The Urban Vision | The Future of Human Civilization

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he Future of Human Civilization
By Prathima Manohar ⋅ December 7, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment
The future of the human civilizations is going to be largely defined by the character of its future cities. This is especially important to reflect on at this point in time as humanity reached a special milestone this century by becoming a majority urban species. In 2007, for the very first time in our history, humankind has become a majority urban with more than half of the world’s population living in cities. The phenomenal rate of urban growth, increasing from 13% in the 1900’s to 29% in 1950, reach over 50% this decade.

Nevertheless, India is still a majority rural nation. Today Approximately 300 million people inhabit urban areas today and make up about 30% of the population. But urbanization is projected even in our country and India will be more urban than rural over the coming decades like other parts of the world. As a result India has a tremendous opportunity to leap frog into a new urban model by learning from the mistakes and succeses of the more urbanized geographies of the world.

Cities represent both the finest and most terrible aspects of humanity today. Today’s Cities are full of poverty, but they also offer the best way to rise above this challenge. Cities are also at the centre of the environmental crisis; but they represent the best way for human being to share resources efficiently and in a fair way. Cities are important destinations of education, culture, commerce and economy. Cities are machines for making collaboration easier and encourage innovation and creativity. On the other, problems of overcrowding, crime, diseases and so forth is likely to be intense in cities. So those are the two paths that India has in front

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