Sustainable Urbanization

The Asia-Pacific region has urbanized rapidly over the past century and is now home to more than half of the global urban population—over 2.2 billion people. Although population growth is slowing, an estimated 1.2 billion people, or roughly 48 million annually, are expected to move to the region’s urban areas by 2050. Urbanization has spurred economic growth, expanded infrastructure, and created opportunities. However, it has also laid bare inequalities that prevent hundreds of millions of people from fully benefiting from urban development. 

Over the past few decades, the Asia-Pacific region has witnessed significant social development driven by economic growth, which has generated new jobs, increased labour incomes, strengthened social protection systems, and improved access to basic services and other amenities. Nevertheless, South Asian countries continue to face a wide range of systemic challenges that undermine inclusive and sustainable development. For example, the devastating social and economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to plague the subregion in the near future.

The world is facing a series of multiple and interlinked crises; a perfect storm that is testing the limits of current development paradigms. As countries and cities across Asia and the Pacific struggle to recover from the socioeconomic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis continues to ravage the region. Added to that, the war in Ukraine and the growing food and energy crisis is undermining prospects for a true recovery and in turn affect the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region.

NASA’s Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) has opened a new open, online webinar series: 

Have you ever wondered where the 11 million tonnes of plastic that enters our oceans every year comes from and how it got there? In this video, learn why measuring plastic waste and pinpointing how it travels from ‘land to sea’ is crucial in identifying the best measures to tackle marine plastic litter for your city or region.

NASA’s Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) has opened registration for a new open, online webinar series: Satellite Remote Sensing for Urban Heat Islands.