The World Expo 2010 in Shanghai attracted over 70 million visitors from all over the world. The main theme of the largest expo to date was "Better City, Better Life". True to the motto, in addition to pavilions of countries, pavilions from selected cities adorned the Expo grounds for the first time. In the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA), around 50 international cities presented outstanding and innovative solutions with which they have successfully mastered the urban challenges of an increasingly globalized world and thus made their knowledge accessible to the world public.

The city of Zurich shared a pavilion with the cities of Basel and Geneva under the title "Better Water – Best Urban Life". The core topic was the connection between clean water and quality of life. Basel, Geneva and Zurich used three case studies to show an individual way to revitalize once polluted water.

In this way, Zurich, Basel and Geneva succeeded in making a contribution to global sustainable development, building up international networks and presenting themselves on the international stage as attractive, environmentally conscious cities.

The city pavilion counted over 2.3 million visitors for half a year.