How Do Cities Become Smart?

 
 
 
Posted by: IIPS Category: Real estate Tags: , Comments: 0

Technological advances in smart cities affect and change how we live. Now cities are focused on digitisation, utilising innovations to shape long-standing infrastructures and curbing inefficiencies to become more innovative.

Progressively, cities are setting their sights on using technology and sustainability initiatives to streamline and automate all the solutions for mass urbanisation. IoT and wireless networks are being utilised to collect data through IoT-enabled devices that can help in making real-time decisions. Now cities can function with effective and efficient operations using cutting edging technology.

However, setting up a wide network and adding some IoT devices is not enough to build a smart city. There needs to be serious consideration regarding the implementation, extent, and interdepartmental collaboration of governmental organisations. Here are some key areas to consider when planning and designing a smart city.

Sustainability Initiatives

Sustainability initiatives are the key to transforming mass urbanisation into smart cities. Thus, cities should adapt, mitigate, and promote economic, social, and environmental change. Sustainable development encompasses the economy and the environment, social issues, and entrepreneurship. Cities and government programs can identify and implement sustainable practices through the Sustainable Cities Initiative.

Sustainable city initiatives include reducing energy costs, improving the quality of services, reducing waste, and creating better urban environments to generate economic opportunities for residents. Sustainability initiatives for city transformation must take into account two main aspects. First and foremost, city leaders and planners should develop a vision. Furthermore, policies must be coordinated and implemented through institutional structures.

Make Cities Safer

One of the key indicators of a city’s success is its resilience. This is how it deals with and responds to an unplanned event or emergency and how soon it can get back to business. Nevertheless, people are becoming increasingly reluctant to live in areas where crime happens. In this sense, the challenge for city officials is to implement systems and processes that keep the population safe without restricting growth or daily life. The transformation of cities can encourage citizens by providing safety, sustainability, and growth.

Cities can become smarter with the utilisation of Wi-Fi connectivity, IoT technologies, and CCTV cameras that can help to improve resident safety and enhance incident response time. In addition, compelling network and audio solutions will take public security to a new level. Cities can become more proactive and efficient in ensuring public order and tackling crime through modern technologies.

Improve Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is one of the key components of providing energy access to a vast population of cities. Demand patterns for energy are complex and vary across different demographics. Cooperation and people’s participation are vital to improving energy consumption patterns in the cities.

Furthermore, cities should closely monitor energy usage to reduce energy consumption. Cities must be equipped with advanced energy meters to incentivise reduced energy consumption. In addition, streetlights should be changed to LED technology, which allows the lights to be adjusted. Cities need to focus on water and waste management to improve efficiency and maximise energy availability. Enhancing energy efficiency is the most effective way to develop smart cities.

Modular Infrastructure

The basic units of a smart city are woven into its infrastructure. The presence of physical infrastructures like parks, well-designed public spaces, and residential neighbourhoods are not enough to meet citizens’ demands without having proper roads and public transportation systems. As the city grows, it will struggle more under a load of traffic and might be unable to meet the demands of its citizens. Meanwhile, the real estate regulatory authorities need to consider building designs and structural attributes before approving building development plans. These authorities should create guidelines for establishing smart cities.

Investing in infrastructure is essential for cities to operate optimally and keep citizens safe. We suggest major investments to be made in:

  1. Upgradation of roads, bridges, and dams
  2. Implementation of Traffic Management Systems
  3. Smart City Lighting
  4. Sustainability Projects

Conclusion

A growing population, hyper urbanisation, and globalisation drive cities worldwide to become smarter. Moreover, IoT solutions and connected technologies play a pivotal role in transforming cities. This is because they can improve urban services’ quality, performance, and interactivity, optimise resources, and reduce costs. However, all stakeholders need to develop sustainable building policies to meet the needs of rapid economic growth, urbanisation, and rising energy demand.

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Key Takeaways

  • The construction sector contributes up to 380 billion PKR in GDP.
  • Real Estate assets contribute 60 to 70% of the country’s wealth.
  • Real Estate is the second largest sector that generates employment.
  • The real-estate sector is underperforming because Deputy Commissioner is setting the non-competitive price of the asset, lengthy registration procedures, Mafia hinders the process of digitisation, undocumented taxpayers are not investing, lack of a property listing system and people are not taking loans to construct houses.

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IMARAT Institute of Policy Studies

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