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Shanghai Index to help build sustainable and resilient cities faster
CGTN

The "Shanghai Index" was released on Sunday, at the opening ceremony of 2021 World Cities Day in Shanghai to help guide cities around the globe achieve sustainability efficiently.

As the world's first urban sustainable development index system based on the five-pronged performance in economy, society, culture, environment and governance, the index, jointly designed with the UN-Habitat and the UN agency for human settlements, is used to evaluate a city's sustainable development and promote the concept of "people-oriented" urban development.

At present, climate change has become a major issue affecting global sustainable development and the common destiny of mankind. As the major habitat for humans, cities are not only the main driving force of economic and social development, but also the areas with high risk of global climate change disasters.

China is facing the unprecedented challenges as the rate of urbanization will rise to 65 percent in 2025 from 45.4 percent in 2020, and this number will further grow to 75 percent in 2035 with about 200 million people will move and settle in the cities. On top of that, the city expansion also coincides with the goal of carbon peak.

Night view of Shanghai. /VCG

Night view of Shanghai. /VCG

That being said, it is of great importance to explore the path of green and low-carbon development and build the habitable cities with ability to cope with disasters and population growth, in other word, a more resilient city, according to Zheng Shiling, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

And the bigger a city, the more challenging it faces. For instance, Shanghai with over 24 million permanent residents, the pressure is immense. Nevertheless, small actions taken by city dwellers can form into a major trend to help the city sustainability, such as building community gardens as one of the shared cases showing more innovative options can contribute to building a greener city on the event.

In fact, city gardening has already gained popularity in many residential communities in Shanghai in recent years. Rilla in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai is one of the 200 hundred households in her community to develop family gardens in their yards. This becoming trend not only encourage the self-sufficient life style by growing vegetables in their gardens, but also teach good lessons for residents on turning the kitchen waste into compost which in return feed the vegetables and plants they grow.

The latest edition of "Shanghai Manual – A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Century" was also released on Sunday's event. World Cities Day was initiated in the declaration of the Shanghai Municipal government on October 31, 2010 before being officially designated by the United Nations in 2013.

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