"Today more than half the people on our planet live in cities – and numbers are on the rise. According to some estimates, 64% of the earth's inhabitants will be urban dwellers by 2050. As demographics shift, cities will increasingly be at the center of future discussions about development, well-being, and ensuring a good life for everyone in urban areas. This fall, the Habitat III conference in Quito will tackle the core questions of how to combat poverty and climate change and increase quality of life. The conference will draft the “New Urban Agenda”, which will define how the global community sees the role of cities within the context of the global development agenda. Given the increasing importance of the world’s urban areas, DDD has chosen to devote issue #18 to the topic of cities. [...]

In the run up to the conference, we selected five topics that revolve around the heart of the discussion planned for Habitat III: housing, security, migration, city planning and the environment. We then virtually roamed the globe to identify the cities that best embody each topic, ultimately selecting the five listed below because they are either facing a huge challenge, or offer inspiring examples. To fairly represent the world, we chose a city from each of the five world regions defined by Habitat III.

• Nairobi – for Housing
• Mexico City – for Security
• Beirut – for Migration
• New Orleans – for City Planning
• Delhi – for Environment

[...] Join in on our journey through Delhi, Nairobi, Beirut, New Orleans and Mexico City, and take inspiration from the people we were lucky to meet along the way."