Copyrights : UIA Initiative – Citizens workshop (c) U-RLP

Integrated territorial development (ITD) proposes a different way of shaping solutions to territorial challenges regardless of administrative boundaries. The concept is widely recognised and has been at the core of EU urban policies for several decades. The New Leipzig Charter has proposed 4 key principles that are commonly used as good urban working principles: the place-based approach, the integrated approach (multi-sectoral), participation and co-creation, and multi-level governance. These working principles translate into a methodological approach and lead cities and territories to adopt new ways of designing urban policies. In particular, these principles help incorporate the complexity of conflicting objectives and interlinked challenges. Although the principles of integrated territorial development are not new, cities still face difficulties in effectively implementing ITD.

Over the past year, AEIDL and Eutropian has been studying and analysing projects funded by UIA to identify and develop tangible good practices of integrated territorial development, resulting in the publication of the final report Integrated Territorial Development in Action and 12 case studies showcasing good practices of putting ITD approaches into practice. The report is composed of an introduction presenting the methodology, key recommendations for professionals, 6 chapters that detail either the principles or key project phases and the 12 case studies.

Link to the report: https://uia-initiative.eu/en/operational-challenges/integrated-developement-action

In light of the new European Urban Initiative open call for projects, the report and case studies provides a helpful read for cities planning to apply, with useful insights and recommendations on how to design and implement innovative projects and test new ideas, products and services to respond to the often complex and interconnected challenges urban areas face.

This work was carried out within the service contract ‘Capitalisation activity on good practices for Integrated approach in Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) projects’.