Sustainable cities and human settlements

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 aims to "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable." This goal acknowledges the growing importance of urban areas, as it's projected that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world's population will live in cities. Consequently, cities bear significant implications for sustainability, economic growth, and societal wellbeing.

Inclusivity is a key feature of sustainable cities. This refers to equitable access to opportunities, public services, and amenities, regardless of a person's background or circumstances. It implies the availability of affordable and adequate housing, thus addressing issues of homelessness and substandard living conditions.

Safety in cities means ensuring urban environments that protect their inhabitants from both physical harm and psychological distress. This involves addressing crime rates, traffic accidents, and potential hazards from poor infrastructure, while also considering the impacts of noise, pollution, and overcrowdedness on mental health.

Resilience is another important aspect, particularly in the face of climate change. Resilient cities can withstand and quickly recover from shocks such as natural disasters or economic crises. This involves aspects such as resilient infrastructure, disaster risk reduction strategies, and adaptive capacities at the community level.

Sustainability, finally, requires cities to function in a way that doesn't compromise future generations' ability to meet their own needs. This includes sustainable urban planning to reduce environmental impact, promote energy efficiency, and conserve resources. It also considers the importance of green spaces for biodiversity and the wellbeing of urban residents.

SDG 11 is interconnected with many other SDGs. For example, sustainable urban transport systems contribute to SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, ensuring access to green and public spaces supports SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being).

Achieving sustainable cities and human settlements requires cooperation and participation from various stakeholders, including government authorities, urban planners, businesses, and citizens. Through their collective efforts, cities can be transformed into hubs of sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity, contributing significantly towards the realization of the SDGs.

This book chapter advances SDGs 6, 12 and 11 by analyzing research studies on water remediation within the framework of 12 principles of green chemistry, bibliometric features, and characteristics of related research papers.
This book chapter advances SDGs 15 and 11 by exploring a holistic approach to urban soil restoration which seeks to improve urban soils using integrated socioecological and landscape-scale approaches that embrace diverse outcomes including novel ecosystems and many sociocultural goals.
This book chapter advances SDGs 15 and 11 by reviewing the anthropogenic activities worldwide that have caused ecological degradation resulting in the need to mitigate damage to essential ecosystem services in rural and urban areas.
Solar power is a renewable energy source. An increase in solar power can see a pivot from coal-fired power, a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Global Citizen campaigns on the United Nations’ Global Goals, including goal 7 for affordable and clean energy and goal 13 for climate action. The Global Goals specifically call on all nations to invest in sustainability and renewable power.
Landscape fragmentation and farming can affect the diversity of plants and pollinators harbored by linear landscape elements (LLE) in agroecosystems. To assess the role of these habitats in sustaining plant-pollinator communities, twenty portions of LLE (road verges) were studied during two consecutive field seasons in the Argentine Pampas.

Urbanisation is increasing in many countries, leading to the establishment of 33 megacities, representing huge water demand which is increasingly difficult to supply, exemplified by the recently avoided Day Zero event in Cape Town (2018) and the ongoing water crisis in Chennai, India. The ongoing growth of megacities could lead to the potential for further Day Zero events in countries ill-equipped to deal with such a situation. This study analyses the water supply and demand situations in 12 megacities hosting 194 million people.

This chapter addresses SDG 10 and SDG 11 by examining social vulnerability and inequality globally and how that impacts the response to disasters.
Elsevier,

Enhancing Disaster Preparedness, From Humanitarian Architecture to Community Resilience, 2021, Pages 209-222

This chapter supports SDGs 10 and 16 by looking into proposals for policy change regarding the management of legal, socioeconomic, and urban aspects of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Climate change requires joint actions between government and local actors. Understanding the perception of people and communities is critical for designing climate change adaptation strategies. Those most affected by climate change are populations in coastal regions that face extreme weather events and sea-level increases. In this article, geospatial perception of climate change is identified, and the research parameters are quantified.
This paper summarized China's integrated actions (2015 onwards) that benefit both climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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