The World Bank’s corporate strategy on urban environment addresses both urban livability and urban development’s larger impact on regional pollution and natural resources, and is well articulated in its publication Urban Environment.  Urban livability issues affect the urban populations in general, however their impacts are most severely felt by the poor.  Traditionally, under the context of urban livability the issues include:

·         Providing safe water supply

·         Providing sanitation and drainage

·         Managing solid waste, including medical and hazardous waste

·         Addressing indoor and ambient air pollution

·         Protecting environmentally sensitive lands from development.

In recent years, urban environment has expanded to include regional pollution and natural resources issues, specifically:

• Protecting and enhancing environmental health in urban areas
• Protecting regional water, soil and air quality from urban pollution
• Minimizing the urban impact on natural resources at the regional and global scales, including wetland loss and climate change
• Preventing and mitigating urban impacts on natural disaster occurrence and extent.

While each of these issues is commonly addressed separately, it is valuable to conduct integrated urban environmental planning and management. For example, an initial upstream and comprehensive environmental diagnosis is done to prepare an urban environmental profile that highlights the city’s various environmental challenges in a multi-sectoral context.  In addition, environmental indicators are used to benchmark urban environmental conditions, as well as to measure the impact of investments.

A major share of disease affecting the urban poor are due to inadequate urban infrastructure service or urban pollution. Remedies require urban infrastructure improvements, rather than only health care actions. Ideally, an environmental health profile and environmental health assessment should be prepared in order to identify and prioritize health problems and related urban development solutions. Guidance for preparation of these documents is detailed in the World Bank's "Environmenal Health: Bridging the Gaps".

World Bank’s Role

Since the early 1970s, the World Bank’s lending operations addressed the urban environmental issues of urban livability.  Since the early 1990s the World Bank’s corporate strategy has provided leadership to address the larger urban environmental issues regarding natural resource conservation and regional pollution.

Review of current Bank projects indicates that there are over 250 on-going projects aimed at improving urban environment with investments over US$12 billion and comprising over 12 percent of the Bank’s total lending.  The majority of these projects fall under the context of either water supply and sanitation or urban development.  Other sectors addressing urban environment within their projects include environment, energy, transportation and social protection.  For an in-depth review of the World Bank’s portfolio for urban environment, see the recent publication Urban Environment and Infrastructure.

Urban environment topics are discussed under the following links to important resources.  Basic urban services are discussed separately, directly under the urban development heading. For example, there is a separate urban service discussion for urban solid waste management.  For urban environment see below.

Urban Environmental Topics

Strategic Urban Environmental Planning

Urban Environmental Indicators

Urban Environmental Toolkits

Key Sectors with Urban Environmental Issues:

Urban Solid Waste Management Environmental Issues

Wastewater Management and Sanitation Environmental Issues

Urban Air Quality Environmental Issues

Hazard Management Environmental Issues

Events