Future Cities: All That Matters

All That Matters

by Camilla Ween

In Future All that Matters Camilla Ween will outline the challenges of meeting the anticipated growth of world cities over the next few decades. By 2030 it is predicted that between 80-90 % of the world's population will be living in cities, in several countries this will be 100%; Singapore is already classified as having a 100% urban population. There will be many cities with populations of over 20 million. The infrastructure required to support these cities will be a massive challenge for city planners and governments. Never in the history of civilisation has the need to deliver so much been so urgent - and with dwindling world resources.

Tackling the challenges will be further complicated by pressure to develop solutions that are sustainable and include climate change mitigation measures. Some advocate geo-engineering - the large-scale engineering and manipulation of the world's environment e.g. ocean fertilisation to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, as the answer to tackling climate change. Others see this as a doomsday scenario and believe the solution lies in behaviour adaptation, changing the way we live and making do with less.

Despite the difficulties, the book will chart how some cities are already tackling the problems, policies that are emerging to meet these challenges and will highlight innovations that are currently being explored.

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2013

Reviews

[Mark Major · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stay tuned for the review on The Outlaw Urbanist (www.outlaw-urbanist.com).

[Caleb Liu · Rating 2 out of 5]

By 2050 over 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities. Creating sustainable and liveable urban areas is thus one of the great challenges of our time. This book is a very general introduction and does manage to highlight some of the key challenges cities will face. However it is overly ideological, and focuses far more on outlining the problems particularly environmental ones rather than the solutions.

(Full Review to Follow)