Opportunities at the Mathematics/Future Cities Interface

AbstractWe make the case for mathematicians and statisticians to staketheir claim in the fast-moving and high-impact research eld that isbecoming known as Future Cities. After assessing the Future Citiesarena, we provide some illustrative challenges where mathematicalscientists can make an impact. More than half of the world’s population lives in a city, and this proportionis estimated to reach 60% by 2030 and 70% by 2050 [World Health Organiza-tion, Urban Population Growth, July, 2014]. See Figure 1 for a graphic show-ing our current \megacities."Thanks to the proliferation of smart devices andinterconnected services, cities are gushing with data, much of which relatesto human behavior. City life generates data streams around on-line socialmedia, telecommunication, geo-location, crime, health, transport, air qual-ity, energy, utilities, weather, CCTV, wi- usage, retail footfall and satelliteimaging. Viewing urban centres as \Living Labs" is a powerful new conceptthat is inspiring novel research leading to improved wellbeing and economicgrowth. We argue here that mathematicians can make an impact at the