Towards Urbanome the genome of the city to enhance the form and function of future cities

Over the past one hundred years or so a significant shift has occurred in human population distribution worldwide: from 13% of people living in cities in 1900 to 55% 2018, with a further expected increase to 68% by 20501,2. This incredibly fast change, taking place within the lifespan of two or three human generations, is in fact a blink in the history of humanity. This is a shift from small rural communities living close to nature, to enormous man-made systems that are largely disconnected from nature. Urbanisation can have both positive and negative impacts3, but the complexity of urban systems makes it difficult to determine to what extent our cities are functioning to provide for the many needs of modern communities in high, middle and low-income countries. What framework can encompass the complexity of the system to help us understand it and manage our cities to the greatest extent possible? To do this, we propose to construct the urbanome, a framework to characterise cities and people living in them in a holistic manner.