Spotlight
Managing Growth
| USF News
A view of Busan, the Republic of Korea's second largest city after Seoul.
Copyright © UN-HABITAT
Each year, 67 million new urban dwellers are added to the world's population — bringing unprecedented challenges in urban resource management.
Now, under a new agreement signed in September, USF's Patel School of Global Sustainability has become the first North American university in a collaborative research and strategy partnership created to respond to the effects of rapid urbanization.
The UN-Habitat Partner University Initiative aims to strengthen cooperation between UN-Habitat and institutions of higher learning throughout the world. The initiative encourages universities to partner with cities and become actively engaged in problem solving.
Under the new agreement, USF and UN-Habitat will establish the Urban Futures research hub at the Patel School. The research hub will promote education, professional development and policy advice on emerging cities.
The partnership is the result of several years of collaboration between UN-Habitat and the Patel School. Kala Vairavamoorthy, the school's executive director, says the ongoing collaboration already is resulting in real and measurable changes in how the international community approaches and views the challenge of managing growth in emerging cities urban environments. "This new agreement underscores the importance of looking at growth management through a holistic lens in order to create healthy, livable and resilient cities," says Vairavamoorthy.
By 2030, the United Nations estimates that 59 percent of the world's population will live in urban areas, including about 55 percent in the developing world. New technologies, management strategies and educational programs are vital to respond to the unprecedented growth.
Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, calls the agreement with USF an important moment for the initiative.
"Establishing an Urban Futures research hub at the university's Patel School of Global Sustainability is an important moment for the Habitat Partner University Initiative that will not only help foster world class research on this vital issue, but will also set an example that we hope will encourage more such partnership in the future."