Smart and sustainable cities:

International business opportunities for the Thames Valley across the

Commonwealth Tuesday 6th May, 2014

#futurecities

© University of Reading 2008 www.reading.ac.uk

School of Construction Management and Engineering

City Visions and Urban Innovation

Tim Dixon, Professor in Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment, School of Construction Management & Engineering

Planning for the future • Unpredictable • Speed of change • Complexity • Conflict and disagreement • Disconnect between planning and

longer term environment issues

4 Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_Child,_Srimangal_Railway_Station.jpg

Why do we need visions?

Source: Wikimedia

• Sense of purpose • Vitality and belief systems • What sort of future do we want? • Promote discussion and debate • Mobilise resources around

desired futures

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EPSRC Retrofit 2050

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Vision I: Smart-Networked City: A hub within a highly mobile and competitive globally networked society Pervasive, information-rich virtual environments integrated with the physical world, driving efficiencies through automation with market oriented solutions. Vision II: Compact City: A site of intensive and efficient urban living Urban land-use and infrastructure provision are optimised into dense urban settlement forms to reduce demand and improve use of energy and resources. Communitarian and localist values. Vision III: Self Reliant-Green City: A self-reliant bio-region, living in harmony with nature A self-reliant system of circular metabolism, where resources are local, demand is constrained and the inputs and outputs of the city are connected (cradle to cradle). Cooperative and collectivist values. www.retrofit2050.org.uk

What makes a successful vision? • Vision, strategy and action • Linking climate change, energy, economy

and people • Participatory and inclusive • Analytically sound • Politically viable

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Urban innovation • Urban hubs and

local links • Technology and

institutions • Co-creation and

partnership (‘urban transition labs’/’urban rooms’)

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Source: NESTA

Reading UK Future 2050 Project • BIS Future Cities Foresight Programme (2065 City

Visions) • Environment, economy and lifestyle

• How can Reading be smart and sustainable? • What would low carbon living look like?

• Physical infrastructure, growth and development • What will be the key growth areas? • What are Reading’s key infrastructure requirements?

• Partners: Barton Willmore, University of Reading, Reading UK CIC

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Key challenges • Every city is different • People (and their behaviour) matter • Overcoming fragmentation (sectoral and

governance) • Linking economic growth and the low

carbon agendas • Urban infrastructure and retrofitting funding:

new business models