Cooperation between Local Authorities and Communities in the Area of Sustainable Urban Development

The research aim is to analyze the perspectives of the modelling of the Latvian local authorities and communities partnership at the context of sustainable urban development. In order to achieve the set aim the following research objectives were defined: to analyze the perspectives of the partnership development between the local authority and community at the context of sustainable urban development; to study the opportunities of the mutual cooperation between local authority and community; to evaluate links between the modelling of the partnership between local authority and community and the concept of sustainable development; to make conclusions and give recommendations for the promotion of the partnership between local authority and community in Latvia at the context of sustainable urban development. This paper focuses on the study of the opportunities of the modelling of the partnership between local authority and community which is an important competitive advantage of the national social, economic and spatial development at the context of sustainable development. The hypothesis of the research is local authority and community are creators of the economic, social, environmental, recreational values. The close partnership between local authority and community is vitally important for the evaluation of the distinction of the different regions of Latvia and their potential contribution to the society development as well as to the prosperity of the Republic of Latvia. Analyzing the processes of the promotion of the partnership development between local authority and community in Latvia, it is necessary to note, that very often political decisions about support for cooperation between local authority and community are contrary to the coherent development strategies and action plans. Lack of initiative of the state and local government and lack of the support of the scientific researches in area of modelling of the partnership between local authority and community very often prevent practical possibilities to realize the best experience of cooperation between local authority and community. This means that sustainable urban development is impossible without cooperation between local authority and society. For this reason local authorities must to aware their strengths and weaknesses, to assess the current situation and to create strong but also on understanding oriented relationship and discussions with the various groups of community as well as to involve them in active cooperation. It is important to remember that sustainable urban development is not only administrative regulatory provisions and limitations but also communication with local inhabitants about the place of their residence – urban development problems, tendencies and priorities. The research is based on the three methods: 1) logically constructive method – logical interpretation of the already published by the other author's data on the modelling of the partnership between local authorities and communities; 2) monographic method – interpretation of the data based on proven knowledge about the economic, social, environmental aspects of the partnership between local authorities and communities; 3) document analysis method – study and evaluation of the normative acts and scientific researches on interaction and partnership development between local authorities and communities at the context of the aim of this research. The results of this study showed that it is crucial to develop and to promote partnership between local authorities and communities on the basis of mutual benefit principle. It is important that urban areas become or remain attractive, both to residents and businesses. Their capacity to innovate and create new economic opportunities is a prerequisite to ensuring that these regions do not lose out in global competition