Skip to Main Content
You are now in the main content area

The role of artificial intelligence in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Fostering sustainable cities and communities

Solar grids with skyscrapers behind

This research evaluates how artificial intelligence (AI) may facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal #11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. The world has been facing a long run global urgency consisting of complexly related, growing, and converging sets of issues as reflected in the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) having 169 targets. We are not on track to adequately address these problems including vast socio-economic inequality, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Yet, the world community has agreed to an agenda set to meet the UN SDGs by 2030. Cities are point-sources of these problems so allocating resources to these places may be more effective in a limited amount of time. With near unmanageable migrations into growing cities, many are already over populated and cannot service their populations including large citizenries of homeless and destitute inhabitants. As existing cities falter, at the same time, new modern cities are popping up facilitated by technology and ambitious governments eager to grow emerging and developing economies. In examining how AI can assist these varying circumstances, this multi-methods research found that artificial intelligence can assist in optimizing energy usage, streamlining waste management, enhancing traffic flows, and improving environmental sustainability as an aid in decision-making. However, the implementation of artificial intelligence needs careful oversight to ensure it is ethical, inclusive, and privacy-respecting. Collaboration among many stakeholders including planners, policymakers, and AI experts could be helpful in ensuring this important balance. This research is critical as many different stakeholders with their own agendas clash over how to effectively and safely build artificial intelligence into our cities and community systems. All citizens must be safeguarded and overall standards of living must improve as we more rapidly manage colossal sustainability challenges at the same time. This research delivers holistic evidence-based expert advice to provide balanced guidance for worldwide discussions on this urgent and critical topic. Leah Filho, W., Forh Mbah, M.,  Pimenta Dinis, M., Viera Tevisan, L., de Lange, D., Mishra, A., Rebelatto, B., Ben Hassen, T. & Aina, Y. (2024). The role of artificial intelligence in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Fostering sustainable cities and communities (external link, opens in new window) . Cities, Volume 150, 105021.