GAR 2015 Main Report

214

Part III - Chapter 11

11.1 Blade Runner and the

future city

Speculative urban capital is invested in modern enclaves, while the low-income majority has access only to informal or sub-standard urbanization. The concentration of investment in urban centres drives intensive risk, while high levels of urban income inequality shape patterns of extensive risk.

Blade Runner is a neo-noir science fiction movie made in 1982 and set in a fictional Los Angeles in 2019. The movie painted a horrific portrait of future urban settings, with a powerful elite living in gleaming towers while the majority live at ground level in a toxic, polluted, dangerous and collapsed environment. Science fiction is just that: fiction. It is highly unlikely that Blade Runner will provide an accurate portrayal of life in Los Angeles—or that of any other major metropolitan area, for that matter—in 2019. However, reality does tend to imitate art. Current trends in

urban development point to futures that resemble elements of the imagined world of Blade Runner (Figure 11.1).

For example, a number of larger cities in subSaharan Africa are currently being re-imagined as global cities that could become magnets for investment (Box 11.1). Described as smart cities

Figure 11.1 The 2019 Los Angeles cityscape as imagined in Blade Runner

(Source: http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1397/22/1397229362415.jpg.1)

Box 11.1 Urban futures in Africa

As urbanization mirrors economic growth, it often concentrates risk in hazard-exposed locations. In most low and middle-income countries it is also usually characterized by unequal access to urban space, infrastructure, services and security. This generates new patterns of both extensive and intensive disaster risk, particularly in informal settlements with deficient or non-existent infrastructure and social protection, and high levels of environmental degradation.

While the HFA has provided ample space for countries to engage in risk-sensitive urban development and some success stories have emerged, the rapid expansion of urban populations and weakly regulated investment flows remain a key challenge, particularly in low and middleincome countries.

Over the last 5 to 6 years, new visions for urban futures have been driving plans for the development of several African cities. Major projects within existing urban centres2 or entirely new satellite cities are inspired by high-profile city investments in Dubai, London and Singapore, with significant private-sector involvement. These developments and commercial centres include Hope City, a US$10 billion development to be built outside Accra in Ghana, and Tatu City, a development planned on coffee-producing land outside Nairobi (Figure 11.2). Such new hypermodern cityscapes would enable those who live and work in them to largely avoid the dysfunctional infrastructure, insecurity and poverty that characterizes many existing urban areas, echoing some of the ideas put forward for a new generation of charter cities.3

	214 Part III - Chapter 11 11.1 Blade Runner and the future city Speculative urban capital is invested in modern enclaves, while the low-income majority has access only to informal or sub-standard urbanization. The concentration of investment in urban centres drives intensive risk, while high levels of urban income inequality shape patterns of extensive risk. Blade Runner is a neo-noir science fiction movie made in 1982 and set in a fictional Los Angeles in 2019. The movie painted a horrific portrait of future urban settings, with a powerful elite living in gleaming towers while the majority live at ground level in a toxic, polluted, dangerous and collapsed environment. Science fiction is just that: fiction. It is highly unlikely that Blade Runner will provide an accurate portrayal of life in Los Angeles—or that of any other major metropolitan area, for that matter—in 2019. However, reality does tend to imitate art. Current trends in urban development point to futures that resemble elements of the imagined world of Blade Runner (Figure 11.1). For example, a number of larger cities in subSaharan Africa are currently being re-imagined as global cities that could become magnets for investment (Box 11.1). Described as smart cities Figure 11.1 The 2019 Los Angeles cityscape as imagined in Blade Runner (Source: http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1397/22/1397229362415.jpg.1) Box 11.1 Urban futures in Africa As urbanization mirrors economic growth, it often concentrates risk in hazard-exposed locations. In most low and middle-income countries it is also usually characterized by unequal access to urban space, infrastructure, services and security. This generates new patterns of both extensive and intensive disaster risk, particularly in informal settlements with deficient or non-existent infrastructure and social protection, and high levels of environmental degradation. While the HFA has provided ample space for countries to engage in risk-sensitive urban development and some success stories have emerged, the rapid expansion of urban populations and weakly regulated investment flows remain a key challenge, particularly in low and middleincome countries. Over the last 5 to 6 years, new visions for urban futures have been driving plans for the development of several African cities. Major projects within existing urban centres2 or entirely new satellite cities are inspired by high-profile city investments in Dubai, London and Singapore, with significant private-sector involvement. These developments and commercial centres include Hope City, a US$10 billion development to be built outside Accra in Ghana, and Tatu City, a development planned on coffee-producing land outside Nairobi (Figure 11.2). Such new hypermodern cityscapes would enable those who live and work in them to largely avoid the dysfunctional infrastructure, insecurity and poverty that characterizes many existing urban areas, echoing some of the ideas put forward for a new generation of charter cities.3	Page 1 Page 10 Page 20 Page 30 Page 40 Page 50 Page 60 Page 70 Page 80 Page 90 Page 100 Page 110 Page 120 Page 130 Page 140 Page 150 Page 160 Page 170 Page 180 Page 190 Page 200 Page 204 Page 205 Page 206 Page 207 Page 208 Page 209 Page 210 Page 211 Page 212 Page 213 Page 214 Page 215 ->Page 216 Page 217 Page 218 Page 219 Page 220 Page 221 Page 222 Page 223 Page 224 Page 225 Page 226 Page 227 Page 228 Page 230 Page 240 Page 250 Page 260 Page 270 Page 280 Page 290 Page 300 Page 310