Stage 5 Changing Places

"What would your future city look like?

 Urbanology is a game that examines the complex ways in which cities develop." 

This is a great teaching tool since you are asked 10 questions that city planners need to answer that will shape the cultural and economic patterns of the city.  For example, would you remove an automobile lane to put in a bike lane or expand the sidewalk?   Based on your answers, it will tell you what city is most similar to the one you envision and what is your highest (and lowest) priority in laying out the city.  

Via Lucas Richardson

The rapid increase in the number of cities home to more than 10 million people will bring huge challenges … and opportunities... 

 

It's not just that more people now live in cities than in the rural countryside (for the first time in human history).  It's not just that major cities are growing increasingly more important to the global economy.  The rise of the megacities (cities over 10 million inhabitants) is a startling new phenomenon that really is something we've only seen in the last 50 years or so with the expectation that the number of megacities will double in the next 10 to 20 years (currently there are 23).  This reorganization of population entails wholesale restructuring of the economic, environmental, cultural and political networks.  The urban challenges that we face today are only going to become increasingly important in the future.