# What will be the urban future?



## Azia (Nov 18, 2007)

I am thinking about the urban Future , will we have cities around 2080 with 50 million inhabitans or more (like Shanghai , Tokyo) , will we seen Supertalls with 1000 + meters . Please let us debate about this , and please send pictures ,of the tomorrow cities ! 

The leading cities in 2080 must be 

- Shanghai 
-the pearl river delta with Hong kong and New york City


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Dhaka, Chongqing, Shanghai and Lagos are vying it out to be what will be the worlds biggest city at current rates. Some days they say Dhaka, some days Chongqing etc. Hopefully by 2080 these developing cities will have ironed out their problems too - Bangladesh they say will be 'Netherlands of the East', Lagos an oil rich boomtown, Chongqing the inland counterpart to Chinas coastal megalopoli. Before that rosy future though there will be some struggling times and hell of alot of straining infrastructure.

My bet is on Shanghai 23 milllion in the urban city, 70 million in the cities between Hangzhou and Shanghai (which are a mere few miles from joining up already) which they count as the Delta cities:










However there are 120 milllion if you take in the other connected cities. These are at 2006 counts, lord knows what it will look like by 2080 when middle class sprawl will have arrived.


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## Pablitisimo Maximo (Aug 1, 2006)

Shanghai will be under water in 2080


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## Christian urbanite (Jul 14, 2007)

Talking about around New York, the whole northeast, from Washington D.C., all the way up through Boston, will probably be one big city. Right now, it is already pretty dense there because of all of the cities being in such close proximity to each other. So, I would not be surprised if that whole corridor becomes one giant megaopolis by 2080.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Azia said:


> I am thinking about the urban Future , will we have cities around 2080 with 50 million inhabitans or more (like Shanghai , Tokyo) , will we seen Supertalls with 1000 + meters . Please let us debate about this , and please send pictures ,of the tomorrow cities !
> 
> The leading cities in 2080 must be
> 
> ...


NY is not part of the Pearl River Delta.

Hard to tell if Shanghai will take the crown but I'm seeing an Akira Neo Tokyo style in the future.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

The meaning was meant to be Pearl River Delta, which includes HK, *and* New York City.


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## Unionstation13 (Aug 31, 2006)

Christian urbanite said:


> Talking about around New York, the whole northeast, from Washington D.C., all the way up through Boston, will probably be one big city. Right now, it is already pretty dense there because of all of the cities being in such close proximity to each other. So, I would not be surprised if that whole corridor becomes one giant megaopolis by 2080.


hundreds of years from now everything in the eastern half of the country will be urban.:nuts:


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

There will be a "true" Megalopolis. Going from Boston to DC will be totally devoid of rural areas.

By then, Hartford may be a far-off suburb to New York City.


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## koolkid (Apr 17, 2006)

Everyone talks about huge mega towers and such. I can imagine Shanghai or Tokyo having such structures in the future but not NY or London. Even now it's difficult to build in NY without demolishing historic buildings or having to deal with NIMBYs. I doubt we'll ever see these 1000 m towers in Manhattan. Where else can we place them? Perhaps in Queens or Brooklyn? That'll only mean destroying what characterizes us today. I'll admit, change makes me uneasy...


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

koolkid said:


> Everyone talks about huge mega towers and such. I can imagine Shanghai or Tokyo having such structures in the future but not NY or London. Even now it's difficult to build in NY without demolishing historic buildings or having to deal with NIMBYs. I doubt we'll ever see these 1000 m towers in Manhattan. Where else can we place them? Perhaps in Queens or Brooklyn? That'll only mean destroying what characterizes us today. I'll admit, change makes me uneasy...


Or Jersey. Note that where was a plan to build the world's tallest building in Newark back in the mid 90s but it was scrapped.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

The urban future is very much evident in China, where megacities will emerge as rural migrants flood to the cities in search of the prosperous life. However, the cities are not capable of absorbing such a large number of unskilled people, while such massive migrations will threaten the food-growing capabilities. Feeding China's 1+ billion people is a major concern for the government, so how to balance that with increased urbanization becomes the challenge in maintaining China's growth.


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## TheMann2000 (Feb 1, 2007)

Tokyo is not gonna grow nay further because of Japan's aging population. Shanghai is a problem with regards to global warming, as are Dhaka and most of other megalopolises.

Could the megalopolis between Washington and Boston happen? I don't think all of it will be urbanized, but a lot of it will be. Baltimore and Washington will eventually merge, and Philadelphia and New York will be not too far off from it. The US' population is moving west, so another bet might be San Diego and Los Angeles getting sucked together, and Seattle and Vancouver.

Eventually Toronto and Buffalo will merge, at least in terms of a solid band of urbanization.


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## jarbury (Aug 20, 2007)

Once severe oil shortages kick in I can see a relocalisation of urban areas. Sprawl will hopefully decrease, you may well end up with denser urban cores, and I'd be pretty worried about climate change effects on coastal cities.

Surely China's one child policy will start to kick in as well, and the population will eventually decline?


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

TheMann2000 said:


> Tokyo is not gonna grow nay further because of Japan's aging population. Shanghai is a problem with regards to global warming, as are Dhaka and most of other megalopolises.
> 
> Could the megalopolis between Washington and Boston happen? I don't think all of it will be urbanized, but a lot of it will be. Baltimore and Washington will eventually merge, and Philadelphia and New York will be not too far off from it. The US' population is moving west, so another bet might be San Diego and Los Angeles getting sucked together, and Seattle and Vancouver.
> 
> Eventually Toronto and Buffalo will merge, at least in terms of a solid band of urbanization.


I'm more looking to a San Angeles merged which is from SF to LA.


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## xlchris (Jun 23, 2006)

I think the whole Randstad/Rimcity area in The Netherlands will be 1 big city, with over 20million people. This area already has 10million people in urban.

Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Haarlem, Rotterdam etc.;
Pic of Randstad/Rimcity in 2007/2008


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## city_thing (May 25, 2006)

hkskyline said:


> The meaning was meant to be Pearl River Delta, which includes HK, *and* New York City.


Not heard of sarcasm?


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## Astralis (Jan 28, 2007)

By improving our technology we would more and more build buildings which are solid and resistant to earthquakes and at the same time easily replaceable by another ones... this would allow us to drastically change the look of the whole Manhattan for instance (or the whole central part of London and so on) in a year or two. That kind of improvement would give cities more flexibility, i.e. ability for quick and easy adaptation to dynamic conditions.


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## nuevo-chicago (Nov 24, 2007)

Im hoping that there will be a big disease that will kill three quarters of the world. And then we can start all over and this time we don't concentrate on urban development.


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## LV994-CB (May 4, 2007)

^^ That would be a disaster


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## jarbury (Aug 20, 2007)

^^ By definition!

I don't think one can really "hope" for a disaster like that, even if it would fix many large-scale environmental problems. It's a bit heartless.


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## Shumbi (Feb 21, 2006)

Population is expected to plateau at between 9 billion and 10 billion. Instead of wishing for a smaller population, a growth model needs to be adopted where cities like Singapore are developed instead of cities like Phoenix. One city is a very efficient user of resources while another is not.


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