Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures
Urbanization and growth go hand in hand, and no
one can deny that urbanization is essential for socioeconomic transformation,
wealth generation, prosperity and development. As this Report asserts, the
emerging future of cities largely depends on the way we plan and manage
urbanization, and the way we leverage this transformative process to ‘provide
the setting, the underlying base and also the momentum for global change’. The
analysis of urban development of the past twenty years presented in this first
edition of the World Cities Report shows, with compelling evidence, that there
are new forms of collaboration and cooperation, planning governance, finance
and learning that can sustain positive change.
The Report unequivocally demonstrates that the
current urbanization model is unsustainable in many respects, puts many people
at risk, creates unnecessary costs, negatively affects the environment, and is
intrinsically unfair. It conveys a clear message that the pattern of
urbanization needs to change in order to better respond to the challenges of
our time, to address issues such as inequality, climate change, informality,
insecurity, and the unsustainable forms of urban expansion.
Joan Clos Under-Secretary-General,
United Nations Executive Director, UN-Habitat
To read click here:
Chapters
From Habitat II to Habitat
III: Twenty Years of Urban Development
Urbanization as a
Transformative Force
The Fate of Housing
The Widening Urban Divide
“Just” Environmental Sustainabilities
Rules of the Game: Urban
Governance and Legislation
A City that Plans:
Reinventing Urban Planning
The Changing Dynamics of
Urban Economies
Principles For a New Urban
Agenda
The New Urban Agenda