Inclusive Cities: Urban Area Guidelines

By Asian Development Bank

Cities in Asia and the Pacific are expanding rapidly. With this growth, persons with disabilities, older persons, women, and children face significant challenges in accessing urban services and fully participating in city life. To address such barriers, inclusive environments are needed wherein infrastructure and services are built considering the different needs of everyone. The inclusive cities guidelines provide universal design solutions, accessibility standards, and case studies on inclusive urban development to help create a barrier-free built environment and public space. These guidelines adopt both international standards and national standards in Georgia to provide support to urban practitioners and planners in ensuring old and new developments can adapt and contribute toward the creation of inclusive and livable cities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9789292693176

Book preview

1 INTRODUCTION

Inclusive Cities: Urban Area Guidelines aims to support government officials, urban planners, architects, developers, and service delivery providers in the urban development and tourism sectors and beyond, in understanding the value of and in delivering accessible built environment, places, and services.

Inclusive cities support the urban population by creating more welcoming and intuitive places that help increase the quality of life and create a more positive experience of the built environment and public spaces for everyone. This is especially important in supporting a vibrant and dynamic tourism industry, which is a key revenue generator for Georgia and other countries in Central and West Asia.

Inclusive cities address the needs of persons with disabilities (PWDs) ensuring equal access to all urban services.¹ ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs) should be increasingly aware of the needs of PWDs and the elderly.² The inclusive urban area guidelines will help create a barrier-free, accessible, and inclusive city with a better quality of life for all its inhabitants, including PWDs, the elderly, women, and children. Though the focus is on Georgia, the guidelines are also relevant to all countries in the Central and West Asia region and the wider DMCs moving toward the creation of inclusive cities through the adoption and implementation of universal design practice.

Policies pertaining to access to education, employment, urban services, and the built environment are still in their nascent stage in most developing countries. Hence, it is important to draw from the learning experience of progressive nations to create an inclusive built environment that supports all members of society, regardless of ability, age, sex, or