- Antioquia, Bristol, Hangzhou clinched double titles; Christchurch, Dakar also honoured for shareable and practical urban innovations

GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban innovative initiatives by Antioquia, Bristol, Christchurch, Dakar, and Hangzhou, or one city from a major continent, have won this year's Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award).

Photos: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1c0H7CXi  

Antioquia, Bristol, and Hangzhou turned Friday's big winners for clinching double titles by winning also one new category each: the City of Public Recommendation, the City of Media Attention, and the City of Online Popularity.

The prestigious award, which comes with a US$20,000 cash prize, aims at inspiring urban innovation by improving the social, economic and environmental sustainability at the municipal level by sharing experiences and best practices among cities, regions and countries.

This year's Guangzhou Award coincides with Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference and 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference.

The conferences, with the theme "My City, My Dream", aim at encouraging urban innovation and promoting sustainable cooperation between sister cities.

New Categories

Antioquia's Educational Parks for All clinched The City of Public Recommendation by wining 85, or 16.07 percent, of all 528 votes from the conferences' participants.

Smart City Bristol managed to win 57, or 22.35 percent, of 255 votes from media representatives to be the City of Media Attention.

Hangzhou won the City of Online Popularity. Its Public Bike Sharing System won 593608, or 28.45 percent, of a total of 2086629 votes in an online poll for netizens around the world.

Winning Initiatives:

Educational Parks for All, Antioquia, Colombia:

Antioquia has set up a network of 80 educational parks designed to supplement traditional education with programs to honor young peoples' inherent skills and citizenship potentials.

Smart City Bristol, Bristol, the UK:

Bristol is making itself a place set apart from problems of congestion, climate change and so on by new initiatives. The City was awarded European 'Green Capital' status for 2015.

Our Ever Evolving City, Christchurch, New Zealand:

From the thousands of responses received from 'share an idea' campaigns, the community's vision of a livable, vibrant and prosperous city began to take shape.

Dakar Municipal Finance Program, Dakar, Senegal:

It is one of the few cities in a developing country to do so without the benefit of full guarantees from central government.

Public Bike Sharing System, Hangzhou, China:

It's the world's largest bike-sharing program that doesn't require government funding beyond initial capital.

SOURCE Secretariat of Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation