Zurich Strategies 2040

The Strategies Zurich 2040 is a comprehensive strategic framework published by the City Council of Zurich to guide urban development over the next two decades. This document addresses the challenges posed by a growing, aging, and increasingly diverse population while aiming for climate neutrality by 2040. It outlines how Zurich intends to manage these challenges through coordinated long-term planning.

Zurich's population is expected to surpass 500,000 by 2040, excluding growth in the wider metropolitan area. This anticipated population increase will heighten the demand for housing, mobility, education, healthcare, energy, cultural facilities, and public spaces. Concurrently, global pressures such as climate change, geopolitical instability, rising migration, and the tension between ecological needs and economic competitiveness necessitate a robust response. The Strategies 2040 framework prepares Zurich to confront these interconnected issues effectively.

The strategy is structured around four interconnected action areas: 1. Stable Livelihoods (Stabile Lebensgrundlagen): This area focuses on securing the ecological, economic, and social foundations essential for a sustainable city. Key initiatives include transitioning to climate-neutral energy systems, promoting resource-efficient construction, implementing circular economy practices, and protecting biodiversity. The target of net-zero emissions by 2040 and the principles of the 2000-Watt Society are central to this action area. 2. Attractive Urban Space (Attraktiver Stadtraum): This action area aims to enhance the urban environment through responsible inward growth, mixed-use neighborhoods, and better public spaces. The strategy emphasizes the provision of sustainable housing, support for cooperatives and non-profit housing developers, and the use of digital planning tools, including Zurich's urban digital twin, to model and assess development scenarios. 3. Successful Coexistence (Gutes Zusammenleben): This area promotes social cohesion, neighborhood diversity, political participation, and cultural vitality. The framework prioritizes social inclusion, access to affordable housing, integration of a diverse population, and equitable distribution of public services throughout all neighborhoods. 4. Efficient Administration (Leistungsfähige Stadt): This action area seeks to enhance the capacity, agility, and digital maturity of Zurich's public administration to provide high-quality services, attract skilled employees, and manage resources transparently and effectively.

From a smart city perspective, the Strategies 2040 framework is significant for integrating digital planning infrastructure, particularly the urban digital twin, as a crucial tool for scenario modeling, climate adaptation planning, and participatory urban development. It explicitly connects digitalization with sustainability goals, avoiding the treatment of technology as an isolated objective.

For housing practitioners, the document reaffirms Zurich's commitment to cooperative and non-profit housing as essential for affordability and social diversity. It addresses the challenge of accommodating population growth while maintaining quality of life and preventing displacement, situating housing policy within a broader context of neighborhood-level social integration.

The full strategy document, Strategien Zürich 2040, was originally published in German, with an English summary accompanying it. Mayor Corine Mauch introduced the strategy, positioning it as a commitment to achieving climate neutrality in a livable, inclusive, and prosperous city. This document serves as a long-term orientation for city employees and provides the foundation for more detailed sectoral strategies across various fields, including planning, mobility, energy, and social policy.