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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) form significant ambitions towards a sustainable and better human future. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) have a deep-rooted urban dimension, as exemplified in Goal 11, which intends to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, and around 23% of the SDG indicators have a clear urban component. That is forming a window of opportunity to integrate both Agendas towards sustainable urbanization and improving the quality of life in urban agglomerations. Both Agendas should be functioning jointly towards contributing to improving the quality of life and providing all essential life services and needs. Thus, the integration approach is the best pathway to synergy aims of both Agendas to tackle the challenges and formulate a coherent interlinkage in the thematic areas. Consequently, urbanization and sustainable urban agglomeration development need a strong Agenda and implementation framework to tackle the environmental, social, and economic challenges of urban agglomerations. Therefore, the big lesson distillery from both Agendas is to localize the SDGs in the urban agglomerations to attain sustainability at a broad scope. Overall, the integrated approach to urban sustainability covers all sustainability aspects and the correlations among sustainability dimensions in both Agendas.
Independent Researcher in Environment and Sustainable Development, Bahrain
*Address all correspondence to: kme2001@hotmail.com
1. Introduction
In 1987, the Brundtland Report recognized the significance of cities in achieving sustainability, followed by the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992, which declared the urgent necessity for enhancing urban sustainability [1, 2]. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were employed as tools to improve better services for the poor urban; however, the urban and city dimensions were addressed only in MDG 7 (target 11) is articulated that “ensure environmental sustainability: achieving by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers” [3]. The first World Cities Day (WCD) was held on October 31, 2014, under the theme “Leading Urban Transformations”, to date, urbanization issues have remained a top global priority for achieving sustainable city transformations. Since then, urban sustainability has become a priority concern for scientists, decision-makers, and policy-makers, as stressed in policy frameworks and international reports [4]. In 2023, the WCD theme is “Financing Sustainable Urban Future for All”, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), approximately $2.6 trillion per year is needed until 2030 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reach a net-zero society by 2050. Meanwhile, the 2023 report of “United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects” predicts that the global growth rate will slow down to 1.9% in 2023, nevertheless, the World Bank reports sufficient capital available to address global infrastructure needs [5, 6, 7].
Urbanization is a transformative process that drives global development. With increasing concern from global agencies in urbanization and sustainable development, there is a growing urgency to thoroughly assess how sustainable urbanization can be achieved worldwide [8]. Further, there is ample evidence of cities in UN affairs, frameworks, and programs. For instance, the localization of the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction”, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention, and the WHO “Shanghai Consensus on Healthy Cities” [9]. Thus, it is crucial to integrate the New Urban Agenda (NUA) with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to effectively tackle the major challenges—e.g., environmental sustainability, waste management, climate change adaptations, and access to services—in urban environments. These challenges present significant opportunities to implement sustainable practices, such as green or smart city principles, which can lead to a better quality of life. Therefore, there is a need to build an effective nexus between the two Agendas through a participatory approach among multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholders in the urban planning process and policy-making. In this vein, the UN has taken a significant step by incorporating urban issues into the pivotal 2030 Agenda, particularly in SDG 11 (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”), which establishes a connection with the NUA. Therefore, this goal creates a significant bridge between the two Agendas towards their integration approach.
Urban areas are home to 55% of the world’s population (Figure 1) and generate 85% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) as they serve as centres of employment, innovation, and investments. In contrast, the mushrooming literature evident that urbanization has a negative impact on sustainable development such as blundered urban development, demolition of ecologically sensitive zones, and cities account for 75% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, and produce 70% of global waste due to growing industrial activities and unsustainable consumption, leading to increased environmental degradation (Figure 2) [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. According to the United Nations 2050 global prediction, 75% of the global population will live in cities, where 18% will occupy the 40 largest urban agglomerations, 66% economic business, and 85% technological innovations [17]. Additional impacts of rapid urban expansion are excessive energy and water consumption, weak infrastructure, lack of services, traffic congestion, and climate change [18]. Therefore, the city provides significant opportunities to address sustainability concerns across various sectors—e.g., energy, transportation, and water—via legal, financial, planning, and administrative instruments. Thus, addressing urban sustainability is the key to tackling global sustainability. In that sense, Agenda 2030 and the NUA represent a historical opportunity and mark value approach to achieving sustainable development.
