Today’s smart cities versus connected and sustainable cities of the future
As a concept, ‘ smart city ’ has been on the agenda for the last decade to make the cities more productive, more sustainable and ‘smarter.’ According to a survey, annual technology investments in cities will be USD 34.4 billion on average until 2020.
The future is coming. Rapidly! I don’t know if the flying cars we used to see in sci-fi movies years ago will become a part of our lives, but there are dazzling developments. At a time when we are talking about autonomous vehicles, energy efficiency entered the cities’ agenda, and investments in this field continue without slowing down. We live in a world where cities compete not the nations. Countries and even investors that wish to bring in a new dynamism into the national economy, to become leaders in the re-shaped globalization with their investments in smart cities.
The world’s population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. This growth brings the need for constructing new buildings, roads, and transportation systems. 75 percent of the infrastructure that will have been built by 2050 is inexistent today. Cities must already invest in an infrastructure that will bear for decades. With 1.4 million people being added to the urban population every week. Cities account for more than 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions while traffic crashes claim more than a million lives every year with the highest number of traffic accidents happening in the developing cities. Moreover, air pollution is a severe problem in cities. Recently, the Mayor of London announced that the city center would be closed to traffic. Paris, Mexico City, and New York City are among the other cities that plan to close their downtowns to private vehicles.
Another reason why the cities are always on the agenda is the fight against climate change. While there are the countries that sign many international agreements, it is mostly the cities that must take action and that are required to put in place the required practices. This year’s United Nations Climate Change meeting of the Parties was held in Bonn, Germany. In its essence, the discussions were focused on how to take firm actions towards implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which had been signed with great enthusiasm in 2015. Paris Agreement is a text where all countries strive to cut down their emissions intending to limiting global warming to 1.5°C in the latter half of the century. All nations except Syria, Nigeria, and the United States committed under this agreement.
Since 2015, India, China, and Europe have stood out in meeting these commitments. India announced that all vehicles would be electricity-powered by 2030. Massive investments are being made in solar energy as low carbon transportation solutions are increasingly implemented in densely populated cities. 100 cities with populations of more than 100,000 are launching a “smart city program.” Nearly 1.9 billion will be implemented with only 15-20 percent of the total cost to be covered from public funds with the rest financed by the private sector. As cities rapidly adapt to changes, the issue of financing emerges. There are many successful examples of the economic gains to be achieved with the implementation of the sustainable solutions in the cities.
BRT/Metrobus: The initial financial return of Johannesburg’s bus rapid transit system was USD 900 million, Istanbul system stands out as the most successful example among its peers, leaving behind Johannesburg and Mexico City. The most significant gain of Istanbul’s Metrobus is the reduction of travel time from 2 hours to 45 minutes.
Energy efficiency in buildings: Singapore will cut back on power consumption by 22 percent with improvements in 80 percent of the building stock through its energy efficiency program, ‘green mark,’ in buildings by 2030 while the net savings are expected to amount to USD 400 million.
Cycling: Copenhagen calculated that a Cycling Super Highway would introduce a 19 percent ROI per annum.
