The UN estimates that 55% of the global population lives in urban areas – a figure that is projected to ascension to 68% past 2050. With few exceptions, cities are expected to go bigger and more numerous.

As urbanization speeds up, especially in Asian and African countries, here are five of the biggest challenges confronting the time to come of cities:

i. Ecology threats

Rapid urbanization, which strains bones infrastructure, coupled with more frequent and extreme weather events linked to global climate change is exacerbating the impact of environmental threats. Mutual ecology threats include flooding, tropical cyclones (to which coastal cities are particularly vulnerable), heat waves and epidemics.

Attributable to the physical and population density of cities, such threats often outcome in both devastating financial loss and deaths. Making cities more resilient against these ecology threats is one of the biggest challenges faced past city authorities and requires urgent attention.

two. Resources

Cities need resources such every bit water, food and free energy to be viable. Urban sprawl reduces bachelor water catchment areas, agronomical lands and increases demand for energy. While better application of engineering science can heave agricultural productivity and ensure more efficient manual of electricity, many cities will continue to struggle to provide these resources to an ever-growing urban population.

Beyond these basic requirements, haphazard growth will see the reduction of green spaces within cities, negatively affecting liveability. As fresh h2o becomes scarce and fertile lands diminish, food prices may escalate, striking the poorest hardest.

3. Inequality

When it comes to both the provision of basic resource and resilience against ecology threats, the forecast is uneven for dissimilar groups of urban inhabitants. As the number of urban super-rich grows, many cities volition likewise see increased numbers of urban poor.

The widening gap between the haves and have-nots will exist accentuated in the megacities of the future. Such inequalities, when left unchecked, will destabilize club and upend any benefits of urban development. There is a critical need for policy-makers to ensure that the fruits of progress are shared equitably.

4. Technology

Engineering will be increasingly used in the evolution and running of cities of the future. Smart planning used in Singapore tin harness solar energy for use in housing estates and create human being-made wetlands for ecological balance. Smart mobility technology can alleviate traffic gridlocks which plague many cities.

The employ of environmental technologies which can cool buildings more efficiently or run vehicles that are less polluting volition besides atomic number 82 to better future cities. Installing sensors in the homes of ageing seniors living alone can connect them to the customs and summon help when they are unwell or injure.

All the same, technology tin exclude urban inhabitants who cannot beget it or lack the capability required for its adoption. As future cities become more digitized, care must be exercised to forestall the emergence of a new class of social divide rooted in the technological.

5. Governance

Future cities offering immense possibilities to enrich the lives of their inhabitants fifty-fifty as the challenges are stark. To make the best out of inevitable urbanization, good governance is imperative. Cities volition increment in size and their populations become more diverse. Governing these cities will, therefore, be progressively complex and require the most defended of minds.

Seoul, capital letter of South Korea

Prototype: Harvey Neo

Increasingly, cities around the globe are learning nigh the best governance and planning practices from one another, even equally they remain accountable to their respective national governments. The broad goals of urban governance should address problems of disinterestedness, liveability and sustainability in cities of the future.