Introduction Available to Purchase

Welcome to the November 2018 special issue of Civil Engineering on cities of the future, which looks at a critical challenge facing humanity.

Currently, more than 50% of world’s population lives in urban areas, placing huge demands on infrastructure, services, climate and environment (World Bank, 2009). Projections show that another 2·5 billion people will live in urban areas by 2050 (UN, 2014). Our cities therefore need substantial investment in infrastructure services to sustain human and economic activity to be fit for the future.

Civil engineers are well placed to make cities better places to live, both...