USA. Los Angeles. 2014. A man walks the LA River encasement. The Army Corp of Engineers carried out an ambitious plan to encase the Los Angeles River in concrete after catastrophic floods in the 1930s led to calls for flood control. Except for a few places where the muddy bottom was impossible to replace, the river was turned into a concrete drainage channel. The ecology of the river disappeared, making room for development and a flood-free city. The city of Los Angeles plans to restore the Los Angeles River channel, formerly an industrial wasteland, with up to one billion US dollars in state, local, and federal money, improving the ecology of the river and making it an attractive environment for residents and visitors. These changes are expected to lead to billions more in commercial and residential development. The inevitable gentrification that will result may have a detrimental impact on working class communities who have lived by the river for generations.<br><br> Seventy-five percent of the global population is projected to be living in cities by the middle of this century.