Enabling urban systems transformations: co-developing national and local strategies

Transformative urban development is urgent to achieve future sustainable development and wellbeing. Transformation can benefit from shared and cumulative learning on strategies to guide urban development across local to national scales, while also reflecting the complex emergent nature of urban systems, and the need for context-specific and place-based solutions. The article addresses this challenge, drawing on extensive transdisciplinary engagement and National Strategy co-development processes for Australia. This includes generation of two frameworks as boundary objects to assist such transdisciplinary strategy development. An ‘enabling urban systems transformation’ framework comprises four generic overarching transformation enablers and a set of necessary underpinning urban capacities. This also built cumulatively on other sustainability and urban transformation studies. A complementary ‘knowledge for urban systems transformation’ framework comprises key knowledge themes that can support an integrated systems approach to mission-focused urban transformations, such as decarbonising cities. The article provides insights on the transdisciplinary processes, urban systems frameworks, and scoping of key strategies that may help those developing transformation strategies from local to national scales. Science highlights • Transdisciplinary national urban strategy development is used to distil generic frameworks and strategy scopes with potential international application. • The frameworks also build on other published framings to support convergent, cumulative and transdisciplinary urban science. • The ‘enabling transformations’ and ‘urban knowledge’ frameworks include the perspective of those developing sustainable urban systems strategies. • The enabling framework also informs ‘National Urban Policy’ and ‘Knowledge and Innovation Hub’ strategies, and prevailing power imbalances. • The knowledge framework can help frame urban challenges, missions and knowledge programs. Policy and practice recommendations • An urban ‘transformation imperative’ and ‘strategic response’ can be co-developed from local to national scales. • Local initiative is crucial to drive urban strategies, but sustained national leadership with coherent policy across sectors and scales is also key. • Diversity in engagement participation and processes generates whole-of-urban-systems and local-to-national perspectives. • Urban solutions are context-specific but generic frameworks can help collaborative issue framing and responses. • Collaborative issue framing informed by generic frameworks can bring broader perspectives to context-specific and contested policy and practice issues. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42854-023-00049-9.