City Dialog - Dialog about the "City of the Future"
Project goal
The goal of the project "City Dialog" was the evaluation of future research topics for the “city of the future”. Several studies and research projects have yet investigated relevant research topics for the “city of the future”. The setting of priorities in these studies, mainly reflects a science perspective. Goal of the project was to complete and contrast the scientific perspective with the perspective of other relevant stakeholders.
Summary
Cities are the habitat of the future. Global urbanisation is closely linked to the ecological, economical and social problems of our time and is regarded as one of the major challenges of the 21th century. On the other hand, cities are the centers of cultural, innovational and economic activities which offer many chances for a sustainable development.
The goal of the current project was the evaluation of future research topics for the “city of the future”. Several studies and research projects have yet investigated relevant research topics for the “city of the future”. The setting of priorities, in these studies, mainly reflects a science perspective. The main topics in the current discussion are: urban structure, energy, water/wastewater, products/wastes, mobility, urban management, economic and social issues.
The concept for the project "City Dialog" is based on the study „Urban Future - Erhebung von Forschungsfragen zum Thema Resource Efficient City of Tomorrow und deren Auswirkung für die österreichische Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik”. The integration of key stakeholder views allowed an extensive evaluation and prioritisation of future research topics. The discussion between the stakeholders, including public administration, business, science and residents, has been organised in three stakeholder forums in three different parts of Austria. In preparation to the forums, the interested parties have been informed. The current state of research has been explained by short presentations. Then an open discussion gave participants the chance to expose their ideas and opinions. The stakeholders have been asked to fill out questionnaires.
The research topics for the “city of the future”, which have been published in a predecessing study [Obernosterer et al., 2010] have essentially been confirmed during the project. The three topics “Energy”, “Mobility”, “People & Environment” have been identified by the stakeholders to be of highest importance. Stronger inter- and transdisciplinary cooperations have been identified by the participating stakeholders as being crucial for future research.
The project results point out the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research. It is necessary to create and extend efficient structures which facilitate the emergence of networks and cooperations and thus enable inter- and transdisciplinary research.