The urban world in 2050

Thousands of experts, politicians, slum-dwellers and activists are meeting in Vancouver hoping to plan a way forward for the world's growing cities. The World Urban Forum will discuss ways to make city life sustainable against a backdrop of rising urban populations.

The world is fast approaching the point where the majority of the human population will be found in urban areas - the United Nations estimates suggest more than half of the world's people will live in urban areas by the end of 2007. Projections suggest that, in 50 years' time, two-thirds of humanity will live in cities.

Six experts outline their vision of the urban world in 2050:

"I would like to see cities that restored a more intimate relationship with the environment"
Hank Dittmar, Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment

"We're going to see a lot more of what I call 'post-modern urbanisation'"
Michael Dear, author of The Post-modern Urban Condition

"By 2050 in the developed world, energy sustainability will have become a very big deal"
Professor Nigel Thrift, author of Cities: Reimagining the Urban

"The more we rely on advanced technologies, the more cities seem to grow"
Stephen Graham, human geographer and author of The Cybercities Reader

"An urban nightmare in less than 50 years' time is certainly what will engulf us on current trends"
Walden Bello, director of Focus on the Global South

"What we are going to see is the reinvention of the notion of the political"
Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority and Rights: from Medieval to Global

From the BBC