you know are there we're not a great touch and delicate topic africa's population is growing. and young people clearly have the solution to. be 70 percent now. on d w. if you live in the countryside yes surely familiar with the smell of fresh air the sight of a clear blue sky and the feel of y. 80 in space it's simply gorgeous and that may make you wonder why anyone would

choose to move to a city or the fact is 3 quarters of the world's population now live in towns and cities that is over 5000000000 people and as these areas grows so do the problems from traffic congestion to soaring energy demands what we need visions our topic today are made to welcome now did you know that one in 8 people not only live in a city but in a mega city sharing limited space with millions of other inhabitants and now imagine those millions on their way to work not sure if the term rush hour still applies in order to ensure people can actually move from one part of a city to another new mobility concepts are needed and sooner rather than later. mushrooming megacities are

a global phenomenon there are now 3 times as many urban areas with $10000000.00 plus residents as just a few decades ago. but as cities grow so to their problems. cities are microcosms of society we can observe all the opportunities and challenges in a very small space like under a looking glass and glass. the biggest conurbation on the planet is greater tokyo population 38000000 followed by jakarta with around 34000000 delhi mumbai manila and shanghai each home to more than 20000000 people as are the biggest metropolises in latin america sao paulo and mexico city. traffic is a major problem in megacities but there are new ideas out there on how to tackle it . because we're also used to cars that we can't imagine cities without them anymore

but if we were to experience that we wouldn't want to go back to cars at an artist's. this is how cities might look in future if different kinds of road users were separated one road is for fast moving electric vehicles another for pedestrians cyclists and scooters with the 3rd a prominent reserved for pedestrians only. welcome to woven city a project under development by japanese carmaker toyota a prototype city and living laboratory for cutting edge technologies. here all vehicles will be self driving and run on electric power or hydrogen the mini city itself will be powered by solar and geothermal energy with everything coordinated centrally by ai technology. it's been designed for a pop. elation of 2000. people off a clue go look we need it smarter ideas about how people can move around. in

a city with 5000000 residents and 3000000 cars that are idle 90 percent of the time you just need to do the math. so that we could probably reduce the number of cars by 80 percent. going with a smart sharing system people could still enjoy the same level of mobility and sort of mention. meanwhile at the other end of asia in saudi arabia there are plans for a new megalopolis knee arm a linear city comprising for. the pet project of the saudi crown prince is said to cost an estimated 500000000000 euros wrote and high speed rail transportation are all electric and underground. neon nicknamed the lie because it's meant to be 170 kilometers in length is designed to be carbon neutral with a 5 g. network driving all manner of applications.

right now it's a thinly populated and undeveloped area. we want to create sustainable infrastructures and stimulate economic activity. which will in turn create new kinds of jobs and economic development in saudi arabia. the country is seeking alternatives to its based economy neon should also boost tourism and attract startups and media production companies the entire city's energy requirements are to be supplied from renewable sources. have a huge amount of sunlight and ideal wind conditions so our energy system will run exclusively on primary energy. grids energy will then also be used for desalination . because water is a big problem here. me on is an acronym for a new future the plan is to create a city for 1000000 people in just 10 years but is that really feasible.

let's combine them if the 2 projects have something in common it's that they're not what was originally hoped for blueprints and reality are miles apart the projects assume a managerial perspective which ignores the fact that cities are more than just infrastructure what draws people to living there is not something you can plan just like that plan. no one city and me arm 2 visions of eco friendly high tech cities where people can actually enjoy life but will they actually get off the ground. well all i know is that compared to cities like tokyo or mexico city but then is a village and it does have lots of parks and green spaces like tree lined all of us other streets are getting busier traffic is getting worse it's not just cars

delivery vans buses and of course more and more people are riding bicycles and there's often not enough room for everyone thinks must change and that's why city planners are joining forces with start ups to come up with new and sustainable concepts. who owns the city streets of berlin are increasingly busy with cars cyclists. get surrounded by bike. and i don't want to live in a noisy polluted concrete jungle regard i want to live in a city where people chat on the pavements and don't have to shout at one another over the roar of porsches was embarrassed to portray.

the platform fix my palin was set up a year ago for the city cycling community it's allows users to see for example where there's a new cycle path or where a new one is planned it already has over 1500 users the idea is to put pressure on urban planning authority. already said planning a new bicycle boulevard or new bike racks the public can say whether they approve of the plans. so you can see what's possible what the public sees as a priority and what it sees as less urgent where there is less demand. balance population increases by about 20000 a year according to forecasts the city will be home to some 4000000 people by 2030 . how can traffic be reduced. how can traffic flow be diverted to reduce congestion and pollution these are questions that a group of scientists are seeking to answer with the help of data collected by

traffic cameras. let's take a busy bustling street as an example a street you'd think would be quite dangerous for cyclists. i would look at their trajectory see if they often need to overtake trucks and buses say and see if that could be quite high risk of competency out. their findings could be used by urban planners to redesign busy crossroads for example. traffic patterns are constantly in flux recent months have seen a 25 percent rise in cyclists on poland streets. when the pandemic hit the city created a number of pop up cycle paths. but the fix my team says those still a lot of work to be done. right.

