Notes on urban prosperity

Cities need a newer vision of urban prosperity - one that goes beyond GDP - and addresses the pillars of sustainable development

Any study on urbanisation and prosperity takes a strategic direction to approach its increasing role in overall sustainable development. Urbanisation is one of the most important global trends of the 21st century, as cities rapidly grow as a habitat for humanity.

At the same time, urbanisation is more than just a population trend. It is an expansive force that might be able to assist the world in overcoming some of its most pressing problems — climate change, sustainable development, and the global social agenda, if steered properly.

Undoubtedly, cities have become the focal point of change and growth. They have been able to create new connections between stakeholders and provide creative solutions, giving impetus to actions that affect national agendas as well as regional and global development. Yet, the likelihood of promoting long-term sustainable urban prosperity is reduced by inadequate planning, the absence of efficient governance and legal frameworks, unstable institutions, the limited ability of local authorities, and the lack of a reliable monitoring mechanism.

Even when cities account for more than 80 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP), the focus has shifted to looking at growth measures beyond GDP. Even the predictable economic benefits of urbanisation that calculate prosperity through factors like economies of location (the value of land and assets rises when they are close to urban services and infrastructure) and economies of efficiency (as urbanisation in an area increases and economic activities expand, they also become increasingly specialised and efficient) cannot guarantee prosperity if the gains of urbanisation and value generated are not redistributed among citizens equitably. In this aspect, factors like productivity, environmental performance, social equality, the ease of living and quality of life take precedence in assessing the benefits of urbanisation.

The World Cities Report — Envisaging the Future of Cities by UN-Habitat, also posits that a vision of equitable “urban futures” cannot be realised if we do not take inclusive and decisive actions towards sustainable solutions for urban challenges. For urban prosperity in sync with sustainable agendas, GDP measures also require guided attention towards making urban spaces more resilient. This calls for acknowledging that many components of the global sustainable development agenda must be integrally linked in order to establish resilience for sustainable urban development. The New Urban Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are among them. Second, creating urban resilience is a multi-faceted, multi-stakeholder process that necessitates a clear deviation from prior directions. Such an approach calls for more intensive actions, as improving things simply on the same lines as before will only serve to further injustice and inequality.

Linking urban prosperity with resilience is particularly more important in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, in order to realise the positive vision of urban futures, ambition must be scaled up to move from subtle urban transitions to significant urban transformations, as well as to close the gap between bold city visions and action plans to reach the goals. However, understanding, quantifying, and operationalising urban resilience gaps and policies in relation to the proper administration are also crucial from a practical standpoint. These need to be addressed by the various local government units. In terms of measurements, the parameters of the City Resilience Index (CRI) come in handy. The CRI was created with the intention that all member cities will adopt and use it as a tool to track changes in overall resilience over time.

In addition, a more hopeful view of the post-pandemic and climate-resilient world calls for a different balance and structure of urban economic activity, one that is increasingly fuelled by renewable energy, circular economic activity, and green employment. Accordingly, increased productivity should be seen not merely in traditional terms, but also as a crucial element of overall urban sustainability. The various forms of capital — natural, sociocultural, human, economic, and physical — are included in a contemporary conceptual framework for urban productivity. These capitals should be handled through systemic thinking in the direction of fairness, justice, co-production, governance, and regeneration. The pandemic is a turning point that underscores the necessity of embracing the circular economy as a different framework for resilient and sustainable urban futures.

The risk of disaster is rising in cities due to growing urbanisation and population concentration. In addition, urban planning and design in developed and developing countries have generally followed a repetitive model of urbanisation over the past 50 years. While this model has shown good economic performance, it has not adequately addressed the social challenges of equity or the global environmental challenge. Rapid urbanisation in emerging nations has led to unchecked peri-urbanisation, mostly informal. This has led to the development of sprawling urban areas, many of which take the form of megacities, hyper cities, and large metropolitan regions that are inefficient in terms of energy use, environmental sustainability, and ultimately in terms of the economy.  Therefore, a newer vision of urban prosperity — one that goes beyond GDP — must address the pillars of sustainable development by promoting the economic role of cities in national development and recognising the economic opportunities they offer. Finally, it must also address global environmental challenges like climate change, unsustainable energy consumption, and water scarcity to ensure ease of living for its people.

Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India and lecturer, Stanford University; @kautiliya. Debroy is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister of India; @bibekdebroy