Search

Urban development is a current priority in terms of improving the sustainability of cities amid demographic pressure and intensive economic development in the European Union. In this context, we aim to critically analyze the progress achieved by the European Member States in the period of 2010–2022 from the perspective of Sustainable Development Goal 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities—and conceptualize the new development scoreboard from the perspective of SDG11. The methods used consist in applying principal components analysis for a set of 15 sustainability indicators related to the studied objective and designing the new sustainability index from the perspective of the ODD11 and the European ranking. The results of the study will allow for the formulation of public policies useful for European decision makers to improve the progress made relating to this objective, and we believe that their implementation could support the transformation of European cities in a sustainable and equitable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the conceptual assumptions of the Smart City in its different phases of development - Smart City 1.0, Smart City 2.0, Smart City 3.0, Smart City 4.0, Smart City 5.0 and Smart Sustainable City. With reference to „Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” containing 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the article specifically presents the assumptions and practical solutions for SDG Goal 11. A critical analysis of the literature on the subject and a content analysis of the SDG reports revealed a juxtaposition of the diverse capabilities of smart technologies and their insufficient implementation to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in Smart Cities. The reality is not encouraging. The population of people living in slums is growing rapidly, social inequalities are widening, and there is a lack of access to convenient urban transport. There is chaotic urban sprawl, air pollution and insufficient public open spaces. Solutions to urban problems are often interventionist rather than preventive. The rational and sustainable use of modern technology can change this.

This article analyses the extent to which the applicable legal and policy frameworks in Zimbabwe enable cities to use spatial planning to pursue the vision encapsulated in SDG 11. This article argues that although the existing legal framework makes adequate provision for features that can hypothetically guide cities to use spatial planning to pursue the vision envisaged in SDG 11, their potential is constrained by diverse factors such as lack of effective public participation in local governance, the inability of local authorities to generate sufficient revenue, systemic corruption in spatial planning processes, and under-utilisation of a flexible and accommodating legal framework. The research is based on an integrated analysis of primary and secondary sources of law.

Remote sensing data and methods have become indispensable for observing and modeling the Earth and have great potential for monitoring a substantial portion of the targets defined under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study investigates remote sensing research on SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) from 2016 to 2023, highlighting the growing interest in the field. By evaluating a large number of selected articles (6820) using a specialized keyword selection strategy and various filters, a significant increase in publication frequency was observed. Remote Sensing and Sustainability were found to be the most relevant journals. A trend towards research addressing urban ecological quality, changes in land use patterns, and the impact of impervious surfaces was found in domain-specific citations. Semi-niche motor themes encompass deep learning, feature extraction, and semantic segmentation. Simultaneously, remote sensing, machine learning, and change detection serve as foundational motor themes, merging elements of both basic and motor themes. The introduction of new analytical methods (e.g., new indices), together with the use of open data and crowdsourcing, has gained great interest. While there has been a strong focus on land cover, urban expansion, and land surface temperature, the main gaps were identified in regional development, disaster, resilience, natural and cultural heritage, housing, and inclusiveness. The findings show the significance of remote sensing research and its practical applications for shaping urban policy, planning strategies, and sustainable urban development. By extracting research patterns using centrality and density analyses and identifying underexplored areas, valuable insights into relationships, significance, and developmental progress within SDG 11-related remote sensing research were gained and may contribute to future planning and informing policymaking decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a central framework for guiding sustainable urban development. However, it is not clear how and where SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) is being implemented, and how such implementation might be improved. We investigate this subject by analyzing United Nations (UN) SDG Good Practices data from 2018 to 2021, using content analysis, classification, and descriptive statistics. The resulting analysis and classification is new in this field. We applied five criteria to the 336 SDG 11 responses: (1) geography; (2) actors; (3) progress toward targets; (4) areas of implementation; and (5) scale of action. Overall, 86 of the 193 countries that adopted the 2030 Agenda submitted at least one SDG 11 good practice. Thirty-three countries contributed 73.8% of the total, and most developing countries did not make submissions. A very small number of responses (between 2.6 and 9.1%) addressed equity-related targets. Good practices from developed countries were usually more technology-oriented and system-forming; developing countries typically focused on issues of