Principles for an Environmentally Sustainable Urban Agenda Suitable for Low-Density, Highly Dispersed Territories

More than half of the population is currently living in urban areas where human societies face the challenge of sustainability. As a consequence, the main international organizations focused their attention on building up visions, strategies and objectives towards urban sustainability that were compiled into a novel instrument of public policy: the urban agenda. In this chapter, we present a proposal of the main strategic objectives that should be considered in an urban agenda to be implemented in low-demographic density, highly dispersed territories as far as environmental sustainability is concerned. In these kinds of territories, territorial dispersion results in significant difficulties in providing infrastructure, facilities and services in a rational and sustainable manner, resulting in elevated economic, social and environmental costs. We suggest that, at least, the environmental sustainability axis of an urban agenda should consider four strategic objectives: (1) to optimize urban metabolic fluxes, (2) to achieve energetic self-sufficiency, (3) to revert the progressive land artificialization pattern and (4) to generate a high-quality urban space. We describe these objectives, present some inspiring initiatives that might guide actions within each domain, and select a number of indicators suitable to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this strategic instrument.