2019
JSTI｜Udaipur Honored as “Global Model of Smart City Development”
24-Jul-2019
▲ Group photo of participants at the opening session, GFHS 2019
▲ The United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa (UNCC-AA)
The GFHS’s mission is to commit itself to develop sustainable cities and human settlements for all. Co-organized by the Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and World Urban Campaign (WUC), GFHS 2019 will be one of the most important global congresses on the urban agenda, sustainable cities and human settlements, as well as an observance of Urban October. It will focus on the theme, “Sustainable Development of Cities and Human Settlements in the Digital Era.” A host of participants will attend this forum, including senior officials from the United Nations and other international organizations, dignitaries and diplomatic envoys from relevant countries, government representatives and city mayors, local administrators, business leaders, investors and officers from financial institutes, recognized experts and scholars, NGO principals, practitioners from the field of planning and design, architecture, energy, transport, tourism, digital information technology, real estate development and environmental protection, as well as well-known women and children representatives.
▲ Awarders and awardees, Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards Ceremony 2019
The “Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards” (SCAHSA) is a worldwide prize annually awarded by the Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) and strongly supported by agencies of the United Nations including UN Environment. It is focused on promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development especially SDG 11. The SCAHSA has been successfully held on thirteen previous occasions with award winners belonging to all regions of the world, and has created a high-level interactive platform for insiders to share and spread knowledge and experience, exerting significant demonstrative effects.
▲ Award Ceremony
The Selection Committee of “Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements awards” (SCAHSA) indicated that it is encouraging to see the city of Udaipur (India) as an ambitious but achievable goals and targets to build a smart city. Udaipur (India) has been making great efforts to enhance the efficiency of city management through a range of smart solutions. Specifically, i) an integrated command and control center was developed to facilitate smart building operation and management; ii) a participatory approach has been adopted to actively engage the public; iii) smart and sustainable management of waste is being implemented such as door to door collection and transportation, garbage sorting, vehicle tracking system; iv) intelligent traffic control and management system is being carried out in the city; and v) integrated infrastructure project has been under development to secure clean water supply, enhance wastewater treatment and promote an efficient and sustainable water management.
Udaipur is in an important and promising development towards becoming a smart city. As long as those important ongoing projects are implemented as planned to deliver the smart city goals, Udaipur can become a smart, clean, sustainable heritage city. Based on the overall evaluation, the city of Udaipur is up to the criteria of “Global Model of Smart City Development”, and has passed the final review.