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The Smart City is a concept which is getting widely popular in the last few years, becoming almost a catchphrase, and definitions have existed for around a decade now. Despite this, it seems that most citizens are not aware of the term, although they do have a good understanding of specific initiatives which are part of the concept.
The Smart City concept is constantly growing in popularity as more and more solutions and features move from design to implementation stage and have an actual impact. A glance at ten of the “best” (according to Business Matters) existing smart cities from around the world can demonstrate the ways in which technological solutions are improving citizens’ lives.
Smart City projects are moving from planning to implementation, with projects gaining traction, delivering concrete results, and knowledge and good practices spreading. As dozens of Smart City projects are underway around the world, ranging from relatively minor interventions to brand new cities built from scratch, it is worth taking a look at the current state of play in the field.
NESTA just published its annual predictions for 2019. One of them refers to one of the global races which might be on to build ‘City Brains’. According the post the concept of a “smart city” has been around for several decades, often associated with hype, grandiose failures, and an overemphasis on hardware rather than people. NESTA points out that various technologies are now coming of age which bring the vision of a smart city closer to fruition. China is described to be in the forefront, investing heavily in sensors and infrastructures, and its ET City Brain project shows just how far the country’s thinking has progressed.
The rapid progress of intelligent urban innovation, reflected in the transformative impact of Smart Cities, a trend which is already immensely popular and becoming even more so, raises a number of questions. As the popularity of Smart Cities constantly rises and their implementation spreads, so do the opportunities for cybercriminal attacks.
Applications have opened for the 2019 North American Readiness Challenge for cities, an annual program by the Smart Cities Council, running for the third year. Past iterations of the Challenge have helped nearly a dozen cities and states advance their smart cities initiatives. The deadline is on January 18, 2019, and five jurisdictions will be selected in March 2019, to receive significant assistance in their effort to become smart.
Artificial Intelligence can play an important role in the development of Smart Cities. This is a part of the vision to transform Thailand’s economy into an innovation-driven economy, as a part of the Thailand 4.0 Initiative, which includes the creation of 100 Smart Cities within two decades, in order to improve citizens’ quality of life.