Future cities

This article deals with the flood impact in the southern German community of Fischerdorf in Deggendorf after the 2013 European Floods. So-called one-hundred-year floods occur repeatedly in ever shorter intervals. In coastal areas floods can be triggered by storm surges, and in non-coastal regions high precipitation leads to rise in floodwaters along streams and rivers. Recent cases include the Elbe Flood in 2002, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, southern Haiti in 2011, the June 2013 flood in Germany and Tyrol /Austria. In early 2014 in southern England 140,000 houses were flooded for  several weeks, and electrical service was no longer available. As diverse these individual cases may be, the images of rooftops surrounded by brackish-brown-coloured waters appear similar. Aside from the visible damage caused by later, an invisible danger often arises that continues to linger even long after buildings have dried out: leaked contaminants that intrude deeply into the construction materials of buildings...

What happened to the Venus Project since the death of Jacque Fresco?
Futurist Esmaeil Rahimi
The project is now holding workshops, courses, hosting international visitors, conferences, publishing journals, and running monthly and annual calendar schedules to continue the success story of Venus. The promotion of the intellectual heritage and vision of Professor Jacques Fresco is an important task that should be done by the project managers with great effort. The Venus project is on the right way because it comes from an inspirational perspective and massive knowledge. The project is now an organized whole, modeled on an innovative eco-system.

Science-fiction comics and graphic novels portray realistic scenarios of how our cities may evolve. These are based on the extrapolation of present trends as well as speculation, “what if” scenarios that can inform us about past, present and future. The objective of this paper is to study these and assess how they can change the way we think about future cities in design. This will be achieved by studying 15 comics and applying a four matrices onto them. A spatiotemporality matrix will be applied as well as a thematic matrix which will be a first comparative analysis to understand how these worlds are constructed. A city type matrix and a matrix of extrapolation and speculation will form a second comparative analysis which will determine what we can learn from the types of cities depicted as well as the methods to reach them.

This book, now reissued in Routledge's Library Editions (published November 2016), was the first book to deal with the relationship between geography and the popular media and indeed was one of the first of the new wave of cultural geography books to emerge in Great Britain during the 1980s.  The editors note that the very ordinariness of the media masks their importance in everyday life, playing an essential role in moulding environmental experience and in shaping the relationship between people and place.  In addressing those issues, a group of British and North American geographers present original and challenging viewpoints on the media. The essays deal with a diverse content, ranging from the presentation of news to the nature of television programming and from rock music lyrics to film visions of the city.  The list of contents and a scan of the opening pages of the first chapter are appended.

A full version of the original book (Croom Helm, 1985) is available from the author on request).

The inevitable upcoming technology of autonomous vehicles (AVs) will affect our cities and several aspects of our lives. The widespread adoption of AVs repose at crossing distinct barriers that prevent their full adoption. This paper presents a critical review of recent debates about AVs and analyse the key barriers to their full adoption. This study has employed a mixed research methodology on a selected database of recently published research works. Thus, the outcomes of this review integrate the barriers into two main categories; (1) User/Government perspectives that include (i) Users' acceptance and behaviour, (ii) Safety, and (iii) Legislation. (2) Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) which include (i) Computer software and hardware, (ii) Communication systems V2X, and (iii) accurate positioning and mapping. Furthermore, a framework of barriers and their relations to AVs system architecture has been suggested to support future research and technology development.

Older adults face outdoor mobility challenges due to age-related changes and problems linked to the transportation system. The advent of fully-autonomous vehicles (AVs) is expected to benefit older adults by facilitating their outdoor mobility. However, research exploring the implications of AVs from older adults' perspective is limited. This study explores older adults' perception of the opportunities and concerns regarding AVs, in relation to their outdoor mobility needs and challenges. Using a qualitative design, we explore these issues based on in-depth interviews conducted with participants (≥65 years) in Greater Manchester, UK. The results revealed that older adults perceive opportunities in AVs enhancing their physical activity, promoting social interaction and offering stress-free door-to-door mobility. They, however, expressed concerns including safety, cost, possible erosion of road etiquettes and a desirable driving culture as a result of automation, a lack of social interaction with a human driver, and possible difficulties in using AVs. The participants' most preferred use options (i.e., public transport and shared autonomous services) are grounded in their need for social interaction, physical activity, safe and less stressful, and affordable travel. The implications of these findings for policy at the intersection of mobility and healthy ageing in future cities are discussed.

Integral to the reproductive processes of the biota of several forest, shrub, and grassland biome-types, wildfire ignites some 3,400,000km2 of Earth’s vegetated surface annually. Though a highly complex phenomena coupled with not one, but several Earth systems, human actions are both directly and indirectly changing wildfire frequencies, intensities, severities, and behaviours, and to the detriment of both environment and society. Nowhere is this felt more so than the wildland urban interface, which home to roughly 1/3 of the nation’s populous and 40% of its housing stock, is the fastest-growing land-use type in the conterminous United States. A place where fire-averse architectures meet increasingly fire-prone lands, loss of lives, properties, and livelihoods to a series of wildfire complexes of proportions unprecedented in living memory have rendered there an urgent need to reconsider the challenge of living with wildfire as a vital landscape process. The product of a transdisciplinary study which converged state-of-the-knowledge from fields as diverse as the fire, ecological, and wider Earth sciences; information, communication, computing, and related technologies, both digital and biological; evolutionary, smart and living materials, architectures, and urban systems; philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and policymaking, this thesis presents a new wildland urban interface paradigm modelled on the biochemistries, behaviours, and systems of fire-adapted flora and the fire regimes they form. Migrating biomimetics from the level of species to systems, relying not on generic notions of nature and its workings, nor assumptions more generally, but on rigorous interrogation of the interplay between biotic and abiotic processes from the molecular to landscape to planetary scale, and across both human and geological timescales, several original theoretical and technical architectural and urban concepts are discussed, together with their possible applications and implications both within and beyond the wildland urban interface. Integrating insights from local and global indigenous and ancient fire cultures, the findings conclude that not merely is a reconciliation of human and non-human systems at the interface of fire-prone wild and urban lands possible, but therein resides potent ecological, social, and technical potentialities that merit further research in the years ahead.

Chapter Overview: Having discussed the underlying paradigmatic principles of a tri-part pangenical approach to architecture and urban design in the wildland urban interface of the western U.S., this chapter explores the codification potentialities, both present and possible future, through discussion, scenarios, and speculations.

Die vorliegende Arbeit entstand in Zusammenhang mit einer schriftlichen postgradualen Masterarbeit mit dem Titel "The Making Of Catastrophe" am Institut für Europäische Urbanistik an der Bauhaus Universität Weimar. Thema der Arbeit ist soziale Verwundbarkeit im Kontext der Katrina-Katastrophe in New Orleans. Warum dieses Thema? Es lässt sich erkennen, dass in der Folge der Katastrophe bestimmte Menschen schwerer betroffen waren und sind als andere. Wie entsteht ein solcher Zustand, und worin liegen die Ursachen? In den Medien wurde ein Bild hauptsächlich armer, schwarzer Menschen gezeichnet, die in einer zerstörten Stadt verzweifelt auf Hilfe warten. Warum waren sie nicht in Sicherheit? Konnten sie die Stadt nicht verlassen? Wo sind sie heute-konnten sie zurückkehren, um die Stadt nach der Katastrophe wieder aufzubauen? Mobilität vor, während und nach der Katastrophe ist ein zentraler Aspekt, um diese Fragen zu beleuchten. Die Beantwortung dieser Fragen dient dazu, die Hypothese zu belegen, dass diese Katastrophe nicht "nur" eine Naturkatastrophe war-sie war eine von Menschenhand geschaffene Katastrophe mit tief liegenden sozialen Gründen.

