The Idea of a Smart City - Essay Example

13 April, The paper will introduce the topic followed by the definition. Building pillars of smart cities discussed below are research, commercialization, technological effects, and infrastructural development. It will also delve into the pros and cons of smart cities and the micro and macro-economic situations stemming from the cities existence. Smart Cities Introduction With the global crisis and the demand for international competitiveness to make societal challenges easier to solve, cities have been earmarked as very important economic actors that can contribute to the long-term projects and initiatives, which stimulate new innovation ecosystems that can in turn accommodate new opportunities and perspectives. The smart city idea is, thus, borne out of this. The smart city, present and future, promises economic growth, as well as, competitiveness presented in highly educated talent, seamless electronic connections and high-tech industries. Other terms used for the same include “cyber Ville”, “electronic communities”, and “intelligent cities” among others (EmbeddedComputingDesign). Singh identified eight macro-economic aspects which define a smart city namely: smart energy, smart building, smart governance, mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, healthcare and a smart citizen (Singh). Close to this is another definition of a city as being smart when investments in social and human capital and transport and ICT (modern) communication infrastructure catalyze reliable economic development, high quality of life, alongside a wise management of natural resources with participatory action and engagement (Deakin 65-83). The universality in definitions is achieved in the convention of micro and macroeconomic factors. The shift in paradigm to smart cities stems from socio-economic factors such as, economic restructuring, climate change, pressures on the public finances, ageing populations, as well as, entertainment, and online retail. Thus, creating and sustaining conditions suitable for learning and innovation is an important prerequisite in the existence of smart cities. In the same vein, for European countries to achieve Europe’s 2020 goals of climate change, innovation, employment, employment, energy, and poverty reduction, progress in the smart city would be welcome (Singh). To any interested party, certain questions stand out. For example, how much urban investment will be responsible to achieve in the future? What are the factors to consider? What are their sustainability or future plans? How smart is smart for the cities? In seeking to shed light to the aforementioned factors, the institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is collaborating with municipalities to address urbanization while integrating technology to create smart cities in its smart Cities Initiative (SCI). It is further estimated that more than $ 10 trillion in investments will be needed for urban infrastructure by the 2025. The competition among cities in maintaining and attracting new residents, visitors and businesses translates to constant attention in providing a higher quality life and a viable economic climate. While leftists might cite tight budgets, challenges frequented by legal systems and scarce resources as impediments to innovative and new technology, forward-thinking leaders see a niche in employing big data and the analytics for deeper insights (Deakin 65-83). They believe that these problems can be curbed by use of cloud to collaborate among disparate agencies, mobile to gather, address and disseminate problems as well as use of social technologies to better engage with citizens. Among the technologies and technical platforms applicable to smart cities are the Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart phones, cloud-based services, smart meters, as well as, real world interface with more accurate communication that is based on the semantic web in opening new ways to collaborative problem solving (Singh). For example, Santander city in northern Spain boasts of over 20000 sensors that connect buildings, transport, infrastructure, utilities and networks. These sensors are also responsible for experimentation and validation of the IoT functions like management protocols, identity management, device technology, security, and host an online database service that enables sensor owners register and connect their devices to feeding data into an online database, which enables linkage to the database by the developers while building their own applications based on the data (EmbeddedComputingDesign) At the heart of smart cities existence is the role of urban planning. Urban economists concur that resilience and sustainability in regional development, urban planning and information society is not only the thumbprint to the projects but also the catalyst to their survival. IT and telecommunication companies such as CISCO, IBM, and MS have come up with new solutions for intelligent cities to facilitate intelligent cities (Frost & Sullivan 1-3). While IBM introduced its Smarter Cities as a stimuli to quality of life in the cities and economic growth and development in the urban ecosystem, CISCO would laud the Global Intelligent urbanization initiative that enable cities all over the world to use networks as their fourth utility in the economic development and integrated city management. To achieve a smart city, the legal framework should allow the use of ICT as mediums for the city management and public administration. For example, from 2009, local government in Rio has been working to overcome financial restrictions through the introduction of innovation and management styles as those employed by the private sector (Singh). These changes in the regulation were encouraged by the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to reduce bureaucratic red tape. In 2013, the private participation in the resources managed by the Municipal government of Rio de Janeiro stood at 35% of the total (Singh). In Portugal, InovCity is the first urban setup to connect with the intelligent energy grid allowing for energy efficiency, electrical mobility and micro- generation. This intelligent grid is designed to enable operators monitor the state of the entire grid instantaneously while balancing loads to prevent faults before they occur. Furthermore, this initiative is expected to integrate elements like intelligent homes enabling monitoring and control of consumptions throughout the day. Singh explains the technical and economic advantage is that the user will be able to know exactly when, how, and where they can consume energy. It can also allow the home owner to program home appliances to work when the costs are most favorable (Singh). Away from the traits, the concept of smart cities can be construed as rather vague bearing in mind that apart from the similarities in terms, there is no universally accepted definition with the idea rather relying on the assumption that the urban infrastructural development and micro and macro-economic can or must be optimized or go green in agreement to the innovation and technologies of the IT firms. Is smart urbanism therefore an array of positive synergy as it appears? What are the economic problems associated with the emergence and existence of smart cities? In the current advocacy of neoliberal governance chaperoned by financial institutions such as World Bank, cities have turned to be propellers of regional and global development (Deakin 65-83). However, the other side of the coin is that this promotes and advances consumerism with cities savagely competing with each other to attract investments, global events, or tourism. That this can sometimes lead to serious environmental compromises even with the influx of populace might put a strain on the ecosystem. The smart city rhetoric can be extremely worrying, especially with the rate of technology obsoleteness, which can bring serious economic pains presented in the investment capital, low returns and sometimes redundancy. The idea production in the smart cities has been largely privatized is a cause for worry. The reason is because there might be creation and/or sustenance of monopolies (Deakin 65-83). Most importantly, the smart city vision is largely founded on the aspirations and views of the minority section of the population namely the educated middle class, which uses or can actually afford new technologies. There seems to be very little inclusion of people at the peripheries or without as much academic prowess. The trend is amplified in the Global South cities that exhibit the risk of increasing gap between the rich and the poor. In another instance, the construction of the gondola air elevator across Rio de Janeiro, just above the favelas of Alemao cost around 74 million dollars. Alemao happens to be the poorest neighborhood in the city and home to over 200000 inhabitants that lack basic infrastructure (Vanolo). In conclusion, while smart cities may offer excellent opportunities in economic advancement, the picture may still be grandiose in nature in most parts of the world. Work cited EmbeddedComputingDesign. Developing exemplary smart cities for a smarter world. March/April 2015. Web. 13 April 2015. Deakin, Mark. Creating Smart-er Cities. London: Routledge, 2013. Print. Frost and Sullivan. Strategic Opportunity Analysis of the Global Smart City Market: Smart City Market is Likely to be Worth a Cumulative $1.5 Trillion by 2020. n.d. Web. 13 April 2015. Singh, Sarwant. Smart Cities -- A $1.5 Trillion Market Opportunity. 19 June 2014. Web. 13 April 2015. Vanolo, Alberto. Whose Smart City? 8 April 2014. Web. 13 April 2015. Read More