FUTURE URBAN DEVELOPMENT - Not just catching up
Peter Nelson
Economist and Fellow Chartered Accountant, as an International Financial Consultant have carried out assignments for all major international donors in many countries.
Following on from my recent book, URBAN DEVELOPMENT 2120, this latest work focuses not just on what people will expect for their environment in 100 years time but now looks at whether urban infrastructure development will, with an expanding population, ever be able to catch up. This is a bit of reverse engineering but could, in the long run, save a lot of money. For example, despite automatic cars having a few problems, they will soon be the norm and it will be cheaper to call an Uber auto car when you want to go somewhere rather than owning a car. Consequently fewer cars. So why build more and more standard roads? This gets down to having systems which can determine what people really want rather than what they think they want.
Take another issue in regard to the in word, Climate Change. The use of alternative power generation is all the rage and this is based on batteries but while these may get better, they raise a whole new problem with the disposal of used batteries so should not planning be already going beyond these to something more sustainable?
And whether people like to face the issue or not, with a projected 15 BILLION population within 100 years, and lost jobs for the masses (see my UBI and the Threat to Democracy as we know it), a major threat is the likely reaction of a majority of "deprived" population and whether they will accept this or mount their caravans to head towards those they see as better off?
Catch up does not seem to be the way to plan future urban infrastructure development and the thinking should perhaps be in a better direction.