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Sustainability

What will the cities of tomorrow be like?

September 28, 2023

Everything that humans have made was first imagined. The potent mixture of imagination, design and problem-solving takes the stage in October for an interdisciplinary look into how we’ll all live in the future.

The Envisioning Urban Futures symposium takes place Wednesday, Oct. 18 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the Hunt Library’s Duke Energy Hall. Hosted by Rob Dunn, Senior Vice Provost, Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, the event features TED-style lightning talks from scientists, artists, engineers, writers and other experts from across the disciplines about their vision for cities of tomorrow. They will consider many dimensions of urban futures, including the future of food production in cities, waste treatment, evolution, social interactions, beauty, sustainability and livability. The event also includes a dinner featuring “future food and beer,” live music, artistic interpretations of envisioned urban futures, topical breakout sessions and poster presentations by faculty and students.

Speakers include:

  • Kofi Boone – Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University
  • Christopher Galik – Professor of Public Administration, Director of Sustainable Futures Initiative, NC State University
  • Clint Penick – Asst. Professor of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University
  • Georgina Sanchez – Research Scholar, Center for Geospatial Analytics, NC State University
  • Julie White – Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation, North Carolina Department of Transportation

The symposium is free and open to the public; pre-registration is required.

Then, on Friday, Oct. 20 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the Hunt Library’s Teaching and Visualization Lab, Georgina Sanchez elaborates upon her talk with a presentation in the Libraries’ Coffee & Viz series entitled Reshaping Urban Futures: Embracing Change and Resilience in the Face of Climate Challenges. 

Sanchez considers how our cities’ current layouts, transportation systems, and growth patterns have been shaped by historical processes dating back hundreds of years. She shows how, through the lens of climate change, geospatial modeling provides an exciting opportunity to explore and visualize alternative trajectories of growth that better align with the needs of a changing world.

About Envisioning Urban Futures

As part of The Long View Project, this symposium is jointly organized and sponsored by the university’s Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, Initiative for Community Growth and Development and the NC State University Libraries.

This post was originally published in NC State University Libraries.