day-to-day concern. This analysis points to the need for better and more systematic reporting on SDG 11 implementation, a more active public sector role in SDG implementation and reporting, more focus on dimensions related to social equity, and better formulation of urban sustainability targets and indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to accessible built environments include the convenient and safe use of roads and pedestrian infrastructure. This is founded on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other related international and local legislation. These notwithstanding, this paper sought to ascertain whether the accessibility needs of PWDs were amply factored into decisions on pedestrian infrastructure. The study adopted a descriptive research design. It involved the use of a checklist developed from the Accessible Side-walks and Street Crossing information guide and the Ghana Accessibility Standards for the Built Environment to assess pedestrian infrastructure along five arterial roads leading to Kumasi, the second most populous city in Ghana. Interviews were also used to ascertain the opinions of 122 PWDs on the inclusiveness of the pedestrian infrastructure. The study found that the pedestrian infrastructure was not as inclusive as required. Maintenance was not given due attention and most PWDs had challenges with the pedestrian infrastructure. The study concludes that irrespective of the prevalence of both international and local standards in Ghana, the accessibility needs of PWDs are not amply factored into decisions on pedestrian infrastructure. Accordingly, policy should dwell on holistic enforcement of the accessibility standards in design, construction and maintenance. These will support the quest to enhance accessible transport systems and consequently efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid rate of urbanization and increased infrastructural complexities significantly affects achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11). Digital Twin Technology (DTT) has emerged as a promising and transformative tool, yet there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of its potential impact on SDG 11 within the New Zealand (NZ) context. This research examines how DTT can advance SDG11 by analysing its application, benefits, challenges, and implications within the NZ context. The novelty of this study lies in its use of a mixed-method approach as it integrates NZ specific trend analysis, keyword analysis, and an interrelationship network diagram. This comprehensive methodology employed provides a unique understanding on how DTT advancement can be adapted to NZ's urban landscape. The findings highlight critical challenges, including data integration, cross sector collaboration, and governance barriers which hinder widespread adoption. The study underscores the importance of Knowledge Sharing and Transfer (KS&T) to translate insights into local actions effectively. In addition, the interrelationship network diagram highlights the need for a holistic approach towards DTT implementation in the context of urban sustainability. These insights can play a fundamental role for guiding policymakers and shaping urban development strategies both in NZ and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the strong potential of Earth-observation (EO) data and techniques in support of migration policies, and to propose actions to fill the existing structural gaps. The work was carried out within the "Smart URBan Solutions for air quality, disasters and city growth" (SMURBS, ERA-PLANET/H2020) project. The novelties introduced by the implemented solutions are based on the exploitation and synergy of data from different EO platforms (satellite, aerial, and in situ). The migration theme is approached from different perspectives. Among these, this study focuses on the design process of an EO-based solution for tailoring and monitoring the SDG 11 indicators in support of those stakeholders involved in migration issues, evaluating the consistency of the obtained results by their compliance with the pursued objective and the current policy framework. Considering the city of Bari (southern Italy) as a case study, significant conclusions were derived with respect to good practices and obstacles during the implementation and application phases. These were considered to deliver an EO-based proposal to address migrants' inclusion in urban areas, and to unfold the steps needed for replicating the solution in other cities within and outside Europe in a standardized manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of cities determines human sustainable development. Human settlement is an important element of cities, and scientific monitoring and assessment of it can help cities accurately identify unsustainable issues. Taking Sustainable Development Goal 11 as the basic framework, the study constructs a global development goal-oriented sustainability assessment system for urban human settlement (UHS), including 7 fields and 26 indicators, which serves as a reference for cities globally. And an empirical analysis is conducted using panel data of 143 typical cities in China from 2015 to 2019. The results show that: (1) the score of China's UHS sustainability improved from 54.84 to 58.52, with some cities already achieving the goal of sustainable UHS. More than 50% of the cities were on track to achieve the goal by 2030. (2) Regional scores varied, being higher in the south and lower in the north, with the highest score in the eastern coastal region and the lowest score in the northeastern region. (3) Economy size is significantly and positively correlated with UHS sustainability, which is consistent with the regional performance, but with a marginal decreasing trend. (4) The performance of cities with different population size varied more significantly. The scores of UHS sustainability showed a U-shaped relationship with population size. In response to these findings, this study proposes corresponding strategic measures. The insights