Today the debate “Transition to next generation cities and planet Earth Future” was held at the European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2017 in Wien. Hervé le Treut (Institut Pierre Simon Laplace), Arjan Van Timmeren (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions) and Sebastien Maire (Paris Chief Resilient Officer) discussed about current and future responses to urbanisation and geophysical changes. Reinforcing cities resilience to geophysical extremes and climate change requires holistic solutions that take into account multiple urban dimensions (from the economy and society, to the infrastructures and environment) and multiple space and time scales. Developing nature based cities – such as “Blue Green Solutions” or “Eco-cities combined with Sponge cities” – is a necessary paradigm shift that calls for new synergies among geoscientists, natural and city scientists, engineers and planners, as well as other stakeholders.
The debate was co-organised by Daniel Scherzer (HM&Co / École des Ponts ParisTech), Cedo Maksimovic (Imperial College), Stefano Tinto (University Alma Mater of Bologna), Herman Ruschenberg (TU Delft).
Video of the debate
Interviews to the panelists