This report “Flourishing Urban Futures to Overcome Polycrises – Roadmap for Resilience 2050” is published as the result of two Millennium Project Special Sessions, held at the annual FFRC Futures Conference in Turku, Finland, as interactive Futures Cliniques. The results for the two MP Special Sessions – 2022 and 2023 – are here combined to supply the reader with a continuum of reflections of urban resilience on which the overall results are based. Accordingly, the nature of the report is illustrative documentation of a methodological experiment for participatory cognitive crisis management within the RESCUE project.

Developing resilient and smart cities have become increasingly important considerations for the future. The rapid development of AI will also undoubtedly influence this development in significant, yet to be determined, ways. The way in which AI will be regulated is under scrutiny and will determine its effectiveness, scope and ramifications, also in the field of urban planning.

Resilient and smart cities will be influential in the future well-being of its citizens. Not only that, but the development of not one but two or more crises – polycrises – will likely become more prevalent in societies of the future. How could these cities look like, what services could be offered, how would these cities deal with polycrises, and what policies are needed, and which roadmap is adapted? These questions have been asked in the Millennium Project Special Sessions. Finding ways to secure resilient development of these cities for the future were the aim of the Special Sessions. The Futures Cliniques consisted of presentations and small group working. In the 2023 session, five groups addressed five different crises and even added another crisis to the one given to them for elaboration, to demonstrate immersion in a polycrisis. The insights provided by this report are intended to help give momentum to the rise of resilient, inclusive, and eco-smart cities of the future.