SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities explained

SDG post #11 - SDG 11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Hi #sustainability champions, today we continue our  journey exploring the individual SDGs one by one to polish our knowledge and upskill in SDG learning. As mentioned before we send out a post approximately once or twice weekly until we have gone through all 17 SDGs. Today we tackle  SDG 11 -  Sustainable Cities and Communities.

You can follow or connect with us and see what we have to offer related to upskilling your change maker abilities (of tools and training) on our SDG toolkit webpages. ✔

So let’s explore Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), also known as  "Sustainable Cities and Communities" in a concise manner suitable for learning.

What is SDG 11 about?

Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) is a global commitment to "make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable". It covers a substantial and diverse variety of topics in relation to where and how people live including sustainable affordable housing, sustainable transport systems, integrative urban and settlement planning & management, protection of cultural and natural heritage, improved disaster preparedness & management, improved air quality, better waste and general environmental management, access to safe green spaces, improved regional development planning and increased climate adaptation & resilience, hence a pertinent topic everywhere due to the increased urbanisation seen in the world, but a topic for any community of any size everywhere. 

Why does SDG 11 matter?

Already since 2007 more than half the world’s population is living in cities, up from one-third in 1950, which is projected to increase to more than 60% by 2030 and to two-thirds by 2050. 

• The number of mega-cities has nearly tripled since 1990.  
• Continuing population growth and urbanisation are projected to add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050. 
• Just three countries — India, China and Nigeria – together are expected to account for 37 per cent of the projected growth of the world’s urban population between 2014 and 2050. India is projected to add 404 million urban dwellers, China 292 million and Nigeria 212 million. 
• The expected increase in urban land cover during the first three decades of the 21st century will be greater than the cumulative urban expansion in all of human history.
• The fastest growing urban populations also have the least access to services per capita:
• 279 million lack electricity
• 780 million lack safe drinking water
• 2.5 billion lack basic sanitation

This rapid pace of urbanisation poses significant challenges to provide for the needs (like housing, transportation, basic services, food, education, healthcare, etc) for this fast growing urban population in a sustainable manner, which is often plagued in some places by supply shortages or excessively expensive housing prices, but also environmental degradation, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, reduced safety, crime and more. On the other hand urbanisation at times creates almost depopulated underdeveloped and poorer rural communities with aging and insufficient infrastructure and support systems, even though rural communities are often critically important for the supply of food and other resources for the cites. 

Inequality (seen in ghettos or fenced communities), poverty (slums) and the huge energy (60 to 80% of total energy consumption and about 75% of total greenhouse gas emissions) and resources consumption and resulting environmental degradation (in cities and elsewhere) are just some of the consequences.

These factors combined with natural or man made disasters can result in larger scale unrest and upheaval due to the often precarious and vulnerable supply systems and precarious living conditions. For example FAO has been warning for many years that hunger and malnutrition combined with mortality in urban areas could increase significantly if not decisive actions are taken to alleviate poverty and provide safe and secure access to food for vulnerable populations, particularly in light of increasing geopolitical tensions, conflicts, disasters and effects of climate change, making cities more and more vulnerable. 

Cities and urban areas and any larger scale human settlements are very complex systems (and systems within systems), requiring a lot of energy and resources, but also intricate and well functioning systems to provide the necessary and desired infrastructures and goods and services to provide for its inhabitants, which makes them again vulnerable to shocks and disruptions of various kinds.  

There is a strong link between the quality of life in cities and how cities draw on and manage the natural resources available to them.  To date, the trend towards urbanisation has been accompanied by increased pressure on the environment and accelerated demand for basic services, infrastructure, jobs, land, and affordable housing, particularly for the more than 1 billion urban poor who live in informal settlements.

Due to their high concentration of people, infrastructures, housing and economic activities, cities are particularly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters impacts. Building urban resilience is crucial to avoid human, social and economic losses while improving the sustainability of urbanization processes is needed to protect the environment and mitigate disaster risk and climate change.

Resource efficient cities combine greater productivity and innovation with lower costs and reduced environmental impacts, while providing increased opportunities for consumer choices and sustainable lifestyles.

From eradication of poverty (SDG 1), end hunger (SDG 2), provision of good health and well-being (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), and gender equality (SDG 5), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG7), decent work (SDG 8), infrastructure, industry and innovation (SDG 9), reducing inequalities (SDG 10), and also due to their enormous energy and resources use significantly on consumption and production (SDG 12) and climate mitigation (SDG 13),  SDG 11 connects with most if not all SDGs in a direct or indirect manner, hence the type and way of providing for inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements is critically important to achieve the SDGs and its targets, be it for the environment, for society and economy.

