I. Introduction

and standardised method for collecting data and measuring performance as well as a practical reference framework for an integrated, indivisible and balanced treatment of the SDGs.

This Profile was developed in close consultation with the Government. The preparation of the Profile commenced with an evaluation of the performance of the country’s performance against the KPIs for SSC and a desk review of urban development plans and initiatives. This was followed by face-to-face and online interviews with government officials as well as experts in 2022, to gain insights into the country’s immediate and strategic, long-term development challenges and priority needs.

The Profile is organized in eight chapters. The introduction is followed, in chapters II and III by an overview of the salient features of the Republic of San Marino, including its topology, urbanization patterns and climate change challenges, and the legal and institutional framework underpinning urban development to set the context for the analysis. The evaluation of the country’s performance against the KPIs for SSC is provided in chapter IV. Chapter V looks into the lingering socio, economic and environmental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is followed, in chapter VI, by a discussion of the main challenges on the country’s road to achieving smart, sustainable urbanism. The country’s sources of development funding are highlighted in chapter VII, leading to action-oriented recommendations in chapter VIII.

II. General overview of the Republic of San Marino

Location, topography and hydrography

The Republic of San Marino is located in Southern Europe, around 39 kilometres (km) away from the Adriatic coast. It lies on the north-eastern side of the Apennine Mountains, and is surrounded by Italy, sharing borders with the regions of Emilia Romagna to the north and east and MarcheMontefeltro to the south and west. The country has a mountainous terrain, with elevation ranges between 53 and 739 meters (m) above sea level7 .

The country’s landscape is shaped by the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Mount Titano8, the symbol and highest point of the country. Renowned for its unique silhouette, which features three summits crowned by ancient triple fortifications, Mount Titano peaks at 739 metres (m) above sea level, with most of the landscape found on the mountain’s slopes and crests and stretching in an irregular rectangle that runs 13 km in total length from the north-eastern to south-western parts of the country.9

7 https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/sm/sm-nr-05-en.pdf 8 https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1245/ 9 https://web.archive.org/web/20161112040204/http://www.sanmarino.sm/on-line/home/san-marino/schedapaese/informazioni-sulla-popolazione.html

9