compared to other cities the mayor and the city government aren't very invested in cycling policy. in paris and london it's a political priority. not yet but the visionaries of city a working hard to get up to speed. the green with pop up a bicycle past its going in the right direction but the future of mobility will still include costs and while many consider any cars oil lek trick cars a sustainable alternative to gasoline and diesel powered transportation it's not that straightforward is a look at some of the issues. electric cars like me are still quite a rare sight there is only 11 and a half 1000000 of us worldwide that's just a tiny fraction of the estimated $1400000000.00 cars in total but our numbers are

growing e-cards use raw materials mined in south america the democratic republic of congo and china these include lithium cobalt and rare earths needed in our batteries it medically extracting and transporting these materials is an environmental nightmare often carried out under inhumane conditions. their reserves are abundant studies show that worldwide deposits of these materials could meet demand for years to come. one good thing about us e-cards is that we don't emit greenhouse gases although manufacturing certainly does all my components still have to be produced but my power train only has $200.00 parts as opposed to a combustion engines $1400.00 where my electricity comes from is another huge issue renewable sources or fossil fuels the good news is that the share of green energy

is growing which definitely plays in my favor as battery technology improves the range of e-commerce is increasing. right now it's rarely more than 500 kilometers and often way less finding a tracking station can also be an issue. as to our batteries 95 percent of them could be recycled in an environmentally friendly way but it's still not economically viable. but i recommend you sit back and relax it's surely only a matter of time today electric cars cost more than conventional models but that gap is closing the day of climate friendly affordable electric cars maybe to dawn. so whether electric gas or diesel far too often cars end up stuck in traffic jams but why because there are simply too many cars on the roads but we can look to

mother nature to find a perfect example of how to keep traffic running smoothly and i'm talking about unts i want it comes to regulating traffic they seem to have it figured out there are no jobs on their motorways. bad traffic bad vibes. and highways are also super busy but clearly run a lot more smoothly. in the human world which congestion on the roads is a normal part of life we even keep track of record breaking jams. when hurricane rita hits the southern united states in september 2005. 2 and a half 1000000 people fled houston or tries to the resulting tailback on interstate $45.00 heading inland towards dallas reached

a length of 160 kilometers for 48 hours. in the run up to the 2014 world cup in brazil the roads in and around sao paolo gridlocked 340 kilometers of stationary traffic almost equivalent to the distance from sao paulo to rio moscow november 2012 the notorious russian winter paralyzed much of the biggest country on the planet for 3 days and 3 nights snowstorms plus the highway between st petersburg and the capital. but how do traffic jams actually come about. the main reason is that you do not have enough capacity. of course they are the reasons of these reasons reasons are not that they do not happen that often. dumb people sometimes make driving mistakes of course for instance they did not pay enough attention and then they have to break our.

citizens there is a very well they learned. that 60 percent or 70 percent of. the region. is. doing this in. syria. yes there is no orders to get it if you're going to get it. but the ant world runs differently. in our business as he has with ants the principle is one for all and all for one hardly applies to motorists on the road everyone's thinking what's the quickest way of getting to my destination individuals focus on themselves and don't care about the others. drivers have a lot to learn from hands. on office when the time for action on. drivers the road. to see it with the parents

there is nothing which hinders the voices to be deceptive. it is just a mere difference. very good as. you not see that it is if you mess it. up to them it is just to love them and. to their defense where for in say. this situation still exists the user will do both but it's good for the system to display so and cooperate and have a common goal humans on the road to in a way they each want to get from. but the lack of cooperation results in countless people wasting vast amounts of time in traffic jams how much time precisely telemetry experts have the figures take for example germany's biggest city think tom-tom has made this kind of statistics and they have

a number of days home much more time have you invest on your daily commute to and from berlin this number is about 30 percent in other cities it's much much worse. 3rd spot goes to bogota residents of the colombian capital spend an average of 230 hours a year going nowhere fast that's almost 10 full days the frustration can sometimes boil over ringback. number 2 bengal in $29.00 drivers in the indian mega city spent an average of 243 hours stuck in traffic. but when it comes. world beating congestion look no further than mine know that researchers worked out that in 2019 route users in the capital of the philippines last 257 hours of their

lives to the daily commute to many self-absorbed drivers with big egos crammed into narrow spaces. anti waste by contrast are always busy but never congested how do they manage to. communicate via sense they have plans to produce the various pheromones convey information such as danger food all this way. i think it's long work for the community you don't want the system up to know that once you're. working or throw it shares not stop by individuals because. i don't think that one can teach the people to be. and still tend on a communal effort and to adapt as conditions change humans communicate not so much with each other as against each other and while costing us precious time that comes

