Welcome to the Cities of the Future !
What the Future Smart Cities Will Look Like ?
By (Prof) Dr Anuj Chugh
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If you can get a per hectare output as much as 150 - 350 times that of traditional farming on cultivable land, it is already about time that the world starts taking this idea seriously !
Also, in places like Dubai which is basically a desert and has to import most of the veggies it requires from other countries, vertical farming is being done to become self-sufficient and reduce their import bill.
Those are not the only advantages - welcome to the real deal - Urban farming ...
How much transportation and logistics goes in bringing the food from rural areas (where it is produced) to urban areas, where it is eventually consumed ?
Future Smart Cities can become entirely self-sufficient in all the crops, fruits and veggies they need to grow to feed the urban dwellers. That is the true scope and potential of Vertical Farming !
Couple that with the Miyawaki method of growing 50 - 100 different types of plants or varieties of crops on a small piece of land for increased output. A city can truly become self-sufficient.
A city that is self-reliant for their food needs and requirements reduces a lot of carbon footprint and pollution in terms of all the transportation and logistics involved for distribution of food from far off places, 150 - 200 kms away on a daily basis.
A city without vertical farms, in the near future won't be considered as a 'planned city'. Also, a future city will generate its own electricity through solar panels on roof tops and preserve its water through rainwater harvesting. You can have both. It's all about design.
The next step is turning all the organic food waste generated in the city to compost. For this, we must have composting machines catering to each different area. All the compost will be used in the vertical farms of the cities as well as for all different types of farming methods practiced in that particular city.
The future cities will have no food waste on household / individual, restaurant / bakeries / supermarket level. All this is enabled by AI / blockchain technologies and startups operating that will pick up the surplus food items and sell / distribute at lower prices / free of cost before those food items perish.
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The menace of plastics
To curb the menace of plastics, all the roads of the future cities of the world will be made of molten plastic mixed with coal tar. The buildings and sky scrapers will be built from concrete blocks made of recycled plastic. This will reduce the proliferation of plastic into the ocean which is adversely affecting all marine life and its ecosystem, to a very great extent and reduce the potential threat of plastic waste and provide a solution once it for all.
We have to start using more and more recycled plastic in all our construction and infra projects and develop more technologies on the same lines.
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All the automobiles will be EVs / run on hydrogen / CNG
To stop the dependency on fossil fuels and reduce carbon footprint, most of the vehicles we see moving around on the roads today, including delivery vans and trucks will be electric / run on hydrogen. Global ambitions of industrial production of Green hydrogen will enable this transition.
The dependency on petrol and diesel will gradually reduce. The electric charging stations will be solar powered.
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Future cities will be green
The cities have to be planned in such a way that when viewed from an aerial view using a drone or a chopper, they look more green like forests and gardens. The skyline has to look like a green jungle that it should be, rather than a concrete jungle. To plan this, we must have a massive city with a ratio of 1:1. That is to say, for every acre of development, we have an acre of green space, evenly distributed across the length and breadth of the entire city.
This green space can very well include all the vertical farms in the city.
Meat eating will have to go away or replaced by animal free meat
In order to make a city truly sustainable, there is simply no scope for breeding of animals / poultry farming for meat. The meat eaters will have to opt for plant based meat (which tastes similar) or lab grown meat. The technology for lab grown meat must be scaled-up and developed further in order to make it cost effective to meet the demand and become a viable alternative to animal meat. Future cities will have this animal-free meat that tastes the same as animal meat, on an industrial scale.
If it is a non polluting industry, the factories can be easily established within the city limits in order to meet the production where it is consumed.
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Sewage and water treatment plants
All the water that goes into daily baths and showers must be saved and then utilized for flushing the toilets in all the households. City planners and engineers will have to find a way / develop a method / technology to do that.
The Japanese engineers have already developed a wash basin which is directly above the latrine which stores all the water in the tank below it, the water then gets utilized for toilet flushes.
The proper planning of sewage, underground connections and water treatment plants are always done in advance during the planning stages of a city itself. This reduces the chance of flooding and water clogging, during heavy rains.
Proper planning before building a city also reduces the maintenance activity and saves a lot in future costs.
If the region to which the city belongs, receives heavy monsoon every year, then detailed plans to harvest it must be incorporated in the blueprint.
Water must be treated well in the sewage and water treatment plants before it is disposed of.
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Waste, landfills and trash generation
-Organic food waste turns into compost for organic farming. Compost is a very easy, cost-effective way to get nutrient rich top soil for nourishment and growth of plants, crops, fruits and vegetables. This must also be done so as to prevent food waste from ending up in landfills and emitting methane & leachate.
-Plastic wastes turn into concrete building blocks and roads. Not only that the new city buildings and blocks were itself built and raised upon concrete plastic blocks from recycled plastics from all over the country and plastic wastes from all the previous cities, but the new city also recycles all the plastic it generates in all the innovative ways it can.
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-Recycle / Upcycle, Reduce, Reuse wherever possible.
In conclusion,
If proactive actions are taken now,
Humanity can easily survive and even thrive amidst all the daunting challenges that it faces today due to over-exploitation of nature, having caused a lot of environmental damage over the past century and a half of rapid industrialisation, progress and growth.
Anuj Chugh
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