Global Cities Innovation to Prevent Foretold Disasters
1. ENVISIONED DISASTER:
Global cities configuration break down
Severe Economic meltdown
Severe Transportation disaster
Health disaster
Competition for limited resources
Pollution
Overcrowding
Severe Climate change
Policy disaster
Natural resource extinction
AREA:
disaster prevention, preparedness, response and adaptation
NAME:
Michael Iyanro
COUNTRY:
NIGERIA
2. Before year 2030, if urgent measures are not quickly taken to make our cities more
livable and sustainable by revitalizing our current system and innovating for the
future, the world is prone to face a severe catastrophe such as:
Severe Economic disaster
Global cities configuration breakdown
Severe Transportation disaster
Health disaster
Competition for limited resources
Pollution
Overcrowding
Severe Climate change
Policy disaster
Natural resource extinction
Nevertheless, have chosen these ones because of the immense pressure that increase in
population now placed on our major cities across the world. This year our global
population reached the 7 billion mark – an historic milestone that brings with it new
questions of economic, social and environmental sustainability. With over 50% of that
7 billion now living in cities, unprecedented strain is being placed on our urban
centers to adapt and innovate, to absorb newcomers or redefine their
boundaries, and to continue to support and enable opportunities for their residents.
3. Many communities around the world, including Detroit, Michigan; Madrid, Spain;
Athens, Greece; and others, currently find themselves struggling with issues like loss of
industry, rising unemployment, increased cost of living and decreased access to city services. For
example, after a precipitous decline from prosperity in the 1970s and 80s, revitalization efforts in
Detroit have faced an uphill battle. Despite encouraging signs, the latest city census revealed a
25% population loss to surrounding suburbs, which has had severe economic, cultural and
sociological consequences. Cities are being empowered at a time when they face significant
challenges and threats to sustainability in each interrelated system and must act now to secure
future prosperity.
City services: From greater individualization to fiscal constraints, city services are coming under
increasing pressure.
Citizens: From demographic changes to health, cities face major challenges and threats to their
sustainability.
Business: Cities must balance complex regulatory requirements with the need to minimize
unnecessary administrative burdens.
Transport: Inefficient systems will continue to drive up costs without city action.
Communication: Cities face challenges in meeting ever greater demands for connectivity.
Water: Problems with water efficiency, leakage, quality and the threat of flooding pose a
significant threat to cities’ sustainability.
In Nigeria for instance, where our largest 36 metro areas account for 65 percent of our
population, and 75 percent our economic output, this trend is long way. Our population is
expected to grow by another 50 percent in the first half of this century-this at the same time we
have bad economy, high rate of unemployment, bad roads, crowded cities, wastewater systems
over a century old, schools in dire need of repair, an inefficient transportation system, and a
housing policy with too little emphasis on affordable rental options. Here we’ve learned that the
neighborhoods facing the brunt of this economic crisis are often the least sustainable-with the
least access to transportation, the most troubled schools, and the least economic opportunity. So
the challenge of this moment is clear: to build communities in the most holistic way possible-
sustainably, so that we can meet the needs of today without compromising the futures of our
children and grand children.
4. The transformation we are witnessing in our cities and in our population are
certain to be one of the pressing challenges facing the global community in
the 21st century.
Cities are based on a number of different systems – infrastructures, networks
and environments – central to their operation and development: city services,
citizens, business, transport, communication, water and energy. The
effectiveness and efficiency of these systems determine how a city works and
how successful it is at delivering its goals. These systems are not discrete and
must be considered holistically, as well as Individually.
However, these foretold disasters might occur soon even before 2030 if: our
city planning system remain inefficient.
If we fail to innovate for our cities across the world and revitalize our Agric-
food systems, Housing and buildings systems, Communication systems
,Human security systems, Cultural systems ,Land use systems, Decision
support systems, Materials systems, Economic development systems ,Mobility
systems, Energy systems ,Natural habitat & green space systems, First Nations
systems, Social equity systems, Governance systems ,Water systems, Health
and well-being systems globally, then the disaster will strike badly.
5. I don't want to reinvent the wheel , I want to use it to its
maximum potential . That entails founding Global Centre for
Cities Innovation and Revitalization as a constituted body or
perhaps organization that will be saddled with the
responsibility of innovating, inventing, experimenting, creating
and assessing the part to prosperity for cities globally in order
to reduce the menace of the foretold disasters.
The centre will recruit, maintain and put to action various next-
generation thinkers, strategists, in the areas of
urbanism, architecture, art, design, science, technology, educat
ion, and sustainability. The centre will address issues of
contemporary urban life through programs, public
discourse, idea exchange, invention and innovation. My goal is
the exploration of new ideas, experimentation, and ultimately
the creation of forward-thinking solutions for cities around the
world. The centre, just like the United Nations will help the
world to prevent, prepare, respond and adapt to future
disasters.
6. Global Centre for Cities Innovation and Revitalization (GCCIR) will be an
organization with international presence in countries and cities around the world
created to promote world cities livability, sustainability, revitalization and growth.
The GCCIR will be an organization for cities that agree to cooperate with one
another. It will bring together cities that are rich and poor, large and small, and have
different social and political systems. Member cities will pledge to cooperate with
one another working towards achieving common goals of sustainability and growth
in all ramifications. The organization will have a Secretariat and it will be located in
Slovenia. The Secretariat will be the GCCIR’s executive branch. It will oversee the
administration of the GCCIR’s programs and policies and carries out day-to-day
operations. This branch will be headed by the secretary general, who will act as the
GCCIR’s spokesperson.