at a financial cost as well. as theirs even if it were a speedo so that just a few tomatoes. highway. they floated on it or to ordain for 3 hours then if you got only 10 instead of 80 then you're going to convert what is the last time the guy was there to end. it being $51000.00 euro one trip and i delayed it for. gemini for example. you know with 60 to 100000000 you will rule for year it's a. 1000000000 euro. shot but is there that still in chips so you don't only it was tired. ah so much practical lessons can be learned

from elves. and if you're the reporter getting sisters can copy the behavior of. this is the hope that there they are people. working a traffic system which has that much now i'm sure. it's me if the. insights romance might soon be translated into better traffic routing change better attitude it's ultimately up to us we need less ego and more consideration for others it's better to cruise at a moderate speed for example than speed and slam on the brakes. perhaps then we'll be able to see of ourselves a lot more time and money and the void scenes like this. and how do we get one h.r. into a city pops help without a doubt but what about those places we actually spend most of our time in buildings

from offices to homes shouldn't they to be more eco friendly and healthy now ancestors lived in what nots perhaps it's time for this material to experience a ride in a sense. stones record with doom in the forest. cares that they have nothing to do with the story. the story is about construction sites concrete buildings and the hopes and dreams of people living in concrete buildings. maybe it's forests full of did they dream. that there is a connection after all. that might explain why wood is a fashionable construction material. it's those almost 20 percent of new built in germany made of wood. just about anybody who enters a home made of wood is almost all was overwhelmed by its quality and that most fear

. when if you go into a newly built wooden arrows you'll feel wonderful from the very 1st moment thanks to the structural design and the very special atmosphere. thomas this company is developing what is said to be the tallest wooden apartment building in germany 29 stories 90. 1 have used to go up and build. cities decided that entire district should be built of wood school buildings made of timber and there is some justification for that we have to aim to be climate neutral in our cities trees of brown c o 2 for centuries and when the timber is used for building it remains bound. that the key difference between wood and concrete. concrete is

getting a lot of bad press nowadays a key ingredient is cement and according to the un's intergovernmental panel on climate change the cement industry accounted for 3 times more c o 2 emissions than commercial. 2019. and now the u.n. report says construction and building usage other source of 38 percent of global c o 2 emissions. concrete is the default construction material at least for large scale projects and entire new concrete courses going up in a district of berlin. only one building currently under construction will be mostly made of wood only its foundations and staircases will be made of concrete architect robbie has been working with wood for well over a decade. because it definitely 'd definitely pioneers and such we've also suffered

we had to overcome many obstacles met with a lot of resistance from the author. we had to assemble a team of experts and of course convince our clients property owners to begin with it was anything but easy. but in 48 in berlin is a recent project of his 6 story up with about 40 apartments is almost entirely made of wood and a finalist for the 2021 german sustainability aboard for architecture. to be honest our practice didn't originally warm to wood for ecological reasons it was 2007 i started thinking about wood perhaps 2 years earlier for it's a static aspects. of usable it was only later that i learned how to go friendly it is and that it binds large amounts of c o 2. out of. the well hello high rise is not just meant to be eco friendly but also an exercise in inclusive and social cohesion it won't be condos

for the rich but rather housing for people of all income levels. it's about living in a neighborhood in a community if you live in a project like this you. to have the right attitude toward his world because it lives and moves and creeks. you have to be able to and want to deal with that. but to build with timber you have to cut down trees current eco friendly is that. we certainly shouldn't just chop down entire forest so they're gone forever we need to use the resources we have in germany and central europe and felled trees selectively importing timber from further afield would be less sustainable. construction hasn't it started at the other house on it in downtown berlin but if all goes to plan the wooden skyscrapers should be standing by 2026.

and that was the final urban vision for. this edition of may. for me in the team here in berlin thanks for watching.

they were tainted into a nameless mass of their bodies mere tools the history of the slave trade is africa's history it describes how the whole power and profit plummeted an entire continent into chaos and violence the 18th century and its rebellions the new

frontiers of slavery the last part of our series of slavery routes. 15 d.w. . were all set. to go beyond belgium. take on the world. although this is where all of the stories that matter to you. would like to take my word for mock me. we are here is actually on fire made from.

more than 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction boom. with christianity firmly established there was a great. demand for houses of worship. and both religious and secular leaders are eager to display their power so churches become palaces. the boat race begins to paint create the tallest biggest most beautiful structure. the best stone masons builders in the project could keep up with each other and the budgets the biggest cities home massive churches with towers that pierce the clouds like skyscrapers are created one contest of the

cathedral starts people 12th on g.w. . the but . this is the tell the news that lines from but another setback to europe stole the vaccination campaign germany is halting astra zeneca corona virus vaccine for people under 60 the move follows you case is. also coming out of the us border under pressure after a growing influx from the south.