Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The more you know about the Olympics, the less it is about sport . (Bob Perry, Design director of Olympic Projects at Scott Carver Pty. Ltd, http://www.infolink.com.au). The Olympic Games as a mega sports event attracts millions of people from all over the world. New records, fascinating performances, scandals or gigantic celebrations are just some of the attractions provided by this event. One attraction for urban planners is the fact that the Games imply opportunities to promote urban development. From an urban planning perspective, the Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona 1992 set a new standard in defining success of an event of this scale. The city used the Games to promote urban development and planning strategies, profiting from the event in a long-term perspective. Furthermore, the city took another opportunity to find again a place on the global map through the Olympic Games. The case of Barcelona is one of the mostly cited successful urban development initiatives connected with a mega sports event. Olympic Cities have taken the opportunity to promote urban development with the event very differently in the history of the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the event-owner sets some requirements giving only a few cities the right to stage the event. These requirements are checked in the bidding process ending with the decision which city succeeds in getting the right of staging the event. Integrating the success of an Olympic City in terms of urban development and in terms of the bidding process, the main question from an urban planning perspective is: What is the relevance of Urban Development in the Bidding Process for Olympic Games? To answer the definition of the city s success in terms of urban development and the Olympic Games bidding process, it is helpful to investigate the role of Olympic Infrastructure with a view towards urban sustainability. As such, it is believed that respecting specific planning principles in the bidding process can help to (1) ensure sustainable urban development and (2) enhance the quality of the bid. - The first aspect is relevant for the success of the city in terms of urban development to benefit from the Games in a long time perspective. - The second aspect is relevant for the city s success in the bidding process to acquire the right for staging the Games. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the quality of the bid may respond to principles [...]

The Olympic Games represent an unparalleled fast-track urban development opportunity for Olympic host cities. Taking the premise that the transformational effect of the Olympics has a potential to drive long-term urban sustainability, this thesis examines how Olympic host cities can use the Olympic planning process to transition to a more sustainable model of urban development. Presenting the case of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, this thesis draws planning lessons for Sochi 2014 and other future Olympic host cities and discusses policy implications for the International Olympic Committee. The City of Vancouver's systematic efforts to integrate sustainability principles in Olympic planning created sustainability co-benefits exceeding the initial sustainability commitments of the bid book. The development of the Olympic Village generated a massive amount of urban sustainability learning by the City planning staff, thus majorly accelerating sustainability policies in the areas of energy efficiency, green building, district energy, urban design and agriculture. Taking advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to experiment with the "urban laboratory" of the Olympics, the City fostered improved citizens' perception of public space and transit, which gave rise to a sustained increase in transit ridership, walking and biking after the Games. The City was able to achieve these outcomes through integrating the Games into its long-term urban development strategy, strategic sustainability thinking and visioning, principled approach to planning, building partnerships with key stakeholders and leveraging resources from senior levels of government, ensuring that the interests of the organizing committee and city entrepreneurs do not dominate the planning process, engaging and consulting with community groups and educating the citizens. Lasting sustainability legacies of the Vancouver Olympics arose from a highly collaborative, inclusive and coordinated process involving all levels of government, multiple City agencies, private sector, VANOC, community groups and citizens. The applicability of the policy lessons learned from Vancouver's case is questionable in developing countries, authoritarian regimes and cities with little to no previous experience in urban sustainability. The IOC should play a more active role in preventing sustainability debacles in these policy contexts.

This book evaluates why cities choose to bid for the Olympics, why Olympic bids fail, and whether cities can benefit from failed bids. Attention is shifted away from host cities (or winners), to consider the impact of the bidding process on urban development in losing cities. Oliver and Lauermann show that bidding is often a politically strategic exercise, as planning ideas are recycled from one bid project to the next. As Olympic bids become more deeply embedded in urban development and bid teams engage in legacy planning, Oliver and Lauermann demonstrate that bid failure is rarely definitive and is often a desirable result. This volume adds a new and innovative perspective to Olympic Studies and mega-events more broadly, with appeal to a variety of other disciplines including geography, urban planning, spatial politics and sport and civic policy.

Future Challenges in Sustainable Development within the Built Environment stimulates and reinterprets the demands of Responsible and Sustainable Development in the Built Environment for future action and development. It examines the methods of evaluation, the use of technology, the creation of new models and the role of human factors for examining and developing the subject over the next twenty years.

With appropriate planning and design, Olympic urban development has the potential to leave positive environmental legacies to the host city and contribute to environmental sustainability. This book explains how a modern Olympic games can successfully develop a more sustainable design approach by learning from the lessons of the past and by taking account of the latest developments. It offers an assessment tool that can be tailored to individual circumstances - a tool which emerges from the analysis of previous summer games host cities and from techniques in environmental analysis and assessment.

When a city decides to make a bid, all its concerns is much more captivated by the urban transformation impact on the city whether it's a positive or a negative one. As a result, several factors, if not well-organized and taken into consideration in the strategic development plans of the host cities, may be a burden on the city. Site selection for the event is considered one of the main critical decisions to assure the possibility of the host of the Games by the city. Therefore, this paper reviews several case studies that proved its success in location choice under the delivery of sustainable urban design and strategic planning for the host city. It attempts to mention the main urban design elements affected by the preparation process. Consequently, an urban design sustainable assessment will be developed highlighting both the main urban design factors affected due to the host of the Olympic Games and, the main sustainable key factors affected by the urban changes on site.

In this book the author seeks to challenge the view that winning the Olympics benefits the urban and transport projects of the host city. She argues that the urban realities often significantly differ from the development path the host city had set out to accomplish before winning the Olympic bid. Includes interviews from lead host city planners, and focusses on four cities that have hosted the Olympics: Barcelona. Atlanta, Sydney, Athens. The author forecasts London and Rio de Janeiro's urban trajectories and advises cities on how to advance their urban strategic plans and interests while fulfiling the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) fundamental requirements.