What can we expect from our urban future?

In the next future pressing environmental issues will force

us to reduce Co2 emissions

• The mobility model we have today won't work tomorrow

• Providing clean energy for such a fastly growing population is impossible. What's the solution?

By 2050, 8 billion people will live in cities or in a day travel distance

Future cities will cut energy consumption opting for sustainable design solutions.

Passive design takes advantage of daylight, breeze and sunshine to

provide light, heat and cool buildings.

In dispersed cities we are more dependent on transports. As the

cost of providing public transport is higher, cars are dominant.

Dense, mixed use neighborhoods reduce significantly the carbon

footprint.

Green infrastructure use vegetation, soils, and natural processes to

manage water and create healthier urban spaces. They connect us to the

environment and allow soil and carbon sequestration.

Sustainable materials will be used more and more. They

are environmental-friendly over their whole life cycle,

from the extraction until the final disposal.

What' s the way to a viable mobility?

Car dependency will be replaced by integrated

systems that use real time data to optimize personal

mobility on a massive scale. Similar systems have been devised for Curitiba and

Masdar City.

The key to susteinability is

parametric design

Computational processes (e.g. genetic algorithms) can

associate the architectural properties of more elements of a

design. Applied to urban planning, parametric design

allows to connect the city with the environment.

Technology will also ease the transit from the current comsuption model to a collaborative one. The surplus capacity will be turned into

shared facilities.

Is this what we should expect?

Truth is we risk to have two worlds in one..

By 2030, 2 billion people will be squatters.

These people are going out of poverty as fast as they can, upgrading the slums

they live in.

What this implies is that, in order to achieve social

integration, regenerating will be prefered to

rebuilding.

According to Un-Habitat City Prosperity Index, prosperity comes from the balance of more dimentions...

• Productivity

• Quality of life

• Infrastructure development

• Environmental sustainability

• Equity and social inclusion

Capital investment, formal/informal employment, inflation, trade, savings, export/import, household income/consumption Education, health, safety, social capital, public space Infrastructure (connection to services, waste management, knowledge/health/transport infrastructure), housing (building materials, living space) Air quality, Co2 emissions, energy and indoor pollution Inequality of income/consumption, social/gender inequality of access to services and infrastructure

DIMENTIONS Variables

WE CAN'T FORESEE FUTURE...BUT IT IS OUR DUTY TO DRIVE THE CHANGE

IN THE DIRECTION OF A SHARED PROSPERITY IN WORLDWIDE CITIES.

UN-HABITAT is the lead United Nations agency responsible for

promoting socially and environmentally sustainable

human settlements development and the achievement of adequate

shelter for all.

The Enhanced Normative and Operational Framework:

• Effective advocacy, monitoring and partnerships

• Participatory planning, management and governance

• Access to land and housing for all

• Environmentally sound basic urban infrastructure

• Strengthened human settlements finance systems

"There is a sense of great opportunity and hope that a

new world can be built" (Habitat Agenda)