EcCoWell was developed by the PASCAL International Observatory in 2012 (PIE), based on the experience of Taipei city, as an approach to developing learning cities in a holistic and cohesive manner. The emergence of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, with a similar requirement for holistic development has enhanced the significance of the EcCoWell experience.

This paper examines the relevance of EcCoWell to implementing the SDGs in cities and smaller communities, and traces how the EcCoWell concept has evolved in this context of learning city development. The learning city concept is inevitably caught up in the debate about humanistic responses to the challenge of rampart digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, such that sustainability takes on further meaning in this context.