Figure 1.
The growth and outlook of global urbanization in the period from 1950 to 2050 (data source: [10]).
Figure 2.
The cities’ impact on environment.
The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. The second section discusses the sustainable dimension of the New Urban Agenda. The third section discusses SDG 11 as an urban sustainability framework. The fourth section discusses the pathway towards the integration approach. While, the fifth section reviews the best urban sustainability practices, and the sixth section reviews the sustainable urbanization lessons learnt. The last section concludes the chapter.
2. The sustainable dimension of the new urban agenda
The NUA is a holistic urban view, which is considered a benchmark to attain sustainability efficiently through the realization of its social task. Whereas, cities are considered drivers for sustainable development [19]. The core driving principles of the NUA are similar to the 2030 Agenda; for example, both Agendas are universal, voluntary, and led by the state, and motivate member states to tackle the global common challenges [20]. According to Ali-Toudert et al., urban sustainability can be defined as “a design of future urban development as well as the re-development of existing ones in an environmentally friendly and resource-efficient manner” [21]. The United Nations defines urban agglomeration as “the de facto population contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels without regard to administrative boundaries” [22]. Urban agglomeration benefits from integrating industrial distribution, resilient infrastructures, establishing regional markets, planning urban and rural, protecting the environment and ecosystems, and social and security systems; where, in the future, it will be the primary carrier for socio-economic development [17, 23].
The NUA is a significant landmark document that addresses the major challenges cities face; it should be used to measure the accomplishment progress of future cities; its success depends on the formation of comprehensive and lasting synergies [24]. The NUA was adopted on 20 October 2016, and it was the first globally acquiesced document describing the implementation of the urban dimension of the SDGs. Item 9 articulates that “the New Urban Agenda reaffirms our global commitment to sustainable urban development as a critical step for realizing sustainable development in an integrated and coordinated manner at the global, regional, national, subnational and local levels, with the participation of all relevant actors. The implementation of the New Urban Agenda contributes to the implementation and localization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in an integrated manner, and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including Goal 11 of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. [25].
According to the UN-Habitat, revisiting the NUA is embracing the urbanization policies that can assist countries in handling challenges by developing national frameworks, enhancing national urban planning, selecting the appropriate SDGs that support sustainable urbanization, and aligning and strengthening institutional structures. As a consequence, the implications of implementing the NUA will reflect on urban rules and regulations, urban planning and design, and municipal finance [25, 26]. Figure 3 illustrates the core aims of NUA.
Figure 3.
The core aims of new urban agenda.
Three decades of sustainable development have passed, and the controversy has acquired a global dimension about the balance among political cultures, scientific, and experts’ knowledge in environmental management and other menaces issues, where the responsibilities became more complex and need for robust evidence-based scientific justifications; this challenge is at the core of the NUA [27]. Consequently, there is a need for tools to implement NUA to ensure the shifts in urban development and undertake the challenges of modern urbanization. There are two tools: the “International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning” (IG-UTP)—a set of policy recommendations to aid countries and concerned stakeholders in urbanization and human settlements—and “National Urban Policies” (NUP)—a coordinated and deliberate government-led process to rally various stakeholders towards resilient urban development for the long term—[28, 29], where the NUP is considered a significant strategic tool for advancing sustainable urbanization and monitoring SDG11 implementation [26]. Therefore, sustainable urbanization in the context of NUA is a transformative force to attain the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda.
