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Reinventing Obsolete Urban Spaces As Smart Cities Of The Future: Key Steps To Succes

Screenshot_2018-08-30 Reinventing obsolete urban spaces as smart cities of the future key steps to success

A renewal of public spaces is underway and underpinning this is new technology. Throughout history, public spaces have enjoyed many different roles in social, political and economic life, changing to suit the needs of the time. We know the ancient Greek agora and Roman Forum as the primary political centres of the city and the spatial cradle of democracy. In…

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Accessible Mobility for All | Smart Cities Listen-Up

Accessible Mobility for All: Development Cooperation For Accessible Public Transportation

Accessible mobility—public transportation that can be used by anyone—is a critical component of future urban development. The New Urban Agenda calls for a significant increase in accessible public transportation, and accessible mobility is part of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Worldwide, more than one billion people live with a disability, 80 per cent of whom…

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Will Smart Cities Precipitate an “Efficiency Trap”? 

Will Smart Cities Precipitate an “Efficiency Trap”? 

Technological fixes such as smart cities make a system more complex, resulting in “wicked problems” that require ever more extensive technological remedies. In October 2016, at the World Urban Forum 8 in Quito, Ecuador, UN Habitat launched its third planning cycle with Habitat III, now known as the New Urban Agenda. The agenda defines the work of the global urban…

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Local Leadership and Citizens: Keys to Sustainable Smart Cities

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The spread of urbanisation is inexorable. In 1800, just two percent of the world’s population was urbanised, in 2000 the figure reached 47 percent, and on the current trajectory it is estimated to be 70 percent in 2030. In 2008, for the first time, the world’s population was evenly split between urban and rural areas. There were more than 400…

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Smart City New Urban Agenda and Connecting with Innovative Solutions #SCEW17

Connecting with innovative solution-finders from the smart urbanization sector – UN-Habitat

20th September, Barcelona – Under the theme, Empower Cities, Empower people, the 2017 edition of Smart City Expo World Congress (#SCEWC17) took place this month in Barcelona. UN-Habitat signed an agreement with the event organizers through which the programme will become a strategic partner in this and future editions of the global event.

For UN-Habitat, this partnership is an opportunity to promote urbanization as a tool for development in the framework of the New Urban Agenda and the Agenda 2030. The 2017 edition of the Congress, held from 14th – 16th November, attracted over 18,000 participants with 700 cities representatives and 420 international experts….

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Smart City Initiatives in Africa: Policy for INCLUSION

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This year’s theme for World Cities Day, “Innovative Governance, Open Cities,” emphasizes the implementation of the global New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the creation of livable, sustainable cities conducive to inclusive growth and development. Smart cities in particular can be key tools toward achieving these global goals. The International Telecommunication Union defines a smart…

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“What is the city but the people”

a young man seeeping city street-Screenshot-2017-11-7 What is the city but the people UN DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

The evidence is clear: we are urban, period. Over 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030, and that number is expected to reach 70 per cent by 2050. Without innovation and global partnerships to support this rapid urbanization, future cities will not be able to support their most vulnerable members. The New Urban Agenda…

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What the New Urban Agenda Saya About Building Inclusive Smart Cities

Screenshot-2017-11-1 What the New Urban Agenda tells us about building inclusive cities

Over a billion people—about 15% of the world’s population—have disabilities. Almost 80% of them live in the developing world, which is undergoing rapid urbanization. While urbanization brings people closer to new economic and sociocultural opportunities, persons with disabilities still face a range of constraints in many cities, such as inaccessible buildings and public spaces, limited transportation options, inaccessible housing, and…

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Criticism of India’s #SmartCities Mission is mounting | @Citiscope

Screenshot-2017-11-1 Criticism of India’s Smart Cities Mission is mounting

DELHI — The development of “smart” cities was one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first initiatives upon taking office in 2014. Launched the next year, the stated focus of the Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission is “on sustainable and inclusive development, and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a lighthouse…

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Accessible #SmartCities – United Nations Division for Social Policy

Screenshot-2017-10-29 Accessible Cities United – 31 October 2017

Join the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA/DSPD) in celebrating World Cities Day 2017 with a panel discussion on “Enabling future cities to be smart. Strategies to prevent urban poverty and promote social inclusion and wellbeing.” TOPIC By 2030 more than 60% of the world’s population is projected to…

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URBANET | Voices on 1 year New Urban Agenda

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This month, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) celebrates its first anniversary. What has happened since its adoption at Habitat III in Quito? We asked Billy Cobbett (Cities Alliance), Mei Yi (Mayor of Jingdezhen, China), Eugénie L. Birch (Professor at the University of Pennsylvania), Yang Jun (Mayor of Suzhouto), María Alejandra Vicuña Muñoz (Minister of Urban Development and Housing of Ecuador)…

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URBAN PATHWAYS project

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The Urban Pathways project will make a direct contribution to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement and will help delivering on the Sustainable Development Goal 11, by making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. This will include access to sustainable transport (11.2), improving air quality and waste management Source: URBAN PATHWAYS project

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Accessibility and the New Urban Agenda: 5 Questions | HuffPost

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New Urban Agenda Making cities accessible and inclusive for all people, including persons with disabilities, is an essential component of the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the recent Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador on October 17-20. Why? Because 15 percent of the world population live with some form of disability. If the New Urban Agenda is going to successfully…

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What the New Urban Agenda means for architects – AIA

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What the New Urban Agenda means for architects By Tim Hawk, FAIA; Chere LeClair, AIA; and Derek Washam May 17, 2017 How AIA’s Strategic Council is encouraging communities to embrace sustainable urbanization. The United Nations convened its Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, referred to as UN Habitat III, in Quito, Ecuador in October of 2016. This is the…

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The New Urban Agenda Key Smart City Commitments

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It’s official: world leaders have adopted the New Urban Agenda, which sets a new global standard for sustainable urban development and will help us rethink how we plan, manage and live in cities.The New Urban Agenda The New Urban Agenda is a roadmap for building cities that can serve as engines of prosperity and centres of cultural and social well-being…

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How to Build Global Cities That Are Engines of Inclusion

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Build Global Cities That Are Engines of Inclusion – 100 Resilient Cities Cities are increasingly punching above their weight as engines of global economic growth, and the leaders are doing it while emphasizing inclusiveness. Urban development has historically focused on the structure of the local economy, business development, job creation and, increasingly, education and workforce preparedness. But cities have rarely…

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