Future Cities

    Our planet Earth has a population of 7 billion people and is showing no signs of slowing down. The urbanization of our planet is certain. At smartgrowth.org they list several suggestions about what we can do to prepare ourselves for the future of urbanization. First they suggest that we start producing goods within our cities. It will provide jobs and goods within the cities. They suggest it has helped revitalize the city of Baltimore. Another suggestion, also displayed in the Ted talks video, is vertical farming. We can integrate farms with our buildings in order to keep our cities sustainable. Next is transportation. It suggests that there is a higher demand for public transportation and that private car travel becomes more regulated. With the research going into automatic driving, it also claims that auto-drive could make private car travel more efficient. We also need to look into alternative resources. We need to capitalize on the types of energy we can capture within our cities. For example, integrating solar energy with housing and buildings in Arizona can reduce the need of fossil fuels.  

Sources:

http://www.smartgrowth.org/nationalconversation/compendium/10_Philipsen_The_Future_of_Cities_020713.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1979605

http://eus.sagepub.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content/42/6/674.full.pdf+html

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2013/03/14/census-phoenix-area-population-tops.html

Author:

Justin Sanchez