An eco-city or ecocity is "a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems", as defined by Ecocity Builders, a non-profit organization started by Richard Register, who first coined the term in his 1984 essay, "EcoCities: Making cities sustainable is a crucial challenge". Simply put, an eco-city is an ecologically healthy city. The World Bank defines eco-cities as "cities that enhance the well-being of citizens and society through integrated urban planning and management that harness the benefits of ecological systems and protect and nurture these assets for future generations". Although there is no universally accepted definition of an 'eco-city', among available definitions, there is some consensus on the basic features of an eco-city.
The cities around the world that face the most severe challenges associated with the world's urban population are those in developing countries. Eco-cities are commonly found to focus on new-build developments, especially in developing nations such as China, wherein foundations are being laid for new eco-cities catering to 500,000 or more inhabitants.
History Origins In the first half of the 19th century, the Garden City of Ebenezer Howard, the urbanistic thought of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier laid the foundations for a radical change of paradigm and a comprehensive transformation in the urban planning canon. During the post-war era, there was the spread of modernist tower blocks to satisfy the needs of urban slums.
Initial ideas behind the eco-cities can be traced back to 1975 with the formation of a non-profit organization called Urban Ecology. Founded by a group of architects and activists including Richard Register in Berkeley, California, the organization worked at the intersection of urban planning, ecology, and public participation to help formulate design concepts centered around building environmentally healthier cities. Some of their efforts included initiating movements to plant trees along the main streets, promoting the construction of solar greenhouses, developing environment-friendly policies by working with the Berkeley city planning division and encouraging public transportation. In 1987, Register published the book in which the term eco-city first appeared, Ecocity Berkeley. The book advocated for "rebuilding cities in balance with nature".
During the latter half of the 20th century, concepts surrounding environmentally friendly or nature-conscious communities expanded in scope, coinciding with a deeper understanding of ecological complexities. Recognizing the far-reaching consequences of ecosystem dynamics, pollution, and natural resource depletion, it became clear that a city's ecological footprint must be managed not only at the local level but also regionally and globally. An example of this is Wolman's urban metabolism model, which established a comprehensive accounting system for all materials and resources required by a city. McHarg, on the other hand, emphasized the necessity of city planning that aligns with the ecological and environmental conditions specific to each site.Antuña-Rozado, C., García-Navarro, J., Reda, F. and Tuominen, P. (2016): Methodologies Developed for EcoCity Related Projects: New Borg El Arab, an Egyptian Case Study. Energies 2016, 9(8), 631.
In the 1990s, there were two important events that began the initiative for eco-city developments. The first event involved the publication of the Brundtland Report. The Brundtland Report presented the idea of sustainable development. The second event occurred in 1992 at the United Nations Earth Summit. The members at the summit created a plan to apply sustainable development to our cities. The Eco-cities that were developed during this time period incorporated the concept of sustainable development. However, a majority of the developments were created to provide a vision of an eco-city.
In his 2002 book Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature, Register re-defined his concept of the eco-city as a means to address climate change, characterizing the eco-city as "an urban environmental system in which input (of resources) and output (of waste) are minimized."
Eco-Cities in China have received strong support from the government since the early 2000s as a policy to confront the nation's challenges with rapid urbanization and climate change. China now boasts the world's largest eco-city development program, with hundreds of eco-city projects currently in development.
Organizations
Urban Ecology further advanced the movement when they hosted the first International Ecocity Conference in Berkeley, California in 1990. The conference focused on urban sustainability problems and encouraged over 800 participants from 13 countries to submit proposals on best practices to reform cities for a better urban ecological balance.
Following this, in 1992, Richard Register founded the non-profit organization Ecocity Builders, to advance a set of goals outlined in the conference. Since its conception, the organization has been the convener of the International Ecocity Conference Series, now known as Ecocity World. The IECS has been the longest standing international conference series consisting of biennial Ecocity World Summits and has been held in Adelaide, Australia (1992); Yoff, Senegal (1996); Curitiba, Brazil (2000); Shenzhen, China (2002); Bangalore, India (2006); San Francisco, United States (2008); Istanbul, Turkey (2009); Montreal, Canada (2011); Nantes, France (2013); Abu Dhabi, UAE (2015), Melbourne, Australia (2017); Vancouver, Canada (2019); and Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2022).
