Urbanization

Man in a skyscraper with view of the skyline | © istockphoto.com/nikada

Major megatrends shaping today's world include demographic change, urbanization, globalization and energy change. These megatrends are interdependent and likely to only reveal their ultimate effects over a period of decades.

For the first time in history more of us live in cities than do in rural areas. According to the United Nations, the global population will exceed 9 billion by 2050; with more than 6 billion - or almost 70 percent of the world population - living in cities and urban conurbations.

More and more so-called "megacities" (typically defined as a metropolitan area with a total population of more than 10 million people) are springing up across the world. Where there were less than a handful of megacities in the mid-1970s (New York, Mexico City and Tokyo), today there are more than 20 ten-million plus megacities.

Cities are not only more productive than rural communities; they are also the recognized growth motors of the global economy. Urban centers occupy less than two percent of the planet’s surface, but provide homes to half of the world population and generate 70 percent of global GDP. Almost 50 percent of global GDP is generated by just 150 metropolitan regions.

ICT advances are allowing cities to press home their productivity advantage even more. But cities also account for around 75 percent of global energy demand – and more than 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Urbanization also brings with it real challenges for water and energy supply, mobility and traffic infrastructure, education, health and personal safety.

Radical patterns of economic migration, increased population density and even the growth of so-called “edge cities” (major outer-city center agglomerations which share the same characteristics of the megacities they are springing up around) as a wider effect of urbanization paradoxically provide a rich opportunity to turn the pressing energy and climate change tides.

Smart solutions developed in Germany are providing innovative answers to the challenges created by urbanization.

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