Cities, as places of knowledge and creativity, are the driving forces behind economic and social development, and will continue to be in the future. The years ahead will present special challenges to urban development policy: the growing social and spatial inequalities despite economic growth, the continuing high level of unemployment in many cities, the demographic and social changes affecting urban society, and also climate change will make great demands on the ability of cities to shape and control development. The structural crisis in local authority finances and the continuing sizeable fluctuations in trade tax revenue represent great risks to cities’ action options. 

As long ago as 1991 the Expert Committee on Urban Development Planning of the Association of German Cities, which brings together urban development managers from some 30 German cities of various sizes, presented the position paper "Steuerung der Stadtentwicklung – Eine wichtige Aufgabe für die Städte im Westen wie im Osten Deutschlands" ("Controlling urban development – An important task for cities in Germany, both West and East") as a working aid for cities in former eastern Germany in particular. In 2003 this was followed by a fundamental definition of the position of urban development planning entitled "Zukunftssicherung durch integrierte Stadtentwicklungsplanung und Stadtentwicklungsmanagement" ("Safeguarding the future by means of integrated urban development planning and urban development management"). With this revised and expanded version of the paper, the expert committee is seeking to make a fresh contribution to identifying the future challenges facing urban development policy and pursuing a targeted and methodical approach to tackling them under more difficult conditions.