To a large extent, urbanization has become a key driver of sustainable development and global environmental change. Therefore, the focus on cities in the new global development goes far beyond the usual focus on providing housing and improving slums; the vision expands to include safe and sustainable transportation, integrated and participatory urban planning, green public spaces, air quality, water management, waste management, climate resilient, and natural disaster risk. This vision will assist in improving current urban processes, policy, and planning globally [3]. For instance, NUA is committed in its vision statement to “Protect, conserve, restore and promote their ecosystems, water, natural habitats and biodiversity, minimize their environmental impact and change to sustainable consumption and production patterns” [25], and in 2021, the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC) was launched a program (Cities-4-Biodiversity) to provide technical and financial support to encourage cities to integrate their urban planning biodiversity and climate change solutions [30].
The 2030 Agenda—and its SDGs—are closely aligned with the NUA, and both Agendas are comprehensive, ambitious, and socially progressive Agendas that have the prospect of contributing towards cities’ transition to be sustainable, inclusive, and resilient [31, 32]. Therefore, the national urban policy can act as a qualitative toolbox for guiding and monitoring the attainment of the 2030 Agenda [12]. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the NUA recognize the significant role of urban resilience in the face of climate change and natural disasters; where the resilience concept cuts across the 17 SDGs. Further, urban areas are critical for achieving the SDGs as more than 50% of targets are related to urban areas. In contrast, both SDGs 11 (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”) and 17 (“Partnerships for the Goals”) consider around 42% (73 items) of the NUA [33]. Therefore, a comprehensive sustainable framework is essential to building urban resilience [34, 35].
The assignment of a separate urban goal (SDG 11) within the 2030 Agenda, alongside the NUA, reflects the success of advocacy efforts to raise policy focus and financial support for cities, recognizing their crucial role in facilitating sustainable development [3]. SDG 11 is purely dedicated to sustainable cities, which is a framework for sustainable urban development that addresses a variety of interconnected issues. It takes a systems approach, emphasizing cross-linkages with other developmental priorities. Its goal is to achieve sustainable urban development by 2030 through a set of achievable targets and indicators functioned to steer policy actions at the local level. In addition, SDG11 and its targets are opportunities to focus on effective indicators, data, measurements, and standards that assist in understanding cities particularly, and global urbanization at large, which could be addressed through an integrated approach [36]. Further, the SDG11 along sisters’ goals, aims to make cities safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, placing urbanization at the forefront of international development policy. In this vein, the inclusion of the targets of SDG 11 into the NUA is a difficult mission due to challenges that lack data and measuring urban realities development, where measurement becomes crisscrossed with human lives and priorities [36]. Thus, it is important to contextualize SDG 11 within the local urban development process.
To achieve SDG 11, UN-Habitat, jointly with other custodian international agencies such as UNISDR, UNESCO, WHO, UNODC, UNEP, and concerned stakeholders, has supported several methodological activities aimed at establishing systems for gathering qualitative and quantitative data. These activities include the development of guides for using geospatial information technology (GIS), big data analytics, and community-based data as additional sources of data at the national level. Further, UN-Habitat has also directly worked with countries to implement these systems for data collection [10]. Achieving SDG 11 makes cities not only sustainable but also contributes to other goals [37]. Therefore, cities must be a priority at the heart of efforts to accomplish global sustainability [38]. Figure 4 illustrates the linkages between SDG 11 targets with other goals.
