Effective utilization of available intellectual and natural potentials of the environment for the provision of sustainable living systems for Ado Metropolis dwellers as a paradigm for emerging urban cites in Nigeria is the main thrust of this paper. The vulnerability of these emerging urban centers to an intricate complexity of environmental problems was the consequence of the continuous interaction of man’s activities within the environment. The study adopts system theory as the theoretical framework. Among the system concept’s attributes are the methods of system functional monitoring, and identification by the planner of urban system institutions that control urban functions. Both secondary and tertiary information from relevant literature on various concepts and components that make up the city as a system was the methodology approach adopted in the study. The study findings indicate that; poor control and ineffective monitoring strategies are among inhibiting factors of harmonious city system functioning, more so, when the planners are deficient in tools to project proper development path. The study recommends the need for the effective functioning of the urban planners in conjunction with other allied professionals. The city dwellers must recognise and maintain the living environment as a system. These, as concluded by study, will serve as a panacea to the myriads of seemingly intractable urban environmental problems like; incompatible land uses, haphazard development, the problem of waste disposal/management, pollution, urban flooding, traffic congestion, insecurity of life and property that are consequences of social delinquency.