Global study will provide urban leaders with an evidence-based roadmap for making their cities more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and future-ready

NEW YORK – Hatch’s Urban Solutions team, leading the way in city development, economic research, and future scenario building, has joined forces with ThoughtLab, a leading global research firm, to launch its fourth urban research program, Building a Future-Ready City alongside a broad coalition of business, government, and academic leaders.

Following the success of the Smart city solutions for a riskier world report, Hatch is partnering once again with ThoughtLab to issue Building a Future-Ready City. The timely landmark study will examine how cities around the world plan to reinvent their urban environments to meet the post-pandemic expectations of citizens and other stakeholders, and to address their increasing needs for resiliency, sustainability, inclusiveness, and economic development. The study will provide city leaders with a comprehensive, evidence-based roadmap, with insights into:

• How citizens across a spectrum of cities expect to change the way they live, work, socialize, and travel in metro areas, and how city leaders are building these assumptions into their long-term plans.
• The future-ready goals and investments these cities are targeting and integrating across seven urban domains: living and health, mobility and transportation, environment and sustainability, energy, water, and other utilities, public safety and security, digital infrastructure and networks, and economic and industrial development.
• How cities will draw on technology, innovation, and data, along with citizen engagement, partnerships, and new funding models, to achieve their social, environmental, and economic goals and to overcome the urban challenges ahead.

“Addressing the issues facing cities as they emerge from the pandemic requires a multidisciplinary team,” says Bob Pell, Managing Director of Urban Solutions at Hatch. “Hatch is excited to bring our global capabilities in urban economics, planning, climate change, and digital together with ThoughtLab’s thought leadership experts to help cities achieve their social, environmental, and economic goals.”

In the months ahead, ThoughtLab and Hatch’s Urban Solutions team will conduct a:

• Benchmarking study of 200 cities across regions, population sizes, and income levels to probe their strategies, investments, and plans for becoming future ready.
• Survey of 2,000 residents in cities in six world regions to assess how these plans align with changing citizen behaviors and expectations.
• Social and economic impact analysis and in-depth case studies on the urban transformation plans of 15 cities.

An e-book, benchmarking platform, and other decision support tools will be released in November 2022 with an announcement of key findings and calls to action at a global virtual summit organized with Smart Cities World, and in-person at the 2022 Barcelona Smart City Expo World Conference.

If you are city leader and would like your city included in the study, or if you would like to receive the report as soon as it comes out, please contact us.

About Hatch

Whatever our clients envision, our teams can design and build. With over six decades of business and technical experience in the mining, energy, and infrastructure sectors, we know your business and understand that your challenges are changing rapidly. We respond quickly with solutions that are smarter, more efficient and innovative. We draw upon our 9,000 staff with experience in over 150 countries to challenge the status quo and create positive change for our clients, our employees, and the communities we serve.

Find out more on www.hatch.com.

About ThoughtLab

ThoughtLab is an innovative thought leadership firm that creates fresh ideas through rigorous research and economic analysis. We specialize in assessing the economic, financial, and social impact of technology on cities, companies, industries, and world markets. Our services include fielding business, consumer, investor, and government surveys; organizing executive interviews, meetings, and advisory groups; conducting economic modeling, AI sentiment monitoring, benchmarking, and performance analysis; and developing white papers, e-books, infographics, and customer-facing analytical tools.

Find out more on www.thoughtlabgroup.com.

For more information, please contact

Lindsay Janca
Hatch
Tel: +1 905 403 4199
Email: media@hatch.com