Five outstanding urban innovations across the globe will be honored on Nov 28 at the Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference (GIUIC), marking the city’s recognition for sustainability amid rapid urbanization.

Each of the five winning cities, selected from 259 submissions from 177 cities of 57 countries and regions, of Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) will receive a $20,000 prize at the biennial arrangement that was launched in 2012.

“The Guangzhou Award aims to promote innovation in urban sustainability and resilience for improving the livelihoods of people,” Chen Jianhua, mayor of Guangzhou said.

The GIUIC runs simultaneously with 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference (CIFCC), which is co-sponsored by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, China International Friendship Cities Association, and Guangzhou government.

Under the theme of “My City, My Dream”, the conferences aim at encouraging urban innovation and promoting sustainable cooperation between sister cities.  

The conferences are expected to attract approximately 600 participants, including mayors of more than 10 cities around the world, urban development experts and practitioners, and officials from international organizations.

The Guangzhou Award Technical Committee, comprising of some 11 urban practitioners and scholars from various countries, has shortlisted 15 finalists from all submissions in September for open vote online.

Each of the 15 finalist cities will present their projects to a large audience including the Jury, formed by former elected city officials and other urban experts.

“We applied multiple filters — for example, not only the novelty and impact of an innovation, but also matters of social inclusion and whether it benefits all classes of society,” said technical committee members Neal Peirce and Farley Peters, and Nicholas You, a strategic adviser to the award.

“A question that always loomed large: Can other cities adapt the innovation to their own circumstances?” they continued.

Themes of the finalists reflect some current challenges facing cities worldwide, with fighting against climate change topping the list.

In cities ranging from Abu Dhabi to Hamburg, Jakarta to Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro to Linköping, Sweden to Gwangju, leaders and practitioners are finding ingenious ways to protect the public against sea-level rise, intense storms and warmer temperature.

Two of the chosen city innovations focused on citizenship and skill building: Boston’s participatory budgeting program inviting young people to take part in allocating $1 million in city funds, and the creation of 80 “educational parks” honoring youth and communities in Antioquia, Colombia.

Other themes included “smart city” strategies in Bristol of the UK; accessing capital markets in Dakar, Senegal, Sub-Saharan Africa; a museum that cherishes the people’s memory of Turkey’s Eskişehir; China’s first and largest public bike-sharing program in Hangzhou; and government-citizen roundtables to stimulate innovation and creativity Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentine.

The duo events also mark Guangzhou’s determination to be a smarter city amid China rapid urbanization process.

Lying in the center of the Pearl River Delta Region, Guangzhou, with a total population of 15 million, is the largest city in South China.

“Our hope is that cities from all over the world can share experience and learn from each other’s innovative policies as well as practices to scale up their respective efforts,” Mayor of Guangzhou Chen Jianhua said.