SDGs in Global South Cities for Building Resilience to Climate Change

In the twenty-first century, the Global South Cities (GSCs) are growing rapidly. In the meantime, these cities are facing increasing adversities and unprecedented urbanization challenges that have weakened urban adaptation of the SDGs. This study presents a better understanding of the regional perspectives of prioritized SDGs considering the cross-cutting concepts of sustainability and resilience to climate change. By reviewing articles, this study highlights the hindered implementation of these SDGs due to the exasperating poverty and spatial inequality making GSCs more susceptible to climate change. This is because the interlinked economic, social, and institutional challenges intensify local vulnerability and decrease the adaptive capacity of urban poor. The reviewed literature identifies the lack of incorporating subaltern knowledge, context specificities, and multistakeholder collaboration across local, regional, national, and institutional entities in urban sustainability programs as the major limitation of implementing SDGs in the GSCs. The findings propose a conceptual decision support system framework for strategically enhancing the implementation of the prioritized SDGs of the GSCs, which will consequently help cities build resilience to climate change for long-term sustainability. Overall, this framework synthesizes region-specific sustainable strategies at the nexus of nature-based and technological solutions incorporating traditional knowledge, contextual specificities, and psychographics concerning the region-specific perception of SDGs of the people of the GSCs for enhancement of the urban adaptation of the SDGs. The study concludes by suggesting the relevance of the framework for tackling the pandemic situation for achieving long-term sustainability and future urbanism in the context of climate change.