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| An urbanizing world means cities are gaining greater control over their development, economically and politically. Cities are also being empowered technologically, as the core systems on which they are based become instrumented and interconnected, enabling new levels of intelligence. In parallel, cities face a range of challenges and threats to their sustainability – across their business and people systems and core infrastructures such as transport, water, energy and communication – that they need to address holistically. To seize opportunities and build sustainable prosperity, cities need to become “smarter.” |
A century ago, fewer than 20 cities around the world had populations in excess of 1 million people. Today, that number has swelled to 450 and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
As cities grow in both numbers and population, they are taking their place on the world’s center stage, with more economic, political and technological power than ever before. Economically, they are becoming the hubs of a globally integrated, services-based society. Politically, they are in the midst of a realignment of power – with greater influence, but also greater responsibility. From a technology standpoint, advances are underway that can provide them with better understanding and control of their operations and development.
Operationally, cities are based on six core systems composed of different networks, infrastructures and environments related to their key functions: people, business, transport, communication, water and energy. A city’s people system includes public safety, health and education and is central to whether it delivers a good quality of life for its citizens. A city’s business system refers to the environment that businesses face in terms of policy and regulation. Cities offer people and business the ability to move things around through their transport systems and to share ideas and information through their communication systems. Cities also offer two core utilities necessary for all economic and social activity – water and energy.
These systems are not discrete, however. They interconnect in a synergistic fashion that, ideally, promotes optimum performance and efficiency. The six core systems, in effect, become a “system of systems.”
However, while providing the potential for significant positive transformation, each element of this “system of systems” faces significant sustainability challenges and threats. For example, cities face considerable healthcare issues, such as infant mortality and the worldwide HIV pandemic. For businesses, cities must balance regulatory requirements with the need to decrease costly administrative overhead. Inefficient transportation systems continue to drive up costs. Increasing communications and connectivity demands challenge the ability of cities to meet the needs of its citizens and businesses. Water resources fall victim to leakage, theft and poor quality. And current energy systems are often insecure and inefficient.
As cities face these substantial and interrelated challenges, it becomes clear that the status quo – business as usual – is no longer a viable option. Cities must use their new power to become smarter. They must act now, using new technologies to transform their core systems to optimize the use of limited resources.
The opportunity presented by smarter cities is the opportunity of sustainable prosperity. Pervasive new technologies provide a much greater scope for instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence of a city’s core systems. Around the world, leading cities are putting in place smarter systems, such as Galway’s SmartBay advanced water management system, Songdo’s Wired City initiative or Singapore’s eSymphony transport system.
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