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INTRODUCTION
The Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) ‘Survey of the Profession’ is the first such survey to have been undertaken in over thirty years1 and represents an attempt to assess the capacity of the profession to help deliver the targets contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development while responding to the United Nations predicted increase in the worlds urban population of 2.5bn by 2050, with nearly 90% of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. UN Habitat estimates that cities today occupy only 2% of the total land area yet are responsible for 70% of global GDP, 60% of global energy consumption, 70% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global waste2. Well-planned cities contribute to economic, social and environmental well-being while poorly design places are more likely to result in social exclusion, poverty and environmental degradation, as recognised by a growing number of international agreements.
Figure 1 World urbanisation prospects3
7bn 6bn 5bn 4bn
2018
3bn 2bn 1bn
less developed countries more developed countries
1 2 3 4
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The last known survey was undertaken in 1985 by Alan Wild from the School of Architecture in Auckland, New Zealand. http://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/ http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GRR18_Report.pdf https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Planning for Rapid Urbanisation