Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence as Opportunities in Urban Planning
Abstract
Urban planning sets frameworks for people's everyday patterns, as well as for the investments, businesses and services who rely on and transform these patterns. From the perspective of climate change there is an urgent need to change the patterns, in order to create conditions for planetary sustainable urban lifestyles. However, over hundred years old urban planning institutions have great challenges in transforming to meet the objectives, because management of urban development has become so detached from the initial ideas of planning. The impact assessments of developments are made apart from urban planning as well as apart from each other. Artificial Intelligence (AI) could bring a surprising change into the fragmented world by offering a possibility to analyze urban development comprehensively alongside planning and free from different dogmas held by the institutional practices. Consequently one could find solutions which allow managing both urban development and human patterns towards climate-friendly direction. The inhumane features of generative artificial intelligence should be seen as an advantage which can be used to find a new path for urban planning in the management of urban development. When new ways of planning are gradually learned, they need to be continuously checked to stay on sustainable course. For such mission there is a need to establish an urban research institute separate from academia, because the current faculty silos form a barrier for the required speed, which could allow to follow urban activities alongside climate change in a seek for best planning practices.
