Sometime next year, the number of urban inhabitants worldwide will exceed the rural population for the first time in human history. Although urban areas only cover 0.4 percent of the planet's surface, city policies are critical to dictating future actions toward poverty reduction and global warming. Urbanization and the challenges and opportunities confronting the world's city populations are the focus of the latest edition of the Worldwatch Institute's flagship publication, State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future.
City Challenges
According to the report, one in three urban dwellers (roughly 1 billion people globally), live in a "slum" setting with little or no access to clean water, sanitation, or adequate housing. Cities are also large contributors of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste products. In order for urban areas to develop sustainably, cities will be required to adopt a range of policies--particular to their own needs and goals--that better address issues of public health, education, pollution, infrastructure, and resource use.
City Lights of the World
Opportunities of Urbanization
Our Urban Future also reports on a series of case studies, highlighting cities around the world that are already taking steps to ensure a better future for their citizens. These progressive policy strategies span a broad spectrum of environmental concerns, including sanitation, transportation, climate change, energy, and natural disaster preparedness. They represent examples of successful, innovative sustainable initiatives that could be adapted and scaled-up in other cities around the world. More specifically:
- "In Karachi, Pakistan, the Orangi Pilot Project has linked hundreds of thousands of low-income households in informal settlements with good-quality sewers. By taking charge of the pipes connecting their houses to lane sewers, local residents cut costs to a fifth of what they would have been charged by the official water and sanitation agency.
- In Freetown, Sierra Leone, after the cessation of a multi-year civil war, a swelling population has successfully turned to urban farming to meet much of its food demand
- In Rizhao, China, a government program enabled 99 percent of households in the central districts to obtain solar water heaters, while most traffic signals and street and park lights are powered by solar cells, limiting the city’s carbon emissions and urban pollution.
- In Bogotá, Colombia, engineers improved upon the iconic bus rapid transit system of Curitiba, Brazil, to create the TransMilenio, which has helped decrease air pollution, increase quality of life, and inspire similar projects in Europe, North America, and Asia."
As noted in the official press release, although "no single set of "best practices" would enable all cities to successfully address the challenges of poverty and environmental degradation, State of the World 2007 focuses on areas where urban leadership can have huge benefits for the planet and human development."
RELATED LINKS:
State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future
Worldwatch Eye on Earth: Cities Key to Tackling Poverty, Climate Change
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