Panama City: Forest City of the Future

This Project details the futures of thousands of cities across the globe as though they've somehow overcome all environmental challenges and become super-ecofriendly Green Utopian cities. This month, we highlight Panama City's future.

A Section of Panama City -- Early 22nd Century--by the Urban Futures team

Panama City in the early 22nd century is flush with Biophilia. This is not some strange tropical disease but a psychological affection for nature. Thusly, the residents of Panama City 2121 love nature so much that have immersed it with vibrant wilderness. This provides for them both free ecosystems services and also with emotional wellbeing. In Panama City 2121, the forest of the Metropolitan National Park, nowadays located between the city and the Panama Canal, are allowed to re-colonize the entire city; overtaking the concrete infrastructure that presently keeps it at bay. The architecture has become organic and biological, too; which is a style favored by locals because it is inexpensive and self-maintaining. It’s also rather romantic and fun.

Nowadays, Panama City has a rather disturbing air pollution problem but the Panama City air of 2121 is fresh (and freshly scented) due to the cleansing character of the forest canopy and due to the city’s adoption of new ecological industries (such as Green horticulture, eco-medicine and sustainable forestry).

Panama City’s bays and canals are also rather polluted, nowadays; their waters being sometimes unusable for human use. But Panama City 2121 has waterways refreshed by the forest’s expanded natural filtering system. Children can swim within the canals around their homes and they can also play safely on the shores of the Panama City bay.

The trees of the city forest also provide electrical power for Panama City 2121. Like most living things, trees produce a small electric current and this tree-made electricity flows wirelessly to micro-energy devices that can work with the smallest of electric currents. This might seem far-fetched but nowadays there are research projects devoted to tapping tree-electricity in order to power tiny remote sensor devices. By 2121, after decades of micro-energy investment, the harnessing of tree-electricity may very well become more widespread.