Future cities and environmental sustainability

Abstract

Massive growth is threatening the sustainability of cities and the quality of city life. Mass urbanisation can lead to social instability, undermining the capacity of cities to be environmentally sustainable and economically successful. A new model of sustainability is needed, including greater incentives to save energy, reduce consumption and protect the environment while also increasing levels of citizen wellbeing. Cities of the future should be a socially diverse environment where economic and social activities overlap and where communities are focused around neighbourhoods. They must be developed or adapted to enable their citizens to be socioeconomically creative and productive. Recent developments provide hope that such challenges can be tackled. This review describes the exciting innovations already being introduced in cities as well as those which could become reality in the near future.

The impact of technological innovation on building a sustainable city

“…This includes developing urban agglomeration as engines of creativity and technological innovation; exploiting technological opportunities and developing a sustainable urban system; laying the foundation for social cohesion and social capital; and developing ecological footprint and improve climate neutrality of urban areas. Future urban configurations should concentrate on the efficient use of resources and opportunities in contributing to economic growth; deploying infrastructure, physical assets, and amenities; providing social services; minimising poverty, inequalities, and segments of the population; and protecting the environment and preserving natural assets [70].…”

Exploring the Phenomenon of Zero Waste and Future Cities

“…However, this progress is also associated with negative environmental consequences, including waste related issues [22]. The confluence of globalisation, megacities and waste management provides a lens into anthropogenic dysfunction and crisis [87].…”

“…It appears likely future cites (including and especially African and Asian megacities [32,[87][88][89][90]) will be a critical focal point for addressing the challenges associated with population growth, globalisation, climate change and sustainable development. Conversely, cities will remain the prime locus, where negative consequences manifest and further undermine environmental sustainability, social and economic stability and wellbeing [22,32,87]. Illustrating the problem-solution dichotomy of future cities, the triangulation of "city, people, planet" is also cited as providing a hotbed of waste related liveable city innovation [9].…”

Revisiting urban air quality forecasting: a regression approach

“…In a recently published paper [1] we underlined the importance of air quality (AQ) forecasting in urban environmental management as well as in contemporary smart city development [2,3]. In the current paper we revisit and extend our initial approach, focusing on urban AQ forecasting from the regression point of view and incorporating an ensemble modelling approach.…”

“…(1) and (2). The geographic areas of interest are the Gdańsk Metropolitan Area (GMA) in Poland and the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area (TMA) in Greece, and the parameter of interest is the daily concentration of Particulate Matter with a mean aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm (PM 10 ), approx.…”