Addressing socio-economic issues is more important than dealing with environmental challenges in the management of urban areas.

Issues associated with economic inequality, social segregation, and cultural diversity are nowadays ignored in order to achieve productivity and economic development. Awareness of strategies to manage socio-economic issues such as improved provision of schools, enforcing a living wage, giving access to affordable housing, greater provision of public transport are vital in order to minimize inequalities in terms of access to job opportunities, education, housing and basic public services such as water and sanitation.In many low income countries management of urban issues is handicapped by lack of capital. Scale of poverty, homelessness, poor infrastructure is much greater, so governments may focus efforts on dealing with socio economic challenges. In high income countries, urban management may give greater precedence to environmental challenges, partly due to pressure from local population. There is a strong imperative to give serious attention to environmental challenges because of national and international agreements and targets.