GLOBAL CITIES OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR MAJOR PROJECTS Report of seminar 169 held on 18th April 2012 at 4 Hamilton Place, London SUMMARY 1
KEY CONCLUSIONS KEY CONCLUSIONS Global cities are competing with each other, usually in technology, the environment or the economy. There is no single answer to the daunting challenges. Solutions should be customised locally. Issues are temporal and the key is to understand the role of integrating systems. There are three points of entry infrastructure, political and ecological. City software has to influence the physical means, but needs to create the collective. Many investments are still based on old approaches, such as passengers using preset timetables for public transport, whereas if we knew where people wanted to go and when, we could adapt the transport to suit the population. Large datasets enable insights to predict short term. Open datasets allow greater innovation thus providing higher level intelligence for society. An outstanding challenge is to find a way of financing all the infrastructure needed. Many cities are run in silos. Their agendas, ambitions and cultures are different. Policies drive cities more than projects. Successful cities have viable economies and strong political delivery capability. The best way to begin to improve the growing urbanisations is to invest in schools to achieve education and raise expectations and ambitions. Master planning has to be holistic for all systems that make up a city. These are the views of Malcolm Noyce, Executive Director, MPA 2
INTRODUCTION By 2050 the UN estimates the global population will increase from its current 7 billion to around 9 billion. In 2007, over 3 billion people lived in cities, and this is predicted to double to 6 billion over the next 40 years, placing extreme pressures on the urban environment, with attendant societal challenges. This full day seminar addressed some of the issues faced in established world cities, those being planned and delivered in places like the Middle East and SE Asia, and those that continue to grow ad hoc as peoples migrate from rural areas to conurbations. The seminar Chairman and speakers discussed their experiences and approaches to assisting and catering for rapid growth across the diverse range of cities, and looked at the opportunities and challenges for major projects. THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE PLACEMAKING AND THE CHALLENGES THAT EXIST The first presentation, from Arup, looked at global cities from a planning perspective. It considered how integrated placemaking in global cities is about creating competition on a wide range of tangible and non-tangible issues that primarily affect people and the environments in which they live. Some of the growing pressures of our time were touched upon, such as ageing populations, availability of water, and the impact of increasing energy consumption. Looking at the characteristics of competitive cities, the presentation explored the key defining characteristics of cities that are diverse, yet complementary in many ways. For example, Asian cities are characterised by their labour resources, speed of implementation, geographical accessibility, available land and political will. Three key entry points to change in global cities are infrastructure, political and ecologically-led change. Each of these was discussed with reference to particular cities. For instance, the Zuidas district of Amsterdam, where 270 hectares of land are to be converted into a new urban centre, is an example of an infrastructure-led development, whilst the Sitra project in Helsinki is an example of ecologically-led change this project has begun to explore micro food systems and buildings with flexible frameworks. Politically-led change can be seen in projects in Tshwane (Pretoria), where the project involves taking the city from a post-apartheid society to one that will thrive in the modern world. The presentation concluded with some ideas of what is involved in placemaking and the parameters by which it can be measured. 3
WHY SMARTER CITIES? The second presentation was given by IBM, in their role as problem solvers in information engineering. It explored how, in the current age of information and communications, technology can improve the planning, construction and operation of the built environment and the services it supports. In particular it looked at how data and IT can be used to bring intelligence to our urban environments to set the stage for Smarter Cities. Over the last 20 years the world has built a global platform of data centres, networks and sensors that has enabled much tighter connectivity among the world s cities; this platform has allowed the setting up and operation of global supply chains, and the organisation of global finance and global transportation systems. What is termed the Smart Principle has grown out of the information infrastructure that has been created. This is a monitoring or metering system installed for a transactional, revenue-generating purpose, and produces as a by-product a stream of information about what it going on in the city or region. Insights can be extracted from that stream in near real-time, enabling the city s operational managers to make better operating decisions. The Smart Principle applies to many of the practical issues IBM is asked to solve, such as traffic management. The presentation outlined examples where data obtained through electronic road user charging in different cities is used to provide insights into