Question L: How do you envision the future of the city?

1. Question L: How do you envision
the city of the future
IE Business School Application
Alexander Remy
29th of January 2017

2. Overview
1 Introduction 3
2 The garden city principle 4
3 The smart city principle 5
4 Leveraging big data 6
5 The smart garden city 7
6 Conclusion 10

3. Status Quo
● At the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos,
climate change and an increasing global
population were identified as key challenges
● Over the past 150 years, we have endangered
the balance of our planet by living beyond our
means and must reverse those effects now:
we have significantly damaged our forests,
water systems, oceans and polar regions
● Just over 50% of the global population live in
urban areas, a number which will increase to
more than 60% by 2030
● Buildings produce one-third of global
greenhouse gas emissions while also offering
the greatest potential for CO2-reductions
World-scale challenges require a transformation of our
cities toward increased efficiencies and sustainability
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 31. Introduction
Source: WWF, World Economic Forum.
Goals
● The “city of the future” needs to tackle two
challenges simultaneously:
1. Providing an efficient living space for the
world‘s increasing population in both rural
and urban areas
2. Reversing the devastating effects of
climate change
● Goals as such would be to:
 Implement urban planning strategies like “the
garden city principle”, in which people live
harmoniously together with nature
 Employ state-of-the art technology (smart
building, smart mobility, smart energy etc.) and
leverage opportunities from big data and smart
analytics to make our cities more efficient and
sustainable.

4. The garden city serves as a pioneer for the “city of the
future”: Efficient transportation network and a greenbelt
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 42. The garden city principle
Explanation
● The garden city, an idea first introduced by Sir
Ebenezer Howard, consists primarily of green
spaces and incorporates the sustainable
principles, which will be featured in the “city of
the future”
● Due to future mass immigration from rural areas
to urban centres, sprawling1 of “the future city”
will be prevented by the use of a greenbelt2,
which manages the city‘s growth, minimises
pollution and preserves rural life
● An extensive transportation network2, which
connects the “central city” with “suburban
centres” is essential to secure efficient mobility
and the success of the planning strategy
● To accommodate an increasing population, the
“city of the future” will be comprised of
skyscrapers3 with green, open spaces.
Illustrations
1. Sprawling Los Angeles 2. Garden city: transport & greenbelt
3. Futuristic vision of Naples: residential housing
Source: UCL (University College London)

5. A smart city enhances sustainability and increases
efficiencies with the use modern technologies
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 53. The smart city principle
Explanation
● Another feature of the “city of the future” is the idea
of a smart city that uses modern technology
– sensor systems, real-time big data analysis – to
increase efficiencies and reduce waste/emissions
● For a city to be considered “smart” it has to incor-
porate at least five of the following eight
components:
1. Smart Healthcare: Digital health monitoring
2. Smart Building: Intelligent buildings with
advanced lighting and security
3. Smart Mobility: Advanced traffic/parking mgmt.
4. Smart Infrastructure: Digital water/waste mgmt.
5. Smart Technology: High-speed connectivity
6. Smart Energy: Digital energy mgmt.
7. Smart Citizen: People who are proactive in
adopting smart concepts and products
8. Smart Governance & Education: eGovernance
Source: Frost & Sullivan
The smart diamond to define a “smart city”

6. Applying big data technologies to cities enhances
efficiency, reduces costs and raises peoples’ comfort
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 64. Leveraging Big Data
Smart Cities: Turning Big Data into insight
● To transform our cities into smart cities we need to promote the digitalisation of our urban
environments and leverage the benefits from big data and smart analytics
● Plenty of information is available, we need to sort it and use the valuable data for our assessments
● The reason why we have to act now and how we can use big data to help us:
Source: IBM, McKinsey
City Planning & Operations Transportation Analytics
Water Management
● € 900 billion in global annual savings
could be attained by optimising public
infrastructure
● € 53 trillion in infrastructure
investments will be needed between
2013-2030
● € 13 billion in potable water is lost
every year because of leaks, theft and
unbilled usage
● 50 hours of traffic delays per year are
incurred on average by every traveller
● Collectively, people all over the world
travel approximately 30 billion miles
per year. By 2050, that figure will grow
to over 150 billion miles

7. The city of the future is a smart garden city, merging
Ebenezer Howard’s principles with modern technology
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 75. The smart Garden City
Master plan and visualisation of the smart Garden City
Source: Wall Street Journal, Inhabitat

8. This is a teaser on how it will feel like to live in the city
of the future: The smart garden city
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 85. The smart Garden City
Visualisation of the smart garden city with the help of Philip‘s virtual reality technology
Source: Philips (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1fcDP8L4gs)

9. The “city of the future”: A place where we make use of
modern technology, and live in harmony with nature
29/01/2017A. Remy IE Business School 106. Conclusion
Conclusion
● Given the rising challenges due to population growth, urbanisation and increased global CO2-
emissions, the way we think about our cities and interact with urban space needs to change
● In order to meet the needs of the world’s future generations and ensure that our cities will be
inhabitable for everyone, they will need to undergo a transformation toward digitalisation and
sustainability
● The garden city principle serves as a pioneer of “the city of the future” by outlining the principle
urban design strategy - an efficient transportation network and a greenbelt
● The insights gained by big data and smart analytics combined with the use of modern
technologies will lead toward a more efficient, sustainable and smart city
 The “city of the future” will be guided by three key principles: Green, Smart and
Sustainable