The Future Ground
Rethinking how cities plan for the future.
TOPICS: CLIMATE
Cities across the world are acting to improve climate resilience. They largely rely on conventional urban planning, which looks up to 20 years in the future. Because infrastructures have a much longer lifecycle, this approach is inadequate to deal with the tremendous change and long-term uncertainties that climate change will bring. To manage these uncertainties, modelling tools can help cities set long-term goals while committing to short-term actions. However, these tools do not capture the complexity of cities and are not adopted by urban planners. Using the cases of Amsterdam and Mumbai, this PhD project is designing a methodology for urban planning under long-term uncertainties. This requires understanding how model-based methods can include building lifecycles and finer aspects of urban planning. We combine adaptive planning with qualitative ‘research by design’ to ensure that cities can adapt and transform.
