How do you envision the City of the

Future?

By Christophe Duong

The City of the Future solves Challenges:

Impacts of Urban Sprawl Growing Global UrbanisationRelentless Waste ManagementAir & Water Pollution Resource Depletion

Impacts of Urban Sprawl:

Urban sprawl is the expansion of cities in a low density manner encouraging car dependency.

Impacts of such city design are:

● Obesogenic through inactivity and reliance on cars

● Increase in traffic and traffic-related fatalities

● Increase pollution and use of fossil fuel● Increase infrastructures costs● Decrease social interactions● Decrease land and water quantity and quality

Global Urbanisation:

By 2050, the UN expects the world population to reach 9 billion from the 7 billion today.

70% of which would live in cities and we will need to produce 70% more food.

Rapid population growth is mainly expected in developing countries where new cities will be born. This is a challenge where uncontrolled growth could result in overcrowding, development of slums, informal settlements and improper waste management.

Relentless Waste Management:

Waste management is the most important service a city provides to avoid pollution and diseases.

Municipal solid waste will rise from the current 1.3bn tonnes a year to 2.2bn by 2025, Landfilled food waste is predicted to increase world methane (CH4) emissions from 31 million to 43 million tonnes.

New products are usually launched and mass produced then transformed into new kinds of waste before an effective waste management solution is established.

Air & Water Pollution:

In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters polluting usable water supply. Each year there are about 250 million cases of water-based diseases, resulting in roughly 5 to 10 million deaths.

Transportation sources such as cars, trucks, buses, ships and trains account for 90% of the cancer risk associated with air pollution

Resource Depletion:

An unsustainable situation occurs when natural capital (total of nature’s resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished.

The US represents less than 5% of the world’s population but due to the car dependent environment and large houses, they use more than a quarter of the world’s supply of fossil fuels.

The 20% richest of the world’s population account for 86% of consumption expenditures, the 20% poorest for a mere 1.3%.

70% of the world’s major fish stocks are overfished or are

being fished at their biological limit.

Competitive EconomyEducated CitizensSmart GovernanceSafe & Efficient MobilitySustainable DevelopmentHealthy Quality of Life

The City of the Future promotes:

Therefore the City of the Future is walkable

Public transportation in the city of the future will allow you to travel wherever you need to go. While walkability benefits from good transit, good transit relies absolutely on walkability.

Walking is beneficial to health, safer than driving a car and reduces energy usage and carbon emission. Businesses appear to do better in walkable commercial areas.

There is even technology “Pavegen” that generates energy from walking.

Cars will still drive around the city of the future, they will be:

● Driverless and safer as less prone to human error, fatigue

● Used differently: more often shared● More efficient● Electric● Compact

The City of the Future has smarter transportation

The City of the Future is more sustainable

The city of the future produces both fish and organic vegetables for its citizens.

The City of the Future is smartly managed

Data Science will play an important role in discovering trends, influencing decisions on the urban design, layout, its infrastructures, transportation system and businesses as the City of the Future will closely monitor such factors and adapts itself to the demands.

Conclusion

The city of the future faces difficult challenges especially concerning the sustainability of our civilisation on Earth.

As a result, the city of the future will reflect changes in our behaviors and habits in order to reduce our footprint on the environment and promotes a healthier future for the generations to come.