Objective 11: sustainable cities and communities

The trend towards living in cities is a growing and, apparently unstoppable, phenomenon: according to a UN report in 2016 over 54% of the world’s population, around 4,000 million people lived in cities. That same year there were 31 cities with over 10 million inhabitants (Tokyo, the largest, had 38 million), 45 with between 5 and 10 million, and another 436 with between 1 and 5 million. Urbanisation involves big problems like the growing number of inhabitants in marginal neighbourhoods, air pollution, insufficient basic services and infrastructures, and uncontrolled, unplanned urban growth, which also makes cities more vulnerable to disasters.

Safe collection and management of solid waste are the most crucial environmental service in cities, and, as can be seen in the top photo, also affect smaller population nuclei. In the same photo we can appreciate the deficiencies in infrastructure of this small African city, although in terms of sustainability, considering energy and material consumption or waste production and pollution, a rich and advanced city (bottom photo) leaves much to be desired and has a long way to go.

SDO 11 aims To ensure that cities and human settlements are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. One of the goals for 2030 is to ensure that everyone has access to housing and basic services, transport systems, green zones and adequate public spaces which are safe, inclusive, accessible and sustainable. And by 2020 to considerably increase the number of cities and human settlements which adopt and implement integrated plans and policies to promote inclusion, efficient use of resources, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and resilience before disasters.