Infectious disease outbreaks can have enduring influence onurban design和several have irrevocably shaped how modern cities feel and function. For example, parks, wide street design and even家庭浴室都是霍乱暴发的重要遗产；如今，它们已经融入了日常生活中，以至于它们被认为是现代城市的普通特征。在整个时代，城市在不确定性时期的最初冲击和重建居民的信任中反弹。

What’s at stakein a world marked by pandemic response today? As the contours of post-coronavirus pandemic cities begin to take shape across the globe, there has been a flurry ofspeculationson the future of cities. Such shocks may fundamentally transform how the world acts on critical policy priorities, including climate change, poverty, racism, homelessness and pollution, among many others.

全球响应及其结果可能是进步或回归的 - ”green stimulus” investments can boost climate action, butAustralia’s gas-fired pandemic recoveryserves as a reminder to not take the positive feedback loop for granted.

A market in Rosario, Argentina.
People shop at a local famers market in Rosario, Argentina. "Sustainable Food Production for a Resilient Rosario," the winner of the 2020-2021 Prize for Cities, uses urban farming to tackle the city's economic and climate crises. Photo by WRI

2022年城市的3个基本问题

无论大流行后城市所采取的措施，一件事都是明显的 - 我们生活在越来越动荡的时期。这个世界正在达到果断集体行动的十字路口。气候危机必威官网是真的吗，许多科学家认为已经达到了irreversible tipping point, demands global leaders to take bold action to slash carbon emissions and quickly adapt to intensifying weather extremes. Globally, COVID-19 pushed anadditional 31 million peopleinto extreme poverty and revealed deep inequalities.

These unprecedented times require us to ask three critical questions, which will define pathways for cities in the coming year and decade ahead.

Are disruption and uncertainty the new normal in cities?

至少有三个复合危机当今面对城市 - 持续的全球共同19日大流行，气候变化的影响不断增长以及不断增长的城市不平等。必威官网是真的吗仅在过去的一年中，极端天气事件（例如致命的火灾，洪水和热浪）以及冠状病毒大流行的全球影响表明，这些挑战本质上是“行星”的。世界上没有一个角落不受其影响。所有三个危机都使城市生活史无前例的压力加剧了现有问题，包括社会排斥，种族主义，无家可归和污染。

Cities themselves are complex systems anchored by the physical heft of their built environments; at the same time, they arealways under construction并在各种磁通状态下。除了湍流的感觉，大流行，气候危机和螺旋式不平等正在发生在加速技术创新和社会转变的背景下。必威官网是真的吗

These shifts and advancements are more ambiguous in their effects. New technologies can bring great hope in times of emergency, as in the case of new vaccine technologies, and artificial intelligence that enables contact-tracing, telemedicine and remote work and learning. Yet, they alsoharbor ethical dilemmas— such as privacy and discrimination risks — that add to a climate of uncertainty.

Can resilient cities be inclusive and sustainable?

Calls for resilience as aplanning and management priorityhave come in response to bothacute shocks and chronic stressors, including extreme weather associated with climate change, terrorism and cyberattacks, economic and supply chain disruptions, and public health emergencies such as the coronavirus outbreak.

Yet, responding to the threefold challenge of pandemic, climate change and urban inequality requires cities to be not only resilient, but also sustainable and inclusive. Unfortunately, these objectives可以矛盾with each another and reconciling them may create tricky urban planning dilemmas.

For example, dense urban centers are favored oversprawling settlementsfor their resource efficiency and for connecting people to economic opportunities. But when many people live in close proximity, this also concentrates their vulnerability to the same risks — be they disease outbreaks or natural disasters — unless adequate measures are taken.

此外，城市的弹性反应（例如洪水保护措施）通常基于多层安全方法 - 如果一种措施失败，则有些人可以恢复。但是，从可持续性的角度来看，这些内置的冗余对冲击和破坏产生了韧性，这可能是不可取的，从而夸大了效率和优化。

Urban planners must explicitly take the potential contradictions between resilience, sustainability and inclusiveness into account — sacrificing one puts thefuture of cities at risk.

A group of people pave new road barrier lines to improve road safety.
A group in Kampala, Uganda paints a new pedestrian crossing to keep pedestrians safe from motor vehicle traffic. Photo by Zahara Milele/WRI

How can cities best learn and apply lessons?

Despite innumerable local and regional differences, when it comes to finding inspiration, cities often turn to their peers in a wider world of cities. City-to-city learning on a range of climate, justice, and sustainability-related issues areas已经起飞了in recent decades, offering cities a rich ecosystem to learn from each other.

A powerful example of the speed and agility of city networks is the recentGlobal Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, which was created by C40 Cities only weeks into the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, and offered cities access to other cities’ approaches and lessons in responding to the pandemic.

More and more cities areembracing experimentationwith new urban planning and policy concepts in response to complex and intersecting challenges, such as climate change, local economic development and the global pandemic. Innovative approaches such as“城市生活实验室”和“实验区”have become more commonplace and signal an acknowledgement that new ways of implementing projects, learning and incorporating lessons are needed in today’s complex and uncertain world.

While city learning has become more systematic, there is much room toimprove how cities learn. For example, knowledge capture and exchange could be made more effective if both monitoring systems and funding allocations adapted to support deep learning about technical topics as well as organizational processes.

Pathways to Urban Transformation

Experts don’t always agree on what constitutes a good, let alone exemplary, response. However, there are severalemerging conceptsthat are being piloted in cities across the globe. These include popular public space and infrastructure interventions such as superblocks, green corridors, complete streets,biking and cycling infrastructure expansion, among others.

WRI created theWRI Ross Center Prize for Citiesto help identify and elevate the highest caliber innovations in the field of inclusive and sustainable urban transformation. Potential winners are sourced by a global pool of experts, then assessed by a large evaluation team in terms of their transformative impact on their cities, and finally voted on by an independent Jury of leaders in urban affairs.

Previous grand prize winners have demonstrated the vision, coalition-building and perseverance that are key to sustaining change and amplifying lessons learned. The 2020-2021 grand prize was awarded toSustainable Food Production for a Resilient Rosario, a far-reaching urban agriculture program from the municipality of Rosario, Argentina. In 2019, the inaugural Prize for Cities was awarded toSARSAI, a program of the non-profitAmend, for its highly impactful and replicable approach to creating safer journeys to school for children in Dar es Salaam and other African cities.

Now in its third cycle, the Prize’s new 2021-2022 theme — “Thriving Together in Turbulent Times” — recognizes that at this time of unprecedented uncertainty and turbulence, compelling ideas and approaches are needed to guide our actions towards attractive alternative urban futures. Initiatives and projects demonstrating how to live and thrive in turbulent times by helping cities and communities respond to uncertainty, disruption, and crises areinvited to apply.

2021-2022WRI Ross Center Prize for Citieslaunched on World Cities Day, October 31, 2021. Submissions are open until February 15, 2022. Find out more atprizeforcities.org.