A compendium of Websites of Urban Development Organisations, Institutes and UN Agencies

The Internet provides us with an inexpensive way of accessing information and communicating with each other. There are many Internet-accessible news-groups and list servers, the World-Wide Web (WWW), Gopher, E-mail, etc. located in many different places around the world. Several sites of interest to those working on urban-related issues are listed as follows:

Listservs

The Web site to look for more than 5,000 list-serv by title, name, description, country, or sponsoring organisation: <http://www.tile.net/listserv/>

To search by topic discussed: <http://www.liszt.com>

Academic, Human Setlements & Urban Issues

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute An Australian site relating to urban and housing research, policy and development. The web site is at: <http://www.ahuri.edu.au/>

Curtin University of Technology -Australia. Its site is at: <http://puffin.curtin.edu.au/> Site of the School of Architecture, Construction and Planning.

Habitat in Developing Countries. Site contains: information on improving the habitat in developing countries including housing, architecture, urban design, building - infrastructures, planning, Habitat II, environment, credit - employment, and disaster. <http://obelix.polito.it/forum/links/>

The Human Settlements Development Programme of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand has set-up a home page that include information on: the Human Settlements Development Programme, the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme, information about human settlements in Asia, Urban Environmental Management, and the UMPAP Calender of Events.The Web site is: <http://www.hsd.ait.ac.th>

The Development Planning Unit (DPU), London, United Kingdom has a Web site at: <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu>

The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands has a Web site at: <http://www.ihs.nl>

The Web site for the School of Architecture, Construction & Planning, Perth Australia is: <http://puffin.curtin.edu.au>

University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
The Web site for the Planning Library list of planning resources is: <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/cityweb.html>

University of Quebec, Quebec, Canada. The Web site for the Urban Planning Research Institute is: <http://www.inrsurb.uquebec.ca/inrs-urb/urbanisation_ anglais.html>

University of Buffalo, U.S.A. The School of Architecture and Planning sponsored a Web page on zoning and planning at: <http://www.arch.buffalo.edu/pairc>

City of Bits Online <http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/City_of_Bits/> This is William J.Mitchell's (Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) book "City of bit" on-line. This site is not only important for planners but also relevant in the face of the city due to the modern age of electronics and information.

City of Edmonton's Planning & Development Home Page <http://www.gov.edmonton.ab.ca/planning> This is a planning department's home page containing information on planning in Edmonton in Alberta (Canada), including development and building permits and environmental planning.

City of Vancouver B.C.- Municipal Government Home Page. <http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ac/> This site will be of special interest to government planners. Provides information on its constituents, including information.

The Cyber City Initiative <http://www.cc.inet.ab.ca/city-of-gp/ccy_init.htm#Table_of_Contents> This site looks at the "ways we might best prepare the city (City of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada) and its residents for the `Information Age', and how we might exploit global information for our economic and general benefits" It also contains information relevant for future planning.

Eco Hab International <http://www.panix.com/~urbanomi/ecohab.html> A service corporation, EHI is committed to promoting the organisation, financing, planning, building and management of environmentally sustainable, affordable communities.

Feng Chia University - Taiwan <http://www.fcu.edu.tw/academic/engineering/up/up.html> Site of the Department of Urban Planning.

The Global Integrated Village Environment (GIVE) <http://www.Austria.EU.net/gv95/e_index.html> This project is studying the human habitat of the future, where telematics and information technology enable us to create smaller communities that feature more diversity, sustainability and open natural space.

Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector <http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/ BSOS/.www/IRIS/iris.html> The premise of IRIS is that institutions in the Second and Third Worlds offer poor structures of incentives, inhibit economic growth and democratic development, and often force much economic activity into informal economy.

International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives <http://www.iclei.org> An international agency for local governments, acts as a clearing house on policy development initiatives, facilitates new projects, advocacy work, etc. The city has an archive of good practice case studies, project summaries, and publications.

International Local Government Home Page <http://world/localgov.org> Clearinghouse for information on local government and its organisations globally, with links to home pages around the world.

International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) <http://titsoc.soc.titec.ac.jp.80/isocarp> Includes information on ISOCARP's objectives, projects, membership, publications, events, and links to other international planning resources.

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy <http://www.lincolninst.edu/lincoln> This is a non-profit educational institution based in Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA, that seeks to disseminate information on land and tax policy issues throughout the world through research, courses, conference, and publications. The home page includes an on-line version of its Landlines Newsletter.

Simon's Home Page - Cities and Housing Links <http://dovw.net.au/~smn/cities.html> Provides links to academia, journals, government, social policy and links to other related web-sites particularly Australian sites.

Sustainable Communities Network <http://www.sustainable.org> This website offers information to help make communities more livable and to increase the visibility of successful community projects in the U.S. and abroad. It covers a wide range of issues related to community sustainability, including creating community, smart growth, growing a sustainable economy, protecting natural resources, living sustainably, and governance. Each topic contains case studies, related websites, links to databases, events calendars, and subject bibliographies.

UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre. This site aims to facilitate the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to address urban environmental problems: <http://www.unep.or.jp/>

Urban Planning: <http://obelix.polito.it/forum/welcome.htm> This site of the Forum on Developing Countries "is an open space for people interested in education and communication for planning and design in developing countries".

Urban-Regional Planning Mailing List - Home Page <http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n270556/urp.html> Includes links to other mailing lists worldwide as well as book reviews and an Internet Planning directory.

Transportation

Access to Environmental Sites
<http://www.webdirectory.com/>

Access to Transportation Planning Sites
<http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk:8000/interesting-transport.html>

Planning Professionals
<http://dragon.princeton.edu/~dhb/TRANSPORT_NAB/>

Transport Related Conferences
<http://www.transportweb.com/confnce.html#1996>

US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
<http://www.bts.gov>

Organisations & Programmes

Consumer International (formerly IOCU). Web site is at: <http://www.consumerinternational.org>

EcoPlan International - Centre for Technology & Systems Studies has a Web site at: <http://www.the-commons.org/>

Earth Times web site is at: <http://www.igc.apc.org/earthtimes>

Family Health Foundation at web site: <http://www.fhi.org>

International Planned Parenthood Federation Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific web site is at: <http://www.oneworld.org/ippf>

Population Information Resources web site is at: <http://www.undp.org.popin/infoserve.htm>

The Alternative Transportation list achives web site is located at: <http://www.flora.ottawa.on.ca/alt-transp/>

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has a web site at: <http://asiandevbank.org>

The Earth Council is an international NGO created as a direct result of the Earth Summit to promote sustainable development and Agenda 21. Its Web site at: <http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/>

The Eco-Village Information Service offers information on sustainable human settlements and eco-village concepts and sites. The Web site is: <http://www.gaia.org>

The European Cyclist Federation. .Web site is at: <http://webhotel.uni-c.dk/dcf/ecfindex.htm>

The Global Resource Information Database (GRID) has a Web site at: <http://www.grida.no>

The Global Urban Research Institute (GURI) has a Web site at: <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/guri>

The Healthy Cities Commons is the first programme of the healthy Cities International Foundation and a key resource at the new global center for health and environment. It has a Web site at: <http://www.healthycities.org>

The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has a Web site at: <http://www.iclei.org>

The International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD) has a Web site at: <http://www.gn.apc.org/ifrtd>

The International Society of City and Regional Planners, The Hague, Netherlands. The Web site is at: <httpwww.soc.titech.ac.jp/isocarp>

The Pesticides Trust of the United Kingdom has a Web site at: <http.gn.apc.org/pesticidestrust>

The Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, U.S.A. has a Web site at: <http://www.uli.org>

Victoria Transport Policy Institute (specialising in Green transport issues) has a web site at: <http://www.islandnet.com/litman>

The Web site directory for Disaster Mitigation is at: <http://www.web.directory.com.disaster>

Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) web site is at: <http: www.panda.org>

United Nations Agencies

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO): < http://www.fao.org>

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):<http://www.unicc.org/infad/>

International Labour Organisation (ILO): <http://www.unicc.org/ilo/>

United Nations Children's Fund(UNCEF): <http://www.unicef.org>

United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS): <http://www.unhabitat.org> and <http://habitat.unchs.org/home.htm> Contains information about:* Commission on Human Settlements - 16th session; * The Habitat Agenda and the Istanbul Declaration in English, French and Spanish; *Urban Indicators Programme: *Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme; and * Sustainable Cities Programme.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)- Sustainable Human Development: <http://www.undp.orghttp://www.undp.org>. Contains launch of Human Development Report 1997 on Poverty and Human Development - June 12, 1997; Poverty Clock Current Count, UNDP Mission Statement; UNDP Flash; UNDP Sponsoring Conference on "Knowledge for Development in the Information Age"; UNIFEM, Environment Related Information; HIV and Development Programmes; And "Access to the World" - Lists of WWW serves worldwide.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO): <http://www.unesco.org>

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): <http://www.unep.or.jp/>

United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): < http://www.unhcr.ch>

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO): < http://www.unido.org>

United Nations Institute for Training and research(UNITAR): <http://rio.net/unitar>

United Nations International Drug Control Programme(UNDCP): <http://www.undcp.or.at>

United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA): <http://www.unfpa.org>

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development(UNRISD): <http://www.unicc.org/unrisd/>

United Nations University (UNU): <http://www.unu.edu>

The World Bank (IBRD): <http://www.worldbank.org>

World Food Programme(WFP): <http://www.wfp.org>

World Health Organisation (WHO): <http://www.who.ch>

Other References

Information on Habitat II Best Practices is located at: <http://www. bestpractices.org>

To find out the distance between cities: <http://www.indo.com/distance>

Research USENET articles can be found at: <http://www.dejanews.com>

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