Modern technologies are enabling fully autonomous, self-aware city systems to improve and prosper without the need for human intervention.
This emerging form of infrastructure is capable of efficiently harnessing energy, growing food, monitoring operations and taking appropriate actions to make repairs that ensure the safe and continuous operation of environmentally conscious cities.
Innovators
Community innovators leveraging design, technology, art and building for urban planning solutions:
Featured Profile
Implications
- Location-independent, self-sustaining cities make use of uninhabitable areas and increase livable space across the globe.
- Closed-loop living systems reduce the exchange of resources necessary to maintain upkeep of communities, increasing efficiencies in energy and product consumption.
- By addressing basic needs, regenerative temporary housing solutions reintroduce comfort, safety and dignity to individuals displaced by disaster or tragedy.
860 billion people live in slums without proper access to safe water, power and sanitation, or security.
Global Goals, It’s About Us, 2015
1.1 billion connected things were used by smart cities in 2015, rising to 9.7 billion by 2020.
Smart Cities Will Include 10 Billion Things by 2020, Gartner, 2015
65.3 million people around the world have been forced from their homes in 2016. Among them are nearly 21.3 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.
Figures At A Glance, UNHCR, 2016
4% Is the percent of US businesses with 20 or more employees using marketing automation software.
Buyers And Users Marketing Automation Survey, VentureBeat, 2014
54% of the world’s population live in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66% by 2050.
World Urbanization Prospects, UN DESA’s Population Division, 2014
30% Is the the fuel efficiency improvement driverless cars can make in the US due to smoother traffic flows and less accident-related congestion.
Monetizing the rise of Autonomous Vehicles, Goldman Sachs, 2015
Examples
Additional global thought-leaders and organizations are creating new technologies and services to expand access for all.
ReGen Villages
Self-sustained neighborhood will grow its own food, power itself, and hand its own waste providing a proof of concept for inhabiting previously inhospitable areas
Humanihut
Modular shelter solution helps people in need
SOM
Off-the-grid 3D printed home tests new construction and energy conservation techniques
Mobisol
Solar panel manufacturer creates drone charging network to deliver supplies