"Our city deserves to win an award because of our intelligent use of limited space in which we have still created quiet amid the bustle and culture," proclaimed the delegation from Brasschaat, Belgium, who were paying their first visit to LivCom.

"It is one of the most densely populated areas of Flanders, but it keeps its character and has 86 per cent employment."

One characteristic of the town is "kangaroo" housing, in which young people and the elderly live communally under one roof, helping to keep the latter independent in their own homes for longer.

Brasschaat, which has a population of 37,000 – 25 houses to an acre and more than 45 nationalities represented - was founded in 1830 and has a population of 37,000 – the same number of trees that have been planted. Each street has its own species of tree, so that residents can identify with their neighbourhood.

Plans include introducing wind turbines and a new tramline to Antwerp (10km away), which will reduce car usage by 20% and will replace the buses. There will be a tram station within 5 minutes of all homes.

The beautiful spa town of Baden, near Vienna in Austria, has found a novel way of harnessing the problem of graffiti. A "sprayers’ wall" is provided where young people can give their imagination a free rein without defacing public property.

"Every month we take a digital photograph and put it up on the council website so they can admire their handiwork," explained delegate Gerhard Weber. "Then the wall is cleaned up so they can start all over again. It’s a great success and means that all the inevitable graffiti is in one place."

Baden (population 25,000), a city of roses and Mozart, lives by the slogan: "Ecology equals long-term economy" and features a traffic island bearing a large banner reading: "Verkehrt!" – "Traffic is wrong". There is also a car embedded in flowers.

Innovations to get residents out of their cars include free rent of bicycles and regular car-free days. Electric vehicles and those driven by natural gas are being promoted, while conversion of communal lighting to "yellow" protects insects and saves 40% of energy.

A new CO2-neutral power-plant station heated by chaff (wood shavings) provides 10,000 houses with heat and reduces air pollution.

Delegates from Tonglu revealed that one of the secrets of a long-life in China is "having a little drink of Chinese white wine – though of course we do not have an alcohol problem!"

One of the city’s goals is to increase the average life expectancy to 78 by 2010. It is currently 75 and has increased by two years in the last six years. One of Tonglu’s residents, 108-year-old Hu Jiazhi, still participates in international paper-cutting competitions while the over-60s, who have monthly health checks, regularly participate in tai-chi and opera singing and a group of retired women have formed a drum corps.

The 1000-year-old city (population 69,000), the "cradle of ancient Chinese herbal medicine" - one of its ancestors is the legendary medicine guru Tongjun - has been undergoing a massive 12-year regeneration programme.

In the last year, new buildings include a library, theatre and arts museum, plus considerable improvement to roads and parks.

"We are just aiming to have more fun in life, and that will in turn make everyone more healthy," said Lu Ling Li, who has a PHD in environmental science.

Mosquito-monitoring is a major concern in Mandurah, the rapidly expanding coastal town on the coast of Western Australia which has seen its population balloon from 3,000 to 65,000 since 1970. To combat the Ross River Virus, which is mosquito-borne and causes arthritic lethargy, mosquito counts are carried out the environmental health team, who leave jars in strategic places to catch the insects.

They are then counteracted by granules which are hand-sprayed or dropped by helicopter; this prevents the mosquito reaching maturity but doesn’t affect other species.

Mandurah’s mayor Paddi Creevy revealed that the city has also found an ingenious way of persuading the unwary Australian male, traditionally reluctant on health issues, to have a check-up. "We have established the "Male Pen" at our annual boat show and that way the men can combine a health check that they probably wouldn’t bother with otherwise with the more pleasurable experience of looking at boats!"

Only three schools in the whole world have over 120 cultures among their pupils; amazingly, two of them are in the Auckland, area, one in the city of Waitakere, New Zealand’s first eco-city.

One thing the different cultures all have in common is their huge enthusiasm for Waitakere’s Twin Rivers project to revitalise the streams which dissect the city.

"Even good people do bad things to the environment because they don’t understand how they’re polluting it," explained Sue Bidrose, director of strategic performance on Waitakere’s city council. "I admit I used to do things like throw away the remnants of my car oil, because I just didn’t realise that it would get in the storm water and pollute our streams.

The idea of the Twin Rivers project is to return social responsibility to the community. "Everyone has responded enthusiastically and now different communities ‘own’ parts of the stream. We had a tree-planting day the other day, in mud up to our ankles. A hundred people came, including Muslim women in veils, who painted the trees. "Now our streams are showing signs of aquatic life again, people are being much more careful about what they put in the water, and we are ahead of schedule on the project."

The Asian community represents 14% of a fast-growing population (200,000), and is expected to increase by 147% by 2010. In order to engage and enthuse this sector further in Twin Rivers, Waitakere is seeking a LivCom bursary to honour them with a work of art to mark their part of the stream. "Getting the Asian community engaged has been the biggest challenge in this project; we want to create a bond with them so that they get more involved and gain a sense of ownership with their part of the stream."

The new European capital of Tirana, Albania, which is paying its first visit to LivCom, has undertaken perhaps the most ambitious regeneration programme of any city at LivCom, and all in the last six years. The city has more than doubled in population in 15 years, to 585,000, due to the migration from the countryside.

"In 2000, after ten years of freedom, Tirana was a chaotic and depressed city," explained Daklea Shtylla Xnxo, director of the design unit in Tirana. "It was like a train station in a lost area of the world. It was full of dust and garbage; at the station no one knew who the manager and cleaner was. We have had to tell citizens that there would be change."

The city was first transformed through a "Green and Clean" painting programme, which achieved an immediate impact on a low budget, and other improvements were brought about by demolishing illegal constructions, regenerating parks and the river, and restoring the facades of old buildings.

"We have massively improved public spaces, but every day we face the problem of litter," said architect Adelina Greca. "We want to educate people that we can’t invest all the time and that it’s important to protect what we have already achieved.

"It is a continual education project, but we are not getting requests from the public to make changes, so they are becoming aware of what can be done.

"Already we are dreaming about preparing for LivCom in 2007."

The town of Dungannon in Northern Ireland is responding to its increasing population of migrant workers, who now number around 3,000 and represent 16% of the population.

As part of Dungannon’s Ethnic Minority Strategy, there is a Waste Awareness Programme, which helps newcomers to understand about recycling.

"We’ve got 800 migrant workers at one company, Moy Park, a food processing plant, and are now getting foreign nationals from new countries such as Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania as the EU expands," explained John Campbell, chief executive of the town council.

"We’ve seen an increase in recycling from 4% to 26% in four years and we want to reach 40% by 2010. "A few years ago we were caught out by the arrival of migrant workers and we’re looking at being more pro-active."

The council has budged £3,000 in bin provision, £1,000 in home computers and £6,000 in the production of a multilingual DVD and is seeking a LivCom Bursary worth £10,000 to match it. This would be spent on advertising in bus shelters and on buses, translations and advertising.

"Our objective is to instill a sense of civic pride in people joining our community and to communicate with them better," said mayor Francis Molloy.