Smart City As A Novel Solution To Achieve Sustainable Urbanization

Smart Cities: Some Examples

1. London: London has been involved in a smart and sustainable process for several years. It had automated congestion pricing; city levies a surcharge on single-occupancy vehicles. The city has also developed a system to encourage walking: Pedestrians are accompanied throughout their journey through interactive terminals. Also, Mayor gets data analysis of twitter feeds to respond to citizen’s needs.
2. Seattle, US: the city has been using analytics to reduce carbon emissions among 45 percent of the buildings. It has also implemented Rain watch project that monitors precipitation in real time and smart park watering projects that ensure efficient
3. Vishakhapattanam, India: Vishakhapattanam reformed property tax laws to boost municipal revenues. City follows annual rental value system to calculate property tax on the basis of buildings type and tax zone. Introduced new based tax assessment system. City also created database of property using GIS technology.
4. Barcelona, Spain: Barcelona is involved in over one hundred smart city projects and is aa global leader in its extensive use of the Internet of Things. Smart city projects range from smart lightings to Wi-Fi in public transportation. The city also promoted solar energy to increase sustainability.
5. The island city state of Singapore: in Singapore, almost all the government services are available and accessible online and citizen centric mobile health, municipal and transport apps were rolled out recently. The government analyses the data generated by the sensors to improve the design, planning and maintenance of the city.

Challenges Faced By Smart Cities

Despite all the efforts, we haven’t achieved really much because there are certain challenges in the process of implementation of smart cities mission that are yet to be addressed. To find the right model is the most difficult challenge for developing countries. there is no one size fits all model for smart cities that can be adopted.

1. Security and Privacy Concerns: the inherent interconnectivity and transparency of smart cities make highly vulnerable to security attacks. The city uses the system to collect data from users and sensors then analyse and processes the data in order to improve the services for its residents. Some common attacks smart cities face are data and identity theft, device hijacking, man-in-the-middle (MitM), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Credential theft.
2. Insufficient Funds: the biggest challenge in implementing the smart city strategy is funding. implementing an integrated smart city strategy maximising the benefits of smart and complex infrastructure with digital technologies requires lot of funds but the funding for smart cities is falling through the cracks as there are few cities doing value capture financing. Some cities will lack the time and resources to complete the projects. There needs to be incentive based mechanism, rather than grant- based. Government should consider devising a strategy to create appropriate revenue models for their smart city initiatives.
3. Lack of IT infrastructure and capabilities of artificial intelligence: smart cities seek to implement information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to improve efficiency and sustainability of urban spaces while reducing costs and resource consumption. The smart technology building is becoming more complex with interconnected to IoT systems.
4. The smart cities mission requires smart people who actively participate in governance and reforms. According to Adam Dennett, Lecturer, University of London, “a smart city will be irrelevant to most of its inhabitants, unless they can learn how to use new technology. Until more people can pull live data from an API or set up a sensor network to monitor air pollution, smart cities risk being seen as little more than a marketing tool for big business”. There is a lack of citizens’ participation in realising how exactly the smart cities could possibly look like in their experience is reflected. The participation of smart people will be enabled by the SPV through increasing use of ICT, especially mobile based tools.

Relevance Of Smart Cities In Sustainable Urban Development

Smart cities have played a vital role in tackling the various issues and challenges in urban cities and in creation of sustainable and inclusive urban spaces.

A smart city’s main strategic element will be sustainability so as to look for participation drivers, create better energy management and use renewable energies for the preservation of natural resources and environmental care. Reducing CO2 footprint, improving energy efficiency and storage, waste management, traffic conditions are among the greatest advantages.

Smart cities seek to create a competitive environment through planning and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to expand urban areas thereby enhancing the development of new business and improving the socio-economic performance.

It establishes an efficient urban management system. Development of smart cities would not only relieve pressure off the existing urban hubs, but also to give a push to business opportunities, prevent migrations by retrofitting existing cities, give rise to flourishing markets and residential areas, and also to incorporate traditional values in the new age transformations.

Smart cities lead to huge improvements and it minimises conflicts in the urban environment. Smart solutions like air quality monitoring, water and energy management reduce pollution as well as waste, ensures the availability of energy and air and water quality across the city and thus improves the overall ecological footprint of these cities and leading to sustainable livelihoods.

It creates enabling conditions for inclusive and equitable urbanisation.

Clean, affordable and efficient transportation of goods and services is essential in a city.

In the hope of optimising mobility, many cities are turning to smart technologies to ease traffic congestion and provide users with real time updates.

Smart cities can help tackle climate change.

Conclusion:

Urbanisation is important for economic development. If the country needs to go the process of economic development then along with there is a process of urbanisation. But it a double-edged sword. If it is not carried out in a planned and regulated way, it can cause disasters. So it is very important for the policy makers to regulate it in a planned manner in order to achieve sustainable and planned urban development. Thus the concept of smart city project is highly relevant and useful for the sustainable and inclusive urban development.

A smart city is a novel solution to make efficient use of natural resources, improve the citizens standard of living and also achieve economic development.

Smart cities are investing in more projects every year. As the number of smart city projects increases, so does the number of security risks they face. We can secure smart cities by implementing a comprehensive security solution such as integrating city and cybersecurity strategy, capture tech talent, engage stakeholders and city governance.

The implementation of smart city projects is already making a difference to urban lives in cities across the globe, but there is so much more that could be done.

References

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