World Urban Forum: Day 1

"The future of the human species is tied to cities," Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN-HABITAT, told more than 10,000 delegates at the opening ceremonies of the World Urban Forum on Monday in Vancouver. This future can be livable or brutal, she said, depending on how we deal with the rapid urbanization of the planet.

In the next 50 years, we will see the biggest transformation in human history, as cities balloon with most of the world's population growth and exodus from rural areas. The Millenium Development Goals provide a common agenda for creating more sustainable human settlements, and there is growing agreement about how to accomplish more sustainable development — both to reduce excessive resource consumption in the developed world and to end poverty in the less developed world. But greater political will is needed to follow through on the international commitments that have been made, Tibaijuka said.

Today, the world is one living organism — an interconnected economy, environment, and communications network. Problems and frustrated human aspirations in one place have repercussions elsewhere, as the metal detectors and omnipresent security guards in the Vancouver Convention Centre today are a stark reminder.

Thirty years ago Vancouver hosted the first Habitat forum, a watershed event which elevated the design of cities into international discussions. It forced people to see cities with different eyes. And it helped to launch Vancouver — an industrial port city — on a different trajectory that has made it now one of the most livable and vibrant cities in the world.

More on the Vancouver story over the next few days. It's a story that can give other cities hope that regeneration is possible.