ThoughtLab launches future cities research programme
The research firm is working with a coalition of business, government, and academic leaders, including SmartCitiesWorld, on the study of 200 cities, which will probe their strategies, investments and plans for becoming future-ready.
Global research firm ThoughtLab is collaborating with a coalition of business, government, and academic leaders to launch its fourth urban research programme, Building a Future-Ready City.
The coalition seeks to help urban leaders make cities more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and future-focused.
SmartCitiesWorld is a member of the coalition involved in the project and, as media partner, will co-organise a global virtual summit and in-person event to announce key findings and calls to action. An e-book, benchmarking platform, and other decision-support tools developed from the study will also be released.
ThoughtLab will also launch a dedicated microsite that will provide regular updates on the programme, along with the latest analysis, useful data resources and shared content.
Post-pandemic expectations
The project aims to examine how cities around the world plan to reinvent their urban environments to meet the post-pandemic expectations of citizens and other stakeholders. It will also explore how to address cities’ increasing needs for resiliency, sustainability, inclusiveness, and economic development.
ThoughtLab said that the pandemic and other market disruptions have heightened the imperative for urban transformation and urban leaders must adopt a future-ready strategy to address a cross-current of dramatic shifts upending their cities. This includes technological innovation, climate change, rising safety and security concerns, failing infrastructure, and economic volatility, as well as changing citizen behaviours, expectations, and demographics.
“In my years of conducting urban research, I cannot remember a more disruptive and perplexing time for city leaders,” said Lou Celi, CEO of ThoughtLab and director of the research programme.
“A future-ready city in a post-pandemic world is one that embraces stakeholder and community engagement, innovation, and technology to cultivate a thriving and enduring community”
He added: “Since our last study, cities have experienced unprecedented social, environmental, technological, and economic shifts that require fresh urban thinking. Our current research programme will provide city leaders with just that – evidence-based analysis and actionable insights that will help them find their own path to becoming more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and future-ready cities.”
Chris Cooke, CEO of the global online resource SmartCitiesWorld, said: “Our ongoing partnership with ThoughtLab is grounded in our common goals to support city leaders and their partners with information that helps them meet their urban challenges. The research will showcase how cities are planning for the future and provide valuable insight on a range of smart city topics.”
He continued: “The SmartCitiesWorld team is highly supportive of this project and we are pleased to be part of the coalition of global organisations that Lou Celi and his team have put together for this year’s research, I am looking forward to the findings and working with the ThoughtLab team to stage the launch event and present the research later this year.”
ThoughtLab is working on the research with global engineering company, Hatch. The latter’s urban practice arm, Hatch Urban Solutions, will conduct a benchmarking study of 200 cities across regions, population sizes, and income levels to probe their strategies, investments, and plans for becoming future ready.
To assess how these plans align with changing citizen behaviours and expectations, ThoughtLab also will conduct a survey of 2,000 residents in cities in six world regions. To provide city leaders with an actionable roadmap, the research will include in-depth case studies on the urban transformation plans of 15 cities, as well as robust economic and social impact analysis to identify the future-ready strategies that work best.
“These cities will be advanced in using smart technology and data to accelerate progress on the UN’s SDGs, improve our collective resilience, and transition to a zero-carbon economy”
“A future-ready city in a post-pandemic world is one that embraces stakeholder and community engagement, innovation, and technology to cultivate a thriving and enduring community,” said Chris Castro, director of the Office of Sustainability and Resilience for the City of Orlando.
He added: “These cities will be advanced in using smart technology and data to accelerate progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, improve our collective resilience, and transition to a zero-carbon economy. ThoughtLab’s research will help shed light on the path ahead for cities.”
The Building a Future-Ready City study, will provide city leaders with a comprehensive, evidence-based roadmap for preparing for a transformed, post-pandemic world, with insights into:
- How citizens across a spectrum of cities expect to change the way they live, work, socialise, and travel in metro areas, and how city leaders are building these assumptions into their longer-term plans
- What future-ready goals and investments these cities are targeting and integrating across seven urban domains: living and health; mobility and transportation; environment and sustainability; energy and utilities; public safety; digital infrastructure; and economic development
- How cities will draw on technology, innovation, and data, along with citizen engagement, partnerships, and new funding models, to achieve their social, environmental, and economic goals and to overcome the urban challenges ahead.
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