As we see increasing impacts from climate change, the most sustainable, resilient societies will be those that have resource‑efficient and sustainable systems in place to provide essential services to their residents and that are prepared to withstand and adapt to climate-induced and other disasters. Achieving these two mandates will help to provide for  and maintain high quality of life for the world’s growing urban population in the face of extreme weather activity, resource shortages and population migration.

To accommodate everyone, we need to build modern, sustainable cities. For all of us to survive and prosper, we need new, intelligent urban planning that creates safe, affordable and resilient cities with green and culturally inspiring living conditions.

• In 2022, 24.8% of the urban population lived in slums or slum-like conditions, slightly lower than 25% in 2015, but higher than 24.2% in 2020. The total number of slum dwellers was 1.12 billion in 2022, 130 million more than in 2015. Over 85% of slum dwellers were concentrated in Central and Southern Asia (334 million), Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (362 million), and subSaharan Africa (265 million). Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest percentage of urban population living in slums, at 53.6%. Projections suggest that sub-Saharan Africa will experience the greatest proportional increase in slum dwellers, with an additional 360 million expected by 2030. This emphasises the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to address the urban housing crisis, including providing varied housing options and equitable access to basic services, an important issue in all urban areas around the world. 
• 6 out of 10 urban residents globally have convenient public transport access, with notable gaps between developed and developing regions. In LDCs, less than 4 out of 10 people have access, compared to 8 out of 10 in more developed regions. Urgent investments are needed to expand access, especially in impoverished urban areas in developed countries, supporting the alleviation of other issues.
• cities are sprawling faster than they are densifying. Between 2000 and 2020, cities expanded up to 3.7 times faster than they densified. Globally, sprawl averaged 5.6% annually, while densification was only 1.5%. Despite a slight decline in sprawl rates from 2010 to 2020, they still exceeded densification rates, displacing ecologically valuable lands, often critically important for a resilient food and resources supply of the cities and for balancing some of the environmental impacts of the urban areas. . Balancing people, prosperity, and the planet by 2030 requires concerted efforts to curb urban sprawl locally, sub-nationally, and nationally.
• 104,049 critical infrastructure units and facilities were destroyed or damaged by disasters annually from 2015 to 2022. Furthermore, disasters disrupted over 1.6 million basic services, including educational and health services, each year and the number of people affected by natural disasters has significantly increased over recent decades and increasing detrimental economic effects in affected communities (which can reach some % of annual GDP in some countries)
• Even though the levels of air pollution for example through fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) is slowly declining, the levels still often exceed the recommended threshold levels particularly in urban areas of the global south. Noting that ambient air pollution from traffic, industry, power generation, waste burning and residential fuel combustion resulted in 4.2 million deaths annually.
• In 2022, the global average municipal solid waste collection rate in cities is at 82 percent and the global average rate of municipal solid waste management in controlled facilities in cities is at 55 per cent. The municipal solid waste collection rates in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania are less than 60 per cent, with much less managed in controlled facilities.
• access to open public spaces is notably deficient in LDCs, where fewer than 3 in 10 people can conveniently reach such areas. Conversely, in high-performing regions like Australia and New Zealand, North America, and Europe, approximately 6 to 7 out of 10 urban residents enjoy convenient access to open public spaces, highlighting the prevalent global challenge. Noting that on average, open public spaces account for a meagre 3.2% of urban land, about 4 times less than the share of land in streets. 
• local-level risk governance has improved in recent years, with 106 countries cumulatively reporting having local disaster risk reduction strategies in place and in line with national strategies. On average, 72% of the local governments in reporting countries have specified having local disaster risk reduction strategies.

