SIEMENS

We are facing decades of radical change. Countries such as the BRIC states — Brazil, Russia, India, and China — are set to cross the threshold that separates them from the industrialized nations. Experts predict that these four states alone will account for approximately half of the world's global economic growth by 2020, in large part because each of them is fostering the growth of an affluent middle class and developing its own innovative products and services.

Meanwhile, urbanization is continuing to increase by leaps and bounds. In Asia alone, the total population in large cities will increase by more than a billion people by 2030. Even four years ago, decision-makers from 25 megacities who took part in a survey supported by Siemens said that transportation was by far their biggest infrastructure problem. It's easy to imagine the effects an additional billion people will have on this situation. To cite just one example, the average vehicle speed on the streets of Mexico City has decreased from 17 to 11 km/h since 1990. “That's about as fast as we were traveling back in 1910 in horse-drawn carriages,” says Mexico City's Minister of the Environment, Martha Delgado, in an interview (see article "How a Megacity Faces Monumental Challenges") conducted by Pictures of the Future. And the global population is aging. According to a United Nations forecast, the number of people aged 60 and older will grow by 1.3 billion by 2050. In China alone, there will then be 440 million people in this age group — about 275 million more than in 2010. Around the world, the fastest-growing age group is that of people aged 80 years and above. By 2050, their number will grow almost fourfold — from 100 million today to around 400 million.

These major trends are the themes of the three topics covered in this issue of Pictures of the Future: demographic change (see article "Flying High"), approaches to sustainable mobility (see article "Green Arteries"), and the needs of emerging economies (see article "City of Wind").

Siemens is well prepared to tackle all of these challenges. For example, we are developing a range of solutions that will enable older people to spend a long and independent life in their own homes. We are also developing technologies for the early identification of typical age-related ailments ranging from cardiovascular diseases to Alzheimer's disease, and thus enabling efficient and cost-effective treatments (see articles "Killers under Attack" , "A Strike against Stroke" and "Heading off an Epidemic"). Our portfolio also includes new types of hearing aids (see article "Sound Approach"), robotic technologies (see article "İ, Butler"), sensors for telemedicine (see article "Coming Home"), lighting systems (see article "Duplicating Daylight") that alter their spectrum for older users, and household appliances that all age groups can use with ease.

We are also actively investigating many types of sustainable mobility solutions. These include hybrid buses (see article "Next Stop: Bonus for Braking"), efficient trams, high speed trains (see article "All Aboard the Efficiency Express"), assistance and location systems (see article "Better than Humans"), satellite-supported toll collection solutions (see article "A Toll Booth in Every Truck"), and traffic lights that are coordinated with the current traffic situation to keep things flowing smoothly (intelligent traffic management (see article "Faster Commuting")). And of course we are researching all aspects of future electromobility across a spectrum ranging from highly efficient motors (see article "High-Speed Insight") to methods for recharging tomorrow's electric vehicles in just a few minutes (see article "Get a Charge!").

As a company with more than 1,600 locations all over the globe — including 176 for research and development — Siemens is the ideal partner for developing economies that demand affordable, new infrastructures. There are many places in our global network where international cooperation is benefiting everyone involved.

For example, a new Siemens magnetic resonance tomograph (see article "Budget Scanner") was developed in a cooperative effort in China, Germany, and the UK. This affordable device is not only ideal for clinics in developing nations and emerging economies but also as a tool for accelerating routine diagnostic tests in industrialized countries. In fact, it has been so successful that its sales figures doubled even during the economic crisis.

Another example of international cooperation is a system for monitoring dikes (see article "Bulwarks with Brains") with the help of sensors. The system was developed by Siemens researchers in Russia with the help of know-how derived from monitoring industrial production processes. The system is now being tested in the Netherlands.

All of these examples show how small the world has become — and how large the opportunities are for companies that build upon their innovations in order to create a more sustainable world that will remain worth living in.