World cities in terms of the sustainable development concept

The article considers the issue of the world cities in terms of sustainable development. The population has been increasing in such intensive rates never reached during the middle of the 20th century. The expansion of the cities indicates, on the one hand, the growth of the world's general socio-economic development, on the other hand, it raises a number of economic, social and environmental problems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state and prospects of the world cities in terms of the sustainable development concept, to identify opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of the world cities, to determine the role of cities in the contemporary global world and consider further research of the world's cities. The authors analyzed the world cities rankings and noted that highly developed cities have more chances to quickly implement the sustainable development concept compared to medium-sized cities due to larger financial resources. The authors built a SWOT analysis of the world cities transformation in terms of the sustainable development concept, identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. According to the results of the SWOT analysis, the authors established that sustainable development of cities requires significant investments, particularly in the social sphere development, purification, and preservation of urban nature from the anthropogenic impacts. The research result is the systematization of the sustainable development criteria used in compiling the world cities rankings, determining the possibilities of the contemporary cities transition to the sustainable development concept.