018413
SUSTAINFO
Information System for Sustainable Development for EU and UN-Habitat
Specific Support Action
Priority 1.1.6.3 Global Change and Ecosystems
Publishable Final Activity Report
Period covered: from 01-02-06 to 31-01-08
Date of preparation: 21-05-08
Start date of project: 01-02-06
Duration: 24 months
Project coordinator name: Marc Stemerding
Project coordinator organisation name: Goudappel Coffeng
Revision [1]
1. Project execution
Project objectives
The high-level objective of Susta-Info is:
To enable local authorities and experts to attain sustainable development by
establishing a web based database, of which the usefulness and continuity is ensured.
Practitioners around the world will have unconstrained access to relevant information
on sustainable urban development from the UN-Habitat best practices database, UNHabitat Research documents, and 6th and 5th Framework Programme projects that have
been co-funded by the European Commission.
Susta-Info’s ambition is to make available information better accessible to practitioners
and more specifically, to achieve the following key objectives:
- To provide an integrated platform through which all City of Tomorrow (5FP), 6FP
projects and UN-Habitat projects can be searched and accessed and presented in a
standard and comparable way.
- Make use of the state-of-the-art Collexis technology for data storage, information
disclosure and internet communication, that at the same time guarantees access for
all types of computer users.
- To be known by at least 6.000 target users after five years of existence. Target
number of hits at the end of the project: 10.000.
- Sustainability of the new database is guaranteed, by ensuring a well-organised
project with effective involvement of users in the development phase and an
appropriate exploitation plan in the exploitation phase.
Added value of www.Susta-info.net
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Susta-Info is a global database that includes research and practices from all
continents.
Susta-Info content has been selected on needs of city users. Research that does not
relate to the local context is not included in the knowledge base.
Susta-Info content has been abstracted and categorized so you can easily determine
relevance for your city context.
Susta-Info presents Best Practices that have been validated using a methodology that
considers six dimensions of sustainability.
Susta-Info implements the Collexis© technology with a Thesaurus of sustainable
urban development that has been developed in co-operation with the EUKN project.
Susta-Info provides the possibility to easily find experts related to your theme.
Work performed during the project
Under the supervision of the coordinator and a reference group of knowledge providers
and knowledge users, the work was organised in three teams:
 Production of content: Selection, abstraction, categorization and validation of
project on sustainable urban development from EU and UN-HABITAT sources.
The development of a multilingual thesaurus
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

System development: Building of a website and adapting the Collexis search
technology to the specific needs of the field of Sustainable urban development.
Technical integration with the EUKN website.
Dissemination, exploitation and user feedback: Communication to the user
group, look and feel of the website, organisation of mid term conference and
final conferences, organisation and evaluation of user feedback, elaboration of
the exploitation plan and contact with future partners of Susta-info.
During the first year of the project the methodologies for the selection, abstraction,
categorization and validation of documents were developed. A first version of the
website, the search engine and the thesaurus were produced and a first set of documents
was included to be able to test the system with a group of users. The beta-version of the
system was presented before and during the Sustainable Cities and Towns conference in
Seville, March 2007. During the sessions user feedback was gathered.
Hands-on testing of www.Susta-info.net in Seville, March 2007
The user feedback was used to make changes to the system, to update the exploitation
plan and to expand the number of terms in the thesaurus. During the second year the
mayor part of the abstraction, categorization and validation of the content was done.
Final versions of the system, the thesaurus and the thesaurus were produced. During the
last months of the project contacts with EUKN/NICIS and UN-HABITAT have lead to
the process of preparing a Memorandum of Understanding between these two
organisations about the continuation and further expansion of Susta-info after January
2008.
The final version of the Susta-info knowledge base for sustainable urban development
was presented during the COP meeting in Bali in December 2007 and during the
European Energy Week in Brussels, January 2008.
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Screen shot of the Susta-info home page at www.susta-info.net
The Susta-info consortium
The members of the Susta.info consortium are:
Goudappel Coffeng BV, coordinator
Masterplan BV
GHK
Collexis BV
ICLEI
POLIS
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
NL
NL
UK
NL
Canada
B
B
Results and way forward
The key objectives of the project have been met:
 The integrated platform of UN-HABITAT and EU content has been realised at
www.susta-info.net
 The Collexis technology has been applied in the field of sustainable urban
development
 During the last month of the project the number of hits on the website were
12.608
 The work on the exploitation plan have resulted in the commitment of
NICIS/EUKN and UN-HABITAT to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on
the continuation and expansion of Susta-Info after the lifetime of the 6FP
project.
The members of the Susta-info consortium realize that the end of the project is really
only the beginning of attaining the project objective of support local authorities. For
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Susta-Info to continue to be a useful instrument it is important to frequent updates are
done and new content is added. The Memorandum of Understanding on the
continuation and expansion of Susta-Info provides an excellent starting point.
2. Dissemination and use
The consortium has produced three publishable results that could be of use separately
but come to their full right when integrated into one system. This system is called the
Susta-info website which at the end of the Susta-info projects contains over 800
documents related to Urban research and case studies. During the first half of 2008, the
organisations UN-HABITAT and NICIS/EUKN are elaborating a Memorandum of
Understanding on the continuation and further expansion of Susta.info.
Screen shot of the user interface of the search engine at www.susta-info.net
1. Web-based knowledge database on Sustainable Urban Development for EU
and UN-Habitat using Collexis© search technology
Via the URL: www.susta-info.net professionals in sustainable urban development can
access a selection of relevant results from EU and UN-HABITAT research programmes
and a validated set of UN-HABITAT best practices. Susta.info provides a standardized
method for accessing over 800 documents covering nine fields of Sustainable Urban
Development:
 Air Quality
 Building Sustainable Cities
 Culture and Cultural Assets
 Energy
 Poverty, Income Disparities and Poverty Reduction
 Transport & Mobility
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 Urban Governance
 Waste and Environmental Management
 Water Management and Sanitation
The Collexis© search technology provides the possibility of searching the database in
four languages: English, French, German and Spanish.
2. Abstraction and validation/classification template documents
The Susta.info partners have produced more then 450 template documents for the
research projects and case studies included in the database. These template documents
contain short abstracts of the projects, a set of classification indicators that helps the
user to determine its usefulness in a specific urban context, the name and address of a
contact person,and links to project websites. For the over 200 UN-HABITAT best
practices case studies and additional expert validation on the different dimensions of
sustainability has been carried out.
When searching the database the user will first find the template documents. If a
template document is interesting and useful, the user can directly access the original
document in electronic format.
3. Thesaurus on sustainable urban development
The multilingual thesaurus on sustainable urban development is an important element of
the Collexis© methodology. During the project lifetime a first version of the thesaurus
was developed in co-operation with EUKN. In the second year of the project the
thesaurus was developed further to cover all nine Susta.Info sub-themes. The thesaurus
contains around 1.000 concepts and makes smart searches possible in English, French,
German and Spanish.
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