According to a global consulting company, Mercer, which has its headquarters in New York and operates in more than 130 countries, the quality of living is closely linked to factors such as safety, infrastructure, and environmental standards. Based on the Mercer 2024 Quality of Living Ranking, Zurich tops the list, followed by Vienna and Geneva, while Munich ranks among the top ten cities globally.
In today’s world, urban life is expanding fast. The migration from villages to the cities has acquired a universal proportion. The search for employment, education, health, and other amenities of life pushes humans to move to the bigger cities from villages. But this rapid and fast development confronts us with a question: are the bigger cities providing a better, healthier life to human beings in reality?
Recent international research on urban health indicates that cities with better urban planning, healthier air quality, and a sustainable infrastructure tend to offer healthier living conditions. Vienna, Austria, is among the healthiest cities in the world. Here, we find clean water, vast parks, and extensive green coverage, with a significant portion of the city consisting of forests and natural landscapes. Likewise, Munich, Germany, is one of the greenest cities in Europe. It has around 40 to 50 percent green cover, including trees, gardens, forests inside city boundaries, and natural land.
Many of the top-ranking cities with the healthiest city life are mostly in Europe, although high-ranking cities can also be found in other regions such as Asia, North America, and Oceania. There are different factors like green parks, an organized set-up that facilitates pedestrians, air quality, minimal noise pollution, and clean water. A Pakistani traveler who had lived in Denmark for five years once recalled during a bus ride in Pakistan that, during his stay in Denmark, he had never heard a vehicle horn even once. Achieving this became possible because of a very strict traffic discipline and a strong enforcement of noise rules.
All these factors, if seen in the light of city life standards, then the inference can be drawn that where the cities develop according to specific plans, there the health and standard of life of the citizens get better. These also indicate a fact that city planning is not and should not be limited only to the buildings and roads, but it should be an all-encompassing activity as regards the physical and mental health of the people living there. A city that ensures clean air, safe drinking water, and a peaceful atmosphere, only that deserves to be called the living city in actuality.
If we take the example of the developed cities, then we will find that there is civil development, and also great importance is given to the upkeep of the environment. There is an organized system of parks, cycling lanes, walkways, and public transport. Also, the citizens were motivated to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Vienna and Munich are examples that nature and progress can mutually coexist. In many developing countries of the world, there is rapid urbanization. But this leads to some problems, like, for instance, traffic rush, air pollution, the dearth of clean and safe drinking water, and there is a lot of noise pollution also. As a result, the health of the city dwellers is adversely impacted. All this situation demands that the model of civic development needs to be reconsidered. It will not be wrong to say that the city development is of utmost importance in the overall development of any country. If the city environment is not healthy, then the economy, education, and social life are all affected severely. That puts a lot of responsibility on the city planners to adopt the policies that are environmentally friendly and promote city development.
In the context of our country, further strengthening measures like increasing parks in the cities, taking the tree plantation drives more robustly, improving the structure of public transport, and controlling industrial emissions are likely to improve the standard of city life considerably. These steps will not only improve health standards but also benefit economically.
Green City and Smart City Concepts
A healthy society is sure to be more productive. It is also a reality that city life does not only mean physical health, but it must also safeguard mental peace. Noise and pollution lead to mental depression in human beings. Greenery, clean air, and organized cities relax people. When one is tired or feels depressed, and wants to have a light stroll out, and there are clean accessible spaces, it is just very nice to be out there. It is the reason that in the whole world, Green City and Smart City concepts are gradually being promoted. It can be assumed that the city is not only a place to live, but it is also a mirror to measure and reflect the standard of human life. If we want to see our future generations healthy and prosperous, then we must make our cities clean and human-friendly. This is not the responsibility of one odd country or government, but it demands a collective conscience to awaken and take suitable steps. When citizens, departments, institutes, and government functionaries work together to achieve this goal and pursue a common shared vision, then we will be able to develop such cities that guarantee humans to live in peace and with dignity.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
Ghazala Anbreen's work spans energy, journalism, and advocacy; making her a multifaced contributor to important discussions.