Taking advantage of ICT tools and techniques for city administration whether it is
for urban planning activities or for transport solutions or many others, is not a
new concept. However in order to a city to be classified as "smart", a synthesis of
intelligence that transcends mere utilization is essential. As part of an ongoing
research, this paper analysed the increasing use of ICT and sensing technologies
in cities by examining this new way of city governing in a critical perspective.
Existing projects and initiatives were investigated to find out to what extend and
how these tools are being employed by cities. The advantages and the current
shortcomings of real-time city also discussed in order to understand viability of
using these tools.

The contribution proposes methodologies and strategies for a conscious and inclusive urban planning. It anticipates some experimental results related to the urban fabric of the city of Udine (Italy). The purpose of the research is to recognize the multiple needs of different categories of users and to offer design strategies for social and sustainable development, allowing the access and use to services “for all”, fairly and without creating diversity. In fact, the word equity differs from equality: the fair project distributes services to a specific type of user in an uneven, but rightly measured way. The proposed approach is based on the Human-Centered Design, where the attention is shifted from the concept of “user” to the concept of “person”, who participates directly in the analysis and in the design processes. The pilot research - carried out on a sector of the city - is divided into two phases: a first quantitative mapping and a second qualitative analysis connected to the participation of users with different abilities and ages. The first phase recognizes the intended use of buildings on the road section and localizes on the cartography ramps and pedestrian crossings while reporting – objectively - the critical issues of urban accessibility. In the second phase, users with kinetic, and vision difficulties have been involved. The participating subjects walk the streets of the designated blocks and - subjectively - signal and evaluate the critical issues and barriers that they encounter. The interpolations of the objective and subjective data acquired lead to the definition of incremental design strategies retraining accessible routes and urban connection through an inclusive urban planning. This should be considered in social, economic, and environmental terms and pursued through universal architectural design strategies, aimed at improving the city, which belongs to everyone.

This paper examines a city and a natural disaster, specifically New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina of August 2005. Recovery here is ongoing and the process of return is incomplete, with long-term dislocation to other cities in the United States, such as Houston, Texas. The question arises as to how planning and stratification influence evacuation and return/dislocation and how they result in a particular practice of adaptation. This interrelated process is conceptually integrated and termed ‘schismo-urbanism’ and is analysed within a multidimensional theoretical framework to evaluate aspects of urban sociology and natural disasters. Empirical research is based on a quantitative and qualitative mixed-method case study. Data were collected during two rounds of field research in New Orleans and Houston in 2007 and 2009. As a comparative sociospatial study of affected and receptor communities, it makes a novel theoretical and methodological contribution to research on urban disasters in the context of continuing and rapid social change, and is targeted at disaster researchers, planning theorists and practitioners, and urbanists.

From the mid-twentieth century the primary drivers for cities were industrialization and globalization, as urban development sought to maximize productivity and access to labour and resources along with connectivity to markets. More recently, these drivers have been augmented and, in some contexts, replaced by those that emphasize people and their environment over profit. As the manifold anthropogenic impacts of cities present increasingly urgent and major global challenges, it is clear we need a new vision for collective life.

This paper therefore examines the development of fast-paced future cities throughout history and, in particular, the dominant technological thrust that characterizes them. As we move further into the twenty-first century, the emergence of new socially engaged visions for future cities that are coupled with environmental concerns suggest a positive shift away from those futures driven primarily technological expectation. We then explore these alternatives by identifying those visions which suggest social futures and global futures. Despite their initial promise, our research has detected an ongoing convergence of visions for future cities rather than radical alternatives. In an era of rapid transformation and global uncertainties it is evident we need to forge new pathways for the design and delivery of habitats for collective life.

We conclude our paper by presenting a prototype of a responsive megastructure. Conceived as a ‘living material eco-system’, this responsive megastructure anticipates and is receptive to fluctuating demands by sharing resources (e.g. material, energy, spatial, financial). We explain how matter can be programmed through ‘tuneable environments’ so various shapes, patterns and structures can be grown. In doing so, we present a new vision for megastructures, where matter can be aggregated and scaled to grow future cities, that can embody the complexities of urban life in heterogeneous contexts around the world and respond to their situation and future challenges.

