TSU Urban Geography Paper

For this assignment, you will write a short paper that will describe a possible scenario for the cities in the future. Your time period should be 2050, 2075, or 2100. You might wish to devise different models for a developed-world and a Third World city. The models of the future urban form discussed in readings of chapter 30 of Pacione text from this module may offer some guidance on trends you might wish to extrapolate into the future. You should also think about recent changes and problems in cities with which you are familiar. How are these likely to develop? Your vision of a future city might be built up by considering trends in relation to particular land uses or urban activities. You can attach degrees of probability to the likelihood of your prognoses being realized by a particular date. Above all, give your mind free rein.

For some examples, consider the following future urban scenarios:

1. In order to halt urban sprawl, a government directive requires all new urban buildings to provide as much useful space below ground as is occupied on the surface. Might this lead to the development of the ‘troglodyte city’?

2. The problems of growing urban traffic congestion result in the creation of a satellite-guided automated road management system in which vehicles are controlled centrally to maximize the use of urban road (and air) space. What might happen if the system crashed owing to a computer virus?

3. Shopping centers lie derelict owing to the switch to virtual shopping on the World Wide Web. Could this, in turn, lead to the revival of local supply networks comprising ‘market stalls’ selling organic non-genetically modified foods?

4. Might grow atmospheric pollution and increasing social polarisation drive the rich to abandon conventional cities in favor of enclosed climatically controlled domed cities segregated from the mass of urban society by a security system and ability to pay the annual ‘residence fee’?