gained from the empirical analysis of Chinese cities can inform global policymaking. • Developing an assessment system of urban human settlement sustainability. • Determining of thresholds for urban assessment indicators based on Donut Model. • Uncovering the impact of city-scale on urban human settlement sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global urban mapping is vital for understanding various environmental challenges and supporting Sustainable Development Goal 11. Although deep learning models present a potential unified solution, their effectiveness is intrinsically tied to the quality and diversity of the training data, which often present limitations in existing research. To overcome these limitations, this paper introduced a data engine tailored to generate high-quality and diverse training samples at the global scale. This semi-automatic procedure operated in two stages. The initial stage focused on the generation of globally-distributed accurate samples by harmonizing existing open-source datasets. The subsequent stage broadened the sample coverage to the global scale by leveraging published global data products and OpenStreetMap data, ensuring the sample's diversity. Using the dataset generated by the data engine, we trained a Global Urban Mapper (GUM), achieving superior global testing results, outperforming the second-best product (i.e., GISA-10) by 2.89% in Overall Accuracy (OA) and 5.92% in mean Intersection over Union (mIoU). The advancements can primarily be ascribed to the superior quality and heterogeneity of the data generated by the proposed data engine, providing a precise and diverse set of samples for the deep learning model to assimilate. The proposed data engine, built exclusively on open-source data, offers promising prospects for global mapping tasks beyond urban land cover. We will release GUM and the associated preprocessing code in https://github.com/LauraChow77/GlobalUrbanMapper , which will empower users to map specific areas of interest worldwide, thereby facilitating timely urban assessment and monitoring. • A data engine to generate an accurate and diverse dataset for global urban mapping • Open-source datasets alleviated the minimum mapping unit issue in labeling samples • Existing products and OpenStreetMap data utilized to expand and diversify samples • The Global Urban Mapper enables timely urban assessment and monitoring globally [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Innovative integration of SDG11 with urban ESs. • Advanced multi-source data analysis for city clusters. • Strategic urban sustainability and ecological insights. • Advocated for region-specific strategies for comprehensive urban sustainability. The harmonious integration of urban development and ecosystem services (ESs) is crucial for advancing sustainable urban agglomerations. This study unveils an innovative framework that synergizes SDGs with ESs, spotlighting the Yangtze River Delta Megacity Cluster (YRDMC) as a focal area. We first evaluated the SDG11 levels of 26 cities within the YRDMC, categorizing them into four distinct SDG11 development patterns based on their changing trends. We quantified six essential ESs for each city, analyzing how urban land use changes impact these ESs. Subsequently, we employed the SWOT analysis matrix, to devise nature-based urban planning strategies tailored to each city. Our findings indicate that only 3 cities exhibited a continuous rise in SDG11 scores, whereas 17 cities showed an initial increase followed by a decrease in their SDG11 scores. On average, water yield in the YRDMC increased by 4.8 %, while carbon storage and habitat quality declined by 2.25 % and 4.17 %, respectively. Major land use shifts involved reductions in forests and cropland, with most cities facing challenges in providing sufficient ESs. The study equips planners, developers, and consultants with insights for greener, more resilient urban spaces, aligning development with sustainability goals and enhancing the appeal of sustainable initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of green spaces within city centres has been recognized as a valuable component of the city landscape. Vegetation provides a variety of benefits including energy saving, improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, decreased ambient temperature and psychological restoration. Evidence also shows that the amount of vegetation, known as ‘greenness’, in densely populated areas, can also be an indicator of the relative wealth of a neighbourhood. The ‘grey-green divide’, the contrast between built-up areas with a dominant grey colour and green spaces, is taken as a proxy indicator of sustainable management of cities and planning of urban growth. Consistent and continuous assessment of greenness in cities is therefore essential for monitoring progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11. The availability of multi-temporal greenness information from Landsat data archives together with data derived from the city centres database of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) initiative, offers a unique perspective to quantify and analyse changes in greenness across 10,323 urban centres all around the globe. In this research, we assess differences between greenness within and outside the built-up area for all the urban centres described by the city centres database of the GHSL. We also analyse changes in the amount of green space over time considering changes in the built-up areas in the periods 1990, 2000 and 2014. The results show an overall trend of increased greenness between 1990 and 2014 in most cities. The effect of greening is observed also for most of the 32 world megacities. We conclude that using simple yet effective approaches exploiting open and free global data it is possible to provide quantitative information on the greenness of cities and its changes over time. This information is of direct interest for urban planners and decision-makers to mitigate urban related environmental and social impacts.

