city can measure from its map, its census and its transport and disaster records. Keep them in a geographic information system, publish them by neighbourhood as open data with the statistics office's methods, and review the plan against them at each review date set in the city plan.