Human Sustainable Cities - Towards the SDGs and Green, Just, Smart and Inclusive Transitions

This book argues that accelerating action toward sustainability for and by cities and their inhabitants can make a huge difference to humanity's endeavor to recover from current crises and build a sustainable future. It sheds light on cutting-edge concepts and actions toward sustainability that can taken by and for cities and with citizens. In this book, author Voula Mega takes the reader on a journey inside and across cities and highlights efforts toward a paradigmatic shift that reconciles human systems with nature. Leadership, education, innovation, trust and citizen empowerment all play a crucial role for the co-invention of a new model that balances human well-being, sustainable prosperity and the future of the planet. Building on robust evidence and inspired by best practices, Human Sustainable Cities offers compelling messages and convincing advice to all stakeholders who are striving to overcome crises, speed up the path toward resilience and preparedness and bounce forward better.

Dr Voula MEGA graduated from the National Technical University, of Athens, the French Institute of Geodesy and the French Institute of Urban Planning where she received her DEA and PhD degree in urban and regional planning and policy. Her postdoctoral studies include research on regional policy at the Oxford Brooks University and Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis at Harvard University. In 2016, she returned to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government for a leadership excellence programme.

Her research and publications address the scientific foundations, values, culture and innovations for sustainable development policies and the cities of the future. She believes that Science and the Arts are free and can herald a better world and strategic foresight and visions for desired futures can far extend the limits of the possible. 

Citizen of the world and passionate European, she is pursuing an international career, starting as  Special Adviser to the Greek Government and held important positions in various European and International organisations. She has been Research Manager at the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions, an EU agency in Dublin, and worked as international expert on Sustainable Development at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. In 2001, she joined the European Commission in Brussels and works as senior policy analyst at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. 

Her Academic activities include Invited Master Lectures at the University of California at Berkeley, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture, Institut Français d'Architecture, the European University of the Environment, University College of London, Catalan Institute of Technology, and the Universities of Athens, Bologna, Trieste and Parma. She has been Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration, Athens.

She published extensively with the European Union, the UN, UNESCO, OECD and international publishers, notably Springer, in Greek, English, French, Spanish and Italian. She also published three poetry collections and exhibited drawings, watercolours and photographs. An exhibition at the European Parliament focused on her artistic work on European cities.