What's next for Newcastle City Futures

This Project has taken a broad and overarching look at the long-term future of cities over the next 50 years using Newcastle upon Tyne as a pilot. It demonstrates that there is a strong case to develop a much more strategic and synoptic approach using futures methods and city-wide participatory processes to think about city futures. Universities can work more proactively with and for the cities in which they are located, and use both creative techniques and their expertise to foster civic engagement.

The project and report are just the start of the process. The methodology developed by the project and the findings of the report now need to be taken forward. This is being done in several ways:


City Futures Development Group

A collaborative arrangement between universities and Newcastle City Council, the NELEP, and other policy organisations. This partnership is a first in Newcastle but also is innovative for northern core cities.

The purpose is to provide a one-stop shop for the universities, Council, NELEP & industry to discuss emerging and new areas of research that could be of benefit to the city, to identify ongoing research being undertaken at the universities and colleges that could be disseminated to a policy audience, and to hear of city intelligence needs to inform future research project bids.

An over view of the project and full details of the City Futures Development Group can be downloaded here


Foresight Cities Network

A growing number of cities are joining the Foresight: Future of Cities project. In several instances the local university or universities are playing a key role in mobilising academic and other local sources of knowledge and expertise to build capacity to undertake an ongoing and sustainable city futures process. More specifically in the Foresight process the universities are demonstrating that by working in partnership with others they can play a leadership role as an ‘anchor institution’ linking the city to global bodies of knowledge.

The national Foresight Team has been able to engage five cities where the link between a university and city in the Foresight process is taking shape. These are Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff. In addition UCL has been linked to the Cities Foresight Network to build on international work on city leadership which is relevant to UCL’s mission to be ‘London’s Global University’. The teams in these five universities bring a range of expertise to the Foresight Future of Cities project.

A more detailed overview of the Foresight Cities Network can be downloaded here


Scenario Visualisations

A definitive, accurate, interactive city model, Virtual NewcastleGateshead (VNG), was created as a partnership with the two local authorities (Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council) and Northumbria University in 2008. Currently more than 100km2 of Newcastle and Gateshead city centres and their conurbation are modelled, stretching to Newcastle Airport on the North and to Port of Tyne to the East. Since the beginning, by identifying stakeholder requirements, the city model is developed to assist the urban planning processes.

Recently VRV Studio been asked to develop a project to visualise the scenarios, story lines that the team at Newcastle University developing for the Future of Cities Foresight Project. These scenario visualisations will be utilizing the exiting VNG model and will support public engagement and decision making activities.

For more information please visit our webpages: www.northumbria.ac.uk/VNG


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