Page 49 - A U4SSC deliverable - Guidelines on tools and mechanisms to finance Smart Sustainable Cities projects

Recommendation 10: create a sustainable urban development cycle

Demonstrating that a “sustainable urban development cycle” has been created helps to ensure
that investment is directed towards the right projects.

It is essential that narratives around projects demonstrate that they are part of a positive context.
This helps investors understand that the project will be sustainable, due to the positive business
environment around the programme. A sustainable urban development cycle requires coherence
between a given project, the investment programme it is part of, and the development policy of the
city. This enables the creation of a narrative that demonstrates how the project (once implemented)
leads to social cohesion, to protecting the planet, to economic growth and, therefore, to a sustainable
urban development cycle.

Box 18: A sustainable urban development cycle – Lisbon

Project gate system for urban development projects and project book structure

As briefly mentioned in the beginning of this chapter – it is vital to have a comprehensible stage-
gate system for each project to be clear when the decision to proceed, revise or drop a project is
taking place.

It is suggested to use a traditional stage-gate project management model, shown below, to plan
each project implementation. This will also give a coherent picture for the planning of the timeline
and of informing key stakeholders on the progress of a project.

U4SSC: Guidelines on tools and mechanisms to finance Smart Sustainable Cities projects 31