Green and Resilient City: Obligatory Requirements and Voluntary Actions in Moscow

The interest to the sustainable development, resilience and smartness of cities and communities has been growing globally since 1980s. City governments have been working out strategies, forming unions and associations, and exchanging experience in facing urbanization challenges and managing city assets sustainably. Authors consider international initiatives and standards providing for the common background needed to work out and implement sustainable development and resilience strategies and management plans as well as to assess and compare results achieved. Major initiatives analyzed include the United Nations HABITAT Program, the International “Green City Index” research, the network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change (C40), the Charter of European Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability (Aalborg Charter) and the Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A new series of the International Organization for Standardization standards ISO 37000 establishing requirements to management systems for sustainable development of communities and offering guidance in setting aims and objectives and measuring success is considered. Peculiarities of the understanding and use of these standards in Russia are described. Authors study a wide range of legal requirements set by Moscow city government in the period of 1993–2018 and demonstrate advantages and shortcoming of the legal acts passed and enforced. Consider voluntary actions undertaken by the local community, non-governmental organizations and educational establishments. The Chapter demonstrates the need for systematizing patchy policy documents and research projects. The case for the restoration of Moscow water bodies (small rivers) as backbones of the urban ecological network will be elaborated. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.