Figure 4 illustrates that SDG11 and its targets are interlinked with the entire SDGs. For instance, SDG 1 (targets: 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) addressed reducing people living in poverty in cities, assuring access to basic services and assured social protection, while target (1.b) concerning the importance of improving the poor urban areas by formulating development strategies and policies. SDG 2 (target: 2.1) assures access to sufficient food for vulnerable people. Whereas SDG 3 (targets: 3.6, 3.7, and 3.9) focused on sexual and reproductive health and death prevention as a result of traffic accidents and pollution, those issues are considered increasing concerns in cities. While, SDG 4 (targets: 4.3 and 4.6) addressed eradicating literacy, and facilitating access to technical and higher training, especially for the most vulnerable groups, which are key challenges in the cities. SDG 5 (targets: 5.2, 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6) is considered a typical goal of eradicating all forms of violence against women, respecting care work, ensuring the highest women’s participation rights, and ensuring health services as articulated in SDG 3. Both SDGs 6 (targets: 6.3 and 6.b) and 7 (target: 7.1) focused on essential resources -water and energy- to sustain the cities; those goals aimed at improving wastewater treatment and providing affordable energy, also both are related to SDG 12 regarding sustainable consumption. SDG 8 (targets: 8.3, 8.5, 8.8, and 8.b) discoursed important economic parts of cities through employment promotion, ensuring safe workplace environments, and strategies for the employment of young people. SDG 9 addressed technological innovation through this goal can build a smart city. SDG 10 is about reducing inequality, and this goal is reflected in all SDGs especially SDG 5. SDG 12 (target: 12.5) focused on waste production in the city and called for reduction and recycling. With regard to SDG 16 (targets: 16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 16.9, and 16.10) covered important matters such as violence and abuse prevention, justice, social inclusion, information, citizen participation, and legal support, and this goal is supportive of other SDGs.
Figure 4.
The linkages between SDG 11 targets with other sustainable goals.
In sum, SDG 11 is viewed as an urban sustainability framework, which presents windows of opportunity for overcoming urban challenges and enhancing synergies and integration capacities—e.g., policies, urban planning, resilient infrastructures, and services—and a hub between the two Agendas towards a tangible sustainable transition.
The issues associated with urban growth and sustainability should be treated together as one issue. While, two significant challenges may hinder the achievement of the two Agendas by the 2030 stipulated timeframe which are (a) the current urban development paths are described as inactive planning systems and affected by personal benefits, and (b) present global economic systems often discrepancy with achieving high sustainability standards. In addition, due to urban development complexity, profound uncertainty, and scale, radically unique approaches are needed to attain planet sustainability. Nevertheless, taking the two Agendas seriously and continuing the implementation can provide a valuable opportunity to rethink urban planning and development considering the sustainability dimensions (social, environmental, and economic). This opportunity will serve to reassess governance systems and prioritize sustainability in urban planning and development Agendas [26, 32, 39, 40, 41]. To accomplish sustainable urban development, one needs to create a holistic understanding of sustainability through a sound comprehension of notions, approaches, strategies, tools, and techniques employed to assess urban development’s sustainability [42], which will result in integrated and cohesive solutions and harmonized actions in addressing urban sustainability.
Urban development is crucial for sustainability due to the significant impacts of high population density on society and the economy [33]. In addition, complex and multidimensional disadvantages in urban areas require a comprehensive approach to address such challenges [43]. While the current progress in implementing the SDGs in urban areas made so far is trim there is a need to develop integrated approaches [44]. To understand urban scaling in the transformation to sustainability. Two links should be understood, development and sustainability, as well as, development and urbanization raise a significant question of whether urbanization is useful for sustainability or antagonizing it [37, 45]. The linkage between urbanization and development represents the nexus between the NUA and the 2030 Agenda [46]. The 2030 Agenda combines human development (embodied in city and population growth) and sustainability transformation (embodied in human welfare, economic prosperity, and environmental conservation) [11]. Therefore, both Agendas are “top and foundation stones to adopt practical measures, coherent policies, and effective legal frameworks to improve resilient cities, better human settlements, aspirations life, and resilient infrastructure through sustainable planning, management, and governance to mitigate or prevent the devastating impacts of disasters and pandemics” [47].
Unsustainable cities can be avoided in the coming decades by investing in infrastructures on a green path and employing new efficient approaches, such as the urban nexus and urban ecosystems to create urban areas that are habitable, healthy, sustainable, and prosperous [20]. To tackle the challenges of cities’ change and restructuring, it should embrace a comprehensive and coordinated approach to urban development aiming to concentrate on long-term strategies and enhance sustainability aspects -social, economic, and environmental- towards a better sustainable future [48]. Both Agendas reiterate the global commitment to sustainable urban development as a key driver of sustainable development at global, regional, and national levels, where all concerned stakeholders should engage to actively participate in the implementation process. Some key commitments included providing essential life needs and services (e.g., sanitation, health, electricity, water supply, and education), strengthening urban resilience, implementing mitigation measures to tackle environmental impacts (e.g., climate change and pollution), establishing sustainable infrastructures, formulating coherent policies, and enhancing best governance practices.
