How Will the City of the Future Be Impacted by Water?
John Macomber
Senior Lecturer of Finance & Faculty Chair, Africa Research Center, Harvard Business School
James Matheson
Founder & Principal, Flybridge Ventures; Chairman & CEO, Oasys Water; Senior Lecturer Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School
Joyce Coffee
Founder & President, Climate Resilience Consulting
John Fernandez
Professor and Director, Environmental Solutions Initiative, MIT; Director, Urban Metabolism Group
Efosa Ojomo
Global Prosperity Lead, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
Loreta Castro Reguera
Professor, UNAM Mexico; Design Director, Taller Capital, Mexico; Visiting Scholar in Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
The future of cities is impacted by water in two main manifestations: too much water (notably flooding and sea rise) or not enough water (leading to drought, extreme heat, and increased fire risk). Mature cities in developed economies cope with these stressors one way, while fast growing cities in emerging economies have quite different tools to anticipate and deal with perils. For example, sea rise issues in Jakarta and Lagos are considered differently than in Miami or Amsterdam; drought and heat is experienced one way in Beijing or Mexico City than in Los Angeles, subject to terrifying wildfires.
All of these world cities, home to hundreds of millions of people, face water issues in the next decades. The world is seeing increasing migration as people move to cities for economic, political, or climate reasons.
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