An international group of scientists, researchers and other experts gathered in Venice on 18 and 19 April to discuss the sustainable development of European cities.

The conference is being jointly hosted by leading professors and researchers from the School of Construction & Property Management at Salford University and other leading European universities.

The meeting is calling for greater understanding of city sustainability and for more \'joined-up thinking\', as the UK Government puts it, by policy makers and city authorities.

It also seeks to stimulate concerted action by Europe\'s city designers, planners, architects, developers and constructors.

"Sustainable development is a misunderstood and highly contentious concept," says Steve Curwell, Salford\'s lead researcher on sustainable urban development and a director of the pan-European BEQUEST programme (Building Environmental Quality Evaluation for Sustainability through Time)."Almost 10 years on from the World Summit in Rio, and with the USA\'s refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol, it is time to explore what progress has been made in terms of the sustainability of our cities," he says."This is important because almost 80% of Europeans now live in cities and each person consumes 6-10 tonnes of building materials per annum - which is the amount required to constantly redevelop and maintain the city fabric."Buildings and transport are now jointly responsible for around 70% of the CO2 released. Ways have to be found to tackle the problem."

Salford University is actively involved in a number of research programmes under the European Commission\'s Cities of Tomorrow programme and was instrumental in conceiving the initial concept of BEQUEST in 1994. Details of its latest sustainable cities \'toolkit\' for urban development are to be revealed at the Venice conference.

The underlying theme for the conference aims to explore recent developments and to bridge differences in the problems and understanding of urban planning, architectural design and construction.

The keynote address will be given by Prof Nijkamp of the Free University, Amsterdam. He is a noted environmental economist, vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and advisor to the World Bank.

The main outcome of the conference is intended to be a set of policy guidelines to challenge politicians and city officers, urban designers and developers to adopt a more integrated approach to the complex social, economic and technical problems of sustainable urban development for our future. A research agenda for the future will also be identified.

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