Dieser Beitrag behandelt die Folgen des Hochwassers 2013 im Fall der süddeutschen Stadt Deggendorf und den dort durch Heizölkontamination belasteten Stadtteile und Siedlungen Fischerdorf und Natternberg. So genannte Jahrhunderthochwasser treten in immer kürzeren Intervallen auf. In Küstenregionen werden sie von Sturmfluten verursacht, im Binnenland lassen hohe Niederschläge Bäche und Flüsse über die Ufer treten: Die Elbeflut 2002, Hurrikan Katrina in New Orleans 2005, Süd-Haiti 2011 und 2013 das Juni-Hochwasser in Deutschland und Tirol..."

Numa era onde um terço da população mundial vive em bairros degradados, as questões da responsabilidade social começam a ganhar novo protagonismo. As questões formais tão enfatizadas pela prática do Star System, começam a ser postas em causa, pois apesar da sua espectacularidade, não se tem debruçado sobre o papel que a arquitectura deve desempenhar na solução dos problemas ambientais, sociais e urbanos da humanidade. As intervenções de Filipe Balestra integram-se numa tendência de recuperação dos valores éticos e sociais da arquitectura, que procura soluções menos espectaculares, mas mais eficientes, no sentido de melhorarem realmente as condições de vida das populações de deve servir.
A participação das populações nos projectos participativos, pressupõem um novo entendimento daquilo que é o papel do arquitecto. Se por um lado o carácter autoral da prática sofre uma perda, por outro lado a participação das populações nos projectos, dá-lhes uma nova riqueza e eficiência.
Procurar-se-á neste artigo descortinar as conquistas que os projectos participativos implicam na prática da Arquitecto. Em que medida que a procura criativa do projecto é limitada pela participação das populações, ou se pelo contrario, essa participação amplia as respostas do formais do Arquitecto.

This paper presents a novel approach for the automatic creation of vegetation scenarios in real or virtual 3D cities in order to simplify the complex design process and time consuming modeling tasks in urban landscape planning. We introduce shape grammars as a practical tool for the rule-based generation
of urban open spaces. The automatically generated designs can be used for pre-visualization, master planning, guided design variation and digital content creation in general (e.g. for the entertainment industry). In a first step, we extend the CGA shape grammar by Müller et al. (2006) with urban planning operations. In a second step, we employ the possibilities of shape grammars to encode design patterns (Alexander et al., 1977). Therefore, we propose several examples of design patterns allowing for an intuitive high-level placement of objects common in urban open spaces (e.g. plants). Furthermore, arbitrary interactions between distinct instances of the vegetation and the urban environment can
be encoded. With the resulting system, the designer can efficiently vegetate landscape and city parks, alleys, gardens, patios and even single buildings by applying the corresponding shape grammar rules. Our results demonstrate the procedural design process on two practical example scenarios, each one covering a different scale and different contexts of planning. The first example illustrates a derivation of the Garden of Versailles and the second example describes the usage of high-level rule sets to generate a suburbia model.

ABSTRACT: In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States of America. A major population centre, the New Orleans Metropolitan area, was affected and
submerged by flood in the wake of the hurricane. Not all citizens evacuated before landfall. All remaining citizens had to be evacuated in the aftermath of the storm. For some,
migration due to Katrina was temporary. Until today, not all have returned, and their
migration may become permanent. This migration is based on mobility in evacuation and return. Both evacuation and return are subject to planning for emergency management and the process of recovery. Who is or is not mobile in disaster and why? Mobility prior, during, and after a disaster serves as an indicator for social vulnerability in connection to failure of institutional planning, response, and recovery. In order to investigate these questions, the
author conducted a questionnaire survey among survivors who have or have not returned to the Lower Ninth Ward, a district of New Orleans. During a site visit between May and July
2007, survivors in both New Orleans and Houston were interviewed. A selection of results is featured in this paper. The intent is to show how planning for evacuation and recovery
influence social vulnerability and indicate a deeply rooted connection between social vulnerability and governmental funding mechanisms. These shed light on the fact that vulnerability and its causes need to be taken into account in emergency management
planning in order to prevent an increase of vulnerability after disaster and under the pending threat of future disasters. The author intends to illustrate his subject in the context of “Temporary and permanent migration due to environmental drivers”.

