That's roughly equal to the current population of Europe. Or a little less than DOUBLE the current U.S population. It's also the amount of people who will migrate into cities in the rapidly urbanizing China by 2050.
Now, this is certainly not the only "by 2050" statistic that may frighten, scare, or even excite the average person (in fact here is a great list some predictions from the World Future Institute). But, still, before writing anymore I need to take and deep breath and just say it: my lord, urban areas will need to be built up to house, employ, and accommodate some 50 times the population Sweden over the next 4 decades. So, whether all these new urbanites will live like urban Swedes, sub-urban Americans, like the Singaporian Sustainability Superstars, (Singapore is generally recognized for being the most efficient at everything, or at the least in urban planning) or something in between, China's urbanization will be fascinating and crucial to global sustainability. This is displayed excellently in the New York Times series, China: Choking on Growth; and I can attest first hand that perhaps the biggest present and potentially future danger-spot for China will lie in how they build and use their cities (I wrote my thesis on transportation planning in Beijing, and, well, I truly love the city but frankly the traffic is sheer lunacy). So this entry will the first subject of a series of posts on this topic, which will delve into different aspects the urbanization process in China.
Last week, Dr. Douglas Webster, from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, was in town last week to give a lecture (as part of the Stockholm Seminar series) on urban land use planning currently underway in China and he seemed hopeful over the current state of urban planning in China. Indeed, there is plenty of positive signs for more sustainable style development (I use this term very loosely, its a blog so please don't crucify me yet, thanks). For one, Chinese cities are generally speaking quite dense, and dense urban structures are generally more resource efficient. Further, major investments are being made in rapid urban transit, subway lines, and highspeed railways to improve connections inside and between cities. One interesting criticism he had of Chinese land use centred around industrial land use, which has been given far too much valuable land in central city areas.
With China's cities growing rapidly, the decisions they make now and over the next couple decades in terms of planning, building and infrastructure will determine their future sustainability. Let's hope more and more of them will look like this environmental gem being built outside Shanghai.
Now, this is certainly not the only "by 2050" statistic that may frighten, scare, or even excite the average person (in fact here is a great list some predictions from the World Future Institute). But, still, before writing anymore I need to take and deep breath and just say it: my lord, urban areas will need to be built up to house, employ, and accommodate some 50 times the population Sweden over the next 4 decades. So, whether all these new urbanites will live like urban Swedes, sub-urban Americans, like the Singaporian Sustainability Superstars, (Singapore is generally recognized for being the most efficient at everything, or at the least in urban planning) or something in between, China's urbanization will be fascinating and crucial to global sustainability. This is displayed excellently in the New York Times series, China: Choking on Growth; and I can attest first hand that perhaps the biggest present and potentially future danger-spot for China will lie in how they build and use their cities (I wrote my thesis on transportation planning in Beijing, and, well, I truly love the city but frankly the traffic is sheer lunacy). So this entry will the first subject of a series of posts on this topic, which will delve into different aspects the urbanization process in China.
Last week, Dr. Douglas Webster, from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, was in town last week to give a lecture (as part of the Stockholm Seminar series) on urban land use planning currently underway in China and he seemed hopeful over the current state of urban planning in China. Indeed, there is plenty of positive signs for more sustainable style development (I use this term very loosely, its a blog so please don't crucify me yet, thanks). For one, Chinese cities are generally speaking quite dense, and dense urban structures are generally more resource efficient. Further, major investments are being made in rapid urban transit, subway lines, and highspeed railways to improve connections inside and between cities. One interesting criticism he had of Chinese land use centred around industrial land use, which has been given far too much valuable land in central city areas.
With China's cities growing rapidly, the decisions they make now and over the next couple decades in terms of planning, building and infrastructure will determine their future sustainability. Let's hope more and more of them will look like this environmental gem being built outside Shanghai.
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