Insight on Smart City Solutions

The concept of a smart city is not a new one. Of late, this has been buzzing across the world and the governments are busy in designing and developing smart cities. There are two major reasons for this development – growing population and leveraging technologies (ICT) making life simple & efficient.

According to the report - 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects,   55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. The 2018 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects is published by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The market for smart city product and services will touch $2.57 trillion by 2025.

The top largest cities in the world as per the population are Tokyo (37 million), Delhi (29 million), Shanghai (26 million), Mexico City (22 million) and Sao Paulo (22 million). Due to the population growth, many cities are in the race to join the largest city club across the world.  It is expected that by 2025, China will have 221 cities with over 1 million population.

 The implementation of ICT will make life simple and informative. Smart sensors, networks, and engagement will drive urban informatics. In addition to this, there will be a high usage of mobile apps and web-applications to collect and interpret data.

There is a scope for innovation and designing smart city solutions. Companies starting from startups to mega enterprises have been involved in building efficient smart city solutions as per their respective expertise to make to help business and people. Let’s have a look the smart city solutions for six broad categories:

1. Smart Utilities

Smart lighting comes to our minds when we think of the smart utilities in a smart city. Smart solutions will empower users to keep a track on their energy usage. Water facilities are core and best utilization can be attained by implementing the right kind of technologies in other words smart solutions.  

2. Buildings

The technology implementation makes the building in smart cities more efficient and protected. The energy usage, ventilation, and lighting can be optimized and managed by best use of ICT. The technology will also be useful in making the process more smarter and could be useful in checking disasters.  

3. Transport

Web and mobile apps are being used for better transportation activities by the user and organizations. A smart city is efficient in implementing smart solutions and technologies making transportation secure and more efficient. This will not only make transportation economical but, also bring a big change in the social innovation.

4. Environment

Pollution is the prime concern for the megacities due to the rising industry and emission of greenhouse gases. But, in smart cities, technologies can be used in managing and controlling many kinds of pollutions. Smart sensors can be used to detect pollutions and smart solutions could also be developed by getting data from the smart sensors.  

5. Information and Internet

The usage of smartphones makes life simple and the user is having complete information. The smart cities have citywide Wi-Fi for public use. The usage of wifi is very useful for commuters in the city. It will be helpful for them to stay connected with various organizations and services. One can get information on traffic congestion by using technology. Information will be available across the city connecting the public with the many of its services.  

There are many solutions available for smart cities. But, still, there is a huge scope for innovations that will make easier and the technology advancement will be bliss for mankind.