Thomas Telford Lecture: An outline to futureproofing cities with ten immediate steps

Overview

It’s time to accept the fact that the world is changing very fast; faster than we can control it. We are living through the 'age of emergency' with global pandemic and climate catastrophe looming. Technology, business and social structures are rapidly evolving to meet the new challenges however, cities are slower to respond. Projects take more time to plan, finance and construct; by the time they are built they are already out of date. In fact, the use of past metrics to plan future development, which has until now been standard practice, is appearing to be a redundant model and proving to be very costly.

This lecture builds on the ICE Reed and Mallik Medal winning paper which identifies ten key areas where governments, planners, investors and the individuals responsible for shaping cities, can urgently refocus their priorities and funding in order to more effectively utilise both the limited financial and natural resources available. Entering a period of massive disruption, a paradigm shift is urgently required in the means of conceiving, delivering and managing city development.