Investigating barriers to sustainable urbanization

Parallel to significant benefits of urbanization such as increased efficiency, convenience to population, and social integration at a global level, uncontrolled urbanization has been shown to have enormous detrimental impacts on communities. Urban sprawl, overcrowded living conditions, inadequacy of infrastructural services, and environmental degradation are some the consequences of unsustainable approaches in urbanization. To control these consequences, it is essential to shift to approaches that consider urbanization comprehensively by evaluating its impacts not only on the economy but also on environment and society for the entire life-cycle of facilities' service time. Although huge effort has been taken to introducing and establishing sustainable urbanization, due to various issues implementation of sustainable policies and strategies is a challenge. This paper investigates the barriers to implementing sustainable urbanization policies in five categories. The paper can be used to identify the existing knowledge gap and finding solutions to foster the sustainable development of the urban environment.