Linking infrastructure and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Cities

Through previous partnerships between UCL and KTH, and building on prior UCL research, the team as co-developed a structure to identify links between global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and localised priorities. Preliminary explorations on these linkages in the context of Nairobi, Kenya, have taken place already, and the Cities partnership Programme’s seed funding allows further research to explore the methodologies and its potential application in other urban contexts.

The structure and approach developed to have the potential to facilitate funders, policymakers and practitioners leverage multiple benefits by action in city infrastructure and evidencing links to global goals and local agendas. The aim is to explore how to best use inclusive and integrated infrastructure in cities to leverage wide-ranging benefits and alignment with SDGs. The core objectives are as follows:

1. Baseline research to apply our linkages methodology and use it to prioritise action investment in infrastructure in a range of global cities.
2. Preliminary collaborative work between UCL and KTH to co-develop an analytical framework/ tool to link infrastructure investment to SDGs outcomes and other city-level sustainability assessments.
3. Understanding how such framework/tool could help localise the SDGs.
4. Develop a research plan for future work that integrate the above points.

The UCL and KTH collaboration will prioritise partnerships and research on inclusive and integrated city infrastructure, implications for achieving SDGs and leverage entry points for engaging in informal urban settings through existing global networks.

Area

Development Engineering

UCL leads

• Dr Priti Parikah, The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction