NATURE INDEX | EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Q & A KAREN SETO

have a beneficial effect on how cities develop. In , the urban population is going PAVING THE WAY TO AN URBAN FUTURE to increase by about 250 million, just under 20%, by 2050. So if they don’t have a national The scale of growth in cities challenges scientists and policy-makers. strategy that tries to preserve crop land, then it could have quite a deleterious effect on their crop production and biodiversity. National aren Seto is an urban and land change urban policies can help countries conserve scientist at ’s School of biological diversity, while ensuring there is /CORBIS VIA GETTY FRÉDÉRIC SOLTAN Forestry and Environmental Studies. sufficient land for growing crops. KShe led the chapter on urban mitigation of cli- I have an 11-year-old son, and I think about mate change for the 2014 Intergovernmental the world when he’s 50. Climate change. Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Overcrowded cities. Disappearing biodiver- Report. Professor Seto spoke to Catherine sity. I look at him and I know that we have Armitage about cities and sustainability. the capacity to make the urbanizing planet a better place. This is what I think about all Q: What challenges does the time. How I can leave a legacy of research, urbanisation present to society teaching and training that makes this urban- and the environment? izing Earth better?

Every week, the urban population grows by Q: What role can cities play in shaping around 1.5 million. By mid-century, there will global sustainability? be as many people living in cities as occupy the entire planet today. About a third of the new The question is really not what can cities do, urban population growth will be in just three it’s what must they do. It is one thing for New countries — Nigeria, China and India. York or Sydney or Shanghai to say they are When I think about the scale of that change doing something. But cities have to be aligned it is almost unfathomable. Almost every towards common goals. What can city A do aspect of life is going to be transformed. Some that city B can’t do? How can they combine of that change is going to be good. We will see their resources for a greater positive impact? hundreds of millions of people lifted out of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, typifies the extreme The United Nations’ Sustainable Devel- poverty, with access to clean water, improved concentration of urban population. opment Goals (SDGs), meant to protect the sanitation, modern energy, among other planet and sustainably improve life for future essential services. At the same time, more interdisciplinary project, you’d optimize generations, are very powerful in this regard. cities are going to test our ability to manage the urban form for one, but not necessarily Most of the SDGs have a cities thrust to them. them. With the explosion of economic devel- the others. However, funding mainly comes Goal 11 is about sustainable cities and com- opment will come increased consumption within a single discipline. munities. Goal 6 is on clean water and sanita- along with increased pollution, overcrowding tion, goal 7 for affordable and clean energy, and inequality. Q: Why is it important to study urban goal 8 for decent work and economic growth, settlement patterns? goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastruc- Q: Is urban research equipped to meet ture, 12 on responsible consumption and the demands of rapid urbanisation? Land-use patterns within and outside cities production, and 13 for climate action. All are are strongly related to many environmental essential for sustainable cities. We are not equipped to address the speed and parameters such as emis- scale of . Urban science is needed sions, transport and energy use, as well as Q: How could scientific research to develop a framework for bringing multiple how people commute, and their access to catalyse efforts to build sustainable disciplines together to address pressing issues. green spaces and clean air. These have impli- cities? Health is an urban issue. Environment is an cations for social well-being, human health, urban issue. and the environment. For future configura- The default is for scientists to work with local The other really big challenge is the tions of urban settlements, a lot will depend decision-makers, but without the involvement lack of a system to fund interdisciplinary on national and local policies. In many coun- of national policy-makers, it is very difficult to work. For example, we need to understand tries, like the United States, urban policy has have anything that is coherent locally. There which urban forms — such as the layout of been non-existent or haphazard at best. needs to be more interaction on all scales, buildings and land uses ­— are beneficial to But, if we see some countries starting to and across disciplines. It is happening, but on social cohesion, as well as to health and the develop integrated urban policies, informed a very small scale. We need to figure out how environment. If you didn’t have an by multidisciplinary research, that will really to accelerate that. ■

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