Posts tagged with 'urban governance'
Cities are responsible for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are highly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, yet when it comes to climate action, national governments tend to take center stage. Of the 194 ...
“Hum faltu hai [in English, “We are useless”] …I don’t even know what the budget of the council is. Nobody tells me about the procurement process [or] the number of tenders that have gone public…I don’t have enough knowledge about ...
Bengaluru is one of the world’s fastest growing metropolitan economies. A favored destination for investors and talent alike, this leading innovation hub is one of the largest technology clusters worldwide and home to 400 Fortune 500 companies. However, the planning ...
In Africa, as elsewhere, advances in computing power, data storage, and sensor and satellite technologies have unleashed unprecedented opportunities but also challenges. The mobile phone has become a powerful tool for generating vast amounts of data. This data can, in ...
Until just a few years ago, the right riverbank of the Seine in Paris was an urban highway used by over 40,000 vehicles every day. Despite being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the road was either heavily gridlocked during rush ...
When India’s federal government announced a public health lockdown on March 24, 2022 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it generated desperate scenes. Economic activity ground to a halt. Millions of migrant workers traveled back to their home states. In ...
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), composed of hundreds of the world’s leading scientists, puts considerable weight on urban climate action in developing pathways towards sustainable futures. The 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC recognizes that urban areas present ...
Market disruptions like shared electric scooters can be great for cities, getting people out of their private cars and enhancing connectivity and accessibility. But while e-scooters offer a practical and more sustainable new form of transportation, they also bring concerns ...
India’s parliament approved the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill on July 31, 2019, the result of a five-year effort to improve national legislation on road safety. After the president’s approval, India’s streets may finally become safer places for both pedestrians and ...
Solving the world’s air pollution problems is not going to be easy. Ninety-eight percent of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines for PM2.5. In total, 95 ...
Sustainable economic development in sub-Saharan Africa will only be possible if towns and cities across the region thrive. This column highlights the critical role that national governments need to play in guiding the urban transition. National Urban Policies can help ...
In 2015, the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 663 million people around the world without access to safe drinking water, with nearly half of these people living in sub-Saharan Africa. While Africa’s urban areas ...
Lighting represents about 15 percent of global power consumption and 5 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Street lighting alone represents about 3 percent of world electricity consumption. Extensive programs that replace obsolete street lighting systems—incandescent, mercury vapor, and ...
The famed American landscape architect and Central Park designer Fredrick Law Olmsted said that parks are the “lungs of the city.” However, many cities around the world—from growing Addis Ababa to sprawling Mumbai and dense Sao Paulo—currently lack adequate public ...
Although Lima’s Villa El Salvador neighborhood was just a dusty plain called the Tablada de Lurín in 1971, it would soon become home to some of the city’s poorest residents. At the time, there were no electricity lines, no wells, ...