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the strong potential of Earth-observation (EO) data and techniques in support of migration policies, and to propose actions to fill the existing structural gaps. The work was carried out within the “Smart URBan Solutions for air quality, disasters and city growth” (SMURBS, ERA-PLANET/H2020) project. The novelties introduced by the implemented solutions are based on the exploitation and synergy of data from different EO platforms (satellite, aerial, and in situ). The migration theme is approached from different perspectives. Among these, this study focuses on the design process of an EO-based solution for tailoring and monitoring the SDG 11 indicators in support of those stakeholders involved in migration issues, evaluating the consistency of the obtained results by their compliance with the pursued objective and the current policy framework. Considering the city of Bari (southern Italy) as a case study, significant conclusions were derived with respect to good practices and obstacles during the implementation and application phases. These were considered to deliver an EO-based proposal to address migrants’ inclusion in urban areas, and to unfold the steps needed for replicating the solution in other cities within and outside Europe in a standardized manner.

The presence of green spaces within city centres has been recognized as a valuable component of the city landscape. Vegetation provides a variety of benefits including energy saving, improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, decreased ambient temperature and psychological restoration. Evidence also shows that the amount of vegetation, known as 'greenness', in densely populated areas, can also be an indicator of the relative wealth of a neighbourhood. The 'grey-green divide', the contrast between built-up areas with a dominant grey colour and green spaces, is taken as a proxy indicator of sustainable management of cities and planning of urban growth. Consistent and continuous assessment of greenness in cities is therefore essential for monitoring progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11. The availability of multi-temporal greenness information from Landsat data archives together with data derived from the city centres database of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) initiative, offers a unique perspective to quantify and analyse changes in greenness across 10,323 urban centres all around the globe. In this research, we assess differences between greenness within and outside the built-up area for all the urban centres described by the city centres database of the GHSL. We also analyse changes in the amount of green space over time considering changes in the built-up areas in the periods 1990, 2000 and 2014. The results show an overall trend of increased greenness between 1990 and 2014 in most cities. The effect of greening is observed also for most of the 32 world megacities. We conclude that using simple yet effective approaches exploiting open and free global data it is possible to provide quantitative information on the greenness of cities and its changes over time. This information is of direct interest for urban planners and decision-makers to mitigate urban related environmental and social impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Habitat III Conference’s New Urban Agenda hails a “paradigm shift” for pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the new call for “safe, resilient, sustainable and inclusive cities” remains path dependent on old methodological tools (e.g. indicators), techno-managerial solutions (e.g. smart cities), and institutional frameworks of an ecological modernization paradigm that did not work. Pursuing a new urban paradigm within this old framework can only act as immunology: it vaccinates citizens and environments so that they can take larger doses of inequality and degradation in the future; it mediates the effects of global socio-environmental inequality, but does little towards alleviating it. Indeed, an increasing number of communities across the world now decline these immunological offers. Instead, they rupture path dependency and establish effective alternative methods for accessing housing, healthcare, sanitation, etc. I argue that real smart solutions and real social innovation are to be found not in consensus-building exercises, but in these dissensus practices that act as living indicators of what/where urgently needs to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]