GCCIR will be funded by dues paid by each of its members. Each cities due will be
based upon its wealth and ability to pay. The GCCIR will also require cities to make
financial contributions to its developmental efforts. In addition, GCCIR will seek for
collaboration with organizations , companies, for profit and non profit sector for
voluntary contributions to support various GCCIR programs across the globe.
. GCCIR expertise will also feature Open Innovation (OI). GCCIR will help expand
corporate innovation capabilities by building a more collaborative approach to
problem solving, and providing the means to tap into the best minds within GCCIR
Community throughout the world. By unleashing human creativity, passion and
diversity, we can solve problems that matter to our world, business and society.
7. More than ever, the traditional "bricks-and-mortar" drivers of economic growth are
giving way to an economy based on "brains and creativity." Competitive
differentiation today is more likely to be based on the ability of the workforce to
create and absorb skills and innovation than on traditional drivers such as available
natural resources, physical labor or manufacturing prowess. As a result, the
skills, aptitude, knowledge, creativity and innovation of a workforce – which
collectively can be viewed as the talent pool in the economy – have become
increasingly important drivers of economic growth and activity.
Cities, as hubs of the global economy, are the focal points for this transformation. In
the immediate future, three interconnected factors will place even more emphasis on
the role of cities in talent-based economic development:
The world is at an unprecedented level of urbanization.
Cities contain an increasingly large share of the world’s highly
skilled, educated, creative and entrepreneurial population, giving rise to highly
concentrated and diverse pools of knowledge and knowledge-creation networks.
Cities can support large-scale business and investment networks that create
economies of scale in absorbing and extending innovation
To compete in this new economic environment, cities will need to better apply
advanced information technology, analytics and systems thinking to develop a more
citizen-centric approach to services. By doing so, they can better
attract, create, enable and retain their citizens’ skills, knowledge and creativity. That
is where GCCIR comes in.
8. What makes this model innovative is three fold
1. we are bringing innovation for cities around the world down from a
complex environment into a simpler environment.
2. It involves a collaborative problem solving process for cities
3. It carries with it better algorithm for identifying complications within
cities.
GCCIR will function as an open innovation and crowd sourcing
pioneer that will enable governments, and organizations to solve
their key problems by connecting them to diverse sources of
innovation including employees, customers, partners, and
the world’s largest problem solving marketplace. GCCIR challenge
driven methodology which will include offline and online problem
solving, community of millions of problem Solvers within GCCIR, and
cloud-based technology platform will combine to
fundamentally transform the economics of innovation for our cities
globally and R&D through rapid solution delivery and
the development of sustainable open innovation programs.
There are other organizations around the world striving to make our
cities a better place to live in. However, the effort had always been on
a regional base which is not often collaborative in nature and
replicable globally. I hope to see GCCIR become the platform that will
truly unite our cities around the world in order to collectively solve
the challenges of the 21st century facing our cities.
9. The goals is to:
Tailor services to the needs of individual citizens.
Reduce crime and react faster to public safety threats, by analyzing information in real-time
Use better connections and advanced analytics to interpret vast amounts of data collected to improve
health outcomes.
Eliminate congestion and generate sustainable new revenues, while integrating all transport modes
with each other and the wider economy
Connect up all businesses, citizens and systems with universal affordable high-speed connectivity.
Analyze entire water ecosystems, from rivers and reservoirs to the pumps and pipes in our homes.
Give individuals and businesses timely insight into their own water use, raising awareness, locating
inefficiencies and decreasing unnecessary demand.
Impose the highest standards on business activities, while improving business efficiency.
Allow consumers to send price signals – and energy – back to the market, smoothing consumption and
lowering usage.
GCCIR will use a special innovative methodology called challenge driven innovation, an innovation
framework that will accelerate traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation and
crowd sourcing along with defined methodology, process, and tools to help organizations and
governments develop and implement actionable solutions to their key problems, opportunities, and
challenges.
The global economy is forcing organizations to attack problems with all the brainpower they can
muster both inside and outside the enterprise. Unlocking the potential of millions of people to work
productively on pressing problems is the power of Challenge driven innovation.
And I believe that’s the future.
My expected impact will be ground-breaking solution for the problem of the cities around the world
For City livability , sustainability, and growth.
10. I believe that innovation and problem solving need to evolve in order to meet the
challenges of the 21st century.
By unleashing human creativity, passion and diversity, I believe we can solve
problems that matter to business and society. Once you untether the search for
solutions from an individual, department or company, amazing things happen.
Problems are solved better, faster, and at a lower cost than ever before. Many
people are still out there without a platform to showcase what they have to
contribute into the future of our world. I believe global dialogue to problem solving
for our world will go a long way.
In the twenty-first century, growth, economic value and competitive differentiation
of cities will increasingly be derived from people and their skills, creativity and
knowledge, as well as the capacity of the economy to create and absorb innovation.
To compete in this new economic environment, cities will need to better apply
advanced information technology, analytics and systems thinking to develop a more
citizen-centric approach to services. By doing so, they can better
attract, create, enable and retain their citizens’ skills, knowledge and creativity. That
is were GCCIR comes in to make all of our aspiration possible.