About UN Habitat
The UN-Habitat's vision of a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world” is bold and ambitious. UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty.Activities by UN Habitat
Third UN Virtual Worlds Day
Global GuatemalaThe event convened ambassadors, ministers, city leaders, UN entities, industry pioneers, and innovators for two days of high-level dialogue and an Ambassador Roundtable on the future of AI-driven cities and communities. Discussions explored how the convergence of artificial intelligence, immersive virtual environments, spatial intelligence, and other frontier technologies is reshaping urban governance and enabling new approaches to delivering public services, including emerging concepts such as the AI-enabled citiverse. The programme also examined how these developments can help translate the Global Digital Compact into trusted, inclusive, and people-centred outcomes for cities and communities worldwide. The event concluded with two major milestones: (1) The launch of the Executive Briefing on “AI, Spatial Intelligence and the AI-Enabled Citiverse”, developed with the contributions from 20 UN entities. (2) The endorsement of the Call to Action for Humanity: Shaping the Future of Cities in the Age of AI and Citiverse, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing trusted, inclusive, and people-centred digital futures.
Activity Type AI Tools/SolutionsPolicy/Regulatory GuidanceAwareness/AdvocacyInfrastructure/Systems DevelopmentGlobal Assessment of Responsible AI in Cities
GlobalThis project provides technical support to develop a thorough assessment of the opportunities and constraints for local government development to responsibly implement, use and govern Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in cities. It involves a global survey, desk research, and drafting a research paper with policy recommendations.
Activity Type Research/Reports/AssessmentsBEAM: Building & Establishment Automated Mapper: Mapping informal settlement in eThekwini, South Africa
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean BelizeCosta RicaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanama
UNITAC developed BEAM, a model that uses machine learning to accelerate the spatial recognition of informal settlements and building structures on aerial imagery. The tool provides up-to-date geo-referenced base maps and includes a technology and knowledge transfer component to build capacity.
Mapping a community inherently makes it “legible” to public authorities. Doing so can have tremendous advantages for the planning and allocation of critical public health and infrastructure services, especially in slum settlements. However, such data collection must respect both the privacy of residents and their unique cultural dynamics.
AI in Cities: Risks, Applications and Governance
GlobalUN-Habitat collaborated with Mila to produce a policy paper on the application of artificial intelligence in urban contexts. The paper, 'AI in Cities: Risks, Applications and Governance', takes a risk-based approach, highlighting the risks of AI throughout its lifecycle and application in cities, and provides a set of recommendations for developing an AI strategy.
Activity Type Research/Reports/AssessmentsPolicy/Regulatory Guidance