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G D R C    M o s a i c
www.gdrc.org

June 2008
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Welcome to another edition of GDRC's Mosaic!
This month, GDRC Mosaic is being set to more 
than 2000 subscribers in 130 countries worldwide.
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THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Japan Urban Observatory, 
from GDRC's Programme on Urban Environmental 
Management.

Urban environments mean different things to 
different people. GCRC's urban environmental 
management programme illustrates it as the 
intersection of natural, built and socio-economic 
environments. This broad-based approach helps 
us understand the causes and effects of a number 
of disparate issues and problems.

The Japan Urban Observatory was set up as a 
part of the Global Urban Observatory network, 
and provides an overview of the management 
of the environment at the local levle in Japan. 

Much still needs to be done to make it more 
comprehensive and relevant on a host of issues, 
but it does provide a snapshot of the 
environmental problems being faced by Japanese 
cities today.

GDRC has been working on these and related issues. 
Resources on this topic are available at: 
http://www.gdrc.org/uem/observatory/index.html

As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, 
comments and suggestions are always welcome from 
users and subscribers! Please contact GDRC's 
Coordinator at - hsrinivas@gdrc.org 
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FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS
The 200-page Manual

Information designers all over face the same 
dilemma - that of the "200-page Manual" How can 
you distill a fat 200-page document into different 
product types so that different stakeholders 
can adopt and use it?

You cannot, for example, take a 200-page manual 
on environmental management to a city mayor and 
ask him to improve the city environment. He 
actually needs only a single sheet of paper 
with bullet points - enough to take a decision. 
A bureaucrat, on the other hand, needs just a 
little bit more - enough to make sure it is 
relevant, and confirms to city laws and 
policies/strategies. And a city engineer, 
of course, needs the full document and maybe 
more - to fully implement it.

So the basic 200-page document, in different 
forms, has helped different people for different 
purposes. This lies at the core of GDRC's 
capacity building policy, explained in the 
following page:

http://www.gdrc.org/about/cb-policy.html

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MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE

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See what new items have been added to GDRC's 
website:

http://www.gdrc.org/about/whats-new.html
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ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC

The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter 
that provides information bites, and summarizes 
programme activities of GDRC, including new items 
added to the website. You are welcome to 
forward this newsletter to friends and interested
people!

To subscribe or unsuscribe, please visit: 
http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html
Comments/suggestions/contributions: mosaic@gdrc.org 

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CONTACT ADDRESS:

Global Development Research Center
1-5-1-1013, Mori Minami Machi, Higashi Nada-ku,
Kobe 658-001, Japan
Tel / Fax: +(81-78) 452-8414
Email: gdrc@gdrc.org
Web: http://www.gdrc.org/
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Copyright (C) 2008-2010, GDRC. All rights reserved.