ABSTRAK-Pembangunan bandar yang berteraskan kecanggihan teknologi seperti U-City (ubiquitous city) adalah semakin menjadi hala tuju penyelesaian masalah bandar di dunia dan di Malaysia. Dalam era pasca-moden, pembanguan U-City juga dipengaruhi di bawah arus global yang menekankan pembangunan mampan/ lestari (sustainable development) yang berasaskan ilmu kolonial dan "one size fits all". Kritikan dikesankan arah pembangunan U-City adalah sekadar terikut-ikut dengan idea mampan sehingga meminggirkan idea mapan (established) yang bersumberkan kearifan lokal nusantara dan ilmu Islam. Maka, kajian ini bertujuan membandingkan kedua-dua sifat mampan dan mapan, justeru mencadangkan suatu kerangka konseptual pembangunan U-City berasaskan sintesis mampan dan mapan. Kajian ini menerapkan kaedah integrative review dan analisis tematik pada literatur yang terkumpul. Penemuan kajian menunjukkan perbezaan antara pembangunan mampan dan mapan dalam U-City dapat dikupaskan dari segi tema motif, sumber ilmu, hakikat ilmu, nilai axiologi dan metode pembangunan. Sumbangan utama kajian ini adalah terbentuknya suatu kerangka konseptual yang menyintesiskan kedua-dua konsep mampan dan mapan dalam pembangunan dan perancangan bandar berteknologi pada masa hadapan.
Kata kunci: Bandar masa hadapan; bandar ubiquitous; pembangunan lestari; pembangunan mapan; perancangan bandar

Deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) methods have recently contributed to the advancement of models in the various aspects of prediction, planning, and uncertainty analysis of smart cities and urban development. This paper presents the state of the art of DL and ML methods used in this realm. Through a novel taxonomy, the advances in model development and new application domains in urban sustainability and smart cities are presented. Findings reveal that five DL and ML methods have been most applied to address the different aspects of smart cities. These are artificial neural networks; support vector machines; decision trees; ensembles, Bayesians, hybrids, and neuro-fuzzy; and deep learning. It is also disclosed that energy, health, and urban transport are the main domains of smart cities that DL and ML methods contributed in to address their problems.

Deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) methods have recently contributed to the advancement of models in the various aspects of prediction, planning, and uncertainty analysis of smart cities and urban development. This paper presents the state of the art of DL and ML methods used in this realm. Through a novel taxonomy, the advances in model development and new application domains in urban sustainability and smart cities are presented. Findings reveal that five DL and ML methods have been most applied to address the different aspects of smart cities. These are artificial neural networks; support vector machines; decision trees; ensembles, Bayesians, hybrids, and neuro-fuzzy; and deep learning. It is also disclosed that energy, health, and urban transport are the main domains of smart cities that DL and ML methods contributed in to address their problems.

Smart urbanism is a currently popular and widespread way of conceptualising the future city. At the same time, the smart city is critiqued by several scholars as difficult to define, and as being almost invisible to the naked eye. The article explores two urban spaces through which the smart city is rendered visible, in two UK cities that are prominent sites for smart urban experimentation and development. Bristol's Data Dome and Glasgow's Operations Centre are analysed in light of their iconic nature. The article develops a conceptual understanding of these flagship spaces of the actually existing smart cities through three interrelated conceptual lenses. Firstly, they are understood as a videological type of Leibniz's concept of the windowless monad. Secondly, they are conceptualised as examples of banal and serialised architecture. Thirdly, these spaces and their attendant buildings are understood as totemic assemblages that point to newly emergent forms of elite urban power.

