In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality.

With global population increasingly concentrating in urban areas, cities are driving national economic growth, while also grappling with challenges such as inequalities, affordable housing shortages, extreme weather events, pollution, and loss of green space.

Global megatrends such as income inequality, climate change, demographic shifts, technological progress, and urbanisation are shaping the future of societies. Yet, their quantitative impacts on development are neither well understood nor established.

The EEA report ‘Urban adaptation in Europe’ highlights the urgent need to adapt European cities to climate change and provides an overview of actions they are taking. The report provides a rich source of information to support climate adaptation policies across Europe, from EU to municipal level.

Based on WRI India’s work in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, the report drives the case for integrating equity into climate action planning, enabling Indian city officials, planners, consultants and community members to deepen their understanding of urban climate hazards, its causes and its impact on communities.

Wetlands are important ecosystems that provide benefits such as flood control, water purification, and biodiversity conservation. In India, however, wetlands are threatened by pollution, encroachment, and rampant real estate development.

By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will be living in the world’s towns and cities, with almost 50 per cent of that growth taking place in the Commonwealth. Member States, both large and small, are facing the impacts of climate change and rapid urbanization.

Given their frequent recurrence in Indian cities, the problem of urban flooding is gaining focus in policy discussions. Indeed, urban floods can cause massive loss of infrastructure, property, and lives, and have a substantial economic impact.

As the world rapidly urbanises, the imperative to forge resilient cities capable of withstanding the formidable challenges posed by climate change has never been more urgent.

Research on migration and urban development in Africa has primarily focused on larger cities and rural-to-urban migration. However, 97 percent of Africa’s urban centers have fewer than 300,000 inhabitants, and a sizable share of urban migrants come from other urban areas.