The NUA cannot be effectively implemented standalone to attain tangible sustainable urban development. Because NUA focuses most of its actions on the managerial aspect, which can synergize with the SDGs. This framework (Figure 5) emphasizes the integration of the two Agendas and the consideration of resilient urban development aimed at contributing to developing a sustainable urban environment. Further, it compiles intersecting urban, environmental, economic, and social issues to enhance the infrastructure of sustainability transformation, and to overcome the challenges and obstacles that hamper human development by implementing well-built actions on sustainable planning and designing, ensuring mobilization of financial resources, governance, and sustainable management.
Figure 5.
The integration approach for the two agendas.
The first step (Figure 5) is to establish the integration basis based on the aims of the two Agendas, where they intersect in promoting urban sustainability. Then, enhance the synergy process through coherent policies, sustainable planning, and multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder participation. While SDG 11 requires an integrated approach to urban development to overcome sectoral boundaries through building internal institutional synergies, building partnerships, and enhancing existing institutions [12]. This will make SDG 11 drive the NUA vision concerning urban planning, designing, management, governance, and finance. As a result, it will provide opportunities for all and, consequently, attain social inclusion, sustainability, and prosperity to end poverty. Eventually, the aim is to reach the sustainability level and accomplish sustainable integration between the two Agendas towards achieving sustainable urbanization in the urban agglomerations. Therefore, the integration of both Agendas will offer a robust base across different aspects. Further, a paradigm shift is necessary to ensure substantial and sustainable transformation of urban policies, planning, development, and management at all levels through SDG 11 within a comprehensive approach including entire SDGs.
In 2007, the World Bank launched the Global City Indicators Program (GCIP) to deliver a platform for cities to analogize their indicators and exchange outcomes and best practices for sustainable urbanization [49]. A large area of cities’ land is residential areas, while urban planning practices have not yet been properly incorporated [28]. The NUA realizes that there is a relationship between sound urban practices and development and urbanization [25]. Sustainability practices still lack interdisciplinary cogitation, enforcement, and inclusive decision-making procedures. While, some sustainability initiatives are under the environmental departments’ responsibility [50]. Currently, economic and demographic considerations dictate the planning and design practices in urban development [51], and most sustainable urban development practices focus mainly on energy, waste, water, and transportation aspects, while the conservation of the environment and socio-cultural aspects are ignored [42, 52]. Whereas improper urban development planning practices impact the surrounding environment adversely [53], both policy and practices present sound direction to aspirational and normative sustainability and are appropriate for handling new and critical challenges [41], and link the economy and environment with the citizens’ prosperity [54]. Urban areas are hotspots for attaining the SDGs, and the development of smart advanced technologies and solutions in the urban planning and development field is leading to a better sustainable future aligned with the 2030 Agenda (refer to Table 1) [45, 55].
Urban aspects
Best sustainability practices
References
Quality of life
Social interactions and networking; facilitate access to a wide range of services; maintenance and improvement of infrastructure
Water conservation; sewage treatment; minimize water consumption; utilize the gray water; adopt smart techniques for wastewater treatment; employ flexible water distribution systems
Encourage the use of public transport systems and expand; smart urban mobility; encourage walking and use of bicycles; adopt sustainable transport policies
Increasing natural areas; improving landscape permeability; combat deforestation by law; making environmentally green spaces (e.g., gardens and parks); reinforcing urban nature conservation; protecting of ecological value of flora and fauna in their situ; managing urban expansion to avoid losses of sensitive biodiversity situ
Adopt green building design technologies; create environmentally sensitive areas to restore park and greenway systems; green infrastructures; integrate the resilience strategies with development and planning policies; protect the land instead of exploiting it
The literature stated different city keywords in the urban development research, such as sustainable city, smart city, smart-sustainable city, eco-city, low-carbon city, resilient city, and knowledge city; whereas, sustainable city is the most common keyword [72]. Where, many efforts have been made to define a sustainable city based on an advanced normative proposition and an inventive empirical practice, and these efforts led to systematically and technically defining sustainable urban development out of unified standardization, of which SDG11 is the newest and highest example [36, 73]. Therefore, working on sustainability goals is a complex task that needs high coordination and collaboration at multiple levels [74], thus, to accomplish long-term sustainability goals needs to develop and implement effective, measurable sustainability policies and practices that transform societies towards sustainable urban agglomerations [75].
