Sustainable cities of future
Possibilities for Action
Our Cities, Our Homes
• Cities are a hub of activity, transition and living.
• cities are now home to more than half of the
world’s population and by the year 2020
estimated to reach 80% of the total population
• Today cities account for more than 80% of the
world’s greenhouse gas emissions and the cost of
adaptation to climate change estimated around
80-100 billion per year
• Have we already passed the earth’s regenerative
capacity?
Population growth-by regions
Are our cities too crowded?
Alert!?
• Rise in co2 causes increase in temperature, ELECTIRICY GRID,
CLIMATE CHANGE, SEA LEVEL RISE, STORMS AND
CYCLONS,MASSIVE LOSSES IN VEGITATION AND extinctions of
EXOTIC SPECIES. .
• THE PRESENT TRAJECTORY IS NOT SUSTAINABLE and has
caused:
• strain on the already struggling infrastructure
including road, rail, telecoms, electricity and
water infrastructure.
We need transition,…!
Challenges,..
• (OECD) estimates $71 trillion, or about 3.5 percent of the
global GDP, is needed through 2030 to improve the basic
infrastructure of the cities including road, rail, telecoms,
electricity and water infrastructure
• Innovations to rebuild new structures, tools and buildings.
This must start now or must have started already;
• Urban development: either by piecemeal replacement of old
with new structures or more costly options of complete
overhauls
Shift in paradigm
• MAJOR CHALLENGE FOR THIS CENTURY IS TO WIND BACK ON
CONSUMPTION RAPIDLY and to rejuvenate and recycle
• Is creating giant economies with citizens who buy, sell and
consume desirable or sustainable?
• SHIFT TO RENEWAL REQUIRES A CHANGE OF BEHAVIOR.
WIND FARMs AND SOLAR COLLECTORS are more space
consuming
• We must reject views of “more consumers are the better off
citizens” and find alternative ways of promoting sustainable
human and economic development.
• Behavioral transitions to understand the difference between
“livability” and “sustainability” are needed
Option 1-Better cities
Problems associated with Op 1
• Choosing Option 1, such as:
• Songdo in South Korea or Masdar City in Abu
Dhabi, require pre-planning, investments and
time. These are purpose-built urban areas,
designed to attract businesses and residents
with a master plan that uses IT systems to
deliver world-class services
Better cities,….option 2
Wuxi and San Francisco
Selection criteria
• How the selection was made?
How much can be done to make a
present city more sustainable?
To face the multitude of challenges arising from
urbanization and demographic change,
existing cities should look at ways to improve
the efficiency of their infrastructures:
• Power generation and distribution
• Sustainable transportation
• Sustainable healthcare infrastructure
• Information technologies
movie
Challenges for sustainable cities
• Massive investment in public infrastructure including
transport, water, sanitation, health and education services
• Food security and safety beyond industrial agriculture and
innovative waste management
• resource management at the center of all policy making
• transformation of urban centers into efficient, sustainable
cities by integrated water system, green economy, reuse and
smart grid infrastructure and fast urban transportation
systems
• devising efficient waste disposal systems, energy efficient
buildings, water conservation and reuse, public safety
Challenges,..
• reducing traffic congestion, implementing alternative
fuel technologies, promoting electric vehicles,
devising efficient waste disposal systems, energy
efficient buildings, water conservation and reuse,
public safety
• systems and healthcare imaging and diagnostics.
• Promoting super high-way connectivity systems
,
Challenges,…
Promoting sustainable energy by highly efficient use of
combined gas and steam turbines, solar power plants and
wind turbines.
technologies are already creating:
• Hyperefficient buildings that are intelligently controlled to
maximize comfort and energy use.
• Intelligent cities that can, among other things, reduce emission
and enhance safety of residents through smarter
management of resources from parking to lighting.
• Platooning technologies that let (autonomous) vehicles travel
in close range and at high speeds, eliminate traffic jams and
make unproductive work commutes a thing of the past.
Who will pay for it?
• Causing 80% of co2, the urban cities have to
shoulder the costs of transition to sustainability
• Growing realizations for the public-private
partnerships to transit cities to sustainable
infrastructure development
• Examples: NY City Plan 2030 calls for a
comprehensive infrastructure development and
reducing GHG emissions; India with expected
urban population of 590 million in 2030,
encouraged private investments of $81.4 billion;
'Non-Cities’ what to do with slums
in future?
“Non-City” Slums
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More than one billion people live in slums today
This is equivalent to one –third of global inhabitants
Unless urgent actions taken more than 1.4 billion will live in slums by 2020
China and India together have lifted 125 m out of slums to date.
What to do with,..?
• Slums and sub-urban cities and towns
Deprived and in need of help..
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Shortage of food
Shortage of basic sanitations
Shortage of investments
Malnutrition and disease
• Poverty and lack of access to education
• Massive shortage of housing
• This is the true challenge of the future. The planet can not
remain sustainable without tackling the slum dwellers issues