traffic management to ease congestion. The application of the Smart Principle to other services was also discussed for instance smart metering for water management not only monitors consumption, but indicates where there are leaks in the system, whilst the use of environmental data such as micro-weather forecasting can be used to make predictions that help with emergency management decisions. The presentation concluded by looking at other aspects of Smarter Cities, such as how open and realtime data can facilitate greater transparency between a city s administration and its citizens, through to building systems that provide increased resilience to natural and man-made disasters, both acute and long-term. INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND CITIES In this presentation Siemens looked at the role of technology in meeting challenges posed for the economy, society and urban infrastructures in an age where cities dominate the global ecosystem. For example, currently, 51% of the global GDP is produced in 600 cities, and by 2025 40% of the global GDP growth will be generated by middleweight cities in emerging markets. Cities consume two thirds of the world s energy, 60% of its drinking water and generate up to 70% of its CO 2 emissions. continued 4
integration continued It was explained that Siemens has recently undergone reorganisation worldwide in order to address the move in global urbanisation and the corresponding increase in city-wide projects. Through its infrastructure and cities sector, five divisions will focus on rail systems, mobility and logistics, low and medium voltage, smart grid, and building technologies. The company is pioneering technology to find integrated solutions to some of the overarching infrastructure issues for instance how to get renewable energy efficiently and cost-effectively into cities, or how to manage the ever increasing vehicle traffic. It was noted that sustainability is a key topic, with technologies such as wind turbines, energy management systems for buildings and smart grid solutions playing an important role. Examples of collaborative working were outlined, for example in London, where Siemens has been working in partnership on a number of schemes in recent years. There was also discussion on innovative commercial models to enable infrastructure investment in the global economy. The session concluded by looking at the Crystal, the centre of competence for smart intelligent buildings and infrastructure in London s Docklands, which is due to open before the start of the London 2012 Games. COLLABORATIVE WORKING AND MEETING THE CHALLENGES FOR GLOBAL CITIES In the final presentation AECOM looked at how the organisation is dealing with the issues associated with urbanisation, city growth, changes in mature cities and the building of new cities. For example, the importance of collaboration with clients and multidisciplinary teams in achieving delivery of large and complex projects was emphasised. The rationale behind the setting up of AECOM s Global Cities Institute was outlined. It was explained that this is an independent unit within the organisation which functions as a vehicle to work with outside agencies. Projects are not started without a forum in which there is a consensus about what needs to be done, and the political will to do it. Examples of projects illustrating AECOM s collaborative approach were examined. For example, the large Nova Luz project in São Paulo, where the brief was to look at the integration of all the different levels of infrastructure, and make them work for the regeneration of the area. Nova Luz was once the centre of the Brazilian film industry, and has film studios, a collection of Art Deco theatres, and an imposing railway station. It now consists of boarded-up buildings and deprivation. The scheme is designed to transform the area through investment in social housing, transport and energy infrastructure, at no cost to the taxpayer. Another Brazilian project, in Rio de Janeiro, involves looking at Rio s 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games area in terms of its use both during and after the Games. It was explained that the area is seen as a future model for urban development in a rapidly expanding city, and the transition from Games to post-games involves understanding the values to be achieved and how to incorporate these into assets that can be delivered and maintained long term. 5
CONCLUSION In summing up the presentations and discussions the Chairman Bruce Howard, President of MWH Government and Infrastructure, outlined the main ingredients for the creation of successful cities and the regeneration of old ones: In-depth master planning Built-in sustainability and smart technology Integration of built structures and societal needs Innovation in funding projects He looked at each of these points in turn, to emphasise some of the lessons to be taken away from the day s proceedings. In concluding the seminar, the Chairman looked briefly at a project to renovate Miami s downtown area, emphasising the importance of investing in our cities for future generations. 6
PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS Advance Consultancy Ltd AECOM Arup Bircham Dyson Bell LLP CH2M HILL Chiltern Railways CJ Associates Clyde & Co CMS Cameron McKenna LLP Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer IBM United Kingdom Ltd Major Projects Association Mott MacDonald MWH Parsons Brinckerhoff Risk Solutions Siemens UK plc SKEMA Business School Temple Group Limited The Nichols Group 7