City planners will shape lives of millions for centuries
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London’s street grid was determined by decisions made 2,000 years ago by the Romans, and experts say that city planners today should remember that their decisions will affect millions of people for centuries to come.
The need for the long view and importance of considering future generations was a key element in the Oxford China Lecture, Oxford University’s first public lecture in China on cities of the future.
“Well-designed eco-cities can shape the behavior of populations and act as technological nests to promote sustainable living en masse,” said Professor Steven Rayner at the Jing An Shangri-La Hotel, attended by around 400 people. They included government officials, alumni, high school students, academic and business leaders.
Titled “The Future City: Climate Change, Technology and the New Urbanization,” it was held on December 10, a day when the city was shrouded by dangerous smog.
Rayner is professor of science and civilization, principal investigator of Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities and director of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society.
“While cities can be hubs of innovation and creativity, badly designed cities lock populations into certain courses of action possibly to the detriment of the environment long into the future,” Rayner said.
Although many people argue that cities degrade the environment, research suggests that well-designed cities can shape the actions of cities for the good of the environment, he said. “The burden placed on the environment by a person living a city is far less than that of a person in the countryside when you look at housing, transport, or water and energy requirements,” Rayner said.
Oxford holds public lectures in London and this was its first in China. Others may be held in the future.
One of the responsibilities of a major university is to share its latest research with society, said Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of Oxford.
Why Shanghai?
“Shanghai is a place that has a great influence on the future of China and the future of the world,” he told Shanghai Daily in an interview. “In Shanghai, we see a city of enormous energy and enormous economic vitality. It is changing fast, but the consequences of those changes are sometimes unexpected and undesirable like the fog.”
Q: What’s your view of China’s air pollution?
A: It's such a critical issue for the future for China ... How to tackle it is a very important and critical area of research.
Q: Do you think Shanghai will lose foreign professionals because of air pollution?
A: I think that will be an issue. In many respects, the problems that create pollution must be tackled at a policy level to improve the air quality. That will improve people’s health and way of life ... People will not want to live in a city which is bad for the health or for the children’s health. I’m sure that China will find a balance between it and the economic growth.
It’s an issue that California has to deal with in Los Angeles with so many cars. It has changed the law on what can be burned, what fuel can be used in factories and emissions standards for cars. I suspect that this would happen sooner rather than later in China.
Q: What do you think of Chinese universities?
A: It’s not my role to critique Chinese universities. They are strong and getting stronger. They are increasingly strong in science and engineering. It will be important for them to be stronger in social sciences, humanities and political science.
Q: It’s getting hard for university graduates to find work. Some people say too many students are enrolled. Your view?
A: University education is very important for a civilized society and for an innovative society. It’s not wrong or a bad thing that many students study in university. To have an educated society is a positive and good thing for civilization.
Graduate employment is a common problem and an economic question that can only be solved through economic development and strengthening of job opportunities. But students themselves should be encouraged to develop new companies and new job opportunities. Creative and critical thinking is a very powerful way in education that gives students ideas and potential to go and create their own jobs or start their own business, which is good for society.
Q: Do you think China should adopt a mass education or an elite education?
A: There are many benefits from an educational system where we concentrate the very best and bright students because they will challenge each other and learn from each other. That concentration must have no relation to the social background but academic ability.
The 47-minute interdisciplinary lecture is online at http://www.ox.ac.uk/oxfordchinalecture2013.
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