Running head: FUTURE CITY

The City of the Future

Student Name
Institution Name
FUTURE CITY 2

The City of the Future

Cities have been the core of human development and technological progression. The number of
people living in cities has steadily increased over the years. According to the United Nations
(2014), the number is likely to rise to 66% by 2050. However, considering the problems
associated with cities, discussions have emerged on how the future cities should look. Currently,
cities are associated with high pollution rates, insufficient accommodation, congestion, and food
shortage. Although the current cities are unsustainable, the application of technology and
advanced planning methodologies will make the future cities self-sustaining.
According to Riffat, Powell, and Aydin (2016), future cities must address the shortcoming
exhibited by the current urban centers. Particularly, the issue of eradicating environmental
pollution through sourcing for alternative sources of energy. With environmentalists arguing that
the utilization of carbon fuels for energy purposes is the leading cause of environmental
degradation in cities, the future cities are likely to use new sources of energy. As Riffat, Powell,
and Aydain (2016) elaborate, future cities are likely to use renewable sources of energy. In this
respect, the construction of low energy building fitted with photovoltaic materials will be a
common practice. The photovoltaic materials will enable the city buildings to harshness solar
power for their energy purposes. The construction of solar power generating buildings will
control air pollution and global warming by restricting the use of carbon fuels. Currently, an
ideal example of energy generating structure is the zero carbon building in Hong
Kong[ CITATION Rif16 \l 1033 ].
Additionally, future cities will utilize zero-emission and self-driving vehicles. According to
Sachs, Schmidt-Traub, and Williams (2016), these modern types of automobiles will
significantly reduce the amount of carbon emission and traffic congestion in cities. Although the
current scientific studies on zero-emission automobiles focus on electric cars, there are growing
interests in producing solar-powered vehicles for future cities.
With the United Nations projecting that the number of people living in the urban centers is likely
to increase, the future cities must devise ways of availing sufficient food to the growing
population. Presently, cities rely on food supplies from the rural areas. However, the future
cities will apply the vertical farming methodology for food production. According to Riffat,
Powell, and Aydin (2016), vertical farming will ensure that the cities have adequate food
resources despite having limited land. Furthermore, the growing city population is beneficial for
economic reasons. The increasing urban population indicates that the future cities will have an
adequate labor force to drive production and economic development. This growth in the
workforce will exterminate the current labor shortage in the main cities.
Apart from enhancing environmental sustainability and self-reliance, the future cities will also
improve the well-being of its inhabitants. According to Batty et al. (2012), the sustainability of a
city is determined by the way its resources and infrastructure are managed. In this view, the
future cities will adopt the smart-city concept. The smart city concept will facilitate efficient
utilization and management of city resources through the utilization of information and
communication technology.
Conclusively, the future cities will be an upgrade of the present ones. These cities will employ
advanced management technologies and renewable energy sources. Furthermore, they will have
increased economic production and efficient environmental management strategies.
FUTURE CITY 3

References
Batty, M., Axhausen, K. W., Giannotti, F., Pozdnoukhov, A., Bazzani, A., Wachowicz, M., . . .
Portugali, Y. (2012). Smart cities of the future. The European Physical Journal Special
Topics, 214(1), 481-518.
Riffat, S., Powell, R., & Aydin, D. (2016). Future cities and environmental sustainability. Future
Cities and Environment, 2(1), 1-23.
Sachs, J. D., Schmidt-Traub, G., & Williams, J. (2016). Pathways to zero emissions. Nature
Geoscience, 9(11), 799-801.
United Nations. (2014, July 10). World’s population increasingly urban with more than half
living in urban areas. Retrieved from The United Nations:
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-
2014.html