Cities and Sustainability: Challenges and Future Prospects

This essay delves into the multifaceted challenges of urban sustainability, highlighting the impacts of rapid urbanization, modernization, and population growth on cities. It examines the key issues of environmental degradation, resource scarcity, inequality, and climate change, emphasizing the historical evolution of cities and the rise of the 'urban century.' The essay explores the role of sustainable transportation and the shift from pre-industrial cities to the modern urban landscape, marked by increased pollution, resource depletion, and social disparities. It analyzes how cities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and face climate change impacts, advocating for judicious resource management and sustainable development to mitigate the adverse effects of urbanization. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for innovative approaches to address the complex sustainability challenges facing urban centers worldwide.

Running head: CITIES AND SUSTAINABILITIES
CITIES AND SUSTAINABILITIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CITIES AND SUSTAINABILITIES
Introduction
Urban Challenges in truest sense denotes the challenges faced the residents of the city
owing to rapid modernization of the cities and with the advent of more and more people from
the villages to the cities. It is estimated that by 2050, the population of the earth will be
doubled and with this rapid increase in population clubbed with economic advancements,
industrialization and modernization, serious sustainability issues and challenges will rise up
(Childers et. al., 2014). All the above mentioned factors will raise the sustainability issues to
a great extent in terms of poverty, environmental degradation, inequalities in both economy
and bio diversity, spatial segregation and many more.
Description
Sustainability in an urban century
In the era of globalization and modernization, more and more people are leaving their
villages and settling in major town and cities in search of better opportunities in terms of job,
income and standard of living. This is creating an upward pressure on the population of the
cities and is giving birth to major sustainability challenges that the cities have ever
experienced (Elmqvist et. al., 2019). The major sustainability issues that can be identified
includes, crowding, lack of living space, fiscal difficulties, public education, crimes,
pollution, traffic, environmental degradation and many more.
This modern era can be well identified as an urban century with increasing
sustainability challenges. The cities in today’s world are the source of more than 70% of
global emissions of greenhouse gases and at the same time these cities are vulnerable to a
global sustainability challenge of increasing water levels owing to 90% of such cities being
situated along the coastlines (Vojnovic, 2014). With every passing day, urbanization is
accelerating at a rapid pace as never before and it has become a challenge to address the

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increasing sustainability issues associated with this urbanization. Addressing such
sustainability issues will require cautious resilience consideration while implementing such
steps. The sustainability challenges relating to economic, social and environmental
sustainability have enhanced multifold in today’s era, that the need to achieve sustainable
development has been the one of the main agenda of the United Nations 2030 Development
program and all of it concerns urban areas. With the increasing global need, deep uncertainty
and complexity of the situations and challenges in urban century, there has been an increasing
demand for new approaches to achieve a global sustainability transformation.
Cities in history
Sustainable transportation in truest sense means the object which helps the dwellers of
a city or town to move from one place to another and at the same time be cost effective,
provides employment to many, takes part in supporting a vibrant economy, less polluting,
consuming lesser fossil fuels thereby contributing to a greener environment. Sustainable
transportation is a burning issue in today’s world and especially in cities which is dominated
by the major sustainable challenges as discussed above. The cities with lush greenery is
history now. The cities before the industrial revolution was characterized by heavy vegetation
cover, very less population. People were carried by horse carts hence there were very less
pollution with greenery everywhere. The industrial revolution began in Australia around
1800’s and with the introduction of Railways in 1854, more and more people flogged into the
major cities from all parts in search of jobs and better living making it crowded
(Libguides.mhs.vic.edu.au, 2020). Railways in Australia spread very fast creating new
townships and urban localities wherever it spread into. Railways reduced transportation cost
by a great extent enabling people travel in all parts of the country. The beginning of the 19th
century brought with it electric modes of transportation in terms of electric engines for
railways and trams making the modes of travel faster and greener. The ownership and driving

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vehicles that is a “Car Culture” in Australia emerged in late 1940’s. The following picture
depicts the then Australian Prime Minister Chifley launching a car.
Cars
(Source: "Car wars", 2004)
Cars became more or less a style statement for many. It became the source of jealousy
within a few. Construction of extensive highways initiated by late 1940’s clearing forests and
increasing the level of pollution. The following picture portrays the cars in early 1960’s.

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Cars
(Source: "Car wars", 2004)
Cities today: key challenges
City life is something that a person dreams of with all the amenities that a person want
to lead a happy and prosperous life. This draws more and more people from all the parts of
the country into major cities of the country. This is creating major sustainability problems in
all the major cities of the world. The major problems that the cities are facing in today’s time
are discussed below:
Environmental degradation: The rapid speed of urbanization is degrading the mother earth
leaving mankind in the verge of major catastrophes (Monzon, 2015). The increasing levels of
pollutions and greenhouse gases emitted from all major cities is a cause of climate change
and rise in sea levels.

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Resources: The cities are running short of the basic amenities like food, shelter and fresh
drinking water owing to ever increasing population pressure including migration from other
parts of the country (Weforum.org, 2020).
Inequality: The rapid growth in technology has made life easier but at the same time
enhanced the gap between the rich and the poor and also been the key contributor towards
ecological imbalance.
Cities and climate change
Cities has always been a thriving Centre for commerce, art and culture offering a
better standard of living to its dwellers. This expectation of a better life draws in more and
more people from smaller towns and villages of the country. This provides an upward
pressure on the necessary city resources like food, shelter and fresh drinking water and also is
a contributor in creation of slums. As the population of the cities increases, the level of
pollution from vehicles, factories and emission of greenhouse gases from various sources of
city life increases (C40.org, 2020). This leads to massive environmental degradation and
hampers the bio-diversity to a great extent. This environmental degradation is a major source
of the climate change, rise in sea level, spread of major diseases mainly of respiratory origin
and other major catastrophes.

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Conclusion
The above discussion portrays city life and how it evolved through the passage of
time. It also depicts the major sustainability challenges that the cities are facing in today’s era
and how these cities have been a major contributor of climate change. To conclude,
improvement in science and technology will urbanize more and more towns and villages
however, it should be kept in mind that the resources should be used judiciously to bring
about a sustainable development.

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References
C40.org. (2020). C40 Cities: Why Cities? Ending Climate Change Begins in the City. C40
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Vojnovic, I. (2014). Urban sustainability: Research, politics, policy and practice. Cities, 41,
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Weforum.org. (2020). 5 big challenges facing big cities of the future. World Economic
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