Watch this space for additional material related to the Bellagio Summit.
Citistates column on Summit – “A Freeway-Free Future for World Cities?”
Mahim Maher column on Summit – “Planned Urbanisation: Can Rowdy Cities Like Karachi Be Tamed?”
Presentations and Reports:
- Nicholas You – Water
- Enrique Penalosa – Transportation
- Genie Birch – Energy
- Peter Calthorpe – City Building in China
- Peter Calthorpe – Report: California 2020
Rapid urbanization and population growth is occurring not just in the world’s megacities, but in metropolitan areas of all sizes, and in particular in the Global South. All of these cities will need inventive and resourceful ways to prepare and counter the potential strain on infrastructure and resources. We meet at Bellagio to address these challenges and define strategies for solutions.
At the Bellagio Summit, participants considered the challenges to creating prosperous, opportunity-rich, sustainable cities through the lens of four critical building blocks for competitive cities: transportation, water, energy, and public space. These topics were the initial focus of our discussions, but they were considered against the following powerful trends:
Demographics reign: the total population of the world’s cities is projected to expand from today’s 3.6 billion to 6.3 billion, two-thirds of the globe’s people in 2050, in spurts across the world but most rapidly in Southeast Asia, Africa, India and China. And virtually everywhere it’s occurring, the rapid urbanization isn’t just found in so-called “megacities” but cities and metro areas of all sizes.
Metropolitan regions have become the world’s most important economic unit
Green is good — sustainability agendas are critical for the century.
The disparity between haves and have-nots is increasing in cities across the world.
Transparency and tolerance attract capital.
Technology, expanding at phenomenal speed, will continue to drive change.
New leadership on urban research and policies will come from the Global South.
The knowledge sector will grow constantly in importance.
Effective governance and partnerships will be the keys to success.