6. Sustainable urbanization lessons in the context of SDGs
Urbanization is a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral issue; it intertwines with politics, economics, society, governance, and the environment sectors. Therefore, this issue is crucial and cannot be addressed independently due to its roots interlinked with multiple issues; such as climate change, pollution, resource consumption, infrastructure, economics, and other issues. For instance, the 2013 UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk (UNISDR) report stated that globally, cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to severe environmental changes, such as drought, hurricanes, flooding, heat stress, heavy rainfall events, and other natural disasters (refer to Table 2) [76].
Table 2.
Some urbanization lessons learnt related to some SDGs.
The two Agendas are more ambitious and nuanced and extend beyond the identification of matches between urban development needs and the aspiration mission of the SDGs, which require a concerted effort at all levels towards sustainability integration. The integration approaches are a way to move ahead; the most important is how to enact the integration approach between the two Agendas based on sustainability principles and practices. In many contexts, both Agendas offer a robust base for integration, which assists in including sustainability dimensions in urban planning development, including improving national urban policies and strategies, financial mobilization, adoption of urban governance, capacity-building, and institutional development. Overall, the holistic vision is the basis of the integrated approach to urban sustainability, which covers all sustainability aspects and a comprehensive understanding of the correlations among sustainability dimensions in both Agendas.
Despite the global attention to the significant role of cities, planning, and urban policy in shaping a typical sustainable city; there is a need to develop an approach to be a tool to simplify and resolve the complex and critical issues that hinder urban sustainability. Both Agendas are functioning to lead the way for the next decades’ future because they have made it clangorous and clear that the world must drive on a sustainable path on multiple and a systemic track to ensure a better future. The policy tools are considered the cornerstone that needs to be calibrated in the context of the two Agendas to move forward in accomplishing sustainable urbanization.
The strengths of SDGs are interconnected and need integrated approaches; therefore, the urban planning and development process should embark on all aspects of the 17 SDGs or select the highest priority to ensure how agglomeration urban areas are structured, built, and planned and how services provided and run because these areas are fertile soil for SDGs implementation. Adopting a wide range of lessons and practices could assist the decision-makers and policy-makers in developing sounder actions and predicting potential issues for promoting future sustainable urbanization. Therefore, the key to success in attaining sustainable agglomerations is to redress the current course of action and put urban development on a sustainable path.
The key pass point for localizing the SDGs within urban development is the urban resilience strategies that reflect the obligations of global agreements and instruments. More specifically, the SDGs are a harmonious framework for NUA that allows the integration of diverse policy tools and strategies in a way that facilitates the sustainability localization process. To do so, it should focus on future urban planning, availability of resources (e.g., financial, technology, and data and information), stakeholders’ involvement, knowledge and experience exchange, and collaboration, and capacity buildings for strengthening urban resilience. As a result, both Agendas will be localized at the national level in the realm of sustainable development.
To this end, we should more obviously realize that urban sustainability is an interdisciplinary endeavor to provide a unique framework to contribute towards accomplishing the SDGs in a more progressive global context in urban development and policy. Integration of the NUA and the 2030 Agenda could signify a moment for achieving sustainable urbanization that promotes sustainable and resilient urban futures.
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Written By
Abdulkarim Hasan Rashed
Submitted: 01 January 2024Reviewed: 01 January 2024Published: 04 March 2024
Open access peer-reviewed chapter - ONLINE FIRST
