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1. What is Sustainable Urban Development?

1.1. Idea behind the urban sustainable development

Sustainable Urban Development is an idea that falls under Goal 11 "Sustainable cities
and communities". It is particularly important, since already half of the world's
population lives in cities, and by 2030 as much as 60% of the population is expected to
live in them. It is impossible not to notice how important cities are as economic centres
and the revenues they generate for national economies. Unfortunately, apart from the positive
attributes of cities, dynamic urbanisation also causes threats, such as the growing number of
slums, water pollution, air pollution from factories, traffic, houses or increased production of
waste. To understand the scale of the problem, a few facts from the United Nations can be cited,
namely:

• Cities cover 3% of the earth's surface and generate 60-80% of energy consumption and are
responsible for 75% of greenhouse gas emissions;
• More than 800 million people already live in slums;
1
• By 2050, 70% of the population will live in cities .
To combat these challenges, the United Nations has prepared a set of 17 goals that you
can read about: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

1 United Nations. (N/D). Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Retrieved from:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.