It is anticipated by 2070, our world’s largest cities could top 50 million people.  Today’s largest city is around 8.5 million people.  How will engineers accommodate a population so large, while preserving the city’s historic character, conserving natural resources, promoting accessible green space, and supporting a diverse array of lifestyles and economies?  

Future World Vision (FWV) is an initiative spearheaded by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), to understand the drivers of change as we design for the future.  According to David Odeh, FWV Ambassador, “The leaders of the future will be those who understand the dynamic environmental, technical, and socioeconomic systems that shape our world.  Future World Vision is a window into how these systems can interact to impact the places we will live and work.  It’s a way to interact with experts from around the globe to help imagine the story of the future.”

In this episode, I sit down with David’s colleague, Kelly Price, EI, and we talk in detail about what this future world, in particular a Mega City, would look like.  We talk about what we, as structural engineers, can do to address future design challenges that may potentially arise.  FWV is presented as a downloadable, free platform where engineers and the general public can navigate and add comments regarding what this future world may look like.  This is fascinating stuff!

Kelly is a practicing structural engineer with Odeh Engineers, headquartered in Providence, RI and an expert in FWV platform navigation.  She frequently speaks on this topic and informs engineers and the general public about Future World Vision and how they can have a part in developing the narrative of the future.

https://www.futureworldvision.org/download-desktop-app

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