Urban observatories, tools for monitoring cities

The growth of urban areas, and all the problems that this fact entails, give rise to the urgent need to search for tools capable of assisting urban management. The urban observatories are, then, a tool that allows the monitoring of cities through the use of indicators, by assessing their progress over time. The observatories are also important to support decision-making, involvement of people in decisions, data analysis and compilation and availability of data, which were previously unavailable to the general public. This paper makes a synthesis of the literature on the theme of Urban Observatories as a tool for monitoring our cities, with the objective to serve as a theoretical basis for the possible implementation of a project of this naturein Portugal. Key-Words: -Urban Observatory, UN-Habitat, Global Urban Observatory, Agenda 21, Habitat Agenda, Millennium Developments Goals, Indicators.