Smart City

Smart City Sentinel

Smart Cities offer More Than Amazon Ordering or Better Netflix

By Special Guest
Irving Wittenbur, Writer with DO Supply

Smart Cities are completely changing the way we think of cities, including how they use energy, how they manage waste, and how they get residents from point A to B.

We’ve highlighted some of the top existing and developing smart cities, to show you how they’ve already affected the operation of major cities – and what directions they may take us in the future.

Energy Sustainability

In 2006, construction began on Masdar City, a planned smart city just 11 miles outside of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Not only will it be one of the only currently existing smart cities built from “scratch”, it’s an excellent example of the shift to renewable, sustainable energy sources with smart technology.

Here, you have one of the world’s largest oil producers, the UAE, becoming home to a city that will, when completed, draw 80% of its energy needs from the sun. The goal is for Masdar City to be completely self-sustained, powered entirely by an interconnected grid of solar, wind, and waste-to-energy power.

Meanwhile, cities like Amsterdam are placing solar panels on the roofs of buildings and even in bike paths as a way to integrate renewable energy sources into their existing infrastructure.

Energy Efficiency

Not only do smart cities use cleaner energy sources, they make much more efficient use of energy, especially when built from the ground up. In Songdo, a nearly completed smart city about an hour outside of Seoul, South Korea, energy use per capita is 40% lower than traditional cities, despite its high-tech features.

How is this possible? The buildings are designed from day one with energy efficiency in mind. In fact, the Masdar Headquarters Building in Masdar City is the first positive-energy building of its size. Through energy-saving architecture and a record number of solar panels, it’s able to run on less energy than it produces.

The entire city is projected to need just 200 to 240 MWh of energy per year. That’s 75% less than a similarly-sized city. It will also use less water – and recycle the majority of the water it does use.

This improved energy efficiency isn’t limited to pre-planned smart cities either. Amsterdam’s smart electricity grid is just one example of existing cities implementing smart technology to reduce energy consumption.

Pollution and Waste Reduction

One of the most touted benefits of smart cities is their ability to drastically reduce emissions – and for good reason. According to this study Songdo creates 70 percent less emissions than a similarly sized city, and Masdar City has the incredible goal of being the first city in the world that produces zero emissions.

But improved methods of waste disposal are another way smart cities can reduce their footprint, and it’s often easier to implement than reducing emissions. Amsterdam, for instance, produces over 560 GWh of electricity per year from waste, which is enough to power the city’s entire subway, tram, and public lighting systems. It’d also be enough to power Masdar City more than 2,000 times over.

This electricity comes not only from trash, but from the sludge that’s created as a byproduct of the city’s water purification.

Songdo has gone a step further and implemented a vacuum system in buildings that takes garbage straight to the city’s waste management facilities, without the need for garbage trucks.

Mobility and Transportation

Pre-planned smart cities are able to take radical new approaches to transportation. In Masdar City, for instance, privately-owned cars will be banned, and an underground system of automated, on-rail taxis will be the main mode of rapid transportation.

These smart cities also place a heavy emphasis on walkability and bicycle friendliness. In Songdo, streets were designed with separate lanes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians.

Fortunately, smarter transportation systems are possible in existing cities as well. For instance, Barcelona has placed sensors in parking spaces that let drivers know where open spots are through a smartphone app. Reducing the amount of time motorists spend looking for parking creates a measurable decrease in traffic congestion.

In Amsterdam, research is underway to potentially use small, automated boats to transport people through the city’s famous canals.

The Cities of Tomorrow

Smart cities are not going anywhere. More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, and that number is only increasing with each passing year.

With that in mind, it’s only natural that both governments and private companies will continue to develop and implement new smart technologies that make city living more efficient, more sustainable – and ultimately, more convenient.

And this technology will continue to be connected and automated, as our cities become more of an integrated web of smart tech and less a compartmentalized group of departments and sectors. Automated cars that communicate with sensors in the street and draw energy from sustainable, smart power grids.

We still only have a small idea of the future that smart cities hold.

About the Author: Irving Wittenbur is a writer with DO Supply who writes about Automation, Robotics, and Manufacturing. When not writing, Irving can be found in a coffee shop or working on a project in his garage.




Edited by Ken Briodagh
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