Our cities are places characterised by urban sprawl, poorly designed buildings and inefficient transport systems which consume enormous quantities of fossil fuels and emit high levels of greenhouse gases. In commenting on his Resilient Cities Peter Newman says that he shift in oil prices exposed the underlying vulnerability of highly car and fuel dependent urban development. Once the fuel price increased, the loans which were used to form these scattered urban areas became toxic. At the same time a more global limit was reached with climate change; the cities of the world now faced a new limit whereby they must phase out all fossil fuels. He adds that future change also includes renewable energy and distributed, small-scale water, energy and waste systems, building on clever control systems now perfected from the Fifth Wave, all of which are more local and require far less fuel to distribute.

The buildings and transport systems at the base of this city will be more and more efficient and more and more electric. It will be an intense green urbanism that I have called the Resilient City.This will require redevelopment around centres where short trips to jobs and services, shops and schools are more and more available. The transport that supports such polycentric cities appears to be new electric rail for fast cross-city movement and a series of small scale electric bus and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with electric storage in their batteries that enable renewables to be 100% of the city. As well, walking and cycling will flourish as they have survived all the city form changes. The polycentric centres and the remaining suburban buildings all need to be renewed as 100% solar-based and with all the eco-technologies of the Sixth Wave.