Growing cities have growing needs to provide core services, supply energy, and nowadays, more telecommunication for broadband-hungry applications. City governments often do not collect enough revenues to meet these needs of residents. However, not all challenges are engineering problems - or require that we build more. Many challenges need to be met by changing: the way we view things (i.e., culture shifts are needed); the way that we invest (i.e., shared infrastructure and public-private partnerships to build things together); or changing the short-termism with which we plan for "the future". Ultimately, the challenge is to build a future-proof infrastructure-not easy when we don't really know how much change will occur in an increasingly volatile environment.
The housing problem. Cities face a difficult challenge in providing good housing at reasonable cost, particularly in larger cities, where the rising cost of real estate has inflated housing costs. In medium-sized cities, expansionary development can be costly and unsustainable long-term. And it further encourages car usage, which adds to costs.
Poverty and public housing is a worldwide problem contributing to health costs, crime, and social isolation but so is the 'housing poor', or those that cannot afford food and health care because they pay too large a proportion of their income for housing. We need to find solutions for: people living on the streets with no housing; significant numbers living in housing that is far from decent, safe, and sanitary; and the substantial number of people paying up to half of their income for shelter, leaving too little for food and health.
Technology and new infrastructure service concepts. Cleaner energy technologies, new models of transportation, new kinds of water systems, building-construction innovation, low-water and soil-less agriculture, and clean and small-scale manufacturing are, or will be, available in the near future. Cities are using technology and data analytics to solve specific problems in areas such as health, transportation, sanitation, public safety, economic development, sustainability, street maintenance, and resilience-problems that affect city residents every day. Cities need platforms for collaborating, and they need engagement from stakeholders within and outside municipal governments to collaborate.
Technologies and commercial interests are pushing the idea of "personalized services" - using technology to customize various processes to meet the needs and performance of individuals. Adaptive technologies, AI and robotics enable the concept of cities operating as service enablers. Accelerating technological change is creating new demands for infrastructure, mass-customization, and 'city-as-a-service' concepts.
Engagement and inclusion in city infrastructure development, maintenance, and greening. Environmental management challenges cannot be met without full citizen engagement in green, re-use, and reduce principles. Also, densities and congestion can isolate people - cities nowadays are struggling to find ways to connect people so that they can improve quality of life and engage citizens in the various improvement programs. New York City neighbourhoods made some significant improvements to local infrastructure by managing their own crowdfunding; indigenous communities in Canada are connecting distance members to educational sources to maintain language and culture; cities are translating self-help sites in multiple languages to better service international residents; citizens are creating coop ownership models to decrease capital investments into low-use equipment such as snow removal machines or land mowers; parents are linked to support one another in homeschooling. In short, cities have an opportunity to support and encourage the development of networks that engage people and connect them to one another. These initiatives can improve health, infrastructure, and make substantial contributions to environment, social, and cultural development.