Being smart: building better places to live and work is a smart move

With over 50% of the world’s population living in urban areas it is clear that gloablly, both emerging and mature cities are facing a significant challenge-from the accommodation of new residents, while protecting the environment, to delivering the supporting infrastructure and securing resources to maintain everyday activity.

For example the ‘urban heat island’ has become a growing concern and is increasing over the years. The urban heat island is formed when industrial and urban areas are developed and heat becomes more abundant. Additional city heat is given off by vehicles and factories, as well as by industrial and domestic heating and cooling units. This effect causes the city to become one to six degrees Celcius warmer than surrounding landscapes. 

On its own this is a sizeable issue to tackle; however, combined with ageing populations, cost of resources escalating, austerity measures etc, we can see that city planners are left with a combination of challenges never seen before.

Increasingly, cities are looking to technology to provide solutions to its challenges, as well as stimulate economic growth. Intelligent systems and communication networks are being implemented to tackle issues from energy usage to traffic congestion. For example in Stockholm a smart traffic system helped the city of Stockholm cut gridlock by 20%, reduce emissions by 12% and increase public transportation use dramatically. While in Amsterdam collaboration between the citizens, local businesses and the government to test innovative projects related to energy is helping create a smart city. The initiative’s main objectives are energy efficiency, use of green energy and CO2 reduction. 

However, making solutions work in a city requires more than technology. It requires adoption and participation from the people involved in making it a reality. They need to see a compelling benefit to them. In Amsterdam, the focus is not only on innovative technology but also organisational agreements and the participation of the residents. All the initiatives are designed as economically sustainable and the benefits are tested in local, small-scale projects.

This creates a challenge for planners, architects and technology companies. How do they incorporate and leverage technology-based solutions into the design of the city in a way that encourages the buy-in needed to make it a success?

The answer lies in ensuring smart city technology solutions benefit the city management, but also the resident and businesses. Look what happened when the iPhone came along. It made 3G mobile networks relevant and compelling to users, although high demand caused mobile operators AT&T and O2 network issues. Before this happened, 3G was a technology solution looking for a problem to solve. The same needs to happen to technology solutions implemented in cities, whether it is smart metering or intelligent traffic management.

Of course, governments and municipalities need to ensure that enabling information communications technology (ICT) infrastructure is built into the fabric of the city and its buildings. They need to encourage and enable investments in high-capacity fibre networks and high-speed mobile networks that will provide the essential backbone for new and innovative services and applications.

While ICT infrastructure is key, it is only one part of the puzzle. The key to success in building a new smart city or upgrading an established city is too tenaciously and methodically follow three key steps:

1. Look at the pain points for city management, citizens and businesses
   i.  For the city these include energy availability and efficiency, traffic congestion and a lack of integrated transport and better co-ordination of city services 
   
   ii. For the citizen/business these include easier access to city services, world-class communications networks and pleasant living/working environment.
   

2. Build the best ICT infrastructure you can afford
   It is widely believed that ICT promotes economic growth. In fact an OECD report, 'The source of economic growth in OECD countries', stated that strong economic growth in some OECD countries over the 1990s, most notably in the United States, was driven by the spread of ICT. In new city developments, such as King Abdullah Economic City, the implementation of intelligent and pervasive ICT is key to attracting new businesses and residents, as well as enabling new and innovative smart city services.

3. Implement solutions that solve people’s problems, not technology showcases
   Stockholm’s traffic management and Amsterdam’s inclusion of citizens in pilot projects show that it is key projects that are addressing burning issues for citizens and businesses.

While these might seem a simple and short to-do list, there are many examples around the world where cities are failing to do these. If you are achieving these three key points, then your city will become a better place to live and work, while also being one of the smartest.

To speak to a PA Consulting Group expert, please contact us now.