Shanghai, UN-Habitat to award five cities for sustainable development

The second Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities, or the Shanghai Award, will be held abroad for the first time, in Alexandria, Egypt, with five cities around the globe winning the prize on World Cities Day, which falls on Oct 31.

The five cities, hopefully representing the five continents, will be recognized for the strides and innovations they made while implementing the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, said Liu Qianwei, chief engineer with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, at a news briefing on Tuesday.

Economic vitality and urban prosperity, ecological construction and green development, urban safety and resilience development, and capacity building for sustainable development were among the major criteria considered for prospective winners of the award jointly presented by the UN Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, and the Shanghai government.

The English version of the 2024 Shanghai Manual, which aims to provide models of urban development for cities around the world, will also be released at the event in Alexandria. Eighteen cases from 12 countries and regions, covering areas of urban renewal, biodiversity conservation, low-carbon development, information services, and technology and digital innovation, feature in the manual.

This year's cases include some from Chinese cities, including Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Kunming in Yunnan province, and Chengdu in Sichuan province, that have made strides for local communities to be more inclusive, do better in energy saving and emission reduction, and be more resilient in fighting flooding.

One case is Shanghai's downtown Xuhui district, which fully involved ideas from the public when building 30 pocket parks — high-quality green, public spaces at residents' doorsteps — in the past years. Ren Jie, director of the Xuhui District Greening Management Center, said one case was Leshan Park, which was facelifted in 2021 from a green space in disrepair for years. It is located in the middle of a densely populated apartment complex, home to nearly 20,000 residents.

"Through consultations with residents, we learned what they expected most from the park, such as a jogging path, and exercise and fun facilities for children and the elderly, and what they least expected, including dog waste and noise from square dancing. We took their advice in the park design," said Ren.

"Also, we paid attention to details to meet the diversified needs of the minors and the elderly. For example, people of different ages can find seats of different heights and facing different directions — in case some like to stay in the sunshine while some don't," she said, adding that Shanghai has proposed the target to build 300 pocket parks by the end of 2025.