Cities are setting both sustainability and resilience goals that recognize the significant
pressures that cities will face over the coming decades due to increasing global populations, aging infrastructure, and hazards posed by climate change.
What can cities do?
The reliability and vulnerabilities of a city’s existing infrastructure systems lay the foundation for which further urban development is built upon and an evaluation of baseline conditions should be a crucial first step in the World Bank's Urban Sustainability Framework’s Diagnosis. As a system is only as reliable as its weakest component, the reliability of a city’s existing infrastructure systems need to be considered before expanding these systems to serve a growing urban population. It is projected that 75 percent of infrastructure required to support and provide the
basic needs to the two-thirds of the world’s 9.8 billion people that will live in urban areas by 2050, has not yet been built [5]. Also, new infrastructure investments into existing systems will have long lasting effects on systemic GHG contributions and the ability for cities to adapt to the effects of climate change. This suggests significant urgency to incorporate these factors into local investment decisions.