Smart Cities in the World
Smart cities are characterized as planned, intelligent, data-rich, communities. They are meant to achieve goals like making life easier for everyone, making transportation more efficient, ensuring public safety, and offering social cohesion via the sharing of resources. In essence, smart cities work towards creating a better understanding of the city through the collective understanding of the city’s people. But what is a smart city? How does it differ from a traditional metropolis? This article will provide some information on the definition of a smart city and what its purpose is in present-day context.
In an earlier article, I provided an explanation of what we mean by smart City in New York. Here, I will reiterate that concept in a wider perspective, as well as describing the current trends shaping up the future of smart city technology. It is projected that by the year 2021, there will be approximately twenty-seven smart cities in the world. Those cities will be located in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, London, and London. Also included in the list are Dubai and Singapore.
One of the biggest challenges that these twenty-seven cities face is providing an inclusive environment that allows residents to thrive. The ability to do so includes providing seamless integration between all aspects of life. For instance, smart city technologies like smart street lights help to ensure that all lighting within the area can synchronize with outdoor lighting, thus reducing opportunities for lighting failure and accidents. Parking management has also become much easier thanks to the incorporation of smart street lights and other parking control devices.
Another important element that smart cities face is energy consumption reduction. This means reducing the amount of energy waste created by residents while maximizing the power that is produced. As well, smart cities in the United States are faced with increasing concerns over water consumption. Water conservation is a major concern as environmental factors are affecting water availability. Some cities have implemented specialized parks that are designed to reduce water consumption.
In order to remain competitive and meet energy demands, smart cities must continue to evaluate and implement innovative solutions to improve their overall transportation infrastructure and environment. These cities are working hard to create comprehensive solutions that involve sustainable forms of energy consumption and transportation solutions that utilize available space more efficiently. They have also developed comprehensive plans for addressing issues related to land use, including increased parking fees and development of green spaces. Other elements of smart city planning include establishing partnerships with industry leaders and other local entities to implement a unified vision and strategy for addressing issues that affect the entire community.
Although many people believe that investing in the future is a gamble, investing in smart cities offers a number of advantages. For example, as technology advances, it will be easier and cheaper for everyone to stay connected through wireless networks, and to take advantage of short-distance travel. Additionally, the incorporation of high-tech innovations such as automated transportation systems will allow these cities to develop more efficient public transportation systems and reduce overall travel speeds. By creating smart cities that embrace a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of their residents, smart cities in the future will be able to address issues that affect everyone.
One of the most important issues facing smart cities in the future is the implementation of smart water management. Smart water management involves the collection and reuse of rainwater in order to provide domestic and outdoor consumption. Additionally, smart water management considers the use of rainwater in order to reduce the amount of energy needed for cleaning, cooling and heating. In the future, it is expected that advanced systems will allow citizens to collect rainwater on-site, filter it and reuse it or use it in other ways, such as drinking.
Smart cities that are developing include Paris, China; Los Angeles, California; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jakarta, Indonesia; Melbourne, Australia; Mumbai, India; Barcelona, Spain and Taipei, Taiwan. These cities have all invested a lot of time, effort and resources in studying how to create smart cities that are sustainable, innovative and forward thinking. They have developed a community that is committed to making its citizens well informed and participate in decision making. Through the research and evaluation, they have been able to reduce energy consumption by up to eighty-five percent. In addition, they have incorporated advanced systems that promote public safety, encourage efficient transportation systems and improve energy efficiency throughout the city.
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.