Urban economy

A new report ranks the world's leading cities for economic, technological, and social opportunity.

New York tops the list of the world’s best "cities of opportunity," with London second and Toronto third, according to a report released this week by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Partnership for New York City.

The report gauges 27 of the world’s largest and most influential global cities on their ability to provide opportunity to their residents — both long-term residents and new immigrants. This is what I like most about the report: It seeks to gauge the ability of cities not just to grow and develop, but to provide opportunity broadly. It notes the adaptability and resilience of cities and highlights the connection between quality of life, or livability, and long-run economic growth and development.

The 27 cities covered by the report are global powerhouses, accounting for nearly eight percent of global economic output (measured as gross domestic product) while housing just 2.5 percent of its population. The report projects that these 27 cities will add 19 million more residents, 13.7 million more jobs, and $3.3 trillion more in economic output by 2025...

Via Lauren Moss

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has released a comprehensive research report demonstrating that redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites in inner cities brings substantial environmental benefits. The agency studied 163 brownfield sites in five cities, comparing their impacts with those of sites where development was likely to go had the brownfields not been available.

Via Lauren Moss

As we plan for the future of our planet, it is imperative that we consider the effects of development on both the environment and human populations. A city is only truly sustainable if it uses natural resources efficiently while still fully meeting the needs of its inhabitants and a decent standard of living.

Recently, the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) launched its “State of the World’s Cities Report 2012/2013” which addresses the prosperity of cities. According to the report, the first step to achieving prosperity is to define the goal: What does prosperity mean in 2012? This is a difficult question to answer given the vast disparity of living conditions throughout the world. Additionally, it is imperative that the definition of prosperity today consider the needs of future generations. To this end, UN-Habitat developed a “City Prosperity Index,” which translates the five dimensions of prosperity identified by UN-Habitiat—productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability—into measurable indicators (see page 15 of the report).

This definition of the prosperous city is consistent with the principles of a smart, sustainable and just city... further reading at the article link

Via Lauren Moss

The 19th century was a century of empires, 20th century was a century of nation states and the 21st century will be a century of cities...

This outstanding infographic (courtesy of postscapes.com) begins with some information about our current state of urbanization.

Did you know that 1.3 million people are moving to cities each week?! It then explains the need for smart cities and delves into what is required to establish these intelligent connected environments, how the smart city may take various forms in the developing worlds and what specific technologies are necessary to achieve such grand goals in practice.

Via Lauren Moss