Focus on Smart Cities – UK, Singapore, Australia, India Smart Cities and Future Cities
How smart cities (will) work?
These days, the word “smart” is being applied to anything with a processor or a sensor and a connection to a network of some sort. You can argue that having some processing power for information and the ability to communicate with something makes a device “smart” – or at least a lot smarter than it was before.
The word smart is also being applied to cities now – so what does it mean to be a smart city, or at least a smarter one? Broadly speaking, it means an information and communication infrastructure (sometimes acronymed as ICT) that allows smart devices (like smartphones, automobiles, thermostats, water meters) to connect to smart infrastructure (problem reporting, traffic signals and information, parking systems, the electric grid, billing systems) to improve quality of life and productivity in cities. ExtremeTech
UK: IoT smart cities ‘most UK people don’t even understand the concept’
In the report “Smart Cities – Time to involve the people”, the UK organisation unveiled that only two in ten (18%) of the population has heard of a ‘smart city’.
The IET alerts that there is a real danger that smart cities in the UK may be developed without sufficient insight into what people actually want them to deliver. CBR.
Singapore: Taking the ‘Smart City’ to a Whole New Level
Government-deployed sensors will collect and coordinate an unprecedented amount of data on daily life in the city. Singapore may soon be known for something else: the most extensive effort to collect data on daily living ever attempted in a city. As part of its Smart Nation program, launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in late 2014, Singapore is deploying an undetermined number of sensors and cameras across the island city-state that will allow the government to monitor everything from the cleanliness of public spaces to the density of crowds and the precise movement of every locally registered vehicle. WSJ: Singapore Smart City
Australia: Smart Cities Plan offers signs of hope, but are Turnbull and Taylor just dreamin’?
Partnerships in practice, Getting implementation structures right, Finding and spending new money to best effect and How will we know what works?
Australia: Smart Cities Plan and The Conversation – Smart Cities Plan
India: World Bank getting ready for billions in smart city loans
With over $1.5 billion on the line, the Indian government urging the country’s top 20 smart cities to quickly apply for funding from such international bodies as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the BRICS Development Bank. This comes as India continues to prove one of the world’s biggest supporters of smart city initiatives as a driver of economic development. ReadWrite
India needs smart villages, not just smart cities India’s villages make up bulk of population. Recent population statistics indicate that the vast majority of Indians live in villages, with 70% of India’s 1.25 billion people considered villagers. ReadWrite
India Smart Cities asked to pose projects for loan support from World Bank, ADB and BRICS Bank
Ministry of Urban Development has urged the 20 Smart Cities selected in the first round of competition to quickly firm up bankable projects for obtaining loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the BRICS Development Bank.
ADB has in principle agreed to extend a loan of US $ 1 Billion while the World Bank is willing to extend a loan of US $ 0.50 billion for the implementation of Smart City Mission. BRICS Development Bank is keen to support smart city projects. VoiceData
Future Cities: Five Cities That Are Leading the Way in Urban Innovation
In an era of urbanization, Singapore, Detroit, Vancouver, Houston and Medellin, Colombia, are among those redefining what cities can be. Cities are the future. In 2008, for the first time in history, more human beings lived in cities than in rural areas. The United Nations projects that by 2050 nearly two-thirds of the world’s projected 9.7 billion people will be urban.
Five innovative cities that are worth watching: WSJ