Key targets and indicators

SDG 11 is defined by 10 targets, which are measured by 16  indicators, which makes SDG 11 by its focus a major SDG to tackle as it affects the lives of the majority of people worldwide, ensuring progress can be tracked and goals can be met, that look at all dimensions of sustainable cities and communities for all which explores a variety of topics like related to affordable and  sustainable housing and transportation, green and sustainable urban spaces, strong and inclusive urban and regional planning, disaster preparedness and sustainability and resilience of communities and more. The main targets summarised include (if you want to know the exact wording in the Agenda 2030 you should have a look here):

• safe and affordable housing 
• affordable and sustainable transport systems
• inclusive and sustainable urbanisation and human settlements planning
• protect the world’s cultural and natural heritage
• reduce the adverse effects of natural disasters
• reduce the environmental impacts of cities especially for air quality and better waste management
• provide access to safe and inclusive green public spaces
• strong national and regional development planning
• implement policies for inclusion, resource efficiency and disaster risk reduction
• support least developed countries in sustainable and resilient building

Challenges & Progress: 

Progress towards SDG 11 still faces significant challenges as diverse as this SDG is, from rising issues of rapid urbanisation, increase in urban poor (slums), unregulated urban sprawl, unaffordable and unsustainable housing, traffic, lack or deteriorating transport infrastructure and other infrastructures (e.g. water and sanitation, energy), inadequate waste management, air and water pollution, crime and more are on the rise. At the same time due to increasing frequency and severity of disasters, often enhanced by climate change and other factors, urban infrastructures and supply, service and support systems are under increasing pressure and vulnerability, making it more and more difficult for cities to adequately respond to the challenges ahead, due to economic or other resource constraints. 

To expedite progress towards SDG 11, efforts should prioritize critical infrastructures, affordable and sustainable housing, efficient and accessible transport and essential social services, at the same time provide for inclusive and integrated urban and regional planning, disaster preparedness and resilience, improved environmental management and restoration,  are crucial for creating resilient, sustainable cities and human settlements for all.

"We must provide for immediate humanitarian needs and at the same time invest in development”  Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group. 

With urbanisation on the rise and nearly 70 per cent of the global population projected to reside in cities by 2050, the development of critical infrastructure, affordable housing, efficient transport systems and essential social services is imperative to create resilient and sustainable cities that meet the needs of all.

Overall the latest UN SDG progress report on SDG 11 shows variable progress from stagnation (housing and basic services), marginal progress (disaster losses & management), but also a target on track (i.e. urban air quality) but for many indicators there are so far insufficient data available to determine meaningful trends, but to say that a lot of targets are likely off track with the limited data available (e.g. public transport, urban planning, heritage, green spaces, environmental management, etc.), but overall way off track with enormous regional differences and hugely significant acceleration is required on most of  SDG 11 targets. 

Again to reiterate with over half the world’s population currently residing  in cities, yet urban areas confront a myriad of complex challenges. Globally, approximately one quarter of the urban population lives in slums, with the total slum population reaching 1.1 billion in 2022. The lack of equitable access to public transportation is a significant concern, particularly in LDCs, where only 4 in 10 individuals have convenient access.

While air pollution levels have declined in most regions, they are still significantly higher than the recommended air quality guidelines for public health protection and around 4.2 million people die due to air pollution annually worldwide. .

Only 40 percent of city dwellers can easily reach open public spaces. Between 2000 and 2020, cities sprawled up to 3.7 times faster than they densified, resulting in negative impacts on the natural environment and land use. 

On the other hand one has to be aware that as of 2015, 75 percent of global urban infrastructure that will exist in 2050 has yet to be built and therefore and in this context sustainable development in and of cities can save $3 trillion in infrastructure spending by 2030.

If you would like to know more about where your country currently stands with SDG 11 (and all other SDGs), you can check out the latest Sustainable Development Report - Country Profiles (as well as Rankings, Interactive Maps and a Data Explorer), and additional visual presentations available on Our World in Data or specifically an UN Issue brief on SDG 11.  

More than half of humanity, more than 4.4 billion people, lives in cities. By 2030 more than 60% of humanity will be urban, and 95% of this increase will be in the developing world. Rural to urban migration can have disruptive effects on community cohesion, as well cultural and natural heritage at either end.
By 2022 around 30% or urban populations in the developing world lived in slums. More than 1.1 billion urban dwellers live in slums and this number is rising and could reach more than 3 billion by 2050. Nevertheless, cities seem to attract more and more people in search of greater opportunities and better life. This requires decisive and concerted effort to make cities more resilient and sustainable, but also to create the attractive rural opportunities to slow down the urban sprawl associated with rapid urbanisation. 

How to achieve making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable?

