Smart Cities: Are We Ready?

Smart Cities: Are We Ready?

Every week we keep hearing news about new smart city initiatives being designed, planned, executed and initiated. Developed, developing, non-developing- all countries are looking at smart cities as solutions to a basic problem which has been plaguing mankind from the beginning of time- infrastructure. City planners and urban economy analysts have all been proponents of smart cities as cheaper digital devices, greater Internet connectivity and the rise of IT-enabled features in our daily homes have allowed this concept to become a reality.

These days, there have been constant updates on self-driving cars, digital streetlights, pavements and other sensor-laden features. While these are an obvious welcome, we must realize the importance of creating a ‘smart infrastructure’- a back-end infrastructure which must be set up in the upcoming years to operate, manage and store all information coming from the former.

For any city, its basic tenets are roadways and streets. Hence, redesigning them to adapt to new smart city features would be the first fundamental change which must be brought in. More importantly, they must be inclusive of all-electric vehicles, public transit, pedestrians. More governance from the public must be expected. In fact, there are apps now which would help in urban planning by mapping potential scenarios- crowd sourcing decisions might be the way forward for city management. 

Efforts must be raised on making smart cities to co-exist with urban facilities. Combining such technologies would improve daily civil services such as transport, sanitation, water, healthcare, waste and traffic management, ensuring greater safety and quality of such services. Just imagine the possibilities of such an interweaved system: more time saved, millions of dollars saved and greater success rate.

“Smart infrastructure is the foundation for future success, for better paying jobs and for a new era of prosperity for all,” says Jesse Berst, chairman of the Smart Cities Council, in a welcome letter on the event’s website. It is imperative that a ‘smart’ infrastructure must be created to greet the new smart technologically-advanced cities.