Cities are our future and increasingly determine global resource use. Growing urbanization presents some of the most significant opportunities and challenges of our time. Today, cities suffer from severe congestion, public space is lost to car traffic and parking, and biocapacity is overspent by consumption levels and urban growth. The climate crisis highlights the need for urban policies that provide a holistic framework for sustainability, including renewable energies, highly efficient buildings, sustainable industrial and urban infrastructure and transportation.To provide affordable, accessible and inclusive housing for everybody, we need to put society's benefit before short-term profit thinking. The question is: Will we succeed in transforming cities defined by cars and reliant on high energy and resource consumption into genuinely environmentally friendly, livable, and participative urban spaces?Next-Generation Cities: An Encyclopedia is a curated collection of expert papers and represents the backbone of the work of the Next-Generation Cities Institute at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. In an interdisciplinary framework, it reflects the collaborative approach necessary to solve complex urban issues. A new model of city building brings together the best practices of many professions and interest groups. The Encyclopedia compiles public and private sector experts, professors, and graduate student contributions in four volumes. It considers the different perspectives, objectives, methodologies, and guidelines for transforming today's cities into inclusive, human-centred, livable, culturally vibrant, resilient and sustainable human settlements.
