Biotechnology and Future Cities

Towards Sustainability, Resilience and Living Urban Organisms

Zaheer Allam

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030438142
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030438159
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores how biotechnology can lead to the reimagination of cities. In a time where the increasing adoption of technology by cities is leading to unsustainable environmental and economic concerns, biotechnology has enabled new ways of envisioning data and energy storage. Zaheer Allam thus revisits the popular concept of Smart Cities -and its associated Internet of Things (IoT) to explore how the biological sciences, coupled with technology, can be applied to cities; and in doing so, create living urban organisms on an unprecedented scale. 

This new concept will open up exciting avenues to providing novel solutions for climate change mitigation. The book goes on to address various potential concerns and discusses what regulatory frameworks would be needed to safely implement such a concept. It will be a useful tool for planners, policy makers and engineers as well as for researchers with in interest in the future of our cities. 

© The Author(s) 2020

Z. AllamBiotechnology and Future Citieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43815-9_1

Begin Abstract

1. Biotechnology to Render Future Cities as Living and Intelligent Organisms

Zaheer Allam¹

(1)

Live+Smart Research Lab, School of Architecture & Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Zaheer Allam

Abstract

The demand for Internet of Things (IoT) deployed in cities aiding to render ‘smart’ environments with the ability to undertake autonomous processes is increasing, leading to an overexploitation of raw materials. This stresses on the natural ecosystem, rendering an undesired high pricing of ‘smart’ IoT-branded products. Faced with these ecological and economic challenges, underlying an unsustainable model, the authors believe that the next wave of innovation in cities will make use of biotechnology, where work is already being carried in independent fields relating, for example, to the storage of energy through proteins and the storage of data through synthesized strands of DNA. On the application of those techniques to smart technologies utilized in the urban fabric, cities will have the ability to generate, store, and interpret data through biological processes coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) with execution abilities, leading to the equation of cities as living and intelligent organisms.

Keywords

Artificial IntelligenceCitiesLiving machinesBiotechnologyBig DataOrganism

End Abstract

Introduction

With technological advancement, ‘Smart Cities’ will soon evolve to ‘Automated Cities,’ where faster governance decision-making and real-time action on a myriad of issues appertaining to the urban fabric will be the signature of the digital urban environment. Such achievements will be made possible by the unrelenting speed at which large amounts of data are being collected, processed, and transferred to different urban nodes courtesy of ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Big Data, Crowd Computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies (Z. Allam, 2020a, 2020b, 2020g). Those have brought significant progress in the way issues like climate change, energy demand, land use, sustainability, and other thematics are addressed, more so noting that such technologies allow for real-time response and action. A report by McKinsey & Company (2018) underscores that such technologies are essential in cities noting the challenges linked to urbanization and the unprecedented urban population surge and its resulting toll on the urban social, economic, political, and environmental fronts.

However, the surging demand in IoT devices and components is expected to stress on natural resources, leading to high prices of those goods and, ultimately, rendering both economically ineffective and counterproductive solutions in sustainable terms (Adila, Husam, & Husi, 2018). By 2020, the number of the said devices is expected to peak, with Intel (2019) supporting that they will exceed as high as 200 billion devices within the same period, ultimately made to increase energy demand and straining the available energy-producing plants and by extension the natural resources. This will also mean increasing emissions as most power plants still rely on fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources (IEA, 2018). The sheer number of IoT devices will also mean a disruption on the land use as raw materials to manufacture such devices will continue to be sourced from such areas like forest reserves and marine ecosystems. Spaces required for manufacturing, testing, and installation of these devices will also add to the stress on natural resources; hence, as much as these technologies will eventually help in actualizing the ‘automation’ concept and potential aid in more effective urban and ecological management, a dichotomy exists where their side effects will need to be acknowledged and alternative models need to be pursued.

One area that seems to be promising in addressing the said challenges is that of the field of biotechnology, especially with respect to the promising advances being made in how energy can be stored through proteins and the storage of data through synthesized strands of DNA (De Silva & Ganegoda, 2016) as showcased in Fig. 1.1, and increase in agricultural production through genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (Raman, 2017).

Fig. 1.1

DNA strands

A breakthrough on these fronts will be of great advantage to cities, as they continually require massive amount of energy to function and also require processing of massive amount of data for them to run effectively and for ensuring inclusivity, safety, resilience, and sustainability, as prescribed by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 by the United Nations (Z. Allam, 2018a, 2019a, 2020c, 2020d, 2020e, 2020f, 2020g). The field of biotechnology as an alternative frontier addressing the looming urban challenges is inspired by the advances brought about in various spheres. On this, Adesina, Anzai, Avalos, and Barstow (2017) highlight that biology has some astounding potential, especially in relation to energy capture and storage and fuel synthesis and such could be capitalized in cities to address the increasing energy demand. The authors argue that such would benefit from qualities such as self-replicate, self-repair, and self-assemble that are synonymous with most biological processes; hence, the resultant technologies would be unparalleled in terms of ultimate development costs.

This introductory chapter thus advances the idea that future cities making use of biological advances will have similar biological properties, and cities will be equated to living and intelligent organisms.

The Demand-Supply Dichotomy of ‘Smart’ Branded Urban Solutions

The insatiable demand for IoT technology, through ‘smart’ branded products, is projected to continue increasing in unprecedented ways, leading to the exponential growth of the IoT market. For instance, Gartner (Egham, 2019) reports that by 2020, the returns from IoT endpoint electronics will reach a high of $389 billion globally, with North America, China, and Western Europe taking the lion share in this contribution. Columbus (2018) from Forbes reports that this market will be even higher in value, with an expected revenue generation of above $520 billion from the estimated revenue of $235 billion recorded in 2017. By 2025, Bauer, Patel, and Veira (2019) further estimate that the revenue will grow to between $4 and $11 trillion globally. The revenue increase is driven by demand for different categories of IoT devices, and this trend is expected to maintain or even surpass the same momentum in the future.

The demand for the said products is majorly driven by the increasing global population and urbanization that is being experienced globally. These have greatly impacted the natural ecosystems, more so due to overexploitation of natural resources as manufacturers and associated businesses strive to satisfy the ranging demand for diverse products. Subramanian (2018) explains how the demand for construction materials, portable water, and beverages has had their toll on natural water sources, forests, and coastlines as minerals, sand, wood and timber, and other resources are being extracted in unsustainable manner. The depletion of these natural ecosystems is also linked by the increasing demand for ‘smart’ products by varying sectors. Bonilla, Silva, Terra da Silva, Franco Gonçalves, and Sacomano (2018) expound that besides overexploitation, the sheer demand alone for these smart products is a threat to the ecosystem, especially during disposal as few decommissioning centers are available where such can be safely disposed. Due to this, in the long run, resources needed to successfully manufacture and produce those devices will be scarce, and this will have a subsequent impact on their pricing, rendering them unaffordable to the greater population. Lampert (2019) supports that the scarcity of such resources will also impact the pricing of other products like food supply, health products, and environmentally sustainable products. This will render an unfavorable supply of both the tech products that rely on the natural resources for their manufacturing and also on the said social products that rely on the ecosystem for them to be optimally produced.

With the uncertai...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Biotechnology to Render Future Cities as Living and Intelligent Organisms
• 2. The Triple B: Big Data, Biotechnology, and Biomimicry
• 3. Revisiting Energy Policy and Planning in Future Living Cities
• 4. On Gene Editing and the Conflicts Between Biodiversity and Urban Livability
• 5. Biometrics, Privacy, Safety, and Resilience in Future Cities
• Back Matter