This research is the investigation into the perspectives of the urban landscape.  The study subject is the development of the city’s structural organization. The systematical approach applied allows tracing the key form generating interconnections in the development of the urban landscape.  Applying the principle of structural analogy the paper examines the general trends of the living space in the scale of the city. The study applies to the range of theories connecting the development of the living space with the growing structural organism likeness, and compares the points of this idea with historical and modern trends in architecture and urban planning.  The research concludes that the theory of the structural organism likeness extends to the perspectives of the urban landscape.

Singapore Challenge 2015: Science of Future Cities Distinguished Award winner (top 4)
Infectious diseases are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality across the world, and there are unique features of life in densely populated cities that make them a particular challenge. They may lead to short or long term illness, with direct healthcare costs and indirect losses in workforce productivity...

Smart urbanism is a currently popular and widespread way of conceptualising the future city. At the same time, the smart city is critiqued by several scholars as difficult to define, and as being almost invisible to the naked eye. The article explores two urban spaces through which the smart city is rendered visible, in two UK cities that are prominent sites for smart urban experimentation and development. Bristol’s Data Dome and Glasgow’s Operations Centre are analysed in light of their iconic nature. The article develops a conceptual understanding of these flagship spaces of the actually existing smart cities through three interrelated conceptual lenses. Firstly, they are understood as a videological type of Leibniz’s concept of the windowless monad. Secondly, they are conceptualised as examples of banal and serialised architecture. Thirdly, these spaces and their attendant buildings are understood as totemic assemblages that point to newly emergent forms of elite urban power.

Increasingly complex social, economic and environmental challenges are testing the adaptation and resilience capacities of cities, communities and institutions around the world, with severe impacts on the well being, livelihood, culture and prosperity of citizens. From extreme weather impacts to housing crises, the Smart Cities framework has emerged as a global panacea for its ability to minimize the interlocking challenges facing urban centres. Whether highly technocratic and top-down (e.g. Seoul and Dubai) or democratized and participatory (e.g. Barcelona and Nunavut communities), many global cities and communities are exploring connected technology, data and innovation opportunities with the goal of improving and transforming the lives and environments of their citizens.

This article demonstrates that while context-relevant digital and data technologies associated with smart cities may be desirable and necessary for communities and cities of the future, the living earth provides a wealth of intelligent, resilient and readily available innovation solutions to urban challenges. The exciting challenge for the flourishing sectors of technology and innovation is to explore how the intelligence and wisdom of natural landscapes and ancient practices can continue to inspire design, technology, and innovation by weaving together with modern digital solutions in intentional and valuable ways that are responsive to the increasing complexity of climate, environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Moreover, how can the multifaceted understanding of and attunement with complex ecosystems at the heart of Indigenous technologies be restored and amplified in urban contexts?

The purpose of this paper is to explore access in relation to new forms of urban data enabled by more aware people and aware technologies in smart cities. Focusing on the constructs of awareness, learning, openness, and engagement, a review of the research literature for data access and universal access in relation to smart cities is provided. As such, a theoretical space for data access is developed as a dimension of the construct of universal access. The research design for this work employs an exploratory case study approach, using multiple methods of data collection including interviews and survey in small to medium to large sized cities, mostly in Canada and extending to cities in other countries. Content analysis is used as an analytic technique for qualitative data to identify insights while descriptive statistics are used in the analysis of quanti-tative data. This work makes a contribution to: a) the research literature for smart cities; b) urban theory by advancing a conceptual framework for ambient access in learning, smart, and future cities; and c) spaces for debate, inquiry, theorizing, and everyday interactions pertaining to urban data in smart cities, regions, and communities.

Discussing the philosophical precepts of the Bionic City, and the potential for building urban resilience to natural hazard events through the mimicry of ecological resilience behaviours, relationships, and systems of flora and fauna species. Find open access link t the article in the 'Publications' section of www.melissasterry.com