Like any other SDG, also SDG 11 and particularly because cities and urban areas account for 65 percent of SDG targets and 86 percent of SDG indicators overall. That means that making cities more sustainable, safe, resilient and inclusive will help us to achieve many of the SDGs. It would require a multifaceted and multi-dimensional approach, but in general SDG 11  is one of the very complex and far reaching and tightly interconnected (with other) SDGs to tackle which will require transformations on many levels like poverty, hunger, health, education, social protection, decent work, access to housing and social services, a clean and green environment,  particularly for vulnerable and disadvantaged peoples, regions and countries. Some of the more higher level (and often global to national) aspects of achieving SDG 11 could possibly include in summary (but by far not be limited to) of what is already spelled out in the targets,  something like the following, which aim to create a holistic approach to making cities and any human settlements more sustainable, resilient, safe and inclusive and thriving places to live and work and contribute to a flourishing society within planetary boundaries:

• Affordable and Sustainable Housing: Promote policies that encourage the construction of affordable, eco-friendly, low-energy, high quality housing, ensuring access to safe living spaces for all with safe legal tenure, including access to all basic services, in suitable and safe locations and culturally appropriate, particularly for marginalised and disadvantaged communities, while reducing urban sprawl and environmental impact.
• Public Transportation Systems: Invest in efficient, accessible, and affordable and safe public transport and non-car reliant systems to reduce traffic congestion, lower energy use and carbon emissions and resources use, and improve mobility for low-income and vulnerable populations and for all to make urban areas more livable.
• Green Urban Planning: Implement urban planning policies that prioritise green spaces, sustainable architecture, and the integration of natural ecosystems into city infrastructure, contributing to better air quality and increased biodiversity and improved urban water and sanitation systems and micro-climate and safe amenable spaces for all.
• Disaster Resilience Infrastructure: Strengthen disaster-resilient infrastructure, including flood defenses, earthquake-resistant buildings where required, and climate adaptation strategies, to ensure urban areas are prepared for extreme weather events and natural disasters.
• Waste Management and Circular Economy: Introduce policies that promote waste reduction,reuse, recycling, and the circular economy, including waste-to-energy projects and incentivising the sustainable management of urban resources and energy systems to reduce pollution and improve living conditions.
• Inclusive Urban Governance and Participation: Encourage and support community participation in urban planning processes by ensuring inclusive decision-making and empowering local and regional stakeholders, especially marginalized groups, to have a voice in shaping the cities and human settlements of the future.
• Integrated Regional Planning: Foster the local to regional inclusive cooperation between urban and rural areas, which based on bioregional principles can adequately support and thrive providing necessary services and resources between the regions as far as feasible close to the urban centres (e.g. food sovereignty, energy independence, local natural construction materials, conservation and biodiversity corridors, etc) and in turn provide reinvigoration of rural areas in turn.

The high density of cities had the potential to bring efficiency gains and technological innovation, while reducing resource and energy consumption. Through resilience-planning and risk management, cities can be incubators of innovation and drivers of qualitative economic growth and development. Urban, peri-urban and rural communities need to collaborate in the creation of regenerative enterprise ecologies as drivers for sustainability.

Cities occupy 3% of the Earth’s landmass, but they are responsible for close to 80% of energy use and 75 of carbon emissions. Rapid urbanisation is a major factor in environmental degradation. High levels of air pollution in many cities are increasingly affecting human health, and related medical costs will have massive impacts on urban and national economies, if not addressed urgently and adequately. 

Throughout the SDG posts we have and will regularly mention the term bioregional next to local. It's a term coined quite a while ago, but has come into more frequent use recently, because sustainable and regenerative development needs to start at the local level but will need to go beyond it to sustain human and non-human life everywhere. Hence, for SDG 11 it's an appropriate point to provide a bit of a side step into bioregioning, as has already been done for SDG 6, in case you missed it. 

The past century has been marked by the rise of globalisation in every sense of the word - through production, culture, agriculture, consumption and more. This trend has brought great wealth and opportunities to many people and misery for many others - but what have we lost and forgotten through this process? 

Bio-regioning is about  the necessity of reconnecting to our local places for the sake of addressing our ecological, social, and economic challenges.In need for decentralised governance and institutions, as well as communities organised around resilience and regeneration. 

• How deep are the historical and indigenous ties of humanity to the bioregional way of life?
•  In what ways can individuals begin to engage with their local bioregions and contribute to a regenerative future? ,
• Finally, how can more humans who are connected and in relationship with the land influence future societies and cultures to be more aligned to the well-being of all life?