Other leading figures include architect Paul F. Downton and authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject.
The United Nations and other non-governmental organizations promote and support the eco-city concept. In 2010, the World Bank began its Eco2 Cities initiative, providing financial and intellectual support to eco-city projects in developing countries.
Current trends
Criteria An ideal eco-city has frequently been described as one that fulfills the following requirements: Operates on a self-contained economy that obtains resources locally Is entirely carbon-neutral by promoting techniques like the use and production of renewable energy Is established over a well-planned city layout that promotes walkability, biking and the use of public transportation systems Promotes conservation of resource by maximizing water efficiency and energy efficiency, while managing an ecologically beneficial waste management system that promotes recycling and reuse to create a zero-waste system Restores environmentally damaged urban areas Ensures decent and affordable housing for all socio-economic and ethnic groups and improves jobs opportunities for disadvantaged groups, such as women, minorities, and the disabled Supports local agriculture and produce Supports future progress and expansion over time.
Besides these, each individual eco-city has an additional set of requirements to ensure ecological and economic benefits that may range from large-scale targets like zero-waste and zero-carbon emissions, as seen in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city project and the Abu Dhabi Masdar City project, to smaller-scale interventions like urban revitalization and establishment of green roofs as seen in the case of Augustenborg, Malmö, Sweden.Caprotti, F. (2014) 'Critical research on eco-cities? A walk through the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City'. Cities 36: 10-36. Cities that focus on the use of carbon-free sustainable energy and on managing greenhouse gas emissions can be referred to as zero-carbon cities.
Terms like "low-carbon city" and "green city" are often used interchangeably with "eco-city".
Nature Based Solutions Recent scholarly focus on eco-cities establishes nature-based solutions as a defining trend in eco-city development, highlighting a crucial shift from technology-centric fixes toward multifunctional green and blue infrastructure that delivers climate, health, and equity benefits. Work led by McPherson and colleagues postulates that mainstreaming nature-based solutions through planning, finance, and governance is central to sustainable urban transitions globally.
Eco-cities are increasingly adopting nature-based solutions to address a myriad of urban challenges at once, including heat, flooding, air quality, biodiversity loss, and social well-being. Because these interventions (e.g., urban forests, green roofs, wetlands, flood-able parks) provide co-benefits that grey infrastructure traditionally cannot, they are becoming ever-more important in the logistics of establishing successful eco-cities.
Conceptual and empirical frameworks developed in 2025 show how nature-based solutions link ecosystem services to functional urban environments, offering a dedicated and consistent framework when it comes to policy and design decisions.
Mainstreaming mechanisms Mainstreaming nature-based solutions means embedding them into routine infrastructure, planning, budgeting, regulation, government, and finance rather than treating them like an isolated solution. Scholarly research suggests a number of mechanisms by which this level of integration can be achieved.
Planning, regulation, and policy instruments: Cities are increasingly adopting policies that link nature-based solutions directly to critical issues, such as climate adaptation/mitigation, biodiversity, health, equity, and urban development. McPherson and colleagues research shows how regions are already establishing frameworks that position nature-based solutions as part of the infrastructure tapestry.
Zoning and land-use regulations: Changing land-use codes or zoning rules to require or fiscally incentivize green and blue infrastructure. Helps to establish nature-based solutions as a necessity rather than an optional component of an urban environment.
Building codes and standards: Mandates for green roofs, street tree planning requirements, and standards for stormwater retention via natural systems. These embed nature-based solutions into pre-existing environments allowing for flexibility and ultimately mainstream uptake.
Cross-departmental coordination: Because nature-based solutions overlap with multiple urban issues, such as climate, water, health, urban design, transportation, and biodiversity, mainstreaming requires breaking departmental barriers so that regulations align across sectors. A 2023 study by Hölscher et al. argues this is essential to mainstreaming nature-based solutions.
Quantifiable Indicators of Eco-city Performance
Criteria of eco-cities can be used as measurable indicators to compare their performance over time by evaluating eco-efficiency, biodiversity outcomes, and eco-system service benefits.
Eco-efficiency Eco-efficiency can be measured via ratio-based metrics, most often using data-envelopment analysis (DEA) that compare outputs that are desirable (higher GDP, services delivered) with undesirable outputs (CO2, PM2.5, wastewater). This allows for benchmarking across multiple cities and can give a standard template for efficiency goals.