Conference focuses on sustainable urban development and preparedness | 07.12.2007 | 11:36:10 | Views: 8528 | ID: July 12 '07: As the world's populations move toward urban areas, more than 60 percent of all people by 2030 will live in cities, the Rockefeller Foundation reported. To build more sustainable and prepared cities, the foundation sponsored the Urban Summit along with the Center for Sustainable Urban Development, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Issues discussed included ways to increase the health and response mechanisms inside urban areas to help people face challenges such as droughts, disasters and emergencies, and changes to climate. At the summit, examples and discussion groups presented "the work already under way to prepare cities, especially in the developing world, to effectively cope with the dramatic growth that has occurred because of globalization and the significant changes in local demographics." Darren Walker, the vice president of Foundation Initiatives at Rockefeller said, "The resilience of cities is a critical variable ... If there is faulty infrastructure and inadequate public systems, weak markets and limited opportunity, it becomes exceedingly difficult to build health cities."
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