The world plans for sustainable cities

The United Nations third World Urban Forum (WUF3) was June 19-23, 2006, in Vancouver, Canada. It was one of the largest gatherings of the world's civil society and governments to examine ways to deal with urban problems. In the 21st century, the fate of the planet truly depends on making cities sustainable places for human habitation. Half of the world's population already lives in cities, and in the coming decades nearly all population growth will be in urban areas.

This section covers the event — and brings back cool ideas for creating sustainable cities in Northeast Ohio. Here are links to daily reports from Vancouver by GreenCityBlueLake's David Beach:

• Day 1: Changing how we see cities
• Day 2: Place-based consciousness; congestion is our friend; nations at the show
• Day 3: Ecological footprint of cities; new urban planning
• Day 4: Regional vision from Ontario; Toroto waterfront development; Bogatá resists the car; 70 actions
• Day 5: Vancouver's vision; planning for energy and land use; world vocabulary, new rhythms of design

Background on WUF3

The World Urban Forum, held every two years, was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization in a world where half of humanity lives in cities and where in the next 50 years that proportion is expected to reach two-thirds of the global population.

Most of this urban growth is taking place in developing countries where the major challenge is to combat poverty and provide better access to basic shelter and services, like clean water and sanitation. Cities in wealthier nations also face problems of urbanization—like crumbling infrastructure, smog and social exclusion. For cities North and South the challenge is to find solutions and seize opportunities—that alleviate poverty in cities, reduce pollution and facilitate sustainable urban growth and development.

The Third Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3) was hosted by the Government of Canada in partnership with UN-HABITAT in Vancouver, Canada. For five days, more than 10,000 participants from more than 100 nations discussed, debated and shared experiences about how to make cities better places to live.

WUF3 links
Program
Live webcasts
Themes of WUF3
WUF3 Final Report