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Side Event: "Shaping Smarter and More Sustainable Cities: Striving for Sustainable Development Goals"

12 July 2018
UN Headquarters New York United States of America

Time: 1:15-2:30 p.m.

Venue: UNHQ Conference Room E

Cities are powerful engines of economic growth, fueled by intensive interpersonal communication and high concentrations of specialized skills. Given that an estimated 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, sustainable urbanization has become a key policy point to administrations across the world. Here information and communication technologies (ICTs) and its applications, including, inter alia, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and artificial intelligence, have a crucial role to play in facilitating the transition to smart sustainable cities (SSC). The United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative is a UN initiative supported by 16 UN bodies to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11: "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable." The U4SSC Initiative serves as the global platform to advocate for public policy and to encourage the use of ICTs to facilitate and ease the transition to smart sustainable cities to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness.

The side event is jointly organized by the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media, Greece, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations New York.

Aim of the event
To provide a platform to debate the impact of frontier technologies  such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and Internet of Things (IoT) on cities, to present current national and international initiatives such as the United for Smart Sustainable Cities and to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced in shaping smart and sustainable cities at the local level.

Here’s the link to the event: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/20180712/Pages/default.aspx


Intended audience
Leading specialists in the field, from city planners to engineers, designers, policy-makers, government officials, regulators, academia and standards experts.

Photos

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