Can Resilient Thinking Help Us Future-proof Our Cities

The World’s Population and Cities Are Booming. With More of Us Set to Live in Cities Than Ever Before, What Do We Need to Do to Cope
 

- Bill Banks

By 2050, there will be nearly 10 billion people in the world. Nearly two-thirds of these people will live in cities. By 2100, that figure will jump to 84 percent. The move from rural communities to new urban environments will be one of the greatest human migrations in history, giving rise to conurbations of unimaginable size. By 2030, China alone will have two cities of more than 100 million inhabitants. For context, those cities each will be bigger than all but the 13 largest countries in the world, and more populous than France, Germany and the UK. Preparing and upgrading for these changes will be one of humanity’s major tasks over the coming decades.

The challenges are considerable. Not only do existing cities need expanding, but they need to continue to function smoothly from day to day and become resilient enough to withstand all the shocks the future will bring. This could include anything from the arrival of revolutionary new technologies to the physical impacts of natural disasters to the pressures from trends like demographic change. To help smooth this transition to a more urbanised world, EY is collaborating with the 100 Resilient Cities Initiative, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.

“Cities around the world are growing at an unprecedented pace,” says George Atalla, my colleague at EY who heads the Global Government & Public Sector team. “Technology is crucial for connecting disparate urban systems, but technology alone cannot solve the social, environmental and logistical issues that growing cities face. The future is in the hands of those governments, businesses and entrepreneurs who will work together to create citizen-centric, resilient cities.”

MEGACITIES MEAN MEGA-CHALLENGES