Contemporary Urbanization: Challenges, Future Trends, and Measuring Progress

Records of human civilization portray a history of the rise and fall of urban settlements, which have functioned as the nuclei of human activities in all ancient and modern civilizations. Cities are where the fabric of human destiny is woven and where scientific innovations and technological achievements are predominantly reflected. The main focus of today's urban managers is to cope with the tremendous changes occurring as a result of the megatrend of urbanization. As such, this article provides a contextual discourse on the subject of contemporary urbanization. It looks at historical circumstances, the nature of city problems and challenges that have arisen, the initiatives that are being taken to counteract manifest difficulties including application of the concept of urban sustainability, and the value of robust measurement of the effectiveness of city sustainability initiatives.