“Better City, Better Life” on World Cities Day
World Cities Day opens with the general theme 'Better City, Better Life' as it continues to highlight the importance of urbanization in today’s cities as a source of social inclusion of global development under the sub-theme of Innovative Governance, Open Cities.
With the continuing growth of population around the world, urbanization is highly needed and therefore, causes a majority of the problems that cities have today.
October 31st is the designated World Cities Day and is, according to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, “expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.”
As cities hold the primary centers of a region such as economy, market and identity, it is important to hold, adopt, and adapt to principles of environmental growth to attain a sustainable city that is built on pillars of land and natural resources.
Cities are also heavily urbanized as the population needs their basic needs such as schools, hospitals, banks, and great network services and power supply. Big cities, big population, and most disappointingly, big volumes of traffic.
Afghan youth, Agha Malook Sahar, has developed a software program that can digitalize traffic management in big cities. Sahar said that not only can the application be used in traffic, but people can also cooperate through the application with the traffic police. “Whenever there are any traffic or terrorist incidents, people can inform the traffic police through the app.”
The first World Cities Day was on October 31, 2014 in Shanghai, China with the sub-theme, Leading Urban Transformations.
