Background Competitiveness and sustainability could be compatible if the current strategy based on the consumption of resources were replaced with a strategy based on "information". More information means a more efficient consumption of energy and materials. In terms of resource consumption ("sustainability"), natural systems with the most diversity are the most efficient. However, the development of cities leads to an unlimited rise in the consumption of resources,with the adoption of a functionalist approach that tends to reduce the functions of each geographical area and in so doing simplifies the diversity of the different urban fabrics. This simplification is one of the main causes behind strategies based on the consumption of resources, which generate the environmental impacts witnessed today. Objectives The DIVERS project aimed to measure the information contained in the different fabrics of the urban system, such as the degree of resource consumption. The project focused on the development of an instrument to help with strategic urban planning, where the compact and diverse city is considered the model for a more sustainable city. The objectives were to: • Measure the information (in terms of biodiversity) contained in the different fabrics of the urban system. • Develop the methodology and instruments tosimulate scenarios. • Determine the relationship between urban diversity and competitiveness, and between urban complexity and sustainability in order to devise urban development strategies that are based more on information and less on the consumption of resources. • Apply the instruments developed to the urban planning of five cities. • Create instruments for the development of a network of cities that interactively manages knowledge (resources, solutions and obtained results) and urban sustainability. Results The DIVERS project achieved the main objectives proposed and the expected results. In certain ways, the project even surpassed some of the initial expectations, namely in terms of the quality and importance of the instrument tools developed: - Iconographic dictionary – a new European iconographic language was developed to “read” the cities based on the diversity of their activities. About 1400 icons were built, representing all the juridical entities found in the participating cities, and the software produced allows the creation of new icons when some specific activity is found. - Lupa (magnifying glass) – this new tool for analysing urban systems from an ecosystemic perspective can be applied to GIS (Bridges system) and allows the measurement and calculus of variables/indicators disposed on a map, in an automated, rapid and simple way. It is possible to know in real time the number of different activities, average surface occupied and the value of the diversity indicator of one or various urban territories. This methodology was prepared in the participating cities and can be applied in any city with access to the necessary information. - Knowledge portal – this tool was created to support a knowledge network for more sustainable cities that aim to share all the initiatives fostering a certain city model. The objective was to propose a new development model based a great deal more on the increase in organised information as a sustainable development model, rather than on the consumption of resources and materials. The network must be able to shorten decision-making, while handling all significant information, and share solutions to problems that are often common to European cities. This project has an important innovative dimension, namely through the management tools that were developed and that are being applied for the very first time at different levels (local, regional, national and international). Their demonstration character could be considered as a case for future reproduction in other European countries. The instrument and methodology developed could be applied in almost every city that possesses digitalized databases. The development of planning work using the criteria presented in this project will lead to the proliferation of new jobs in urban diagnosis and planning, both in the area of technical development as well as finance and legal departments. The sustainability of the project, after LIFE, seems guaranteed. In fact, the tools and the knowledge portal developed under the project are likely to be important supports to the entities that work within urban/land use planning. This is valid not only for all the participants of the project, which will be the main users in their present and future actions, but also for other stakeholders that have the same challenges at local, regional, national and international levels.