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] Increased adoption of automation will play a crucial role in boosting the global smart cities market to USD 1.7 trillion by 2023.
[New] Driven by increased urbanization and growing world population, the global market for Smart Cities is expected to reach US $ 1.2 trillion by the end of 2020.
[New] Tokyo is expected to be the largest city in the world in terms of population, followed by Delhi and Shanghai.
[New] The Cedar Hills landfill serves all but two cities in King County - Seattle and Milton - and could reach capacity as soon as 2025.
Globally there will be twice as many vehicles on the road by 2050 - with nearly all of the projected growth taking place in developing countries, where air pollution is already a major challenge in many cities.
Momentum is gathering around the world for cities to develop plans to manage air pollution through the banning of petrol and diesel cars.
China is turning its cities into large-scale pilots for 5G-enabled smart cities at a pace that will allow China to set de facto standards.
In a few years, human dietary needs will reach unprecedented proportions in history (nearly nine billion people on Earth in the next 50 years living more and more in cities).
By 2020, Shanghai, the largest city will have quadrupled in size to 24 million over a half century, while Beijing will have grown by three times to 20 million.
Cities which will deploy smart mobility applications are expected to reduce commuting time by 15-20% by 2025, which shows the benefits of smart cities applications and motivates the governments to adopt it.
City of Edinburgh Council is the 6th largest landlord in Scotland, providing affordable housing to nearly 20,000 tenants, and has a plan to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes by 2027.
Population growth in cities like Berlin is now driven almost exclusively by citizens of other countries, including large numbers of Syrian newcomers: Many of the new arrivals are expected to stay in Germany long term.
Sub-Saharan Africa faces multi-dimensional security risks in the 21st century, such as rapid population growth and urbanization, ethnic tensions, environmental degradation, and climate change.
By 2050, over two-thirds of the global population will be urban, challenging cities to meet accelerating demand for affordable housing, well-connected transport systems and other infrastructure and services, as well as jobs.
Mayors have pledged that new buildings in 19 cities, including London, Los Angeles, New York City, Tokyo, Paris and Sydney, will have zero emissions by 2030, with existing buildings becoming zero by 2050.
Ukrainian cities have established a goal of shifting to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, in a bid to address climate change and increase energy independence.
62% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is under the age of 25, by 2030 the population will be around 1.65 million, and by 2050 it will have doubled from today to around 2.1 billion, with some 900 million living in cities.
With almost 70% of the world's population estimated to be living in cities by 2050, mainly in Africa and Asia, environmental impacts of urbanisation could worsen without solutions.
New York remains the biggest city in the US and worldwide, and notably its growth of 1.8 percent in 2020-21 is expected to match the rate seen over the 2015-2019 period.
76 of the top 98 North American cities will see slower GDP growth in 2020-21 than in 2015-19; 156 of the top 232 European cities will do so; and no less than 146 of the 150 mainland Chinese cities, as well as 122 of the 185 non-Chinese Asian cities.
The present slowdown in the global economy will persist into next year and it is already having a significant impact on growth in the world's major cities and their prospects.
Driven by burgeoning urban populations and rapid labour productivity growth, 17 Chinese cities are expected to rank in the world's top 50 by 2030, which is more than North America and four times more than Europe.
Major cities, such as Shanghai, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City, are likely to find themselves under water by 2050 as sea levels rise more quickly than previously expected.

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Last updated: 18 January 2020