These and other questions are eloquently discussed in a roundtable between Daniel Christian Wahl, Samantha Power, and Isabel Carlisle, facilitated by Nate Hagens of the Great Simplification project as Bioregioning 101. More on bioregions will also be covered as part of the SDGs Multipliers course (see below). 

Instead of putting too much emphasis on generic larger scale ‘solutions’, which are likely somewhat removed from the realities and contexts of many local communities wherever they are and these and similar policies are likely not sufficient to steer us towards regenerative futures. And because the supported approach by Gaia Education for regenerative design and development, is about the context specific potential of each and every place and community. Hence, we want to support the life affirming or life regenerating local to bioregional  conversations and co-creative processes which should be a starting point of whole systems based realisation of SDG 11 and all strongly linked and all other SDG systemically together. From this we provide some useful questions to ask yourself or a group you work with locally in relation to SDG 11 (sourced from the Gaia Education SDG Flashcards) in a multidimensional manner in the social, ecological, economic and worldview/cultural dimensions. SDG 11 which is about local to regional communities is particularly suitable for applying community level processes (in cities or elsewhere alike) for tackling this and all related SDGs head on.

The SDG Flashcards can  provide you with some ideas on how one can possibly work with the SDGs in different (not top down but bottom up) and generative approaches. Based and part of the Gaia Education SDG Flashcards, they contain more than 200 questions on the system-wide approach to achieving the 2030 Agenda.

The cards enable a participatory and problem-centric group conversation and solutions oriented multi-perspectival dialogue. They invite participants to engage and to collaborate to identify actions and solutions to implement the SDGs in ways that are relevant to their lives and communities, locally. This is an effective way to establish local to bioregional community ownership and realisation for the UN SDGs.

The SDG Flashcards are used in the SDG Training of Multipliers. Check out the freely downloadable SDG Training of Multipliers Handbook for a detailed description of how to prepare, promote, and how to use these cards  more easily to promote community activist training, in various settings (e.g. local public bodies, communities, schools, universities, business etc.) as well as many other tools from our SDG webpages.

There are of course many examples of working on SDG 11 and  sustainable cities and communities, sometimes also in a systemic way  (Post 0). 

Gaia Education is involved in educational and training offerings which support the implementation of the SDGs including SDG 11, but is also part of projects and initiatives where at least one, mostly several SDGs are targeted. Examples of training or project involvement with some focus on SDG 11  in a wider sense are: 

COMMUNITY CATALYSTS

Accelerate Systemic Change by Leveraging Local and Translocal Collaborations that Lead to Regenerative Cultures. An extensive tool, learning and support platform and community of practice for local to bioregional change makers developed through this project. It was developed through an ecosystem of engaged designers, researchers and facilitators who develop tools for catalysing eco-social change in local communities. An ever evolving partnership engaging with bioregions in four different countries and growing a translocal community of practice for European regenerative development and beyond. This is a tool and support platform for  people in local communities if you are (becoming) an engaged citizen, volunteer or activist, curious student or dedicated professional, caring leader, teacher or capacity builder, motivated youngster or inspiring elder, a Community catalyst for regenerative development, community resilience, civic engagement and transformative local to bioregional economies. 

Community Catalysts developed as a European partnership of four local organisations, two european networks and two universities, who have co-created the Community Catalyst series of projects, supported by Erasmus+ program as a strategic or cooperation partnership.

Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscape (SUMCULA), 

The objective of this partnership was the development of courses and didactic resources on Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscapes, Regional Development and Cultural Heritage to be conducted at a Master’s level.

Curriculum development: Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscapes, Regional Development and Cultural Heritage based on a number of cases:

• Case studies of cultural landscape management
• Workshops, conferences and Intensive Programmes
• Scientific publications in the ECyS Journal ECOCYCLES
• Landscape management software for local and regional development and planning

The 13 different members of the partnership cover a wide range of competences, including many universities from 10 different European countries.

How does your local community's sustainable cities and communities SDG project look like? 

Again, let’s take our future into our own hands, and start your SDG journey and locally based community project now!

And to close if you would like to learn much more about SDG 11  and all other SDGs and the Agenda 2030 and many more topics, approaches and methods to practically work with the SDG in your local context we encourage you  to start or re-invigorate your personal SDG journey through the upcoming online SDGs Multipliers course, starting on 20th October 2025

SDG Multipliers course

For more and the video affine the SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities - UN Sustainable Development Goals - DEEP DIVE

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