FC-02x: Livable Future Cities

The 21 st century is fast being recognised as the 'century of cities'. More than half of the world's population lives in cities now, and the importance of efficient urban land use and 'smart' development has become ever greater over recent decades. Cities are the key centres of human activity and the engines of economic growth in the world today. A world which has been drastically transformed by rapid technological change, expanding globalisation, profound cultural shifts and new economic perspectives. One, moreover, bring a whole range of fresh opportunities and challenges. Traditional ways in which cities were planned and managed increasingly turn out to be less relevant and less sustainable in such times of accelerating change and greater complexity in the global environment. The central thrust of this paper is around the adage: "Imagine ahead-plan backwards". The paper explores the challenges facing 21 st century cities, their municipal governments and constituent planning agencies. It examines the role of different 'futures' approaches applied in order to assist urban planners and municipal decision-makers in dealing with the issues that lie ahead. It presents examples of different ways in which cities reposition themselves, envision their futures and deal with challenges and opportunities brought about by global and local change.

2006

Cities of tomorrow. Challenges, visions, ways forward, 2011

Cities are key to the sustainable development of the European Union ● Europe is one of the most urbanised continents in the world. Today, more than two thirds of the European population lives in urban areas and this share continues to grow. The development of our cities will determine the future economic, social and territorial development of the European Union. ● Cities play a crucial role as engines of the economy, as places of connectivity, creativity and innovation, and as centres of services for their surrounding areas. Due to their density, cities offer a huge potential for energy savings and a move towards a carbon-neutral economy. Cities are, however, also places where problems such as unemployment, segregation and poverty are concentrated. Cities are, therefore, essential for the successful implementation of Europe 2020. ● The administrative boundaries of cities no longer reflect the physical, social, economic, cultural or environmental reality of urban development and new forms of flexible governance are needed. ● In terms of aims, objectives and values, there is a shared vision of the European city of tomorrow as: ● a place of advanced social progress with a high degree of social cohesion, socially-balanced housing as well as social, health and 'education for all' services; ● a platform for democracy, cultural dialogue and diversity; ● a place of green, ecological or environmental regeneration; ● a place of attraction and an engine of economic growth. ● Cities play a key role in Europe’s territorial development. There is a consensus on the key principles of future European urban and territorial development which should: ● be based on balanced economic growth and territorial organisation of activities, with a polycentric urban structure; ● build on strong metropolitan regions and other urban areas that can provide good accessibility to services of general economic interest; ● be characterised by a compact settlement structure with limited urban sprawl; ● enjoy a high level of environmental protection and quality in and around cities.

vS Publishers, 2019

Harry Jones, co-author of a recent ODI paper on complexity This document is not about clicking our links and following our path of discovery but about engaging and searching your own path in collaboration with us and others and developing pathways for our combined action.

Guidance for sustainable urban …, 2007

2018

Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities, which generate 80 % of greenhouse gas emissions and consume 75 % of the energy used worldwide. By 2050, more than 70 % of the world's population will live in cities. This usually goes hand in hand with the increasing use of space and the simultaneous growth of per-capita residential space. However, the growth of cities must not necessarily signify a problematic development. To quote the architect and urban planner Jaime Lerner "City is not a problem, city is solution". Therefore, the "future city" implies a change of perspectives, away from the problem of growth, towards the challenge of growing smart and sustainable, for which suitable solutions within the respective city must be found. This paper is based on the project "City of the Future Constance" which is supported by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) as part of the "Flagship Initiative City of the Future". Within the City of the Future initiative, local communities, businesses, civil society representatives and the scientific community cooperate with each other in order to implement processes and recommendations for action for the cities of the future in germany. As part of the three-phase tendering, the first phase in the city of Constance focused on the question "How will we live and reside in the year 2030?". The foundations for the vision were laid during the workshops of the participatory symposium. Through the change of perspectives on fictitious persons from the year 2030 and with the help of prepared personal profiles, the-presumed-living and housing needs of different age groups and milieus were described very concretely. The concrete needs related to four fields of action City.Living, City.Mixed, City.Mobile and City.Intelligent. Building on the vision developed jointly in the first phase, the focus in phase two is on reducing the percapita residential space. This question will first scientifically elaborated and, finally, also structurally implemented in a model district in phase 3. The goal is to develop a superior planning toolkit, which provides orientation for the sustainable development of all areas of the action program with regard to housing, focusing in particular on the topic of space efficiency and the resulting topics in the planning focus. Within a multi-day workshop the planning toolkit is going to be used by stakeholders, citinzenry and planners to work out a comprehensive concept of development for the model district.

SustainCity Seminar on land-use and transport : 51st European Congress of the Regional Science Association International, 2011

This paper reports on implementing the land use model UrbanSim in the canton of Zurich, as one of three case studies of the SustainCity project. SustainCity aims at advancing the modelling of interactions between land use and transport and adapting the software UrbanSim to the European context. The result will be UrbanSimE, a tool intended to be used by European governmental institutions and planning agencies. The paper documents the data acquisition, processing and definitions of the Zurich case study and the technical approach to create a base year for running a "first run" of UrbanSimE, i.e., a very basic initial operationalisation.

2011 - 2014 urban futures research program