Cities

WHAT'S NEXT?: Smart cities are the talk of the town right now and so they should be to cope when over 60% of us will live in cities by 2030. E-bikes, Driverless- connected vehicles, buildings that talk to each other will help but many cities are susceptible to climate change and pandemics. Explore the issues faced by cities and the new ideas that will change the way urban dwellers live in the 21st century.

[New] New housing projects in emerging economies are expected to provide new opportunities for construction globally, with around 270 million new homes needed in China and India alone by 2025 to meet the needs of growing population growth and urbanization trends.
[New] With 70 percent of the world's population expected to live in cities by 2050, cities are at the forefront of sustainable thought and need to be resilient.
[New] After some delay, Bristol recently approved its plan, which will not charge private cars but will ban all diesel vehicles in the city centre from 2021, and York has recently decided to ban all private cars from its city centre by 2023.
[New] Nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be by cities, about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 10 years.
[New] Travel restrictions could cost US $ 10 billion in Chinese visitor spending: Travel restrictions related to the novel coronavirus from China could impact city and state economies across the United States.
[New] By 2024, one-third of all Smart Cities use cases will be impacted by 5G, and 75% of large cities will use 5G to scale key services such as real-time crime centers, V2I connectivity, and smart stadiums.
[New] Rome has announced plans to ban diesel vehicles from the city center by 2024, and Milan by 2030.
[New] The recent trends and future prospects in livestock production in Myanmar are fueled by an increasing demand for livestock products, driven largely by human population growth, income growth, and urbanization, which will continue for the next three decades at least.
Smart cities are more than a trend as the world is becoming more urban with 60% of the population expected to live in cities by 2050.
Taken together, investing in low-carbon transport in cities could yield economic returns of over US$ 33 trillion by 2050, reduce carbon emissions by 3.29 GtCO2 - e by 2050, and save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, while making cities more pleasant and liveable.
Analysis from 2018 predicted that Delhi along with 20 other major cities would run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting access for 100 million people.
Virtually all of the expected growth in the world population will be concentrated in cities of developing countries whose population is projected to increase from 2.7 billion in 2011 to 5.1 billion in 2050.
China is investing heavily in pan-nation smart cities and aims to develop more than 50 percent of smart city projects in tier 2 and 3 cities by 2025.
The UAE government plans to make Dubai the smartest city in the world by 2021, from smart transportation to smart housing to smart government.
The British economy would benefit to the tune of £34bn a year by 2030 if the local economies of towns and cities were to realise their full entrepreneurial potential over the next decade.
By way of example, Bristol City Council has already proposed a ban on all diesel vehicles within its city centre, and will raise a congestion charge from 2021.
Aiming to reduce congestion in cities, the flying Uber is expected to start service in three years' time in Los Angeles, Dallas and Melbourne.
The United Nations has predicted that the level of urbanization in Asia is close to 50 percent in 2018, with India projected to add about 416 million dwellers and China and Nigeria projected to add about 255 million and 189 million urban dwellers by 2050.
Urbanization will be the single most important transformation that the African continent will undergo this century, with over half of the population set to live in cities by 2040.
Energy demand is expected to grow even further - by over 25% by 2040-driven by population growth, increasing incomes and urbanization: in developing economies, 1.7 billion people are expected to move to urban areas in the next two decades.
Elon Musk revealed new details about his plan to build a city of 1 million people on Mars by 2050.
With the world's urban population projected to double between now and 2050, it is crucial to ensure that cities are built and run in a way that maximises access to opportunities without increasing carbon emissions, pollution, and congestion.

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Last updated: 15 February 2020