In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
NUCLEAR is the future for the small coastal city of Haiyan. Not just as a source of power but, local officials think, as a magnet for businesses and tourists. Home to China’s first domestically developed commercial reactor, Haiyan recently started calling itself “nuclear-power town”. It has opened a nuclear museum …
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Urban Development and Services Initiative has released its new whitepaper on Collaboration in Cities: From Sharing to ‘Sharing Economy’ . This report demystifies the new sharing economy vocabulary, explains key drivers for sharing, and the opportunities for cities to engage and drive sharing practices. …
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Urban Development and Services Initiative has released its new whitepaper on Collaboration in Cities: From Sharing to ‘Sharing Economy’ . This report demystifies the new sharing economy vocabulary, explains key drivers for sharing, and the opportunities for cities to engage and drive sharing practices. …
The project which is being implemented in 21 districts from South Western and Eastern Uganda, is Uganda’s first Green Climate Fund-financed initiative and is a response to the Presidential Initiative on Wetlands. Two years after Uganda’s independence, the total area of our wetlands was estimated at 32,000km2 but by 1999, …
In conjunction with the Science-Policy Business Forum and in advance of the third session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-3), the International Resource Panel (IRP) of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP or UN Environment) released a report titled, ‘Assessing Global Resource Use; A systems approach to resource efficiency and pollution …
Realising the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement will require a coherent and self-reinforcing policy programme to deliver compact and connected urban development. In this context, there is a need for effective coordination across the boundaries of established policy sectors: spatial planning, transport, housing, industry and environment. This report …
The overall aim of the work programme on Financing the Urban Transition is to empower national decisionmakers with the knowledge and tools to better unlock, direct, and facilitate urban finance. Doing so will enable compact, connected urban infrastructure that supports sustainable development. This paper is a background review representing part …
This guidance provides support to practitioners and policymakers on the role of peri-urban ecosystems in adaptation and the resilience of urban systems against climatic and water related disasters. The guidance focuses on the Asia-Pacific region in particular, but also contains helpful information for other developing country contexts. The interdependence of …
This paper describes research undertaken in five Indian cities (Shimla, Indore, Gorakhpur, Panjim and Guwahati), to improve the understanding of the vulnerability of urban poor children to climatic risks and the role of peri-urban ecosystems in resilience building. This study contributes to the discussion on urban children's vulnerability and ecosystem-based …
Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has analyzed how different dimensions of accessibility, such as urbanization …
Developments in the Rwandan economy as of the first half of 2017 have been mixed. On the upside, Rwanda's external imbalances have eased on account of improvements in global commodity prices, global and regional strengthening of growth recovery, and the external adjustment the government undertook in 2016. Inflation pressures have …
This World Bank knowledge note describes a benchmarking method developed to track the progress of Pacific Island Countries toward sustainable flood risk management. Twelve benchmarks (or "tracking tools") cover most aspects of a flood risk management process including understanding of flood risks, evaluating options to better manage the risk, and …
The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the National Academy of Economic Strategy (NAES) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) have jointly released a report on cities’ competitiveness around the world, focusing on the relationship between housing and urban competitiveness. Titled ‘The Global Urban Competitiveness Report 2017-2018: House …
A report by C40 and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, Focused Acceleration: A Strategic Approach to Climate Action in Cities to 2030 details the biggest opportunities for emissions reduction, making it easier for cities to identify actions with the potential to deliver the greatest emissions reductions by 2030. …
Cities and their policymakers face enormous pressures as they seek to meet today’s mobility challenges. As rapid urbanization, aging infrastructure, population growth and climate change continue to challenge our world’s cities, those that choose to make bold moves in advancing and diversifying their urban transport systems will gain a competitive …
The World Economic Forum has released a report taking a deep dive on migration and cities, exploring the types, causes and patterns of migration, the most affected corridors and cities, the impact on urban infrastructure and services, the solutions that can be employed and how cities can seek to future …
Water bodies have decreased by a steep 40% in the national capital region (NCR) as a result of rapid urbanisation between 1972 and 2014, when the region saw a 17-fold rise in urban built-up areas, a study has revealed. At certain places, the complete transformation into an urban environment has …
The Safe Cities Index 2017 is a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by NEC. The report is based on the second iteration of the index, which ranks 60 cities across 49 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security and personal security.
In exercise of the powers conferred by sections 6 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, namely:- These rules may be called the Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2017. They shall …
Cities could tackle the global problem of rising levels of waste and depleted resources by using organic waste, such as bananas, potatoes and maize as building materials, Arup predicts. Globally the construction industry is one of the largest users of raw materials; in the UK alone it accounts for 60 …
