Noting that urbanization trend has been increased significantly, Seyyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi, the Secretary of International Conference on Urban Economy, said this growth has involved developing countries with major challenges.

Emphasizing that urban areas of Asia and Africa will cover almost all the world population from 2015 to 2015, the official said 90 percent of 2.5 billion people estimated to be added to the world would live in Asia and Africa. In our country, urbanization trend reached to 71 percent in 2011 from 31 percent in 1956.

Highlighting that managers, planners, and policy-makers should know that they will confront more densely populated cities in the future, he added according to statistics, there were only 13 metropolitan areas with more than one million population in 1900 while it has been more than 300 ones in the beginning of the 21st century. In other words, the 21st century may be called metropolises’ century.

Saying that only 23 metropolises with more than one million people exist in the European Union and only 5 percent of the European people live in the cities with more than 5 million people, he added in contrast, there are more than 10 metropolises with one million people in Iran and more than 30 percent of Iranians live in metropolises.

Stressing that smart cities are known as a set of tools in various scales that facilitate the flow of information, people, material, and energy, he further said they integrate information and make available the service of specific goals for improvement of sustainability efficiency and quality of life.

The first international conference on urban economy, with the approach of resistance economy; implementation and action, was held in conference hall of Shahr Bank in Tehran.
 

Source : Ilna News Agency

Date : May 25, 2016

News code : 373739